12
P anchayat poll violence in West Bengal on Monday claimed lives of at least 18 peo- ple, mostly political workers and voters, with reports sur- facing from Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas that local CPI(M) leader Debu Das and his wife — who earlier refused to join the TMC — were allegedly locked inside a room and then burnt alive by the henchmen of local Trinamool candidate. As per the report, Trinamool goons killed at least 16 people. More than 200 people have been hurt, some of them sus- taining life-threatening injuries. With reports of violence from across the State, sources said the State Election Commission (SEC) might order re-polling in 8-10 booths. However, State Election Commissioner Amrendra Kumar Singh refused to com- ment on the number of casu- alties. He said, “I will make no comment today. Whatever I will speak I will speak tomor- row.” Incidently, Bengal State Election Commission had ear- lier rejected demand for deployment of Central forces apparently at the behest of the ruling Trinamool Congress.” By late noon on Monday, the Union Home Ministry sought a report from the State Government regarding the incidents of violence, sources said. Earlier in the day, Opposition leaders, like Left Front chairman Binan Bose and BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh and Mukul Roy, rushed to Bengal Governor KN Tripathi seeking his intervention. Even as Calcutta High Court judges watched the vot- ing proceedings live, a group of lawyers from the Bar Association moved the court seeking permission to start contempt proceedings against the SEC and the Mamata Government, which had earli- er been warned by the HC that any violence would make the senior officers personally and jointly liable. Voter turnout was about 70 per cent by 5 pm when reports last came in the State where normally turnout is anywhere between 80 and 90 per cent. In Kultali, a TMC sup- porter was shot dead by alleged SUCI members. The latter, however, dismissed the charges. At Amdanga in North 24 Parganas, a CPI (M) support- er Tahifur Rehman was bombed to death by TMC goons; whereas in Nandigram in East Midnapore, two Left supporters who refused to quit the voting queue were shot dead by one of Trinamool’s many biker gangs that literal- ly dominated the State with impunity. In Beldanga in Murshidabad district, BJP worker Tapan Mandal was shot dead by Trinamool goons whereas at Naoda in same dis- trict a supporter of an Independent candidate was gunned down by TMC mis- creants. Murshidabad alone saw seven people, including two children, shot at by rampaging Trinamool goons. All the victims are in critical condition and being treated in a local medical college. At Nakashipara in Nadia alleged CPI(M) men shot dead TMC’s Bhola Tarafdar. Again at Raiganj, a voter was shot dead inside the booth by alleged Trinamool goons. The same district witnessed about 239 incidents of booth capturing. Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Police has chargesheeted Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for abet- ting the suicide of his wife Sunanda Pushkar under Sections 306 and 498A (hus- band or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Soon after the report, Tharoor tweeted saying he will “stay off Twitter for a while as one encounters too much epicaricacy!” “On the basis of medico- legal and forensic evidence analysed during investigation as well as opinion of psycho- logical autopsy experts, case FIR No. 04/15 of PS Sarojini Nagar, investigated by the Special Investigation Team of South District, has been chargesheeted under Sections 306/498-A IPC. The matter now is sub judice,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) and chief spokesper- son Dependra Pathak. The investigating officer (IO) of the case on Monday told the court that custodial inter- rogation of Tharoor is necessary as investigation is yet to be con- cluded. The Delhi Police named Tharoor as the only accused in its voluminous 3,000-page chargesheet. The IO claimed there is enough evidence to pro- ceed against Tharoor. Police alleged that Tharoor had sub- jected his wife to cruelty. Tharoor has not been arrest- ed in the case so far as he had joined the investigation when required. Meanwhile, sources said the judge may order Tharoor to be taken into custody if it finds that the accused can influence witnesses. The chargesheet in the mysterious death of Pushkar was filed before Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Dharmendra Singh, who will consider it on May 24. The IO urged the court to summon Tharoor, the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram, as an accused as the investigation is yet to be completed in the case. Couple’s domestic servant Narayan Singh is one of the key witnesses in the case. It may be recalled that Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room on the night of January 17, 2014. The suite was sealed that night itself for investigation. F ormer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior Congress leaders have written to President Ram Nath Kovind, asking him to caution Prime Minister Narendra Modi against using “unwarranted, threatening and intimidating” language to attack them. The BJP has hit back at the former Prime Minister and said those who initiated a culture of abu- sive comments are now giving the BJP lectures on propriety. The Congress leaders referred to Modi’s speech on May 6 at Hubli in Karnataka in which he is quoted as saying, Congress ke neta kaan kholkar sun lijiye, agar seemaon ko paar karoge, to yeh Modi hai, lene ke dene pad jayenge (Congress leaders should clear- ly hear out, if you cross limits, then this is Modi and you will have to pay a price)”. The ex- PM’s letter has also given a YouTube link to the speech. Singh alleged that the “threat” given out by Modi to leaders of the party needs to be condemned as it does not behove the Prime Minister of a “constitutionally governed democratic country of 1.3 bil- lion people”. Reacting to Manmohan’s attack on Modi, BJP spokesper- son Sahahnawaz Hussain and Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Congress has used highly improper terminology against Modi in the past and cited comments like “khoon ka saudagar”. They said even the BJP president was described in most improper way by the Congress leader. Continued on Page 4 A fter three months of inves- tigation, the CBI on Monday filed the first chargesheet in the Rs 13,000 crore PNB scam, naming the bank’s former chief Usha Ananthasubramanian and 24 other top bank officials and declaring billionaire diamond tycoon Nirav Modi as “a want- ed’ accused. Nirav left India in January this year. Usha, who is currently serv- ing as CEO and MD of Allahabad Bank, had held the same post in PNB from August 2015 to 2017. She is accused of not complying with a 2016 cir- cular of the Reserve Bank of India on the Swift (Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunications) system. The CBI will file second chargesheet in the case, involving Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Gems Ltd, by the end of this week. Along with Usha, three other top officials, PNB exec- utive directors KV Brahmaji Rao, Sanjiv Sharan, and gener- al manager (International Operations) Nehal Ahad, have also been named for lapses in handling of the Swift system under section 409 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal breach of trust and 420 of IPC for cheating. Continued on Page 4 T aking note of the general refrain that private hospi- tals prefer wealthier foreign patients to Indians when it comes to heart and kidney transplants, Union Health Ministry has firmed up guide- lines to ensure that Indians, NRI and PIOs are given pref- erential treatment over for- eigners in receiving organs donated by Indian donors. The Centre has asked the States to ensure financial assistance to the poor Indian applicants. “Top preference should be Indians, followed by NRIs and PIOs. Foreigners should be the last priority. But we have noted that some hospitals are ignoring Indians and giving priority to foreigners who have deep pockets. This is against ethics and rules,” said Dr Vimal Bhandari, head of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) under the Union Health Ministry. “Heart and kidney are pre- cious. There is a wide gap between the number of appli- cants and organs available. At a time when our own people are waiting for transplants, choosing a foreigner is not cor- rect…We have reports where hospitals, particularly in met- ros like Chennai and Mumbai, gave foreign nationals prefer- ence for transplants,” Dr Bhandari said. Of the 2 lakh in queue for kidneys, only 8,000 manage to get the organ; while only 50 hearts are available for trans- plants against the demand for 50,000 in a year. Now, foreigners applying for donated organs have to be registered with NOTTO. Anil Kumar from the Ministry (organ transplant) said States have been asked to send month- ly reports on foreigners waiting to receive organs from deceased donors in India. It is preferable that such waiting list is given in real time for the organs for which digital national registry is functional, he added. “Foreigners shall be con- sidered for organ allocation from deceased Indian donors only when no suitable Indian/NRI/PIO recipient is available throughout the coun- try. Such foreigners have to be registered with endorsement from Embassy concerned. All details like type of visas, pass- port number, embassy endorsements, etc, shall be provided to the NOTTO,” said the official. The decision was taken at a meeting presided over by the head of Directorate General Of Health Services, Promilla Gupta, and attended by the rep- resentatives from Regional Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (ROTTO) State Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (SOTTO). T he US on Monday opened its embassy in Jerusalem under a controversial move by President Donald Trump that has infuriated the Palestinians, who clashed with Israeli sol- diers who shot dead at least 52 of them and more than 1,200 wounded in Gaza, in the deadliest escalation of violence since 2014. Trump said the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem has been a “long time coming.” Trump gave a video address that aired at the opening of the new embassy. Trump, in an early morning tweet, hailed the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem as “a great day for Israel.” Trump made no refer- ence to the violence in an early morning tweet but said, “A great day for Israel!” Monday marked the biggest showdown in years between Israel’s military and Gaza’s Hamas rulers along the volatile border. The sides have largely observed a cease-fire since the 2014 war — their third in a decade. Detailed report on P12 J ust a year to go for the next Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday carried out a surprise reshuffle in his Council of Ministers shunting out Smriti Irani from the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry, apparently for her continued face-offs with public broad- caster Prasar Bharati and her controversial attempt to rein in journalists on the pretext of tackling “fake news”. While Irani is now left only with the Textile portfolio, her deputy Rajyvardhan Singh Rathore is the new I&B Minister with Independent charge. This is Modi’s fourth rejig in his four years in office. With Finance Minister Arun Jaitley having successfully undergone a kidney transplant during the day, the late evening rejig too saw Railway Minister Piyush Goyal being given the additional charge of the Ministries of Finance and Corporate Affairs. Incidentally, Goyal also holds the key port- folio of Coal. He will be in charge of the twin responsibil- ities “during the period of Jaitley’s indisposition”. The reshuffle further saw Minister of State SS Ahluwalia being relieved of his charge in the Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry and assigned the portfolio of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in the same capacity in place of Alphons Kannanthanam. The latter is now left with the port- folio of Culture and Tourism. Besides its media blitzkrieg plans for the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the elevation of Rathore, an MP from Jaipur Rural, is also seen against the backdrop of showcasing it when Rajasthan goes to elec- tions later this year. Continued on Page 4 RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: 6 ˇ ! !˚ 6?˜˚˝@ #ˇ ˚? A˙˜˜ ˚˙˜˚ !˛ ˚#$% !˙ˆ!˙ Prime Minister Narendra Modi ... ing as CEO and MD of Allahabad Bank, had held the ... Rao, Sanjiv Sharan, and gener-al

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Panchayat poll violence inWest Bengal on Monday

claimed lives of at least 18 peo-ple, mostly political workersand voters, with reports sur-facing from Kakdwip in South24 Parganas that local CPI(M)leader Debu Das and his wife— who earlier refused to jointhe TMC — were allegedlylocked inside a room and thenburnt alive by the henchmen oflocal Trinamool candidate. Asper the report, Trinamoolgoons killed at least 16 people.

More than 200 people havebeen hurt, some of them sus-taining life-threatening injuries.

With reports of violencefrom across the State, sourcessaid the State ElectionCommission (SEC) mightorder re-polling in 8-10 booths.However, State ElectionCommissioner AmrendraKumar Singh refused to com-ment on the number of casu-alties. He said, “I will make nocomment today. Whatever Iwill speak I will speak tomor-row.”

Incidently, Bengal StateElection Commission had ear-lier rejected demand fordeployment of Central forcesapparently at the behest of theruling Trinamool Congress.”

By late noon on Monday,the Union Home Ministrysought a report from the StateGovernment regarding theincidents of violence, sourcessaid.

Earlier in the day,Opposition leaders, like LeftFront chairman Binan Boseand BJP leaders Dilip Ghoshand Mukul Roy, rushed toBengal Governor KN Tripathiseeking his intervention.

Even as Calcutta HighCourt judges watched the vot-ing proceedings live, a group oflawyers from the BarAssociation moved the courtseeking permission to start

contempt proceedings againstthe SEC and the MamataGovernment, which had earli-er been warned by the HC thatany violence would make thesenior officers personally andjointly liable.

