16
A 30-year-old pavement dweller was killed and three others injured after they were run over by a Hyundai i20 car allegedly driven by a student of DPS Mathura Road near the Kashmere Gate ISBT underpass in North Delhi on Thursday around 5.45 am, police said. Samarth Chugh, who had turned 18 on March 15, was behind the wheel when the accident took place, said police, adding he did not have driving licence. The car had two other occupants — Bhavya Rajpal and Ujjwal Goel — at the time of accident. All the three are Class XII students of Commerce stream. The car, involved in the accident, was registered in the name of Ujjwal’s father Rajkumar, a senior police official said. “We are investigating the role of the person who holds the power of attorney of the car. Accordingly action will be taken against the owner. If we find that Rajkumar was aware that the three teenagers had taken his car, he will also be booked under relevant sections of the law,” the official added. According to police, in the preliminary investigation, it has been found that the car was over-speeding due to which it barged into the pavement and hit the four pavement dwellers who were asleep. The impact of the accident was so severe that the face of the deceased was completely disfigured. Police have failed to establish the iden- tity of the deceased. The other victims are battling for their life at Sushrut Trauma Centre. The injured persons have been identified as Asif (30), Karan (26), who works as a cook and lives in Karawal Nagar, and Sanjay (28), a small time labourer who lives under the Geeta Colony flyover, said police, adding Sanjay suffered multiple fractures on his left leg while Asif sustained head and abdomen injuries. Karan has received injuries on his head and leg. Continued on Page 4 Related report on P2 E mbattled Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday got a temporary relief from the Supreme Court, which said there was “insuffi- cient evidence” to remove him from office but ordered setting up of a joint team to investigate the graft allegations against his family. The high-profile graft case is about alleged money laun- dering by Sharif in 1990s — when he twice served as the Prime Minister — to pur- chase assets in London. The assets surfaced when Panama papers last year showed that they were managed through offshore com- panies owned by Sharif’s children. A five-judge Supreme Court Bench issued a landmark 540-page split judgment order- ing setting up of a Joint Investigation Team comprising officials from different agen- cies, including those from pow- erful spy agencies the Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence. The other agencies in the JIT include the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. The SC comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan also ordered 67- year-old Sharif and his two sons — Hasan and Hussain — to appear before the JIT. There is “insufficient evidence to remove Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,” said the verdict. “A thorough investigation is required,” Justice Khosa said, reading out from the highly anticipated ruling. The JIT would be set up within a week. It will present its report before the Bench after every two weeks and will complete its investigation in 60 days. Justice Ejaz, Justice Azmat and Justice Ahsan wrote the majority judgment, whereas Justice Gulzar and Justice Khosa in their dissenting note brand- ed Sharif “dishonest” and want- ed to remove the Prime Minister as sought by the petitioners. Continued on Page 4 Related reports on P12 T he Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the decks for the auction of the Taj Mansingh Hotel located in the heart of the Capital, thus end- ing the hold of the Tatas over one of the most iconic build- ings in Lutyens’ Delhi. Ending the legal battle over Taj, the apex court allowed the request of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the land-owning agency, to go for an e-auction of the hotel in which the existing leaseholder, Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), a Tata sub- sidiary, can bid. The court refused to enter- tain its request to be granted the right of first refusal. Now, the NDMC has a free hand to go for an open public auction and award the highest bidder the right to run the hotel. However, considering the “blemish-free” record held by Tata in running the hotel since 1976, the Bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohington F Nariman said in the event IHCL loses the bid, it will have a “six-month” breathing period to vacate the premises. The five-star hotel run by the IHCL was defended by senior advocate Harish Salve. He pointed out that the NDMC had invested just about 6 crore while his clients had pumped in close to 129 crore with a paid licence fee of over 400 crore. But the civic body, repre- sented by senior advocate Sanjay Jain, contended that the NDMC was well within its right to take this decision in the best interest of running the hotel. Jain later told reporters that the e-auction will take place in two weeks. The Tatas had entered into a 33-year lease to construct and run the Taj Mansingh Hotel as per an agreement signed between the NDMC and IHCL on December 18, 1976. The lease came to an end in the year 2011. Since then it got several extensions. Continued on Page 4 A mid efforts to float a unit- ed front of Opposition par- ties to take on the BJP in the next General Elections and the upcoming Presidential poll, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Nitish is also reportedly in touch with senior leaders of the NCP, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Left to unite the Opposition to stop the Modi juggernaut across the country. Sources said that Nitish and Sonia met at the latter’s res- idence and are believed to have discussed the current political situation in the country and deliberated on the grand alliance. The meeting comes days after Congress vice-pres- ident Rahul Gandhi attended the 100th anniversary of the civil disobedience movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi at Champaran in Bihar. Nitish reportedly conveyed to Sonia that the Congress should take the lead in uniting the Opposition. The Congress too is open to the idea, but it’s not clear if it would be ready to pass on the leadership of the proposed alliance to a non-Congress leader. Nitish is seen as one of the contenders to lead such a grand alliance. Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested four people, including an ex-ser- viceman, for allegedly cheating more than 300 people to the tune of 5 crore on the pretext of offering them loan at low interest rate. They were running the racket since 2011 and were operating as many as 36 bank accounts at different places on forged IDs, according to police. The accused gave advertise- ments in newspaper offering loan on very low rate of inter- est and asked people to contact on their given mobile phones and email IDs, said police. To win the trust of people, they would use names of pop- ular firms, like Mahindra and Mahindra Finance Limited and Satyam Finance Limited and others and even the logos of the companies, said DCP(Crime) Madhur Verma. However, they didn’t tar- geted Delhiites as they were scared of being arrested by the Delhi Police, said one of the investigators, adding that they did not open bank accounts in the city. Out of the 300 victims, police have identified 100 vic- tims from various places like Mumbai, Bhopal and other places so far. Continued on Page 4 I ndia attacked China on Thursday for renaming six cities of Arunachal Pradesh saying changing names does- n’t alter reality and make ille- gal claims legal. Also, New Delhi asserted that Arunachal remains integral part of India. In retaliation to India’s decision to allow Tibetan spir- itual leader the Dalai Lama to visit Tawang in Arunachal recently, China on Wednesday announced that it has “stan- dardised” official names for six places in the Northeastern State. It termed the provocative move as a “legitimate action”. “Assigning invented names to the towns of your neighbour does not make ille- gal territorial claims legal. Arunachal is and will always be an integral part of India,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said. Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu said every inch of Arunachal belongs to India and China renaming Indian cities “makes no sense”. He added no country has the right to rename Indian cities. Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: ( 7 #+ # 857895 :# 51 #$˜%& ’ (!&)*+$,-%˚%˜.˚’ ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝˛˚˜ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˙ ˆ ˝ ˛ ˘ ˚ ˘ ˝ ˆ ˙ ˙ ˜ ! " # # # ˚ $ %˘˜! ˝ ˙ ! ˆ ! " # ˙ ˚ ˜$ %&& ˛

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�#������������ (45�346,�

A30-year-old pavementdweller was killed and three

others injured after they wererun over by a Hyundai i20 carallegedly driven by a student ofDPS Mathura Road near theKashmere Gate ISBT underpassin North Delhi on Thursdayaround 5.45 am, police said.

Samarth Chugh, who hadturned 18 on March 15, wasbehind the wheel when theaccident took place, said police,adding he did not have drivinglicence. The car had two otheroccupants — Bhavya Rajpaland Ujjwal Goel — at the timeof accident. All the three areClass XII students ofCommerce stream. The car,involved in the accident, wasregistered in the name ofUjjwal’s father Rajkumar, asenior police official said.

“We are investigating therole of the person who holds thepower of attorney of the car.Accordingly action will be takenagainst the owner. If we find thatRajkumar was aware that thethree teenagers had taken his

car, he will also be bookedunder relevant sections of thelaw,” the official added.

According to police, in thepreliminary investigation, it hasbeen found that the car wasover-speeding due to which itbarged into the pavement andhit the four pavement dwellers

who were asleep. The impact ofthe accident was so severe thatthe face of the deceased wascompletely disfigured. Policehave failed to establish the iden-tity of the deceased. The othervictims are battling for their lifeat Sushrut Trauma Centre.

The injured persons have

been identified as Asif (30),Karan (26), who works as acook and lives in KarawalNagar, and Sanjay (28), a smalltime labourer who lives underthe Geeta Colony flyover, saidpolice, adding Sanjay sufferedmultiple fractures on his left legwhile Asif sustained head and abdomen injuries. Karanhas received injuries on hishead and leg.

Continued on Page 4Related report on P2

���� ��6!-!7!3

Embattled Pakistan PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif on

Thursday got a temporary relieffrom the Supreme Court,which said there was “insuffi-cient evidence” to remove himfrom office but ordered settingup of a joint team to investigatethe graft allegations againsthis family.

The high-profile graft caseis about alleged money laun-dering by Sharif in 1990s —when he twice served as thePrime Minister — to pur-chase assets in London.The assets surfacedwhen Panama paperslast year showed thatthey were managedthrough offshore com-panies owned bySharif ’s children.

A five-judge SupremeCourt Bench issued a landmark540-page split judgment order-ing setting up of a JointInvestigation Team comprisingofficials from different agen-cies, including those from pow-erful spy agencies the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) andthe Military Intelligence.

The other agencies in theJIT include the Federal

InvestigationAgency (FIA),the NationalAccountability

Bureau (NAB),and the Security

and ExchangeCommission of Pakistan.

The SC comprising JusticeAsif Saeed Khosa, Justice GulzarAhmed, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan,Justice Azmat Saeed and JusticeIjazul Ahsan also ordered 67-year-old Sharif and his twosons — Hasan and Hussain —to appear before the JIT. Thereis “insufficient evidence toremove Prime Minister NawazSharif,” said the verdict.

“A thorough investigationis required,” Justice Khosa said,reading out from the highlyanticipated ruling. The JITwould be set up within a week.It will present its report beforethe Bench after every twoweeks and will complete itsinvestigation in 60 days.

Justice Ejaz, Justice Azmatand Justice Ahsan wrote themajority judgment, whereasJustice Gulzar and Justice Khosain their dissenting note brand-ed Sharif “dishonest” and want-ed to remove the Prime Ministeras sought by the petitioners.

Continued on Page 4Related reports on P12

��� (45�346,�

The Supreme Court onThursday cleared the decks

for the auction of the TajMansingh Hotel located in theheart of the Capital, thus end-ing the hold of the Tatas overone of the most iconic build-ings in Lutyens’ Delhi.

Ending the legal battle overTaj, the apex court allowed therequest of the New DelhiMunicipal Council (NDMC),the land-owning agency, to gofor an e-auction of the hotel in

which the existing leaseholder,Indian Hotels CompanyLimited (IHCL), a Tata sub-sidiary, can bid.

The court refused to enter-tain its request to be grantedthe right of first refusal. Now,the NDMC has a free hand togo for an open public auctionand award the highest bidderthe right to run the hotel.

However, considering the

“blemish-free” record held byTata in running the hotel since1976, the Bench of JusticesPinaki Chandra Ghose andRohington F Nariman said in the event IHCL loses thebid, it will have a “six-month”breathing period to vacate thepremises.

The five-star hotel run bythe IHCL was defended bysenior advocate Harish Salve.He pointed out that the NDMChad invested just about �6 crore while his clients hadpumped in close to �129 crorewith a paid licence fee of over�400 crore.

But the civic body, repre-sented by senior advocateSanjay Jain, contended thatthe NDMC was well within itsright to take this decision in thebest interest of running thehotel. Jain later told reportersthat the e-auction will takeplace in two weeks.

The Tatas had entered intoa 33-year lease to construct andrun the Taj Mansingh Hotel asper an agreement signedbetween the NDMC and IHCLon December 18, 1976. Thelease came to an end in the year2011. Since then it got severalextensions.

Continued on Page 4

���#'�'��#��,�#�� (45�346,�

Amid efforts to float a unit-ed front of Opposition par-

ties to take on the BJP in thenext General Elections and theupcoming Presidential poll,Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar on Thursday metCongress chief Sonia Gandhi.Nitish is also reportedly intouch with senior leaders of theNCP, the Samajwadi Party, theBSP and the Left to unite theOpposition to stop the Modijuggernaut across the country.

Sources said that Nitishand Sonia met at the latter’s res-idence and are believed to have

discussed the current politicalsituation in the country anddeliberated on the grandalliance. The meeting comesdays after Congress vice-pres-ident Rahul Gandhi attendedthe 100th anniversary of thecivil disobedience movementlaunched by Mahatma Gandhiat Champaran in Bihar.

Nitish reportedly conveyedto Sonia that the Congressshould take the lead in unitingthe Opposition.

The Congress too is opento the idea, but it’s not clear ifit would be ready to pass on theleadership of the proposedalliance to a non-Congressleader. Nitish is seen as one ofthe contenders to lead such agrand alliance.

Continued on Page 4

�#������������ (45�346,�

The Delhi Police CrimeBranch has arrested four

people, including an ex-ser-viceman, for allegedly cheatingmore than 300 people to thetune of �5 crore on the pretextof offering them loan at lowinterest rate.

They were running theracket since 2011 and wereoperating as many as 36 bankaccounts at different places onforged IDs, according to police.The accused gave advertise-ments in newspaper offeringloan on very low rate of inter-est and asked people to contacton their given mobile phonesand email IDs, said police.

To win the trust of people,they would use names of pop-ular firms, like Mahindra andMahindra Finance Limited andSatyam Finance Limited andothers and even the logos of thecompanies, said DCP(Crime)Madhur Verma.

However, they didn’t tar-

geted Delhiites as they werescared of being arrested by theDelhi Police, said one of theinvestigators, adding that theydid not open bank accounts inthe city.

Out of the 300 victims,police have identified 100 vic-tims from various places likeMumbai, Bhopal and otherplaces so far.

Continued on Page 4

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

��� (45�346,�

India attacked China onThursday for renaming six

cities of Arunachal Pradeshsaying changing names does-n’t alter reality and make ille-gal claims legal. Also, NewDelhi asserted that Arunachalremains integral part of India.

In retaliation to India’sdecision to allow Tibetan spir-itual leader the Dalai Lama tovisit Tawang in Arunachalrecently, China on Wednesdayannounced that it has “stan-dardised” official names for six places in theNortheastern State. It termedthe provocative move as a“legitimate action”.

“Assigning inventednames to the towns of yourneighbour does not make ille-gal territorial claims legal.Arunachal is and will alwaysbe an integral part of India,” Ministry of ExternalAffairs spokesperson GopalBaglay said.

Information andBroadcasting MinisterVenkaiah Naidu said everyinch of Arunachal belongs toIndia and China renamingIndian cities “makes no sense”.

He added no country has the right to rename Indian cities.

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: ( 7 #+ # 857895 :# 51 #$˜%& ’ (!&)*+$,-%˚%˜.˚’ ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝˛˚˜ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˙ ˆ ˝ ˛ ˘ ˚ ˘ ˝ ˆ ˙ ˙ ˜ ! " # # # ˚ $ %˘˜! ˝ ˙ ! ˆ ! " # ˙ ˚ ˜$ %&& ˛

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����������� ������ ����������������� ������������������������������������������ !����"��#����$�%�&'����())***�� ����������+$������������������������� �������������������,�����-����������./0"10��.02,������**,��-�������0�����!�� ���&��%����-���3���-��4 �5.�4�� �"����-����� ��!�$����5�������������-��6�����'���� 7���������-,�.!8(9*:;9)**�� :;;�:)(:9�<=:)� 9�:)�������&>�����-9��������"��"������$���������? �0���������&(��@*)@�7���������-*;��(� 9@99 �� 9@999�� 9@99;�

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

�#������������ (45�346,�

Having taken a dim view ofthe schools selling sta-

tionary, books and uniforms,the Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) has askedschools affiliated to it that edu-cational institutions are notcommercial establishments andsale of books, uniforms and sta-tionery by them is a violationof norms.

CBSE has issued an advi-sory after it refused innumer-able complaints from the par-ents and stakeholders thatschools are indulging in com-mercial activities by way of sell-ing books and uniforms with-in the school premises orthrough selected vendors.

“The board has taken aserious view of the complaintsand the schools are directed todesist from the unhealthy prac-tice of coercing parents to buy

textbooks, notebooks, station-ary, uniforms, shoes, schoolbags etc from within thepremise or from selected ven-dors only,” the communicationsent to schools stated.

“CBSE norms mandate thatschools are run as communityservice and not as a businessand that commercialisationdoes not take place in theschool in any shape whatsoev-er. Educational institutions are

not commercial establishmentsand their sole purpose is to pro-vide quality education,” it added.

The CBSE has also reiterat-ed its directive to schools to stickto books published by theNational Council of EducationalResearch and Training (NCERT).

“The Board receivesreports and complaints regard-ing the pressure exercised byschools on children and theirparents to buy textbooks other

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#�"����#��#��?+.+?.!-

Now underage drivers inHaryana will have to pay

a fine of �1,000 if they arecaught by the traffic police andwill have to cough up �2,000for repeating the offence. Thenew rule has been announcedby the State Government, aspart of amendments to theMotor Vehicles Act, 1988. Thiswill come into effect on May 1.Currently, the fine for under-age driving is �500.

Haryana Government onTuesday approved the changesand the State transport willissue the notification by the endof this month.

Underage driving is

increasingly becoming a seri-ous problem for the city. Forthis particular offence,Gurugram traffic police haveissued around 50 challans dur-ing their special drive whichstarted on April 15 and willcontinue till April 30.

Ignoring traffic rules,underage drivers can be seencruising on their bikes and carson city roads, endangering theirown lives as well as those ofpedestrians and other drivers.

In 2014, the traffic policehad issued 544 challans forunderage driving. In 2015, thefigure was 131 and around107 minors were caught in2016 by the traffic police.

Worried by this trend, thetraffic police had already sent

notices to schools, asking themto discourage teenagers withouta proper licence, from driving.

“We have not received thenew implementation noticeyet. Whenever we get the newnotification, will issue the chal-lans as per the amendments.

“We issued challans to 50underage drivers during ourspecial drive,” DCP Traffic,Balbir Singh said.

The DCP added thatbesides the driver, there is alsoa provision to punish the ownerof the vehicle.

According to the MotorVehicle Act 1988, the owner ofthe vehicle being driven by anunderage driver is also anoffender. The offence is pun-ishable with imprisonment for

a term which may extend tothree months.

Apart from this, a fewother traffic violations willnow have a higher penalty forrepeat offences like drivingwithout a licence.

The fine for not makingway for an ambulance carryinga patient would be �2,000, buta subsequent offence will costa fine of �5,000.

Similarly, a fine of �500 willbe paid for driving without alicence the first time. The sec-ond time, the penalty will be�1,000.

Carrying goods on pas-senger vehicle would attract afine of �2,000 and on a subse-quent offence, the penaltywould be �5,000.

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In a bid to help improve theair quality in the national

Capital, the National GreenTribunal (NGT) on Thursdaydirected Delhi Government tointroduce destination busesfrom May 1. A Bench headedby NGT Chairperson JusticeSwatanter Kumar directed theAAP Government to run thepoint-to-point buses on anexperimental basis fromDwarka, Rohini, Janakpuri,CGO Complex and Badarpurborder.

The NGT Chairpersonmade it clear that these serviceswill start from spots where it isconvenient for the public atlarge. “Introduction of such busservices would facilitate anindividual to opt for such a ser-vice, rather than driving a caralone on highly-congestedroads” the Bench ordered.

“The NCT Delhi and traf-fic police will duly advertiseabout the introduction of des-tination buses from April 25 forinforming the public,” thebench ordered and sought a sta-tus report within four weeks.The green panel also directedthe Delhi TransportCorporation to maintain thesebuses and engage their staff forcleaning and maintaining them.

The tribunal had earlierpulled up the Delhi Governmentfor not starting these point-to-point bus services till datedespite its order. Destinationbuses are the ones which plyfrom one point to another with-out any halt in between.

The green panel had lam-basted the Delhi Governmentafter its counsel submitted thatthere was shortage of buses.The panel had said “it is evidentthat large number of buses arestanding along Yamuna at the

depot. We see no reason whyState authorities have notimplemented our order so far.”

It also said that such point-to-point buses would result inreducing jams as a large num-ber of people from places likeDwarka and Rohini come tooffices in Central Delhi.

During an earlier hearingthe NGT had said “the traffic onroads of Delhi needs to bereduced by taking various mea-sures that have already beendirected to be taken by variousauthorities, including introduc-tion of destination buses whichcould certainly help particular-ly the middle class and singledriver from opting for destina-tion buses rather than driving acar individually on highly con-gested roads of Delhi.”

It had also asked the AAPGovernment to encouragethose using public transport byproviding incentives to them.

�#������������ (45�346,�

The Returning Officer (RO)of South Delhi Municipal

Corporation (SDMC) onThursday has issued show-cause notice to as many as 43Delhi Government officers fordereliction of election duty.

“The action comes after 43officers of Delhi Government’sRevenue Department hadskipped an election trainingsession on April 13. Keeping inview the seriousness of the mat-ter, showcause notices havebeen issued against them,” anofficial said.

The RO has sought writtenexplanation from the “delin-quent” officials as to why,under the provisions of theRepresentation of Peoples Act,action should not be initiatedagainst them.

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North district police is try-ing to piece together the

sequence of events leading tothe accident at the KashmereGate ISBT underpass which leftone dead and three othersinjured in the wee hours ofThursday. Police said that theyare taking into considerationthe claims of Samarth Chughthat the front tyre of the carburst while he was drivingafter which he got a fit andcould not control the vehicle,leading to the accident.

The defence counsel

informed the Magistrate thatthe accused, Samarth, a studentof Class XII of DPS MathuraRoad suffers from fits. He hasa medical history of seizuresand is being treated for it. “Thecourt accepted the submissionand instructed the Tihar Jailadministration to provide himmedicines. Samarth has beensent to judicial custody,” asenior police officer said.

Talking about the incident,a close relative of the Chughfamily said, “Samarth is a verysincere child. Moreover, he didnot hit the persons intentional-ly. The accident occurred as thefront tyre of the car burst. If hehad done it intentionally, hewould have tried to flee the spot,but he did not.”

The youngest of two chil-dren, Samarth lives with his par-ents in Model Town area ofNorth Delhi. While his father is

a businessman his mother is ahousewife.

In the absence of any CCTVcameras at the underpass, policeare waiting to record the state-ments of the injured persons .“Once they are fit to give thestatement, we will proceed andtake legal action accordingly,”police said. “One of them hasbeen discharged from hospitalbut is not fit enough to give astatement right now,” he said.

Police are also relying onthe documents of the i20 car toascertain the role of the carowner, Ujjwal’s father, RajKumar. “We are probingwhether Raj Kumar had givenconsent to Samarth, Ujjwal andBhavya to take his i20 car andeven if it is proved that he didnot give consent, Raj Kumar willbe booked under Section 180 ofthe Motor Vehicle Act”, the offi-cer added.

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Gautam Budh Nagar districtpolice has rescued a

woman who was abducted bya man from Sector-21 andtaken to Agra where she wasallegedly raped for two months.

According to an FIR lodgedat Sector 20 police station, thewoman was kidnapped byDilshad two months ago andtaken to Agra where she wasallegedly raped over a period oftwo months, police said.

Police rescued the womanon Wednesday night from Agraand brought her to Noida. Shewas the admitted to a hospitalfor medical examination.

In another incident, awoman in Greater Noida hasalleged that she was sexuallyassaulted by a man, living inher neighbourhood, after hebarged into her house.

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The National Green Tribunal(NGT) on Thursday termed

as “shocking” the charge lev-elled by spiritual figure Sri SriRavi Shankar and his NGO ‘Artof Living’ against theGovernment and the greenpanel for the damage to theYamuna floodplains, saying hehad “no sense of responsibility”.

