16
T he RSS on Friday demand- ed a judicial probe into the “political killings” of its workers in the Left-ruled Kerala, alleging that law and order has com- pletely broken down in the State as “politics of violence” has seen new heights after Pinarayi Vijayan assumed the post of Chief Minister last year. The RSS claimed that these were “political killings” and not simple murders carried out by the CPI(M) cadre in a bid to check its expanding base in the State. Talking to newspersons here RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale alleged that law and order has completely broken down in the State due to misdeeds of the ruling Left party. He demanded an inde- pendent judicial enquiry into the killings. “The Kerala Government should fulfill its constitutional responsibilities and check this political violence. There should be a judicial enquiry by either a judge of a High Court or the Supreme Court in the murders of RSS workers in the State,” said Hosabale. “Our workers are targeted as more common and poor people are joining the RSS which is not going down well with the ruling CPI(M), that is why they are killing our workers. These are not just murders but political killings,” he alleged. There is an uproar when people are killed in all other parts of the country but when RSS workers are murdered in Kerala, there is no outrage, Hosabale added. He said 17 RSS workers have been done to death in the State. The RSS’ charges come close on the heels of BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha making a sharp attack against the Kerala Gov- ernment this week alleging that the Left cadres were carrying out “Talibani killings” in the State. Attacking Vijayan, Hosabale said since he assumed the top post “violence politics has seen new heights.” He also alleged that Vijayan, who hails from Kannur, the epi- centre of political violence, “was an accused in one such political murder”. Vijayan had taken over as Chief Minister of the State on May 25, 2016. Asked if there was a case for imposing the President’s Rule in the State, the RSS leader said the people felt so as the violence in Kerala was “State-sponsored”. “Despite being at the receiv- ing end, the RSS has always tried to get into a dialogue process, at least three times in the past. Each time, they responded by either ridiculing or backstabbing by killing another of our workers,” he added. The RSS leader alleged that the “unionism” of Marxists per- petuated even in the police department and did not allow free and fair investigation in any of these conspiracies. He also said Union Minister Arun Jaitley would visit the house of the RSS worker Rajesh who was killed allegedly by CPI(M) workers. BJP MPs Prahlad Joshi and Meenakshi Lekhi on Wednesday accused that maximum murders of political opponents were tak- ing place in Vijayan’s district and demanded an investigation into the killings by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). H ours after sleazy pix of Niraj Kumar, Deputy Commissioner Udhampur, went viral on various social networking platforms the Jammu & Kashmir Government on Friday ordered his immediate attach- ment, pending enquiry into his conduct, in the office of Divisional Commissioner, Jammu. Pictures of 2010-batch IAS officer, hailing from Katihar district in Eastern Bihar, were already in circu- lation in several closed groups on social networking sites for few days. It is not clear on which date the pictures were shot. Niraj Kumar had recent- ly celebrated his birthday on July 26, 2017. He was serving on the post of DC, Udhampur since May 2016. In the pictures, inebriat- ed IAS officer, dressed in blue T-Shirt, is seen in the company of two young girls inside a room. It was not clear whether they were present in a hotel room in Udhampur or were spending time together at any other location far away from Udhampur at a private place. Presence of few others in the room could not be ruled out as the pictures in circulation were shot by someone present in the room. As the pictures became talking point of the day in the corridors of power, the State Government, taking serious note of the misconduct by the IAS officer, ordered a high- level enquiry. The local police in Udhampur have also activat- ed its network to track down and identify the girls seen in the pictures. The order, issued by the General Administration Department, said, “Pending enquiry into his conduct, Niraj Kumar, IAS Deputy Commiss-ioner, Udhampur, is hereby attached in the office of Divisional Commissioner, Jammu.” In his place, Arvind Sharma, KAS, Additional District Development Commissioner, Udhampur, shall look after the work of Deputy Commissioner till further orders. T he Government has some reason to cheer as the col- lections from customs duty and IGST from imports has almost doubled to 30,000 crore in just one month post implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST). GST, which subsumed more than a dozen Central and State levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT, was implemented from July 1. The revenue collected include those on account of customs duty, Integrated-GST (IGST) from imports, coun- tervailing duty (CVD), special addition duty (SAD) and cess collection on import- ed items. A first year student of the Delhi University sus- tained more than 38 stitches on her back when an uniden- tified man attacked her with a blade while trying to snatch her bag in North Delhi’s Timarpur area on Thursday afternoon. Ruling out the angle that the girl was being stalked by the man or was attacked by a jilted lover, Jatin Narwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) said, “During inves- tigation, we found that the unidentified man was trying to snatch the backpack of the student by cutting the bag. But as the student was carry- ing the bag on her back, she sustained deep cuts.” The 20-year-old girl, a student of Zakir Hussain College in her complaint stat- ed that the incident happened at around 3:30pm when a man attacked her from behind. As the incident hap- pened in full public view, the man fled from the spot after the girl raised an alarm. The girl was taken to a nearby hospital where she was treated for injuries and discharged later. F rom October 1 this year, rel- atives or dependents of a dead person must provide the Aadhaar number for obtaining death certificate. A notification issued by Registrar General of India (RGI) under the Home Ministry said use of Aadhaar for applicants of death cer- tificate will result in ensuring accuracy and prevent identi- ty fraud. The notification also said if an applicant was not aware of the Aadhaar of the deceased, he will be required to provide a declaration to this effect. “The Aadhaar number will be required for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased for the purpose of death registration w.e.f 1st October, 2017. In a notification issued today the Registrar General India (RGI), the Ministry of Home Affairs has said the use of Aadhaar for the applicants of death certificate will result in ensuring accura- cy of the details provided by the relatives/ dependents / acquaintances of the deceased. It will provide an effective method to prevent identity fraud. It will also help in recording the identity of the deceased person. Further, it will obviate the need for producing multiple documents to prove the iden- tity of the deceased person,” said the statement issued by Press Information Bureau The notification said if the applicant is not aware of the Aadhaar number or Enrolment ID Number (EID) of the deceased, he will be required to provide a certificate that the deceased person does not pos- sess Aadhaar number to the best of his/her knowledge. “It should be duly informed and also prescribed that any false declaration given by the appli- cant in this regard will be treated as an offence as per the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and also Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969,” it added. The notification also said that applicant’s Aadhaar num- ber shall also be collected along with the Aadhaar number of the spouse or parents. The RGI has further directed con- cerned Department in the respective States responsible for registration of birth and death to ensure compliance by concerned registration author- ities and a confirmation to this effect by on or before September 1. Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya are exempted from this notification as the Aadhaar registration process is not yet completed in these three States. I n a move to decongest New Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working on at least half a dozen road pro- jects. Works on two projects have already been started and detailed project reports (DPRs) for the remaining ones are being finalised. The projects include con- struction of 13-km stretch from Delhi-Haryana Border to Sohna Chowk on National Highway 248A on Personal Rapid Transit System. The RFQ (request for quotation) is under evaluation stage. The construction of ele- vated U-turns on Delhi- Gurugaon Border (Sirhaul) is another project. A 32.200-km long road in Gurgugram- Greater Southern Peripheral Road (GSPR) from NH-8 near Ambience Mall to NH-236 meeting NSG Camp at NH-8 has also been proposed. This will work as an alternative route from Delhi-Gurgugram Border to Manesar. This 90- metre wide road is proposed to resolve the impending traffic load in the city. Once the pro- ject is completed, it will reduce traffic drastically on the NH- 8 and GSPR. According to sources, detailed project report is being prepared for the construction of a full cloverleaf at Kherki Daula Toll Plaza (40.5 km) to connect Dwarka Expressway. The NHAI’s another mega project, Dwarka Expressway from Shiv Murti in Delhi to Kherki Daula in Gurugram, is expected to reduce the traffic load on Delhi-Gurugram expressway. The road will emerge as an alternate route between Delhi-Gurugram. The 28 km long Dwarka Expressway will pass through UER-II (parallel to Terminal-3 of Delhi Airport) up to Barthal Chowk (junction of Sector 25- 26 Dwarka). It will then take a left turn and go straight up to Kherki Daula in Gurugram and culminates on NH-8, around one km before Kherki Daula toll plaza at SPR, CPR junction. Eighteen kilometers of this road will fall in Gurugram and the rest in Delhi. The improvement of T- Junction at Dhaula Kuan Metro Station and Defence area on Carriapa Marg on NH-8 is in progress. Similar work is in progress for con- structing flyover and under- pass at IFFCO Chowk, Signature Tower and Rajiv Chowk on Delhi-Gurgaon Section of NH-8 in Haryana. The project is expected to be completed by March 2019. According to NHAI offi- cials, it is expected that after the completion of all these projects the non-destined vehicles will not enter Delhi/NCR, which would help Delhi and NCR to reduce the burden on the roads as well as traffic congestion. Presently, 2.5 lakh non- destined vehicles enter into Delhi every day. The authority is also work- ing on a project of 195-km Delhi-Jaipur Expressway. The alignment for the expressway has been finalised and land acquisition has started. Once completed, the distance between Delhi and Jaipur will be reduced up to 40 km. The project will cost 18,000 crore. Another project Delhi- Meerut Expressway is being finalised. It will be completed in four phases. These include Nizamuddin bridge to UP bor- der, UP border to Dasna, and Dasna to Hapur at an estimat- ed cost of 3,159 crore. To reduce traffic conges- tion in the national Capital, the NHAI in its report ‘Decongestion of Delhi’ has proposed construction of Urban Extension Road (UER- I) to connect Rajokri, Bijwasan, Najafgarh, NH 8, NH 10 and NH 1. The Eastern leg of UER-I will take off from Maan Anandimayi Marg and will bypass Mehrauli and Rajokri. The road will have Right of Way (ROW) of 100 metre. The second phase of Urban Extension Road (UER-II) will connect Vasant Kunj through existing Dwarka Link Road, Najafgarh linking NH 8, NH 10 and NH 1. The road will have ROW of 100 metre. Another NHAI plan is for the construction of Link Road from Vasant Kunj to Aya Nagar on Guruguram-Meh- rauli (NH-236) road. This will serve as an extension of Vivekananda Marg and Nelson-Mandela Marg. It will provide direct connection between NH-236 and NH-8 and connect Bhikaji Cama Place, Aya Nagar and NBRC gate via Vasant Kunj. T o give much-needed impe- tus to the real estate sector in Punjab, the State Council of Ministers (CoM) on Friday in-principle decided to lower or rationalise the circle or collec- torate rates, while reducing the stamp duty on registration of property in urban areas. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, chairing the meeting, directed a formal proposal on reduction in cir- cle or collectorate rates to be presented in the next Cabinet meeting, with the Deputy Commissioners to be instructed to formulate the new circle rates. State Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said that he was already work- ing on the proposal and would present in the next meeting for consideration. To boost the languishing real estate sector in the State, the Cabinet gave approval to reduction in stamp duty on the registration of property in urban areas from nine to six percent till March 31, 2018. “The Cabinet decided to remove three per cent addi- tional stamp duty chargeable as Social Security Fund for this period through an amendment to Section 3-C and schedule 1- B of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, as announced by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech in the State Assembly,” said the spokesperson. In another important deci- sion to propel the reality seg- ment, the Cabinet also decid- ed to grant exemption from 10 percent increase in Change of Land Use (CLU), External Development Charges (EDC) and License Fee (LF)/Permission Fee from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020 for real estate projects. The Cabinet also in prin- ciple agreed to lower or ratio- nalise circle or collectorate rates, which it felt was essential to give an impetus to the real estate sector. Related story on Page 3

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The RSS on Friday demand-ed a judicial probe into the

“political killings” of its workersin the Left-ruled Kerala, allegingthat law and order has com-pletely broken down in the Stateas “politics of violence” has seennew heights after PinarayiVijayan assumed the post ofChief Minister last year.

The RSS claimed that thesewere “political killings” and notsimple murders carried out bythe CPI(M) cadre in a bid tocheck its expanding base in theState.

Talking to newspersons hereRSS joint general secretaryDattatreya Hosabale alleged thatlaw and order has completelybroken down in the State due tomisdeeds of the ruling Leftparty. He demanded an inde-pendent judicial enquiry into thekillings.

“The Kerala Governmentshould fulfill its constitutionalresponsibilities and check thispolitical violence. There shouldbe a judicial enquiry by either ajudge of a High Court or theSupreme Court in the murdersof RSS workers in the State,” saidHosabale.

“Our workers are targeted asmore common and poor peopleare joining the RSS which is notgoing down well with the rulingCPI(M), that is why they arekilling our workers. These arenot just murders but politicalkillings,” he alleged.

There is an uproar whenpeople are killed in all other partsof the country but when RSSworkers are murdered in Kerala,there is no outrage, Hosabaleadded. He said 17 RSS workershave been done to death in theState. The RSS’ charges comeclose on the heels of BJP MPs inthe Lok Sabha making a sharpattack against the Kerala Gov-ernment this week alleging thatthe Left cadres were carrying out“Talibani killings” in the State.

Attacking Vijayan, Hosabalesaid since he assumed the toppost “violence politics has seennew heights.”

He also alleged that Vijayan,who hails from Kannur, the epi-centre of political violence, “was

an accused in one such politicalmurder”. Vijayan had taken overas Chief Minister of the State onMay 25, 2016. Asked if there wasa case for imposing thePresident’s Rule in the State, theRSS leader said the people felt soas the violence in Kerala was“State-sponsored”.

“Despite being at the receiv-ing end, the RSS has always triedto get into a dialogue process, atleast three times in the past. Eachtime, they responded by eitherridiculing or backstabbing bykilling another of our workers,”he added.

The RSS leader alleged thatthe “unionism” of Marxists per-petuated even in the policedepartment and did not allowfree and fair investigation in anyof these conspiracies.

He also said Union MinisterArun Jaitley would visit thehouse of the RSS worker Rajeshwho was killed allegedly byCPI(M) workers.

BJP MPs Prahlad Joshi andMeenakshi Lekhi on Wednesdayaccused that maximum murdersof political opponents were tak-ing place in Vijayan’s district anddemanded an investigation intothe killings by the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA) andCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI).

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Hours after sleazy pix ofNiraj Kumar, Deputy

Commissioner Udhampur,went viral on various socialnetworking platforms theJammu & KashmirGovernment on Fridayordered his immediate attach-ment, pending enquiry intohis conduct, in the office ofDivisional Commissioner,Jammu.

Pictures of 2010-batchIAS officer, hailing fromKatihar district in EasternBihar, were already in circu-lation in several closed groupson social networking sitesfor few days. It is not clear onwhich date the pictures wereshot.

Niraj Kumar had recent-ly celebrated his birthday onJuly 26, 2017.

He was serving on thepost of DC, Udhampur since

May 2016.In the pictures, inebriat-

ed IAS officer, dressed inblue T-Shirt, is seen in thecompany of two young girlsinside a room.

It was not clear whetherthey were present in a hotelroom in Udhampur or werespending time together atany other location far awayfrom Udhampur at a privateplace. Presence of few othersin the room could not beruled out as the pictures incirculation were shot bysomeone present in the room.

As the pictures becametalking point of the day in the

corridors of power, the StateGovernment, taking seriousnote of the misconduct by theIAS officer, ordered a high-level enquiry.

The local police inUdhampur have also activat-ed its network to track downand identify the girls seen inthe pictures.

The order, issued by theGeneral AdministrationDepartment, said, “Pendingenquiry into his conduct,Niraj Kumar, IAS DeputyCommiss-ioner, Udhampur,is hereby attached in theoff ice of DivisionalCommissioner, Jammu.”

In his place, Ar vindSharma, KAS, AdditionalDistr ict DevelopmentCommissioner, Udhampur,shall look after the work ofDeputy Commissioner tillfurther orders.

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The Government has somereason to cheer as the col-

lections from customs dutyand IGST from imports hasalmost doubled to �30,000crore in just one month post implementation of Goodsand Services Tax (GST).

GST, which subsumedmore than a dozen Centraland State levies like exciseduty, service tax and VAT, wasimplemented from July 1.The revenue col lected include those on account ofcustoms duty, Integrated-GST(IGST) from imports, coun-ter vai l ing duty (CVD), special addition duty (SAD)and cess collection on import-ed items.

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Afirst year student of theDelhi University sus-

tained more than 38 stitcheson her back when an uniden-tified man attacked her witha blade while trying to snatchher bag in North Delhi’s Timarpur area on Thursdayafternoon.

Ruling out the angle thatthe girl was being stalked bythe man or was attacked by a j i lted lover, Jat in Nar wal, DeputyCommissioner of Police(North) said, “During inves-tigation, we found that theunidentified man was tryingto snatch the backpack of thestudent by cutting the bag.But as the student was carry-ing the bag on her back, shesustained deep cuts.”

The 20-year-old girl, astudent of Zakir HussainCollege in her complaint stat-ed that the incident happenedat around 3:30pm when aman attacked her frombehind. As the incident hap-pened in full public view, theman fled from the spot afterthe girl raised an alarm.

The girl was taken to anearby hospital where shewas treated for injuries anddischarged later.

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From October 1 this year, rel-atives or dependents of a

dead person must provide theAadhaar number for obtainingdeath certificate.

A notification issued byRegistrar General of India(RGI) under the HomeMinistry said use of Aadhaarfor applicants of death cer-tificate will result in ensuringaccuracy and prevent identi-ty fraud. The notification alsosaid if an applicant was notaware of the Aadhaar of thedeceased, he will be requiredto provide a declaration tothis effect.

“The Aadhaar number willbe required for the purpose ofestablishing the identity of thedeceased for the purpose ofdeath registration w.e.f 1stOctober, 2017. In a notificationissued today the RegistrarGeneral India (RGI), theMinistry of Home Affairs hassaid the use of Aadhaar for theapplicants of death certificatewill result in ensuring accura-cy of the details provided bythe relatives/ dependents /acquaintances of the deceased.

It will provide an effectivemethod to prevent identityfraud. It will also help inrecording the identity of thedeceased person.

Further, it will obviate theneed for producing multipledocuments to prove the iden-tity of the deceased person,”said the statement issued byPress Information Bureau

The notification said if theapplicant is not aware of theAadhaar number or EnrolmentID Number (EID) of thedeceased, he will be required toprovide a certificate that thedeceased person does not pos-sess Aadhaar number to thebest of his/her knowledge. “Itshould be duly informed andalso prescribed that any falsedeclaration given by the appli-cant in this regard will be

treated as an offence as per theprovisions of the Aadhaar Act,2016 and also Registration ofBirth and Death Act, 1969,” itadded.

The notification also saidthat applicant’s Aadhaar num-ber shall also be collected alongwith the Aadhaar number ofthe spouse or parents. TheRGI has further directed con-cerned Department in therespective States responsiblefor registration of birth anddeath to ensure compliance byconcerned registration author-ities and a confirmation tothis effect by on or beforeSeptember 1. Jammu &Kashmir, Assam andMeghalaya are exempted fromthis notification as the Aadhaarregistration process is not yetcompleted in these three States.

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&��! ����!��� ������ ����-�����)�������� �� ���� ������������������� �����: �� ����� ������ ��

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In a move to decongest NewDelhi and the National

Capital Region (NCR), theNational Highways Authorityof India (NHAI) is working onat least half a dozen road pro-jects. Works on two projectshave already been started anddetailed project reports (DPRs)for the remaining ones arebeing finalised.

The projects include con-struction of 13-km stretchfrom Delhi-Haryana Border toSohna Chowk on NationalHighway 248A on PersonalRapid Transit System. TheRFQ (request for quotation) isunder evaluation stage.

The construction of ele-vated U-turns on Delhi-Gurugaon Border (Sirhaul) isanother project. A 32.200-kmlong road in Gurgugram-Greater Southern PeripheralRoad (GSPR) from NH-8 nearAmbience Mall to NH-236meeting NSG Camp at NH-8has also been proposed. Thiswill work as an alternativeroute from Delhi-GurgugramBorder to Manesar. This 90-metre wide road is proposed toresolve the impending trafficload in the city. Once the pro-ject is completed, it will reducetraffic drastically on the NH-8 and GSPR.

According to sources,detailed project report is beingprepared for the constructionof a full cloverleaf at KherkiDaula Toll Plaza (40.5 km) toconnect Dwarka Expressway.

The NHAI’s another mega

project, Dwarka Expresswayfrom Shiv Murti in Delhi toKherki Daula in Gurugram, isexpected to reduce the trafficload on Delhi-Gurugramexpressway. The road willemerge as an alternate routebetween Delhi-Gurugram.

The 28 km long DwarkaExpressway will pass throughUER-II (parallel to Terminal-3of Delhi Airport) up to BarthalChowk (junction of Sector 25-26 Dwarka). It will then take aleft turn and go straight up toKherki Daula in Gurugramand culminates on NH-8,around one km before KherkiDaula toll plaza at SPR, CPRjunction. Eighteen kilometers ofthis road will fall in Gurugramand the rest in Delhi.

The improvement of T-Junction at Dhaula KuanMetro Station and Defencearea on Carriapa Marg onNH-8 is in progress. Similarwork is in progress for con-structing flyover and under-pass at IFFCO Chowk,Signature Tower and RajivChowk on Delhi-GurgaonSection of NH-8 in Haryana.

The project is expected to becompleted by March 2019.

According to NHAI offi-cials, it is expected that after thecompletion of all these projectsthe non-destined vehicles willnot enter Delhi/NCR, whichwould help Delhi and NCR toreduce the burden on the roadsas well as traffic congestion.

Presently, 2.5 lakh non-destined vehicles enter intoDelhi every day.

The authority is also work-ing on a project of 195-kmDelhi-Jaipur Expressway. Thealignment for the expresswayhas been finalised and landacquisition has started. Oncecompleted, the distance betweenDelhi and Jaipur will be reducedup to 40 km. The project willcost �18,000 crore.

Another project Delhi-Meerut Expressway is beingfinalised. It will be completedin four phases. These includeNizamuddin bridge to UP bor-der, UP border to Dasna, andDasna to Hapur at an estimat-ed cost of �3,159 crore.

To reduce traffic conges-tion in the national Capital,

the NHAI in its report‘Decongestion of Delhi’ hasproposed construction ofUrban Extension Road (UER-I) to connect Rajokri,Bijwasan, Najafgarh, NH 8,NH 10 and NH 1. TheEastern leg of UER-I willtake of f f rom MaanAnandimayi Marg and willbypass Mehrauli and Rajokri.The road will have Right ofWay (ROW) of 100 metre.The second phase of UrbanExtension Road (UER-II) willconnect Vasant Kunj throughexisting Dwarka Link Road,Najafgarh linking NH 8, NH10 and NH 1. The road willhave ROW of 100 metre.Another NHAI plan is for theconstruction of Link Roadfrom Vasant Kunj to AyaNagar on Guruguram-Meh-rauli (NH-236) road. Thiswill serve as an extension ofVivekananda Marg andNelson-Mandela Marg. It willprovide direct connectionbetween NH-236 and NH-8and connect Bhikaji CamaPlace, Aya Nagar and NBRCgate via Vasant Kunj.

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To give much-needed impe-tus to the real estate sector

in Punjab, the State Council ofMinisters (CoM) on Fridayin-principle decided to lower orrationalise the circle or collec-torate rates, while reducingthe stamp duty on registrationof property in urban areas.

Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh, chairingthe meeting, directed a formalproposal on reduction in cir-cle or collectorate rates to bepresented in the next Cabinet

meeting, with the DeputyCommissioners to beinstructed to formulate thenew circle rates.

State Local BodiesMinister Navjot Singh Sidhusaid that he was already work-ing on the proposal and wouldpresent in the next meeting forconsideration.

To boost the languishingreal estate sector in the State,the Cabinet gave approval toreduction in stamp duty on theregistration of property inurban areas from nine to sixpercent till March 31, 2018.

“The Cabinet decided toremove three per cent addi-tional stamp duty chargeable asSocial Security Fund for thisperiod through an amendmentto Section 3-C and schedule 1-

B of the Indian Stamp Act,1899, as announced by theFinance Minister in his Budgetspeech in the State Assembly,”said the spokesperson.

In another important deci-sion to propel the reality seg-ment, the Cabinet also decid-ed to grant exemption from 10percent increase in Change ofLand Use (CLU), ExternalDevelopment Charges (EDC)and License Fee(LF)/Permission Fee from April1, 2017 to March 31, 2020 forreal estate projects.

The Cabinet also in prin-ciple agreed to lower or ratio-nalise circle or collectoraterates, which it felt was essentialto give an impetus to the realestate sector.