Voter turnout was about 70per cent by 5 pm when reportslast came in the State wherenormally turnout is anywherebetween 80 and 90 per cent.

In Kultali, a TMC sup-

porter was shot dead by allegedSUCI members. The latter,however, dismissed the charges.At Amdanga in North 24Parganas, a CPI (M) support-er Tahifur Rehman wasbombed to death by TMCgoons; whereas in Nandigramin East Midnapore, two Leftsupporters who refused to quitthe voting queue were shotdead by one of Trinamool’smany biker gangs that literal-

ly dominated the State withimpunity.

In Beldanga inMurshidabad district, BJPworker Tapan Mandal was shotdead by Trinamool goonswhereas at Naoda in same dis-trict a supporter of anIndependent candidate wasgunned down by TMC mis-creants.

Murshidabad alone sawseven people, including two

children, shot at by rampagingTrinamool goons. All the victims are in critical conditionand being treated in a localmedical college.

At Nakashipara in Nadiaalleged CPI(M) men shot deadTMC’s Bhola Tarafdar. Again atRaiganj, a voter was shot deadinside the booth by allegedTrinamool goons. The samedistrict witnessed about 239incidents of booth capturing.

Continued on Page 4

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The Delhi Police haschargesheeted Congress

leader Shashi Tharoor for abet-ting the suicide of his wifeSunanda Pushkar underSections 306 and 498A (hus-band or his relative subjectinga woman to cruelty) of theIndian Penal Code (IPC). Soonafter the report, Tharoor tweeted saying he will “stay off Twitter for a while as one encounters too muchepicaricacy!”

“On the basis of medico-legal and forensic evidenceanalysed during investigationas well as opinion of psycho-logical autopsy experts, caseFIR No. 04/15 of PS SarojiniNagar, investigated by theSpecial Investigation Team ofSouth District, has beenchargesheeted under Sections

306/498-A IPC. The matternow is sub judice,” said SpecialCommissioner of Police(Traffic) and chief spokesper-son Dependra Pathak.

The investigating officer(IO) of the case on Monday toldthe court that custodial inter-rogation of Tharoor is necessaryas investigation is yet to be con-cluded. The Delhi Police namedTharoor as the only accused inits voluminous 3,000-pagechargesheet. The IO claimedthere is enough evidence to pro-ceed against Tharoor. Policealleged that Tharoor had sub-jected his wife to cruelty.

Tharoor has not been arrest-ed in the case so far as he hadjoined the investigation whenrequired. Meanwhile, sourcessaid the judge may order

Tharoor to be taken into custodyif it finds that the accused caninfluence witnesses.

The chargesheet in themysterious death of Pushkarwas filed before MetropolitanMagistrate (MM) DharmendraSingh, who will consider it onMay 24. The IO urged the courtto summon Tharoor, the LokSabha MP fromThiruvananthapuram, as anaccused as the investigation isyet to be completed in the case.

Couple’s domestic servantNarayan Singh is one of the keywitnesses in the case.

It may be recalled thatSunanda Pushkar was founddead in a luxury hotel room onthe night of January 17, 2014.The suite was sealed that nightitself for investigation.

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Former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and other

senior Congress leaders havewritten to President Ram NathKovind, asking him to cautionPrime Minister Narendra Modiagainst using “unwarranted,threatening and intimidating”language to attack them. TheBJP has hit back at the formerPrime Minister and said thosewho initiated a culture of abu-sive comments are now givingthe BJP lectures on propriety.

The Congress leadersreferred to Modi’s speech onMay 6 at Hubli in Karnataka inwhich he is quoted as saying,“Congress ke neta kaan kholkarsun lijiye, agar seemaon kopaar karoge, to yeh Modi hai,lene ke dene pad jayenge(Congress leaders should clear-ly hear out, if you cross limits,then this is Modi and you willhave to pay a price)”. The ex-PM’s letter has also given aYouTube link to the speech.

Singh alleged that the“threat” given out by Modi to

leaders of the party needs to becondemned as it does notbehove the Prime Minister ofa “constitutionally governeddemocratic country of 1.3 bil-lion people”.

Reacting to Manmohan’sattack on Modi, BJP spokesper-son Sahahnawaz Hussain andSudhanshu Trivedi said theCongress has used highlyimproper terminology againstModi in the past and citedcomments like “khoon kasaudagar”. They said even theBJP president was described inmost improper way by theCongress leader.

Continued on Page 4

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After three months of inves-tigation, the CBI on

Monday filed the firstchargesheet in the Rs 13,000crore PNB scam, naming thebank’s former chief UshaAnanthasubramanian and 24other top bank officials anddeclaring billionaire diamondtycoon Nirav Modi as “a want-ed’ accused.

Nirav left India in Januarythis year.

Usha, who is currently serv-ing as CEO and MD ofAllahabad Bank, had held thesame post in PNB from August2015 to 2017. She is accused ofnot complying with a 2016 cir-cular of the Reserve Bank of

India on the Swift (Society forWorldwide Inter-bank FinancialTelecommunications) system.

The CBI will file secondchargesheet in the case, involving Mehul Choksi ofGitanjali Gems Ltd, by the endof this week.

Along with Usha, threeother top officials, PNB exec-utive directors KV BrahmajiRao, Sanjiv Sharan, and gener-al manager (InternationalOperations) Nehal Ahad, havealso been named for lapses inhandling of the Swift system

under section 409 of the IndianPenal Code (IPC) for criminalbreach of trust and 420 of IPCfor cheating.

Continued on Page 4

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Taking note of the generalrefrain that private hospi-

tals prefer wealthier foreignpatients to Indians when itcomes to heart and kidneytransplants, Union HealthMinistry has firmed up guide-lines to ensure that Indians,NRI and PIOs are given pref-erential treatment over for-eigners in receiving organsdonated by Indian donors. TheCentre has asked the States toensure financial assistance tothe poor Indian applicants.

“Top preference should beIndians, followed by NRIs andPIOs. Foreigners should bethe last priority. But we havenoted that some hospitals areignoring Indians and givingpriority to foreigners who havedeep pockets. This is against

ethics and rules,” said Dr VimalBhandari, head of the NationalOrgan and Tissue TransplantOrganisation (NOTTO) underthe Union Health Ministry.

“Heart and kidney are pre-cious. There is a wide gapbetween the number of appli-cants and organs available. Ata time when our own peopleare waiting for transplants,choosing a foreigner is not cor-rect…We have reports wherehospitals, particularly in met-ros like Chennai and Mumbai,gave foreign nationals prefer-ence for transplants,” DrBhandari said.

Of the 2 lakh in queue forkidneys, only 8,000 manage toget the organ; while only 50hearts are available for trans-plants against the demand for50,000 in a year.

Now, foreigners applying

for donated organs have to beregistered with NOTTO. AnilKumar from the Ministry(organ transplant) said States

have been asked to send month-ly reports on foreigners waitingto receive organs from deceaseddonors in India. It is preferable

that such waiting list is given inreal time for the organs forwhich digital national registry isfunctional, he added.

“Foreigners shall be con-sidered for organ allocationfrom deceased Indian donorsonly when no suitableIndian/NRI/PIO recipient isavailable throughout the coun-try. Such foreigners have to beregistered with endorsementfrom Embassy concerned. Alldetails like type of visas, pass-port number, embassyendorsements, etc, shall beprovided to the NOTTO,” saidthe official.

The decision was taken ata meeting presided over by thehead of Directorate General OfHealth Services, PromillaGupta, and attended by the rep-resentatives from RegionalOrgan and TissueTransplantation Organisation(ROTTO) State Organ andTissue TransplantationOrganisation (SOTTO).

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The US on Monday openedits embassy in Jerusalem

under a controversial move byPresident Donald Trump thathas infuriated the Palestinians,who clashed with Israeli sol-diers who shot dead at least 52of them and more than 1,200 wounded in Gaza, in thedeadliest escalation of violencesince 2014.

Trump said the opening ofthe new US embassy inJerusalem has been a “long timecoming.”

Trump gave a video addressthat aired at the opening of thenew embassy. Trump, in anearly morning tweet, hailedthe opening of the US embassyin Jerusalem as “a great day forIsrael.” Trump made no refer-ence to the violence in an earlymorning tweet but said, “Agreat day for Israel!”

Monday marked thebiggest showdown in yearsbetween Israel’s military andGaza’s Hamas rulers along thevolatile border. The sides havelargely observed a cease-firesince the 2014 war — theirthird in a decade.

Detailed report on P12

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Just a year to go for the nextLok Sabha elections, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi onMonday carried out a surprisereshuffle in his Council ofMinisters shunting out SmritiIrani from the Information &Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry,apparently for her continuedface-offs with public broad-caster Prasar Bharati and hercontroversial attempt to rein injournalists on the pretext oftackling “fake news”. WhileIrani is now left only with theTextile portfolio, her deputyRajyvardhan Singh Rathore isthe new I&B Minister withIndependent charge. This isModi’s fourth rejig in his fouryears in office.

With Finance MinisterArun Jaitley having successfullyundergone a kidney transplantduring the day, the late eveningrejig too saw Railway MinisterPiyush Goyal being given theadditional charge of theMinistries of Finance andCorporate Affairs. Incidentally,Goyal also holds the key port-folio of Coal. He will be incharge of the twin responsibil-ities “during the period ofJaitley’s indisposition”.

The reshuffle further sawMinister of State SS Ahluwaliabeing relieved of his charge in

the Drinking Water andSanitation Ministry andassigned the portfolio ofMinistry of Electronics &Information Technology in thesame capacity in place ofAlphons Kannanthanam. Thelatter is now left with the port-folio of Culture and Tourism.

Besides its media blitzkriegplans for the run-up to the 2019Lok Sabha polls, the elevationof Rathore, an MP from JaipurRural, is also seen against thebackdrop of showcasing itwhen Rajasthan goes to elec-tions later this year.

Continued on Page 4

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The Centre on Monday pre-sented the draft scheme

for constitution of CauveryManagement Board two daysafter elections in Karnatakacame to a close. The Court saidthat it will not examinewhether the scheme is in con-formity with its February 16,2018 direction and left it to thestakeholders — Tamil Nadu,Karnataka, Kerala andPuducherry, to examine thescheme and file their respons-es by Wednesday.

The Centre was to preparethe scheme within six weeksfrom the date of judgment. Thisperiod expired on March 29following which the TamilNadu Government moved acontempt petition against theCentre in Supreme Court.

On Monday, Union WaterResources Secretary UP Singhappeared before a Bench head-ed by Chief Justice Dipak Misraalong with a copy of the draftscheme. Attorney General KKVenugopal said that the Courtmay finalise the scheme andeven propose the nomenclatureof the supervisory body,whether it should be a Board,Authority or Committee. TheWater Secretary appeared in

Court following the previousorder by Court which heldCentre to be in “sheer con-tempt” of its order and sum-moned the official to ensurespeedy implementation of itsdecision. Once the Board willbe in place, it will ensuresmooth water distributionamong the three states and oneUT.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud, said,“We will not go into the cor-rectness of the scheme framed

by the Centre but examinewhether the scheme conformsto our judgment (of February16) or not.”

Tamil Nadu counsel senioradvocate Shekhar Naphadeurged the Court to implementthe judgment at the earliest asthe state was in dire need ofwater. The Court in its judg-ment had modified theCauvery Water DisputesTribunal (CWDT) award of2007 and raised the 270 tmcftshare of Cauvery water forKarnataka by 14.75 tmcft andreduced Tamil Nadu’s share,while compensating it by allow-ing extraction of 10 tmcft ofgroundwater from the riverbasin.