“You have no sense ofresponsibility. Just because youhave filed an application does-n’t give you the liberty to saywhatever you want to. It isshocking,” a Bench headed byNGT Chairperson JusticeSwatanter Kumar said.

Two days ago, RaviShankar had blamed theGovernment and the NGT forpermitting AOL to hold the fes-tival on the Yamuna river bedand said they should be heldresponsible if any environ-mental damage was caused.

The strong remarks by theNGT came after advocateSanjay Parikh, appearing forpetitioner Manoj Misra,informed the Bench about RaviShankar’s recent statementblaming the Government andthe NGT for permitting hisNGO to hold the three-dayWorld Culture Festival on theYamuna floodplains fromMarch 11-13 last year.

The NGT had then allowedAOL to hold the festival whileexpressing helplessness in ban-ning the event saying it was a“fait accompli”.

Parikh also told the greenBench that the AOL head hasbeen repeatedly levelling alle-gations against the NGT.

He said Ravi Shankar hadposted a statement on the web-site of the AOL and his Facebookpage and also addressed themedia in a written statement.

Hours after the hearing,AOL issued a statement sayingit has requested the Bench tohear its application on the“bias” of the Expert Committeemembers.

than (that of) NCERT,” it said. Following complaints

about shortage of NCERTbooks, the CBSE had askedschools to raise online indentfor NCERT textbooks andmore than 2,000 schools hadparticipated in that. UnionHuman ResourcesDevelopment (HRD) MinisterPrakash Javadekar recently saidthat NCERT textbooks havebeen supplied to 2,000 privateschools.

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In a shocking incident, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl was

allegedly raped by one of herneighbours for five-six days insouth-east Delhi’s OkhlaIndustrial Area, police said onThursday, adding that theaccused has been arrested.

The accused, a 30-year-oldcasual labourer from Bihar,was arrested after the incidentwas reported to the police.

The incident came to lighton Wednesday evening whenthe victim’s seven-year-oldbrother saw the accused takingthe girl to his house, said asenior police officer.

The boy got suspiciousand followed the accused, headded.

When he saw the accusedforcing himself on his sister, heraised an alarm and subse-quently, the police wereinformed, said the officer.

It has been learnt that theaccused had been taking thegirl to his house on the pretextof playing with her and sexu-ally assaulting her for the lastfive-six days, he added.

The girl had earlier com-plained to her parents of stom-ach pain, but could not conveyher ordeal to them, said theofficer.

Charges of kidnapping,rape and provisions of thePrevention of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO) Acthave been slapped on theaccused, he added.

The victim’s father works asa security guard while theaccused was currently unemployed.

The accused is marriedwith three children. However,his family members are cur-rently not in town and havegone back to Bihar.

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With just two days left forthe municipal polls in

the national Capital, DelhiBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)president Manoj Tiwari saidthat the performance of hisparty-run civic bodies wasnot up to the “high standard”the BJP had set for itself.Tiwari however, exuded con-fidence that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s image willhelp it win the MCD polls fora third time in a row.

Tiwari blamed the AAPGovernment for not beingable to ensure proper func-tioning of the three municipalcorporations, saying the bod-ies are departments whichcome under the DelhiGovernment and it is the lat-ter’s responsibility to ensuretheir smooth running.

He asserted, “Let Kejriwalhandle the municipal corpo-rations and the BJP be allowedto run the Delhi Government.Everything will be fixed.” Hesaid that the municipal cor-porations have come up withbeautiful parks in the city thathave saved people from pollution.

The Bhojpuri actor-singer-turned-politician also assert-ed that the party will not faceanti-incumbency sentimentsin the upcoming civic polls,which he said was the “semi-final” to the next Assemblyelections in Delhi, whose ChiefMinister will be from the saf-fron party.

“The three municipal cor-porations ruled by the partyhave not been able to touch thebenchmark of work set by theBJP at the national level afterit came to power in 2014,”

Tiwari said.He said the “so-called”

anti-incumbency against the10-year rule of the BJP in themunicipal corporations is “notso much visible on the ground”as is being discussed in themedia and by the Oppositionparties.

“Municipal corporationsare merely a department of theDelhi Government. Therefore,the Delhi Chief Minister isfully responsible if the civicbodies have not been able toperform up to the mark,” heasserted.

Noting that in the last 10years, the Congress ruled Delhifor seven years and the AAP fortwo years, Tiwari said thatthese two parties are to beequally blamed and are “guilty”if the performance of the civicbodies was not “up to themark”.

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Knowing fully well that themunicipal elections are the

litmus test for it, the AamAadmi Party (AAP), onThursday came out with a pollconducted by a private agencyto claim that the party was allset to sweep the elections. AAPleader Ashish Khetan claimedon Thursday that it was set towin 218 of the 272 municipalwards in Delhi in the high volt-age Sunday election.

Khetan told the media thatthe Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), which has controlled thecivic body for ten years, wouldbe left with 39 wards and theCongress eight. Independentcandidates and smaller partieswould corner a huge 11.5 percent of all votes but win justseven seats, he said.

Khetan said these figureshad emerged after a profes-sional agency interviewedaround 31,000 voters in Delhion whom they planned to votefor in the civic polls.

The AAP, which rulesDelhi, would grab 51.2 per centof all votes, 3.1 per cent lessthan what it got when it swept67 of the 70 Assembly seats in2015, he said. The BJP wouldget 28.1 per cent of the votesand the Congress 9.2 per cent,he said.

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NEW DELHI: FledglingSwaraj India suffered a jolt aftertwo of its candidates contestingthe upcoming MCD pollsditched the party to join theBJP. The party has sackedAmrita Rashmi, candidatefrom ward No 24S Bapriolaunder the South Delhi MCD,after BJP leaders were found tobe campaigning for her.

“After it was brought to ournotice, we immediately sackedAmrita Rashmi from the party,”Swaraj India spokespersonAnupam said. Its other candi-date Twinkle Kalia is beingsupported by the BJP.

Known for driving anambulance to ferry road acci-

dent victims to hospital free ofcost, Kalia is contesting fromWard No 81N in Kishan Ganjunder the North MCD.

“Kalia said, she wants be ajoint candidate of the BJP andSwaraj India. This was unac-ceptable to us as we don’t wantto be seen in alliance with theBJP,” Anupam added.

Interestingly, if the twocandidates win, there is a legallacuna that will help the twoescape action under the anti-defection law.

“Although they are SwarajIndia candidates, they techni-cally remain independent as wehave not been alloted a com-mon symbol. ��

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The delegation led by DelhiPradesh Congress

Committee (DPCC) presidentAjay Maken on Thursday sub-mitted a complaint to DelhiPolice Commissioner AmulyaPatnaik, seeking the arrest ofChief Minister Arvind Kejriwaland Ministers and officials ofhis Government in connectionwith the findings of theShunglu Committee report.

In the run-up to the MCDpolls, scheduled to be held onApril 23, the Congress haslaunched a campaign demand-ing registration of an FIR onthe basis of the ShungluCommittee report, the content

of which has been brought tothe public domain by Makenthrough an RTI application.

“The delegation demandedthat a case be registered againstKejriwal and ministers andofficials of his governmentwho have been indicted in theShunglu Committee report,”Maken told reporters aftermeeting the PoliceCommissioner.

He added that all the 272Congress candidates for theMCD polls have lodged similarcomplaints at respective policestations across the city. Makensaid if the police failed to lodgea case against Kejriwal andothers, his party will approachthe court for the same.

NEW DELHI: In a setback tothe Delhi Congress ahead ofthe civic polls, Barkha ShuklaSingh, the former MLA fromRK Puram Assembly quit aschief of the women’s wing.Singh also hit out at vice-pres-ident Rahul Gandhi and theparty’s Delhi unit chief AjayMaken for ignoring workers.

The former DelhiCommission for Women(DCW) chief said on Thursday,“Congress Party under the lead-ership of Rahul Gandhi and AjayMaken have only used the issueof empowerment of women andwomen’s security to gather votes.The issue means nothing tothem.” Singh said, “In the cur-rent organisation where I myself

am unsafe, how will I empow-er women in that organisation.That is why I hereby resign fromthe post of president of DelhiMahila Congress.”

“With utmost regret I haveto say that the Congress Partyunder the leadership of RahulGandhi and Ajay Maken haveonly used the issue of empow-erment of women and womensecurity to gather votes and itmeans nothing to them. Ajay

Maken, Rahul Gandhi’s nom-inee in the party, misbehaved,not only with me but also withseveral office bearers of DelhiMahila Congress, and when thesame was brought to the noticeof Rahul Gandhi, our plea fellon deaf ears”, she said.

Singh even quoted othersenior party leaders questioningher party’s vice-president’s capa-bilities, saying “Rahul Gandhi isunfit to lead the party”.

“The one pertinent questionwe need to ask today is why isRahul Gandhi in hiding? Why ishe scared of meeting his ownparty members?” Singh said ina statement. Several senior lead-ers have quit the party becauseof that very reason, she said. Asmany as five District presidentsand 75 Block presidents resignedfrom the organisation. One ofthem has also filed a complaintof harassment against AjayMaken and Shobha Oza”, she fur-ther said. ��

#�0 3�0�.������������) ��� �/���/�����/��4�5��6��1�*�2�������/ NEW DELHI: The metro train

services in Delhi will com-mence from 4 am on April 23in view of the municipal polls,the Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) onThursday said. Elections tothe three civic bodies are dueon Sunday and the Delhi StateElection Commission is gear-ing up for the electoral exercise.

“On the day of the MCDelections, the Metro train serviceswill start from 4.00 am, so that thestaff deployed in election dutycan avail the facility. “The trainswill run with a frequency of 30minutes on all the lines till 6.00am. After 6.00 am, trains will runas per the normal timetablethroughout the day on all lines,”said a DMRC official. ��

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Home Minister Rajnath Singhon Thursday hit out at the

Kejriwal Government, accusingit of “hampering” the function-ing of MCDs, starving them bynot providing their due fundsamounting to �9,000 crore.

The senior BJP leader cam-paigning for party candidates innorthwest Delhi’s Kirari areasaid that the Aam Aadmi Partydoes not have the “moral right”to level allegations against thethree municipal corporations.

Singh said the Congressand the AAP, which have ruledDelhi for 15 years and two-and-a-half years respectively, have“muddied Delhi and peopleknow the lotus (the BJP’s poll

symbol) blooms only in mud”.“The AAP and the

Congress say that the BJP hasruled municipal corporationsfor 10 years and did not work.How would the BJP-ruledMCD work when the AAPGovernment did not providefunds to the civic bodies.

“Our MCD leaders repeat-edly requested the Governmentto release funds, but it (Kejriwalgovernment) did not give it,”the senior BJP leader said.

He said that the FinanceCommission had recommend-ed �9,000 crore for the MCD,but the AAP Government onlyreleased �2,800 crore, addingthat “In this situation, howwould MCD work? They(AAP) do not have moral rightto point fingers at us.”

Seeking to corner the AamAadmi Party over its poll promis-es in the run up to the 2015 DelhiAssembly elections, Singh said,“The BJP does not do politics bymisleading people. Unlike theCongress and the AAP, there isno difference between deedsand words of the BJP.”

“Both parties have lostpeople’s faith, but the BJP willdefinitely win people’s faiththis time,” he said.

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All convicts in the jails of Uttar Pradesh, whetherpetty criminals or notorious mafia dons,

should get the same food and treatment, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath has told State officials.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s remarkscame at a review meeting of the State’s Home,Vigilance and Jails department on lateWednesday night.

There have often been reports and allegationsin the past about certain prisoners enjoying priv-ileges in jails including the use of phones etc.

The Chief Minister said the same foodshould be given to all convicts — petty crimi-nals or mafia dons — lodged in jails and orderedinstallation of mobile phone jammers, an offi-cial spokesman said.

The Chief Minister warned officials of thejails department against any leniency showntowards notorious criminals and asserted thatthey should not be allowed to use medical treat-ment as an excuse.

In the meeting, the Chief Minister stressedon effective checks on corruption in all cells ofthe police and identification of staff membershaving links with criminals and anti-social ele-ments, the spokesperson said.

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AMuslim women’s body hassaid that the All India

Muslim Personal Law Board(AIMPLB) should not act likea kangaroo court and has noright to impose its decisions onissues like ‘triple talaq’.

The comments by All IndiaMuslim Women Personal LawBoard (AIMWPLB) presidentShaista Amber came as the YogiAdityanath led Uttar PradeshGovernment initiated theprocess of eliciting the views ofMuslim women on the ‘tripletalaq’ mode of divorce.

“The AIMPLB should notact like khap panchayat (kan-garoo court). They have noright to force their decisions orrecommendations on anyone.It is the decision of the courtand Parliament, which is final-ly accepted,” Amber said onThursday.

Moreover, in the name of

defending the law, threemonths counselling periodmentioned in the Sharia(Islamic law) cannot be over-looked, she added.

Amber, had on Wednesdayattended a meeting called byUttar Pradesh Women andFamily Welfare Minister RitaBahuguna Joshi to elicit theviews of Muslim women on theissue of triple talaq.

The State Governmentintends to place these viewsbefore the Supreme Court.

“The Constitution hasgiven the right to equality toall...Triple talaq is most unfor-tunate for Muslim women andthe UP Government, on thebasis of their (Muslim women)opinion, will place its viewbefore the Supreme Court,”Baghuguna said.

Bahuguna said that equal-ity in education, security as wellas social equality are not justthe but also a necessity for

every woman.She said there are several

Muslim countries where tripletalaq has been done away withadding that the Supreme Courtwas deliberating on the issueand the UP Government willplace its views before the apexcourt based on the opinion ofMuslim women.

Those who participated inthe meeting called byBahuguna are learnt to haveopined that the option of socialboycott of those indulging intriple talaq in an arbitrarymanner, as recommended bythe AIMPLB, will not help indiscouraging the practice.

The AIMPLB had earlieradopted a resolution sayingthat those who give talaq with-out Sharia reasons will facesocial boycott. It had assertedthat Muslims have a “constitu-tional” right to follow their per-sonal law including the tripletalaq mode of divorce.

6#���������������������6��%��������������:

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BJP general secretary RamMadhav on Thursday com-

plimented an Army officerresponsible for tying a man toa jeep’s bonnet in Kashmir, say-ing “everything is fair in loveand war” and the “harsh” deci-sion saved lives of civilians andsoldiers.

The saffron party’s points-man for Jammu & Kashmiralso said the current Kashmirsituation is “certainly trou-bling” but expressed confi-dence that the PDP-BJPGovernment will handle it.

“The situation is difficultbut such situations have beenthere in the Valley so manytimes before,” he told CNN-News18, according to a Pressrelease.

Asked about the contro-versial video showing the civil-ian tied to the Army jeep,

Madhav said nobody wantsthis but justified the act sayingif one person’s human rightsare violated in order to protectthe human rights of manymore, he will leave that judge-ment to the officer concerned.

“I will compliment him forthe decision that he took. Hesaved the lives of the people inpolice station, officials and all,and also his own boys. He alsodid not allow any civilian casu-alty,” he said.

Had the Army not done so,then the mob there wouldhave lynched over 50 civiliansand almost equal number ofsecurity personnel there,Madhav claimed.

The other option beforethe army was to fire indis-criminately because the officerhad about 10 soldiers withhim, and this would havecaused civilian casualties, hesaid.

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New Delhi: India on Thursdaysaid it was keeping a “closewatch” on the US tightening theH-1B visa rules which willimpact Indian IT industry andprofessionals, and asserted thatthe issue will be taken up withthe Trump administration.

External Affairs Ministryspokesperson Gopal Baglaycalled it a “trade and servicesissue and not a matter relatingto immigration.”

He said India will make anoverall assessment of theimpact of the changes after theUS’ internal process relating tothe visa programme was over.

“It is not an immigrationissue. It is a trade and servicesissue... There is a mutuality ofinterests involved,” he said,also referring to large numberof US professionals working inAmerican IT companies inIndia.

In a blow to Indian ITindustry and professionals, USPresident Donald Trump has

signed an executive order fortightening the rules of the H-1B visa programme to stop its“abuse” and ensure that thevisas are given to the “most-skilled or highest paid” petitioners.

He said visa issue will bepart of the India’s talks with thecountries where changes invisa programme have beenmade which are impactingIndian professionals.

The MEA spokespersonsaid the executive order has tobe “acted upon”.

“It is an internal process inthe US which will unfold in thecoming days and weeks and wewill keep a close watch on that.We will keep this issue on ourradar,” he told reporters.

The MEA spokespersonalso said India had alreadyconveyed to the US about thecontribution of Indian ITprofessionals to the the coun-try’s competitiveness andinnovation. PTI

From Page 1Janata Dal (United) used the meet-

ing to call for a joint Opposition can-didate for the election to the President’spost and urged Gandhi to take the leadin the matter. JD(U) spokesperson KCTyagi, however, insisted that the issueof presidential election was not dis-cussed in the meeting and added it washis party’s view that a strong jointOpposition candidate will be in nation-al interest.

“There should be a joint Oppositioncandidate for the top Constitutional postand Sonia Gandhi being the leader ofthe largest Opposition party should takethe lead,” he said.

The grand alliance buzz gainedmomentum after the BJP’s stupendousshow in the recent Assembly polls.Senior Opposition leaders includingNCP president Sharad Pawar, BSPsupremo Mayawati, SP chief AkhileshYadav, have already called for stitchingtogether such a front.

Kumar has been calling for forginga grand alliance of secular parties at thenational level on the lines of the 2015electoral alliance or ‘Mahagathbandhan’in Bihar to take on the BJP under Prime

Minister Narendra Modi. The Congressis currently a partner in the BiharGovernment with Nitish Kumar’sJD(U) and Lalu Prasad’s RJD, after thethree parties contested and won theAssembly elections as part of the grandalliance.

According to sources, in theirone-on-one meeting, Nitish and Soniaespecially discussed the outcome of therecent Assembly polls in five States andthe need for the Opposition parties tocome together.

Stressing the need to rope in theLeft parties, close sources of Nitish saidhe also discussed with Sonia the needfor a Common Minimum Programmefor the constituent parties to create apolitical roadmap for the country.

With this, the JD(U) is also tryingto regain its strength in Bihar as theparty’s tally had dropped from 20 tojust two in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.The Congress’ tally dropped from206 in 2009 to just 44. However, in the2015 Bihar Assembly polls, the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance emerged as asuccess political story which in factthen had also shaken the BJP’s lead-ership.

From Page 1The IHC initially challenged the NDMC move to go for an

auction in the Delhi High Court, but it failed o get any relief.In its suit, the Tatas sought a decree of permanent injunction torestrain the NDMC from interfering in any manner with the pos-session, right to operate, run and maintain the hotel property.

Following the HC order, IHCL approached the apex court,which ordered status quo in November 2016.

While Tatas claimed there was no need to go for an auctionwhen the company was willing to give the best revenue possi-ble for the prime property, the Court felt that the civic body hadall the right to proceed with the auction.

From Page 1Deputy Commissioner of

Police (North) Jatin Narwalsaid, “We have registered a caseunder Sections 279 (Rash dri-ving), 337 (Causing hurt by actendangering life or personalsafety of others) and 304(cuplable homicide notamounting to murder, a non-bailable offence) of the IPC.Samarth Chugh has been pro-duced in the court and sentinto judicial custody.”

“Samarth told police thatafter crushing the people underhis car, he got out of the car.While all his friends fled thescene, he was shell-shockedand remained standing there.He also claimed that the fronttyre of the car got puncturedleading to the fatal accident,”said a senior police officer.

A senior investigator said,“We did not find any alcoholbottles from the car of theaccused. In the initial investi-gation, the accused too denieddriving under the influence ofalcohol. But we have takentheir blood samples and sentthem for analysis to verifytheir claims and to make it awater-tight case.”

Police said that apart theyfound syringes at the crimescene indicating that the acci-dent site is often occupied bydrug addicts.

Recalling about the acci-dent, Sanjay said, “We all weresleeping at the time of the inci-dent. Before we could save our-selves, we were hit by the car.”

Later in on Thursday after-noon, the two surrendered tothe police in the presence oftheir family members but werelet off,” said a senior officer.

Eyewitnesses told policethat the underpass pavement,where the accident took place,is often occupied by drugaddicts and homeless labour-ers who do not have any otherplace to go.

Waiting at the KashmereGate police station, a relative ofSamarth Chugh said, “Theaccident happened due topuncture of the front tyre.They all were not over-speed-ing. All the three are bright stu-dents. They are left with theirlast paper which is scheduledfor April 29. They all used toget together for group studyand go for snacks or to a gur-dwara often.”

From Page 1Upon receipt of the JIT

report, “issues relating to thedisqualification of the PM maybe taken up,” says the verdict.

The case filed by variouspetitioners — PakistanTehreek-i-Insaf chief ImranKhan, Jamaat-i-Islami emirSirajul Haq and Sheikh RashidAhmed — sought disqualifi-cation of Prime Minister Sharifover his alleged misstatementin his address to the nation onApril 5, 2016 and his speechbefore the National Assemblyon May 16, 2016.

The petitioners hadclaimed that the PM lied aboutthe investments made by hischildren in offshore companies,which led to the acquisition offour apartments in London’supscale Park Lane neighbour-hood.

The case was launched onNovember 3 and the courtheld 35 hearings before con-cluding the proceedings onFebruary 23. Sharif, his daugh-

ter Maryam Nawaz, sons —Hasan Nawaz and HussainNawaz — retired CaptMuhammad Safdar (the PM’sson-in-law) and FinanceMinister Ishaq Dar wereamong the respondents in thecase.

The court also orderedthat it was important to probehow money was transferred toQatar. The Bench was not sat-isfied with regards to themoney trail for the Sharif fam-ily’s Gulf steel mill and orderedto investigate their businessdealings in Qatar.

Sharif had argued that theLondon property was boughtfrom the money earned afterselling share Gulf steel mill inQatar and produced a letter bya Qatari prince in his support.The London properties ownedby Sharif ’s children are at thecenter of controversy.

In the verdict, the benchsaid that the NAB Chairmanhas failed to cooperate with theinvestigation, and the Director

General FIA has failed to curbwhite collar crimes, necessitat-ing the formulation of the JIT.

Sharif and his PML-Nparty breathed a collective sighof relief as the fear of an“extreme verdict” — the PM’souster — dissolved and gaveway to celebrations. His sup-porters hailed the court’s deci-sion as a victory of justice.“We have been vindicated asPrime Minister had last yearasked to set up a probe com-mission to investigate Panamaleaks scandal,” said KhawajaAsif, defence minister and closeally of Sharif.

TV footage showed Sharifembracing his younger brotherShahbaz Sharif, who is CM ofPunjab province. Maryam tweet-ed a photo of Sharif, his familyand PML-N leaders celebratingthe verdict with smiles andembraces. Sharif is the onlyPakistani politician who has thedistinction of being the primeminister of the coup-prone coun-try for a record three times.

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From Page 1According to media reports from

China its Civil Affairs Ministry had“standardised in Chinese characters,Tibetan and Roman alphabet the namesof six places in South Tibet, which Indiacalls ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, in accor-dance with the regulations of the StateCouncil.”

The official names of the six placesusing the Roman alphabet areWo’gyainling, Mila Ri, Qoidêngarbo Ri,

Mainquka, Bümo La and NamkapubRi. It seems Wo’gyainling is likely thename given by Chinese for Ugyen Lingmonastery, the birthplace of the sixthDalai Lama in Tawang district,Qoidêngarbo Ri is likely to be ChotenKarpo Ri, Mainquka is likely to beMechuka in West Siang district andBümo La is likely to be Bumla, nearTawang.