Related story on Page 3

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Giving a boost to tourism inthe State, Himachal

Pradesh Government on Fridaysanctioned �100 crore for‘Himalayan Tourist Circuit'paving way for 14 tourismrelated projects to be developedin the State, Chief MinisterVirbhadra Singh said on Friday.

Presiding the meeting ofHimachal Pradesh TourismDevelopment Board held here,the Chief Minister listed the pro-jects which are expected toincrease the torist facilities andinfrastructure in the hill State.

The projects which havebeen shortlisted under the cir-cuit includes convention centreat Kiarighat in Solan district toprovide all way side amenitiesto the visitors and to costaround �25 crore including �7crore 'Heliport' at Shimla to beconstructed somewhere nearSanjauli-Dhalli bypass, Rs fourcrore each for 'Village Haat' atKangra including beautificationof Dal lake, 'free climbing'standing wall of Internationalstandard at Manali to costaround �3 crore and a provisionof �3 crore for Saurav Kalia VanVihar and developing water

sports facilities at Suni inShimla district.

The Heliport at Shimla iscoming up on a hill plateau andwould also have indoor andoutdoor exits besides landingfacility for private choppers.

The Chief Minister said thatafter completion of ropeways,Himachal Pradesh would beglobally choice destination forreligious and adventure tourism.He said a Golden feather hasbeen added in the cap of statetourism which in long run wouldnot only cater to the basic needsof the tourism industry but wo-uld also be a source of employ-ment and revenue for the State.

It was informed that anagreements for four ropewayprojects on 'Built Operate

Transfer' (BOT) basis have beensigned as well, which includearound �150 croreDharamshala-Macleodganj,�289 crore Adi-Himani-Chamunda, �340 crorePalchaan-Rohtang and around�94 crore Bhuntar Bijli Mahadevto facilitate the adventure as wellas religious tourism.

The Chief Minister wasinformed that the ropeway pro-jects from Sarahan to BashalKanda connecting Kinnaur dis-trict, Bharmour to BharmaniMata, Toba to Shri Naina Deviji in Bilaspur and Shah-Talai toDeot Sidh in Hamirpur were inbidding stages.

Singh directed to ensureremoval of hoardings andposters around Maha-Mritunjay

temple in Mandi. He said thatearlier the encroachments wereremoved and now the bighoardings and posters seem tohave covered the temple, whichneeds to be removed.

He also directed for speed-ing up the process of restorationand refurbishment of BantonyCastle. Besides, a lawn and parkthe old building could be used asa Museum in which the historyand culture of all the districtscould be showcased.

The Chief Ministerlaunched a 20 minute film ontourism circuit of HimachalPradesh which besides adven-ture highlights the Buddhistand religious circuits as well.Virbhadra Singh directed tolook into the possibility ofconstruction of road from RestHouse Naina Devi to the tem-ple. He was also given detailedinformation about the ongoingconvention centre at 15 miles,between Patlikul and Manaliwhich would have nine holegolf-course besides anamphitheatre, food courts,markets etc.

A sort of integrated town-ship will be developed for the vis-itors, said Managing DirectorHPTDC, Dinesh Malhotra. He

also gave presentations on vari-ous ongoing projects includinglightning of old Victoria Bridgein Mandi, refurbishment ofChurch at Ridge, renovation ofancient temples of Rampur andvarious other tourism projectsundergoing landscaping andbeautification.

Chief Secretary V.C. Pharkasaid Rs 40 lakh have beenreserved for lift at Bhalei MataTemple in Chamba, �50 lakh forconstruction of Narain-Nagintemple at Kalpa, �48 lakh forparking at Spilo in districtKinnaur and �25 lakh for devel-opment and beautification ofNau-Naag lake in Sarpada in dis-trict Shimla. He said �14 crorehad been sanctioned for theinfrastructure projects like park-ing, beautification of temples,public places, parks etc. Pharkasaid out of 25 way-side ameni-ties 17 have been commissionedin various parts of the State andthe work was in progress for theremaining.

Urban developmentMinister Sudhir Sharma, ChiefParliamentary Secretary MansaRam, Additional ChiefSecretaries Manisha Nanda,Srikant Baldi, amongst otherswere present in the meeting.

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About four months beforethe Assembly elections in

Himachal Pradesh, the rulingCongress on Friday posed aunited front with ChiefMinister Virbhadra Singh andHimachal Congress presidentSukhwinder Singh Sukhu shar-ing a common platform indi-cating that the differencesbetween the two factions havebeen resolved.

Declaring a truce withinthe party, AICC GeneralSecretary In-charge of the State,Sushil Kumar Shinde said thatsenior leaders of the party haddecided to fight the Assemblyelections together to keep thecommunal forces out of powerin the State.

Admitting factionalism inparty, Shinde addressing a Pressconference in Shimla said thatthere were differences in theparty, and it was common fora democratic political set up.Taking a dig at BJP, Shinde saidthat Congress was far more tol-erant than BJP, which hadshown doors to many of itssenior leaders, who devoted alltheir lives for the saffron party.

He said Congress toleratesdifference of opinion, unlikeBJP which had shown doors toits senior leaders Lal KrishanAdvani, Murli Manohar Joshiand Shatrughan Sinha justbecause they expressed theirdissent against the power cen-tre in the saffron party.

Shinde made it clear thatparty would not announce its

Chief Ministerial candidatebefore the elections and nameof Chief Minister would bedecided after winning the polls.

The AICC leader alsodeclared that the high com-mand had decided to give ayoung face to the party in thestate by f ielding more youngsters.

Responding a query onthe rising indiscipline in theparty, especially those whoraised slogans against stateparty chief Sukhu, he said thatsome of the workers who raisedslogans had been served showcause notices by the HPCC.However, he had urged stateunit leaders not to take strin-gent action.

Feigning ignorance aboutthe letter written by 6 partyMLAs seeking ouster ofVirbhadra Singh from the postof Chief Minister, Shinde saidthat no such letter had beenbrought to his notice in theCongress Legislative Party meet-ing. He said that he himself, withRanjeet Ranjan, the Co-Inchargediscussed in detail withVirbhadra Singh and state pres-ident Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu."All difference have ended andboth the leaders resolved towork together," he added.

Indicating action againstsenior Congress leader VijaySingh Mankotia, Shinde saidthat party would take disci-plinar y action againstMankotia as it could not bearfrequent attempts by anyleader to damage reputationof senior leaders.

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Haryana Congress on Fridaydemanded an inquiry into

the large-scale felling of trees inthe Aravallis in utter disregard of the National GreenTribunal notice.

A probe should be con-ducted into who gave and atwhose behest, permission to areal estate company to fell

trees in the Aravallis, saidKiran Choudhry, Leader ofthe Haryana CongressLegislature Party.

The former Excise andTaxation Minister asked ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattar,to probe the matter and comeclean on this issue.

The matter pertains tothe grant of permission toBharti Land Limited to cut

hundreds of trees on 52-acreland in Sarai Khawaja villagein Faridabad last month for agroup housing project, theCLP leader said.

Pressure was exercised onjunior officers to considerareas marked as open/densescrub or scattered woodedtrees in the Survey of India(SoI) map, as non-forest,Choudhry alleged.

Shimla: Remembering thearchitect of modern HimachalPradesh, YSParmar, Chief Min-ister Virbhadra Singh on Fridaysaid that besides being a reput-ed politician, he was a greatvisionary and dynamic leaderwho dedicated his entire life fordevelopment of the hill people.

The Chief Minister offeredfloral tributes on the statue ofthe first CM of the State on his111th birth anniversary at thehistoric ridge and later in afunction organised tocommemorate the birthanniversary of Dr Parmar atState Vidhan Sabha.

Virbhadra Singh wasaccompanied by AICC GeneralSecretary in-charge of the state,Sushil Kumar Shinde, MP andco-incharge, HPCC, RanjeetRanjan, his Cabinet colleagues,Chief ParliamentarySecretaries, MLAs both of rul-ing and Opposition andChairmen and Vice-Chairmenof various Boards andCorporations and officers ofthe State government.

The CM said that it was thestruggle led by Dr Parmar thatthis hill State got a separate enti-ty, size and status to lay a solidfoundation for its developmentin the initial years. “The peopleof the State will remain indebt-ed to him for his tireless effortsfor getting separate political ide-ntity to the State”, said theChief Minister adding thatwhatever has been achieved bythe State, was due to the pathshown by him. PNS

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Chandigarh: HaryanaWomen and ChildDevelopment Depar-tment has invited appli-cations for opening ofChild Care Institute(CCI) in all the districtsunder Integrated ChildProtection Scheme forthe year 2017-18. Aspokesman said thatonly those institutionsor persons who areinterested to open CCIfor orphan, destitutechildren and child inspecial needs can submittheir applications to thedistrict child protectionofficer in their respec-tive districts.

Page 3: ˆ˝ ˝ ’ ˇ34/&5 /1 3 ˛˚˜ !ˆ˝#$%˜!&ˆ’ˆ(ˆˆ) *+!&ˆ& ,ˆ)˘ to cheer as the col- ... The girl was taken to a ... Chowk on Delhi-Gurgaon Section of NH-8 in Haryana. The

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To send across the message of clean-liness among the masses, the Punjab

Government has roped in renownedcomedians and actors Jaswinder Bhallaand Binnu Dhillon as brand ambas-sadors of its ‘Mission Swachchh andSwasth Punjab’.

The two actors, known for theirwitty and comical acts both on stage andin cinema, would help the StateGovernment to promote its message ofsanitation to the people by appearing inadvertisements, and on special events.

Their commitment towards thesocial cause of making Punjab clean andhealthy is appreciable, said the stateWater Supply and Sanitation MinisterTript Rajinder Singh Bajwa.

Bajwa also announced to start aweek-long massive awareness cam-paign under the ‘Freedom from OpenDefecation’ programme from August 9,

with the target of making the ruralPunjab open defecation free by the endof this year.

“Rural areas of nine districts —

Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana, Moga, SASNagar, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Barnala,Faridkot and SBS Nagar — have beenself-declared as Open Defecation Free

by Gram Panchayats and respectiveDeputy Commissioners,” he said.

Bajwa said that in all, 52 blocks and5,953 villages have been declared ODFtill date. 1.98 lakh households have con-structed latrines of their choice and con-struction of 1.21 lakh latrines are underconstruction.

The approach followed by theDepartment has been to motivate ben-eficiaries to construct bath-cum-latrinesfor more effective use, he said addingthat the beneficiaries have contributed�5,000 to �15,000 over and above theGovernment grant out of their ownresources which is a sign of high levelof ownership.

The Minister said that in theweek-long celebrations under the‘Freedom from Open Defecation’ pro-gramme, the Punjab governmentwould carry out awareness pro-grammes across the state against ill-effects of open defecation.

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Come January 1, Punjab’s allelected representatives, both

of the Vidhan Sabha and theParliament, would have to makepublic their assets every year.

The decision to this effectwas taken at the State Cabinetmeeting on Friday evening,headed by the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh, alongwith slew of significant deci-sions including slashing stampduty on urban property regis-tration by three per cent,approving new marriage palacepolicy, establishing ‘Directorateof Fire Services’ and new‘Directorate of Ground WaterManagement’, among others.

The Cabinet also gave itsnod to the Punjab StateCouncil for AgriculturalEducation, and Punjab StateFarmers and Farm LabourersCommission Act-2017, besidescreating a ‘Climate ChallengeFund’ to check stubble burning.

Aiming at bringing totaltransparency in the gover-nance, the Cabinet decided tomake it mandatory for allMLAs and MPs from Punjab to

declare their immovable prop-erties on January 1 every year,with the exception of the cur-rent year, when the declarationsare required to be filed bySeptember 30.

The decision will be imple-mented as the Cabinet gave itsapproval to amend ‘The PunjabLegislative Assembly (Salariesand Allowance of Member)Act, 1942’ immediately afterthe amendment.

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To providing facilities offire services at the grass rootslevel effectively, Cabinet has

given a green signal to establisha Directorate of Fire Services toregulate and control 34 offices offire brigades already establishedin 10 Municipal Corporationtowns and 155 other UrbanLocal Bodies across the state.The Directorate will ensure avail-ability and delivery of profes-sional fire services by taking intospecial consideration the needsof high rise buildings, multi-plexes, malls and industrial unitsinvolving dangerous operations.

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Cabinet has approved to set

up Punjab State Council forAgricultural Education to pro-mote agricultural education inthe state. The Council would beset up by bringing an Ordinance— Punjab State Council forAgricultural EducationOrdinance 2017 — aimed at pro-moting and coordinating agri-cultural education in various col-leges and institutes in the state.

�� !������������� ��������������������� ���� 34/&

Aimed at granting legalrights to the farmers, the Cabinethas given its go ahead to enactthe ‘Punjab State FarmersCommission Act-2017’, throughan Ordinance, to empower andsafeguard the interests of thefarming community. The five-member commission, withnominated chairperson, mem-ber secretary, Punjab AgricultureUniversity VC, GADVASU VCand ACS (Development) orFCD, will have the powers toframe agriculture policy andother matters referred to by thegovernment. The Commissionwill have a corpus fund of Rs 25crore initially and Rs five crorefor next five years grant to begiven by the state government,and would be mandated to sub-mit its report to be tabled in the

Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

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Aimed at tackling theproblem of burning of cropresidues across the state,Cabinet has approved to createa ‘Climate Challenge Fund’ tohelp the state in creating aware-ness amongst the farmers aboutharmful effects of crop residuesburning. The Cabinet alsoagreed in principle to create afund of Rs one crore for givingincentives to those farmersadopting mechanical solutionsto deal with crop residues.

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Cabinet has also decided tocreate a ‘Directorate of GroundWater Management’, under theirrigation wing of theDepartment of Irrigation andPower, for conservation, uti-lization and management of thedepleting groundwaterresources in the state. Theexisting water resources admin-istration of the Department ofIrrigation will be subsumedinto the new Directorate.

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Cabinet also approved anew Marriage Palace Policy forregularization of unauthorizedmarriage palaces, besides grant-ing approval for construction ofnew marriage palaces across thestate. The new policy, replacingthe earlier ones framed by theprevious SAD-BJP government,is aimed at facilitating con-struction of new marriagepalaces, thereby mitigating theproblems faced by owners ofmarriage palaces, besides ensur-ing safety and parking facilityfor the people gathering at suchvenues. The cabinet decided tocondone violations in building bylaws to the extent of10 per cent.

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Following a large number ofcomplaints of party workers

pertaining to the inaccessibil-ity of Chief Minister’s office andState Cabinet in Haryana, BJPchief Amit Shah has made itmandatory for the Ministers toremain available to listen to thegrievances of party workerstwice a week in Chandigarh.

The party president, whoconcluded his three-dayHaryana visit on Friday, hasdirected all Ministers in theManohar Lal KhattarGovernment to remain presentin their respective offices inChandigarh from 10 amonwards every Tuesday andWednesday to listen to thegrievances of party workers.

Not only this, the Ministershave also been asked to makesure that they take their lunchin their offices on both thesedays to spare maximum timefor the party workers. AmitShah has told the Ministers toremain available in their offices and give a patient hear-ing to each and every partyworker who visited them dur-ing these two days.

Besides, the Ministers havealso been directed to visit theirconcerned districts once in amonth to listen to and redress

the grievances of workers andalso, to take their feedback.

The directions are aimed atpacifying the disgruntled partyworkers and inculcate a senseof belonging among them. Theparty State unit had been fac-ing a tough time due to theresentment among party work-ers, who were unhappy withthe attitude of Ministers andState bureaucrats.

During the series of meet-ings convened by Amit Shahduring his three-day stay atRohtak, several party workershad expressed their resent-ment over the inaccessibility ofthe Chief Minister’s office andCabinet Ministers to resolvetheir issues.

Apart from the party work-ers, MLAs and MPs had also

raised the issue of unavailabil-ity of State Ministers to addressthe grievances of party work-ers. It was also pointed out thatthe party has failed to give dueattention to the issues raised byits workers, which has led todiscontentment among them.Several party workers had alsoraised questions on the issueslike corruption, pending devel-opment works in the State.

In the past also, BJP MLAs,MPs and party workers hadaired their grievances at publicplatforms against their ownGovernment and Chief Minister.

After being apprised aboutthe resentment among partymembers over the attitude ofMinisters and State bureau-crats, Amit Shah has issuedseries of directives to strength-

en the BJP in the State.Besides issuing directions to

the State Ministers to remainavailable in their office twice aweek for party workers, the BJPchief has also asked the ChiefMinister to submit a report inthis regard and ensure that griev-ances of party workers areaddressed.

For strengthening the partyat grassroot level in the State,the BJP chief has directed allparty workers to choose fivebooths and reach out to thepeople to apprise them about the policies anddevelopment works undertak-en by BJP led Central andHaryana Governments.

He has asked party work-ers to spend three days each atfive booths to strengthen the

party in Haryana.Shah, while addressing the

office-bearers of various cells ofHaryana BJP on the final dayof his visit also asked vistaraks(full-time workers) to superviseand assign different works tothe party workers and ensurethat they reach at all 17,018booths in the State.

He also asked the partyworkers to actively contribute tothe Tiranga and Mashal Yatras tobe held from August 9 to August30 aimed at further strengthen-ing the national ideology.

Shah added that the BJPhad made Government inHaryana but is yet to reach atthe booth level. In the 90-mem-ber Haryana Assembly, theruling BJP has 47 MLAs whileout of 10 MPs, the party hasseven members.

Without naming anyone,Shah said that a leader is serv-ing jail sentence for committingirregularities in providingGovernment jobs.

Notably, INLD chief OPChautala along with his sonAjay Chautala are serving 10-year jail sentence after beingconvicted, in teacher recruit-ment scam in Haryana.

Shah said that earlier cer-tain people, families and castesruled the roost in the state andjobs were given to the youth onthe basis of castes whereas thetalented felt cheated and dis-appointed.

The BJP chief alsoreviewed the schemes and pro-jects undertaken by the BJPGovernment in Haryana dur-ing its 1,000 days tenure andprogress of implementation ofCentral schemes in the State.The first BJP Government in

the State had completed its1,000 days in office on July 21.

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Lashing out at the BJP,Leader of Opposition andINLD’s senior leader AbhaySingh Chautala on Friday saidthat the ruling party has mis-used Government machineryand wasted public money dur-ing the visit of Amit Shah.While the BJP claims of endingthe VVIP culture, it had spentcrores of rupees in welcomingits party president in Haryana,he alleged. Chautala added theBJP Government did nothingduring its 1,000 days tenure andis not wasting crores of publicmoney in party functions.

�� �������������

Haryana Congress chiefAshok Tanwar along with hun-dreds of party workers protest-ed against the BJP at Rohtak.They were demanding releaseof cow activist Gopal Das, whowas arrested a day before forprotesting at president AmitShah’s programme venue witha dead bull to draw Shah’sattention towards his demands.Tanwar along with party work-ers were also arrested whenthey tried to cross the barri-cades put up by Police to stopthem to reach Amit Shah’sprogramme venue.

�� ���������������'���

To send out a messagethat the BJP does not discrim-inate on the basis of caste andcreed, and value scheduledcaste workers as much as oth-

ers, Amit Shah along withother senior party leaders onFriday visited the house ofTarawati Chahar, a party work-er belonging to SC in Rohtakand had lunch with her fami-ly. Lauding Chahar for servingsimple but delicious meal, cab-inet minister Ram BilasSharma said the party did notbelieve in any kind of dis-crimination on the basis ofcaste or creed, and all workerswere accorded equal respect.

������������������� ��������

Amit Shah along withChief Minister Manohar Lalvisited Shri Baba MastnathMath in Asthal Bohar inRohtak and inquired aboutthe well-being of MahantChand Nath, the BJP MPfrom Alwar, who has been ail-ing for quite some time. Shahstayed there for about 30 min-utes and interacted withMahant Chand Nath on vari-ous issues of religious andpolitical significance, stateBJP chief Subhash Barala said.

!��������� ����'Members of the All-India

Jat Aarakshan SangharshSamiti (AIJASS) haveexpressed their unhappinessover not being given time tomeet BJP president Amit Shahduring his stay in Rohtak.They have announced that ifa concrete assurance is notgiven by the BJP by August 27,they would launch a fresh stirfor reservation for Jats at theCentre and in Haryana. Theplans for fresh stir would beannounced on August 27 inJhajjar at a rally.

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Not bogging down by themassive protests by thou-

sands of truckers, Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Friday made it clearthat his Government’s decisionto abolish truck unions wouldnot be rolled back.

At the same time, the ChiefMinister reiterated zero-toler-ance to corruption and assuredthe trade and industry of alevel-playing field. His assertioncame during a discussion withvarious stakeholders on thenew draft industrial policybeing formulated by the PunjabGovernment. Chief Ministerassured them that all concernsof the industry would be takeninto account before finalisationof the new policy.

“The Government wouldfollow ‘Business First’ philos-ophy and act as a facilitator tohelp trade and industry scalenew heights to play a criticalrole in the state’sprogress…The government iscommitted to make Punjabnumber one in ease of doingbusiness,” he said.

Promising sympatheticconsideration of all industrydemands and issues, the ChiefMinister said that the newpolicy would provide for acongenial environment forexisting as well as new indus-try to prosper.

Capt Amarinder, reiterat-ing his government's zero tol-erance to corruption, directedhis Chief Secretary to issue nec-essary guidelines to all depart-ment with the aim ensure has-sle-free working environmentto all existing and new indus-trialists, and warned that any-body found involved in corruptpractices would be severelydealt with.

During the meeting, CII

Chairman SP Oswal thankedthe Chief Minister for hislandmark decisions to freeze power tariff at Rs fiveper unit and to abolish truckunions, which he said wouldgalvanize the growth of indus-try in the State.

Expressing concern on theimpact of the depleting groundwater level on the textilesindustry, he urged the ChiefMinister to intervene and for-mulate a State Ground-WaterAuthority on the lines ofHimachal Pradesh.

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Haryana Health MinisterAnil Vij on Friday said that

55 health and welfare centreswould be established in all dis-tricts of the State during the cur-rent financial year.

He said that these centreswould be set up with thehelp of Central Governmentwhere people would be pro-vided with extensive primaryhealthcare services.

The Minister said thatUnion Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare has approved�572.13 lakh for the construc-tion of these centres.

These centres would beestablished in the population of 1.20 lakh and 25to 30 sub-centres would berelated to them.

These centres would belinked with primary healthcentres, community health cen-tres and civil hospitals.

These centres would havetreatment facilities for ENT, ophthalmology, dental problems, mental diseases, management of communicable diseases andothers, Vij said.

Giving more details, theHealth Minister said that fivecentres would be set up inMewat, four each in Bhiwaniand Hisar and one to three centres would be set up inother districts. About �10 lakhhas been estimated to be spenton each centre, he added.

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Moving towards fulfilling itsanother pre-poll promise

of ‘housing for all’, the PunjabGovernment has approved‘Punjab Shehri Awas Yojana-2017’ to provide free housing toeligible houseless SC and BCurban families.

As per the scheme, urbanhouseholds with an annual inc-ome of less than Rs three lakh inthe first phase and Rs five lakhin the second phase would be eli-gible to claim free housing facil-ity. Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh issued strictinstructions to the concerneddepartments to take utmost careto ensure that the schemeimpacts the real beneficiaries.

Often the true beneficiariesfail to get the benefit of socialwelfare schemes due to errors ofinclusion — where the wrongpersons end up getting includ-ed in the list, or errors of exclu-sion — where the real benefi-ciaries remain out of the ambit,usually lacking even awarenessof the schemes, he observed,adding that extreme care shouldbe taken to avoid such errors.

The scheme also envisagessubsidized housing through in-situ Slum Re-development to eli-gible slum dwellers, besidesaffordable housing through con-cession in EDC, CLU etc to pri-vate developers, said thespokesperson.

It also provides for elimina-

tion of stamp duty or registrationcharges or any other state gov-ernment cess or social infra-structure fund etc for eligiblebeneficiaries or urban poor hav-ing annual income from allsources amounting to less thanRs three lakh.

The scheme would also pro-vide facility of cheap home loansto Lower Income Group (LIG)families having annual incomefrom all sources less than Rs sixlakh and Middle Income Group(MIG) families having annualincome from all sources less thanRs 18 lakh.

Land from the departmentsof Rural Development, LocalGovernment or any otherDepartment, suitable for con-struction of EconomicallyWeaker Sections (EWS) houses,would be transferred free ofcost to the Housing and UrbanDevelopment Department.