Naphade submitted to theCourt that the Centre waspoliticizing the case as thedelay to frame the scheme bythe Centre was on account ofelections in Karnataka. Heurged the Court to considersending some of the officials tojail for contempt. The Court,however, maintained that itdoes not wish to get intoimplementing its judgment butto ensure a scheme is madeoperational at the earliest.

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AGroup of Ministers (GoM),headed by Assam Finance

Minister Himanta BiswaSarma, has sought opinionfrom the Law Ministry on thelegality of imposing cess onsugar. The GoM has alsosought a report from the foodministry on the final utilisationof the proceeds from levy ofsugar cess.

“The GoM met onMonday. First question iswhether council at all has thepower to impose cess, we havedecided to refer that to the LawMinistry,” Sarma said after thefirst meeting of the panel. TheGoM will meet next on June 3in Mumbai.

The GoM was constitutedon May 4 to look into the fea-sibility of implementing theFood Ministry proposal oflevying cess on sugar to bene-fit sugar cane farmers.

The Food Ministry in itsreport to the GoM will detailout how it is proposing to dis-burse the proceeds from levy ofcess. The GoM expects the LawMinistry as well as the FoodMinistry to give their views bythe end of this month.

“We must first knowwhether legally we have thepower or not to levy cess.... Ifthe Law Ministry says there ispower, Council will exercisethat power when it serves pub-lic interest,” Sarma said.

Under the present Goodsand Services Tax(GST) laws, acess is levied on luxury, sin anddemerit goods on top of thehighest tax rate of 28 per cent.The GST Council had on May4 deliberated on the food min-istry proposal of imposition ofcess of up to �3 per kg on sup-ply of sugar over and above 5per cent GST rate.

As per estimates, the levyof cess could fetch about �6,700

crore to the Government.The Food Ministry also

recommended to the Councilto cut GST rate on ethanolfrom present 18 per cent to 12per cent.

The Council then set up a5-member GoM under Sarmato consider the issues sur-rounding the levy of cess onsugar.

The other members of theGoM include Uttar PradeshFinance Minister RajeshAgrawal, Maharashtra FinanceMinister Sudhir Mungatiwar,Kerala Finance MinisterThomas Isaac and Tamil NaduFisheries Minister DJayakumar.

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The Supreme Court onMonday set the ball rolling

for the auction of Unitech’sunencumbered properties byforming a one-man Committeeheaded by a retired High Courtjudge that will formulate termsand conditions to sell proper-ties situated across 600 acres.

The SC Bench headed byChief Justice Dipak Misranamed former Delhi HighCourt judge, Justice (Retd) SNDhingra to proceed with theauction as expeditiously aspossible in the interest of thou-sands of homebuyers awaitingtheir refund after Unitech failedto deliver them flats.

The Bench, also compris-ing of Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud askedJustice Dhingra Committee toformulate “suitable terms andconditions for auction” of prop-erties held by the company inUttar Pradesh (Agra andVaranasi) and about propertyacross 400 acres of land inTamil Nadu.

Already, public notice withregard to 230 acres out of thetotal 600 acres of unencum-bered properties submitted tothe Court has been issued.

The Bench directed the judicialcommittee to notify auction ofthe remaining properties (otherthan 230 acres) on as-is-whereis basis in the newspapers.

The Bench also directedamicus curiae PawanshreeAgarwal and counsel forUnitech Abhinav Agarwal to bepart of the Committee to aid its

smooth functioning. In addi-tion, the Committee will be freeto hire services of charteredaccountants and valuers.

The cost of the work to beperformed by the Committeewill be borne out of the accruedinterest generated from theamount deposited by Unitechwith the Court,

The Bench directed thatthe auction shall be subject toconfirmation by the apex court.The Bench posted the hearingfor July 5.

It expressed dissatisfactionover the affidavit filed byUnitech’s co-promoter AjayChandra for making vaguedisclosure of his personal assetsand said it would deal with thesame on the next date.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will travel to Russia

on May 21 for an informalsummit with Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA)announced today.

The informal summit will

be held in Russian city ofSochi.

“This will be an importantoccasion for the two leaders toexchange views on interna-tional matters in a broad andlong-term perspective with theobjective of further strength-ening our Special andPrivileged Strategic partner-ship,” the MEA said in a state-ment.

It said both the leaders willalso discuss their respectivenational developmental prior-ities and bilateral matters.

“This informal Summit in

Sochi between Prime MinisterModi and President Putin is inkeeping with the tradition ofregular consultations betweenIndia and Russia at the highest

levels,” the MEA said.Last month, Modi had

travelled to Chinese city ofWuhan for an informal summitwith President Xi Jingpin.

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While anticipating a clearwin in the Karnataka

polls, results of which will beout on Tuesday, BJP presidentAmit Shah on Monday askedparty office-bearers to gear upfor the 2019 Lok Sabha electionwith confidence as the Modi-Government has done a com-mendable work in the last fouryears.

The BJP president saidnow that 2019 is round the cor-ner it is being said it would beunlike 2014 polls which was a“fluke”. Dismissing the argu-ment, he pointed out that afterthe 2014 Lok Sabha win theBJP had scored victories in 11State elections.

Addressing party officebearers meet here, Shah saidthe BJP has to move ahead andwin not only general electionsbut more States like Odisha,Kerala, Bengal and AndhraPradesh. Shah, though, said hisparty’s main aim was ideolog-ical change and not grabbingpower.

He said that BJP would winthe Karnataka elections andthat it was a good feeling thatit was now turning to be theBJP versus all other parties inthe country as his party is win-

ning one elections after anoth-er.

Briefing newspersons afteroffice-bearers’ meet herepresided by Shah, BJPspokespersons SudhanshuTrivedi and ShahnawazHussain quoted Shah as sayingthat satisfaction from series ofpoll victories should not con-vert into self-complacency.Shah said BJP is being nowcopied by many rival politicalparties who are having evenbooth-level conferences.

Trivedi said the meetreviewed the feedback from allthe states on the implementa-

tion of party and Government’sprogrammes and use of NaMoApp within party workers forcommunication and interac-tion.

He said reporting was doneon night-stays of central min-isters and office-bearers in20000 villages.

Along with feedback , sug-gestions were also invited withthe President insisting that allshould submit their sugges-tions.

He said States came up fordiscussions and the meetappreciated BJP’s Municipalwin in Jharkhand and election

of a BJP member as ChiefExecutive member in MizoramCouncil. Trivedi said violenceagainst BJP workers in WestBengal Panchayat elections hasvirtually uprooted democracy.He said Centre has alreadysought a report on the violencein the State.

Besides election issues,party president also reviewedconstruction of BJP offices inall the districts in the country.

All BJP Morchas will havemeeting here. Shah and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi areexpected to present during themeet.

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Faced with whopping cost ofmedicines for treating his

ailing mother, a law intern onMonday moved the SupremeCourt seeking a direction toban hospitals and their in-house pharmacies from com-pelling patients to mandatori-ly buy medicines from them atinflated prices.

The top court agreed toexamine the plea jointly filed bythe law student and his advo-cate father, alleging that the

prices of medicines, medicaldevices and medical consum-ables were inflated in collabo-ration and connivance with thedrug manufacturers.

A Bench of Justices S ABobde and L Nageswara Raoissued notice and sought replyfrom Centre and all states onthe matter in four weeks.

Advocate Vijay Pal Dalmia,the joint petitioner with sonSiddharth Dalmia, appeared inperson and said by takingadvantage of the ignorance,their plight and adverse cir-

cumstances of the patients inhospitals across India, peoplewere being compelled to buymedicines from there or theirin-house pharmacies.

Highlighting the problemsfaced during the treatment ofhis mother who was last yeardiagnosed with breast cancer,the law student in his plea saidshe had to undergo surgery,which was to be followed by sixrounds of chemotherapy andother treatments along withBiceltis injections every 21days.

During the course of treat-ment, it came to their noticethat Biceltis injection was soldto them at a MRP of �61,132,while the same medicine manufactured andmarketed by the same compa-ny was being sold in the openmarket at a discounted rate of�50,000.

Besides, on purchase offour injections, one injectionwas given free of cost to thepatient towards the patients’support programme by thecompany.

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CPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury on

Monday said the West BengalState Election Commission(SEC) will be seen as complic-it in the ruling TrinamoolCongress’ “project of destroy-ing democracy” if it does notact to restore faith in the elec-toral process. The CPI(M) willfight alongside the people torestore democracy and nor-malcy, Yechury added asreports came in of several per-sons being killed and manyinjured in violence during thePanchayat polls in the State.

“No condemnation isstrong enough to denounce thebarbarity which West Bengal iswitnessing today to ensureTMC’s project of capturing

cent per cent of elected pan-chayat bodies of the state.Despite the forcible capture of34 per cent of the seats uncon-tested, the heinous attempts tocapture the rest are in fullswing.

The blood-curdling andgruesome incident where acouple of comrades (Debu Dasand his wife Usha Das) of ourParty have been burnt to deathin Budhakhali GP, booth No.213 in Namkhana block underKakdweep PS of South 24Parganas district,” Yechury saidaccusing ruling TMC forunleashing violence.

“The scale of violencemakes it very clear that free andfair poll is impossible withsuch active involvement of theTMC-led administration.What is being played out has

been also noted strongly byboth the Kolkata High Courtand the Supreme Court.However, none of the specificdirections by the judiciary wereimplemented by those whoare responsible for securitymanagement.

The role of the StateElection Commission has beenobnoxious and the distinctionbetween the TMC, the stategovernment and the SEC hasbeen completely obliterated.The Election Commission ofWest Bengal must act to restorefaith in the process.

Else it will be seen as com-plicit in TMC’s project ofdestroying democracy.Allowing TMC to get awaywith throttling democracy hasimplications well beyond WestBengal,” Yechury added

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Chief Minister Raman Singhon Monday assured that a

District and Sessions Court willsoon be opened in Narayanpur.

The State Government willtake necessary steps in thisdirection, he said whileaddressing a public meeting inNarayanpur district headquar-ters during his ongoing VikasYatra in Bastar region ofChhattisgarh.

On request of public repre-sentatives and villagers, theChief Minister also sanctionedRs 50 lakh for Ambedkar Parkin Narayanpur, and gave per-mission for widening of 3 kmslong main road of Narayanpurdistrict headquarters and forstarted bus service from capi-

tal city Raipur to Orchha(Abujhmad).

At the public meeting, vil-lagers presented 'bow andarrow' to Chief Minister andwelcomed him in a tradition-al manner by adorning turbanon his head.

On the occasion, Singhdid inauguration, bhumi-pujanand foundation laying of 77 dif-ferent development and con-struction works worth nearly �223.34 crore for developmentof Narayanpur district.

This includes inaugura-tion of 18 completed construc-tion works worth nearly �47.32 crore, and bhumi pujanand foundation laying of 59works worth nearly �176 crore.

The construction worksinaugurated by Chief Ministerin Narayanpur include two

hostel buildings of 500-seatcapacity each for boys andgirls separately, indoor stadium,five panchayat buildings,Environment Park, Nal-JalYojana works, newly-built girlshostel of 50-seat capacity inpolytechnic college, residentialquarters, bridges, school build-ings etc.

Moreover, the ChiefMinister did bhumi pujan andlaid foundation of 175-km longroads worth nearly Rs 90 croreunder PMGSY, KendriyVidyalaya building inNarayanpur, LivelihoodCollege building in Orchhablock headquarters, power sub-station of 33KV in Nelvada,power substation of 33/11capacity in Akabeda andOrchha, Orchha Tehsil OfficeBuilding, Girls Hostel, eight

road construction works,bridge construction work,cement concrete road, madiyacum community hall and otherworks.

Singh distributed free bicy-cles to 2500 labourers, tool kitsto 1500 labourers, 200 sewingmachine, and e-rickshaws to 20beneficiaries under variousschemes of LabourDepartment.