The reports claimed naming theplaces is a step to reaffirm China’s ter-ritorial sovereignty to South Tibet.However, Baglay said that namingtowns does not alter reality that thesetowns of Arunachal Pradesh are with-in Indian territory.

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From Page 1Police said they received a

vital clue in the case whenpolice started scanning detailsof bank accounts in which thevictims deposited money.

While the guarantors forrest of the bank accounts hadfake addresses, one of theaccounts had a guarantor,whose identity and addresswere found to be genuine andthrough him, police managedto find the accused, saidanother officer.

While three of the accusedwere arrested fromBulandshahar, the fourthaccused was arrested fromAligarh, UP respectively dur-ing the last week.

“They used to withdrawmoney from the accountsquickly. Even during demon-etisation, they managed towithdraw huge amounts ofmoney despite being a cap onwithdrawals. They madefriendship with a petrol pumpattendant in UP. Duringdemonetisation for all thecash payments made at thepetrol pump, the attendantwould swipe the debit cards ofthe accused and hand over thecash paid to him by the cus-tomer,” the DCP said.

“The attendant used tokeep a part of the money forhimself. He is also likely to bearrested soon,” said anotherofficer. In January this year,the Crime Branch received a

complaint from Joy Pereira, aresident of Palghar inMumbai, alleging that he hadbeen cheated of �83,630 onthe pretext of providing aloan. He told police that hehad applied for a personalloan of �4 lakh from a Delhi-based finance company afterreading a newspaper adver-tisement, said Verma.

“They were offering loanon an interest rate of two percent per annum. When Pereiraenquired about the reason forthe low rate of interest, theysaid it was NRI money,” saidVerma. They asked the com-plainant to pay a processingfree of �4,500 after whichthey sent an agreement askinghim to pay �15,780. Theydemanded �27,350 for advo-cate fees, the DCP added.

After Pereira had paidthree times, they asked him toarrange three bank guarantorsbut he cited his inability to doso. Then Pereira was told thatthe firm would arrange threeguarantors but he would haveto pay �36,000 (�12,000 foreach guarantor). The moneypaid by the complainant wentinto separate accounts beingoperated in banks in neigh-bouring Ghaziabad.

One of the accused, RaviKumar, introduced himself asBansal, a coordinator ofMahindra and MahindraFinance Company Limitedand demanded �36,000 more.

He told Pereira that his trea-surer Sanjeev Sharma is inICU after he met with an acci-dent and asked him to pay�36,000 more so that he couldarrange for another treasurer.

Irked by constantdemands for money, Pereiraasked him to cancel his loanand return his money, inves-tigations revealed.

Sensing that he has beenduped, Pereira investigatedon his own and found that oneof the accounts was opened bya man based in Jagatpuri andhe approached Delhi Policewith a complaint. A team wasconstituted to nab the accusedunder the supervision of ACPAnand Kumar Mishra.

On the basis of someleads, police arrested KrishanPal, alias Fauji (42) on April 6and later his associates —Ravi Kumar (27), Tikshnapal(24) and Rajneesh Prakash(35) — were arrested.Tikshnapal and Ravi werearrested in 2015 in Ropardistrict in Punjab in 2015 ina cheating case. Fauji is want-ed in a cheating case byBhopal Police, the DCPadded.

Fauji was a driver with theASC unit of the Army andretired in 2013 after servingfor 17 years. Police suspectthat there are 10-12 morepersons who are involved inthe racket and more arrests arelikely to be made.

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Mumbai: Barely a month afterbeing grounded for assaultingan Air India staffer, Shiv SenaMP Ravindra Gaikwad onThursday took to the skiesagain.

His airline of choice wasAir India, as he took a flightfrom Hyderabad to Delhishortly after 4 pm, an aide ofGaikwad told PTI.

“Ravi Sir (as Gaikwad, aformer teacher, is known in hisOsmanabad constituency) trav-elled business class fromHyderabad to Delhi today, daysafter the flying ban was lifted,”the aide said.

On April 8, private airlineshad lifted the nearly two week-long flying ban on Gaikwad.

The decision of theFederation of Indian Airlines(FIA) had come a day after thenational carrier, followingdirection from the CivilAviation Ministry, revoked theban on Gaikwad.

The flying restriction onthe Lok Sabha member hadbeen lifted after he gave anundertaking that such inci-dents would not reoccur.

PTI

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Hoshiarpur: Canada’s Indian-origin Defence Minister HarjitSingh Sajjan was on Thursdayaccorded a warm reception athis ancestral village of Bambeli,15 km from here.

A tight security arrange-ment was made by police forthe Canadian DefenceMinister’s visit.

The entire route fromHoshiarpur-Mahilpur road toBambeli village was decorated byinstalling big hoardings in hon-our of Sajjan, who was visitinghis native village after 16 years,and on the way, people showeredpetals on his cavalcade.

He first paid obeisance tothe village Gurdwara and waspresented a ‘Siropa’ (robe ofhonour) jointly by GranthiOnkar Singh and manager ofthe Gurdwara Balbir Singh.

After paying obeisance, hewent to his house to join hisfamily. PTI

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New Delhi: The Income Tax(I-T) department on Thursdayseized over �10 crore in cashand about ten kg of gold afterit conducted searches at theNoida residence of a seniorUttar Pradesh bureaucrat, anofficial said.

In a second action, the taxsleuths searched at least fourpremises of a former OSD ofNoida Authority YP Tyagi inNoida near here as part of itscrackdown against government

servants on charges of allegedtax evasion, the official, whorequested anonymity, said.

The official said the I-Tteams, in the first search thatbegan early morning, seized

over �10 crore in cash and ten kgof gold from the Noida residenceof Additional Commissioner ofstate Sales Tax department iden-tified as Keshav Lal.

The officer is posted inKanpur at present, the officialsaid.

In the second search atNoida, the department recov-ered some documents and issearching various premises andbank lockers associated withTyagi and his son. PTI

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Bollywood actress Dia Mirzahas appealed to the

Government to impose a com-plete ban on the use of animalsin circuses.

In a letter to UnionEnvironment Minister AnilMadhav Dave, she said animalswhich are used for entertain-ment are “mutilated and

starved” and are forced to per-form unnatural tricks.

Elephants, which is anational heritage animal, ismade to endure constant con-finement and abuse in circus-es, flight feathers of all per-forming birds are cut and bullhooks used to control ele-phants, she said in the letterwritten on World Circus Dayon April 15.

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I, Pawan Kumar S/o Madan LalJain R/o House No-116,Bahubali Enclave Delhi-110092have changed my name toPawan Kumar Jain for all futurepurpose

PD(7615)CI, Deep Shikha Gupta W/oKapil Kansal R/o A-103 MauryaApartments I.P. Extension Delhihave changed my name toDeepa Kansal for all futurepurpose.

PD(7616)CI, Chand Bano W/o MirzaQamar Abbas R/o H.No. P38/2,Gali No. 17 Braham Puri Delhi-110053 have changed my nameto Ashiya Zehra for all futurepurpose.

PD(7617)CI, Mohammad Nooh Zaidi S/oSh. Babar Zaidi R/o B-103,Sector-14, Noida (U.P.) havechanged my name to AayanZaidi for all purposes.

PD(7618)A

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The Army has ordered acourt of enquiry into the

incident in which a man wastied in front of a jeep as ahuman shield allegedly by theArmy to ward off stone throw-ers on April 9 in Budgam dis-trict of South Kashmir. Theenquiry will be held in Srinagarand the officers conductingthe probe were asked to submitthe findings within a month.

The incident, which wascaptured on video and wentviral, took place in Budgam.Sources said a Major rank offi-cer was allegedly involved in it.He reportedly ordered that theyoung man, who was allegedlynabbed throwing stones at secu-rity forces and a poll conduct-ing party, be tied in front of anArmy jeep to prevent mobsfrom pelting stones on theparty. Earlier, the Army had anin house investigation to ascer-tain the facts and decided onThursday to go in for a court ofenquiry, sources said here.

While several political par-ties condemned the reported

high-handedness of the Army,officials have so far maintainedthat the Major showed presenceof mind and took this initiativeafter receiving a call that a pollparty and accompanying securitymen were getting hit by stones.

The officer rushed into safe-ly escort the team out of the area,sources said adding mobs werestanding on rooftops to preventsecurity forces from assisting inpeaceful conduct of the polls.The Major brought out theentire team safely without resort-ing to force and prevented thealready volatile situation fromgetting worse, they claimed.

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Amid talks of change ofguards in the Congress, a

senior AICC member hascharged that senior partyleader and AICC general sec-retary Digvijay Singh is harm-ing the grand old party and hasbeen thwarting attempts ofvice president Rahul Gandhi totake over as president of theCongress.

The AICC member fromKarnataka TDRHarishchandra Gowda hastermed Digvijay as a treacher-ous man and alleged he him-self wants to become theCongress president. Digvijaydoes not want Rahul to takeover the reins from ailingSonia Gandhi, he charged.

In a letter to the Congresspresident, Gowda mentionedthat some of the party mem-bers including Sonia herself istotally upset due to the highhandedness of the Rajput lead-ers from north India. He alsoindicated that at one point oftime Digvijay was planning toanoint former Union MinisterP Chidambaram as the head ofthe party.

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With time running shortfor an appeal in the court

in ex-Indian Navy officialKulbhushan Jadhav’s case, Indiahas officially sought fromPakistan the details of his trialproceedings and the process forappeal in the case.

Besides, India also made afresh request for consularaccess to Jadhav onWednesday through a noteverbale handed over toPakistan deputy HighCommissioner Haider Shah.This is India’s 15th request forConsular access to Jadhav.Pakistan is yet to respond toIndia’s requests on Jadhav,who has been given deathpenalty by a Pakistan Army’sField General Court Martial(FGCM) on charges of spying.Jadhav was awarded deathsentence on April 10, 2017 and

has 60 days to appeal. Ten days have already

passed after the FGCM orderand India has not got any for-mal response to its request forcopy order, chargesheet andtrial proceedings. India hasalso asked for summary of evi-dence and medical report ofJadhav and sought Pakistanfor assistance with a lawyer todefend Jadhav in the appealcourt. In addition, India hasalso sought visas for Jadhav’sfamily members to visitPakistan for the legal process.

External Affairs Ministryspokesperson Gopal Baglaysaid on Thursday that Indiaawaits formal response fromPakistan to its demands.“Kulbhushan Jadhav’s healthand his condition is a matter ofconcern for us. We don’t knowanything about Jadhav’s loca-tion or condition in Pakistan,”Baglay said.

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On the occasion to mark theCivil Services Day, Union

Home Minister Rajnath Singhon Thursday asked the babus tostand up to the political mas-ters if they give wrong orders,not become a “yes man” and beimpartial. At the same time, hepulled up the bureaucrats ask-ing them to be punctual afterthe event he attended gotdelayed by a few minutes.

“If a political executivegives wrong orders, do not bescared to show them rules. Tellthe political executive that youare legally wrong. Do not signthe file. Haan mein haan naamilaiye (Do not become a yesman). Do not betray your con-science,” he told the inauguralsession of the event here.

Singh, who was the chiefguest, expressed his displeasureon the delayed start of the func-tion. “I was a little bit worried

today. The programme wassupposed to start at 9.45 (am).We reached five minutes beforethe scheduled time. But it start-ed at 9.57 (am),” he said at theevent attended mostly by offi-cers belonging to IAS andother all India services.

Singh said there may bemany reasons for the delayedstart and some reasons mayberight but there should be anintrospection as to why the sit-uation is such as it is today. “Itwould have been good that wewould not have deviated (fromthe scheduled time). Has therebeen any laxity in our com-mitment?” he asked.

Lauding the role of bureau-crats in bringing changes in thesociety, the Home Minister saidthe job makes an officer respon-sible, accountable and impartial.“Civil services has power. Butwith power comes big respon-sibility, accompanied byaccountability. We should alwaysremember this. Along with the

responsibility and accountabil-ity, impartiality is the third mostimportant aspect of our civil ser-vants. Lack of impartiality mayaffect your decision makingcapabilities,” he said.

The Home Minister alsotook a dig at officers who “avoid”taking decisions, saying such hes-itation may harm the country’sinterests. “If necessary, discussand deliberate with your seniorsbut there should be no hesitationin taking decisions,” he said.

Singh said the country’sfirst Home Minister, SardarVallabhbhai Patel, had saidthat if civil services was called‘steel frame’ of India it wouldnot be an exaggeration.

The function was attendedby Minister of State forPersonnel Jitendra Singh,Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha,Additional Principal Secretaryto Prime Minister PK Mishra,Secretaries of many CentralMinistries and departmentsamong others.

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With locals citing a threatto the endangered long-

billed vultures due to the pro-posed Girnar Ropeway inGujarat’s Junagadh, aParliamentary panel has askedthe Central Government toreconsider the green approvalto the project given last year.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had laid the foundationstone of the project to developthe ropeway for Mount Girnarin Junagadh in 2007 when hewas the Chief Minister of theState.

The panel, led by RajyaSabha MP Renuka Chowdhury,said that it agrees “with theapprehension expressed (by thelocals) that making ‘GirnarRopeway’ for the visitingtourists is likely to affect the vul-ture nesting/breeding”.

“The Committee, therefore,recommends that the CentralGovernment should review thematter and take a decision in thematter only after it has examinedthe report of the expert panelthreadbare,” it maintained.

The panel presented thereport in Parliament recently.

The Girnar Ropeway pro-ject, which was cleared by anexpert committee of theCentral Government last yearfor the visiting tourists, wasproposed by the TourismCorporation of Gujarat Limited(TCGL) way back in 1983.

However, during the visit ofthe panel members at the site,the local people had expressedconcern that due to this rope-way, vultures’ nesting/breedingwould get affected.

The project proposal esti-mated diversion of 9.1 hectareforest land for the project,which was later reduced to7.29 hectare forest land for theproject in 1994. However, theproject was stalled after thosehauling pilgrims up to the top

of Mount Girnar in palan-quins moved the Gujarat HighCourt, claiming the ropewaywould affect their livelihood.Objections were also raised bygreen activists and the workwas stopped in 1999.

The panel has also askedthe Union EnvironmentMinistry to not to reduce theguidelines of ecosensitive zonefrom existing 10 kms to 500meters as proposed by theState Government saying thatit will surely destroy the Lionhabitat. The panel also tookexception to the garbage gen-erated and thrown by thedhabas/hotels located on thefringes of the Gir forests.

It has also sought immedi-ate removal of the illegal con-struction or encroachment inand around the national park.

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Vice-President HamidAnsari will travel to

Armenia and Poland fromApril 24-28 to hold talks withthe top leaders of these countries.

Ansari will be in Armeniafrom April 24-26. His visitcomes at a time when the twocountries are celebrating 25thanniversary of their diplomaticrelations. In Armenian capitalYerevan, the Vice-President willhold discussions with the coun-try’s President, Prime Ministerand the Foreign Minister. Thetwo sides are working out someimportant pacts to be signedduring the visit.

“The visit intends to fur-ther strengthen the cordialrelation between the two coun-tries, develop cooperation andpartnership on a wide range ofissues of shared common inter-est. This is 25th anniversary ofdiplomatic relationship with

Armenia and such high levelvisits will further relationshipsbetween the countries,”Ministry of External AffairsSecretary (East) Preeti Saransaid on Thursday.

Ansari will reach Warsawon April 26 on a three-day visitto Poland where he will holdtalks with the Polish President,the Prime Minister and theSpeaker of the Senate. Polandhas been highly supportive ofIndia’s aspirations at the inter-national level including itsmembership in the NuclearSuppliers Group .

“India has close ties with

Poland and our strong eco-nomic ties starts from 1990.Indian investments in Polandamount to around $3 billion.India sees Poland as an emerg-ing economic power. Our tradehas gone 25 per cent in just oneyear,” Saran said. Agreements inagriculture sector are expectedto be signed during the visit.

The Vice-President will beaccompanied by his wife SalmaAnsari, Union Minister of Statefor Small, Medium and MicroIndustries Giriraj Singh, MPsSitaram Yechury, D.P. Tripathi,Vivek Tankha and ThupstanChhewang.

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The Narendra ModiGovernment is in the process

to issue vouchers/coupons tourban poor so that they can paytheir rent. The amount of vouch-er would be decided by localbodies.

The Ministry of Housingand Urban Poverty Alleviationis considering introduction ofsubsidies in the form of directbenefit transfer that would beprovided to economicallyweaker sections (EWS) andlow income group (LIG)households towards their rentpayments. The Centre willsoon roll out a �2,700-crorewelfare scheme in 100 smartcities to give rent coupons/vouchers to the urban poor.

A draft National UrbanRental Housing Policy is readyand it will be soon broughtbefore the Union Cabinet.

Announcing aboutNational Urban RentalHousing policy, Union UrbanDevelopment Minister MVenkaiah Naidu said that a pro-posal to this effect are readyand soon put up before the

Union Cabinet for approval.According to Census 2011,

about 27.5 per cent of urbanresidents lived in rented hous-es in 2011.

According to Naidu, thenew policy will help themigrant workers, students andeconomically weaker section tosolve housing problem. Themove will also help to realestate sector.

The draft of national urbanrental housing policy intro-duces the concept of providinghousing vouchers/coupons tothe urban poor, equivalent to acertain cash amount to partial-ly offset the cost of rentincurred by them.

“Though the policy hasbeen in the works for threeyears, the first component islikely to be rolled out in 2017-18 financial year in the smartcities,” said a Ministry source.

According to source, thetenant would give these vouch-ers/coupons to the landowner,who in turn would be able toredeem them at any citizenservice bureau. If the rent ishigher than the value of rentvoucher, the tenant would paythe difference in cash to thelandowner.

The value of rent vouch-er/coupon would be deter-mined by the urban local bodyon the basis of class or size ofthe dwelling unit and theprevalent rent in the city.

However, the draft policydefines the Centre’s role as a“facilitator” and “enabler” forpromoting rental housing.

It says the Centre would“encourage states to providesubsidies for low-income tenants”.

“Once the concept of hous-ing vouchers gets their approval,a proposal will be sent to thefinance ministry, asking that weshould be allowed to subsidiserents paid by the urban poorthrough central assistance. Ifapproved, the subsidy can berolled out as a separate scheme,”said a ministry source.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has

questioned senior Congressleader and treasurer MotilalVora and former HaryanaCM Bhupinder Singh Hoodain connection with the moneylaundering case involving theland allotment in Panchkulato Associated Journals Limited(AJL), publisher of NationalHerald on Tuesday.

Officials said while Vora(88), the national treasurer ofthe All India CongressCommittee, was questioned athis residence in Delhi. Hoodawas also questioned duringthe same time in Chandigarhat the agency’s office.

They were confrontedwith some documents seizedand recovered in this case andtheir statements were record-ed, officials added. Vora is theChairman and ManagingDirector of the AJL for thepast two decades and bothleaders were questionedregarding the blatant illegali-ties in the allotment of plot inPanchkula in 2005.

The ED questioned Voraat his residence making a spe-cial concession in this regardowing to his old age and hisrequest to be grilled at home.The plot had been initiallyallotted to AJL in 1982. Afterthe expiry of the lease periodin 1996, then Haryana VikasParty Government led byBansi Lal took back its pos-

session. It was re-allotted toAJL after the Congress cameto power in 2005. Apart fromAJL and Hooda, CBI has reg-istered FIR against threesenior officials of HaryanaUrban DevelopmentAuthority (HUDA) after thecase was transferred from theState Vigilance Department.The three IAS officials SSDhillon, Vineet Garg and nowretired officer ShakuntalaJakhu also named in the FIR.

Hooda and Congress lead-ers have termed the move aspolitical vendetta. “Hooda hadhimself signed the NationalHerald case file just to pleasehis bosses, Sonia Gandhi,Rahul Gandhi and Moti LalVohra. This caused the stateheavy financial loss,” said

Haryana Minister Anil Vij.Reacting to the develop-

ments, main petitioner BJPleader Subramanian Swamysaid that he is very happy onthe ED and CBI move and theagencies are expected to pros-ecute the Congress presidentSonia Gandhi and vice-pres-ident Rahul Gandhi soon. Hedemanded that Income Taxdepartment too should speedits probe in the illegal �90crore transfer from Congressto AJL.

Next hearing of Swamy’scase in the matter is scheduledon April 22 at New DelhiMetropolitan MagistrateCourt.

Meanwhile, MaharashtraGovernment is expected totake action soon on the

Mumbai land allotment inmatter after receiving reportthe probe officer.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday heldthe charge against the kingpin of the

Bihar toppers’ scandal Bachha Rai, whosecured top ranks for students in Class12 examinations in connivance with theBihar School Examination Board (BSEB),to be too “grave” and turned down theconditional bail granted in his favour bythe Patna High Court on February 14.

Approaching the apex court againstthe HC order, the Bihar Government hadrelied on its chargesheet and subsequentinvestigation to highlight the role of AmitKumar alias Bachha Rai who was themastermind of the entire scandal. In all,there were 32 accused, which also includ-ed BSEB Chariman Lalkeshwar PrasadSingh and his wife and former JD(U) leg-islator Usha Sinha.

The apex Bench, headed by JusticeNV Ramana, set aside the HC orderwhich allowed Rai to walk out on bail ifthe State police failed to frame charges

against Rai within a month. Rai was theSecretary-cum-Principal of VR Collegeat Vaishali, the institution which cameunder scanner after students who toppedin the Bihar Board Exams across allstreams were found to have no knowl-edge of their subjects. Police investiga-tion revealed that Rai colluded with BSEBto get exam centre for select stu-dents allotted at his institutionwhere irregularities werecommitted in evaluationof answer sheets by whichthese students scoredhigh marks.

This institution thusproduced toppers everyyear. But last year, when someof the toppers were interviewed byjournalists, to their horror they discov-ered that one of the toppers termed polit-ical science as “prodigal science” anddescribed it as a subject where cookingis taught. On a retest most of these stu-dents failed.

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For the first time, the SupremeCourt will set out to decide

whether a Minister of a State orCentral Government can be allowedimmunity under right to free speechto make any comment on any issueor can such comment fasten respon-

sibility on the respectiveGovernment he represents under

the principle of collectiveresponsibility.

The Court framed thisquestion for consideration by a

Constitution Bench and soughtthe views of top legal brains Fali

S Nariman and Harish Salve to assistas amicus curiae in settling this law.The next hearing of the case is fixedfor May 2.

The issue emerged following acomment made by former UttarPradesh Minister Azam Khan whocommented upon the Bulandshahr

rape case as a conspiracy hatched byOpposition to defame hisGovernment. The victims in the casethrough their nearest kin approachedapex court to seek transfer of the caseoutside the State.

While Khan apologised to theapex court and got away, the Benchheaded by Justice Dipak Misra wishedto know whether a person holding apublic office can make a commentviolating or infringing the funda-mental right of another citizen.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgiwho appeared for UP Governmentmaintained that a Minister is free togive his comment. But Salve object-ed claiming that free speech has to beexercised by a citizen without harm-ing right to liberty, dignity, privacy,gender equality of another citizen.Under collective responsibility, aMinister must be seen to espouse theGovernment’s view and should berestrained from making personalcomments.

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Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Virbhadra Singh

on Thursday appeared beforethe ED here in connectionwith a money laundering caseregistered against him andothers. The agency had sum-moned Singh to record hisstatement in this case and alsoto confront him with somedocuments it has seized andrecovered in this case of dis-proportionate assets.

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Karnataka Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah, who has

consolidated himself after thevictory in recently-held twobypolls defeating the BJP, hasstarted asserting himself in theparty which has created a sortof uncomfortable situation forthe leaders inside the party.