“In case the land identifiedfor this purpose belongs tosome other department of thegovernment, the state level sanc-tioning and monitoring com-mittee (SLSMC) will be autho-rized to take decision to utilizethis land through Local Gove-rnment Department (UrbanLocal Bodies) or Housing andUrban Development Dep-artment (Development Autho-rities) in their respective juris-diction under the scheme, withthe consent of the concernedDepartment,” said thespokesperson.

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The Government’s con-troversial rules to curb

cow slaughter faced a legalbarrier in Supreme Courtafter a RTI reply by the LokSabha Secretariat producedin Court stated that the Rulesdid not receive approval fromthe Parliament, a conditionprecedent for the Rules tocome into force.

The Rules in questioncalled the Prevention ofCruelty to Animals(Regulation of LivestockMarket) Rules 2016, areinoperative at present due toa stay granted by the apexcourt. However, the validityof Rules are pending chal-lenge before the Court.

On Friday, one of thepetitioners, Sabu Stephen,informed the court that theRules cannot be acted uponin any case as it was notpassed by Parliament. Insupport of this plea, his

lawyer produced a RTI replydated July 27, 2017 given bythe Lok Sabha Secretariatwhich stated that the Rules inquestion was not placedeither before the Lok Sabhaor Rajya Sabha.

The petitioner pointedout that under thePrevention of Cruelty Act,every Rule must be placedbefore the Parliament.Further, the Manual ofParliament Procedurerequired Parliament’sapproval for any Rule tocome into effect.

The Bench of ChiefJustice JS Khehar and JusticeDY Chandrachud askedAdditional Solicitor General(ASG) PS Narsimha to takeinstruction in this regardand report next Friday.

The Rules faced resis-tance from cattle meat tradersand exporters as it containedprovisions barring trade ofcattle at livestock marketsfor purpose of slaughter.

� ��� �45�&46+�

Ranbir Kapoor, AishwaryaRai Bachchan and Anushka

Sharma-starrer movie ‘Ae DilHai Mushkil’ figured in theCAG report with theGovernment auditor askingtax authorities to examine“complete loop” of transac-tions between different entitiesrelated to the movie to verify ifdue service tax has been levied.

The CAG said Kapoorreceived a consideration of�6.75 crore from a foreigncompany, ADHM Films (UK)based in London for film shotin UK and did not pay servicetax of �83.43 lakh treating thesame as export of services.

The CAG in a report tabledin Parliament on Friday observedthat in two instances films wereshot in India and abroad, thepayment to artists for the portionshot abroad was arranged fromforeign companies and the ser-vice was made to look as exportof services with no tax liability.Ranbir Kapoor acted in ‘Ae Dil

Hai Mushkil’, produced byDharma Productions and shot inIndia and New York. The otherwas Telugu movie titled‘Nannaku Prematho’.

“...There is a need to exam-ine the complete loop of trans-actions between all the parties(Dharma Productions, ADHMFilms (UK) and RanbirKapoor) to verify if due servicetax has been levied in this caseor not,” the report said.Amongothers, the report also talksabout Arbaaz Khan Production,Red Chillies Entertainment andEros International Media.

The CAG said it noticed thatthe distributors realised distrib-ution income relating to public-ity and expenses of �50.56 croreduring 2012-13 to 2014-15. Inthis case, the finance ministryhad stated that distributionexpenses/publicity expenses areintegral part of the theatricalrights. “The reply of the Ministryis not acceptable since theseservices are independent servicesand cannot be considered as the-atrical rights,” the report said.

� ��� �45�&46+�

The country’s premier dis-aster response force

National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) has rescued1,837 and evacuated 9,684human lives, 40 live stocksand retrieved 19 dead bodies innumerous operations acrossthe country this year. TheNDRF will soon have fourmore battalions totalling about4,000 personnel for better reac-tion and effective reach duringcalamities.

The force currently has 12battalions with 1,149 personneleach and they have been locat-ed in various states across thecountry. This has been revealedby NDRF Director General(DG) Sanjay Kumar at hisannual Press conference onFriday.

Kumar said that so farNDRF has rescued 1,12,243and evacuated 4,51,161 humanlives and retrieved 2,781 deadbodies in numerous opera-tions across the country andbeyond boundaries

Also, NDRF to have fourmore battalions for better reac-tion and effective reach duringcalamities. Kumar said thedecision to raise and base thenew battalions in four States —- Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi,Uttarakhand and HimachalPradesh — is under consider-ation of the Government andfinal modalities are beingworked out.

“The Government wants toinduct these new battalions inthe NDRF as early as possible.However, the sanctioned timefor this is till 2019,” he said.This will help the force toproactive deployments duringimpending disasters. The entiremanpower and battalions of theNDRF are seconded by theparamilitary forces like CRPF,

BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB andAssam Rifles and the new con-tingents are expected to comefrom these organisations.

Responding to a questionon the 12-battalion strong forcegetting an independent airwing, the DG said the proposal is in the “preliminarystages and all aspects are beinglooked into”.

The force has also gottrained over 530 of its person-nel in slithering and comman-do skills by the elite NSG, a taskwhere rescuers come down onthe ground from a low hoveringhelicopter and directly reach acalamity-hit area. The force willbe also host the annual Bay ofBengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical andEconomic Cooperation (BIM-STEC) disaster managementexercise in the national capitalregion in October this year,with the participation of theseven member countries.

The NDRF is the nationalforce mandated to respond todisasters in any part of thecountry. It has 12 battalions with1,149 personnel each and theyhave been located in variousStates across the country. Eachof its battalions have domainexperts and teams of engineers,paramedics, technicians, elec-tricians and canine handlersalong with trained rescuers.

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There is Army dominationon the western side of the

Line of Control, border is safeand infiltration is decreasingwith border security rampedup with new gadgets, DefenceMinister Arun Jaitley told theLok Sabha adding “there is ahigh number of casualties ontheir side”.

Asked about the measuresto plug infiltration of terroristsand drug peddlers from theborders, Jaitley said surveil-lance by radars, thermal imag-inary and increased bordersearches has led to a decreasedinfiltration from across LOC.

He said in the Lok Sabhathat the Indian Army has“domination and impact” alongthe western border and allsteps have been taken to checkinfiltration from across theborder. “There is record high inthe casualties on the otherside,” he said.

“Pakistan has increasedefforts of infiltration,” he saidduring Question Hour.

The Defence Minster saiddue to the heightened vigil ofthe security forces, many infil-tration attempts have beenfoiled and infiltration has beendown.

There have been 285 inci-dents of ceasefire violation so

far this year through the LoCcompared to 228 such incidentsin the entire 2016 along theLoC in which eight peoplehad lost their lives, Jaitley said.

He said there were 221ceasefire violation along theInternational Border which isguarded by both the BorderSecurity Force and the Army.

Responding to anotherquestion, the Minister said theArmy has constructed an anti-infiltration obstacle system(AIOS) along the LOC andInternational Border in Jammu& Kashmir, under its opera-tional control.

The AIOS is furtherstrengthened by deployment oftroops and construction ofdefence works based on threatperception for an effectivemulti-tiered counter-infiltra-tion grid.

“Fortification of border isa continuous process. Anti-infiltration steps like obstaclesystems, technical gadgets havebeen installed by the Army andenough steps have been takento check infiltration,” he said.

Further, the areas along theborders are kept under sur-veillance by regular patrollingby troops and other aerial,optronic and electronic means.

“Appropriate retaliation tothe ceasefire violations andother tactical incidents by

Pakistan Army, as required, iscarried out by Indian Army. Allthe forward posts are ade-quately strengthened to with-stand enemy fire. Besides, thereare well-established StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs)to safeguard against enemyfire to minimise own casual-ties,” Jaitley said.

He said the Government istaking measures to ensure mod-ernisation of Indian defenceforces to keep them in a state ofreadiness to meet operational

and security challenges.“This is being achieved by

inducting new equipment,technologically upgradingexisting equipment and sys-tems, training etc. It will not bein the national interests todivulge further details,” he said.

In reply to another ques-tion, Jaitley said the govern-ment has enhanced specialallowances given to defencepersonnel serving in difficultareas like Siachen.

� ��� �45�&46+�

Aday after China stalled aproposal to designate

Masood Azhar as a global ter-rorist by the 1267 SanctionsCommittee of the UnitedNations, an upset India said ithoped that countries sharing itsconcerns over internationalterrorism would cooperate infighting all forms of terror.

The fresh proposal to listMasood in the UN sanctionslist backed by United States ofAmerica, France and UnitedKingdom was moved inFebruary which China hadstalled by putting a technicalhold that was to expire onAugust 2. However, China hasnow extended its technicalhold for another three months.

Azhar is the chief ofPakistan based terror outfitJaish-e-Mohammed and apartfrom carrying out other terroractivities against India, he wasinvolved in the recent attack onPathankot airbase. JeM isalready banned by the UNSanctions Committee butAzhar is escaping the ban with

the help of China which is theonly country in the 15 memberUN sanctions committee thatis shielding this Pak-based ter-rorist using its veto powereven as all other countriesfavour of sanctioning him.

“JeM chief Azhar had beeninvolved in carrying out terroractivities against India and thiswas a well-known fact. Wecan only hope that all thesecountries which share our con-cerns regarding the menace ofinternational terrorism willcooperate in fighting all formsof terrorism,” External AffairsMinistry spokesperson GopalBaglay said on Friday.

India has insisted that partfrom Azhar all such terroristsincluding Lashkar e Taiyabbachief Hafiz Saeed should bebanned universally. Mastermindof the 26/11/2008 Mumbai ter-ror attack, Saeed’s is now head-ing a new outfit -- Jamat utDawa - and is currently underhouse arrest in Pakistan. He istrying to rebrand his party intoa political outfit called MilliMuslim League Pakistan.

“All such people and outfitsneed to be banned by the UN1267 sanctions committee.Such freedom to these peopleis a matter of concern for usand other countries. It is iron-ic that Hafiz Saeed is trying tocover his blood-stained hands

with ballot ink. We are con-cerned about this. After usingbullets to kill does he want tohide behind the ballot? His

activities should be containedby Pakistan and should beallowed to get into politicalactivities,” Baglay said.

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CPI(M) Politburo on Fridayaccused Union Ministers

and the BJP/RSS leaders formisleading and partisan alle-gations about the politicalkillings in Kerala. Releasingtheir list of persons killed inviolence, CPI(M) said SanghParivar is engineering violencein the State.

“Since the formation ofthe LDF Government, 13CPI(M) workers and othershave been killed by RSS-BJPmen. More than 200 Partymembers and sympathisershave been injured and hospi-talized. Over 165 houses and 51Party offices and many massorganisation offices have alsobeen attacked, set on fire orvandalised,” said CPI(M) instatement attaching a list of 13persons killed in the violenceby RSS and BJP

“The game-plan is clear.

Resort to provocative actionsand uncalled for physicalassaults against the CPI(M)workers and raise the cry thatthe CPI(M) is resorting to vio-lence and blame the Keralagovernment for not stoppingsuch attacks.

“The people of Keralaknow very well who is respon-sible for the political violence,at a time when the LDFGovernment is seriouslyengaged in implementing thedevelopmental programmesset out in the election manifestoof the Left and DemocraticFront. The people of Keralawho continue to maintain thehighest level of communalamity and social harmony willsurely rise to defeat such effortsat disrupting peace and nor-malcy in the State,” said CPI(M,claiming that the StateGovernment is trying imple-ment steps to ensure peace inKerala.

� ��� �45�&46+�

Opposition parties led by theCongress on Friday moved

a privilege motion againstExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj in the RajyaSabha for allegedly misleadingthe Upper House over twoissues — Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s Lahore visit in2015 and the BandungConference in Indonesia — thesame year.

Leaders of various politicalparties alleged that Swaraj “pro-vided wrong information onthe Bandung Asia Africa rela-tions conference”. Swaraj’sspeech at 60th Asian AfricanConference (also known asBangdung Conference) is avail-able on the Ministry of ExternalAffairs website and theCongress has attached the samein its notice.

“We hereby give notice ofour intention to move a privi-lege motion under Rule 188 ofthe Rules and Procedures andConduct of Business on falseand misleading statement givenby Sushma Swaraj, Minister forExternal Affairs on August 3,2017 during reply to ShortDuration Discussion on ‘India’sForeign Policy andEngagement with StrategicPartners’,” the notice said.

“We are shocked at the bla-tantly false and misleadingstatement given by the Ministerfor External Affairs on thefloor of the House wherein the

matter was discussed after giving due notice of shortduration discussion which theMinister was also very keen todiscuss and reply to. It is also a matter of shame that dur-ing the reply, the Minister saidthat Bangdung Conference isdifferent from Asian AfricanConference whereas the fact isthat Asian African Conferenceis popularly known asBangdung Conference,” the privilege motion filedbefore RS Secretary Generalsaid.

The Government and theOpposition engaged in a verbalduel in the Rajya Sabha overIndia’s statement at theBandung Conference. SeniorCongress member AnandSharma alleged that first PrimeMinister Jawaharlal Nehru’sname was omitted from theaddress delivered by Ministerof State for External Affairs VKSingh at the conference.

TMC member DerekO’Brien supported Sharma in

attacking the Government.However, Swaraj said Indiadidn’t address the BandungConference. She said thespeech which Sharma wasreferring to was delivered atanother Afro-AsianConference held separately.“These were two different con-ferences,” she maintained.Pandit Nehru was one of thefounder members of theBandung Conference in 1955.

The second privilege is forallegedly “misinforming theHouse on PM Modi’s 2015Lahore visit, claiming that therewas no terror incident afterthat”.

The Opposition, however,said that the Pathankot terrorattack happened immediatelyafter Modi’s visit and there werefive other terror-related inci-dents after that too. Sharmaalso demanded to know whyModi made that visit toPakistan and “why, till date,nobody knows the details of themeeting”.

� ��� �45�&46+�

The Rajya Sabha saw din fora brief period on Friday

over the issue of renamingMughalsarai railway station inUttar Pradesh as Deen DayalUpadhayay station with theOpposition charging theGovernment with trying tochange the character of thecountry. Members of theSamajwadi Party (SP), whichraised the issue, stormed intothe well of the House forcing a10 minute adjournment duringthe pre-lunch session.

Flagging the issue duringthe Zero Hour, Naresh Agrawal(SP) said the Government wastrying to change character ofthe country by renaming icon-ic railway stations while hisparty colleagues questionedthe contribution of personswho made no contribution tothe freedom struggle.

Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs Mukhtar

Abbas Naqvi said the name ofVictoria Terminus station inMumbai was also changed toChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.He also said while theOpposition parties have noobjection to Mughal namesbut cannot tolerate the name ofa great thinker.

However, the SP members,along with other Oppositionparties, continued to raise aruckus and after a while SPmembers came into the wellshouting slogans. DeputyChairman PJ Kurien adjournedthe proceedings for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, the CentralGovernment on Friday approvedthe proposal to renameMughalsarai railway junction,Home Ministry officials saidhere. The UP Government hadin June approved the proposal toname the State after the RSS ide-ologue and forwarded it to theRailway Ministry for approval.

Upadhyay’s body wasfound under mysterious cir-

cumstances on a platform ofMughalsarai in 1968.

The station contains thelargest railway marshaling yardin Asia. It is 12.5 km long andhandles around 1,500 wagonsdaily. The largest wagon repairworkshop of the IndianRailways is also located here.

Among other issues to fig-ure in the Upper House includ-ed a demand for installing astatue of Rabindranath Tagoreat Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar.Raising the issue, RitabrataBanerjee (CPM) said thatTagore had renounced knight-hood, conferred by the Britishin 1915, after the 1919 mas-sacre.

Banerjee said installation ofa statue of Tagore and promi-nent display of the letter ofrenouncement of knighthoodwill be a mark of respect tohim. He also said the AssamGovernment has cancelled theholiday in schools and collegeson the birthday of Tagore.

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Aday after Chinese DefenceMinistry spokesperson

threatened India by saying“our restraint has a bottom-line,” India maintained that itcontinues to engage with themthrough diplomatic channelsto find a mutually acceptablesolution.

“We continueto engage withChina throughdiplomatic chan-nels to find amutually accept-able solution,”External Affairs Ministryspokesperson Gopal Baglaysaid on Friday. While addingthat India’s objective is toachieve peace and tranquility,Baglay expressed confidencethat this will be achievedthrough diplomacy. He alsosaid India has been in contin-uous coordination and con-sultation with Bhutan on the

Doklam issue.Baglay, however, refused

to get into the details of howIndia and China are commu-nicating diplomatically andhow far they have gone inresolving the issue. He alsorefused to respond to theChinese claim of troop reduc-tion by India from 400 to 40

in Doklam, sayingall these are opera-tional matters.

Ren Guoqiang,a spokesperson ofthe ChineseDefense Ministrysaid since the inci-

dent occurred, China hasshown utmost goodwill andsought to communicate withIndia through diplomaticchannels to resolve the inci-dent. He added Chinesearmed forces have also showna high level of restraint with aneye to the general bilateralrelations and the regionalpeace and stability.

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Leader of Opposition inAndhra Pradesh assembly

and YSR Congress party pres-ident YS Jaganmohan Reddyhas sparked off a major row bysuggesting that people like theChief Minister N ChandrababuNaidu should be shot in public.

The emotional outburst,which has triggered strongreaction from the ruling TDP,came in an election campaignspeech in Nandyal Assemblyconstituency in Kurnool dis-trict. The TDP and the YSRCPare locked in a fierce battle forthe Assembly byelection slatedfor August 23.

Addressing a mammothpublic meeting last eveningJaganmohan Reddy describedthe by election “a holy war”.

Alleging that Naidu wasindulging in duplicity, doubledealing and treacheryJaganmohan Reddy said, “aperson like Chandrababushould be shot in public fordouble speak and unending

deeds of corruption”. The byelection in the fac-

tion ridden Kurnool districtwas necessitated by the death ofa senior TDP legislator BhumaVenkat Nagi Reddy. He wasoriginally elected in 2014 onYSRCP ticket but later defect-ed to the TDP. Jagan feels thatthe time has come for him towrest the seat back.

He has fielded local power-ful leader Shilpa Mohan Reddyas party candidate. The TDP hassuffered a setback as his broth-er and MLC Shilpa ChakrapaniReddy resigned from the partyas well as Legislative Council andjoined YSRCP.

Jaganmohan Reddy a nohold barred attack on Naiduquestioned his political morali-

ty for encouraging defectionsfrom YSRCP. “Having caused thedeath of his father in law NTRama Rao by toppling hisGovernment Naidu doesn’t thinktwice before using NTR’s photosin election campaign”, he said.

Jagan’s fierce attack hasevoked strong condemnationby several Minister and seniorTDP leaders. One of themBuddha Venkanna said thatthere was a threat toChandrababu’s life from Jaganand his political advisorPrashant Kishore.

He questioned how Jagancan talk of shootingChandrababu after lootinglakhs and crores of rupees andspending 16 months in jail.

TDP was also planning totake the matter to the electioncommission. Deputy ChiefMinister Chinna Rajappasaid, “the EC will take care ofJgan’s remarks”.

“People are getting ready toshoot the YSRCP with theirballots”, another Minister SChandramohan Reddy said.

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Bajrangi Bhaijan tended todescend in a real life story

with a Kolkata police officerplaying a perfect Salman Khanto help his “sister” Jahira aBangladeshi woman to returnto her country after she lost herpurse containing visa, passportand related documents tothieves in Kolkata.

The incident took place onJuly 21 when Jahira a poorBangladeshi national who hadcome to India for treatmentwas seeing her doctors atMedical College and Hospitalin Kolkata. Busy talking todoctors thieves pinched hershoulder bag.

“It contained everything— from my visa, passport to allother documents. I was all at

sea and nowhere to go in analien country,” she said. Even asshe cried a duty constableadvised her to visit the LalBazar police headquarters.

Once in Lal Bazar she metdesignated Sub-inspector DRTablong who promptly swunginto action.

“I thought the best way tosort her problem out was totake her to Benapole entrypoint. Once at Benapole rel-evant numbers of her docu-ments could be found afterchecking the immigrationfiles. We then managed to buyher a ticket to Bangladesh,”Tablong said.

The nonchalant officersaid “I did so as I consideredit to be a my duty as a humanbeing. After all she was also ahuman being and l ike

my sister.” With her husband a man-

ual labourer Jahira is a poorwoman hailing from the otherside of the border.

What his col leagueswould subsequently revealwas Tablong did not hesitateto buy his “sister” a new cellphone so that she did not getlost and could be contacted ifrequired.

“We are proud of Tablongfor going out of the way tohelp a foreigner woman. Innormal course he could havewashed his hands by regis-tering a case of theft andsending away the woman witha promise of thorough inves-tigation or at the most hecould have referred her tosome NGO” a senior officer said.

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As the I-T raids continued onFriday on the properties

and close aides of KarnatakaPower Minister DK Shivakumarin Bengaluru and other places,his brother and Member ofParliament DK Suresh has saidthat the cash recovered by theI-T department does not belongto their family and they werecooperating with the I-T depart-ment to full extent. He told themedia in Bengaluru that it wasthe conspiracy and politicallymotivated raids. He also saidthat his party colleagues hadextended their support to thefamily since theirs was a case of“political vendetta”.

Alleging political vendetta,Suresh said, “Our party and allsenior leaders are extendingsupport. We have received mes-sages from Congress presidentand vice-president lending sup-port and promising they willstand by our side irrespective ofthe consequences. They havetold us to fight it out, as this isnothing but political vendetta.”

Suresh said that ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah backedthem fully and has been intouch with them. However their

mother Gowramma blamedSiddaramaiah for the entireepisode which created flutters inthe political circles. She told thevisiting media that atKanakapura the house she is liv-ing in was also raided by the ITsleuths. “Siddaramaiah hasalways been sharpening theknife against my son. He couldbe behind the I-T raids,”Gowramma said.

Chief Minister Siddara-maiah continued to blame theCentre and said the raids con-ducted were politically moti-vated. Raking up the issue of

I-T sleuths using CRPF duringthe searches, Siddaramaiahslammed the BJP for calling ita fight against corruption, say-ing most of its own leaderswere facing graft charges.

“There are corruptioncharges against so many BJPleaders in Karnataka. IsYeddyurappa (Karnataka partychief) not facing corruptioncharges?” he said.

“This is a politically moti-vated raid; the timing alsoclearly shows that it is politi-cally motivated,” Siddaramaiahtold reporters in Bengaluru.

He said, “I’m not againstthe raid or search on anyhouse, but the time that theyhave selected and the intentionof the Central Governmentand the I-T department.”

Asked whether he feels thatShivakumar will come out clean,the Chief Minister on Fridaysaid, “We do not know what hashappened, what they have foundduring the searches. But accord-ing to me, it is politically moti-vated.” “He is a Minister. Takingreserve police to his house andother places are not fair,” he said.

Asked about Union MinisterAnanth Kumar’s statement thatraids were conducted to crackdown on corruption, he said,“There are corruption chargesagainst Ananth Kumar himself.”

Replying to another ques-tion about Shivakumar’s moth-er accusing him (Siddaramaiah)of conspiring against their sons,Siddaramaiah said that “I havenot done anything wrong to hersons and will meet her soon andconvince her.” Meanwhile, DrRamana Rao checked thehealth of Shivakumar at his res-idence in Sadashivnagar wherethe IT officials are continuingthe raid for the third day andverifying the documents .

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With son Tejashwi PrasadYadav holding the chair

of the Leader of Opposition inthe Assembly, RJD supremoLalu Prasad wants wife RabriDevi to get same post in theLegislative Council. The partyhas staked claim for this posi-tion recommending the nameof the former CM. But giventhe strength of the party in theUpper House it seems not pos-sible.

The party is required tohave at least nine members inthe Council to seek the post ofthe Leader of Opposition but it

has only seven members. Sincethe BJP was the largest party inthe House, Sushil Kumar Modiwas holding this post from2013. But with BJP joining theGovernment Modi has becomeDeputy CM.

Bihar RJD presidentRamchandra Purbe have filedan application for recognitionof his party as the main oppo-sition party saying that RJDlegislature party leader RabriDevi should be recognised asLeader of Opposition with allthe facilities and privileges.The Leader of Opposition isgranted similar status and priv-ileges as accorded to a Cabinet

Minister. Rabri Devi has earli-er served as Leader ofOpposition in the Assembly.