He also distributed radiosets to 800 Abujhmadiya fam-ilies and distributed hybrid,vegetable mini kits, seed mini-kits, diesel pumps, electricpumps, egg hatching machines,processing machines to 894farmers of the district undervarious schemes of AgricultureDepartment and solar irriga-tion pumps to 10 farmersunder Saur Sujala Yojana.

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Jagdalpur in Bastar region ofChhattisgarh will be con-

nected by air services withrest of the country from June15 this year.

Union Civil AviationSecretary Rajiv Nayan Choubeyinformed Chhattisgarh ChiefSecretary Ajay Singh here thatthe air services to be providedby Air Odisha on Raipur-Jagdalpur-Visakhapatnam sec-tor would commence fromJune 15.

The Chief Secretaryapprised Choubey regardingChhattisgarh Government’sproposal to connect Jagdalpur,Raipur, Bilaspur andAmbikapur with the CentralGovernment’s ‘RegionalConnectivity Scheme’ (RCS).

The Chief Secretary alsohad discussions with the UnionCivil Aviation Secretary ondeclaring Swami VivekanandaAirport in Raipur as anInternational Airport.

Notably, the Ministry ofCivil Aviation has awarded 10

routes in Chhattisgarh fromvarious airports under theRegional Connectivity Scheme(RCS), officials informed.

Nine routes will be operat-ed by Air Odisha and one byIndiGo Airlines.

The routes to be operatedby Air Odisha are--Ambikapur-Bilaspur, Bilaspur-Ambikapur, Jagdalpur-Raipur,Jagdalpur-Vishakhapatnam,Raigarh-Raipur, Raipur-Jagdalpur, Raipur-Jharsuguda,,Raipur-Raigarh and Raipur-Utkela.

The IndiGo Airlines willoperate on Raipur-Allahabadroute, they informed.

Notably, Chhattisgarh hassigned MoU with the UnionMinistry of Civil Aviation forpromoting Centre’s RegionalConnectivity Scheme (RCS) inthe State, officials informed.

The Union Ministry ofCivil Aviation had earlierreleased the draft Regional AirConnectivity Scheme (RCS)for stakeholder consultation,with the twin objectives of

promoting balanced regionalgrowth and making flyingaffordable for masses.

The RCS is the key com-ponent of the National CivilAviation Policy which wasreleased by the Ministry onJune 15, 2016. The scheme,which would be in operationfor a period of 10 years, envis-ages providing connectivity toun-served and under-servedairports of the countr ythrough revival of existingair-strips and airports.

This would be achievedthrough a financial stimulusin the form of Central andState government concessions,as well as Viability GapFunding to the interested air-lines to kick-off operationsfrom such airports, so that thepassenger fares are keptaffordable.

The fare for a one hourjourney of appx. 500 km on afixed wing aircraft or for a 30minute journey on a heli-copter would now be cappedat �2,500, with proportionate

pricing for routes of differentlengths / duration.

A Regional ConnectivityFund would be created tofund the VGF requirementsunder the scheme. The samewould be funded through alevy on certain domesticflights.

The partner StateGovernments would also con-tribute a 20% share to thisfund (10% for North EasternStates). For balanced region-al growth, the allocationsunder the scheme would beequitably spread across the 5geographical regions of thecountry viz North, West,South, East and North-east.

The States have beengiven a key role under thescheme. The selection of air-ports where RCS operationswould be done in consultationwith State Government andafter confirmation of theirconcessions. This will bebased on the selection ofroutes by the airline operators.

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Chief Minister Raman Singhon Monday said nobody in

the Congress party inChhattisgarh was capable toperform a Road Show inRaipur and that is why theparty leaders are bringing intheir National President RahulGandhi in the city to do so.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, Singh said the all theState Congress party leadersincluding Chhattisgarh In-charge of All India CongressCommittee (AICC) P.L. Puniaand Chhattisgarh PradeshCongress Committee(CGPCC) Chief BhupeshBaghel were ‘unacceptable’ topeople of the State. Keeping inview the same they have nowinvited the AICC Chief to doa Road Show in the state cap-ital, he said.

Commenting on criticism

of Vikas Yatra, Singh said itshows the ‘frustration’ ofCongress party as their leadershave no topic to criticise thegovernment any more.Opposition by them was lim-ited only to social media andpress conferences and they arenot coming out of it, he added.

The situation in Congressparty is such that there was adearth of acceptable leadersfrom the party in the State,Singh said.

Criticising the Congressparty for allegedly opposingdevelopment, Singh said thepeople of the state have discard-ed them for the past 15 years.

Asserting that there was anall-round development of theBastar region in less than 15years of BJP rule, Singh saidafter laying road network, start-ing air connectivity now inter-net connectivity would be start-ed. Soon works worth �2500crore would be started under

Bharat Net Project in theregion, he said.

More than 50 lakh smartphones would be distributedunder the scheme to ascertainmobile connectivity, Singh said.

Replying to a query aboutinvitation of Deputy Leader ofOpposition in the StateAssembly, Kawasi Lakhma totour the allegedly backwardregions like Tadmetla andJagargunda, the Chief Ministersaid his Vikas Yatra was notover. He will again come toBastar and will fulfill the wish-es of the Congress leader.

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Chief Minister RamanSingh, former Chief

Minister Ajit Jogi, CongressState chief Bhupesh Baghelbesides media personalities ofState on Monday expressedtheir deep condolences on thedemise of veteran journalistGovindlal Vora.

In his death, golden era inChhattisgarh journalism hadcome to an end,’’ Singh said,adding, ``Vora was a simpleman, easy to get along with andwas one of the finest andbrightest journalists in theentire State who served jour-nalism for six long decades. Hisdemise is an irreparable loss toHindi journalism,’’.

It may be recalled thatVora was former Editor of NavBharat daily and Chief Editorof 'Amrit Sandesh' for the past34 years.

He died late last night at aprivate hospital in New Delhi.

Vora had been undergoingmedical treatment at a privatehospital in New Delhi butpassed away last night leavinga void in the field of HindiJournalism.

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Chief Minister Raman Singhlate on Sunday night had

dedicated, laid foundationstones and performed 'bhoomipujan' of 176 developmentworks worth �283 crore at dis-trict headquarter townKondagaon.

He dedicated 27 develop-mental works worth �70 .30crore and laid the foundationstones of 149 developmentalworks worth �213.06 crore.

He also distributed reliefmaterials worth �65.34 crocrore to 31,753 beneficiariesof various State Governmentprojects.

He also gave away paddybonus worth Rs 19.18 croreto 17,611 farmers.

The Chief Minister saidthat the presence of sea ofhumanity is a symbol ofpeople's faith in the deliver-ance of State Governmentpromises and expectations.

Citizens' faith is thebiggest strength, said Singhadding that new district

Kondagaon had been carvedout in the year 2012 and ithad developed rapidly in ashort span of period.

Chhattisgarh is a rolemodel for the entire countryin the upliftment of tribals,public distribution system,electricity and irrigationdevelopment, he said.

Singh went around thevarious stalls in E-Rickshaw.Manjhi , Mu k hiya andGaaytha groups presentedtraditional tribals' dress andgave a warm welcome tohim.

The Chie f Minis terspoke in 'Halbi' and won thehearts of the gathering.

Singh dedicated CircuitHouse (�4 crore 36 lakh),Livelihood College building(� 3 crore 23 lakh) ModelSchool building at BadeDongar ( Rs 2 crore 62lakh) Higher SecondarySchool building(� 2 crore62 lakh), Electric sub-sta-tion at village Adega (�2crore 34 lakh).

He also dedicated sever-

al other projects also-roadlinking Bunagaon-Gulba,K o n d a g a o n - K o r m e l ,G o t u l ap a r a - B a n s g a onroda, Yerla- Gaagda road,Amravati-Torrebeda road,Singhanpur-Thuitari road,Aamabeda- Kararmeta roadand Bedma Aaamabeda-Silati road.

Singh distributed 2,600cycles to workers, 986 tools'kits to workers, 1801 kits tomasons, sewing machines to300 women, �60,000 worth of

cheques each to 3 beneficia-r ies under the RajmataVijayraje Kanya VivahSahayta Yojana. Bonusamount of �19.18 crore to17,611 beneficiaries, solarpumps to 1300 beneficiaries,101 electric pumps to 101beneficiaries, sprinkler sets to100 citizens, CommunityForest Rights pattas to 700beneficiaries and domesticgas connections to 1000women under the PrimeMinister's 'Ujjwala' scheme.

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The Chhattisgarh unit ofCongress party held a

‘Sankalpa Shivir’ at Lormi onMonday.

Senior leaders of Congressparty including ChhattisgarhIn-charge of All India CongressCommittee(AICC), P.L. Punia,Chhattisgarh Pradesh CongressC o m m i t t e ePresident(CGPCC), Bhupesh

Baghel, former CGPCC

President Dhanendra Sahu andWorking President of CGPCC,Shiv Daharia were present.

Addressing a gathering,Punia said the organizationwas going to give tickets forthe upcoming assembly polls

only to those workers who arestrengthening the party.

He also named the possi-ble contenders from Lormiassembly segment and said theleaders who would workagainst the interest of organi-

zation would be shown theway out.

Under slogan ‘Wakt HaiBadlao Ka’ the senior leaderswere not sitting in the dais butwere among the general work-ers of the party.

A large gathering assem-bled in Lormi in the scorch-ing heat and Punia praisedthem for their dedication andcommitment towards theparty.

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Three of a family were killedin a road mishap on

Raipur-Bilaspur NationalHighway coming underDharsiwa Police StationJurisdiction on Monday after-noon.

According to informationfrom Station House Officer,Dharsiwa an unidentified vehi-cle crushed to death LilalramYadav, Bisahin Yadav and five-year-old Vishal Yadav.

All the three died on thespot after a head collision of anunidentified vehicle with theirmotor bike.

They were on way to

Raipur when the incidentoccurred, police said.

The identification of bod-ies was done with the registra-

tion number of the motorcycleand it was later known that theyall were resident of villageTarri coming under Maropolice station under jurisdic-tion of Bemetara district, policesaid.

The incident took place inbetween Devri and Tarpongiand the police rushed the spotas soon as they got the infor-mation, police said.

Police is clueless about thevehicle which crushed them todeath.

Police has registered a caseunder relevant section againstthe unidentified vehicle and isnow investigating into the mat-ter.

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Murmurs of dissent withinthe Congress party’s

Punjab unit over the Cabinetexpansion are getting louderwith time. Three more legisla-tors on Monday raised thebanner of revolt by resigningfrom the Vidhan Sabha com-mittees in protest.

Senior Congress MLAs —Rakesh Pandey, Amrik SinghDhillon and Randeep SinghNabha — have submitted theirresignations from the StateAssembly committees to theVidhan Sabha Speaker RanaKanwar Pal Singh as a mark ofprotest against being “ignored”in the recent cabinet expan-

sion.Already, the MLAs, repre-

senting the dalits or otherbackward classes, have regis-tered their protest with theparty high command for notgiving them enough represen-tation in the Cabinet, whilethree of them — Sangat SinghGilzian, Surjit Dhiman, andNathu Ram — have tenderedtheir resignations from theparty posts.

The Cabinet expansionexercise by Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh hasruffled many feathers withmany senior MLAs airing theirdissent in public, besides tak-ing up the matter with theparty’s national president

Rahul Gandhi.So much so, that the sulk-

ing MLAs have even refused toaccept the Chief Minister’s“lollipop” offer for the chair-manship of various boardsand corporations of the stategovernment, while some ofthem have even refused toaccept the proposed post of‘legislative assistants’.