Addressing a gathering inBengaluru he asserted that hewould be the Chief Minister in2018 contradicting Congressleader Digvijay Singh, who isin-charge of Karnataka, hadsaid its only the party andMLAs will decide the ChiefMinister. However, he had saidSiddaramaiah would lead theparty in the 2018 Assemblypolls which is crucial for thecentury-old party to keep itshold in the State.

AICC general secretaryDigvijay Singh in Hubballi onTuesday had said thatSiddaramaiah would lead theparty but the MLAs in theCongress legislature partymeeting would decide the nextChief Minister. State partypresident G Parameshwara anaspirant to become the ChiefMinister had often said that theparty believes in collectiveleadership and the high com-mand would take all importantdecisions. Parameshwara, aprominent Dalit leader in theState, has been an aspirant andhas openly said he had missedit by a whisker.

A Congress leader on thecondition of anonymity saidthe leaders in the party wereworried over his assertionand said it was not easy for

Siddaramaiah to take oneveryone in the party togeth-er. He said, “the party andhigh command will decide thenext Chief Minister of theState. Digvijay has saidSiddaramaiah would lead theparty in 2018 elections butthat does not mean he wouldbe the Chief Minister.”

Siddaramaiah's assertionat what seemed like a pre elec-tion gathering of over 10,000people on the outskirts ofBengaluru has taken some ofthe Congress leaders by sur-prise. Another senior leadersaid Siddaramaiah has beenunderestimating the BJP andthe JD(S )and can’t declarehimself the CM himself. Hesaid, “I am bit surprised. Wegive him the credit for the winin the bypolls, but how couldhe declare himself the nextChief Minister. It’s too earlyand high command willdecide the Chief Minister.”

Meanwhile, in an effort topacify ‘rebel’ star andCongress MLA from MandyaMH Ambareesh, Siddara-maiah met him at his resi-dence and held talks for overtwo hours.

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Aday after CentralGovernment’s decision of

banning red beacon atop vehi-cles of dignitaries andGovernment officials, includ-ing the Prime Minister and thePresident, to end VIP culture,Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani himself removed bea-con from his car on Thursday.

Interestingly, the StateCabinet is yet to take decisionfor banning red beacon fromGovernment vehicles in lineswith the Modi Government’sresolution. In fact, on Wednes-day Deputy Chief MinisterNitin Patel told the reportersthat the ban would be in forcefrom Gujarat Day – May 1.

The Gujarat CM was on

official visit to South Gujarattown Valsad where he removedred beacon in-front of media-persons in the morning. Sourcesin the State Government saidthat red beacons from most ofthe official cars were removed byevening following Rupani’s actincluding that of Deputy CMPatel, Chief Secretary JN Singhamong others.

In fact, Rupani went a stepahead and told the police notto halt traffic on any areas evenif his convoy passes. Few daysback in Ahmedabad his convoywaited for traffic signal andavoid disturbing traffic flaw inthe biggest city of Gujarat.

Sources in the StateGovernment said that bybeginning of May, except forpublic services vehicles includ-

ing fire service, police, armyand ambulances, there would-n’t be any beacon on vehicles ofother dignitaries including thatof Governor of Gujarat.

Already decision on suchban has been taken by UttarPradesh Chief Minister AdityaNath Yogi as well as Punjab CMAmarinder Singh after forma-tion on their respectiveGovernments in March.

Even Supreme Court ofIndia termed use of beacons bydignitaries and Governmentofficials as ridiculous and syn-onymous with power in 2013.The apex court remarked thatbeacons should remove instant-ly. However, neither the UPAGovernment at Centre nor asingle State Government acrossthe country put ban on beacons.

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The fate of the enthusiasticRevenue Department drive

against encroachment of publiclands in Kerala's famousMunnar hill resort has slippedinto uncertainty with ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayanexpressing strong displeasureat the razing of a giant Crosserected in encroached publicland at Pappathichola inDevikulam Taluk by officials onThursday morning.

The officials used earth-moving machines to bring downthe 15-feet tall steel Cross erect-ed by a Thrissur-based Christiangroup, Spirit in Jesus, on a rein-forced concrete pedestal at the

summit of a hill inPappathichola. The operationwas carried out under the coverof prohibitory orders placed onthe area and security providedby about a hundred of policepersonnel.

The security cover and pro-hibitory orders had becomenecessary in the context ofreported warning by the police'sIntelligence wing that a consor-tium of political parties, main-ly the local CPI(M), land mafiaand conniving Revenue officialsmight forcefully block any effortto retrieve grabbed lands inMunnar.

The anti-encroachmentteam also torched a couple ofsheds Spirit in Jesus had built inthe vicinity of the cross and abuilding meant to house achurch was also demolished.The officials' team had takenseveral hours to cover the dis-tance of a few kilometersbetween their base and the hill

top due to the blocks created bythe people along their path.

The Revenue officials hadreached the hill-top at

Pappathichola after facing sev-eral difficulties caused by believ-ers belonging to the Christiangroup who had parked vehicles

across their path and had dugpits on the road. The Cross waserected in a part of a stretch of2,300 acres of allegedly

encroached land.Marxist Chief Minister

Pinarayi Vijayan came downheavily on the Revenue officialsfor their act and ordered imme-diate stoppage of the exercise butthe demolition had been com-pleted by that time. Pinarayi saidthe officials should have shownextra care in the act as the mat-ter involved religious groups.“What crime did the Crosscommit?” he is reported to haveasked.

The Chief Minister's office,obviously acting upon com-plaints from Munnar's CPI(M)leaders who have been furious-ly opposing the anti-encroach-ment drive, reportedly repri-manded the Idukki DistrictCollector. Retrieval, and notdemolition, was Government'spolicy, Pinarayi told the districtauthorities.

“Some measures taken bythe Idukki district authorities forretrieving grabbed land in

Munnar were a bit misleading.A Cross erected there had beendemolished as part of the exer-cise. The Government hadexpressed its displeasure to thedistrict authorities in the morn-ing itself,” Pinarayi said inKottayam on Thursday evening.

Sources said the officials hadrazed the Cross in order tospread a clear message thatencroachments would not beallowed at any cost even if thesewere in the name of religion andpolitical parties. An enthusias-tic anti-encroachment drive inMunnar in May, 2007 had endedin a fiasco due to fierce protestsfrom political parties.

The regional leadership ofthe CPI(M) lashed out at theofficials for the operation inPappathichola. While KKJayachandran, CPI(M)'s Idukkidistrict secretary, termed theoperation as an act of officialvandalism, Marxist MLA SRajendran of Devikulam said

the police and the Revenue offi-cials were trying to scare thepeople and bring shame to theLDF regime.

Meanwhile, Union MinisterCR Choudhary, who had visit-ed Munnar recently, has pre-sented his report to the Centrestating that the hill resort is inan extremely dangerous situa-tion.

The buildings in Munnarwere in a precarious situationand rescue operation would bealmost impossible if a tragedyoccurred, it said.

Though there was no needof anxiety about the possibilityof an accident of the magnitudeof the Uttarakhand tragedy, thenarrow roads in Munnar couldmake it difficult for even thearmed forces to reach accidentsites. The report also pointed outthat the soil in Munnar was ofloose nature and the methodsused for constructing giantstructures were unscientific.

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With the O Panneerselvam factionhardening its stance and putting

forward tough demands, the unificationprocess between the warring groups inthe AIADMK remained elusive byThursday evening. But Tamil Nadu willsee more raids on the residences ofMinisters by the Central agencies (readEnforcement Directorate).

Sources close to top ED officials toldThe Pioneer that grilling of HealthMinister Vijaya Bhaskar, Vice chancel-lor of MGR Medical University DrGeetha Lakshmi, cine actor Sarat Kumarand his wife Raadhika Sarat Kumar hasrevealed startling disclosures and moreraids are sure to happen in the comingdays. All the people, who had been raid-ed prior to the RK Nagar bypoll, are closeto TTV Dhinakaran and AIADMK(Amma) general secretary VK Sasikala.

Though the cadre of the AIADMKhad expected some positive develop-ments in the merger process, thePanneerselvam faction, which held amarathon meeting at Chennai onThursday, took a tough stand whichmany fear would delay the unification.

KP Munusamy, the AIADMKstrongman from the Kongunadu belt,who addressed the media after themeeting, minced no words and camedown heavily on the Sasikala faction.“What we saw during the last two dayswas a drama scripted and staged bySasikala, her husband Natarajan and herbrother Divakaran. They know wellthat Dinakaran is in real trouble follow-ing the raids in Vijaya Bhaskar’s resi-dences and business establishments. It isto save him they made the announce-ment that Dinakaran and Sasikala are

being kept out of the party leadership,”said Munusamy.

He said the OPS faction is of the viewthat Edappadi Palaniswamy and otherMinisters should inform the EC thatSasikala and Dinakaran were no morethe general secretary and deputy gener-al secretary of the party. “Let them with-draw the affidavits they filed before theEC regarding their appointments. Wewant status quo in the party as well as inthe Government. Our demand is that sit-uation prior to the demise of Jayalalithaashould be maintained in the party,” saidMunusamy.

If this is translated into action, allmembers of the Sasikala clan wouldhave to be ousted from the party as noneof them were members of the AIADMKtill Jayalalithaa was alive. Munusamyalso wanted Palaniswamy to order a CBIprobe into the hospitalisation anddemise of Jayalalithaa.

“There is an apprehension amongthe Panneerselvam camp that the pre-

sent move by the Sasikala clan is aneffort to get back the Two Leaves sym-bol and name of the party which havebeen frozen by the EC. The questionbeing asked is why Sasikala andDinakaran are not being ousted fromthe party,” said a senior AIADMKobserver in Chennai.

K Balakumar, editor, News Today anda respected commentator, is of the viewthat the Sasikala faction’s moves wereshrouded in mystery. “Why shouldDinakaran make an announcement thathe and other family members would moveout of the leadership without any pre-con-ditions? There are doubts among thecadre. Now everything depends on howPanneerselvam plays his cards. There arefour more years to the next Assembly elec-tion. A snap poll would lead to thedestruction of both the factions. A pre-poll survey in RK Nagar had shown thatDinakaran would finish a poor third,” saidBalakumar, who believes that the merg-er would happen even if it is delayed bysome weeks.

Meanwhile, the decision ofPalaniswamy to get rid of the red beaconfrom his car added colour to the merg-er talks. Thursday morning saw the CMhimself removing the red beacon from hisofficial car in presence of other Ministersand officials in the secretariat. “Perhapshe may be conveying to the OPS campthat the red light which stood against themerger process has been removed,” saida AIADMK (OPS) faction leader.

Interestingly, R Vaithyalingam, theRajya Sabah member belonging to theEdappadi faction told reporters that theirgroup has set no conditions for talks.“We are always ready for talks with theOPS group. We also do not have any pre-conditions for merger,” he said.

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Ignoring Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's sound piece

of advice to BJP leaders at arecently concluded NationalExecutive meeting in Odisha tomaintain caution while makingstatements and to not get car-ried away with emotions andmake untoward remarks, asenior BJP leader CabinetMinister in Jammu & Kashmirhas shot himself in the foot byclaiming that the youth throw-ing stones in Kashmir shouldbe dealt with bullets.

The statement was made byChander Parkash Ganga, hold-ing charge of Industries and

Commerce Department onApril 16, on the sidelines of afunction in Ramgarh area of hisAssembly constituency.

He was commenting on thevideo ferrying local Kashmiriboy tied to an Army jeep.

Video of his statement hasnow gone viral in the ongoing‘war of videos’ on various socialmedia platforms.

His utterances have alsoannoyed PDP leaders especial-ly at a time when popularitycharts of PDP leadership hasnoose dived across Kashmirvalley over their poor handlingof the prevailing law and ordersituation in Kashmir valley.

After hue and cry was

raised by various other main-stream politicians, includingNational Conference leaders,the Minister issued a clarifica-tion on Thursday claiming hisstatement was misinterpretedby a section of media.

In the video which has goneviral, Ganga was heard saying“They are traitors, whether theyhave come from Pakistan or livehere. There is only one remedyfor them and that is bullets. Andif not bullets, they should behanded over such a punishmentlike the youth who are beatenwith sticks by forces. Take myword that next time they (theyouth) won’t throw stones.”

“What 'azaadi' are they

demanding?” Ganga is heardasking reporters.

“While one video showsforces beating three youthsand forcing them to raise'Pakistan Murdabad' slogans,in another video a soldierslaps and hits teenage boysheld inside a vehicle, forcingthem to raise anti-Pakistanslogans. One of the boys withhis face wounded by the beat-ing is shown crying. “Did yousee the video in which theyouth are raising anti-Pakistanslogans?” asks the Minister inthe video clip. “Laatoon kayboot baaton sey nahi man-tay…inka ilaaj yehi hai. Tillthese people are handled in a

right way they won't give uptheir evil acts. Once they aretaught a lesson only then willthey fall in line,” the Ministerstated in the video.

Meanwhile, reacting to theirresponsible statement of BJPMinister, Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP) vice-president,Mohammad Sartaj MadniThursday said that such “dis-gusting utterances” are notonly unjustifiable but perilousas well.

“It is unbecoming of asenior Minister in theGovernment to dish out sucha sweeping, sickening andintimidating statement againstthe Kashmiri youth,” Madni

said in a statement.He said instead of reach-

ing out to the distressed andalienated Kashmiri youth andaddress their concerns, thehawkish rhetoric of such fringeelements has the danger of fur-ther adding to the alienation ofthe people and impeding thegovernment's efforts of restor-ing peace and calm in theValley.

National Conference toocondemned the controversialand communally loaded state-ment of J&K GovernmentCabinet Minister where hehad brazenly advocated foruse of bullets against protest-ers in Kashmir.

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Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal hailed

the Union Cabinet’s decision todo away with the red beaconsatop cars of ministers, bureau-crats, politicians and VVIPs andsaid that this will make thecountry’s democracy stronger.

Welcoming the decision,Sonowal said that the removal ofred beacons is a step towardsNarendra Modi’s vision of anew India. “The Union Cabinet’sdecision as a historic and boldstep. The removal of red lightculture will make the country’sdemocracy stronger,” Sonowalsaid today.

In view of the Cabinet rul-ing on the removal of red bea-cons, the chief minister alsodirected all in the state to remove‘Red Light’ being used atopvehicles immediately.

Assam Governor BanwarilalPurohit also appreciated theunion cabinet’s ban on using redlights atop vehicles of the VVIPs.In the light of the cabinet deci-sion Purohit ordered removal ofred lights from his vehicles withimmediate effect.

He also termed the decisionas people friendly and said thatthe move would greatly help inensuring greater equality whichis one of the cornerstones ofIndian democracy.

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Assam Finance MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma

said on Thursday that theState has witnessed whop-ping growth of 21.60 percentin revenue collection, whichis also highest in the country.

Sarma said this whileaddressing a press confer-ence in Guwahati onThursday and added that therevenue collection as well asthe expenditure has gonedown in the last few years ofCongress regime in Assam,leading to poor fiscal healthof the state.

“in 2014-15 revenue fromtaxation stood at �9449.81crore. While this increased to�10,726 crore in 2015-16 ourgovernment had taken it to�12180 crore in 2016-17,making a quantum leap of

over �2000 crore,” he said.The Minister said that

the BJP led Government tookover the reins of power inAssam in May last year.“Revenue collection fromnon-tax sources was �2412.98crore in 2014-15 and�2188.09 crore in 2015-16.Sarma said collection was alltime high in 2016-17 andstate received �3500 crore,” hesaid.

Sarma said that even inthe expenditure front, �53,561crore was released in 2016-17in comparison to �39804crore only in 2015-16.

He also said that the stategovernment had also madesome achievements in digitalpayment and that the stategovernment has released Rs43,000 crore in 2016-17 dig-ita l ly. “ This f igure was�33,357 crore in 2015-16.

Digitally state governmentreceived �8,343 in 2016-17and �6,775 Crore in 2015-16,”the minister said.

“The momentum will becontinued this year. WithGST coming into force thisyear it will be different sce-nario. Revenue from excisedepartment is likely to be hitfollowing the Supreme Courtbanning the wine shops alongthe highways.

However we are hopefulthat we will end the fiscal yearregistering growth of 19 to 20percent.”

The finance minister saidthat state has been able toachieve fiscal prudence androbust growth without bur-dening the people of payingadditional tax. “We have man-aged to plug the leakages andstreamline the system andthis has yielded dividend.”

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Apolitical storm has eruptedafter a Minister in the Yogi

Government called a “divyang”(physically-challenged) as“loola-langda’ drawing sharpreactions from Opposition par-ties who demanded the imme-diate sacking of Khadi andGramodyog Minister SatyadeoPachauri.

During an inspection,Pachauri found the office com-pound filthy. Stains of paan onthe gallery angered him furtherand the Minister asked officialsto summon the safai karam-chari. On the Minister’s direc-tives, sweeper Dinesh was askedto meet Pachauri.

“Kitne baje aate ho. Safaikyon nahi karte (At what timedo you come? Why do you notclean the office compound),”

Pachauri asked. Dinesh replied that he came

at 7 in the morning and since hewas alone he was unable to cleanthe whole building. “I am doingmy best,” he pleaded.

The Minister stared at himand then told the official, “Isloole-lange ko kahe naukri parrakh liya? Yeh kya kaam karsakta hai? (Why have you hiredthis disabled person? Whatwork can he do?)”.

The official argued sayingthat he was on daily wages. TheMinister retorted by saying thatthe Government even paysmoney to those who were work-ing on ad hoc basis.

This Minister’s statementdrew sharp reactions from thepolitical parties. SeniorCongress leader AmarnathAgarwal said that the BJPMinisters were so arrogant that

they forget that even a poor per-sons has some self-respect.

“The Minister should notmake fun of a disabled by call-ing him loola-langda. The ChiefMinister should take actionagainst Pachauri,” Agarwal said.

Even Samajwadi Partyspokesman RajendraChaudhary said that a Ministershould respect his subordinates.“A safai karamchari is aGovernment employee thoughhe is class IV employee. Callinghim handicapped is unjustified,”Chaudhary said.

Later however, Pachauricame up with a clarification say-ing that he had only said that thesaid person be given work as perhis potential.

“I only meant that he wasweak and could not clean theoffice compound on his own,”the Minister said.

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In a multi-State operation,Anti-Terrorism Squads from

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra,Special Cell of the Delhi Policeand police teams from AndhraPradesh, Punjab and Bihar onThursday busted ISIS Khorasanterror module by arresting fourpersons and detaining six oth-ers for allegedly plotting strikesin some parts of the country.

Acting on a tip-off fromthe Special Cell of the DelhiPolice, nine teams from fiveStates took into custody sus-pected terrorists and detainedsix others for questioning fromMumbra in Maharashtra,Jalandhar in Punjab, Bijnorand Muzaffarnagar both inUttar Pradesh, Narkatiaganj inBihar for allegedly conspiringto disturb peace across thecountry and create enmitybetween the two communities.

In a joint operation con-ducted in the early hours ofThursday, the ATS teams ofUttar Pradesh and Maharashtracarried out raids on the pre-dominantly Muslim pocket ofMumbra in the adjoiningThane district and arrested aterror suspect NazimShamshad Ahmed (26) anddetained two others.

Nazim hails from Bijnor.The two suspects, whom thetwo teams detained fromMumbra, were identified asNazim Shaikh and AkramAnsari.

Informed ATS sources saidthat the three suspects — com-

prising arrested accused NazimAhmed and two other detainedpersons — were living in a sin-gle-room number 302 of theRashid compound, Devri Pada,Ilka Akram building at Mumbrafor the past few months.

Mufti Faizan and Tanveerwere arrested from Bijnor dis-trict in Uttar Pradesh whileMuzammil was arrested fromJalandhar district in Punjab.

Apart from cash, mobilephones and other things fromthem, the investigators havesome documents linking themto ISIS.

Confirming the arrest ofNazim Ahmed and detentionof two others from Mumbra, anATS officer said in Mumbai:“The arrested person, alongwith other co-accused from dif-ferent parts of the country, pro-posed to cause harm to nation-al integrity and social harmo-ny. All three were residing in aone-room apartment for thelast few months. During thesearch, cash and mobile phoneshave seized”.

The investigations by var-ious agencies have revealedthat the arrested accused werein touch with each other overthe internet in their effort toraise finances and organisestrikes at places identified bythem.

The UP ATS had launchedthe investigations in five Stateson the basis of some importantdocuments it had seized in thewake of the March 7 encounterin Lucknow in which a sus-pected terrorist belonging tothe Khorasan module was

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Investigation into the Naradasting case seems to have

opened a can of worms formany Bengal ruling partypoliticians. Consequently 15more Trinamool Congressleaders can get sucked into thevortex of the bribery scamwhich seems to have pushedMamata Banerjee regime on awobbly ground politically.

The CBI has stumbledupon jaw-dropping instancesof unconcealed palm greasingpromoted by some top leadersof the Bengal ruling party,sources confirm. The greeddisplayed on their part was soblatant that the Ministers and

MPs repeatedly called up thesting journalist to pay up their“dues” often as small as a cou-ple of lakhs rupees — “noteven stopping to cross checkthe identity of the personfrom whom they were askingmoney.”

According to sources“what is visible in the videotapes is just a clip of what tran-spired in the unedited sec-tions.” Narada News CEOMathew Samuels has report-edly told the CBI that hewould not always pay the fullpromised amount to theaccused leaders which madethem ring him up repeatedlyfor the remaining part of thecash.

The “incriminating” evi-dences including both audioand video tapes may trigger a“forensic auditing” of the lead-ers’ accounts which if donecould attract disproportionateasset laws against them inves-tigators suggest. And the CBI

is loudly thinking of doing so,sources said.

A video tape released inMarch 2016 showed how abevy of senior Trinamool lead-ers including Ministers andMPs accepting liquid cashfrom a sting journalist whoposed as a prospective investorallegedly for speeding up theprojects for the company heclaimed to represent.

The tapes though pub-lished in 2016 relates to mid2014 when General electionswere taking place. The leadersshown in the video and againstwhom FIR has been drawn fol-lowing a Supreme Court orderare Saugato Roy, KakoliGhoshdastidar, PrasunBanerjee, Sultan Ahmed,Aparupa Poddar all MPs andSubhendu Adhikary, SubrotoMukherjee, Madan Mitra,Sovan Chatterjee and FirhadHakim --- all Ministers apartfrom SMH Mirza a senior IPSofficer.

What is bothering theTrinamool Congress is the 15untold names including twomore MPs — that figure in theunedited section and the audiotapes, sources said.

The tapes have not onlybeen authenticated byChandigarh based forensiclaboratory but also a subse-quent testimony of Samuels,the sting journalist concernedhas confirmed the role of the15 other leaders who were notshown in the sting video,sources say.

The investigators are alsotaking into account a recentstatement made by ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeewho recently told the mediathat it was not unusual for theleaders to accept cash frombusinessmen during elections.

However, the cash accept-ed from the fake companyreferred to in the sting videoduring 2014 general polls wasnot shown in any account

book, neither was it men-tioned in the expenditureaccount submitted to theElection Commission, callingfor an investigation into themoney trail.

“Only a forensic auditingof the accounts of these lead-ers and those whose name fig-ure in the audio tapes can pro-vide a clue to this question,”said sources adding forensicauditing will also bring intolight the details of the income-expenditure pattern of thesaid leaders, their properties,which will then be tallied withtheir income tax returns andthe returns filed with theCommission.

This may put theTrinamool leaders in big jeop-ardy, particularly those whoare proclaimed avid buyersand known for their exquisitecollections of pricey watchesand other artifacts insiderssay adding DA case was notbeing ruled out in such case.