“I have received the appli-cation and will take a decision

as per the rules,” said DeputyChairman of the CouncilHaroon Rashid who is acting asChairman. The JD(U) hasopposed granting status ofLeader of Opposition to RabriDevi and cited the example ofCongress in the Lok Sabhawhich due to shortage ofrequired strength has not beenaccorded officially the opposi-tion party. “The problem withLalu is that he wants all themain posts to his family mem-bers ignoring the seniority andmerit of other leaders of party.The RJD has no numbers stillhe he insisting to get this priv-ilege,” said JD(U) spokesmanand MLC Neeraj Kumar.

Former Deputy CMTejashwi, who has taken upcudgels to “expose” CM NitishKumar, will launch his ‘yatra’from Bhitiharwa Ashram ofMahatma Gandhi in WestChamparan district fromAugust 9.

The RJD has not given aname of this yatra like NitishKumar’s yatras but Deputy CMSushil Kumar Modi said itshould be named “Benamisampatti bachao yatra.” Hesaid, “Let him set out on hisyatra and he will be floodedwith questions as to how comehe amassed such huge proper-ties at such a young age. He hasstill not explained the source ofhis income.”

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The Assam Government hasinstituted a Special

Investigation Team (SIT) toenquire into the recent brutalkilling of Minority students’leader Rafiqul Islam even as theGovernment on Friday sent aletter to the Union HomeMinistry recommending a CBIprobe into the killing.

A statement issued by theChief Minister’s Office, saidthe Government has decidedto bring in senior IPS officerAnurag Tankha to lead the SIT.

Tangkha had worked withNational Investigating Agency(NIA) on deputation it is underhis investigation that the NIAhas been able to arrest at least25 Indian Mujahideen (IM)since 2013.

The SIT was instituted aday after Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowalannounced that a SpecialInvestigation Team would beformed to carry out an exhaus-tive investigation into thekilling of ABMSU President.

The statement further saidthat the Assam Government

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The Congress in Goa onFriday formally fielded All

India Congress Committee sec-retary Girish Chodankar forthe Panaji Assembly bypollagainst Chief Minister ManoharParrikar.

Girish filed his nominationpapers in presence of State partypresident Shantaram Naik andAICC secretary in-charge ofGoa A Chellakumar.

“This is going to be a battleagainst me and our formerDefence Minister ManoharParrikar, who is known for hislies. The people of Panaji haveto decide, whether they want tovote for someone who has cheat-ed them for over two decades ora fresh face,” Chodankar toldreporters after filing his nomi-nation papers.

The bypoll in Panaji wasnecessitated after Parrikar’sreturn to State politics as ChiefMinister in March this yearand sitting BJP MLA SidharthKuncolienkar resigned in the topBJP leader’s favour.

Anand Shirodkar, formerState president of the GoaSuraksha Manch, a regionalpolitical outfit backed by now-sacked State Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh sanghachalak

Subhash Velingkar has also filedhis nomination from Panaji.

In the other bypoll in Valpoi,also scheduled for August 23,former Home Minister’s sonRoy Naik filed his nominationpapers on Congress ticket. Naikfaces Health Minister VishwajitRane, who was elected on aCongress ticket in the Februaryelections, but later resigned tojoin te BJP-led coalitionGovernment as Minister.

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The condition of Veteranactor Dilip Kumar, who is

battling kidney failure, was onFriday described by a team ofdoctors attending on him atthe Lilavati Hospital as “notgood”, with his creatinine lev-els rising steadily.

However, Dr Jalil Parkar,who is part of the team ofteam of nephrologists andphysicians that is treating thethespian, denied reports in asection of the media that theactor was not ventilator. “Heis not on ventilator as has beenreported by a section of themedia,” Dr Parkar said.

Dwelling on the actor’smedical condition, Dr Parkarsaid, “His condition is notgood… His creatinine levelsare rising, while hishaemoglobian levels aredecreasing. His potassiumlevels are also increasing. Hewill need dialysis. But, he isnot ventilator”.

The actor was admitted toLilavati Hospital onWednesday evening, after hesuffered dehydration.

The 94-year-old actor hasbeen hospitalised on manyoccasions in the recent years.This time around, there hasbeen considerable anxiety inthe Hindi film industry abouthis failing health.

Dilip Kumar, who in hiscareer spanning for over sixdecades has acted over 65films, was last seen on the bigscreen in "Qila" in 1998.

The actor, who has actedin iconic films like "Devdas","Mughal-e-Azam", “NayaDaur” and “Madhumati”, washonoured with the DadasahebPhalke Award in 1994 and thePadma Vibhushan in 2015.

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Indicating that the penetrationof the Islamic State (ISIS) into

Kerala is not limited to thenorthern region of Malabar, theNational Investigation Agency(NIA) has reportedly taken intocustody a 24-year-old man fromAlappuzha in south-centralKerala over his suspected con-nections with the global terrorgroup. The agency is also said tohave taken two youths fromCoimbatore, Tamil Nadu intocustody over similar suspicion.

The detention of the youth,working with an IT firm inKochi, followed a raid by theNIA at his house in Alappuzhatown on Thursday night. Theagency had raided the youth’shouse with a court-issued war-rant. It had taken the youth toAlappuzha for the raid afterpicking him up from Kochi.The agency had held similarraids at the houses of the othertwo persons in Coimbatore onThursday.

As per reports, the youthwas taken into custody whenhe had arrived at the agency’sKochi office on Friday but rel-atives said the NIA had heldhim late Thursday eveningitself. The NIA had come acrossinformation on his suspectedlinks with the ISIS during the

probe related to the arrest offive youths, belonging to theISIS’s Kerala module, fromKanakamala in Kannur districtlast October.

The agency has seized sev-eral CDs and DVDs, a laptopcomputer, hard disks, andmobile phones apart from ISIS-related literature from theyoung man’s house. The mate-rials seized in the raid provedhis links with the ISIS inAfghanistan, reports said. Thefollow-up actions would comeafter the forensic examinationof the seized materials.

The youth had reportedlybeen communicating regular-ly with ISIS operatives inAfghanistan via social mediaplatforms like Facebook andTelegram. The investigatingand Intelligence agencies havealready learned that the ISIShas been using social mediaplatforms to woo Keralites andover 300 persons had joined itsWhatsApp group.

The youth has allegedlybeen communicating withAbdul Rasheed Abdullah, pre-sumed to be the team leader ofthe 21 persons from Kasaragodand Palakkad who had gonemissing from the country inMay-June, 2016 and werethought to have joined theIslamic State in Afghanistan.

Four of them have alreadybeen killed in attacks sinceFebruary this year.

“They (NIA) took my sonaway last evening on the basisof suspicion. He has donenothing wrong. I don’t knowanything,” the youth’s mothertold the media. He has been liv-ing with his mother, sister andfather’s mother at the house inAlappuzha. His father andbrother-in-law are workingabroad.

The youth had been underthe agency’s observation quitethe past several months after itallegedly came across informa-tion on his links with the ISISduring the investigation into thesecret meeting of a group ofyouths at Kanakamala inKannur district on October 2,2016. The youths were said to bepart of Ansarul Khilafa – Kerala,the ISIS’s module in the State.

The NIA had busted theISIS module by arresting five ofthem from Kanakamala andanother youth from Kuttiyadi,Kozhikode district on the sameday. The agency had filed thechargesheet in that case againstseven persons includingSubahani Haja Moideen (31), aresident of Thodupuzha,Idukki, who had returned toIndia after waging Jihad forISIS in Iraq.

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All India CongressCommittee (AICC) vice-

president Rahul Gandhi leftred-faced after attack on his carcouple with fluttering of blackflags in front of him by somepersons while chanting forPrime Minister Narendra Modiin Dhanera town during hisvisit to flood affected NorthGujarat region on Friday.

The car of AICC vice-president attacked with a stonepelting he was heading fromLal Chowk area of Dhaneratown in Banaskantha district tonearby helipad. Though theCongress leader escapedunhurt, the rear window paneof the car broken and an SPGcommando reportedly injured.He was immediately shifted toanother car and the vehiclewith broken window pane wastaken to a police station.

Undeterred by the attack,Gandhi adhered with his sched-ule and headed towards anoth-er flood affected Runi villagewhere he said that there was asmall group of 8-10 personsraising black flags and one of

them pelted stone at his car. “Iwas welcomed with black flagscoupled with slogan shoutingfor Narendra Modiji. I alsowelcome them. We don’t afraidof such protests. We are not ingovernment but Congress partywill continue to raise people’sissue in Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha,’’ he said.

A day after visiting floodaffected parts of eastern state ofAssam, the scion of Gandhi-Nehru family flew down toDhanera on Friday afternoonstraight from flood-hit areas ofneighbouring Rajasthan. Hespoke to people who sufferedrain fury in Manotra village

near Dhanera and also visitedAgriculture Produce MarketingCommittee (APMC) and metfarmers and traders there whoseagriculture produces washedaway in the flooding waters. “Wewill do whatever we can to offeryou relief although we don‘thave our government either inGujarat or at the Centre,” he said.

Meanwhile reacting on thestone pelting incident Gujarat’sDeputy Chief Minister NitinPatel said that as per protocol,Gandhi was offered two bul-letproof cars but he didn’taccept those cars and preferredto travel by a private car.However, the Gujarat Congress

claimed that the cares offeredby the state government wereold and hence Rahul wentahead by the party’s vehicle.

“People of Gujarat knowthe tricks of Congress rathertoo well. Their anti-people andanti- Gujarat mind-set not asecret,” tweeted Gujarat CMVijay Rupani in context ofprotests against the Congressvice-president in NorthGujarat. Terming him perpet-ual tourism, Rupani furthersaid that he came to Gujarat butpeople are asking whereCongress MLAs are in this cru-cial time. He however con-demned that incident of attackon Gandhi’s convoy andordered to take stern actionagainst the responsible persons.

In context to CongressMLAs Bengaluru episode, theCM remarked that RahulGandhi’s leadership style isworking wonders in his party.Congress MLAs are followinghis and they also are in vaca-tion mode, he added. GujaratMinister Shankar Chaudharyclaimed that the people areangry with their CongressMLAs who are enjoying inBengaluru while the locals suf-

fer due to the flood aftermath.Senior Congress leader

Ahmed Patel who is contestingRajya Sabha polls from the statetrained his guns on the state gov-ernment claiming that law &order situation deteriorated inthe state and the attack was exe-cuted and planned by BJP work-ers. Patel said that the state gov-ernment didn’t take any actionagainst the responsible persons.Condemning the attack on hisleader’s car, the Gujarat PradeshCongress Committee (GPCC)president Bharatsinh Solankidemanded judicial inquiry.

It is worth mentioning thatafter worst ever flood in the pastseven decades danger of epi-demic is looming over theBanaskantha and Patan districtsof North Gujarat. In such situ-ation politicians across the partyline are making beeline even assix Congress from the region areat a luxurious resort inBengaluru. The Dhanera APMChas lost inventory worth about�500 crore and is now stinkingdue to rotten food grains. Over250 people have died in the Statedue to flood, including 70 inBanaskantha alone. Over 14,000cattle have also died.

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The Aurangabad bench ofthe Bombay High Court

has extended the ongoing trialin the Kopardi girl gang rapeand murder case till August 11,after partly admitting a crimi-nal revision petition moved bydefence lawyers representing ofthe three accused in the case.

After partly allowing a pleaby defence lawyers VijayalaxmiKhopade and Rakesh Rathod

challenging the “legality, validi-ty and propriety” of the lowercourt’s July 10 order, Justice K KSonawane of the high court’sAurangabad bench on Thursdaydirected the trial court not to goahead with the proceedings inthe ongoing trial till August 11,to facilitate the defence advocatesto move the Supreme Court.

In his order on the crimi-nal revision petition filed by thetwo defence advocates, theJudge directed the

Ahmednagar Special Court(POCSO Act) to issue processto make one Rajendra Chavanas a defence witness in the case.

“The trial court is herebydirected to secure presence ofdefence witness RajendraChavan for adducing evi-dence on the legal aspect ofthe certificate issued undersection 65-B of the EvidenceAct in this matter in supportof the accused/applicant,” theJudge ruled.

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Bengal Chief Minister hasvehemently criticised the

Central move to gradually “de-subsidise kitchen fire” by with-drawing LPG subsidy andasked the Trinamool Congressrank and file to launch a mas-sive areas-wise campaignagainst what her Cabinet col-league Firhad Hakim called“economic barbarism.”

“It is the moral obligation ofthe Government to take care ofits citizens particularly the poor

and marginal ones. But insteadof doing so this Government istaking steps to soothe the superrich and fill their coffers,” shesaid advising her party men to“reach out to households in theinterior regions and explain” tothem how the centre was grad-ually taking away their right tolife by “stymieing the supply ofessential products like sugar andkerosene through PDS and cut-ting the pocket of a large sectionof the middle class and commonpeople by withdrawing the sub-sidy on LPG.”

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In yet another blow toSamajwadi Party within a

week, MLC Sarojini Agarwalquit the party on Friday andannounced that she was join-ing the BJP.

The two-time MLC, whoseterm expires on January 30,2021, tendered her resignationto Legislative Council chairmanRamesh Yadav in Lucknow onFriday. The Council Secretariatsoon issued a notificationdeclaring her seat as vacant.

An eminent gynecologist ofMeerut, Dr Sarojini Agarwal isconsidered close to the MulayamSingh Yadav-Shivpal Singhcamp in the Samajwadi Party.

Agarwal said that she leftthe SP as she was disturbedafter the removal of MulayamSingh Yadav from party presi-

dent’s post. The BJP leadersclaimed in Lucknow on Fridaythat two MLCs from the SPwould be joining the party butonly one joined. Senior BJPministers— Rita BahugunaJoshi and Mahendra Singhwere present when SarojiniAgarwal joined the party.

Sarojni Agarwal’s daughterDr Himani Agarwal, who wasnational general secretary ofSamajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, tooresigned from the SP andjoined the BJP.

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Uttar Pradesh Congress pres-ident Raj Babbar dissolved

the outfit’s social media cell afterfinding that members were notprompt in update activitiesundertaken by him in the State.Now only the UPCC Media Cellis active.

“The Social Media Cell ofUPCC has been dissolved withimmediate effect, saidChairman of UPCC MediaCell Satyadev Tripathi inLucknow on Friday. He refusedto give any reason that prompt-ed Babbar to take the stand.

However, sources said thatthe manner in which the SocialMedia Cell overlooked twomajor agitations by Raj Babbar- in Ambedkarnagar and inGhaziabad, the UPCC chiefdecided to disband it on Friday.

Meanwhile, Congress lead-ers continued to attack theUnion Government on soaringprices of tomatoes. After open-ing a tomato bank in YouthCongress office, the leaderssold vegetables in front ofVidhan Bhawan to highlightthat the Modi Government wasnot concerned about checkingprice spiral of vegetables.

The Congress workersparked a cartfull of tomatoeswith a banner ‘Tamatar ke aayeacche din’ (good days havecome for tomatoes) in front ofVidhan Bhawan and sold thekitchen staple at �10 per kg.

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With the arrest of threepersons on Thursday

eevening, the Special Task Force(STF) claimed to have busted agang involved in duping busi-nessmen and realtors by callingthem after posing as Officer onSpecial Duty (OSD) to ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath.

IG STF, Amitabh Yash saidthat they were informed that agang was active whose membersused to pose as OSD to CM andwere extorting money or dupingtraders and government officials.The IG said that in one such caseregistered in Aliganj police sta-tion, a call was made from theCM OSD’s mobile number toDeputy Labour Commissioner

RK Mishra in Kanpur. He wasasked that as per CM’s directives,raids should be conducted onRCPL Group in Kanpur.However, Mishra became sus-picious and informed DistrictMagistrate of Kanpur afterwhich a case was registered.Similar calls were also made toother officials or business hous-es either to extort money or toget some work done.

The top cop said that theydeveloped the input and onThursday evening, a ST teamdropped the net on three gangmembers at Kapoorthala local-ity of Aliganj. They were identi-fied as Atish Kumar Mishra ofHaridwar, Hanuman Shukla ofWaltarganj (Basti) and RahulUpadhyay of Tarabganj (Gonda).

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Much has been said and writ-ten about Nawaz Sharif ’souster as Pakistan’s PrimeMinister under directionfrom the country’s Supreme

Court. A considerable part or it is highlylaudatory about the role of the country’sjudiciary and its independence. The ques-tion arises: What has been the actual roleof the judges, especially of the higher judi-ciary comprising the Supreme Court andthe High Courts, in Pakistan’s polity?

There have doubtless been large blotson the escutcheon, underlining a tenden-cy to bow to mighty executives, uniformedor otherwise. As early as in 1954, GovernorGhulam Ahmed dismissed Pakistan’sConstituent Assembly because its memberscould not agree on the architecture andprovisions of the Constitution. The coun-try’s Supreme Court upheld the decision.

More than 20 years later, BegumNusrat Bhutto, wife of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,had challenged before the Supreme CourtGeneral Zia-ul Haq’s imposition of mar-tial law and the arrest of a number ofPakistan People’s Party leaders, includingher husband, who had been ousted asPrime Minister in 1977. Her plea that themoves were unconstitutional was dis-missed by the Supreme Court whichinvoked the doctrine of state necessity tojustify its decision. The judgement con-ferred legitimacy on Haq’s dictatorshipwhich, besides snuffing out civil liberties,accelerated the Islamisation of Pakistan’smilitary and society, which, in turn,accounts for much of the violence andinstability afflicting the country.

The Supreme Court invoked the samedoctrine to dismiss a case filed by Zafar AliShah and others in October 1999 follow-ing General Pervez Musharraf ’s assump-tion of power through a coup. The differ-ence was that while justifying military rule,it imposed certain restrictions on theGovernment’s powers and ordered theholding of general elections within threeyears. The seizure of power itself was notdeclared unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court’s independencehas generally been against civilian author-ities, such as when it ordered the dismissalof Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani onJune 19, 2012, under contempt of courtcharges. It also served an arrest orderagainst Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, his successor,on January 15, 2013, on corruptioncharges. Asraf, however, survived in officeto the end of his designated term on March16, 2013.

It was only after Ifrtikhar MuhammadChaudhry was appointed Chief Justice ofPakistan in 2005 that one saw the begin-ning of not only a genuine attempt to assertthe Supreme Court’s independence butmake it more efficient and reduce the back-

log of cases. He not only expanded thescope and increased the number of pub-lic interest litigation but took suo motoaction in a number of cases abuse of powerand misuse of authority.

All hell broke loose in Pakistan’s rul-ing establishments in April 2006 when theSupreme Court ordered the cancellation ofthe sale of Pakistan Steel Mills on theground that it was arbitrarily carried out,particularly since the case brought to lightseveral irregularities in the functioning ofthe bureaucracy under Musharraf. During2006, Pakistan’s military was further unhap-py because the Supreme Court orderedintelligence personnel to appear before incases connected with the disappearance ofpersons in the course Pakistani military’sso-called “war on terror”.

Chaudhry, who was called in byMusharraf on March 9, 2007, and asked toresign on charges of “misconduct,” refusedto oblige. His suspension, which made himan iconic symbol of judicial independenceand the rule of law, led to a massiveupsurge of popular anger, a powerfullawyers movement, and his reinstatementas Chief Justice on July 20, 2007. Musharrafresponded by imposing a state of emer-gency in November 2007, arrestingChaudhry and suspending 60 other judges.Musharraf ’s political party, which support-ed his Government, was, however, routedin the general elections of 2008. Musharrafresigned under the threat of impeachment.

But Asif Ali Zardari, who succeededhim as President, also dragged his feet inordering Chaudhry’s reinstatement.

Followed another lawyers’ movement anda Long March led by Nawaz Sharif, lead-ing to the reinstatement of Chaudhry andthe personnel of the judiciary he had head-ed. Chaudhry stepped down in 2013.

The question now is whether the post-Chaudhri higher judiciary can stand up thethe military the way he did. Pending that,one needs to hold back on pronouncing onwhether Pakistan’s judges are lions or, toquote Francis Bacon from his essay enti-tled Judicature (written in 1612), “lionsunder the throne.” Bacon, who was a sup-porter of royal absolutism, and believedthat judges should bow to the King, hadfuther said, “It is a happy thing in a statewhen kings and states do often consultwith judges; and again, when judges dooften consult with the king and state: theone, when there is matter of law interve-nient in business of state; the other, whenthere is some consideration of state inter-venient in matter of law.”

Bacon’s position was strongly chal-lenged by the Chief Justice of Brtain, SirThomas Coke, who notwithstanding hispronouncements to the effect that judgeshad a duty to respect royal prerogativesand power.

In mitigation of the Pakistani higherjudiciary’s indifferent record, one must alsotake into consideration the fact that it hadbeen laboring under severely adverse cir-cumstances. For one thing, its powers donot extend to the tribal areas of the north-west, except otherwise provided for, as wellas Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and GilgitBaltistan, which have separate systems of

judicature. Its powers have also been sub-jected to abridgement.

Thus the Constitution of Pakistan, aspromulgated during the prime minister-ship of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was given thespecific mandate to safeguard theConstitution. Shortly thereafter, however,several amendments were carried ensur-ing the executive’s hegemony over the judi-ciary. Under Zia-ul Haq’s dictatorship, anautocratic and immensely powerful dicta-torial dispensation, completely destroyedthe institutional balance provided by thedoctrine of separation of power.

Besides the military, the courts inPakistan have been under severe pressurefrom Islamist fundamentalist elements inblasphemy cases and the law governingthese. They have also been under pressurefrom these and jihadis in cases relating toterrorism. Judges have been threatened andattacked. All this puts a huge questionmark against the Pakistani judiciary’sfuture role in upholding the country’sConstitution and the rule of law.

Much here will depend on the courageand independence the judges show and thesupport they receive from the public.Unfortunately the rise of Islamic funda-mentalists with their insistence of judge-ments being delivered by shari’ah courtsand shari’ah law pose a serious challenge.In the ultimate analysis, the independenceof a country’s judiciary depends on thenature of its society. There can be no inde-pendence if the soil is hostile.

(The writer is Consultant Editor, ThePioneer, and an author)3

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Sharad Yadav’s anger” (August 2).The editorial has rightly said that bybreaking-off the mahagathband-han in Bihar, Janata Dal(United),JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar has notcommitted any faux pas as claimedby JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav thatNitish Kumar betrayed the Biharpublic as the latter had given its man-date against the NDA, whose laps hehas chosen to sit now. Before point-ing fingers on Nitish Kumar’s volte-face, Sharad Yadav should havefathomed the reasons which led toNitish Kumar’s parting ways fromthe mahagathbandhan. Had NitishKumar not broken relations with theRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), hewould have emerged as a villain anda protagonist of corruption.

RJD chief, Lalu Prasad himselfis out on bail and ineligible to con-test in any elections for 11 years.His entire family is on the radar ofvarious Central intelligence agen-cies. The nitty gritty of the matteris that Sharad Yadav should forgetthis acrimony with Nitish Kumarand maintain cordial relationswith him as ever before.

Sagar SinghNew Delhi

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Sir — Arvind Panagariya hasannounced his intention to move onfrom Niti Aayog to go back toColumbia University. He as anIndian-American is the secondhigh-profile academic after formerReserve Bank of India GovernorRaghuram Rajan to quit aGovernment post in India to return

to teaching in the US.Rajan had resigned from the

Central bank after a three-yearterm last year to rejoin ChicagoUniversity. Somewhat similar tothe dust kicked by Rajan’s departure,speculation is swirling aroundPanagariya’s departure too. In anycase, his move to shift comes in thebackground of a growing skepticismabout the nature of economicgrowth. Panagariya’s resignation isthe first major depletion from thecore Narendra Modi team, thoughit is not easy to determine whetherit is an unhappy departure or not.

J AkshayBengaluru

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Sir — World Breastfeeding Week iscelebrated from August 1 to 7annually to raise awareness regard-ing breast feeding which can reduceinfant mortality to a great extent. Itis necessary for mothers to get time-ly support and healthcare education.Breastfeeding by mothers for theirbabies in the first six months isimportant to get incredible healthbenefits. At the same time mostmothers are not keen to breastfeeddue to societal discomfort.

The objective of the celebrationof world breastfeeding week is toallow health workers, includingchild development project officers,lady supervisors and families tounderstand the ground reality ofhealth and welfare of mothers andinfants and provide the support tothem as breastfeeding is nature’s gift.