Even as the state partyleadership has been maintain-ing that rebellious voices havebeen calmed, the recent out-burst by three sitting MLAsmay put a spanner in Congress’campaign for Shahkot assem-bly bypoll, scheduled for May28.

Ludhiana (North) MLAPandey has resigned asUndertaking Committee chair-man, while Amloh MLA

Nabha resigned from themembership of the same com-mittee and Samrala MLADhillon resigned from thechairmanship of the LibraryCommittee of the House.

The three MLAs main-tained that they would meetthe Congress president RahulGandhi to register their protestand decide the future course ofaction.

“No senior state partyleader, including the ChiefMinister, have contacted us orlistened to our grievances. Oursincere work has beenignored,” said Nabha whiletalking with The Pioneer.

Six-time MLA Pandey saidthat they had resigned becausethe seniority of MLAs wasignored while expanding theCabinet.

Dhillon take on the ChiefMinister by saying that CaptAmarinder had “promised toconsider seniority in givingministerial berths. But one-time and two-time MLAs havebeen chosen over us”.

Congress has a total of 77MLAs, and only 18 canbecome the Ministers. CaptAmarinder, after cabinetexpansion, had assured that allthe Congress MLAs, who hadnot found place in the Councilof Ministers, would be induct-ed into various Boards andCorporations.

“The state has 7,000 jobs,ranging from the MarketCommittees to the PlanningBoards, that can be given toparty workers,” he had statedon the day new ministers tookoath.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal, who is

leading a high-level delegationto the United Kingdom, onMonday, met leaders fromLeeds City Region and keybusiness people to explorethe possibilities of a bilateralcollaboration arrangementbetween Haryana and LeedsCity Region.

Later, the Chief Ministervisited AdvancedManufacturing Park, Sheffield,and met captains of industry,said an official spokesman.

Manohar Lal discussedavenues for collaboration in theareas of manufacturing, par-ticularly SMEs, aerospace anddefence, industrial corridors,agri-processing with top com-pany representatives in theLeeds region, including LeedsCity Council CEO, TomRiordan, who were present atthe meeting.

The meeting wasarranged and facilitated byYorkshire Asian BusinessAssociation which will play acrucial role in Britain’sattempts to establish a ‘livingbridge’ partnership, a termused by the Prime Minister,Narendra Modi. Manohar Lalinvited business persons to setup enterprises in Haryanaand assured them of completegovernment support, said thespokesman.

He said that the ChiefMinister also went aroundthe Advanced ManufacturingPark Sheffield. Top companieslike Boeing, Mclaren, etc.operate out of this region, and

the park provides all supportto the manufacturing units interms of technology and otherrelated inputs.

Manohar Lal also met

YABA Sheffield Team. TopGovernment representatives,academicians and enterprisesworking in the AdvanceManufacturing Park were also

present there.Manohar Lal told them

that Haryana was in the processof developing an aviation hubat Hisar where an aerospace

cluster would be created withthe support of the AdvancedManufacturing Park Sheffield,the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, Har yanaGovernment has designatedTL Satyaprakash, MD HSI-IDC, as the nodal officer fortaking forward the HaryanaLeeds Gateway initiative for allintents and purposes.

Making this announce-ment while participating inan interactive session with

potential investors at LeedsCity Region, the ChiefMinister asked industry andinvestors to come and investin Haryana.

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The Chief Minister ManoharLal has invited Indian dias-

pora to come and invest inHaryana, and be a part of thegrowth story of the State.

Interacting with Indiandiaspora in Glasgow, ManoharLal lauded the role played bythem in UK in building India'spositive image overseas, andlisted a number of measurestaken by his government to

make Haryana the place toinvest in.

The participants in theinteraction included businesspersons, doctors, engineersand IT professionals. TheConsul General of India inEdinburgh, Anju Ranjan, wasalso present on the occasion.

Asking those present tocome and invest in Haryana,Manohar Lal said committed tofacilitating industry, the StateGovernment had taken con-crete measures to further easethe ease-of-doing business, cre-

ate infrastructure conduciveto the growth of industry, andprovide logistics and infra-structural support.

Listing some of the stepstaken to boost industry, he saidsingle-roof system had beenimplemented under which allnecessary clearances for settingup industrial units were pro-vided under one roof within amaximum of 45 days. Beyond45 days, all clearances aredeemed to have been cleared,said he.

Besides, the government

has abolished Inspector Raj andimplemented the system ofself-certification.

For setting up any � 5,000-crore project, demand-based facilities are being provided.

As a result of the newincentives-laced industrial pol-icy and close proximity thestate enjoyed to the interna-tional airport in New Delhi,Haryana has emerged as a pre-ferred destination for entre-preneurs, the Chief Ministeradded.

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From Page 1About 29 people were admitted to the State-run hospital’s

intensive care units, sources said. One death was reported fromSouth Dinajpur.

At Okrabari in Coochbehar district, voting ended by 11.30am when all votes were polled by alleged TMC goons. The samedistrict witnessed State Minister and local MLA RN Ghosh slap-ping a BJP worker when the latter questioned his unwarrantedentry inside the booth.

The Minister later rejected the charges. The district aloneaccounted for more than 50 injuries in poll-related violence.

In neighbouring Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts scoresof reports of looting ballot boxes poured in by midnoon. InJalpaiguri ballot boxes where the BJP was reportedly doing wellwere looted and put on fire. In some places boxes were thrownin ponds and in other places those who rigged polls counted theballots themselves before putting the papers back inside the bal-lot boxes, polling officers said.

Violence, bombing and bloodshed were reported fromArambagh in Hooghly, Bankura, Shatnipur in Nadia, Purulia,Malda and Birbhum, sources said.

Notwithstanding large-scale violence State Minister ParthoChatterjee said “polls were largely peaceful though there weresome unfortunate deaths out of which five belonged to ourTrinamool Congress.”

His party colleague Derek O’Brien tweeted, “To all ‘newborn’experts on Bengal Panchayat Elections in State. 400 killed in pollviolence in 1990s in CPIM rule. 2003: 40 dead. Every death is atragedy. Now closer to normal than earlier times. Yes, few dozenincidents. Say, 40 out of 58,000 booths. What’s age?”

CPI (M)’s Sitaram Yechury said it was an “open, naked mur-der of democracy... a Constitutional breakdown rather than lawand order breakdown.”

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said his party was contem-plating action against this violence.

“We will not take things lying down. We will not spare thisincident”.

CPI (M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty wondered, why “whenKarnataka can conduct State elections without a single blood-shed we cannot even hold a panchayat election.”

Violence had started soon after the announcement of pollswhen about 14 people lost their lives during nomination stagewhere the Trinamool won about 34 per cent seats uncontestedleading the Supreme Court to stall the publication of the results.

Last week the Calcutta High Court also warned the SEC andthe Government against violence holding the top officers account-able for bloodshed saying in case of deaths and injuries the vic-tims would have to be compensated from the salary and estateof the officials.

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Sharing the concern of hisHaryana counterpart

Manohar Lal Khattar onwasteful flow of river watersinto Pakistan, Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Monday urged “care-ful assessment” of the matterwhile calling for similar effortsto prevent wastage of Yamunariver water too.

Capt Amarinder ruled outthe need for any separateinteraction between Punjaband Haryana or for engagingBhakra Beas ManagementBoard (BBMB) to undertakefeasibility studies on the pro-posed second Ravi-Beas Linksince the matter was underconsideration of the high pow-ered committee set up by theCentral Government forimplementation of the nation-al projects.

“We would surely like tocheck all wasteful flows ofriver waters, and secure everydrop of it for our farmers, butthese have to be carefullyassessed,” said CaptAmarinder replying toKhattar’s letter dated, May 7,2018, regarding utilization ofRavi Water f lowing intoPakistan.

“In Punjab, we are of theconsidered opinion to fullysecure and utilize the Raviwater as also of other tworivers — Sutlej and Beas forour farmers, without letting itgo waste in any manner,” saidCapt Amarinder, while callingfor concerted efforts also forutilization of all other riverwaters going waste.

Citing authoritativesources, he said that out of the

75 percent Yamuna watersreceived in the month of July,August and September, asmuch as 50 percent goes waste.

Acknowledging the needfor preventing wasteful flow ofriver water, Capt Amarindersaid that Punjab was indeedfacing unprecedented watercrisis, with its water needs foragriculture having beenassessed at 52 MAF, of whichriver water contribution ishardly to the extent of 27 per-cent only.

This was causing the farm-ers to depend undergroundwater resources, which haddepleted alarmingly, he wrote.

Capt Amarinder, however,pointed out that the utilizabledischarge of River Ravi hadbeen determined at Madhopurrim station, and the dischargeflowing in tributaries (Ujh,Bein, Basantar, Jallala andTarnah) which join river Ravidownstream Madhopur head-works, was flashy, uncertainand unreliable.

A storage dam on Ujh

rivulet had been planned byJammu and KashmirGovernment in their territoryup-stream of an existing bar-rage on the said rivulet, he fur-ther pointed out.

Noting that the wastage ofdischarge pertained mainly tosupply of water from Ujh,Capt Amarinder suggestedthat it might, therefore, “beappropriate to examine avail-ability of discharge post-con-struction of Ujh dam”.

Capt Amarinder pointedout that in 2008,Superintending Engineer,Drainage Circle, Amritsar, hadreferred to the proposal of J&KGovernment for constructionof storage dam on Ujh rivulet,stating that excess dischargeavailable at Ujh storage damcould be diverted toShahpurkandi barrage.

On the basis of flow datafor the period 1999 to 2008,and data available fromGoogle earth imageries, twoalternative proposals were pre-pared by Central WaterCommission (CWC) for diver-sion of Ravi waters to Harikeor any other suitable place onBeas River, Capt Amarinderwrote in his communiqué toKhattar.

The first proposal, he said,pertained to lifting of water ofriver Ravi at Makkora Pattanand dropping it in UBDCmainline at RD 79,000, whilethe second pertained to liftingof water at Jainpur and drop-ping the same in UBDC main-line at RD 79,000.

Both these proposals werenot found technically feasible,he said, adding that CWChad received the technicalreports in 2015.

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From page 1As for Irani, this is the sec-

ond time that she has beenrelieved of a key portfolio, thefirst being in 2016 when shewas shown the door from theHuman Resource Development(HRD) Ministry, where tooshe had her share of contro-versies. During her two-yeartenure, she hogged the lime-light for all the wrong reasonslike her handling of the RohithVemula case or JNU contro-

versy. She was even in line ofOpposition fire for her educa-tional qualifications’ claims.

Her ouster from the I&BMinistry in just eight monthsseems to have been hasteneddue to her run-ins with themedia as also with the PrasarBharati. Her Ministry’s move topunish journalists for fakenews had led to a furore withthe media fraternity terming itan attempt to curb its freedom.Left red-faced, the Governmentmoved swiftly to cancel theorder following Modi’s per-sonal intervention.

Then again, Irani’s attemptsat imposing her decision on

appointments to senior edito-rial posts at Prasar Bharatiwere stalled by the publicbroadcaster, which found theproposed pay packages to thejournalists exorbitant andunjustifiable. It also saw it as amove impinging on its auton-omy. This triggered furtherface-offs between the two sideslike the issue of payments toNFDC over the coverage of theopening and closing cere-monies of the 2017International Film Festival ofIndia. The Ministry was evenaccused of withholding thesalaries of Doordarshan and AllIndia Radio, resulting in the

Congress going full steamagainst the Government overthe issue.

Another possibility, how-ever, being discussed is thatIrani’s burden may have beeneased so that her services aretaken for poll campaigns acrossthe key States like Rajasthan,Chhattisgarh and MadhyaPradesh this year and the gen-eral elections next year. The lastrejig had seen Modi elevatingfour into Cabinet rank, includ-ing giving India its first full-time woman Defence Ministerin the form of NirmalaSitharaman, and inducting ninenew faces into his team.