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Close on the heels of a sim-ilar warrant issued against

him by a city court in a case ofmoney laundering case, thespecial NIA court on Thursdayissued a non-bailable warrant(NBW) against the controver-sial Islamic preacher Zakir Naikfor offences registered againsthim under Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act and IndianPenal Code.

Special Judge VV Patilordered the issuance of NBWagainst Naik after the NIAinformed the court that theIslamic preacher had failed torespond to three summonsissued by the court and that itwould have to seek the assis-tance of the Interpol to bringthe accused back to the coun-try.

The NBW was issuedagainst Naik by the specialcourt in connection with acase registered against him andhis banned outfit IslamicResearch Foundation (IRF)under 153-A of IPC (promot-ing enmity between differentgroups on grounds of religionetc.. and various sections ofUnlawful Activities(Prevention) Act, in Novemberlast year.

The registration of the casehad followed simultaneous

raids conducted on November19, 2016 by the NIA officials onat least 10 premises linked toNaik’s banned outfit IslamicResearch Foundation (IRF),including an office of Peace TVand residences of several office-bearers and froze a bankaccount in the metropolis.

Thursday’s was the secondNBW issued against NBWagainst Naik. Last week, anoth-er city court had issued a sim-ilar NBW against Naik in amoney laundering case regis-tered by the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) against him.

Naik, who came under thescanner of the Mumbai policeand central investigating agen-cies after a terrorist attack thattook place in Dhaka Bangladeshon July 1, in which 22 personswere killed. Naik’s name had

figured in the investigationsinto the Dhaka café attack aftertwo of the seven terrorists whohacked to death 22 people inthe attack, had claimed thatthey were “inspired” by him.

Naik, who was to havereturned to India in the secondweek of week of July last year,had stayed back in Mecca andMedina in Saudi Arabia.

The NIA took over theinvestigations from theMumbai Police in mid-Octoberlast year.

Fifty-year-old Naik, who isthe founder of Islamic ResearchFoundation (IRF) and PeaceTV, is being investigated by theNIA for several provocativespeeches and his role in terrorpropaganda. Currently, Naikis believed to be in the UnitedArab Emirates (UAE).

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The ruling TelanganaRashtra Samiti was all set

for its show of strength at its16th Plenary on Friday, whichwill give the party cadre theroadmap to 2019 polls.

Massive arrangementswere in place at Kompally onthe outskirts of Hyderabad formore than 15,000 delegatesgathering from all over theState. The party founder KChandrasekhar Rao, who willbe elected as party president forthe 9th consecutive time hasnamed the venue “TelanganaPragati Pranganam”.

Senior Minister and partygeneral secretary K TarakaRama Rao who went aroundthe venue spread over an areaof 60 acres and inspected the

arrangements.Apart from mid-term

review of the performance ofthe TRS Government, special-ly the implementation of theFlagship programmes likeMission Bhagiratha andMission Kakatiya, KalyanaLakshmi and the welfare of thefarmers and other weaker sec-tions. The recent legislationproviding 12 per cent reserva-tion for the backward Muslimsand 10 per cent reservation tothe Scheduled Tribes andannouncement of providingfree fertilizer to 55 lakh farm-ers will also come up for dis-cussion.

The resolution committeehas prepared 19 different res-olution including the mainresolution on the political sit-uation. At the political front theparty was likely to focus itsattention on the emergingthreat from the BJP specially onthe issue of Muslim reservation.

The TRS was gearing itselfto face an aggressive BJP whichwas planning to make inroads

into Telangana. The party willalso plan to counter the offen-sive by BJP president AmitShah who is scheduled to visitthe State form May 23 to 25.

KCR, who will inaugurat-ed the Plenary by hosting thenational and party flags at thevenue in the morning willdeliver his valedictory addressin the evening motivating thecadre to go to the masses withthe message of developmentand welfare and refuting theallegations of the Opposition.

KTR said that the venue waschosen to ensure smooth flow ofthe traffic. The vehicles comingfrom the districts will reach thevenue through the Outer RingRoad without causing any hin-drance to the usual traffic.

The party has also direct-ed the cadre not to put up anybanners and hoardings withinthe limits of Hyderabad city asit will violate the rules. But allthe roads leading towards theKompally were decorated withthe pink colour festoons andlights.

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Sending a stern warning toofficials, Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Aditya Nath Yogi saidthat his Government would nottolerate corruption at any leveland the guilty officials will besacked. He also declared that hisGovernment will start a toll-freeanti-corruption helpline numbervery soon.

Yogi gave the directivesduring his maiden inspectionvisit to Bundelkhand region. Henot only held meeting withofficials in Jhansi but alsoinspected a Government schoolon the outskirts of the city, wentaround the district hospital andinspected ‘mandi samiti’ to haveget a first hand experience of the

wheat purchase centres.“This Government means

business. Bundelkhand has suf-fered because of lack of com-mitment of previousGovernments to ensure pros-perity in this rugged region. Iknow previous regimes hadsent money but it was siphonedoff. It is my warning to officialsto keep away from corruption.My Government will not onlysuspend corrupt officials butalso sack them from service,”Yogi said during his interactionwith officials at Vikas Bhawan.

The Chief Minister alsodeclared that the BJPGovernment would soon starta toll-free Corruption helplinewhere people could lodge theircomplaints.

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killed.Giving details of the arrests

made in Thursday’s multi-Stateoperation, Uttar Pradesh’sAdditional Director General ofPolice (Law and Order) DaljitChaudhary said in Lucknow,“All those arrested are in the agegroup of 18 to 25 and were liv-ing in different places likeMumbai, Jalandhar and UP. Wehave also found that they weredefinitely influenced by the

material available on the inter-net”.

According to Chaudhary,the suspects were continuous-ly communicating with eachother about carrying out somemajor strike in the near future.“But police and other agenciesof different states with the helpof surveillance made the arrestsbefore they could carry out anysuch attack,” he said.

The Uttar Pradesh police

have, meanwhile, registered acase under 120-B (conspiracy),121 (waging or attempting towage a war or abetting waginga war against Government ofIndia), 122 (collecting arms etcwith intention to war againstGovernment), 123 ( concealingintent to facilitate to wagewar), 153 (Wantonly givingprovocation with intent tocause riot -if rioting be com-mitted - if not committed).

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NOTICEIt is notified for the information thatmy original Provisional Certificateof 10th class Roll No. 6168329issued by CBSE passing year 2007has been actually lost. Name ofcandidate Aanuj Saxena S/o AnilSaxena R/o D-304, New JyotiAppt. Sec 4, Dwarka, New Delhi.If anybody find please contact-9711311915.

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World Refugee Daywill be observedon June 20 thisyear, and it wouldtake place against

the backdrop of political concernsand developments triggered by thelarge-scale refugee crises in sever-al parts of the world. By then thepresidential election in Francewould be over, but whicheverway the election result goes, theshadow of the refugee crisis and itsemotional and political impactswill not recede easily. This grow-ing problem has already manifest-ed its political implications in var-ious countries, particularly inEurope and North America.

Last year, the UN reportedon the World Refugee Day thatthe number of refugees in theworld had reached the highestlevel ever recorded. It was esti-mated that the number of peopledisplaced by conflict, whichincluded refugees, asylum seek-ers or those displaced internally,was at an estimated number of65.3 million by the end of 2015.According to the UN RefugeeAgency, this number amountedto one in every 113 people on theplanet, and if this huge numberof human beings constituted anation, it would be the 21stlargest nation in the world.

In its Annual Report releasedon June 20, 2016, the UN statedthat it was for the first time thatthe number in a year had crossed60 million. The staggering mag-nitude of this problem can beunderstood further from the factthat 24 people were displacedfrom their homes every minuteduring 2015 — which amountedto 34,000 people per day.

The then UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon, rightlydescribed it as “not just a crisis ofnumbers” but “a crisis of solidar-ity”. It was also stated that morethan half of the world’s refugeescame from Syria, Afghanistan andSomalia. With the dropping of thelargest non-nuclear bomb (sadlylabelled as MOAB, the mother ofall bombs) by the United Statesand the possibility of furtherescalation in the US’s involvementin Afghanistan, the numbers ofthose displaced from that coun-try could go up significantly.There is, of course, deep concernall across Europe and conse-quent political tension on theissue of refugees. But, as the UNhas stated, 86 per cent of therefugees under its mandate werein low and middle income coun-tries. The old Sanskrit term,‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam; (the

universe is one family) is appro-priate in this context, because thecurrent situation highlights theimportance of the universalnature of the refugee problem.There is no part of the worldwhich can remain immune to thiscrisis in some form or the other.There is every reason to focus onthe root causes which result inmigration and to address themeffectively. It is also important tosee that refugees are not margin-alised and left without productiveoccupations and provided mere-ly food and shelter and activitiesconfined to camps. It is essentialto provide children with educa-tion and communities of refugeeswith proper healthcare andopportunities to work.

Given the size of the chal-lenge, the global communityneeds to come up with actions,infrastructure and support ser-vices to deal with this problem,which will not go away in theforeseeable future, and has everyprospect of becoming larger andmuch worse over time.

One continent which is par-ticularly vulnerable is Africa. Aresearch-based publication found

that at least 13 million people livedin a state of ongoing displacementcaused by conflict, violence andother disasters across the continentin 2015. It also stated that in thefuture, climate change maybecome the lead driver of evengreater displacement. In the AfricaReport on Internal Displacement,research found that disasters trig-gered by rapid onset of naturalhazards forced 1.1 million peoplefrom their homes across 33African countries in 2015. TheIntergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) in its FifthAssessment Report (AR5) hadclearly highlighted and projectedan increase in displacement ofpeople as a result of the impactsof climate change.

These impacts would includeextreme events such as heatwaves, extreme precipitationevents and extreme impacts asso-ciated with sea level rise. Therewould also be an increase in pro-longed droughts and increasedfrequency and intensity of floods.Flooding in the case of Africa wasthe primary trigger of immediatedisplacement, forcing 14 millionpeople out of their homes in the

six-year period leading up to2015. Early in 2015, 56,000 peo-ple were forced from their homesin Ethiopia because of severeflooding. Recently, when theOroville dam in California wasunder the risk of bursting, almost200,000 people were warned toleave their homes. Fortunately,this crisis was avoided because thedangerous level of water in thedam subsided almost when it wasat the brink. Such a massive exer-cise would hardly have been pos-sible in most poor countries.And in many poor countriesdroughts have a major effect ondisplacement as well on accountof serious problems related toagricultural activities, pastorallivelihoods, and food security.

While we may feel satisfiedwith not having had to face of aworld war on the scale of the firstand second world wars in the 20thcentury, the number of lives affect-ed on account of displacement,often as a result of violence andextreme events, would perhapsequal those who suffer the devas-tation of large-scale war. It is wellknown that the Pentagon, in sev-eral exercises has found climatechange as a major security threat.If impacts of climate change aregoing to substantially increase thenumber of people displaced, as pro-jected by the IPCC, we would clear-ly lead to ongoing and perennialcrises, which would in no way beless than the scourge of a world war,and which would affect the lives ofa growing number of people in var-ious parts of the globe.

It is hoped that the Parisagreement on climate changewill finally receive the attentionit deserves not only fromGovernments, but also business-es and civil society, so that thelevel of ambition for tackling cli-mate change is enhanced acrossthis planet, and thus the risks tocountries and communities fromthe impacts of climate changeeffectively contained. And, thetime has come for the youth of theworld to take the lead in thisregard, first because their atti-tudes and consumption habits arestill not rigidly frozen; and sec-ond, it is their future which is atstake. If this planet is to give thema life of opportunity and reducedrisk from the impacts of climatechange, then they must be at thevanguard of a global movementtowards a secure and sustainablefuture for planet earth and all living species.

(The writer is former chair-man, Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change, 2002-2015)7

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Extraditing Vijay Mallya” (April20). The Government scored a vic-tory over many naysayers, when theLondon police arrested, on anextradition warrant, businesstycoon Vijay Mallya, who has beendeclared a proclaimed offender inIndia over unpaid loans.

Mallya’s arrest must not be seenin isolation, but as part of a multi-pronged effort by the Governmentto tackle black money, bad loans,and nefarious corporate practices.However, the challenge before theModi Government is larger thanMallya. It must go after all big loandefaulters and book them. Thatsaid, I wonder if the ModiGovernment will be able to go afterequally corrupt politicians too?

J Akshobhya Mysuru

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Sonu Nigam shaves off his head toprotest fatwa” (April 20). Fatwas arenothing but open declaration totake law in the hands by those whohaving issued such orders. Thereshould be a provision for punish-ment and fine of double the amount

of fatwa, with maximum punish-ment of life imprisonment in casethey require murder of a person.

Noted singer Sonu Nigamobjected to the use of loudspeakersby a religious place in contradictionof a justified order by the SupremeCourt asking a complete ban ofloud-speakers between 10 pm and6 am. Evidently, such unauthoriseduse of loud-speakers in odd hoursalso violates constitutional provisionof right to sleep. Religion was therein ancient times too when loud-speakers were not invented. TheUnion Government must issuedirectives to States to strictly enforcethe apex court’s order on the use ofloud-speakers.

SC Agrawal Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Sonu Nigam shaves off his head toprotest fatwa” (April 20). Noise pol-lution has become a serious concernfor our generation. We have becomeso hardened that we do not hear anymore the wind blowing, the cockcrowing and the cuckoo singing.

Our festivals are celebratedwith fireworks and loud music.Politicians of all hues canvass forthemselves or their parties byyelling into microphones with mul-

tiple numbers of speakers. Thisneeds to be stopped. We need towage a war against noise pollutionin order to make the earth a betterplace to live in.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Sir — This refers to the report, “Lalbatti culture red-flagged” (April 20).What the Cabinet took away fromour VVIPs is not just the beaconlight but also a slice of the VIP cul-ture itself that disgustingly domi-nates our society. Two ChiefMinisters, Yogi Adityanath andCapt Amarinder Singh of UttarPradesh and Punjab respectively,already ordered the removal of bea-cons the moment they occupiedhigh positions.

Well, if this is the beginning,then more symbols of the raj eramust go. This is democracy, not anautocracy. There are several invis-ible beacon lights of this blackmass of power that should also dieout. Hopefully, the Governmentwill make the right moves, and notjust the right noises.

J AkshayBengaluru

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-�)ST RY

The sudden clamour, questioningthe functioning of electronic vot-ing machines (EVMs), has comeas a result of massive defeats thatvarious political parties and their

leaders have suffered in elections heldrecently across the country. The more-often-than-not belated discovery of EVMsbeing rigged is just an elucidation of the majorelectoral drubbing they have suffered atnational and State-level politics. The two,therefore, are not unconnected. The losers,unable to reconcile to the defeats, are now cry-ing foul. Instead of accepting the fact that theirpoll promises were rejected by the people andtaking lessons from the same, they have foundsolace by blaming technology that was sup-posedly manipulated against them.

The EVMs were first used in the LokSabha poll in 2004, and in Assembly elec-tions even before that — in 1998. It cameas a voter-satisfactory device, which couldprevent ballot-stuffing and booth-captur-ing, and also reduce manpower. Levels ofviolence, unusual low voter-turnouts andelectoral frauds — all saw a steep declinewith the introduction of EVMs. Yet, bar-ring a small section of politicians that hasvociferously questioned the efficacy andcredibility of this electronic device, EVMswere never a problem for anybody.

This, because, ever since their introduc-tion, the EVMs have seen subsequentreforms: From generation-one machineswhich have now been discarded, to gener-ation-two and generation-three machinesthat are currently in use. The latter two gen-erations employ sophisticated encryptiontechnology to handle data. Whatever issueswere raised regarding their functioning, wereaddressed by the Election Commission of

India (ECI). Subsequent mechanical andelectronic measures were taken to preventtampering of the EVMs, which were alsogiven the requisite legal backing dulyendorsed by the judiciary, for use.

So, have the machines suddenlybecome fallible? Apparently, none of theleaders had problems with the EVMs dur-

ing the 2014 Delhi Assembly election orfor that matter during the 2015 BiharAssembly election, where the BJP was notvictorious. In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) won the State with a majesticmajority of 67 of the 70 seats. By the samelogic, a hue and cry should have beenraised then also, as it was a clean sweep by

the now critics of EVM tampering?In the times of massive mandate one

way or the other, how come ArvindKejriwal never found anything amiss ear-lier? If the EVMs were tinkered, why didthe BJP not get a clear majority in Manipurand Goa too? According to Kejriwal’slogic, it may also be concluded that the

EVMs were doctored in Punjab in theCongress’s favour. If only had he focusedon governance and less on petty politics hewould never have felt the need to take refugein cooking up anti-EVM excuses.

Not surprisingly, despite a well-orches-trated and coordinated effort by certainnon-BJP parties to discredit the EVMs, not

all party members are comfortable with thecondemnation of the EVMs. As theCongress’s Veerappa Moily pointed out, itwould not be a progressive step to go backto the possibility of ink thrown in ballotboxes, ballot-stuffing and many invalidvotes in which it is impossible to figure outwhich candidate’s name has been stamped.Punjab Chief Minister and senior Congressleader Amarinder Singh too questioned hisparty’s stand on the EVM, and asked hisleaders and Kejriwal to approach the ECIto prove their charge that the pollingmachines can be tampered with. Talkingabout his own electoral win in Punjab,Captain Singh said he wouldn’t have wonin Punjab if EVMs had been tampered with.Even representatives from the Janata Dal(United), after the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elec-tion, came out in support of the EVMs andrubbished arguments against it.

What is baffling is the politicians’reluctance to accept the poll panel’s openchallenge to parties and experts who haveraised doubts about the fairness of the justconducted Assembly elections, to come andhack the EVMs. Their reluctance to acceptthe challenge has exposed their real inten-tions. Most funnily, IITian technocratArvind Kejriwal claims to know of morethan 10 ways to tamper with the EVMs. Butalas, he has not yet demonstrated even a sin-gle one of them. Discarding technology isnot the solution but enhancing technolo-gy must be the case. Returning to the pastsystem and its many flaws is would be adangerous option.

Of course, there has to be a back-up tothe EVMs. To that extent, the electionCommission of India’s thrust to incorpo-rate voter-verifiable paper audit trail(VVPAT) is laudable. The Union Cabinethas cleared the poll panel’s request for over�3,000 crore to set up the VVPAT systemalong with the EVMs in all polling boothsacross the country in time for the 2019 LokSabha election. This should silence the peo-ple who are needlessly beating the politi-cal conspiracy drum, the sounds of whichmost people don’t wish to hear. �

The electronic voting machineis one of the most significant

reforms to have happened in thecountry’s electoral system, takingcare of various malpractices andbooth-capturing. For close totwo decades now, it has servedthe nation’s democracy well andgot refined with time. Thosewho demand its end and wish toreturn to the paper ballot systemare on weak ground, because welive in times where the public callis for more and substantiallymore electoral reforms, and notroll-back of existing reforms.While the EVM is here to stay,the other change that is waitingto happen is the practice ofsimultaneous elections toParliament and State Assemblies.

Almost a year ago, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadstrongly floated the idea in aninterview to a private televisionchannel. Since then, it hasreceived support from variousquarters, and opposition too.But the Government is serioussince it considers simultaneouspolls one good way of addressingthe problem of unending cycle ofelections in the country. Frequentpolls impact governance andpolicy-making since both the rul-ing and the opposition parties areforever in a combative mood andhave little time or inclination towork together for the largergood. Policy decisions areimpacted because the electioncode of conduct disallows theGovernment to announce newprojects or schemes during theelection period. The administra-tive machinery, which includesthe civil bureaucracy and thepolice force, has to be adjusted tocater to election duty — thus dis-rupting its normal functioning.

Finally, there is the costinvolved in conducting multipleelections. For instance, in thewake of the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tion, the Centre for MediaStudies had estimated thataround �30,000 crore could havehave been spent by the thenGovernment, political partiesand candidates put together. The

official spending was said to bein the range of �8,000 crore.Simultaneous polls would savepublic exchequer’s money andalso curb underhand, unaccount-ed for spending as well.

In the early scheme of things,it was never the intention of theframers of our Constitution tohave provisions for round-the-year elections, since they had notimagined such a situation. LokSabha and State Assemblies pollswere conducted, to begin with,

alongside. There is barely any-thing in the ConstituentAssembly debates which indicatesthat the police-makers wereengaged in considering the issue.From 1951-52 until 1967, the syn-chrony of simultaneous polls hadbeen maintained. Then, someState regimes began to collapsebefore their tenures ended, eitherbecause they lost the majority orwere dismissed by the Centre.Later on, the bane of instability hitUnion Governments too, which

began falling within their five-year tenure. Harmony disap-peared as various States and theLok Sabha began to go to polls at different times.

Simultaneous elections willnot address the issue of instabil-ity, but if adequate provisions areintroduced that discourage thedismissal of regimes, the mattercan be effectively resolved. Wealready have two strong mecha-nisms: The difficulty in imposingArticle 356 of the Constitution to

dismiss State Governments, andthe anti-defection Act. Besides, aswe have seen in recent months,the courts too have been alert toattempts at destabilisation ofelected Governments. Less fre-quent polls is in every party’sinterest, and so they should besitting together and working outsolutions. Quite possibly, theidea would require amendmentsto the Constitution. There arepractical issues too. As formerChief Election CommissionerSY Quraishi has wondered, whatwould happen if the Lok Sabhagets dissolved in double quicktime — as it was in 1998 in just13 days? Would State Assembliestoo go, for the sake of simultane-ous polls? If so, what wouldhappen to the five-year term ofthe State legislature?

But these are not insur-mountable issues. Ways can befound to handle them. Variousexperts who have been pushingfor the change have done theirhomework too. Back in 2002,noted constitutional expertSubhash Kashyap had, as a mem-ber of a national commission toreview the working of theConstitution, had suggested agradual but sure migrationtowards simultaneous polls. Hebelieved that the process wouldneed constitutional amendments.More than a decade after that, thereport of a ParliamentaryStanding Committee onPersonnel, Public Grievances,Law and Justice also recom-mended the benefits of simulta-neous polls. The panel, headed byEM Sudarsana E Natchiappan,observed that “every politicalparty likes to have simultaneouspolls” and held that this couldhappen if either of the followingtwo conditions was met: Amotion for early polls should beagreed up by two-third majorityof Parliament; and the Housepasses a no-confidence motion —with no alternative emerging,the road would be cleared forState elections by disrupting thepresent schedule. This approachdoes not need amendments to the Constitution.

Natchiappan observed that“common people feel thereshould be lesser elections andmore performance by theGovernment”. That was indeedtrue then as it is now. �

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��(� �� ���� RBI DeputyGovernor SS Mundra onThursday said a mechanism willbe worked out soon in consul-tation with the Government todeal with the problem of mount-ing bad loans in the banking sec-tor.

“It is difficult to put a time...It could be very near. My sensesays there is so much of seri-ousness and engagement and somuch of discussions have alreadytaken place. It should not besomething that which should beindefinite or very prolonged,” hesaid.

He was responding toqueries related to bad loans in thebanking sector during an inter-view to CNBC-TV18.

The gross NPAs of publicbanks rose to �6.06 lakh crore inDecember 2016, from �5.02lakh crore at March-end of 2016.

Last month, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley had said aresolution was being workedout with the Reserve Bank thatwould put enough pressure onborrowers to settle dues.

He had blamed the badloans of public sector banks onjust 30-50 companies, sayingaccounts of these would have tobe fixed to solve the issue. ��

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����#���RBI Governor UrjitPatel told the Monetary PolicyCommittee (MPC) that thereis room for banks to furthercut interest rate while sound-ing a note of caution on infla-tion front in the comingmonths.