K RaviBhubaneswar

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On my doing “well” in graduationin 1978 from DAV Degree

College, Gorakhpur, my uncle gift-ed me a book titled The Continent ofCirce whose author was one Nirad CChaudhuri. The book interested me;I made efforts to read it; greaterefforts to absorb it and yet to makegreatest possible efforts to come togrips with it. When I attempt to writeabout a scholar-extraordinary likeNirad C Chaudhuri after a gap ofmore than thirty eight years when Iread him first, I front a riddle morecomplex than the riddle: the writerNirad C Chaudhuri himself.

That is the grandeur of great lit-erature: great literature is one thatejaculates out one riddle the momentthe last one is solved. It continues tobe an unresting cycle. Great Hindipoet Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh,Joyce and Beckett like a host of theirilk are yet to be understood evenmarginally not to speak of com-pletely. So is true of Chaudhuri. Theyrepresent a riddle for a human mindto grapple with in times to come.Here is a small effort.

What stunned me while readingthat book was its very vastness:vastness in terms of depth of knowl-edge, observation, penetration, lan-guage and relevance. As you look atthe waves of the ocean only imagin-ing the depths hidden and most cer-tainly allowing an unconscious fearovertake you, you think how fragileyou are before this mightiest empireGod has created for you. So is TheContinent of Circe: a gargantuanempire of thoughts and ideas: anapoapsis of intellectual paradigm, tomy mind, unmatched thus far in thehistory of Indian writing in Englishabout India.

Chaudhuri, quite aware of thefragility of our knowledge and wis-dom (as he thought), did not mincewords while letting his fellow-intel-lectuals know his standards ofknowledge, learning and wisdom.What a fantastic giant he was writ-ing untiredly of what he thought ofthe society. He was as much proudof his wisdom and learning as he wasashamed of his peers lacking in these.So he chose to name four gentlemen,

all foreigners, whom he honoured bycalling them “truly learned”:Harnack, Edurad Meyer, Mommsenand the fourth one — a difficultname — Wilamowitz-Moellndorf.Thus set Chaudhuri the benchmarkfor his evaluation. Chaudhuri, whenyoung, cherished the ambition ofbeing the fifth in the series. But hewore no veneer. For instance there isno dearth of people who set theirown standards as the sole criterionfor judging others without realisingthat in any society even a child haseyes: piercing eyes: eyes which canlook through designs of those whoare past masters at the game how tocharter a path for post-retirementawards and cozy assignments? Theymaster the art of reaping where theyhave not sown. Chaudhuri had thoseeyes that could, in seconds, sift thewheat from the chaff. He possessedeyes of a young child avid to knowthe mysteries around him and brainof an alert, agile, old man who, toquote Chaudhuri, “has read to liveand not lived to read.” This rare com-bination made him scan everythingin history and then apply to thingsaround him.

Coming to these four scholars,obviously I had not heard of any suchname. With my curiosity tiptoeingme, in due course of my progressionwhich initiated me into a widerworld of people, intellectuals and sys-tems, I asked a few persons from eliteplanes of the country if they had readabout these names. They straightwaytold they had either not heard ofNirad Chaudhuri or if they hadheard, they had not read TheContinent of Circe. People fromacademia had heard of him but manyof them thought there were betterbooks to read than the one in ques-tion. “Rubbish, we must not readrubbish,” said one of them. That isthe pity. One consigns a book toflames even without reading it. Is itnot pathetic? Remember VladimirNabokov lecture on Kafka’sMetamorphosis, “Where there isbeauty, there is pity because beautydecays.” Good enough. But what ifthere is only pity and pity. Shallowknowledge does not make one a

good judge of anything. It representsonly pity and pity resulting in greaterpity and pathos.

No doubt, no true Hindu worthhis salt and I as a Hindu to the core,will never tolerate a book full ofvenom for Hindus and their tradi-tions. Our greatness lies with us andwe are aware of it. But withChaudhuri, there are harsh truths.He required no special efforts todrive home the point that, “In fact,the necessity to be psychologicallyproof against filth is the first condi-tion of understanding our life,” Thisis something which hardly needs areiteration. The real problem isChaudhuri, with his gargantuanknowledge of history and religiousbooks, gave illustrations which weresickening and nauseating. Let us seethis example he gave in support of hiscontention that, “Squeamishness isout of place in India.” He picked upa story from the Arabian Nightsabout Prince Diamond who wasdetermined to go to city of Wakakthe road to which was endless andfilled with terrors. After manyrefusals by various princes who fellin love with him to share his idea tovisit Wakak, he had a chance to meetdaughter of the king of the Jinn whogave him some magic weaponsadvising him to find out her uncle,Jinni Flying Simurg. Simurg, thecrafty thing as he was, was in deepslumber and on waking up pretend-ed not to see the Prince and with aview to put the Prince to test “mali-ciously let out the terrible fart, last-ing more than an hour. While anyother creature would have been poi-soned, the Prince was rescued bymagic weapons he was endowed withby Jinni’s daughter. Surprised theJinni asked the Prince the secret ofhis surviving the blast from theJinni’s bum. The rescuer: the magicweapons. The Jinni bowed and tookthe Prince on his back flying to cityof Wakak. Now this is the questionChaudhuri raised, “I think the geniiwho guard the secrets of our coun-try, life, and civilisation put us to thesame tests before they will allow usto see real India. But when they carryus up what a vision it is! Has anyonepondered over the difference whicheven a height of two hundred feetmakes to our conception? All itssqualor and confusion vanish and wesee things spread out below in order,goodness, beauty.”

Any intelligent person will nottake even minutes to agree thatChaudhuri through his writingstried his best to draw our attentionto things so visible, so saddening butwith no hands to take correctivemeasures. The Continent of Circe is

replete with severe examples of ourbehaviour, negative and self-hurtingwhich he illustrated with extremeand sometimes offending instancesculled out from ancient books.

Another chapter, titled TheHINDU ACEDIA. One would haveloved to hear from Chaudhuri anoth-er caption: The INDIAN ACEDIA.Unfortunately, this was an expectedbehavior from Chaudhuri, who, as headmitted, was not having in his mind“the acedia of which the monksspoke. It is the acedia with a morepositive feeling — irritation and badtemper which makes it a dangerouslyactive form of ennui.” To justify thathe gave the examples of interactionbetween the shopkeepers and thecustomers, the severe altercationbetween two taxi-drivers vying witheach other to take him to his home;soon the altercation developing “intofilthy, reciprocal abuse.” Ultimatelythe more aggressive driver pickedhim up.

The second example let me pickfrom the same essay. Chaudhuri con-vinced himself through his obser-vations that when people walked onroads and streets, he got a feelwhich he conveyed, “It is normallyimpossible to have any feelings thatthey are going towards any goals andare not just somnambulists.” Hecited his own case. While in Delhi,when he used to walk quickly andwith a sense of purpose and goal, heheard even elderly persons, not tospeak of children, “Left, right: left,right.” Street urchins walking alongwith him, burst into peals of laugh-ter jeering in a manner ribald inHindi, “Are Jahny.” His final reactionand his large-heartedness, “I learnedto my mortification that it was noteven the Johnnie Walker of whiskeythat they referred to, but a caricatureof him by an Indian film-star.” Thereare other examples like atmospherein homes which was jarring enoughfor the inhabitants to accept,“Anything rather than this.” Needless to mention, Chaudhuriwas not an ill-starred man like manyintellectuals of modern era: he hada sense of humour and he had aninherent ability to spot humour indaily routine.

Fond of citing excerpts fromPascal, the French philosopher andthinker whose complete works infourteen volumes of French text: LesGrands Ecrivatins de La France wasChaudhuri’s proud possession, he didnot relish writers and thinkers givento looseness of thinking or impreci-sion in writing. And, therefore, seri-ous readers never notice looseness ofthinking or imprecision in writingsof Chaudhuri in any of his opus. It

may be difficult to agree to what hewrote but more difficult to keep whathe wrote at bay.

In Goggle search, I hardly findhim in any avatar on YouTube: oneexception being THE UNREPEN-TANT VISION: a conscientiousattempt by Rajiv Mahrotra, the emi-nent host of one of India’s longestrunning talk shows on national television: “In Conversation”. In THE UNREPENTANT VISION,Chaudhuri laid bare his ideas andopinions about things Indian.Talking turkey was his passion andhe was neither Janus with two facesnor was he either Janus Quadrifronsor Janus Multifrons. He admittedthere even if five persons did not readhis books; he would be more thansatisfied, for he wrote for himselfwith a desire to leave behind a massof literature. Lo and behold many ofour current “best-selling writers” arebusier in marketing their booksthan in spending serious time withtheir own books: to assess for them-selves what they have written and ofwhat worth their creation is. That isthe greatest tragedy literature isundergoing today and Chaudhuriand his ilk fade into oblivion becauseof that.

Chaudhuri, as his critics leave nostone unturned in convincing,though their drily arguments, morethemselves that their readers, was afrustrated, dejected man, fond of self-wounding narratives about society hewas a product of. That is far fromtrue. One cannot progress or propeloneself or society unless one iscapable of spotting dangers: immi-nent or distant, and take adequateprecautionary measures to safeguardthe interest of society. Nor was he arigid ideologue but flexibility was notfacile with him. He knew where hestood and more importantly alsoknew where those who argued withhim stood. It was not easy to arguewith him, not to talk of stealing anargument from him. “Great thoughtsdon’t come from the mind. Greatthoughts come from the heart,”Chaudhuri on Rajiv Mehrotra’sYouTube. So he had no quarrels withhis intellectual peers: they wrote fromthe mind, he from his heart. The cita-tion in the beginning of this articlefrom his book Three Horsemen of theNew Apocalypse gives an ampleproof as to his humility. Can one findsuch a humble philosopher of life?

But The Continent of Circe frontsus with disquieting facets of life welive. My belief is: if one is your great-est critic, listen to him, try to under-stand him and then evaluate your-self. If things have gone haywire, takeremedial measures to correct trends;

and if the critique is guided by bias-es and prejudices or distorted notionsof history and books, the philosophyto be pursued is: tit for tat — a befit-ting reply. Here is a man, with anuncompromising bent of mind andan amazing intellectual apogee whodeserves no pity at the hands of so-called intellectuals. He deserves acareful, hard, dispassionate look athis magnum opus which unfortu-nately has been amiss.

Chaudhuri was a sad thinkerlamenting in the chapter titled,NOSTALGIA FOR THE FOR-GOOEN HOME, “the perpetualsight of an oozing of uncleanlinessinto the consciousness”, and lookinghelplessly at the Circe playing havocwith our identity. His concludingremarks in CIRCE’S TRUMPH, “Soshe lived on the island of Aeaea, andso she has in India. Men have stoodat her gate, and called to be admit-ted; and to all she has opened hershining doors. She has taken them in,given them seats and served food.But with the food she has alsomixed the drug which makes themforget their country.” People forget-ting their country i.e India waswhat pained Chaudhuri the mostand what was at the root of his fab-ulous creations.

He was sad as he noticed noemerging hands to arrest the unbri-dled progress of Circe. He developeda sense of overall futility that hefound irreversible. Of late given themassive attempts at cleaning the sys-tem, and at evolving a better,matured society through specialprogrammes like Swachchh BharatAbhiyan aimed at cleaning roads,streets and infrastructure coupledwith fast spreading adoption andabsorption of yoga to enhance ourmental, physical and spiritual capa-bilities holistically and a host of othermeasures, had Chaudhuri been alivetoday and writing The Continent ofCirce, he would have definitely beenoverwhelmed by the presence of asociety of trust, wisdom and confi-dence and would have written asuperior, more positive version cer-tainly not with the title: TheContinent of Circe. Fortunately now,“the great sorceress” will not be able“to see the completeness of herhandiwork.”

(KK Srivastava, hailing fromGorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, is a Civilservant and currently working asDirector General in the Office ofComptroller & Auditor General ofIndia, New Delhi. He is an acclaimedpoet, literary reviewer and columnist.Views expressed here are his own)

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�45�&46+�9 The GST Council islikely to lower tax rate tomorrowon job works making fabric togarments to 5 per cent and putin place a mechanism for onlineregistration of goods above a cer-tain value before they can betransported.

The Council, headed byFinance Minister Arun Jaitley,will also review at its meeting theimplementation of the newGoods and Services Tax (GST)regime since July 1 and mayfinalise a mechanism to opera-tionalise anti-profiteering provi-sion to protect consumer inter-est.

Central Board of Excise andCustoms (CBEC) ChairpersonVanaja Sarna said movement ofgoods between states hassmoothened with 25 out of 29states abolishing checkposts.

“About 25 states haveremoved those checkposts. So far,it has been going all right,” shetold the news agency here.

This would furthersmoothen after e-way bill inGST that requires any goodsmore than �50,000 in value to bepre- registered online before itcan be moved is implemented.

“As the e-way bill process for

the whole of India gets pannedout, we should be able to dosomething which will be better,”Sarna said.

She, however, declined tocomment on whether the thresh-old in e-way bill will be retainedat �50,000 amid demands fromvarious quarters to raise it.

Officials said rules for the e-way bill will be decided onSaturday. This GST provisionrequires any goods more than�50,000 in value to be pre-regis-tered online before it can bemoved.

As per the draft provision,GSTN would generate e-waybills that will be valid for 1-20days, depending on distance to betravelled -- one day for 100 km,3 days (100 to less than 300 km),5 days (300-less than 500 km)and 10 days (500- less than1,000 km).

The information technologyplatform for the e-way bill systemis being developed by theNational Informatics Centre.

Earlier this week, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley had said itwould be mandatory for manu-facturers to pass on benefits ofreduction in taxes post GST toconsumers.

“What if input tax benefit isnot transferred to consumers?...We are meeting a few days fromnow... In a short while, we aregoing to finalise the entire mech-anism as far as anti-profiteeringis concerned,” he had said inParliament.

The Council is also likely toconsider lowering of tax rates forjob works for making garmentsto 5 per cent from 18 per cent, anofficial said.

Currently, services by way ofjob works in relation to textileyarns -- other than man-madefibre/filament -- and textile fab-rics attract 5 per cent GST. Otherjob works in relation to garmentsattract an 18 per cent levy.

The official said the Councilmay look at streamlining it andbring all job works, including formaking garments from fabric,under the 5 per cent slab.

Apart from reviewing therollout of the GST regime, the20th meeting of the Council mayon Saturday take a look at stream-lining the anomalies raised by theindustry over the past onemonth, said an official, who didnot want to be named.

It will be the first full-fledged meeting of the GST

Council, also comprising repre-sentatives of all the 29 states,after the rollout of the new indi-rect tax reform on July 1.

The Council had on July 17discussed, via video conferenc-ing, hiking cess on cigarettes asthere was some anomaly in therate fixed earlier.

After the July 1 rollout, thetextile sector had protested,demanding rollback of 5 percent GST on fabrics.

Jaitley, however, had ruledout cutting tax rates for the tex-tiles sector, saying a zero per centGST on fabrics will break theinput tax credit chain for thedomestic industry and makeimported items cheaper.

As per the rates decided bythe Council, in the textiles cat-egory, silk and jute fibre havebeen exempted, while cottonand natural fibre and all kindsof yarns will be levied a 5 percent GST. Man-made fibre andyarn will, however, attract an 18per cent tax rate.

All categories of fabricattract a 5 per cent rate. Man-made apparel up to Rs 1,000 willattract a 5 per cent tax and thoseabove �1,000 will attract 12 percent. ���

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In a bid to remove poverty andbridge infrastructure deficit in

the country, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on Friday said Indiastill has to cover a long distanceonreforms in the country.

“Though there is no finish-ing line for reforms, India still hasto cover a long distance so as toremove poverty and bridge infra-structure deficit. India needs topump in huge amount of fundsin sectors like health, education,rural infrastructure and irriga-tion,” Jaitley said, while launch-ing of a book titled as ‘IndiaTransformed-25 Years ofEconomic Reform’, edited byformer Deputy Governor of theReserve Bank of India (RBI) DrRakesh Mohan.

As far as the country’s reformprocess is concerned, Jaitley,however, said, “India is at muchbetter place than any place in theworld. I think India still has tocover a huge distance and thehigh growth rate has to be sus-tained over a reasonably longperiod of time because you stillhave large number of people liv-ing below the poverty line, youstill have infrastructure deficit,you still need a lot of investmentin health, education, in ruralIndia and irrigation.”

The Government, led byPrime Minister Narendra Modi,has brought a slew of reforms,including demonetisation andGoods and Services Tax (GST),one is considered to be historicdecision and other is known tobe the biggest taxation reformsince Independence. Besides,the Government brought vari-ous reforms on financial inclu-sion, foreign direct investmentand big push to digital economyas well.

Faced with dwindling for-eign exchange reserves, Indiaopened its economy in June

1991, ushering in an era of big-bang economic reforms underthe stewardship of the thenFinance Minister ManmohanSingh.

Jaitley further said thatunquestionably, 1991 was a keydefining moment as far asIndia is concerned. “Definingbecause it not only changedeconomic course, it changedthe mindset of people,” theFinance Minister said.

India has witnessed on anaverage 7 per cent growth inthe past 25 years, he added.

Unquestionably, India is amuch better place to live in butadded that still there are areasof challenges.

“India still needs largeresources to enable to carrypoverty alleviation steps. Thatlarge resources can only comeif there is larger growthprocess,” Jaitley said.

Manmohan Singh, formerPrime Minister of the countryfor 10 years, was also presentat the book launch event.Besides Singh, former RBIDeputy Governor Dr RakeshMohan, Chief EconomicAdviser Arvind Subramanian,billionaire and Chairman ofKotak Mahindra Bank amongother dignitaries were alsopresent on the occasion.

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The Government has somereason to cheer as the col-

lections from customs dutyand IGST from imports hasalmost doubled to �30,000crore in just one month postimplementation of Goods andServices Tax (GST).

GST, which subsumedmore than a dozen central andstate levies like excise duty, ser-vice tax and VAT, was imple-mented from July 1. The rev-enue collected include those onaccount of customs duty,Integrated-GST (IGST) fromimports, countervailing duty(CVD), special addition duty(SAD) and cess collection onimported items.

“The collections from cus-toms duty and IGST fromimports post implementationof Goods and Services Tax(GST) has almost doubled toRs 30,000 crore in July,” said asenior Government official.

The July collections com-pare to indirect tax collectionof over �16,000 crore of thesame month of 2016. However,the tax revenues which willcome on account of CentralGST (CGST) and State GST(SGST) will be known onlyafter domestic manufacturers,dealers and traders file their taxreturns.

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��������The Governmenton Friday said it has set up anew exchange-traded fund(ETF), Bharat-22, compris-ing 22 scrips includingONGC, IOC, SBI and AxisBank.

This will be the secondETF from the governmentafter it raised over �8,509crore from three tranches ofCPSE ETF.

Bharat-22 will have adiversified portfolio of sixsectors, including energy,FMCG, finance, basic mater-ial and industrial and utilities,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleytold reporters here.

The 22 scrips include cen-tral public sector enterprises(CPSEs), state-owned banksand government’s strategicholding in Axis Bank, ITC andL&T held through SUUTI(Specified Undertaking ofUnit Trust of India).

“While selecting each ofthese sectors, we have kept inmind sectoral reforms whichhave had direct impact on thevaluation of these shares...

We believe that this ETF willbe a fairly successful one,”Jaitley said.

ETF functions like amutual fund scheme and isbought by investors asunits.The oil and gas and coaland mine PSUs whose scripsfigure in the new ETF areONGC, IOC, BPCL, CoalIndia and Nalco.

The other CPSEs whichon the l ist are BharatElectronics, Engineers India,NBCC, NTPC, NHPC,SJVNL, GAIL, PGCIL andNLC India.

Only three PSU banks --SBI, Indian Bank and Bank ofBaroda -- figure in the Bharat-22 index.

Also, the Governmentholding in Axis Bank, ITC andLarsen and Toubro heldthrough SUUTI is also part ofthe ETF basket.

A list of 22 companieseffectively means that smalltranches of Government hold-ing in CPSEs and PSBs will beincluded, he added.

Jaitley said the inclusionof three PSU banks in Bharat-22 is “consistent” with theGovernment policy.

“Government’s stake cango down to 52 per cent in PSUbanks and whenever possible,we will look for a possible con-solidation,” he added.

The Government hadraised about �8,500 crore

through the three tranches ofCPSE ETF last fiscal.

The first CPSE ETF con-sisted of scrips of 10 PSUs --ONGC, Coal India, IOC,GAIL (India), Oil India, PFC,Bharat Electronics, REC,Engineers India and ContainerCorporation of India.

India, Jaitley said, hastried the ETF experiment suc-cessfully and globally, ETFasset under managementstands at $4 trillion.

Over 4 years, this AUM isexpected to touch $7 trillion assovereign and pension fundshave started preferring theETF mode, the finance minis-ter said.

ETF investment is lessrisky and provides liquid assetswhich are traded real time andis a transparent mode ofinvestment, Jaitley pointedout.

Asked when the firsttranche of Bharat-22 will hitthe market, DIPAM SecretaryNeeraj Gupta said there is nocap on funds that can beraised though ETF. ���

��������!��,�#�-.*�/�����(,,0����#�������������!���1�������� �� ������ Amid deepening

Indo-Iranian ties, theGovernment is hopeful that thestrategic Chabahar Port will beoperational by 2018, Union min-ister Nitin Gadkari said.

The Road, Transport,Highways and Shipping Ministerwill represent India at the oathtaking ceremony IranianPresident Hassan Rouhani onSaturday.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had earlier congratulatedRouhani on his re-election as thePresident of Iran and affirmedIndia’s commitment to strength-en the special relations betweenthe countries.

“India and Iran have beenhistorically sharing special ties ...We are keen on developingChabahar Port and are hopefulof starting operations in 12 to 18months,” Gadkari told PTI on theeve of his visit to Tehran.

Gakdari is keen on expedit-ing development of the Chabaharport, located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on theenergy-rich Persian Gulf nation’ssouthern coast that can be easi-ly accessed from India’s westcoast, bypassing Pakistan.

The visit assumes signifi-cance as India has acceleratedwork at the Chabahar port andfinalised some tenders for instal-lation of key equipment atChabahar Port.

“Civil construction work hasstarted there. We have finalisedtenders worth �380 crore forequipment out of �600 crore andonce the port becomes opera-tional it will become a growthengine,” the minister said.

The minister said that he wasalso hopeful of certain approvalsfrom the Iranian Government forexpediting work and added thatonce Chabahar becomes opera-tional the trade and businessbetween both the nations wouldsee a boost.

For greater trade and invest-ment flow with Iran and neigh-bouring countries, the Cabinetlast year cleared proposals fordevelopment of Chabahar portincluding through a $150 millioncredit from Exim Bank.

It also authorised theShipping Ministry to form acompany in Iran for imple-menting the Chabahar PortDevelopment Project and relat-ed activities. ���

� ��� �45�&46+�

State-owned HindustanPetroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL)

on Friday reported 56 per centdrop in the June quarter netprofit on account huge inven-tory losses. The net profit of thecompany in the April-Junequarter was �925 crore, lowerthan �2,098 crore in the year-ago period.

“Our net profit in the April-June quarter was �925 crore,lower than �2,098 crore in theyear-ago period due to decreasein crude prices as against inven-tory gains. We had an invento-ry loss of �1,595 crore in firstquarter of current fiscal ascompared to an inventory gainof �1,935 crore in the corre-sponding period of the previousfiscal,” HPCL Chairman andManaging Director MK Suranatold reporters here.

“The company earned$5.86 on turning every barrel ofcrude oil into fuel during April-June, 2017-18 as compared toa gross refining margin of $6.83per barrel in the same period of2016-17,” he said.

Revenue soared to �59,891crore from �51,600 crore in thefirst quarter of the previousyear. “HPCL’s Mumbai andVisakh refineries processed4.49 million tonnes of crude oilin the quarter, almostunchanged from the previousyear. Both the refineries are sup-plying 100 per cent of BS-IVgrade (Euro-IV emission normcompliant) petrol and dieselwith effect from April 1, 2017,”

the HPCL chief said.For the 2017-18, HPCL

plans to invest about �7,100crore, while its debt has reducedto �12, 200 in quarter ended inJune 30 from �21,250 crore inprevious quarter ended inMarch 31.

HPCL recorded highestever market sale of 9.20 milliontons of fuel in the quarter, 3.5per cent higher than 8.89 mil-lion tons in Q1 of previous fis-cal. “The market sales growthof 3.5 per cent is higher thanindustry (PSU plus private)growth of 3.4 per cent. In thePSU category, HPCL has gainedmarket share of 0.20 per cent,”he said, adding petrol salesrose 9 per cent while diesel wasup 2.5 per cent.