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From page 1In addition to Manmohan Singh, the let-

ter has been signed by senior Congress lead-ers AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, AhmedPatel, P Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot,Mallikarjun Kharge, Karan Singh, AmbikaSoni, Kamal Nath, Anand Sharma, MotilalVora, Digvijay Singh and Mukul Wasnik.

“The President may caution the PrimeMinister from using such unwarranted, threat-ening and intimidating language against lead-ers of the Congress party or any other partyor person as it does not behove the positionof the Prime Minister,” it said.

The Prime Minister, it stated, is notexpected to use menacing language even in thecourse of an election campaign. This is tan-tamount to a Prime Minister using his pow-ers and privileges to “settle personal and polit-ical scores”, the letter said.

Referring to the oath of office, it said thePM of India holds a very special position underthe Constitution.

The Congress leaders said all prime min-isters of India in the past have maintained

immense dignity and decorum in the dischargeof public or private functions/actions.

“The threat held out by the PrimeMinister to the INC’s leadership deserves tobe condemned. This cannot be the languageof the Prime Minister of a constitutionally gov-erned democratic country of 1.3 Billion peo-ple.

“Such discourse whether in public or pri-vate is unacceptable conduct.

The words used are menacing and intim-idating with intent to insult and provokebreach of the peace,” the Congress leadersadded. They said the Congress is the oldestparty in India and has faced many challengesand threats, even as its leadership has exhib-ited courage and fearlessness in facing them.

“We would like to state that neither theparty nor our leaders will be cowed down bysuch threats,” they said.

According to the letter, the president ofIndia is the constitutional head of the Unionof India and enjoys high duty and obligationto advise and guide the prime minister and hiscabinet.

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Form page 1The country’s second-

largest State-run bank dis-closed in February that twojewellery groups had defraud-ed it by raising credit fromoverseas branches of otherIndian banks using illegalguarantees issued by roguePNB staff over several years.

The three firms mentionedin the chargesheet are: DiamondsRUs, Stellar Daimonds and SolarExports. The chargesheet, how-ever, did not name Nirav’s wifeAmi and his uncle and businesspartner Mehul Choksi.

The chargesheet says Nirav,his brother Nishal Modi, andSubhash Parab, an executive inNirav’s firms, conspired forissuance of fraudulent Letters ofUndertaking (LoUs).

The chargesheet primarilydeals with the first FIR registeredin the case relating to the fraud-ulent issuance over Rs 6,498.20crore worth of LoUs to DiamondR US, Solar Exports and StellarDiamonds.

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The US on Monday openedits embassy in Jerusalem

under a controversial move byPresident Donald Trump thathas infuriated the Palestinians,who clashed with Israeli soldierswho shot dead at least 52 ofthem in Gaza, in the deadliestescalation of violence since 2014.

Trump said the opening ofthe new US embassy inJerusalem has been a “longtime coming.” Trump gave avideo address that aired at theopening of the new embassy.Trump, in an early morningtweet, hailed the opening of theUS embassy in Jerusalem as “agreat day for Israel.”

Trump made no referenceto the violence in an earlymorning tweet but said, “Agreat day for Israel!”

Monday marked thebiggest showdown in yearsbetween Israel’s military andGaza’s Hamas rulers along thevolatile border. The sides havelargely observed a cease-firesince the 2014 war — theirthird in a decade.

In a show of anger fueledby the embassy move, protest-ers set tires on fire, sendingplumes of black smoke into theair, and hurled firebombs andstones toward Israeli troopsacross the border. The Israelimilitary said its troops hadcome under fire, and accusedprotesters of trying to breakthrough the border fence. Itsaid troops shot and killedthree Palestinians who weretrying to plant a bomb.

At least 52 Palestinians,including a 14-year-old boy,were killed while more than1,200 were wounded, including27 critically, Palestinian healthofficials said.

The Hamas-led protest inGaza was meant to be thebiggest yet in a week-longcampaign against a decade-oldblockade of the territory.

The protests mark the cul-

mination of a campaign, led byHamas and fueled by despairamong Gaza’s 2 million people,to break the decade-old borderblockade of the territoryimposed by Israel and Egyptafter Hamas seized control ofGaza in 2007. Since weekly bor-der marches began in lateMarch, 79 Palestinian protest-ers have been killed and morethan 2,300 wounded by Israeliarmy fire. Hamas said fourmembers, including three secu-rity men, were among the dead.

Ismail Radwan, a seniorHamas figure, said the massborder protests against Israelwill continue “until the rightsof the Palestinian people areachieved.”

“Moving the US Embassyto Jerusalem will be a disasteron the American administra-

tion and a black day in the his-tory of the American peoplebecause they are partners withthe occupation and its aggres-sion against the Palestinianpeople,” he added.

Hamas leaders have sug-gested a border breach is pos-sible, something Israel hasvowed to prevent at any cost.

Most of the casualties werein the southern Gaza towns ofKhan Younis and Rafah. Israeliforces were firing volleys of teargas to disperse the crowds, andthe sound of heavy gunfirecould be heard. Sirens wereconstantly wailing as thewounded were carried to near-by ambulances. Groups ofyoung activists repeatedlyapproached the fence, but werequickly scattered by gunfireand tear gas.

Lt Col Jonathan Conricus,an Israeli military spokesman,said the army had set up additional “layers” of secu-rity in and around communi-ties near the border to defendIsraeli civilians. He said therealready had been several “sig-nificant attempts” to breakthrough the fence.

“Even if the fence isbreached, we will be able toprotect Israeli civilians fromattempts to massacre or kidnapor kill them,” he said.

In a statement, the armysaid troops had shot and killedthree Palestinians who attempt-ed to plant a bomb along thefence. It also said an aircrafthad targeted a Hamas post innorthern Gaza after Israelitroops came under fire.

The timing of Monday’sevents was deeply symbolic,both to Israel and the

Palestinians.The US said it chose the

date to coincide with the 70thanniversary of Israel’s estab-lishment.

But it also marks theanniversary of what Palestinianscall their “nakba,” or catastro-phe, a reference to the uproot-ing of hundreds of thousandswho fled or were expelled fromwhat is now Israel during the1948 war surrounding Israel’sindependence.

Israel captured eastJerusalem in the 1967 Mideastwar and annexed it in a move notrecognized by the internationalcommunity. The Palestiniansseek the city’s eastern half as thecapital of a future state.

Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas cut ties withthe Trump administration anddeclared it unfit to mediatepeace talks.

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Jerusalem: Israel’s JusticeMinister is calling PresidentDonald Trump the “Churchillof the 21st Century” for relo-cating the American embassyto Jerusalem.

Ayelet Shaked said with hismove Trump has “reversedChamberlain’s policy of capit-ulation” and shown the world

that “the landowner hasreturned.” Previous USPresidents of both parties, aswell as nearly every other coun-try, refrained from openingembassies in Jerusalem, argu-ing that the city’s final statusshould first be resolved throughIsraeli-Palestinian negotiations.

AP

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Ramallah (PalestinianTerritories): The PalestinianAuthority Governmentaccused Israel of committinga “terrible massacre” afterIsraeli fire killed 52Palestinians in protests andclashes along the Gaza Stripborder ahead of the openingof the US embassy inJerusalem.

The PalestinianGovernment spokesmanYusuf al-Mahmoud demand-ed in a statement “an imme-diate international interven-tion to stop the terrible mas-sacre in Gaza committed bythe forces of the Israeli occu-pation against our heroicpeople.”

Jerusalem: The Arab Leagueand the top Sunni Muslimreligious authority have crit-icised the relocation of theUS Embassy from Tel Aviv tocontested Jerusalem.

The Cairo-based ArabLeague called on the inter-national community tooppose what it considers an“unjust decision” and theongoing “Israeli occupation”of the city.

It called the move a “bla-tant attack on the feelings ofArabs and Muslims,” and a“grave violation of the rulesof international law” thatwould destabilise the region.

AP

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Surabaya: A family of five,including a child, carried out thesuicide bombing of a policeheadquarters in Indonesia’s sec-ond city Surabaya on Monday,police said, a day after a dead-ly wave of attacks on churchesstaged by another family.

The spate of bombings hasrocked Indonesia, with the ISISclaiming the church attacksand raising fears about its influ-ence in Southeast Asia as itsdreams of a Middle Easterncaliphate fizzle. Indonesia,which is set to host the AsianGames in just three months, haslong struggled with Islamistmilitancy, including the 2002

Bali bombings that killed over200 people — mostly foreigntourists — in the country’sworst-ever terror attack.

Security forces have arrest-ed hundreds of militants dur-ing a sustained crackdown thatsmashed some networks, andmost recent attacks have beenlow-level and targeted domes-tic security forces. But thatchanged yesterday as a familyof six — including two younggirls — staged suicide bomb-ings of churches during morn-ing services in Surabaya, killing18, including the bombers.

On Monday, members ofanother family blew themselves

up at a police station in the city,wounding 10. “There were fivepeople on two motorbikes. Oneof them was a little kid,” nation-al police chief Tito Karnaviansaid. “This is one family.” Aneight-year-old girl from thefamily survived the attack andwas taken to hospital, while hermother, father and two broth-ers died in the blast, he said.

The church attacks wereclaimed by the ISIS. The fatherof the church suicide bomberswas a local leader in extremistnetwork Jamaah AnsharutDaulah which supports ISIS, andsecond family was also linked tothe group. AFP

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London: The US has lost itsrole as mediator in the WestAsia by moving its embassy inIsrael to Jerusalem, TurkishPresident Recep TayyipErdogan said in London onMonday. “With its latest step,America has chosen to be apart of the problem, not asolution, and lost its mediatorrole in the West Asia peaceprocess,” Erdogan told theChatham House internationalaffairs think tank. AFP

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Beirut: US-backed fighterswere advancing on Mondayagainst ISIS hiding out in asmall sliver of desert in easternSyria, the force and a monitorsaid. The Syrian DemocraticForces, an alliance of Kurdishand Arab fighters, has beenbearing down on the small IS-held zone along the EuphratesRiver since May 1.

AFP

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Notice is hereby given pursuant to Regulation 29read with Regulation 47 of the SEBI (ListingObligations and Disclosure Requirements)Regulations, 2015, that a meeting of the Boardof Directors of the Company will be held onWednesday, 23rd May, 2018, inter-alia, to con-sider and approve the Audited Financial Resultsof the Company for the quarter and year endedon 31st March, 2018.The information contained in this notice is alsoavailable on the Company’s website www.cubi-calrealtors.com as also on the website of theStock Exchange viz. BSE Limited-www.bsein-dia.com

For Cubical Financial Services LimitedSd/-

Place: New Delhi Ashwani Kumar GuptaDate: 14-05-2018 Managing Director

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Page 6: 6 ˇ ! !˚ 6?˜˚˝@ #ˇ ˚? A˙˜˜ ˚˙˜˚ !˛ ˚#$% !˙ˆ!˙ Prime Minister Narendra Modi ... ing as CEO and MD of Allahabad Bank, had held the ... Rao, Sanjiv Sharan, and gener-al

In an interview with Russia Today onthe crisis in Europe, French politicianMarine Le Pen said, “Immigration isan organised replacement of ourpopulation. This threatens our very

survival.” Syria’s Grand Mufti, SheikhAhmad Badreddin Hassoun, supportsNew Delhi’s view that Rohingyas are a secu-rity threat and not a religious problem. Yet,the Supreme Court has repeatedly deferredthe deportation of thousands of illegalRohingyas and is even hearing their peti-tion against expulsion.