The six-member MPC,headed by Patel, had opted forstatus quo on the benchmarkpolicy rate (repo rate) onApril 6.

“There is still room forbanks to cut lending rates. Forefficient transmission, it isimportant that interest rateson small savings are not out ofline with interest rates onother comparable instrumentsin the financial system,” Patelsaid as per the MPC minutesreleased by the RBI onThursday.

The weighted averagelending rate of banks hascome down only by 0.85-90per cent as against a 1.75 percent cut in policy rates since

January 2015.Lower lending rates

encourage economic activi-ties, but they also have thepotential to fuel inflationaryexpectations. The RBI’s man-date is to contain inflationwithout hurting economicgrowth.

Referring to the price sit-uation, Patel said thatnotwithstanding likelyfavourable base-effects in thenext few months, “the outlookfor inflation calls for close vig-ilance”.

The vigilance, he said,was required with a view toensuring that inf lationremains closer to the target of4 per cent.

Another member andRBI Deputy Governor ViralAcharya said that on thegrowth front, the remoneti-sation is continuing apaceand many sectors of the econ-omy are recovering steadilyafter the transient slowdown.

“There are signs thoughthat the recovery is somewhatuneven. Private investment,given the high indebtedness ofseveral stressed sectors,remains a particularly weakspot,” he said.

RBI Executive Directorand MPC member MichaelDebabrata Patrar said highfrequency indicators may beindicating that demonetisa-tion affected actual outputrather than potential.

“With remonetisation,therefore, the output gap mayclose sooner than expected –perhaps at a sub-optimal levelsince there is slack in severalindustries – and demandpressures could soon con-front the path of inflation inthe months ahead,” he said.

In a surprise move, thegovernment on November 9,2016 had demonetised old Rs500/1000 notes with an aim tocheck black money, fake cur-rency and terror financing.��

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Hyundai Motor will invest�5,000 crore in the country to

bring eight models starting with ahybrid to almost double its salesto one million unit by 2021.

“In the next four years till2020, we plan to invest � 5,000crore to develop eight new prod-ucts and out of them three mod-els will be new segment products,”said Hyundai Motor India Ltd MD& CEO YK Koo, adding, “we planto launch hybrid first and two newmodels each year till 2020 as partof the planned launches.”

When asked about whetherthere will be any elecric vehiclelaunches, Koo said, “We have thetechnology and if the marketdemands, we will launch electricvehicle.”

Talking about sales expecta-tion, HMIL Director, Sales &Marketing, Rakesh Srivastava said:“We expect to sell one million unitsby 2021.”

Koo also said the companyhas set a target of selling 6.72 lakhunits across domestic and inter-national markets. “The companyaims to maintain its present 17 percent marketshare in India,” headded.

Hyundai on Thursday

launched all new version of itscompact sedan Xcent pricedbetween �5.38 lakh and Rs 8.41lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) inboth petrol and diesel.

“With over 2.5 lakh units soldin domestic and internationalmarkets since 2014, we are confi-dent that the all new Xcent will cre-ate a new benchmark in its seg-ment,” Koo said.

The company would keepselling the older versions of Xcentand old Grand i10 under thePrime brand to fleet segment,including ride sharing industry,Koo said.

“We have set a target of 5,000units per month for the newXcent. We will also keep selling theold versions of the Xcent and i10to cab aggregators as there isdemand for such compact mod-els in that vertical,” he added.

:�����������������������;/9����������������������������������3�34��(� �� ���� The country’s

third largest software ser-vices firm Wipro has sackedhundreds of employees fol-lowing its annual “perfor-mance appraisal”.

According to sources,Wipro has shown the doorto about 600 employees,while speculation was rifethat the number could go ashigh as 2,000.

At the end of December2016, the Bengaluru-basedcompany had over 1.79 lakhemployees.

When contacted, Wiprosaid it undertakes a “rigor-ous performance appraisalprocess” on a regular basisto align its workforce withbusiness objectives, strate-gic priorities of the compa-ny, and client requirements.

“ T h e p e r f or m a n c eappraisal may also lead tothe separat ion of someemployees from the com-pany and these numbersvary from year to year,” itadded.

The company, however,did not comment on thenumber of employees whohave been asked to leave.

Wipro said its compre-hensive performance eval-uat ion process includesmentoring, re-training and

upskilling of employees.The company is scheduledto report its fourth quarterand full-year numbers onApril 25.

The development comesat a time when Indian ITcompanies are facing anu n c e r t a i n e nv i ron m e ntgiven the curbs being pro-p o s e d on w or k e r v i s anorms by various countriesl ike the US, Singapore,Australia and New Zealand.

These companies usetemporary work visas tosend employees to work onclient sites.

With visa programmesin these countries becom-ing more rigorous, IndianIT companies are likely toface challenges in move-ment of labour as well as aspike in operational costs.

Indian IT companies getover 60 per cent of theirrevenues from the NorthAmerican market, about 20per cent from Europe andthe remaining from othereconomies.

Besides, higher adop-tion of technologies likeautomation and artificialintelligence is also reducingthe need to have a largenumber of employees atclient site. ��

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Describing the ongoingGoods and Services Tax

(GST) reform as an “act ofcourage”, IMF chief ChristineLagarde on Thursday said sheexpects “some positive out-come” as a result of the decision.

“The GST reform is reallyan act of courage,” Lagarde toldreporters during the annualSpring meeting of theInternational Monetary Fundand the World Bank.

It really means reformingin-depth in each of the IndianStates in order to substitute theState taxes with overall federaltax, the re-allocation of it and thedigital platform that supports it,she said.

“So, I am personallyimpressed by the work that isbeing done in that regard andexpect some positive outcome,”Lagarde said in response to aquestion, adding that she isimpressed by the other reformsbeing carried out by the IndianGovernment.

“There has been otherreforms as well that has beenconducted by the Indian author-ities courageously. One of them-– as a former lawyer I am par-ticularly attentive to because it

particularly when you have todeal with the corporate sector

banking sector that means help-- is the bankruptcy reform,” the61-year-old IMF chief said.

“We are seeing significantdevelopment and clear deter-mination to continue and sus-tain growth going forward,” shesaid.

Lagarde said the situation inthe country after demonetisationhas “improved significantly”.

“We have slightly reviseddown our Indian projection asa result of demonetisation thathas been announced recently alittle bit unexpectedly. Ourunderstanding is that demon-etisation has now remediedabout 75 per cent. Those are thelatest figures that we have,” shesaid.

“So clearly the situation isnow being mended. And webelieve that India is going to con-tinue to grow at a really fast pace.I think, we have 7.2 per centforecast for 2017,” Lagarde said.

Touted as the biggest taxa-tion reform since India’sIndependence, the GST willsubsume central excise, servicetax, Value Added Tax (VAT) andother local levies to create anuniform market. GST is expect-ed to boost India’s GDP growthby about 2 per cent and checktax evasion.

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India’s growth has been“impressive” in the recent

years which makes room fortax broadening efforts by thegovernment, according to atop IMF official.

“India has recorded quitean impressive growth perfor-mance in recent years. Ourview is that the elimination offuel subsidies and the targetingof social benefits has deliveredin terms of allowing the unionbudget target to be achieved at3.5 per cent of GDP,” VitorGasper, Director of the IMFFiscal Affairs Department toldreporters at a news conferencehere yesterday.

“We have been collabo-rating with the Indian author-ities in terms of looking at fis-cal structural measures, includ-ing expenditure rationalisa-tion while protecting infra-structure investment, taxbroadening efforts,” he said.

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��(� �� ���� Indian HotelsCompany on Friday said itintends to participate in the e-auction for the Taj Mansinghproperty, which the Tata Groupfirm has been running fordecades.

The Indian HotelsCompany Ltd (IHCL) had onNovember 8 last yearapproached the Supreme Courtagainst the Delhi High Court’sorder that had cleared thedecks for auctioning of theiconic hotel in the heart of thenational capital.

It suffered a setback onFriday with the apex courtallowing civic agency NewDelhi Municipal Council(NDMC) to e-auction theproperty.

“We respect the decision ofthe Honourable SupremeCourt and intend to participatein the e-auction when it is held.We stay committed to our col-leagues and guests, whose loy-alty and trust remains ourbiggest asset,” a companyspokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

A bench comprisingJustices PC Ghose and RFNariman allowed the plea ofNDMC that IHCL cannot havethe right to refusal in the auc-tioning of the hotel.

The bench, however, askedthe civic body to grant sixmonths “breathing time” tothe company in vacating thehotel in case they lose out in thee-auction. ��

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Indian Global In-house Centers(GICs) have grown impres-

sively over the last 20 years - theGICs’ ability to create cost savingsfor the enterprises while tappingIndia’s talent pool have been theprimary drivers of this growth. Asof today, digital disruption isimpacting every industry andchanging global CXO priorities -organisations are now spending 45per cent of their IT budgets ongrowing their business, com-pared with only 20 per cent pre-viously - this together with othertechnology changes is creating aunique window of opportunity forGICs, according to a report whichwas launched on Thursday byBain & Company and NationalAssociation of Software andServices Companies (NASS-COM).

“The Indian GIC landscapehas evolved significantly over thelast 20 years. Ongoing growth andenterprise integration has result-ed in GICs emerging as a main-

stream operating model for topglobal organisations to accelerateenterprise transformation. GICshave experienced a significant par-adigm shift from being offshoreservice delivery centers to strate-gic enablers that support thegrowth, differentiation and inno-vation agenda of global enter-prises,” says KS Viswanathan,Vice President, IndustryInitiatives, NASSCOM.

The report aims to capturethe changing role of Indian GICs,as digital disrupts industries. GICsare offshore centers of large glob-al organisations that performdesignated functions such asR&D, IT, analytics etc.

“Today, there are about 1,100GICs across the country, employ-ing more than 800,000 individu-als and generating approximate-ly $23 billion in revenues. It’s theirability to create cost savings for anenterprise, while tapping India’stalent pool that has led to thisimpressive growth,” says thereport.

Digging deeper into the

unprecedented digital disruptionin industries, the report finds thatwhile it is critical for GICs to excelat digital-age IT capabilities, theyalso need to continue focusing onreducing the cost of traditional ITto help CXOs fund growth ini-tiatives.

Based on the results of a sur-vey of 30 CXOs of Fortune 1,000companies and 80 Indian GICleaders, the report finds thatIndian GICs will play a moreactive role in driving top-of-mindinvestment priorities of global C-level executives at Fortune 1000companies in the next three to fiveyears.

“Digital disruption acrossindustries and the increasing roleof technology has created a uniqueopportunity for Indian GICs tostep up and play a bigger role with-in global enterprises. But this willrequire a holistic approach, aconcerted effort and a shift inmindset. The journey is unlikelyto be business as usual,” saidArpan Sheth, partner at Bain andco-author of the report.

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Home-grown FMCG majorPatanjali Ayurved is looking

to double its share in the coun-try’s food processing market to20 per cent in the current fiscal.The yoga guru Ramdev-led firm,which has plans to invest �5,000crore on expansion of its variousverticals, would be putting asidea substantial portion of fundstowards opening of new unitsand ramping up capacity of theexisting units.

“The food processing indus-try is worth around �85,000crore and Patanjali has a share ofaround 10 per cent. We wouldlike to double our contributionto 20 per cent this fiscal,”Patanjali Ayurved ManagingDirector Acharaya Balkrishnatold PTI. He further said: “In thecoming years, we would try tomaximum Patanjali’s contribu-tion in the food processing

industry.” According toBalkrishna, the food processingindustry would not only providegood price to farmers but alsohelp in providing quality foodproducts in India.

“Globally, around 90 percent food is processed. In acountry like China around 40 percent food is processed but inIndia only 6 per cent of food andvegetables are processed,” he said,adding that around 35 per cent

food goes waste as it is not beingpreserved throughprocessing. Hefurther said the processed foodwould also help in combating thefood adulteration practice whichhas become quite rampant in thecountry. “After we double ourprocessing capacity, the totalfood processed would beincreased to 7 per cent from theexisting 6 per cent,” he added. Thecompany is presently using grainsas wheat, rice, millet and variousother varieties along with pulses.

Patanjali, which crossed�10,000 crore sales in last fis-cal, is now having global ambi-tions. While speaking at anevent organised by industrybody FICCI, Balkrishna saidthe industry players are takingsteps towards making Indianfood industry an internation-al brand. “Patanjali AyurvedLtd is committed to go globaland fight adulteration in thefood industry,” he said.

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NEW DELHI: United Spiritsand Cairn India will be droppedfrom the BSE’s Sensex Next 50index from April 26. PetronetLNG and Havells India will beincluded in the index in theirplace, BSE said in a circular.Sensex Next 50 index measuresthe performance of the subse-quent 50 largest index-eligiblestocks outside the BSE Sensex 50.

The exchange said thatUnited Spirits has been droppedfrom the index as it no longermeets the index eligibility cri-teria. Further, Cairn India wouldmove out from the index due tosuspension of trading in itsshares from April 26 as the cash-rich oil producer has mergedinto its debt-ridden parentVedanta. Apart from SensexNext 50 index, Cairn India wouldbe dropped from indices includ-ing energy and infrastructure.

Last week, the exchange saidit would discontinue equity aswell as equity derivative tradingin the security of Cairn Indiafrom April 26. Under the merg-er deal, shareholders of CairnIndia will get one equity share ofVedanta and four redeemablepreference shares of face value�10 and coupon 7.5 per cent.

Further, Cairn India share-holders, as on record date,who will become shareholdersof Vedanta, would also receivean interim dividend of �17.70per equity share. The recorddate for the share swap hasbeen set as April 27. Earlier thismonth, Cairn and Vedanta hadannounced the completion ofthe merger. The merger wouldhelp the metals and miningcompany Vedanta access tothe cash of Cairn India, help-ing it cut debt. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Hero Enterprises Chairman Sunil KantMunjal on Thursday committed an investment of �100crore in a new fund of social venture capital firmAavishkaar - Aavishkaar Bharat Fund (ABF). The fundis sixth by Aavishkaar and a Sebi-registered categoryII alternative investment fund (AIF). “At this stage inIndia’s evolution, it is clear that for the entire countryto develop, rural areas and underprivileged citizens mustbecome part of the economic miracle, not through charity, but throughreal opportunities,” Munjal said in a statement. The fund, targeting a corpus of �2,000 crore will invest in businessesthat deal in under-served population in sectors such as agriculture, finan-cial services, healthcare, waste and sanitation, renewable energy andlogistics and supply chain. Aavishkaar Founder and CEO Vineet Raisaid: “With this investment, we can continue to build and scale enter-prises that are working at the grassroots while simultaneously multi-plying their impact outcome.” Incorporated in 2012, Aavishkaar is partof the global impact investment firm Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group andhas made more than 50 investments across sectors and geographies,including low-income states. It has raised five funds delivering com-mercial returns with a total of �1,300 crore under management. PNS

NEW DELHI: The Governmentis considering leasing ITDChotels with management right toprivate companies as part of itsefforts to monetise the propertiesowned the state-run firm.According to sources, theGovernment is chalking out aplan under which ITDC hotelsthat are owned and run by theCentre would be let on lease toprivate companies.

These companies will have theright to decide on management,expansion and new investments.Hotels that are run jointly by theCentre and states can also be givento private entities on lease, sourcessaid. In case of hotels that are builton state land, the right could betransferred to the states for a con-sideration. The state governmentscan then decide to sell or to leaseto private entities. The decision tolease and transfer managementcontrol of hotels assumes impor-tance as the Government hasbeen trying for strategic sale ofITDC hotels for 2 years. PNS

NEW DELHI: Currency fluc-tuation has become the new nor-mal and there is a need to focuson other factors like infrastruc-ture and raw material cost toenhance export competitive-ness, Commerce and IndustryMinister Nirmala Sitharamansaid on Thursday. The Ministersaid the value of the currency isonly one factor and Indianexporters have learnt to take intoaccount currency fluctuationwhile planning their shipments.

“It is just not the currencywhich gives you the competi-tiveness But there are other fac-tors which are equally critical forour exporters like infrastructure,raw material cost, energy sup-plies, state restrictions,” she toldreporters here. “I would notwant to place too much empha-sis only on currency fluctuationor only the rupee strengthening,”she added. Strengthening of thedomestic currency against the

US dollar makes export uncom-petitive as per unit realisationcomes down. While speaking atthe Hero Mindmine Summithere, she said the exchange ratealone cannot be the ‘one cause’for export competitiveness andin the last few years, the volatil-ity in currencies across theworld has been the new ‘normal’.

Sitharaman said thatstrengthening of the rupee is alsoa reflection on the performanceof the economy. She said that‘emphasis and priority’ should begiven to other factors whichenhance export competitive-ness.

The rupee has appreciatedby over 5 per cent against the USdollar since January. A report byrating agency Ind-Ra today saidearnings and margins of textileand apparel exporters would behit in the near term due torupee’s appreciation against thedollar in 2017. PNS

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NEW DELHI : LabourMinister Bandaru Dattatreyaon Thursday said that theFinance Ministr y hasapproved 8.65 per cent inter-est rate on EPF deposits for2016-17. The Minister’s state-ment has laid to rest appre-hensions among formal sectorworkers that they would getlower rate of interest than the8.65 per cent approved by theEmployees’ Provident FundOrganisation’s (EPFO)trustees in December last year.

The ratification of the 8.65per cent interest on EPF willenable the retirement fundbody EPFO to credit this rateof return into the accounts offour crore subscribers. “FinanceMinistry has agreed to 8.65 percent rate of interest. Now, thecommunication will come. Theformal discussions are over,”the minister said on the side-lines of National SafetyAwards function. “We willimmediately issue the notifi-cation and credit the rate ofinterest to over four croresubscribers,” he added. PNS

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NEW DELHI: Investments indomestic capital markets via par-ticipatory notes (P-notes) havesurprisingly surged to 4-monthhigh of �1.78 lakh crore at the endof March despite stringent normsput in place by Sebi to curb inflowof illicit funds. P-notes are issuedby registered Foreign PortfolioInvestors to overseas investorswho wish to be a part of the Indianstock markets without registeringthemselves directly. They howev-er need to go through a properdue diligence process.

According to Sebi data, totalvalue of P-note investments inIndian markets - equity, debtand derivatives -increased to1,78,437 crore at March-end,from �1,70,191 crore at the end ofFebruary. Prior to that, the totalinvestment value through P-notesstood at �1.75 lakh crore inJanuary-end and �1.57 lakh crorein December-end. In March,investments through the route hadtouched the highest level sinceNovember, when the cumulativevalue of such investments stoodat �1,79,648 crore. PNS

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Islamabad: Tariq Fatemi, Paki-stan PM’s Special Assistant onForeign Affairs, could be rem-oved from his position after aninquiry found him guilty of“leaking” to a prominentnewspaper vital informationfrom a high-level NationalSecurity meet, a media reportsaid on Thursday.

In October last year, acolumnist for Dawn newspaperwrote a front-page story about arift between Pakistan’s civilianand military leaderships overmilitant groups that operatefrom Pakistan but engage inproxy war against India andAfghanistan. The governmenthad set up the inquiry commit-tee last year to probe the con-troversy surrounding a contro-versial report by Dawn newspa-per about a key meeting onnational security. According tothe inquiry committee report, itis Fatemi who was primarilyresponsible for leaking report ofthe key meeting to the newspa-per without due permission.

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Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifmight have narrowly

escaped the jinx attached withApril, a month in whichPakistani premiers have previ-ously been overthrown, sen-tenced to life and hanged.

Sharif, 67, on Thursdaynarrowly survived being dis-qualified after a 3-2 split deci-sion by a Supreme Court benchwhich ordered setting up of aJoint Investigation Team toprobe the allegations of moneylaundering against his family.

Interestingly, the apex courtverdict comes in the same monthduring which previously Sharifwas sentenced to life imprison-ment in 2000 and his govern-

ment was sacked in 1993. PrimeMinister Sharif ’s Governmentwas sacked by then PresidentGhulam Ishaq Khan for allegedcorruption in April, 1993.

The next time April spelleddoom for Sharif when he wassentenced for life by a court onApril 6, 2000 in the infamous‘plane hijacking case’ based on

allegations that Sharif as PrimeMinister had disallowed toland a plane carrying thenarmy chief Gen PervezMusharraf, who had toppledSharif ’s government in 1999 ina bloodless coup.

However, other Pakistanipremiers too have suffered abad fate in April.

The worst April in historyof the country was April 4, 1979when former prime ministerZulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hangedfor criminal conspiracy to killa leading politician.

The hanging followed adubious court proceedingallegedly orchestrated at thebehest of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq who had overthrownBhutto’s government in 1978.

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Three burqa-clad sisters inPakistan’s Punjab province

allegedly shot dead a 50-year-oldman who was a suspect in a 13-year-old blasphemy case. Theincident took place onWednesday in Nangal Mirzavillage, Pasrur tehsil, some180km from Lahore.

According to police, threeveiled women, who are sisters,— Afshan, Anma and Razia —came to the house of faith heal-er Mazhar Hussain Syed to takehis blessings for resolution of

their problems.“The women, after taking

his blessings, asked him to callhis son Fazal Abbas, whorecently returned fromBelgium, as one of themremained his student andwanted to see him. As soon asAbbas entered the room theyopened fire on him, killinghim on the spot,” StationHouse Officer (Pesrur) SaeedHinjra said, adding thewomen had hid pistols undertheir burqa.

“We have arrested all threewomen who told police that

they had killed a blasphemer.They had no regret over it. Oneof the women remained studentof the victim some 13 years agowhen he allegedly committedblasphemy,” Hinjra said.

The SHO said police wereinterrogating the womenwhether there was some othermotive behind Abbas’ killing.

It seems surprising thathow come three sisters hadtaken this extreme step on theissue which was 13-year-old. Weare also investigating the role ofsome local clerics, Hinjra said.

The women reportedly had

raised slogans in jubilationafter killing Abbas saying “Wehave eliminated a blasphemer”.

“We couldn’t kill Abbas 13years ago because we were tooyoung then,” the SHO quotedone of the suspects. He saidAbbas was booked in 2004under blasphemy section 295-Cof Pakistan Penal Code, betterknown as the Blasphemy Law.

Abbas had left for Belgiumto avoid the wrath of the localclerics. The suspect had recent-ly returned from abroad andobtained pre-arrest bail from alocal court in the blasphemy case.

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Beirut: Hundreds of frightenedSyrian evacuees from twobesieged Government-heldtowns were stuck at a rebel-heldtransit point on Thursdaywhere dozens of their fellowtownspeople were killed in aweekend bombing.

The 3,000 evacuees, whohad left their homes at dawnyesterday, spent the night inbuses in a marshalling area inRashidin, west of government-held second city Aleppo, await-ing onward transport to safety.

Some 300 evacuees from

rebel-held towns were similar-ly held up at a staging point atRamussa in government-heldterritory. The SyrianObservatory for Human Rightssaid the delay was the result of11th-hour rebel demands forthe release of prisoners held bythe Government. AFP

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US Secretary of State RexTillerson has termed the

Iran nuclear deal a failure andsaid an “unchecked” Tehrancould become another NorthKorea, but stopped short ofthreatening to derail the land-mark agreement.

Tillerson said the US isconducting a comprehensivereview of its Iran policy andadded that the Obama-eranuclear deal only “delays”Tehran’s goal of becoming anuclear state.

“This deal represents thesame failed approach of thepast that brought us to the cur-rent imminent threat we facefrom North Korea. The Trumpadministration has no intentionof passing the buck to a futureadministration on Iran,” hesaid at a hurriedly-convenedPress briefing.