Inventory losses arosebecause the price of basket ofcrude India buys, known asIndian Basket, dropped by$4.56 per barrel during April-June as against increase of$10.89 a barrel in the same peri-od of 2016.

Surana said 83 petrolpumps were commissionedduring Q1 taking the totalretail outlet network to 14,495.Electronic data capture (EDC)services and mobile wallets fordigital transactions are availableat more than 96 per cent of thetotal retail fuel stations as ofJune.

The expansion of the com-pany’s joint venture refinery atBhatinda in Punjab has beencompleted raising the capacityto 11.3 million tons from 9 mil-lion tons.

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�� ������ Infosys Ltd has declined arequest from its most high-profile founderNR Narayana Murthy to make public thereport of an external consultant appointedto look into the charges of misgovernance.

Murthy, who was chairman of the com-pany till 2014 and still holds 3.44 per centstake (along with family members), hadasked the full report by Gibson Dunn &Crutcher to be made public.

Infosys had claimed in June that theexternal expert had cleared the manage-

ment of charges of wrongdoing, as wasalleged by an anonymous complaint, aftera detailed and extensive investigation.

“The company does not plan to makethe report public,” Infosys said in a state-ment.

The law firm had been mandated toprobe the whistleblower allegations ofCEO Vishal Sikka being paid excessivecompensation in relation to the Panayaacquisition.

“The summary finding statement of

this investigation is also available on ourwebsite,” Infosys said.

The company explained that the inves-tigation involved interviews of over 50 wit-nesses in India, the US and elsewhere, thereview of company policies, Board minutes,public filings and internal documents.

It also entailed investigation of “manythousands of internal emails and attach-ments” and used forensic accountingexperts to analyse technical and financialinformation, the company said. ���

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�� ������ The income taxdepartment on Friday said itsfield offices will remain opentill midnight tomorrow tofacilitate very senior citizensand those with income below�5 lakh to file tax returns for2016-17.

The last date for filing ofIncome Tax Returns (ITRs)was extended from July 31 toAugust 5 in view of difficul-ties faced by taxpayers. ���

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NEW DELHI: State-ownedIndian Oil Corp (IOC) on Fridaysaid its board has approved�15,034 crore investment toexpand its Gujarat refinery by2022. Expansion of capacity ofrefinery at Vadodara from exist-ing 13.7 million tons to 18 mil-lion tons would “help meet thegrowing demand for products inthe region,” the company said.

The project involves replac-ing some of decades-old unitsthat being old in design andsmall in capacity were no longerenergy-efficient. IOC ChairmanSanjiv Singh said the new refin-ery configuration proposed willtake into account the likely dis-ruptions in the fuel supply-demand scenario in the futureand will have built-in flexibilityin its operations for strong inte-gration with downstream petro-chemical units.

“Gujarat Refinery, whichwent on stream in October

1965 as a one million tons perannum unit, heralded India'scapabilities to build refinerieson its own. In the same vein,we are now proposing to incor-porate IOC’s own R&D tech-nologies for both IndMax andkerosene hydrodesulphurisa-tion units,” he said.

The IndMax unit is beingdesigned for high yields of propy-lene, for which a polypropyleneunit of 420,000 tonnes capacityis being set up as a downstreampetrochemical unit as part of therefinery configuration, he said.

PP is used in a variety of appli-cations, including packaging forconsumer products, plastic partsfor automotive and other indus-tries, and textiles.

IOC plans to raise the com-bined capacity of its 11 grouprefineries from 80.7 mn tonnesa year currently to over 100 mtonnes in the next five yearsthrough brownfield expansions.It is also pursuing a 60 milliontons integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals project on thewest coast jointly with otherBPCL and HPCL. PTI

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SAIL needs to improve itsperformance across all verti-

cals in order to match the indus-try benchmarks, a top official ofthe steel PSU said. SAILChairman PK Singh also saidthat there was a need to cutdown on delays and finish anybalance projects immediately, acompany release said.

The Chairman of SAIL onFriday visited Bokaro Steel Plantand held a large group interac-tion (LGI) where he interactedwith a cross section of more than600 Plant employees. Heapprised the employees aboutchallenges in front of theCompany and ways to mitigatethe same.

He articulated the expecta-tion from Bokaro collectivewhich has tremendous potentialto maximise profits. Bokaro hasexcellent facilities and mod-ernised mills including recent-ly commissioned new state-of-the-art Cold Rolling Mill. TheChairman was accompanied bySAIL's Director (Finance), AnilChaudhary, Director

(Technical), Raman andDirector (Commercial), SomaMondaland, CEO, BSL, PawanKumar Singh.

The interaction of SAIL’stop management with cross sec-tion of employees of variousmanagement levels was aimed atclearly conveying Company's toppriorities and identifying themain issues at Plant level.Company's top managementbelieves that such large groupinteractions (LGIs) create an

open platform for employees tounderstand organization's long-term vision, immediate goalsand current challenges. And atthe same time, paves the way fora two way communication at alllevels bettering the performance.These initiatives are a part ofSAIL's efforts to accelerateCompany's transformation andimprove overall performance atthe earliest.

During interaction with theLGI, PK Singh told that, "In the

current competitive environ-ment, we have to put our best footforward and operate at our ratedcapacities. We need to cut downon delays and finish any balanceprojects immediately. Thereshould be no lapse or gaps in ourperformance as a small slip alsowill hurt the overall perfor-mance."

SAIL's operational perfor-mance is continually improvingand the Company remainedEBIDTA positive in all the fourquarters of last financial year, hesaid. Attributing improvement inoperational performance to thecombined effort of every employ-ee and across all functions, he said,"The teamwork spirit must beencouraged."

Discussing about future plan-ning, he added that "there shouldproper grooming and training ofyoung managers to facilitate prop-er succession planning." Heencouraged and welcomed theperformance improving ideaspresented by employees duringthe interaction and asked everyemployee to have faith in theircapabilities and deliver the best fortransforming the company.

��4&����� ���������"������������)� �� ������������������MUMBAI: Homegrown automajor Mahindra & Mahindra(M&M) on Friday reported 19.79per cent decline in its standaloneprofit after tax (PAT) to �765.96crore for the first quarter of the cur-rent fiscal as sales were hit by GSTtransition. The company had post-ed a PAT of �954.95 crore duringApril-June period of last financialyear.Revenue from operations dur-ing the first quarter of 2017 -18stood at �12,335.56 crore, up 3.29per cent from �11,942.9 crore theyear-ago period, M&M said in aregulatory filing.The company'svehicle sales were at 1,12,293 unitsduring the first quarter.

It sold 81,270 tractor units dur-ing the period under review.Elaborating on the quarterly per-formance, M&M said the auto-motive industry was impacteddue to impending transition toGoods and Service Tax in the firstquarter of 2017-18. Passengervehicles sales were adverselyimpacted in anticipation of a pricereduction in the new tax regimeand reported a nominal growthof 4.4 per cent, it said. PTI

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The Government on Fridaysaid there is no proposal for

consolidation of public sectorbanks (PSBs) at present. “Thereis no such proposal under theconsideration of the Governmentfor consolidation of PSBs at pre-sent,” Minister of State forFinance Santosh KumarGangwar said in a written replyto the Lok Sabha.

The Government had inFebruary approved the merger offive associate banks with SBI. InMarch, the Cabinet approved themerger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank(BMB) and SBI as well. Five asso-ciates, State Bank of Bikaner andJaipur (SBBJ), State Bank ofHyderabad (SBH), State Bank ofMysore (SBM), State Bank ofPatiala (SBP) and State Bank ofTravancore (SBT), besides BMBbecame part of SBI from April 1.

SBI first merged StateBank of Saurashtra with itselfin 2008. Two years later, StateBank of Indore was mergedwith it. Gangwar, in anotherreply, said SBI has informedthat there is no plan to launchVoluntary Retirement Scheme(VRS) in the bank.

SBI also said that no employ-ees have been laid off on accountof merger, he said. However, he

said, VRS was offered by the erst-while associate banks of SBI totheir employees and officersbefore the merger and 3,569 staffopted for it. Replying to anoth-er question, Gangwar said RBIhas informed that there is no pro-posal under consideration oflevying parking surcharge ondeposits.

In reply to another ques-tion, Gangwar said, LIC hasinvested �1.84 lakh crore ingovernment securities, �29,152crore in equity shares and�27,482 crore in debt otherthan government securitiesduring the nine months endedDecember 31, 2016.

LIC had booked a profit of�13,927.59 crore in the ninemonths ended December 2016 ascompared to �11,108.72 crore inthe same period a year ago. In aseparate reply, Gangwar said, over8.56 crore loans have been sanc-tioned across all age groups underPradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana(PMMY) as on July 28.

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NEW DELHI: Tighteningits disclosure norms for list-ed companies defaulting onloan payment from banksand other financial intu-itions, regulator Sebi onFriday asked firms to makesuch information publicwithin one working day. Thiswould come into force fromOctober 1, the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(Sebi) said in a circular.

“Corporates in India areeven today primarily relianton loans from the bankingsector. Many banks arepresently under considerablestress on account of largeloans to the corporate sectorturning into stressed assets,non-performing assets(NPAs). Some companies havealso been taken up for initia-tion of insolvency and bank-ruptcy proceedings,” Sebinoted.

In order to address thiscritical gap in the availabilityof information to investors,Sebi has asked listed entities toinform exchanges in case ithas defaulted in payment ofinterest, instalment obliga-tions on debt securities, loansfrom banks and financial insti-tutions and external commer-cial borrowings (ECBs).

The companies wouldhave to inform stock exchangesabout date of default as well asdate of making such disclosure,name of the lender, number ofinvestors in the security as ondate of default, details of theobligation, current defaultamount and gross principalamount on which the default

has occurred. “The entitiesshall make disclosures withinone working day from thedate of default at the firstinstance of default” in a spec-ified format, Sebi said.

Listed entities entity wouldalso separately provide infor-mation pertaining to defaultsto the concerned credit ratingagencies in a timely mannerand as may be specified by Sebifrom time to time. Last month,the regulator had asked listedbanks to make disclosures ifprovisioning and NPAsassessed by RBI exceeded 15per cent of published finan-cials. Sebi had said that such

disclosures should be madealong with the annual finan-cial results filed immediatelyfollowing communication ofsuch divergence by the RBI tothe bank. The move is aimedat helping banks to recognisetheir stressed assets as non-performing more uniformly.

The regulator askedcompanies to make disclo-sure about debt securitiesand loans from banks andf inancial inst itut ions i fthere is any outstandingamount under default ason the last date of any quar-ter within seven days fromthe end of such period. PTI

MUMBAI: Embattled busi-nessman Jignesh Shah onFriday denied any violation ofinsider trading norms follow-ing Sebi order against 13 enti-ties, including his rela-tives, with regard to trad-ing in shares of MCX anderstwhile FTIL even as healleged ‘conspiracy’against him.

On Wednesday, Sebiordered impounding of ‘avertedlosses’ worth over �125 crorethrough alleged insider trading inMCX and its erstwhile promot-er FTIL by 13 persons, includingrelatives of Shah and former topexecutives, with ‘prior informa-tion’ about the NSEL case. Shahhad served as Chairman andManaging Director of FinancialTechnologies India Ltd (FTIL) at

the time when the alleged insid-er trading happened.

However, no order hasbeen passed against him direct-ly. Addressing the media here,

Shah said people boughtthe shares in the com-panies in compliancewith regulations andclaimed that informa-tion about NSEL ‘wasnot unpublished’.

“I stand tall, no agency hasfound anything against me,”Shah said, adding that hedecided to address the mediafor the first time since the cri-sis broker as now his familymembers are being targeted.Shah is the chairman emeritusof 63 moons technologies, for-merly known as FTIL - whichwas promoted by him. PTI

NEW DELHI: TheGovernment may impose anti-dumping duty on castings forwind operated power generatorsfrom China to guard domesticplayers from below-costimports.Larsen & Toubro Ltdhad filed the application beforethe Directorate

General of Antidumpingand Allied Duties (DGAD) forinitiation of anti-dumping probeon imports of a certain type ofcastings for wind operated elec-tricity generators exported fromChina. Castings for wind-oper-ated electricity generators arealso known as windmill or windturbine. In its final findings,DGAD has concluded that theproduct has been exported toIndia from China at below nor-mal values. “Material injury hasbeen caused by the dumped

imports” of the product, it hassaid in a notification.

The DGAD “considers itnecessary to recommend impo-sition of definitive anti-dump-ing duty on imports” fromChina, it added. The product isalready attracting anti-subsidyor countervailing duty.DGADhas recommended a duty equiv-alent to the difference betweenthe quantum of anti-dumpingduty calculated and the quan-tum of anti-subsidy dutypayable.

Countries impose anti-dumping duties to guarddomestic industry from surgein below-cost imports. Indiahas also imposed similar dutieson import of several otherproducts including steel, fabricsand chemicals from differentcountries including China. PTI

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The largest RO PurifierBrand Kent RO has

launched its first KentExperience Zone in NCR.Housed in the Premium DLFMall of India, the ExperienceZone showcases Kent RO’scomplete product line, fromwater Purifiers and air purifiersto Kent’s Smart Chef range ofinnovative kitchen appliances -a first for both the industry andfor the brand in India.

The aim of setting up suchExperience Zone is to offerusers a more convenient wayto physically experience andunderstand the products. Thisstep will further help thebrand to establish a directconnect with the consumersand introduce them to the

extended portfolio of Kentproducts where they canesquire, see and understandthe innovation behind thebrand and the products.

While inaugurating the firstKent RO Experience Zone, DrMahesh Gupta, Chairman, KentRO Systems Limited said, “Kenthas evolved as a new age home

appliances brand which offers ahealthy lifestyle in today’s fastand furious life. Each productof Kent RO is designed to com-plement a healthy living andthis is what we wish to showcaseto our customers.”

Kent RO is planning tolaunch multiple experienceZones across India and over-seas markets. “Today’s cus-tomers are evolving andbecoming more involvedtowards the product they arebuying, hence, this is a greatway to establish dialogues withthese new-age modern cus-tomers. The experience centrewill also educate the con-sumers about water contami-nation and how the KentExperience Zone will helpthem in leading a comparativehealthy life,” added Dr Gupta.

NEW DELHI: The Governmentwill bring out proposed changesin mineral auction rules thismonth as it looks to make sale ofmines more effective, a top offi-cial said on Friday. TheGovernment looks to remove‘small’ glitches in the rules high-lighted by bidders and industryassociations, Mines SecretaryArun Kumar was quoted as say-ing in a statement by Assocham.

“The mines ministry willbring out proposed draft changesto the Mineral Auction Rules,2015, within August with a viewto make mineral block auctionsmore effective thereby removingthe small glitches highlighted bythe bidders and industry associ-ations....,” the statement quotedKumar as saying. PTI

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MUMBAI: National Payments Corporation ofIndia (NPCI) on Friday said it achieved 1 bil-lion transaction volume in July on the variouspayments systems it operates. The transactionspertain to all types of payments handled byNPCI - from cheque and ATM clearing to IMPS,UPI, BHIM, RuPay, POS, e-commerce and alsoAadhaar-based payments. Currently, the NPCIoperates 12 payment systems.

“It is a great achievement to join theleagues of reputed payment institutions whichprocess billions of transactions every monthglobally,” NPCI managing director and CEO AP Hota said in a statement here.He said high-est growth has been seen in the mobile paymentsand Aadhaar-based payments.” The next logi-cal target can be a billion transactions a day -may be in three years,” Hota said. PTI

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Islamabad: The Cabinet ofnew Prime Minister ShahidKhaqan Abbasi on Friday sawthe return of old faces, but amajor change in portfolios wasseen, with most notable beingthe induction of ex-DefenceMinister Khawaja Asif asForeign Minister.

The country was without afull-time Foreign Ministersince the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) cameto power in 2013. The last full-time Foreign Minister wasHina Rabbani Khar, whoserved in the Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) Government.

Sartaj Aziz was serving asthe de facto Foreign Minister inthe Nawaz Sharif government, ashe was Special Advisor to PrimeMinister on Foreign Affairs.

The new Cabinet ofKhaqan Abbasi was sworn in atthe Presidency.

The Cabinet consists of 46members, but only 44 members

took the oath of office adminis-tered by President MamnoonHussain. The Cabinet consists of28 Federal and 18 StateMinisters. Abbasi on Thursdayheld six-hour-long consultationswith ousted Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif and Punjab ChiefMinister Shahbaz Sharif atPunjab House in Lahore.

Apart from Asif, AhsanIqbal former Planning Ministerwill take charge of the keyInterior Ministry, that was ear-lier with Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan. Nisar Khan has refusedto be part of the newGovernment.

Ishaq Dar will continue asFinance Minister whereasPervez Malik will be the newMinister for Commerce. Malikreplaces Khurram DastagirKhan, who will be the newDefence Minister.

Daniyal Aziz, TalalChaudhry, Arshad Leghari andJunaid Anwar Chaudhry are

among the new faces inAbbasi’s Cabinet.

Marriyum Aurangzeb, theInformation Minister; ZahidHamid, the Law Minister; andTariq Fazal Chaudhry, in chargeof the Capital Administrationand Development Division,retained their previous portfolios.

PML-N’s information sec-retary Mushahidullah Khanwas appointed as the Ministerof Climate Change.

The anxiously-awaited oath-taking ceremony earlier saw anunexpected postponement onWednesday after the rulingPML-N’s top leaders could notfinalise the candidates to beinducted as cabinet members.

The PML-N top leadershiphad been holding marathonhuddles during the past manydays. Besides finalising Abbasi’scabinet, the party leadershiphas been having brainstormingsessions to devise the futurecourse of action. IANS

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Venezuelan Oppositionleader Antonio Ledezma

was returned to house arrest onFriday after spending three days in prison, his wifesaid.

“I am letting the countryknow that a short while ago theintelligence service Sebin unex-pectedly brought Antoniohome,” Mitzy Capriles wrote onTwitter.

Ledezma, who is mayor ofCaracas, had been arrested onTuesday along with anotheropposition leader, LeopoldoLopez, in the aftermath of ahighly contested vote organisedby President Nicolas Maduro tocreate a new all-powerfulassembly that will supercedecongress and rewrite the con-stitution.

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Moscow: Russian officials say 17people are missing inside aflooded diamond mine inSiberia. The Russian EmergencySituations Ministry says rescueworkers have established contactwith 134 of the 151 miners whowere down in the pit when it gotflooded on Friday.

The Ministry says 133 peo-ple have been evacuated to safe-ty so far. The Siberian mine isone of the largest diamonddeposits of the state-controlledAlrosa company. AP

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Istanbul: Turkey’s state-run news agency says authorities havedetained 24 people in connection with an investigation into theleaking of a police academy exam in 2012.

Anadolu Agency said on Friday that detention warrants wereissued for a total of 40 suspects who are suspected of leaking ques-tions before the exam date. Turkish authorities believe that years-long exam fraud allowed supporters of US-based Muslim cler-ic Fethullah Gulen to infiltrate the police force. Turkey accusesGulen of masterminding last year’s failed coup attempt. The cler-ic denies involvement. AP

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Geneva: The UN on Saturdaydetailed more than 250 “extra-judicial or targeted killings” ofcivilians in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo’s Kasairegion from mid-March tomid-June, counting dozensof children among those mas-sacred.

The findings, based oninterviews with 96 refugeesfrom the conflict-hit Kasaiwho had fled to Angola,blamed state agents for themurders of seven children.

The refugees gave harrow-ing accounts of the violence inthe central region, which theUN warned had taken on “anincreasing and disturbing eth-nic dimension.”

Victims recounted mutila-tions, including of a seven-year-old boy whose fingerswere cut off, and an attack ona hospital in the village ofCinq where 90 people werekilled, some because they weretoo injured to escape a ragingfire.

Aside from Governmenttroops, the UN blamed areportedly state-backed militiacalled the Bana Mura as well asthe anti-government KamuinaNsapu militia for a range ofatrocities.

“Survivors have spoken ofhearing the screams of peoplebeing burned alive, of seeingloved ones chased and cutdown, of themselves fleeing interror”, the United Nationshuman rights chief Zeid Ra’adAl Hussein said in a statement.

A team of investigatorshas confirmed 251 executionsbetween March 12 and June 19,the UN report said.

“These included 62 chil-dren, of which 30 were agedunder eight”.

Regarding the childrenmurdered, the UN explainedthat seven were killed by mem-bers of the army (FARDC) orthe national intelligence ser-vice, while six died at thehands of the rebel groupKamuina Nsapu. AFP

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Israeli media say PrimeMinister Benjamin

Netanyahu’s ex-chief of staffhas agreed to testify in two cor-ruption cases against his formerboss.

The reports, including bythe Haaretz daily and others,say Ari Harrow reached a dealwith the prosecutors on Friday.

Israeli police revealed yes-terday that Netanyahu is sus-pected of crimes involvingfraud, breach of trust andbribes.

Police have been question-ing Netanyahu over allegationsthat he improperly acceptedlavish gifts from wealthy sup-porters and separately heldtalks with the publisher of amajor Israeli newspaper forpositive coverage in exchangefor diminishing the impact ofa free pro-Netanyahu daily.

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Moscow: The Kremlin onFriday said it agreed withPresident Donald Trump thatUS-Russian ties were at an all-time and very dangerous low.

“We fully share this opin-ion,” President Vladimir Putin’sspokesman Dmitry Peskov toldjournalists over Trump’s view,expressed on Twitter onThursday. “The danger may liein a lack of mutual collaborationand cooperation over the topicsthat are vitally important forboth our countries and theirpeople,” Peskov added. AFP

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Habbaniyah: Iraqi troops havefound a mass grave in thewestern city of Ramadi con-taining the bodies of 40 menbelieved to have been execut-ed by the Islamic State group,officials said on Friday.

It is the latest of dozens ofsuch grisly finds made by Iraqiforces since they drove thejihadists out of the swathes ofnorthern and western Iraq thatthey occupied in 2014.

Ammar Nuri al-Dulaimi,an official from a MartyrsCommittee for Anbar province,said the bodies had bulletwounds to the head, suggestingthey were executed by IS.

An Army colonel, whoasked not to be named, saidtroops had uncovered the massgrave during a sweep of the Al-Tach neighbourhood in thesouth of Ramadi, capital of theprovince. AFP

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Dubai: An Indian man work-ing in the UAE, who went miss-ing this week, has been founddead with the police finding hispartially-decomposed body ina parked car in Sharjah, amedia report said on Friday.

The body of 35-year-oldDixon, who hails fromPerumbavoor in Kerala, wasrecovered from a car parked inAl Qulayaa area of Sharjah onWednesday.

He returned to Sharjah onJuly 30 from Ireland where hehad gone to visit his family. Hewas missing from Tuesday, twodays after he returned fromIreland to resign from his joband join his family in Ireland.

Sharjah Police confirmedthat they have recovered thepartially-decomposed body ofDixon from inside a parked caron Wednesday, Khaleej Timesreported. Dixon had beenworking with a firm in theSharjah Airport Free Zone forthe past nine years.

According to police offi-cials, they received a com-plaint at Wasit Police Station inSharjah on August 1 that Dixonhad been missing and startedan investigation.

There was no result untilWednesday evening, when thepolice received a call fromDixon’s relatives, saying that hiscar was found in a parkingspace. PTI

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Paris: French PresidentEmmanuel Macron is pushingfor mediation efforts inVenezuela and condemningviolence amid the president’sefforts to consolidate powerthrough a new Assembly.

In a statement FridayMacron decried the arrest oftwo top opposition membersand said France will “supportany mediation that would allowthe resumption of credible,sincere and serious dialogue ...And to end the spiral of vio-lence.”

Macron recently sent a let-

ter to Venezuelan PresidentNicolas Maduro proposingmediation, and FrenchAmbassador Romain Nadalhas been meeting withVenezuelan government andopposition members.

While some are calling forsanctions, France is hoping fora negotiated solution to thepolitical crisis around Maduro’sleadership. Macron arrangedpeace talks last week betweenLibya’s rival leaders and hassought to raise France’s diplo-matic profile since his electionin May. AP

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Geneva: A plane crash at aSwiss summer camp killed two14-year-old campers and thepilot, while leaving a thirdteenager seriously injured,police said.

The ride in the single-engine plane was organised atthe Aero-Club of Switzerlandcamp in the canton ofGraubunden, police said today,adding that an investigationhad been opened into the causeof the crash in the mountain-ous region.