In Jammu, the demographic and secu-rity threat posed by illegal Rohingyas andBangladeshis has reached a boiling point.Local ‘permanent residents’ (hereditaryState citizens) allege a well-funded andpolitically-backed conspiracy to settlethem across the Province and triggerHindu migration, as already reportedfrom some villages. In November 2017, theUnited Nations High Commission forRefugees visited at least five Rohingya habi-tations in Jammu and urged them to leave,promising funds to settle elsewhere. Theyrefused, saying, “We are used to Jammu, weknow everyone over here, why would weleave?” That, in a nutshell, sums up theircomfort levels in Hindu-majority Jammu,as opposed to living with their co-religionists in Kashmir.

Perhaps this is why Jammu led thecampaign to deport Rohingyas from India.As is well-known, Hindus who fled WestPakistan in 1947-48 and landed in Jammu& Kashmir were treated shabbily by SheikhAbdullah and are languishing withoutofficial recognition (identity certificates)needed for Government jobs, education inState institutions and other benefits. TheBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised toaddress this seven-decade-old injustice dur-ing the 2014 election, but met with fierceresistance from Kashmiri separatists, theNational Conference and the Congress; andalso the People’s Democratic Party.

At the Union Home Minister’s nudg-ing, the State Government set up a Groupof Ministers in May 2017, to examine ille-gal Rohingya and Bangladeshi settlementsin Jammu and Samba districts. But it wasnon-serious. The attack on the Armycamp at Sunjwan in February this yearincreased the clamour to evict theRohingyas, who have even settled near thecamp. A senior police official said there are“consultation camps” on the border, whichdirect the groups to settle at a particularplace or city. Jammu is preferred due toproximity with Pakistan and to “strength-en” its Muslim minority.

The infiltrators are given mobile phone,I-cards, Aadhaar cards, even ‘permanentresident’ cards, illegal power and water con-nections, and allowed to grab State landsand build houses on them. Funds for them

are raised through hawala channels androuted through local NGOs, such asJamaat Ahle Haider, Yateem Trust andKashmiri Welfare Trust. The NationalConference regime had forced schools insome localities to admit Bangladeshi andRohingya children, who comprise 80 per-cent of the student body.

Rohingyas are active in Tablighi activ-ities through local mosques in Jammu (asin Chennai and Hyderabad). Security agen-cies suspect them of having links with theIslamic State, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, Al Qaedaand Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) agency. In fact, Rakhine (Arakan) isbecoming an important node of the globaljihadist movement and is being funded byorganisations in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.Rohingyas are linked to the BangladeshIslami Chhatrashibir of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. They are involved in unsavouryactivities such as trafficking girls fromMyanmar and selling drugs.

Given the inexcusable sympathy forthe infiltrators in some well-heeled sec-tions of society, it is worth recollectinghow they burst into the internationallimelight. Strategic analyst BrahmaChellaney observes that Rohingyas wereamong the first groups in Asia to be rad-icalised by the British Raj and to demandpartition; they tried to expel Burma’sBuddhist population north of Arakan(170-odd miles) to join East Pakistan.

The current crisis began on August25, 2017, when the Arakan RohingyaSalvation Army attacked police posts inMaungdaw, Myanmar; over 100 people

died. The jihadis also attacked the Hinduminority in Rakhine; over 500 wereslaughtered; the Army later found massgraves with Hindu bodies.

Many Hindu families f led toBangladesh to escape, but were again per-secuted by the 4.5 lakh Rohingya Muslimsfleeing the Myanmar Army. In the refugeecamps, Hindu women were forced tobreak their bangles, read namaz, wearburqas, and convert. They sought shelternear two temples at Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar.The Hindus said they were attacked byRohingyas and feared to return toMyanmar as several members of their fam-ilies had been slaughtered and their homesburnt down. In October 2017, Bangladesharrested 22 Rohingya Muslims posing asrefugees, but who were linked to the mas-sacre of Hindus in Myanmar. They werereportedly trained by Pakistan’s ISI.

The Jerusalem Post was the only inter-national media to assert that while it wastrue that the Myanmar Army had begunethnic cleansing of Rohingyas after theARSA assault on police posts, the ethniccleansing of Hindus in Arakan (‘RohingyaHindus’) could not be ignored. Even whilefighting the Army, jihadi groups were enter-ing Hindu areas and “stabbing, shootingand raping the residents”. One survivorreported that the terrorists would dig threeholes — one to dump the bodies ofwomen, one for children and one for men;all overflowed. The paper noted that whileconditions in Bangladesh refugee campswere tough, Hindu refugees were worst hit.Many wanted refuge in India.

By the end of September 2017, whenmatters subsided, the MyanmarGovernment urged Hindu refugees whofled to Bangladesh to return, and assuredthat they would be taken care of in Sittwe,capital of Rakhine State. So far, there hasbeen no response to this plea and it seemsunlikely that Hindus would return toRakhine. The enmity between Myanmar’smajority Buddhists and Rohingyas, mostof whom are denied citizenship on groundsof being British imports from the regionnow known as Bangladesh, has flared upintermittently since 1948 when Burma(Myanmar) became independent. Butwhat happened to the miniscule Hinducommunity was genocide.

Rohingyas are known to have settledin Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, UttarPradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.However, in April, Gorkha JanmuktiMorcha leader Bimal Gurung alleged thatRohingyas were being settled in Darjeelingand Kalimpong districts of the Gorkhalandregion of West Bengal, as part of a sinis-ter conspiracy to alter the demography andmarginalise the native Gorkhas, supersed-ing national interests for vote-bank poli-tics. Gorkhaland, which borders Nepal,Bhutan, Tibet and Bangladesh, is political-ly sensitive and any “replacement” of thepopulation, as warned by Marine Le Pen,could have a deleterious impact on thenation. A solution to the Rohingya threatis an urgent imperative.

(The writer is Senior Fellow, NehruMemorial Museum and Library; the viewsexpressed are personal)

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Sir — The refers to the editori-al, “The stray problem” (May 14).The fact is that stray dog men-ace is on the rise but the need ofthe hour is immediate resolution.Dog menace can no more betreated as a “stray” case.Notwithstanding the voice ofanimal lovers, in view of the highincident of dog bites, no sympa-thy should be shown while deal-ing with stray dogs because onlythose who are bitten know thetrauma. For speedy resolution,more dog-shelters must be built.Besides making the dogs sterile,the municipal corporation mustactively drive out stray dogsfrom the streets. Indeed, dog isa pet animal as long as it remainsat home and till the time he/sheis under the control of his mas-ter. The moment it comes out, itbecomes equivalent to a straydog. Every State Governmentmust take stringent measures todeal with stray dogs.

VS Jayaraman Chennai

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Sir — The refers to the editori-al, “The stray problem” (May 14).Stray dogs have become a prob-lem and its time we must acceptit . I agree with the viewsexpressed in the editorial that ifsomeone loves dogs and feedsthem on a regular basis, it ishis/her responsibility to put thedogs into a pet shelter.

The municipal corporationhas a critical role to play to tamethe growing stray problem but

beyond a point, we have to doour bit. It’s high time animal rightactivists realise the fact thathuman lives are equally impor-tant and vital.

Bal Govind Noida

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Killer storm stops India in itstracks” (May 14). Sadly, a goodnumber of people were killed andseveral others injured across thecountry as rain, thunderstormshit various States, throwing lifeout of gear and leaving behind atrail of destruction.

Trees are elixir of life-essen-tial and are a must for good envi-ronment so that people live ahealthy and hearty l i fe.Simultaneously, there are laws toprotect them but they needamendments so as to allow theremoval of weak and dangeroustrees, ones which are likely to falleasily on low speed of air-storm.

One way is to check theirstrength at regular intervals tosee how much velocity-speed ofair it can withstand. For the weakones, necessary corrective actionsmust be taken. This way lives ofhuman beings can be saved andloss of property can be min-imised.

With weather almost becom-ing unpredictable, necessarylong-term measures are needed.Changes to the Indian Forest Acttoo are essential.

Mahesh KumarVia web

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Page 7: 6 ˇ ! !˚ 6?˜˚˝@ #ˇ ˚? A˙˜˜ ˚˙˜˚ !˛ ˚#$% !˙ˆ!˙ Prime Minister Narendra Modi ... ing as CEO and MD of Allahabad Bank, had held the ... Rao, Sanjiv Sharan, and gener-al

Every year when the Times HigherEducation World University Rankings listis released, people start cursing the

Indian university set-up for their failure toget into the global ranking list. But no oneever tries to understand the reason behindthe poor performance of our universities.

Amongst the 13 performance indicators,research accounts for 30 per cent of the totalassessment criteria. There are three majorheads under which research is assessed —reputation survey; research income andresearch productivity. The major reason forpoor performance of our higher educationinstitutions is the assessment of research inour universities. Ranking is done on data col-lected for the last five years of the performanceof universities. Every Government makeschanges and wants the ranking to be influ-enced immediately, which is not possible.

Do we trust our university research sys-tem, admission and awards? Ask anyone inany of the academic institution or even thepublic and you will get an answer for thepoor performance of Indian institutions. Inmost merit lists and awards, are made onthe basis of region, caste, religion and gen-der. This writer has himself been a part ofvarious committees to recommend the bestreports or innovative experiments. Thecommittee invariably included names ofpeople from the North-East, members ofthe SC/ST community and also women sothat the recommendations look unbiasedand inclusive. But the recommendationsitself do not remain a list of the best. Itbecomes a politically correct list.

The nation and institutions have notdone enough for the less-privileged commu-nities. Members of the less-privileged com-munities should have been given extra aca-demic support by organising classes andcampuses so that they come up to the markand are just not included into the listbecause we must have a member from thereserved community.

If admission to the doctoral degree pro-gramme is made on the basis of considera-tions other than academic, how can univer-

sities ensure quality output? Governmentshave interfered so much with the so-calledautonomous Indian institutions that they nomore remain academic but have becomepolitical battle-fields for different parties.

There are schemes to coach the less-priv-ileged groups but not much has changed. Theschemes have become one more method tosiphon public money. Rigorous review of suchschemes should be taken up and selectedmeritorious students from the less-privilegedgroups should be given best support to com-pete on an equal basis.

Any survey will reveal that we don’t trustour doctoral thesis and awards because weall now know the degrees are awarded onconsiderations than merit. So, on the 18 percent marks on Reputation Survey, our uni-versities would perform poorly, for sure. Notonly foreign surveyors but any survey with-in the country will reveal that we hold verypoor impression of our doctoral degrees.

University research, both science andsocial sciences, should contribute to the exist-ing corpus of human knowledge which is alsoone of the criterion for ranking of universi-ties. Our research output is not used by theindustry; and in most cases, the industry toodoes not pay for conducting research to refine

their processes. They hire agencies outsidethe academia to give them suggestions.

Our universities cannot earn goodmarks on the scale of research earning, animportant criterion to assess research per-formance by scholars who manage to getresearch funding are looked upon with sus-picion of squandering money so theadministrative departments often putroadblocks and it is also reported thatresearchers have to pay bribe to get billspassed. We cannot brush aside theseimpressions and expect research perfor-mance to improve. However, it must alsobe mentioned that teachers of well supplieduniversities have misused the provisionsand used funding injudiciously.

Peer-review has been and is the pillarof academic excellence and cornerstone ofquality improvement in the best of insti-tutions. However, peer-review has lost cred-ibility in our institutions. Academics of theJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) arefighting to deprive the Vice Chancellor ofhis right to nominate members to the selec-tion committees. It is apparent that depart-ments have formed a national coterie andwish to have only their friends as selectioncommittee members — reasons all know.

Similar is the case with PhD thesis exam-iners. The panel of examiners is often sub-mitted by the supervisor and the list oftenconsists of the same names. A quick sur-vey can be done by the University GrantsCommission (UGC).