“Iran’s nuclear ambitionsare a grave risk to interna-tional peace and security,”Tillerson said.

His toughen stand on Iranon Wednesday came a dayafter the Trump administrationnotified the Congress thatTehran is complying with the2015 nuclear deal negotiated byformer president BarackObama to limit the IslamicRepublic’s nuclear ability. Theadministration said it hasextended the sanctions relief toIran in exchange for curbs onits nuclear programme.

Iran has defended itsnuclear programme as purelycivilian and its supreme leaderAyatollah Khamenei warned inNovember that Tehran wouldretaliate if the US breached thenuclear agreement.

Tillerson, seeking to rein-force the idea that the US isforcefully countering Iran’sdestabilising behaviour in theMiddle East, also describedTehran as a “leading state spon-sor of terror”.

“The evidence is clear:Iran’s provocative actionsthreaten the United States, theregion and the world,” he said.

Brussels: The EU could re-evaluate its position on the dis-puted Falkland Islands afterBritain leaves the bloc,Argentina's Foreign Ministersaid on Thursday. Argentinaclaims sovereignty over theBritish-governed islands in thesouth Atlantic, over which thetwo nations fought a short butdeadly war in 1982.

“It is true that theEuropean Union, through theEU agreements, is bonded veryfirmly and very strongly to theUnited Kingdom,” ForeignMinister Susana Malcorra saidin Brussels when askedwhether Brexit would affect thediplomatic situation regardingthe Falklands, which BuenosAires calls Las Malvinas.

“So when Brexit takesplace, the EU could evaluate adecision on how to proceedand how to stand on theseissues and there may be achange” in its position, sheadded. AFP

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Paris: A French artist whohatched nine eggs after sittingon them for three weeks hasbeen condemned by an animalsrights group for depriving thechicks of a mother.

Abraham Poincheval hard-ly slept in the 23 days he spentnesting inside a glass vitrine ina Paris art museum which hefinally left on Thursday after allbut two of the eggs hatched.

Last month the mandubbed France's most extremeartist made headlines world-

wide after spending a weekentombed inside an egg-shapedrock at the Palais de Tokyo.

But animal rights groupPETA said they took a dimview of the birth of the chicks,the first of which emerged onTuesday. “There is nothing tocelebrate in the birth of thischick born alone in a museum,”the organisation said in anopen letter to the artist.

“Considered merely as apart of an ‘artistic’ perfor-mance, it will never meet its

mother. “Animals have no placein art,” it added.

But a spokeswoman forthe museum insisted that thechicks, eight of whom are yel-low and one brown, “are doingwell and they are going to livein the country” withPoincheval's parents.

His father Christian toldAFP that he had made them aluxury hen house on hisNormandy smallholding wherethey would live out their nat-ural lives. AFP

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The Kari Motor Speedway is named after S. Karivardhan,one of India’s racing pioneers who tragically passed away

in a private plane crash some 20 years ago. Kari, as he wasknown, is one of the reasons Coimbatore has a racetracktoday and also partially responsible for the fact that TamilNadu has bequeathed India most of her racing drivers. Thetrack itself is a short, sweet and twisty road, a sort of placeyou would love to put down some rubber, particularly ona go-kart and you wonder whether more of such tracksshould have been built across India instead of a giganticFormula 1 certified racetrack.

But that is another story. The story in this column isabout the Volvo S60 Polestar. The “Polestar” brand wasinherited when Volvo Cars bought out the Polestar racingteam which raced in the Swedish Touring CarChampionships and other series with modified Volvos.Much like the AMG division of Mercedes or the “M” divi-sion of BMW, the “Polestar” brand means that engineershave tinkered around and spread their magic glitter in theinnards of the car. So it has a tauter suspension, bigger tyresand most importantly a bigger turbocharger.

The bigger turbocharger coupled with a bigger air intakewhich has been tuned extremely well to ensure a lot of low-end power means that the S60 can produce a claimed 367PSfrom its two-litre turbo. And on the short Kari Speedway,that is a lot. Yes, down the (very small) straight, you donotice that the car does start losing some grunt up the rangeand because it uses a traditional torque-converter automat-ic transmission, there are times you think that maybe itcould have done with a faster upshift or downshift. Theseare frankly very minor quibbles for the car overall.

The Polestar is an All-Wheel Drive car with a slight for-ward bias, which ispar for the coursein this segment.That said, whenyou throw the carinto the tightsequences at Kari,it stays incrediblysteady and becausethe turbo spools

up quickly the car races between corners like an excitableLabrador. And even when you make a mistake by brakingtoo late, the car is very forgiving. Of course, you do remem-ber that you are inside a Volvo, which means that you real-ly don’t need to worry about your personal safety.

Volvo has also worked towards making the Polestar abit more refined inside but on this respect the S60 is show-ing its age. While the model launched was the 2017 model,it does not have the new Volvo architecture or interiors yousee on the XC90 and S90. Compared to the cars the Polestarwill compete against — the Mercedes C43 AMG and AudiS5 — this could be seen as an issue, fancy leather uphol-stery and carbon-fibre inserts notwithstanding.

So what has Volvo done to deal with that? Short answer.Price. The Polestar will cost just �52.5 lakh, ex-showroomDelhi (with a final on-road price of around 60 lakhs). Thereason I use the term “just” is because nothing else with300+horsepower costs so little in this country, nothing elsethat gets you from 0-100 kilometres per hour in under fiveseconds costs less than 70 lakhs. Sure, Audi will possiblyhave the S3, S4 and the new S5 out by late 2017, but it isunlikely to price their cars at such “affordable” levels. Andfrankly, the S60 Polestar is a good-looking car, especiallyin the “Rebel Blue” colour. By being a great deal in the sur-prisingly thin 350-horsepower segment in India, the 30-oddcars that Volvo is due to bring to India should get sold outsoon. Volvo India should look at getting a few more Polestarsto India. The Swedish carmaker is boosting their game inIndia and the introduction of the Polestar is clear evidenceof that. With some more exciting cars, based on Volvo’s mod-ern design language such as the V90 Cross Country andthe second-generation XC60 coming by the end of the year,Volvo could be a big player in the market. So there is lit-tle wonder they’re looking up.

It is said that music is thefood for soul. Music is

derived from passion and itis only few among thecrowd who manage to pullthe right strings. It is hard-ly in one’s lifetime that onegets to witness such anepiphany. A parallel worldwhere imagination takesflight, a world created by theclassical music with its raagsand rasas, is seen as a roadto divinity.

Kishori Amonkar, anIndian classical vocalist,was trained by her mother,Mogubai Kurdikar of theJaipur gharana, who was anequally talented singer.Known for experimentingwith the various tunes andraags, Amonkar took herJaipur traditional music toanother level and includedfeatures of other gharanas.The technique at her con-stant disposal for bringingout the best in her wasimprovisation. She believedin improvising and not fol-lowing the rules laid out fora trained singer. Shebelieved that rules curbedthe creativity of the artist,leaving no room for the nat-ural flow of music throughone’s being. She used toinvoke various emotions inher singing and believedthat it gave her spiritualitya different meaning whichproved to be an asset inmaking her singing leg-endary.

It was in honour of thisexceptionally talented ladythat a memorial was heldwhere notable personali-ties with varied musicalbackgrounds came togeth-er to share their thoughts

and experiences. The event,titled Tribute to KishoriAmonkar, celebrated theextraordinary life of a musi-cian who was widelyregarded as one of the lastgreat vocalists ofHindustani classical music.An inspiration to many,her death was regarded asthe end of an era.

This sense of lossbrought together heradmirers in the same fieldto mourn and celebrate hergreatness. “Kishori ji’smusic has reason, debateand a story. To that end, shebrought all her faculties tofocus on the raga she sangat a particular moment. Weshould be indebted to herfor the way she establishedthe dignity of the svara orthe note,” said noted jour-nalist, author and televisionpersonality Mrinal Pande.Kishori Amonkar alwaysprioritised the emotionalaspect of the music asopposed to the tradition

and she was both praisedand criticised for it. But shedid not depart from herindividual style of singing.Her music involved theintense pain of separationand loneliness, always cen-tering on a sense of loss.According to award-win-ning architect Vikram Lall,Amonkar’s music goes wellbeyond her performance,pedagogy and personality.“It reveals a sharp and intel-ligent mind. Her music hasnot only inherited the bestof our traditions but hasalso found ways to expand

upon it with her brilliantimagination. As renderedby Kishori ji, notes hadpersonalities and emotion-al textures,” Lall said.

The memorial sawmusic experts and criticsexpound on various facetsof her vision, style andpersonality. “Kishori ji usedto enter the stage in a med-itative trance. Her processwas to establish the raga tobe sung that day in her soul,offer her prayers to it andembellish it with her deepunderstanding,” said musiccritic Manjari Sinha. She

never decided her ragas.Instead she chose themright before her perfor-mances which provided thespontaneity to her music.Sucheta Banerji, of theSociety for the Promotionof Indian Classical Musicand Culture, recalled thatyoung people would turnout in droves for her con-certs. “Kishori ji saw musicas a path to mukti or salva-tion. Young people, shewould say, needed to befilled with satisfaction,which was getting harder tocome by these days whereeverything is practical andreadymade,” Banerji said.

The event was a hugesuccess with throngs ofpeople paying tribute toAmonkar. Her demeanorand persona were excep-tionally disciplined. Shehad an affinity for diversi-ty. In addition to her careeras a classical vocalist,Amonkar was known forher performances of lighterclassical pieces, with a widerepertoire of thumri ghaz-als, and bhajans, as well assome performances for filmsoundtracks. For authorSunita Budhiraja,“Amonkar’s music was aspace where all opinionsceased to exist. Whatremained was just a deeprealisation.” According toher, Kishori Amonkar hada way of calming the mindwith no thoughts but thethought of the ragas thatshe sung on the stage.Having dedicated her life tomusic, she left behind alegacy of extremely pureand intense musicunmatched by any.

At a time when free speechexists as a farce and opin-ions are polarised and

labelled as hate-speech, religionremains a sensitive topic. It is notuncommon for it to get draggedinto a conversation where a differ-ence of opinion occurs even on aneutral issue. It is during suchflare-ups that the true intolerantnature of society towards religiousdiversity and accommodation ofvarying opinions is uncovered.While standing up for one’s beliefsis commendable, shunning the

existence of opposing opinions istruly conceited. The line betweenvoicing one’s concern and beingreligiously insensitive runs scari-ly thin in today’s India and socialmedia platforms witness suchclashes frequently. To get caught insuch a series of verbal crossfireover social media is a recurringaffair.

The recent controversy withSonu Nigam’s comments over asocial platform complaining aboutthe morning azaan from a mosquepresumably near his house is onesuch example. The singer was dis-pleased by the “forced religious-ness” of loudspeakers deployed byany community or group and pro-ceeded to rant about it on socialmedia. Consequently, he receivedan array of reactions from his col-leagues in the film and musicindustry. But ever since his com-ments went on the social mediaspace, the debate shifted to some-thing else completely. The issue of

noise pollution and unnecessarynoise generation from all kinds ofreligious events that often causediscomfort to neighbourhood res-idents got completely drowned.

The comments specificallymentioned that they did not intendto insult or derogate any religionbut were taken as an attack on theMuslim community by many of hisfans and social media users. AMuslim cleric even offered areward of �10 lakh to anyone whowould shave the singer’s head andgarland him with old shoes.

At a time when threats likethese are issued openly over a sim-ple expression of opinion, thescope of having intellectual andhealthy discussions about the exis-tence of such futile ritualisticpractices is quite slim. Such polar-isation of issues and careless

labelling leave no space for indi-vidualistic freedom of expression.This incident does not exist in iso-lation. There have been times inthe past when celebrities havevoiced their opinions about reli-gious practices and have facedsharp allegations from fundamen-talists calling out their insensitiv-ity towards a religion.

The issues in such incidentsoften divert to religion when theyfocus on something else entirely.The issue raised by Nigam talkedabout mitigating noise genera-tion but because it contained thereference of a religious institutionit was considered hate speech.Renowned names from the indus-try joined the debate and contin-ued to miss the point of the debateentirely even as they talked aboutreligious sentiment and spreadinghate. Singer Mika Singh called outNigam’s hypocrisy by saying the heparticipates in Hindu jagraatasthat also cause the same kind ofnoise pollution.

Like Mika, other celebritiesalso spoke up but they were justlooking to get their share of thelimelight while the essence of thetweet became non-existent. EvenNigam played along to get hismoments of news worthiness.When such a verbal war breaksout, it’s important to know that areligious spin on a socio-environ-mental issue and quick antago-nisms often lead to muffling ratio-nal voices and creating just anoth-er “saleable” event.

After her cameo in Bombay Velvet, the90s Bollywood bombshell, Raveena

Tandon embarks on a full-fledged come-back to the film industry with Maatr ina role you have never seen her before. Inthe film, Tandon plays a mother whoalong with her 12-year-old daughter is arape survivor, when denied justice, seeksrevenge. The film doesn’t focus on oneparticular incident although it followsone storyline but also tries to present thewholistic nature of the problem.

The film has been passed by theCentral Board of Film Certification(CBFC) with an ‘A’ certificate, the actresssaid that the guidelines of the censorboard should change now as today“times have changed”.

Directed by Ashtar Sayed, Maatrdeals with rape and violence againstwomen in Indian society.

“We did make the film very realisti-cally. But there are some things in the filmwhich we also don’t condone and we tellpeople that this is fiction, but tomorrowit can become someone’s reality. So, wedon’t condone taking the law in your ownhands. That’s something no one shoulddo,” Raveena said at a press conference.

“We are trying to send the message

that now enough is enough. Now a cor-rection has to happen. That’s what wehave conveyed. As far as the censor boardis considered, they have their own guide-lines. They follow certain rules, whichwere made many years ago.

“So, that has to change now. Theyhave to change according to the times welive in. Maybe 40 or 50 years ago it wasa more safer place to live in, but todaytimes have changed. So, to show a bit ofthe reality is what is the need of thehour,"”she added.

Raveena said a film like Maatr is rel-evant in today’s times.

“Awareness is happening in ourcountry, but to strengthen women rightsand stricter laws and to implementthose laws is the need of the hour,” shesaid.

“In rural areas in India, women arenot even aware of their rights. That's thesaddest part,” Raveena added.

The 42-year-old said that Indian lawsshould be more strict when it comes towomen’s security.

“The criminal needs to have that fearof committing a crime. What they feel isthat they will be released easily. That'swhat happened in Nirbhaya’s case inDelhi. It was not just rape. It was rape andmurder. And he was let go away. The onewho is suffering now is the family ofNirbhaya,” she said.

The actress was asked about singerSonu Nigam’s comments demanding aban on loudspeakers during azaan.

After his comments, Sonu shaved hishead and apologised earlier this week.

“If we look at the current scenario of

our country — whether you look at peo-ple of any religion — fanaticism iswrong. We have always lived as a secu-lar and strong country and we should beallowed to do so," Raveena told reportershere.

“If Diwali firecrackers are beingcontrolled, I promote that. But it does-n't mean I am becoming communal. Itdepends on each person’s individualthinking what they think and what theyfind.

“In a way, I do believe that we needto go towards a modern, more secularand liberal India. Fanaticism is wrong,”she added.

While talking about Bollywood,Raveena said: "I have been born andbrought up in the entertainment indus-try. My father (Ravi Tandon) was a filmdirector. I got food from my father, thenmy husband (Anil Thadani) and myself.I respect my industry a lot.

“I am not saying this because I amconnected to it. I don't think any otherindustry in India is secular as much asthe entertainment industry. We don’t seewho comes from where and which caste.Talent and hard work are recognised.”

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From mutton sukka spaghetti to Kerala fishmoilee, one can safely say that Nariyal Café

at Hauz Khas is surely aiming at diversity inits menu. Claiming to be a south-Indianmenu-oriented café, it has some fusion exper-iments involving international cuisine styles.

Living up to its name, everything comeswith a coconut relish or garnish. Beginning witha customised coconut with your name/messagepainted on it, the tease begins with the visuals.

The innovation comes with the familiarcoconut water and cream combination. Usuallyhad at its purest best, the chefs here injected thecoconuts with artificial flavours. While thetweaks spark up the list of beverages, they alwaysdo not sit friendly on your sensitive tastebuds.The mango/peach flavoured coconut waterthoroughly left us confused as we tried to iden-tify the mix. Even though serving fresh nariyalpaani is a good way to go but with the addedflavour, one can say they went too far in theirquest to display diversity. Needless complexi-ty when simplicity works best.

We were served Malay shrimp laksa at thebeginning of the meal. Laksa is a spice-ladennoodle dish that is popular in Malaysia andSingapore. This noodle dish is quickly gainingpopularity outside of Southeast Asia because ofits scrumptious taste.

One definitely would give it to them for

their presentation, with almost all the dishesbeing served in hollowed out coconut shells.Our shrimp pieces were dipped in thickorange soup with peanuts, sprouts, mint leavesand cucumbers. While the soup was infusedwith the flavours of coconut milk, the otheradditives balanced itout smoothly.

The soup was fol-lowed by curry leavessalad, presented fancy witha pinch of sour cream. This, too,we felt, could have been kept simple.

For the main course, we were servedthe Goan prawn curry slid-er with fries and onions

rings on the side, a sort of a fancy non-vege-tarian pav bhaji. A few bites into the meal, onewould want to fish out the prawn pieces (if youlove prawns) for they are an explosion of all theingredients of the marinade and make for a sat-isfying mouthful by themselves. You can enjoythe slider if you skip the drink and the soupwhich have already overwhelmed your senseswith the coconut.

After the slider, we were asked to test thespiciest dish on the menu, mutton sukkaspaghetti which was also served in hollow shells.The combination of spicy spaghetti and the well-cooked, marinated mutton complementedeach other. Really didn’t need the coconut gar-nish. This is a good option for satiating yourhunger. The portion is generous and can beshared between two people. After a briefinterlude of coconut-flavoured ice cream as apalace cleanser, we were served the all too well-known meen moilee and appam. This was apleasant mellow dish, the spice and coconutcombo toned down a few notches.

The dessert surprisingly had notouch of the coconut — a chocolatebomb with vanilla ice cream, the

creamy favourite for all seasons.The Nariyal Café does offer a diver-

sified menu but it has a longway to go to cater to adiversified Delhi palate.

Feng Shuii is hardly the name you expectof a pan-Asian restaurant. But then pos-

itive atmospherics do make for a completedining experience. Covering all of two floors,the ground level has the warmth and openinvitation of a college cafe while the upperterrace strata is more lounge-like withnew-age decor and waterfall cascadingalong the walls.

Keeping in mind that not many peoplecome to an oriental outlet for drinks, themenu has been designed with primaryessentials such as beer, whisky, martini andclassic cocktails. Yet within the limited range,the bartender did manage to surprise us withwhisky sour and apricot.

There’s a lot of summer favouritesgoing here in the form of the Thai papayasalad, Punjabi chowmein (thank god theydistinguish it from the mainstream Chinesedishes), Indonesian fried noodles or miegoreng, Schezwan chicken dimsums, Thaispring rolls, sauted lemon grass prawns,lamb lion chop, Burmese khao suey, theMalaysian lamb rendang, the Thai mas-saman curry and mainland China’s favouritekung pao mealbowl. Sincethey are theusual favourites, weliked their fulsome-ness and portions.Surprisingly, Punjabichowmein with garlic sauce,perhaps not the greatest fusionsample, made for a huge comfortstatement.

The starters came in the formof chilli tofu, marinated tofu deep-fried and cooked with chilli sauce,making for an absorbently luscioussnack. The assortment of dimsums had interesting fillings ofchestnuts, corn, steamed broccoli,beans, carrot and cauliflower inaddition to mushrooms. Neat andsubtle, each had its distinct flavourand pushed the envelope when itcame to presenting a vegetarianbouquet.

We followed up

Chinjabi chowmein with the roundednessof khao suey along with some hot garlic

sauce. Now this is a dishso infectiouslywinsome thatwe did not feellike stopping.

Khao sueysget made all

over the citywith their own

flavour graphsbut this one made the

idea of eating out on a weekday worthsomething.

For dessert, we would recommend thedarsaan or honeyed noodles with vanilla icecream. All in all, a drop-by place that wouldwarm you up at the end of a busy day.

Our smart cities arenow glistening withnew opportunities

for the young generation.With a rising demographyof hard-pressed profes-sionals, it is not uncommonfor working Indians to skipa meal to save time andmore often than not skipthe most important meal ofthe day — breakfast.Coming to their rescue ismasterchef Vikas Khanna.

Heading a table at theLaLiT, the chef improvisedon the commonest break-fast staple, oats. “We want-ed to conserve the flavourof home-cooked food aswell as provide a healthyalternative to a quick,cooked breakfast,” saidVikas when asked about hisreason for a breakfast drive.So he has closely workedwith a known oat brandand developed flavours likethe south Indian dosa orthe masala upma.

Talking about thenutritional content of pack-aged food, Vikasexplained, “We Indians arethe toughest crowd toimpress since we expect alot. Hence it was difficult tocome up with somethingthat was delicious as well ashealthy and that was thereason that my first 40recipes were rejected. Itwas after my constant ded-ication that I finally cameup with a recipe which pro-vided the nutritious valueof oats along with thefamiliarity of morningfavourites.”

Khanna mentionedthat young Indians are par-ticularly clued into thenutritional component ofevery morsel that they eat.“Earlier it was easy to swaythe consumer as all wehad to serve was a dish thatwould feel good on thepalate but it is only nowthat people have becomeequally demanding aboutthe health aspect.Sometimes, they are even

willing to compromise ontaste because of it,” he said.

To demonstrate theconvenience of cooking aswell as the customisingappeal of the product, chefVikas presented a livedemonstration of his ownsimple technique. He usedthe raw oats idli mix tomake diskettes and addeda few ingredients of hisown such as curd, asfoeti-da, jackfruit and beetrootjuice. “I am not good atcooking. But I have a strongsense of flavours. So all Ihave to do is mix a few ran-dom ingredients and theyturn out to be an exotic del-icacy,” he added with asmile.

He also explainedthe changing dynamicsof Indian food habits.“I am the type of per-son who believes inchange but in thecase of Indian food,I would say thatmost of thechanges thathave happenedover the yearshave done nogood. Forexample, takemaida orrefined flour.It is not anIndian prod-uct as wewould alwaysuse wheat which isa much healthiero p t i o n .Traditionally, wehave always usedunprocessed jaggeryinstead of refined sugar. Soas far as change is con-cerned, I would say let’schange current habits to theway that they were. I haveno idea about the Indianpolitical scenario but I amaware of the increasingcost of packaged food.Therefore, I created thisproduct which is not onlyhealthy but is also afford-able for the middle classworking person,” he added.

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Jos Buttler went on a rampage witha breathtaking 37-ball-77 asMumbai Indians cantered home by

eight wickets against Kings XI Punjabmaintaining their pole position in theIndian Premier League, hereThursday night.

Hashim Amla's superb 103enabled Punjab put up a competitive198 for 4 in 20 overs but Buttler madea mockery of the target with MumbaiIndians knocking off the runs in only15.3 overs.

If Amla was sublime, Buttler'spower-packed shots were scary as hehit seven fours and five sixes, com-pletely overshadowing the effort fromthe illustrious South African.

The talented Nitish Rana (62 nooff 34 balls) was equally exhilaratingas he also sent the Kings XI bowlerson a leatherhunt hitting as many asseven sixes. Buttler-Rana stand got MI85 runs in less than 8 overs.

Rana got the 'Purple Cap' backand finished the match with a six offMohit Sharma.

Mumbai now have 10 points fromsix games having won five matches ina row while KXIP slumped to theirfourth defeat.