“My world has collapsed”,Yves Burkhardt of the Aero-Club told reporters.

He said the flight wasmeant to be the highlight activ-ity at the end of the week-longcamp and that the club hadbeen operating youth summeractivities for 35 years.

The aircraft was identifiedas a Piper PA28, a light planesometimes used for training.

AFP

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Caracas: Venezuelan PresidentNicolas Maduro was set toinstall a powerful newAssembly packed with hisallies, dismissing an interna-tional outcry and Oppositionprotests saying he is buryingdemocracy in his crisis-hitcountry.

The Constituent Assembly,elected last weekend in a votemarred by violence and alle-gations of fraud, will sit in achamber in the LegislativePalace in Caracas, where theopposition-controlled legisla-ture is located.

The inaugural session of its500-plus members — includingMaduro’s wife and son — willtake place under high security.

The Opposition has calleda mass march in the capitalagainst the body, raising fearsof violence that could add to adeath toll of more than 125over the past four months.

“Let there be no provoca-tions, nor should people fallinto provocations,” Madurosaid yesterday as he assured all

was ready for the ConstituentAssembly.

The United States, theEuropean Union and majorLatin American nations havesaid they will not recognize theassembly.

The Vatican on Fridayurged that the new assembly besuspended, saying it was one ofseveral initiatives that “fomenta climate of tension.” It alsoappealed for Venezuelan secu-rity forces to show restraint.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’sintelligence service unexpect-edly transferred a high-profileopposition figure, Caracasmayor Antonio Ledezma, fromjail back to house arrest, hisfamily said.

Ledezma and anotheropposition figure, LeopoldoLopez, had been taken fromtheir homes to military prisonon Tuesday, reversing earlierhome detentions.

Lopez remains incarcerat-ed, one of hundreds of peoplewho the opposition says arepolitical prisoners. AFP

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London: Ireland’s Indian-ori-gin Prime Minister LeoVaradkar on Friday raised theprospect of a “deep” free tradeagreement between the UKand the EU following Brexit.

Varadkar, 38, describedBritain’s impending exit fromthe 27-member economic bloc,of which Ireland is a member,as the “challenge of our gener-ation” in a keynote address dur-ing his first visit as IrishTaoiseach (PM) to Belfast inNorthern Ireland.

“If the UK does not want tostay in the customs union,perhaps there can be a EU-UKcustoms union...If the UK doesnot want to stay in the singlemarket, perhaps it could enterinto a deep free trade agree-ment with the EU and rejoinEuropean Free TradeAssociation (EFTA), of whichit was a member prior to acces-sion,” he said in his speech atthe Queen’s University. PTI

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If you want to bring about a change, youhave to start from the roots was the

belief that the founder of Jindal Steel andPower Limited (JSPL), the late OP Jindal,upheld all his life. While millions just talkabout the social conditions of the under-privileged living with minimal facilities,there are a few who take the initiative tomake a difference.

“I never thought that my initiativewould reach so far. After my husband’sdeath from a curable disease because ofinsufficient funds, I decided to open a hos-pital. Working as a vegetable seller, bricklayer and house maid, I managed to bringup my four children and also build a hos-pital. I personally look after all the patientsand ensure that no money is charged fromthem,” said Subhashini Mistry, who is nowowner of Humanity Hospital, and ischanging lives with her solo determination.

Sunil Jain, founder trustee, Astha, whois differently-abled and does not have lowerlimbs, was dependent on many people totake care of him — his mother, school,friends and the whole world. “That’swhen I started looking at people with dis-ability and wondering about the perspec-tive of the care-givers. I wanted to bringthe people with disability together toenable them to live a purposeful life,” saidhe. This led to the formation of Astha in1990. “Most of us live with a perceptionthat there should be some ability to live anextraordinary life. But I’m here to defy thatperception,” he added.

It is to recognise such people thatNaveen and Shallu Jindal, chairman andpresident of JSPL, respectively started the

Rashtriya Swayamsiddh Samman in 2015.The response was overwhelming and JSPLorganised its second edition at theKamani Auditorium to felicitate 12 indi-viduals and nine organisations for thework done by them at the grassroot levelacross India. “The courage, commit-

ment and confidence of Swayamsiddh isan inspiration for all of us to overcomethe challenges of life with grit and deter-mination. I am sure these untold storiesof courage will go a long way in inspir-ing others to work towards the holisticdevelopment of our great nation,” said

Naveen Jindal.“The Rashtriya Swayamsiddh

Samman aims to bring out stories thathave yet been untold. Stories of determi-nation and a will to bring about a changein the society. The Samman is an effortto salute these people and provide them

with a national platform so that others toocan take inspiration from them,” added thedirector of the programme, Shallu Jindal.

Chaudhary Birendra Singh, UnionMinister of Steel, handed out a cash prizeof � 1 lakh and the title of SwayamsiddhShri in 11 categories to the awardees. The

event began with Dr Prasanna KumarPatasani, an MP from Bhubaneswar,being handed an award for his life-longcontribution in the field of human devel-opment. Other awardees included ShaliniSaraswathi, Uddhab Bharali, Sunil Jain,Subhasini Mistry, S Murugan and GaziJallauddin for their indomitable couragein innovation and technology, sports,health, public service and educationcategory, respectively.

Under the organisation category,Maaghara Foundation Trust, GraminSamaj Kalyan Vikas Manch, KhamirCraft Resource Centre, AAMYA, HaroonMukati Islamic Centre, Astha andWE4YOU were some of the winners.

Through Rashtriya SwayamsiddhSamman, JSPL is trying to do its bit forthe society by working with and encour-aging people at the grassroots level.Apart from reaping monetary benefits, abusiness has to fulfill social responsibil-ity as well. So JSPL is trying to make adifference too in its own way. Women aretaught to make jute packets, beautyproducts, sanitary napkins and the liketo make them self-sufficient and inde-pendent. It has taken initiatives in therealms of health, education, womenempowerment, infrastructure, agricul-ture, sports, hygiene, environment, pop-ulation stabilisation, disaster manage-ment, arts and culture. Self Help Groupslike Aprajita, OP Jindal CommunityCollege of vocational studies and skilldevelopment and Veggie Kart, an initi-tative to help vegetable sellers rake inprofits, are some of their CSR initiatives.

For many viewers, filmmaker AneesBazmi is like the ultimate crazy-pot, making us laugh with his slew

of family entertainers that are not justabout suspension of disbelief but of themind altogether. But the hitmaker is amuch more serious man than youmight think and considers makingcomedies a social responsibility.

“Making a comedy film is way moredifficult than any other genre. In the ratrace called modern life, people have for-gotten to laugh. In such a scenario,working on a comedy is a big respon-sibility. Writing proper dialogues andcreating the right ambience is veryimportant. If anything goes wrong, theaudience will not laugh because of themovie but they will laugh at the movie,”said the director whose latest filmMubarakan had a promising start,though nothing compared to his ever-green mood-lifters like Welcome and NoEntry.

Bazmee started out as a seriousfilm-maker, becoming an assistant toRaj Kapoor no less. “The thought ofbecoming a filmmaker probably beganwhile assisting Raj Kapoor but I madethe big decision only after I watchedMughal-e-Azam in detail,” he told usover telephone. He has learnt on the joband trained in different aspects offilm-making. He set out on his own bybecoming a dialogue writer in 1988 forthe film Hum Farishte Nahin. After agap, he worked as a full-fledged writerfor Swarg, directed by David Dhawanand starring Rajesh Khanna andGovinda. He also did several projectsin collaboration with Dhawan later.“Writing dialogues to bring out theessence of the character and giving pri-ority to each are very important. Givingspace to each character judiciously is abig challenge and requires experience.I have written around 35 stories andhave always obsessed over how eachcharacter could take the narration for-ward. I should not lose interest whilewriting a story. If that happens, then Iwon’t be able to keep the audience gluedto the screen. Each word spokenshould touch the emotions of the audi-ence,” he added.

Bazmee usually stays away fromgimmicks and believes in the power ofthe navrasas. “Somewhere in its jour-ney from Basu Chatterjee andHrishikesh Mukherjee to the present

day, comedy in Bollywood has becomea cheesy affair. This is why the familyaudience is suspicious of our comedies.They say, ‘ismein zaroor kuch gandahoga (It has to be dirty).’ But they trustmy comedies because they are all abouthappy emotions. There will be no kiss-ing in my films, ever, no matter what therequirement in the script. Let the audi-ence have fun without indulging in cru-dity,” elaborated the director.

“My comedies are watched by theentire family and kids love my humour.I’ve a mother, a wife and sister at home.And I’ve a daughter. I wouldn’t like to

do anything in my films that wouldmake me cringe in front of them. Veryfew people realise this but the script isthe real king in comedy,” he added.

Though he may have specialised incomedies, Bazmee has had quite arounded experience as a filmmaker. Hehas done the romantic hit Pyaar ToHona Hi Tha in 1998. Then there wereDeewangee in 2002, No Entry in 2005,Welcome in 2007, Singh Is Kinng in 2008.By then he yielded to the pressure ofrolling out laugh riots and did WelcomeBack and is now working on more fran-chises. In the process, he has workedwith almost every actor in the industry.“I am lucky to have worked with differ-ent people in the industry. They gave mea larger perspective of my work. Themore I wrote different stories, themore I explored life. In the process, Ihave learnt and grown each day. Themore you are connected to people, themore stories you can write. I love tointeract with people and I always havea keen interest to know their stories,their happiness, howsoever big or small.This keeps me going.”

Restrictions of freedom of expres-sion with regard to dialogues havebecome a huge issue along with stereo-typing women characters in main-stream entertainers. But Bazmee hasnever come under the scanner. Said he,“I have not yet faced any restrictions. Ialways try to avoid double entendrestoo. Today women are no more consid-ered a showpiece on screen. They playimportant characters around whichthe story revolves. Women-centricfilms are growing in importance andfilmmakers have to respond to thechanged paradigm and be sensitive.”

He also debunked that our song anddance sequences prevented the Westfrom taking Bollywood seriously. “Ourfilms reflect Indian culture and societyon a larger platform. Music is an inte-gral part of the good and bad in oursociety. That should be there on screenand the alien audience who watchIndian films should get an idea aboutour country from the content of thefilm,” said the director, who is current-ly taking a break. “I need about a monthto think about my next project thoughI have few things in hand,” he said,rounding off. In the end, laughter is notonly another challenge, it is about bigbusiness.

Devdutt Pattanaik, mythol-ogist, author and commu-

nicator, who has gained famefor demystifying ancient wis-dom, epics and folk fables,doesn’t believe in the digitalroute to understanding ourpast. He believes that theabundance of informationavailable now is merelyobfuscating the real signifi-cance of these metaphoricalstories. “I think parentsshould share such storieswith their children who relyon them as a credible sourceof knowledge and tell themtheir purpose and signifi-cance. An abundance of infor-mation is available on the inter-net but what the mother can tellthe child is more authentic, feltand understandable than whatis available in the cyber sphere.Parents would also feel respon-sible as communicators andgauge the right meaning.”

It is ultimately for the par-ents to decide, how they wanttheir children to understand thepast. “One can tell stories tochildren in whichever way isdeemed fit by the parent. Thereis no hard and fast guideline inthe case of Ramayana andMahabharata,” he says.

Pattanaik explains myths asa popular manifestation ofpractical wisdom. “Mythologyrefers to variously collectedmyths about groups of peopleor to the study of myths. Theseare the stories people tell toexplain nature, history andcustoms. It is a way of lookingat life,” says the author.Mythology is a complex area ofstudy and nobody really under-stands it in its totality, he feels.As Pattanaik correctly puts it,“One can read the stories fromthe books but nobody under-stands the importance or theimpact of the stories.

Mythology is a subject byitself.”

Pattanaik presents Devlokwith Devdutt Pattanaik, a pop-ular show on Epic channel. Hesays, “I don’t know what theviewers expect from my showbut I just tell the stories andthey seem to like it. It feeds thecuriosity about our cultureand have probably gainedground because before this noone has narrated the stories inthis way. I am just presentingit in a systematic and organisedway. And it’s sad that in a coun-try with such a huge popula-tion, no one has till dateexplained the importance andsignificance of mythologicalstories. What theories are avail-

able, what designs are available,what symbolism do they rep-resent? These shouldn’t belearnt by rote as part of the cur-riculum. We have to investtime to figure out what is agood way of connecting withour roots and learning fromthem.” But are people interest-ed in the past? In the quicklychanging and evolving countrythat is India, understanding orfor that matter even knowingabout one’s past is no longerconsidered important. But

Pattanaik does not judgeanyone who has neither thedesire to know about his or

her origins nor harbour anycuriosity about it. He says, “It’sokay not to know your rootsand travel rootless. Everythingis an option. You should livewhichever way you want to.One day when you feel theneed to know your origin,then you can simply dig out foranswers.”

Talking about authentic-ity of the stories and includ-ing mythology as a subject inschools, Pattanaik says, “Veryoften people can be seenreading the HanumanChalisa on our way to workbut rarely do they understandits significance. People read itwhen they are scared, fright-ened, nervous, panicked, agi-tated, alarmed or worried. Itis designed to give us strengthin a very musical way. It’s astress buster. So I am tryingto go beyond the immediateassurance and find out whatis there in the stories. It’simportant to answer why wedo puja, why do we have sev-eral rituals or what is theirsignificance? Catering tothese questions is ver yimportant instead of leavingit as a ritual of the genera-tions gone by,” says he.

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Fixed deposit in a bankAn FD in your sister’s name in her bank account fora specified period will take care of her liquidity andat the same time generate decent guaranteed returns.Short-term debt funds and FMPs can also beconsidered.

Gift cardMost banks nowadaysissue prepaid cards. Thesecards are usually Visa orMastercard affiliated andyou can use them to shopat any outlet that acceptsthem. While a this card ismore personal than cash, itwill also allow her the freedom to choose her own gift.Shop, dine, party—she can use the card just the wayshe wants. Also, most cards have an ATM PIN thatwill allow her to withdraw cash if she wants to.

Gold funds/Gold ETFThis is one gift which will keep glittering over time.The gold-saving funds can be a great investmentoption especially since one can invest in this fundwithout a demat account and can set up an SIP forthe same. The alternate option of Gold ETFs doesn’tallow investments.

You can look at setting up an SIP for your sister thisRaksha Bandhan to begin her allocation in gold. Inaddition, storage is not a problem with Gold ETFs.

Apart from this you can buy a gold coin, which is avail-able in 0.5 g, 1 g, 2.5 g, 5 g, 8 g, 20 g and 50 g cate-gories. These make better investment sense than jew-ellery, simply because when you sell them, you get the

full value, unlike in jewellery where you lose outat least 25 per cent in melting and make charges.

Investment in Public Provident FundGifting money as part of her yearly investmentin Public Provident Fund (PPF) can be opted fortoo. Assured and tax-free returns have made PPFa preferred choice for risk-averse investors foryears. It is an excellent tool for long-terminvestment and is risk-free since the governmentbacks it.

Personal finance booksAlong with the above financial gifts, a personal financebook which underlies simple investment principlescan be thought of. It will make sure your sisteracknowledges the importance of saving and mostimportantly investing surplus corpus to achieve hershort and long-term goals.

Medical insurance in her nameAnother unique thing would be buying a medicalinsurance policy in her name or renewing it for her.Due to change in lifestyle and stress, a lack of phys-ical exercise may cause a critical illness. Covering yoursister with medical insurance would help her duringa difficult time.

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Love you beary muchWho doesn’t love a cuddly bear? You can help your daugh-ter create an animal rakhi using some stickers and felt paper.Cut out a circle (A) from felt paper and stick a bear stick-er (or the kids’ favourite animal, or even Chota Bheem!)on it. Cut out a larger felt circle (B) in a different colourand place this below A. Slide in a coloured ribbonbetween A and B and stick it on, using some double-sidedadhesive. Done! If you also happen to have a quilling set

at home, just add in some details such as ears and noses. Your hand-made rakhifor kids will be a showstopper!

BRIGHT AND BUTTONY:Nothing says “Love you, best friend” as beautifully as a colour-ful button band done by you. All you need to do is cut out a smallstar or circle from foam paper and glue it on to the centre of acoloured ribbon. Onto this, sew on a bright button and you’re done.If you have been thinking about how to make a band with craftpaper, this is one of the easiest ideas to start off with.

SHINE LIKE THE SEQUINS:If you have some spare sequins and felt paper, this is one of thebest ideas for making rakhi at home. Tell your child to cut outa felt shape she likes. For instance, she can cut out a large redcircle and outline a flower on it using a marker. Then, fill upthe flower with sequins. Just dip them in glue, one at a time,to make sure it is neat. Glue or sew a ribbon underneath the

shape and your rakhi is ready.

SAY IT WITH BEADS:Are you looking for rakhi craft for pre-school?This one is so simple that you’ll be surprised bythe really pretty end result! Get some colourfulstrands of silk or wool – you’re sure to find somein your wardrobe or sewing machine. Ask yourlittle one to twist several of them together and thenslide some golden beads in between. You have a

stunner of a handmade rakhi ready in minutes.

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CURRENCY: While giving cashlacks personal touch, currency canbe one of the best gifts for thisRaksha Bandhan. Money gives therecipient liberty to choose frommyriad options. Multiple brandsand tech companies have joinedhands to offer currency gifting.Storecheq.com is a popular plat-form which offers currency in adigital format.

INTERNATIONAL : Express yourlove for your brother/sister even ifhe/she is living abroad. The e-giftscan be sent seamlessly across coun-tries without any shipping cost.Quikcilver is one such option

which offers international present-through its app Woohoo.GROUP : This digital methodol-ogy is highly efficient if all broth-ers want to send gifts together totheir sister and vice-versa. One can

set up a group, invite siblings tochip in and offer options to the sib-ling. It also saves a lot of money.Vouchagram is one such optionwhich offers options through a sim-ple and easy three-step process.

EXPERIENTIAL: What’s betterthan a holiday to a coveted desti-nation for a sibling who lovestravelling? Send her to MachuPichu or to Thailand where she canenjoy curated experiences likehorse-riding, scuba-diving, spatreatment, fine dining to infiniteexperiential options. Xoxoday isone such gift tech platform whichoffers bespoke experiences.

KRAFTLY: Saahil Goel, CEO andfounder, Gautam Kapoor, COOand co-founder

Working with a friend is a sure-shot joyride. I have known Gautamsince childhood, and when yougrow up with someone, there existsa bond of implicit and explicit trust.We also bring complementary skillsets to the table; while coding andproduct development is my passion,Gautam has killer managerialinstincts and effortlessly looks afteroperations, business development,enterprise, its people and policies.This way we balance each other out

to make a perfect team. Even at thetime when we find each other at theopposite ends of the table, we dis-cuss, debate and make a unanimousdecision beneficial for the compa-ny. The office culture is also crucialin creating an environment wherecriticism is taken positively andused constructively.

In the end, celebrating eachother’s successes and failures andstaying true to our commitmenttowards transforming the Indian e-commerce seller landscape keeps us

going day-in and out.

WANDERTRAILS : VishnuMenon K, co-founder and CEO,Hari Gangadharan Nair, co-founder and CTO, NarayanaMenon K, co-founder and CMO,Pranav Kumar Suresh, co-founderand CSO, Sruti Ramesh Chander,co-founder and COO

Entrepreneurship comes withits share of trials and tribulationsthat test the best of the best. The fiveof us have known each other for atleast eight years and are aware ofeach other’s strengths and shortcomings inside out. It was only nat-ural to traverse an important jour-ney of our lives, together and co-found an Indian experiential trav-el brand – Wandertrails. We areeach other’s worst critics but thefriendship ensures that it is takenconstructively which works well forthe organisation. We are thoroughprofessionals at work but we catchup as friends and have a lot of fun outside of work too. To sum-marise, a tough journey becomesenjoyable with the right company.

NEXT EDUCATION: Beas DevRalhan, CEO and co-founder,Next Education India Pvt. Ltd.and Sameer Bora, EVP

Sameer and I have been friendssince our IIT-B time. So, it has beenmore than a decade that we knoweach other as closely as we recog-nise each other’s strengths andweaknesses. Since we both have acommon passion for technologyand vision to work in education sec-tor, Sameer joined Next Educationin 2011 to strengthen our strategicteam. It’s always been an endearing

experience to share your workplacewith your friend as you are awareof the skill set they carry and thetrust your friend instill in you.

NOWFLOATS: Jasminder SinghGulati, co-Founder and CEO,Nitin Jain, co-founder and COO,Ronak Kumar Samantray, co-founder and chief software archi-tect, Neeraj Sabharwal, co-founder and chief experience offi-cer

Entrepreneurship is tough, andunpredictable. It’s just better to part-

ner with people who you haveknown and trust, which is precise-ly the reason we got into workingtogether. We make sure we areobjective, being involved and shar-ing the same sense of purpose thatkeeps our friendship strong.

It’s hard to maintain a balancebetween our friendship and busi-ness but we try to travel together alot. And that really helps. Wesometimes organise workshopswith our business leaders off-site.Those are definitely some of thetimes when we’re both businesspartners and friends. It shows ushow strong our solidarity is, bothin terms of morale and strategy.

Knowing each other’s strengthsand working on the gaps togetherare some of the benefits of goinginto business with a friend. Youwould never go into business witha friend unless they are absolutely dependable. Neeraj isproof of that. He was about to goon a sabbatical from work when Icalled him. He cancelled his plansto relax to go into business with us.He knew he could trust us, and weknew he had his heart in the ven-ture.

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Amazeology India can createan interesting line-upof custom-printedfood products.Whether it is the tradi-tional favourite KajuKatli or the more con-temporary macaroons,get your sibling’s nameand a special messageimprinted on it to maketheir day. Price on request

Your sister would bethrilled with the roseessential by Kama, the

best-selling face andbody treatments made

with the pure essential oilof the Kannauj Rose, which

are packaged in one box. Price: �2,300.00

This is the perfect solution to de-stress, calm and comfort the mind

with an aromatic bath by ForestEssentials. This includes Body MistNargis, Bath & Shower Oil Nargis,

Ultra Rich Body Lotion Nargis,Shower Butter Nargis and Scented

Solid Perfume. Price: 2,250

Favre-Leuba recognisesthe need for clarity ofinformation and sim-plified technology in aworld that can at timesbe overwhelming. Theresult is the RaiderHarpoon watch, whichfocusses on only theessentials, by making iteasier and precise toread the time in everysituation and underevery condition.Price on request

For the accessory lover, the jewellery organiser byBent Chair is the perfect gift. Not only can yoursister organise her jewellery, but she can displayher uber cool pieces in style! Price: � 4128

Treat your brother with an assortment of cuf-flinks from Sunil Mehra. The range has a vari-ety of designs in vibrant colours. The playfuland quirky element of the products is sure toturn heads and take his fashion game a notchhigher. Price on Request

Essence offers silkyblush-up powder in

colour gradients of pinkand tangerine for thatpop of colour on your

sister’s cheeks.Price on request

For those who lovequirk, there is the

metal birds on abranch jewelleryholder by Chumbak

to store accessories instyle. Price: �1,495

A pooja thali with allrakhi essentials will set

the tone for the occasion.It includes essentials like

rakhi, sweets and dryfruits and is a must have

from ShopClues.Price on request

This perfume hamper is the per-fect way to make your sister feelloved this Rakshabandhan. Thisfragrance set has a perfume byLimeRoad, a body spray, a per-fumed body lotion and deodorant.Price: �7,709

The elegant bond between friends is unremittingand transcendent. Celebrate this extraordinaryrelationship with macaroons, chocolates or any

of your friend’s favourite along with a box offlowers from Fiorella. Choose from an array ofcolours which are packaged in beautiful boxes.

Price on request

Choose from elegant day bracelets, pendantsets, chic neckpieces and stud earrings as giftsby Swarovski to make your sister’s day a lotmore special. In tones of silver, gold and rosegold, it ups the style quotient during the dayor night Price: �3,790 onwards

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India virtually batted Sri Lanka outof the second Test by crossing the600-run mark for the second game

in a row, setting themselves up foranother big win on a pitch that is offer-ing plenty to the spinners.

India, resuming the day at 344 forthree, went on to declare at 622 for ninepost tea, thanks to half centuries fromRavichandran Ashwin (54 off 92),Wriddhiman Saha (67 off 134) andRavindra Jadeja (70 not out off 85).

Overnight centurions CheteshwarPujara (133) and Ajinkya Rahane (132)could not add much to their overnightscore.

In reply to India's mam-moth total, Sri Lanka wereleft reeling at 50 for two atstumps with RavichandranAshwin taking both thewickets. The hosts face a daunting taskof saving the game and also the serieswith Ashwin and Jadeja making the balltalk on a helping surface.

Rahane said that the team is notthinking of enforcing the follow on yet.

"We are not thinking as of nowbecause as I said, it is not going to beeasy for our bowlers as well. They haveto bowl in right areas for longer peri-od of time.

Ashwin, especially, looked welland truly back in his elements andbowled brilliantly to the left-handers.

He dismissed opener UpulTharanaga for a duck as the southpawwhipped one straight into the abdomenof Rahul, who did well to latch on tothe ball.

A little later, Ashwin sent backTharanga's opener partner DimuthKarunaratne (25) with the one that tookthe outside edge on way to the first slip.

Skipper Dinesh Chandimal (8)came to the crease and looked aggres-sive while batting alongside KusalMendis (16) as Sri Lanka avoided fur-ther loss until close of play.

Earlier, the middle and lower orderfired to take India beyond 600.

Ashwin, batting at number six,struck his 11 Test fifty on his way tobecoming the fourth Indian to completea double of 200 wickets and 2000 runs.

He also became the fourth quick-est in Test history to get to the milestonein 51 Tests, after Ian Botham (England,42 Tests), Kapil Dev (India, 50 Tests)and Imran Khan (Pakistan, 50 Tests).

Post tea, Jadeja and Saha looked toscore some quick runs. The left-han-der smashed three fours and a six as heraced to his eighth Test half-century off70 balls.

At the other end, Saha looked to

attack as well, but he was stumped offRangana Herath (4-154) in the 153rdover. It was the first instance of six half-centuries in one innings in a Test onLankan soil and the second time forIndia after 2007 at the Oval.

It brought Mohammed Shami (19)to the crease who also threw his bataround. Jadeja-Shami put on 30 quickruns for the ninth wicket. Shami waslast man out, caught at deep mid- wick-et off Herath again. Umesh Yadavremained unbeaten on 8 as Indiacrossed the 600-mark in the 156th over.

Earlier, Ashwin and Saha scoredhalf-centuries as India reached 553/7 attea. But he couldn't build on it, asHerath bowled him in the 122nd over.Thereafter, Saha and Hardik Pandya(20) put on 45 runs for the seventhwicket.

Both batsmen survived DRSreviews for lbw, and took India past the500-mark in the 134th over. The visi-tors thus became the first team to score500-plus runs in successive Tests onLankan soil.

Pandya was caught at long -off offMalinda Pushpakumara (2-156). ButSaha carried on and put on a resolute57-run unbeaten partnership withJadeja. In doing so, he scored his 5thTest half-century off 113 balls andbrought up India's 550 just before the

tea break. This was after India reached442/5 at lunch as both Pujara andRahane fell in the morning session.

Sri Lanka were dealt some badnews in the morning when pacerNuwan Pradeep (0-63) was ruled outof the remainder of the Test.

The pacer had injured his ham-string on day one and consequently thehosts have been left without a properfast bowler in their attack for this game.

Even so, Pujara (overnight 128)couldn't take advantage of this situationas Karunaratne (1-31) trapped him lbwin the second over of the day. Thebowler needed DRS review to get thedismissal in his favour.

Overall, Pujara faced 232 deliver-ies and hit 11 fours as well as a six. Itbrought an end to his 217-run part-nership for the fourth wicket withRahane (overnight 103).

The latter though continued battingresolutely and helped India across 400in the 106th over. In doing so, he alsobrought up the 50-partnership withAshwin for the fifth wicket off 84 balls.

Rahane looked set for a biggerscore, but then against the run of play,he was out stumped off Pushpakumarain the 111th over. It was the first Testwicket for the debutant in his 100thFirst Class match. Overall, Rahane faced222 deliveries and hit 14 fours.

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India vice captain AjinkyaRahane on Friday rated his

knock of 132 against Sri Lankaas one his best on spin-friend-ly tracks as he predicted toughtimes for batsmen in theremainder of the second Test.

Rahane shared a 217-runpartnership with CheteshwarPujara (133) for the fourthwicket, rescuing India from aprecarious 133 for three on dayone.

"This was one of the bestinnings against spinners. Myfocus was to dominate. Goingin to bat I knew a little bit howthe wicket was behaving, howmuch bounce it had andwhether it suits my game or not.The communication betweenPujara and me was that wehardly played any maiden overs.So we put pressure back onthem. As the match goes on, itwill be a more difficult wicketto bat on," said Rahane.

India's strength in thisseries has been how they havehandled the Lankan spinners,in particular Rangana Herath.Rahane said they had a gameplan to counter home spinners.

"When we played last timehere against Sri lanka, especiallyafter Galle Test match, wedecided that using footworkagainst Herath was very impor-tant. So, throughout againsthim and their other spinners wewanted to use our footwork sowe could get more runs on thebackfoot. Especially on thiskind of wicket, it is very slowand dry, so we knew that if weuse our footwork we would getmore runs. Bounce is quite vari-able. Some balls are bouncingand few balls are keeping low.We knew that if they playsweep shot its good for us wehave the chance to get wickets.

"But it's not easy for bats-men playing on this wicket.Tomorrow will be key to ourbowlers to bowl in right areasfor long period of time," Rahaneexplained.

His ninth Test hundredhas come after a long gap ofnine months as his last hundredcame against New Zealand in2016 when he scored 188. Hestruggled against England andAustralia in the previous homeseason. Rahane said he was notworried about his poor run.

"It was an important hun-dred but I was confident. Eventhroughout that time not get-

ting a hundred for 9-10 Tests,I was confident about myself. Iknew that if I get in, I will geta big one. It was all about think-ing positively even throughoutthat period.

“Coming to Sri Lanka, Iwas batting well in West Indiesas well I so wanted to carry thatform forward. I decided if I playpositively I will convert it to abig one. I was visualising evenin dressing room and also in myhotel room, just thinking aboutwhat are the good shots on thiswicket and how I am going todominate their spinners,"Rahane said.

"My mindset was com-pletely blank coming into thisinnings. I wanted to take mytime initially but later on, wethought if we dominate, if wechange the momentum, theywill be on the back foot straight-away, and that's what hap-pened. It was like the samethinking that was in Melbournein Australia (2014-15 in part-nership with Virat Kohli). Iwanted to dominate them andthat's what we did. But here thechallenge was slightly different.

"It was a spin-friendlywicket and we wanted to get agood partnership. I was talkingto Virat in the dressing roombefore lunch (yesterday) that ifwe get a 150-200 partnership,they will be on the back footand that's what actually hap-pened, me and Pujara got thatpartnership," he added.

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Opener Dimuth Karunaratne feels Sri Lankan bats-men need to play more sweep and reverse sweep

shots against Indian spinners to negotiate the turn andbounce if they wish to save the ongoing second Test here.

The hosts were reduced to 50 for two at stumps onthe second day in response to India's 622 for ninedeclared in the first innings.

"You will see more turn and bounce than we wereseeing on the first day. Because of the ball's hardnessyou will get turn and bounce. Maybe after the hard-ness is gone it will be easy to bat later on," saidKarunaratne.

"There was help in the wicket - you have to admitthat. In Galle though there wasn't much in the wick-et, it was the way Shikhar Dhawan batted took the gameaway from us. We had to go to defensive fields. We can't

attack when two foursare being hit in anover. They (Indians)are very smart, whenwe adopt defensiveapproach they workthe singles," he added.

Karunaratne saidSri Lankan batsmenneed to be positive toscore runs on thispitch.

"We all want tosave the Test match.In the first 10-15 overswith the ball's hard-ness it is not easy tobat. After the hard-ness is gone I thinkthe help is not therefor the spinners," he

said."Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis batted real-

ly well in the last few overs. We have to play positively.We have to play more sweep and reverse sweep shots.Last time when we played in Galle, Chandi(Chandimal) scored 160-odd runs. A lot of his runscame off the sweep and reverse sweep. I think that willbe key," he added.

Ravichandran Ashwin was the top bowler for Indiaas he took both the wickets of openers Upul Tharangaand Karunaratne.

Karunaratne said playing Ashwin is not easy onthis wicket and Sri Lankan batsmen should try to cap-italise on loose balls.

"You have to play one ball at a time. It's not easy.He's (Ashwin) a good spinner. He has variations. WhenI was batting I was playing for the straighter one. It'sturning a lot. You can play for both the turn andstraighter one," he said.

"I'm trying to play more balls from him, becauseif I batted a long time he will try to do something elseand we can capitalise on the loose balls. That was mytarget when I was batting against Ashwin,"Karunaratne said.

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South Africa checkedEngland's progress with two

wickets in quick successionafter lunch on the first day of thefourth Test at Old Trafford onFriday.

Alastair Cook (46) andEssex team-mate Tom Westley(29) both fell with the score on92 as England saw two wicketsgo down for no runs in 19 balls.

Dawid Malan helpedEngland captain Joe Root put on52 for the fourth wicket before,having battled hard, he fell toMorne Morkel for 18.

At tea, England were 147for four, with star batsmanRoot 34 not out after winningthe toss. Ben Stokes, fresh fromhis man-of-the-match winningcentury in England's 239-runvictory in the third Test at TheOval, was one not out after fac-ing just three balls on Friday.

A South Africa attack miss-ing injured seamers Vernon

Philander and Chris Morris,both ruled out with lower backstrains, had done well to restrictEngland. The hosts were mak-ing steady progress when for-mer captain Cook tried to driveleft-arm spinner KeshavMaharaj but instead got a thinedge to wicket-keeper Quintonde Kock.

Westley was undone by agood length delivery from fastbowler Kagiso Rabada thatseamed and took the edge, withde Kock holding an excellentdiving catch in his right glove.

Root and Malan, lookingfor a big score after managingjust 11 runs in total on his Testdebut at The Oval, played outfive successive maidens.

Fast bowler Morkel has notalways got the rewards he'sdeserved so far this series, buthe saw off Malan when the left-hander edged a drive to Proteascaptain Faf du Plessis at secondslip. Morkel had figures of onefor 34 in 13 overs at tea.

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Australian cricket must neveragain embark on such an

acrimonious pay row, the play-ers' union says, after a bruisingmonths-long dispute that rattledthe sport was finally resolved.

The bad-tempered stand-off, that has badly damaged rela-tions between cricketers and thegoverning body, came to a headon Thursday with the playerswalking away the winners. "Wecongratulate the players whohave bravely made the case inthe public domain. It will beimportant that they are respect-ed for having the courage oftheir convictions," saidAustralian Cricketers'Association president GregDyer.

But he said there was now"a reality to confront". "Yes,we've arrived at a great place butthe game must never again takethis same route. The players didnot choose this route and didnot enjoy being on it," he said."In fact, the players resented itdeeply. This was not a fight theplayers started. The playersdefended themselves as is fairand as is their right."

The row was sparked byCricket Australia attempting toscrap the revenue-sharing dealthat has governed players'salaries since their first memo-randum of understanding wasbrokered 20 years ago.

Players had been paid a per-centage of gross revenue for thepast two decades, and theyargued that changing the systemwould make them employees

rather than partners with incen-tives to grow the game.

CA wanted to pay themfrom a set pool instead, withonly surplus revenue shared, togive it more cash to invest ingrassroots programs and facil-ities. In the end, after months ofmud-slinging and with broad-casters and sponsors applyingpressure, the players came outon top in a five-year agreementworth an estimated Aus$500million (US$396 million).

Not only did they retain therevenue-sharing model theyhad been fighting for, but theygot a greater share, with womencricketers included for the first

time."The players have had a

huge win," former Australiancaptain Allan Border told FoxSports Australia. "This has beena TKO (technical knockout) inthe 15th round for the players.They should be very happywith the situation, particularlythe girls."

Current captain Steve Smithadmitted the negotiations werechallenging, but the playerswere now focused on the crick-et that lies ahead. "It's been along and challenging processand it's great that we can now geton with playing the game thatwe all love," he tweeted.

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Liverpool must come througha tough two-legged play-off

tie against Hoffenheim if theyare to return to the group stageof the Champions League aftera three-year absence, followingFriday's draw.

Jurgen Klopp will take hisLiverpool team back to hisnative Germany for the first legon August 15 or 16 with the

return at Anfield a week later.Hoffenheim, whose Rhein

Neckar Arena is in Sinsheim insouth-west Germany, are in theChampions League for the firsttime in their history after fin-ishing fourth in the Bundesligalast season. Their coach JulianNagelsmann, who turned 30last month, is one of the mosthighly-rated young trainers inthe game.

Liverpool finished fourth in

the Premier League last season.The five-time European cham-pions were last in theChampions League in 2014-15,when they failed to make it out

of their group.Spanish side Sevilla have

been drawn against last season'sTurkish league runners-upIstanbul Basaksehir, who boastthe likes of Emmanuel Adebayorand Gael Clichy in their ranksand eliminated Club Brugge inthe third qualifying round.

Napoli, who came third inSerie A last season, were hand-ed a difficult draw against Nice,third in France's Ligue 1 and vic-

tors against Ajax in the thirdqualifying round.

Scottish giants Celtic, whowere in the section of the drawreserved for domestic champi-ons, must once again beatAstana of Kazakhstan if they areto return to the group phase.

The Glasgow club will hostAstana in the first leg before ajourney of nearly 4,000 miles forthe return leg on August 22 or 23.

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Six years after taking over perennial under-achiever Paris Saint-Germain, the French club'swealthy owners finally got what they wanted

by hiring Neymar — a player they believe will bringthem Champions League glory.

The Brazil star became the most expensive play-er in soccer history after completing his blockbustertransfer from Barcelona for 222 million euros ($262million) on Thursday. By paying the release clausein his contract, PSG shattered the world transferrecord to sign arguably one of the top three bestattacking players in the game, alongside LionelMessi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The previous transfer record had been set a yearago when Manchester United paid 105 millioneuros (then $116 million) to bring Paul Pogba backfrom Juventus. Ironically, the 25-year-old Neymarsigned a five-year contract with the French leagueside just five months after playing a decisive roleas Barcelona produced a comeback that madeChampions League history — at PSG's expense.

Having lost their first leg match 4-0 in France,Barcelona was trailing 5-3 on aggregate in the 88thminute in Spain, only for Neymar to score twicein the final minutes before Sergi Roberto's winnerin added time sealed a humiliating exit from theRound of 16 for PSG.

Next season, it will be different. "Paris Saint-Germain's ambition attracted me to the club, alongwith the passion and the energy this brings,"Neymar said in comments released by PSG. "Iplayed four seasons in Europe and I feel ready totake the challenge. From today, I will do everythingI can to help my new teammates, to open up newhorizons for my club and to bring happiness to itsmillions of supporters around the world."

PSG would certainly welcome thekind of success that Neymar enjoyedin Spain. In his four seasons there,Neymar scored 105 goals asBarcelona won the ChampionsLeague, Club World Cup, twoSpanish league titles and Copadel Rey three times.

Now he will look to emergefrom the shadow of five-timeworld player of the year Messi atBarcelona, becoming the biggeststar in the Ligue 1 in a team with-out the track record of success tomatch his former club.

While Barcelona has liftedthe European Cup five times and wonthe FIFA Club World Cup three times, PSG is yetto win either prestigious competition. Since QatarSports Investments took over the club in June 2011,PSG has spent several hundred million dollars ontop-class players — including the likes of ZlatanIbrahimovic, Marco Verratti and Edinson Cavani— in its effort to build a team capable of winningEurope's top club competition.

But the big names were not enough to bringsuccess on the continental stage, and PSG has yetto make it through the quarterfinals of theChampions League under its Qatari owners.

"I am extremely happy to join Paris Saint-Germain," Neymar said. "Since I arrived in Europe,the club has always been one of the most compet-itive and most ambitious. And the biggest challenge,

what most motivated me to join my new team-mates, is to help the club to conquer the titles thattheir fans want."

It's a mission that is clearly shared by the club'stop management. "Neymar Jr is today one of thevery best players in world football. His winningmentality, strength of character and sense of lead-ership have made him into a great player," PSG pres-ident Nasser Al-Khelaifi said. "He will bring a verypositive energy to this club.

"In six years, we have built a very ambitious pro-ject that has already taken us to the highest levelof national and European football. Today, with thearrival of Neymar Jr, I am convinced that we willcome even closer, with the support of our faithfulfans, to realizing our greatest dreams."

PSG's announcement put an end to a saga thatstarted about two weeks ago with rumors of his pos-sible transfer, though the club had already tried tolure him to the City of Light last summer.

Neymar is expected in Paris on Friday and willhold a news conference early in the afternoon, PSGsaid. He might make his debut on Saturday whenPSG starts its new league campaign against pro-moted Amiens at the Parc des Princes.

Not surprisingly, his transfer has not gone downwell in Spain.

In a statement, Barcelona said "the club will passon to UEFA the details of the above operation sothat they can determine the disciplinary respon-sibilities that may arise from this case."

The comment followed a claim by Spanishleague president Javier Tebas on Wednesday thatNeymar's move would break Financial Fair Playrules introduced by UEFA, European football's rul-

ing body. Barcelona did all it could to stopNeymar from leaving, and had vowed

to complain to UEFA if his seem-ingly untouchable release clause

was triggered.The payment of the

release clause was the sec-ond attempt Neymar'srepresentatives had madeon Thursday to break hisbond with Barcelona.Earlier in the day, hislawyer Juan de Dios

Crespo had tried todeposit the enormous sum

at the Spanish league's officesin Madrid, but he was turned

away. Tebas had told Spanishsports daily AS that he wouldn't let

the league act as an intermediary to anoperation that he, like Barcelona, believed vio-

lated UEFA's FFP rules. He had called PSG a "state-supported club." The club's Qatari owners are close-ly linked to the energy-rich ruling family.

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Neymar insisted that money was nota motivation in deciding to join

Paris Saint-Germain and said Fridaythat he would not be burdened by his222 million-euro ($262 million) pricetag.

The Brazilian star flew in fromBarcelona on a private jet for his offi-cial presentation, arriving in a citywhose soccer fortunes he is expected totransform.

At a packed Paris news conference,Neymar found it "really sad" to be askedwhether the riches on offer were thereason for his decision to swap one ofsoccer's most illustrious teams —Barcelona has won every major honormultiple times — for a club yet to winthe biggest competitions outside of

France."I was never motivated by money,"

Neymar said at the PSG’s stadium."What I think about is happiness. If Iwas following the money I wouldmaybe be in some other country."

The move more than doubled theprevious transfer record.

"The fact I am the most expensiveplayer is not a burden. I am 69 kilo-grams (152 pounds)," Neymar saidthrough a translator.

A record-breaking transfer leavesPSG having to squeeze every euro outof the signing — through sponsorship,merchandise and jersey sales — toensure the club complies with Europeansoccer's financial regulations.

Posters of the Brazilian — accom-panied by the words "Welcome to aParis Neymar Jr 10" — were unveiled

to cheers on the front of the centralParis store where fans had been wait-ing for hours to get their hands on jer-seys emblazoned with his name.

"We look at Neymar as a brand,"PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said."I don't think he is expensive becauseI think (the transfer) will pay more thanwe paid."

Despite the huge transfer fee, PSGpresident Nasser Al-Khelaifi is con-vinced he has sealed a good deal.

Al-Khelaifi said that beforeNeymar's signing PSG was worth onebillion euros, "and now it is worth 1.5billion."

He added that Neymar, who hassigned a five-year contract and willreportedly earn 30 million euros a year,will soon be worth "double" the pricePSG paid for his services.

Al-Khelaifi also insisted PSG didnot breach Financial Fair Play rules withthe transfer.

"For people worrying about FFP, goand have a coffee, there are no prob-lems," he said. "We have been verytransparent."

With Neymar on board, supportersexpect the team will achieve much morethan just regain the French title fromMonaco.

The transfer could also elevate the25-year-old forward to new personalheights as he emerges from the shad-ow of Lionel Messi at Barcelona.

"He is one of the three best playersin the world," 21-year-old PSG fanSacha Cope said as he waited in lineoutside the club store on the Champs-Elysees on Friday morning to buy aNeymar jersey.

��������$��

Indian boxing star Vijender Singh will look to clinchhis second title and keep his unbeaten record intact

when he takes on undefeated Chinese ZulipikaerMaimaitiali here on Friday.

The 31-year-old former Olympic bronze-medal-list will be fighting his ninth professional fight onSaturday and on the line would be his WBO Asia Pacificsuper middleweight title. Maimaitiali's WBO Orientalsuper middleweight title would also be up for grabsin the double title fight.

Vijender has been training in Manchester with histrainer Lee Beard for thisbout, the first ticket of whichwas presented to cricket iconSachin Tendulkar at the lat-ter's house by the boxer him-self. A confident Vijender hasdubbed his Chinese opponent as inexperienced.

"This is India versus China, I don't need anythingand I am excited, I know the whole of India is withme," Vijender said at the weigh-in on Friday. "I am veryconfident and hope that the fight will be good and Indiawill win. Last night I checked my weight it was 78 andI had to be 76.2, so I did not eat anything. My weightis 76.00 today, I will very much focus on diet."

The Indian said his strategy would be responsiveto how his opponent maneuvers the bout.

"My strategy will depend onhow he plays, I will set my gameaccording to him. We havechanged a lot in technique and wehave worked on it," he said.

The official weigh-in andthe face-off for the bout happened this afternoon here.

"I am experienced. I don't consider him as an expe-rienced boxer, he is young, but he is a strong kid andwe are ready for it.

"I have a game plan which I discussed with mycoach, he (the coach) said stay calm, don't be in hurry,"Vijender said.

There will be seven other bouts on Saturday, wherethe Olympian duo of Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumarwill be making their professional debuts.

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Reigning US Open champion StanWawrinka will miss his title

defence to have knee surgery and willsit out the rest of the year, the worldnumber four announced on Friday.

The three-time Grand Slamchampion had already pulled out ofthe upcoming ATP tournaments inMontreal and Cincinnati, and joinslast year's US Open runner-up NovakDjokovic on the sidelines for theremainder of 2017.

"This was the only solution tomake sure I will be able to competeat the top level for many more years,"Wawrinka said in a statement onFacebook. "This is obviously extreme-ly disappointing, but I'm alreadylooking ahead and planning myrecovery.

"I love this sport and I will workhard to get back to my top level andplay many more years. I will see youall in 2018!"

The 32-year-old Wawrinka, likeDjokovic, will be hoping the time offcan help him come back revitalised

after a difficult month that includeda first-round exit at Wimbledon.

On Thursday, Wawrinka admit-ted that the knee injury had hamperedhim during that shock defeat tounseeded Russian Daniil Medvedev

in London.The four-set victory over

Djokovic in the final at FlushingMeadows last year gave Wawrinka histhird major crown, taking him levelwith current world number one

Andy Murray, who has been strug-gling with a hip injury and hasn'tplayed since Wimbledon.

This season Wawrinka has hadfluctuating fortunes, but did reach hissecond French Open final where hewas thrashed by Rafael Nadal.

He will be hoping to emulate theSpaniard and his legendary fellowSwiss Roger Federer, after bothreturned from lengthy absences toclaim Grand Slam titles this season.

Federer, who turns 36 next week,also did not play last year afterWimbledon, but has won both theAustralian Open and Wimbledon thisyear and will be looking for a 20thmajor title in New York when the USOpen gets underway on August 28.

With Wawrinka fourth in theworld rankings, one place aboveDjokovic, 2014 champion and sixth-ranked Marin Cilic is likely to be thefourth seed, a month after finishingrunner- up at Wimbledon.

However, Cilic, who has anadductor injury, is skipping theMontreal Masters next week as isMurray.

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�� �� ��Arsenal coach ArseneWenger feels Neymar's �222million ($263.56 million) movefrom FC Barcelona to PSG isbeyond rationale.

"For me, it is the conse-quence of the ownerships andthat has completely changed the

whole landscape of football inthe last 15 years," Wenger wasquoted as saying by ESPNFC.

Qatar Sports Investmentsbecame the majority share-holder of PSG in 2011. Sincethen, they have spent exorbitantamounts on new recruits.

"Once a country owns aclub, everything is possible. Itbecomes very difficult torespect the financial fairplaybecause you can have differentways or different interests for acountry to have such a big play-er to represent a country,"

Wenger said."It also looks like the infla-

tion is accelerating. We crossedthe �100m ($118.72 million)line last year and, only one yearlater, we're crossing the �200mline," the coach noted.

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