Chasing a near 200-target need-ed a mandatory good start and JosButtler was finally up for it as he pun-ished the two 'Sharmas' -- Ishant andSandeep with equal disdain.

The pint-sized Parthiv Patel alsomatched him stroke for stroke as theybasically finished the contest in thePowerplay overs itself adding 81runs.

Parthiv's contribution was 37 off18 balls, hitting four boundaries andtwo sixes.

Both the batsmen matched eachother stroke for stroke as the 50 cameup in the fourth over itself.

If Sandeep with his military

medium pace was getting tonked byButtler for bowling fuller deliveries,Parthiv was seen using Ishant'sbounce whipping him for a six behindsquare.

Butt ler was seen musclingSandeep ovr extra cover as GlennMaxwell had no answer to thisonslaught.

Finally, Marcus Stoinis bowled a

slower one as Parthiv mistimed it toMaxwell standing at the circle at mid-off pouched an easy catch.

Earlier Amla's classy hundredpowered Kings XI Punjab to a com-petitive 198/4 after being put into batfirst.

Playing shots that would delightthe purists, Amla spanked all theMumbai Indians bowlers en route his

unbeaten 104 off 60 balls, whichincluded as many as six sixes apartfrom eight boundaries.

In fact five of the half dozen sixeswere hit off Sri Lankan slinger LasithMalinga (0/58 in 4 overs).

There were straight hits, shirt armjabs over long-on, slashes over point,hook, and a majestic pull-shot in'Nataraja style', which brought up his

first hundred in shortest format aswell second of this edition.

Skipper Glenn Maxwell, on hispart played a typically breezy inningssmashing 40 off 18 balls with the helpof four boundaries and three sixes.

It was the 3rd wicket partnershipbetween Amla and Maxwell that pro-duced 83 runs in only 5.3 overs tosend the Mumbai attack in completedisarray.

The last six overs produced anastounding 87 runs after KXIP were111 for 2 at the end of the 14th over.

It was the 15th over of the inningswere Maxwell decided to tee off tak-ing 28 runs off the MitchellMcLenaghan over.

The KXIP skipper hit the haplessNew Zealand international for threesixes and two fours as he got therequired momentum.

The very next over from Malingasaw Amla punce on him taking 22 offthat over and suddenly 50 runs cameoff two overs.

While Jasprit Bumrah cleanedup Maxwell but Amla was well set bythen as he showed one and all that acentury in shortest format could bescored playing all the proper cricket-ing shots.

There were drives on the up, cutshots and also lofted shot in-front ofthe square as well as behind thesquare.

The true nature of the pitch alsohelped Amla, who infact enjoyedMalinga's back of the length deliver-ies.

It was baffling as senior proHarbhajan Singh, who gave awayonly 12 runs in 2 overs, didn't getto finish his quota of overs.

����������'!���198/2 (H Amla 104*, GMaxwell 40; M McClenaghan 2/46)lost to ����199/2 (J Buttler 77, NRana 62*; M Stoinis 1/28)

���� �>6�!�!

High on confidence followinga hat-trick of victories, two-

time champions Kolkata KnightRiders would look to continuetheir winning streak when theyface struggling Gujarat Lions ina battle between the top and bot-tom-placed teams of the ongoingIPL, here on Friday.

With two home and twoaway wins from five matches, in-form KKR are on a roll, quitecontrast to the campaign ofGujarat who finished the leaguestages on top last season but areyet to find their rhythm this yearwith just one victory out of five.

Struggling to find a set open-ing pair in the absence of aninjured Chris Lynn, KKR for oncehad a disastrous start in theirchase of 170 in Delhi as they werereduced to 21 for three insidethree overs. Any other teamwould have succumbed underpressure but not KKR, who putup a 110-run fourth wicket stand

between Manish Pandey (69 notout from 47 balls) and YusufPathan (59 from 36 balls) to setup the four-wicket win.

Pandey has been in the formof his life as he struck a secondunbeaten half-century of theseason to seal the chase, finish-ing off the game with a flat six.

After spending a three-daywelcome break, KKR now would

be back to relish Eden's homecomfort in two successive match-es in three days time, includinga marquee Sunday showdownagainst the Virat Kohli-led star-studded Royal ChallengersBangalore.

With the team gelling welland enjoying a winning momen-tum, there may not be any needto tinker KKR's line-up but in

hindsight it is perplexing to seestar Bangladeshi all-rounderShakib-Al-Hasan warming thebench.

Andre Russell's replacementColin de Grandhomme has failedto make much impact from threegames and Shakib may give a bet-ter overseas option to skipperGautam Gambhir.

Their smooth campaign sofar, notwithstanding, KKR wouldbe worried about the form ofSuryakumar Yadav, who hasfailed to deliver with the bat at thecrucial number six position.

For the Lions to roar, theirtop-heavy batting order must firstwin in unison against a consistentKKR bowling attack.

Spin trio of Sunil Narine,Kuldeep Yadav and Yusuf Pathanconceded a combined 43 runsfrom nine overs and took keywickets of David Warner, ShikharDhawan and Deepak Hooda tochoke Surisers Hyderabad to a17-run defeat in their last matchhere.

Finding a winning combi-nation would be the priority forRaina as overseas players, espe-cially Dwyane Smith and AaronFinch has disappointed the teamso far. Jason Roy and JamesFaulkner may give Raina a bet-ter option while it won't be a badidea to promote the talentedJharkhand opener Ishan Kishanup the order.

Another big setback for theLions has been the hamstringinjury to their star West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.

The team also desperatelylooked up to Ravindra Jadeja'sreturn but the star all-rounderlooked jaded and out of sorts afterreturning to action followingthe rest advised by BCCI's med-ical team after the long home Testseries.

Gujarat can take positivesfrom Kerala uncapped pacerBasil Thampi's promising bowl-ing, who got his maiden IPL vic-tim in the prized wicket of ChrisGayle.

���� �>6�!�!

He was one of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's trusted lieu-tenants during the best days of Chennai Super Kings

and not only does Suresh Raina "miss" his captain butalso feels disappointed in the manner he was removedfrom Rising Pune Supergiant's captaincy.

"I was disappointed. He has done so well for thecountry as well as for the IPL teams. He should berespected every time. It's about not me saying, it's theworld saying," Raina said.

Dhoni has so far scored only 61 runs in five gameswith a strike-rate of 87 and that has invited criticismfrom all quarters.

"Having shared the dressing room with him (forIndia and CSK), you know what goes through when onefaces hardships. He (Dhoni) should be respected as aplayer. In any profession, be it as a player or a journal-ist, you need to be respected. Even a player, howevershort his career span may be, wants to earn respect."

Asked whether it's affecting Dhoni, he said: "I don'tthink. He's back among runs. Hope he will do well bet-ter after two-three matches. We have only played five

matches. After sometime the picture will beclear. He should bat up the order

and bat long. He's a worldclass finisher."

Raina termed his eight-year stint with CSK as the"best experience".

"The time I spent withChennai Super Kings will

always remain special. Wehave won so many trophies,be it IPL or ChampionsLeague T20. When I was

very young, it gave me agreat learning opportunity by

being among all the legends,"Raina, who was the man-of-the-match in their maiden IPL winover Mumbai Indians in 2010,said.

On a different note, Rainaseemed hopeful that Virat Kohli'sIndian team will be able to retainChampions Trophy won in 2013.

Raina said that Kohli 'saggression is his biggest pluspoint.

"Kohli has done really well inthat department (passion andintensity). I feel he will lift the

Champions Trophy for Indiathis time. He knows how tochannelise his emotion intoaggression," Raina said.

In order to get winningresults, one needs to full sup-

port from the team and he hasgot that.

"Everyone supports him on the field. All the play-ers like to play that way. If he starts scoring runs, I don'tthink anyone can stop him from winning the ChampionsTrophy. He has done well in Test and one-day cricket.Now it's time to go to England and do what MS did inODIs (in 2013)," the Champions Trophy winner said.

Raina said that IPL transformed him as a playermaking him more assertive and positive in his approach.

"By playing IPL, I got over my hesitations. It creat-ed a positive vibe in me. Like you say cricketing instincts.You are in a good zone when you hit a bowler instinc-tively — I developed that and dominated the bowlers."

���� ,234.!7!3

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David said he hurt himselfwhile taking a catch but heaped praise on his players

for his side's 15-run win overDelhi Daredevils here onWednesday.

Warner was seen gri-macing as he fell down on

his back while taking a catchto dismiss Rishabh Pant of the

bowling of Yuvraj Singh in the10th over of Delhi's run chase.

"I hurt myself on the ribcage," Warner said after the

match. He praised KaneWilliamson (89) and Shikhar Dhwan

(70) for their 136-run stand for the sec-ond wicket to lay the foundation for

Hyderabad's total of 191 for 4 afterelecting to bat.

"It was an outstanding perfor-mance from the guys. Kane, firstgame for him this year, the way he

and Shikhar played laid an out-standing platform for the guys," saidWarner. "We galvanise well together,we know what to expect. Fantasticperformance from the guys with thebat and then following it up with theball as well," he added.

Talking about his bowlingunit, Warner said, "We have anoutstanding bowling attack with

pace upfront. It was about tossing the ball tothe youngster playing the first game or go to

Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar), our experiencedpaceman. We threw the ball to the youngsterand he came out on top."

#�� -467>+.(4

Australia has picked four fastbowlers — Mitchell Starc,

James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewoodand Pat Cummins — in its 15-manChampions Trophy squad whiledropping allrounder JamesFaulkner, the man-of-the matchfrom its triumph in the 2015World Cup final against NewZealand.

Australian selector TrevorHohns referred to the four quicksas a "fast-bowling artillery" and "avery exciting proposition forAustralian cricket."

Starc returned early fromAustralia's tour of India with astress fracture in his right foot, butHohns said he was confident theleft-arm opening bowler would befit to play in the June 1-18 tour-nament in England.

Big-hitting batsman ChrisLynn, sidelined for two monthsrecently with a neck/shoulderinjury, was also included in thesquad.

"Our medical staff will con-tinue to monitor Mitchell and

Chris' recovery from their respec-tive injuries, but we are hopefulthey will be fit in time for theteam's departure on May 18,"Hohns said.

All-rounders Marcus Stoinis,Moises Henriques and JohnHastings were also included in thesquad to be captained by SteveSmith.

Leg-spinner Adam Zampa wasthe only specialist slow bowlerselected, although Travis Headand Glenn Maxwell offer off-spin-ning options. Head and AaronFinch are the likely contenders toopen the batting with vice-captainDavid Warner.

Australia joins England,Bangladesh and New Zealand inGroup A, while defending cham-pion India is pooled with SouthAfrica, Pakistan and Sri Lanka inGroup B.

#��� 3,!�!

Bangladesho n

Thursday recalled fit-again fast bowlerShafiul Islam as they named a 15-manChampions Trophy squad ahead of thetournament in England in June.

Shafiul, who last played for Bangladeshin October, replaces Subashis Roy, the onlychange to the squad that drew the recentODI series 1-1 in Sri Lanka.

"Shafiul has been our one of the bestbowlers of late, but we could not include himin the squad in recent tours because of fitnessconcerns," said chief selector MinhajulAbedin. "Now he looks fit and we hope theconditions in UK will also suit his bowling,"he added.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan andall-rounder Shuvagata Hom, who were includ-ed in the extended squad in Sri Lanka but didnot play, missed out. Bangladesh will return tothe Champions Trophy after more than a

decade, having last played thetournament in 2006 in India.

They will feature in GroupA alongside hosts England,and Australia and New

Zealand in the eight-teamevent. The Mashrafe

Mortaza-led team willopen their cam-

paign againstEngland at the

Oval on June 1.Bangladesh will hold a 10-

day training camp in Sussex anda tri-series competition againstIreland and New Zealand aheadof the main tournament.

Bangladeshi selectors addedNurul, Roy and batsman NasirHossain to their squad for the tri-

series event, which will be hostedby Ireland. Nasir, who has played17 Tests and 58 ODIs, will make his

return to the side.

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After such a long journey to reach theChampions League semifinals,

Monaco has no fear of who it plays next.With good reason.Monaco dispatched Borussia

Dortmund 3-1 on Wednesday — with red-hot striker Kylian Mbappe continuing hisremarkable rise to stardom with anothergoal — to go through 6-3 on aggregate.

Coach Leonardo Jardim's spellbindingbrand of attacking football has produced141 goals so far this season, including threegoals home and away in both knockoutrounds.

Monaco reached the 2004 final againstthe odds, knocking out Real Madrid alongthe way, and they could meet again inFriday's draw. In another parallel, midfieldgreat Zinedine Zidane was playing for RealMadrid back then and he is now the club'scoach.

Monaco's other two potential oppo-nents are Atletico Madrid — which lost lastyear's final to Real — and 2015 runner-upJuventus.

Some prospect.But asked which side he feared the

most, Jardim's answer spoke volumes forMonaco's confidence.

"I think this question is something forour opponents now," the Portuguese coachsaid. "For them to worry about playing us."

Monaco has come a long way since July27 last year - when it started in the quali-fying rounds with a trip to Istanbul.Monaco got past Fenerbahce and then beatSpanish side Villarreal to reach the groupstages.

"It's not easy to play the ChampionsLeague and to try and win the Frenchleague at the same time," Jardim said of thedomestic league leaders.

Mbappe and resurgent forwardRadamel Falcao scored early goals to putimmediate pressure on Dortmund, whichtrailed 3-2 from the first leg of the quar-terfinal in Germany.

Attacking midfielder Marco Reuspulled one back in the 48th minute, butsubstitute Valere Germain added the thirdin the 81st minute to seal a 6-3 victory onaggregate. It was Monaco's 141st goal of an

incredible season that has captured theimagination and made the rest of Europetake notice.

"We never tried to protect the result,"Jardim said. "Because our DNA is to attackand to always try and score."

Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchelaccepted that his side fell short.

"We knew we needed a performanceof the highest level to turn things around,but that wasn't the case," he said. "We madetoo many basic errors."

The home leg in Germany was over-shadowed by an attack on the Dortmundteam bus as it headed to the stadium. Priorto Wednesday's game, Dortmund's bus washeld up by police at the team hotel andkickoff was briefly delayed.

"We wanted to leave at 7:15 p.m.Everyone was prepared and in the bus, butwe couldn't move for 16 or 17 minutes,"Tuchel said. "The police was there to escortus and we asked them why we couldn'tmove and they just said 'for safety reasons.'You can imagine that eight days after theattack that (this is) the worst thing that can happen."

#�� ->(!1>�

Top-ranked Andy Murray threw away a 4-0lead in the deciding set of his third-round

match on Thursday as 15th-seeded AlbertRamos-Vinolas won 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 at the MonteCarlo Masters.

Murray, who is returning after a spell out witha right elbow injury, looked rusty on the clay-court surface and struggled on his serve in ascrappy match lasting more than 2 ½ hours andfeaturing 13 service breaks — including sevenagainst Murray, who struggled with the Spaniard'sheavy forehands.

"I'm disappointed to lose from the positionthat I was in," said Murray, last year's French Openrunner-up. "Being 4-love up in the third, I haven'tlost many matches like that in my career."

Former French Open and Monte Carlochampion Stan Wawrinka followed Murray outof the tournament, losing 6-4, 6-4 to 16th-seed-ed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.

"He obviously started playing better towardthe end of the set. I still had a bunch of chances,I guess both of us did really," Murray said. "Ishould have been able to do enough to sort ofweather that storm a little bit and finish the matchoff." Murray refused to blame the elbow injurythat ruled him out of the Miami Open and therecent Davis Cup quarterfinal against France.

"My elbow felt pretty good," he said. "That'sonly going to get better. So hopefully I keep goingin the right direction."

In a match between powerful hitters, Cilicwas serving for victory at 5-4. After a long gameBerdych broke back for 5-5 and then forced atiebreaker, but the Czech player wilted against the2014 US Open champion. No 11 Lucas Pouilleof France was leading 3-0 when countrymanAdrian Mannarino retired with a hip problem.

Later Thursday, No 2 Novak Djokovic anddefending champion Rafael Nadal will be inaction. No 4 Nadal takes on No 14 AlexanderZverev, and Djokovic plays No. 13 PabloCarreno Busta.

#��� 6>��!(?464�

Serena Williams is expecting a baby thisyear her spokesperson confirmed,

hours after the tennis great hinted at thenews in a Snapchat post.

"I'm happy to confirm Serena isexpecting a baby this Fall," Los Angeles-based publicist Kelly Bush Novak said ina statement emailed to AFP onWednesday.

While Williams won't play again thisyear, "she looks forward to returning in2018," Bush Novak said.

Williams' Snapchat post, quicklyhighlighted in US media, showed the 35-year-old in a yellow swimsuit thatrevealed an apparent baby bump.

But the post was quickly takendown, lending an air of mystery to itsmeaning.

"The GOAT herself @serenawilliamstook to Snapchat to announce she's 20weeks pregnant! Congratulations Serena!"the US Tennis Association, organisers ofthe US Open which Williams has wonsix times tweeted, using the acronym for"Greatest Of All Time".

But the Women's Tennis Associationdeleted a congratulatory tweet andacknowledged in a statement they had noconfirmation of the news.

It was hours before they could tweet:

"It's official! @SerenaWilliams and@AlexisOhanian are expecting a babythis fall."

In December, Williams announcedher engagement to Reddit co-founderAlexis Ohanian, first sharing that newson the Reddit social media site.

If Williams is 20 weeks into her preg-nancy, that means she was alreadyexpecting when she won her record-set-ting 23rd Grand Slam title at theAustralian Open in January — where shebeat her elder sister Venus in the final.

For fans the announcement under-scored Williams' superwoman status.

Williams hasn't played since herAustralian Open triumph, which saw hersurpass Steffi Graf for the most GrandSlam singles titles in the Open Era.

Only Australian Margaret Courthas won more, capturing 24. The last ofthose came in 1973 — the year afterCourt gave birth to a son.

Williams cited a knee injury inpulling out of tournaments in IndianWells and Miami in March.

Her inactivity saw her drop to sec-ond in the world rankings. But she is setto regain the top spot from Germany'sAngelique Kerber on Monday when thelatest standings are published.

Williams wouldn't be the first topwomen's player to return to competition

after having a baby, but she would be theoldest.

Belgium's Kim Clijsters came out ofretirement at the age of 26 after havinga child and won three Grand Slam titles.

Former world number one VictoriaAzarenka of Belarus, 27, won the IndianWells and Miami titles in March of lastyear before missing the rest of the sea-son as she awaited the birth of her firstchild in December.

������������#�#�"#�����#+�5/Maria Sharapova will learn on May

15 whether she can compete at theFrench Open after her drugs ban, Frenchtennis officials said on Thursday, insist-ing the absence of pregnant SerenaWilliams would have no bearing on theirdecision.

Two-time Roland Garros championSharapova controversially returns nextweek from a 15-month drugs ban at theWTA Stuttgart Grand Prix.

Stuttgart offered the 30-year-oldRussian a wildcard entry because she nolonger has a world ranking — a move thatangered some players. Sharapova has alsobeen invited to clay-court events inMadrid and Rome. Whether she receivesa wildcard for Roland Garros will berevealed just a week before qualifyingbegins for the Grand Slam.

#�� 7!.146>(!

Juventus put on a masterclass of defen-sive football to reach the ChampionsLeague semifinals on Wednesday, frus-

trating Lionel Messi and earning a 0-0 drawagainst a Barcelona side hoping for anoth-er miraculous comeback.

The second-leg stalemate sealed a 3-0win on aggregate and came six weeks afterBarcelona's historic 6-1 thrashing of ParisSaint-Germain, when the home sidebecame the first team to ever overturn a 4-0 loss in the competition.

The Italians visitors made sure therewould be no more miracles at Camp Nouby displaying all the poise and experiencethat PSG had sorely lacked in the previousround.

"We knew Barcelona were ready to riskeverything tonight, but we closed down allthe spaces," Juventus centerback LeonardoBonucci said. "Scoring three in the first legand not conceding at the Camp Nou is theevidence that we are a great team. I thinkevery team would like to avoid us now."

True to the Italian tradition of defend-ing an advantage, goalkeeper GianluigiBuffon had little work to do until late in thegame, as Massimiliano Allegri's side expert-ly absorbed Barcelona's passing attack thatultimately produced few good scoringopportunities.

And when Messi did get free inside thearea, Barcelona's all-time leading scorer

squandered both hischances to spark afightback.

The only mira-cle seen inBarcelona thistime wasJuventus not get-ting a late goal,with the Spanishside barely havingthe legs to recoverwhen defending.

Barcelona forwardNeymar was consoled byformer teammate DaniAlves, now playing forJuventus, after the final whistlewhile Barcelona's fans cheeredtheir team despite the elimination.

"Juventus is a great team and they werebetter than us," Barcelona defender GerardPique said. "It was a difficult result to turnaround, although we tried until the end.They are an Italian club and defend verywell. I wish them the best and I think theycan win the title."

Juventus joins Real Madrid, AtleticoMadrid and Monaco in the semifinal drawon Friday.

Monaco advanced after beatingBorussia Dortmund 3-1 in its quarterfinal,second leg on Wednesday for a 6-3 aggre-gate win. Teenager Kylian Mbappe and for-ward Radamel Falcao struck early to put

Monaco on its way.Dani Alves committed the only

slip in Juventus' discipline when hewas caught off the pitch at kickoffsaying 'hello' to his former team-mates in Barcelona's dugout.Fortunately for the Brazil rightback, the opening move

planned by Barcelona to senda long ball into his defensivezone flopped.

Otherwise, the sameJuventus starting 11 from thefirst leg had control of thematch, bending but neverbreaking under the assault ofa Barcelona in full-attackmode.

"On a psychological level,my team never dropped its

guard. The force of theteam is not getting tooworked up, or shaken,"

Allegri said. "My playerswere extraordinary tonight.

They kept their cool."Messi could have

boosted Barcelona'shopes in the 19th minute

when a long buildup ended withLuis Suarez setting him up near the penal-ty spot, only for Messi to fire wide.

Neymar volleyed Jordi Alba's passwide before Messi drew the first savefrom Buffon just past the half-hourmark.

Juventus, however, tightened itsdefense, anchored by Bonucci andGiorgio Chiellini, and the hosts'opportunities dried up.

Messi's first half had a painful

ending when he was caught by MiralemPjanic while jumping for a ball. Messi tum-bled face first into the turf, and showed asmall scratch that bled on his cheek oncehe got back on his feet. Neymar was thenbooked for an apparent retaliatory chargeinto Pjanic, earning him a one-game sus-pension for accumulation of yellow cards.

Messi wasted another opportunity inthe 67th when Suarez found him in the boxafter Buffon left his line and failed to clearthe ball.

Andres Iniesta finally gave Buffon areal challenge with 10 minutes remaining,when his glancing effort off a cross madethe veteran goalkeeper get down low tosave.

"Juve is a great team that knows howto defend perfectly. Even so, a goal would

have changed the game," Barcelona coachLuis Enrique said. "We created enoughchances to score, but it wasn't to be."

Juventus will be without mid-fielder Sami Khedira for the first leg of

the semifinals after he earned a yellowfor fouling Suarez.

The two-time Europeanchampions are set to complete

an excellent campaign. Havingnow avenged their 2015 Champions

League final loss to Barcelona, Juventus alsoleads the Italian league and has lined up anItalian Cup final against Lazio.

The result ended Barcelona's run of 15wins in as many home European matchessince the arrival of Luis Enrique, who willleave the club this summer.

Barcelona must now rest and regroupfor Sunday's trip to play Real Madrid in a"clasico" match that will go a long way todeciding the Spanish league title.

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