Our social scientists are known to be ide-ologues of political outfits. They will invari-ably take a stand and express views whichwill be aligned to a political ideology.Scholars are known more as political activiststhan as scholars and academics. The glob-al academic community, by and large, doesnot trust our academic contribution. Thatis the reason why we are not quoted by otherscholars (except our research students andfriends) either within the country or abroad.This is an important pillar of academicresearch, and also of the the ranking.

We have decided on our own on a listof academic journals as AcademicPerformance Indicators (API), which is notaccepted by the world ranking. Very few jour-nals from India appear in the list of Elsevier’sScopus list which is considered for ratingresearch publication and ranking. The intro-duction of API by the UGC did more dam-age to the research and publication than good.

It is now common knowledge that

journals hire writers to write for academicson a payment so that teachers can accumu-late API and compete for teaching positionsand also promotions. There have beenscores of complaints by educators againstteachers at the JNU of plagiarising theirdoctoral thesis and also publications.Action is delayed and often no action istaken. Plagiarism is the highest form ofcrime in academia and there should nei-ther be leniency nor any delay in action.This sends a wrong message and breaks themorale of true researchers.

As an immediate measure, the UGCshould constitute a committee of scholarswho have worked in this area and ask for rec-ommendations to subvert the existing prac-tice. Research funding to universities shouldbe linked to research performance.Admission process and evaluation of doctor-al degrees should be made more rigorous sothat quality improves and scholars andstakeholders trust the degrees awarded byuniversities. Research credibility of our insti-tutions is at its lowest ebb. We must rescueor be ready to perish.

(The writer is Professor of Education atthe Indira Gandhi National Open University,New Delhi. Views expressed are personal)

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Certainly, the world doesn’thave a problem withregards to meeting every-one’s needs in food, shel-ter and safety. However,

there is relentless inequality in the waythe world’s resources are distributed;and this affects the children the most.No matter where we look, childrenpay a heavy price due to irresponsi-bility of the adults. Sometimes it iswars; sometimes it is poverty; andsometimes human rights’ violations.

For instance, close to 5.6 millionchildren still die every year due toentirely preventable or treatable dis-eases, including one million babieswho die on the very day they are born.Clearly, with advanced state of med-icine and technology today, thisshouldn’t be a problem.

Similarly, children are hit thehardest by poverty; according to theUnited Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF), 19.5 per cent of the world’schildren, which amounts to around387 million of them, live in extremepoverty; while only 9.2 per cent of theadults live in the same conditions.

Interestingly, in all high-incomeOrganisation for Economic Co-opera-tion and Development (OECD) coun-tries, children’s poverty rates are higherthan those of adults. Far more worrying

fact is that the youngest children fare theworst. Close to 20 per cent of all childrenyounger than five in the developingworld face extreme poverty, versus 15 percent for 15 to 17-years-old.

Diseases and poverty are not theonly culprits behind the ongoing suf-fering of the children. Many parts ofour world are now a place of almostconstant conflict, civil wars, fully-fledged wars and, once again, childrenpay the biggest price.

They are targeted, injured andkilled by bombs, chemical attacks, andangry, machete-wielding, house-burn-ing mobs. Most of them who manageto escape death, suffer horrific injuries,lose limbs, or face psychologicalproblems that possibly haunt them forthe rest of their lives.

Additionally, when they sufferinjuries or are taken ill, they cannoteven go to the hospital and get prop-er medical treatment like most peoplebecause usually, there are no real hos-pitals, doctors, antibiotics or evenpainkillers at the place where they live.

For instance, in Syria, after somany years of war, children have gotused to living with bombs and a per-sistent lack of food and shelter. Andwhen their families choose to seekrefuge in other places of the world —rightly so — another troubling episodebegins for most of them.

Many of them, usually children,perish on the way. When they reachtheir destination, more often than not,they are turned down. If somehowthey manage to stay in Europe, theyface the danger of being taken awayby human traffickers.

As a matter of fact, according to the

European Union’s police force Europol,more than at least 10,000 refugee chil-dren have gone missing after theirarrival in Europe. Europol believes thatthey might be in the hands of crimi-nal syndicates, including human traf-fickers and criminal organisations thatharvest human organs.

The situation doesn’t change inother parts of the world. Since 2013,Boko Haram has abducted more than1,000 children in Nigeria. Unrest inthe Central African Republic and theDemocratic Republic of Congo has ledto the displacement of more than eightmillion people, half of whom are chil-dren.

In the Sahel, 5.4 million childrenare suffering from severe acute mal-nutrition, while cholera outbreaks arereported across the region, with48,700 cases in 2017.

In Yemen, an average of five childrenare killed or injured every day sinceMarch 2015; and “nearly every child inYemen” needs humanitarian aid, accord-ing to the United Nation’s children’sagency. The agency also reported thatongoing clashes have led to death orinjury of 5,000 children.

Furthermore, 1.8 million childrenunder the age of five face acute mal-nourishment, while 8.2 million chil-dren need humanitarian assistance toaccess safe drinking water and ade-quate sanitation in the country.

In Central America, wracked bypoverty and high crime rates, everymonth, thousands of children try toreach the US in search of better, moredignified lives, but many are injured ordie on the way. If at all they reach the US,like their Middle-Eastern peers, they are

rejected in many parts of the country. In Myanmar, the Army continues its

brazen ethnic genocide, and as a result,thousands of Rohingya children werehorribly hurt or killed, including beingburnt to death. At the moment, some7,20,000 Rohingya children inBangladesh and Myanmar are in seriousneed of humanitarian assistance.

This is only a brief summary of thesituation in only a few countries, as a rep-resentative of the ongoing ordeal of thechildren of the world.

However, no problem is unsolv-able. Although international bodiesusually fell short so far in theirresponsibilities, they still can make upfor the lost time by taking swiftaction. They can launch campaigns toraise funds for each country; andapply sanctions against those who areunwilling to support humanitariancauses in a manner proportional to therespective country’s economic power.

Refugees of the world can beequally and fairly distributed betweenthe nations of the world, with partic-ular emphasis on richer countries.People can be encouraged to donateand help the refugees through variouspayment schemes like one dollar permonth on their credit card; laws canbe amended to ensure that therefugees are treated humanely, withdignity in a number of countries.

As long as there is the will to help,there is virtually no limit to what can bedone. Let’s make the decision to changethe situation; to choose morality overmaterialistic goals and do everything inour power to help the children andeveryone else who needs our help.

(The writer is a Turkish author)

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Page 8: 6 ˇ ! !˚ 6?˜˚˝@ #ˇ ˚? A˙˜˜ ˚˙˜˚ !˛ ˚#$% !˙ˆ!˙ Prime Minister Narendra Modi ... ing as CEO and MD of Allahabad Bank, had held the ... Rao, Sanjiv Sharan, and gener-al

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ASpecial NIA Court inKochi on Monday found

18 accused including fourKeralites guilty in the casepertaining to a terror trainingcamp conducted by the bannedStudents Islamic Movement ofIndia (SIMI) at Vagamonheights in Kerala’s Idukki dis-trict in December, 2007. Thecourt also acquitted 17 accusedfor lack of evidence.

The court found the 18accused guilty under UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act(UAPA), Explosive SubstancesAct and various sections of theIndian Penal Code. Sources inthe NIA said the agency wassatisfied about the court’s ver-dict. The court will pronouncethe quantum of punishment forthe convicts on Tuesday.

The trial, which had start-ed on January 23, 2017, wasconducted via video-confer-encing by connecting the Kochicourt with jails in Bhopal,Bangalore, New Delhi andAhmedabad where most ofthe accused were lodged.Video-conferencing had alsobeen arranged for the pro-nouncement of the verdict.Only two of the accused wereproduced in the court onMonday.

The case pertained to asecret training camp organ-ised by the banned organisa-tion, SIMI, on the ragged rockyheights of Thangalpara,Kolahalamedu at Vagamon inIdukki district in Keralabetween December 10 and 12.According to the investigators,the camp had become the de-facto launch-pad for a series ofterror activities in the country.

The Keralites convicted inthe case are first accused Shibili,

fourth accused Shaduli (bothhailing from Irattupetta inKottayam district), fifth accusedMuhammad Ansar Nadvi andeighth accused Abdul Sattar(both natives of Aluva). AbdulSubhan Qureshi, 35th accusedand a founding member of theIndian Mujahideen, was pro-duced before the Kochi courtlast week.

The NIA had madeQureshi, an accused in con-

nection with the financial assis-tance SIMI, had received fororganising the camp. Anotheraccused, Mehaboob Malik, hadbeen shot dead in Bhopal whiletrying to escape from theCentral Prison there. WasiqBilla is the sole accusedabsconding in the terror campcase.

According to the NIAchargesheet, the organisers ofthe camp had imparted train-ing to the participants inadvanced weapons, firing,bomb-making, rope-climbing,motorcycle maneuvering onthe rocky hill of Thangalpara.The agency had found that sixengineers and three doctorshad participated in the camp.

As per the NIA’s finding,the SIMI leaders had con-spired to conduct trainingcamps for its active operativesand had held such camps inKarnataka, Madhya Pradeshand many other places. The

role of several of the accusedhad been identified in theexplosions that had occurred atBangalore, Ahmedabad, Suratand Bhopal.

The case was investigatedinitially by the anti-terror wingof the Kerala Police but theNIA took it over considering itsseriousness and nationaldimensions. The authoritieshad come under heavy criti-cism over the failure of theIntelligence agencies in acquir-ing information about such aplanned training camp.

It was alleged that office-bearers and operatives of SIMIhad entered into a conspiracyin November, 2007 at Indorefor conducting training camps.The SIMI operatives had alsoallegedly conducted classes atthe Vagamon camp for trainingthe operatives to advocate,incite and abet terror activitiesand to disrupt communal har-mony.

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JDS chief and former ChiefMinister HD Kumaraswamy’s

trip to Singapore hours afterpolls ended on Saturday has ledto political speculation in thepost poll parleys.

Most exit poll predictionshave indicated a hungAssembly and the BJP and theCongress have started negoti-ations on the formation of theGovernment. Kumaranna, he isknown as is expected to play akey role and cherishes an ambi-tion to become Chief Ministerfor the second time.

This is scenario might alsolead to revival of JDS which isknown as a family party con-trolled by former Prime MinisterHD Devegowda and his son HDKumaraswamy. His sudden tripto Singapore at this juncture hasled to speculation in the politi-cal circles and some of the lead-ers say already negotiations havestarted towards formation of a

Government. However a JDSleader told The Pioneer thatKumaraswamy has gone therefor some rest and treatment. Hesaid JDS leader will be back fromSingapore on the mid night ofSaturday and will be there inBengaluru on the D-day to wit-ness the counting of votes.

Most exit polls have pre-dicted hung House, with the JDSlikely to emerge as kingmaker inthe 224-member Assembly.Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat andABP-C Voter predicted that theBJP will emerge as the singlelargest party by bagging 104 and104-116 seats, respectively. Thetwo news channels gave theincumbent Congress 78 and83-94 seats, and the JDS 37 and20-29 seats, respectively. Anyparty or alliance will need thesupport of 112 MLAs to formthe new Government in the 224member house.

A Congress leader on thecondition of anonymity saidhis party has started consulta-

tions on formation of theGovernment in case of a frac-tured mandate. Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah had said onSunday that he was ready to stepaside for a Dalit as ChiefMinister if the party high com-mand decides as the ChiefMinister. This according topolitical leaders in the centuryold party indication of Congressready to negotiate with JDs andits leaders without Siddaramaiahnot being in the saddle.

Sources say Siddaramaiah’sremoval from ChiefMinistership could be a possi-ble rider for Deve Gowda toextend his support to theCongress. The party’s promi-nent Dalit faces include GParameshwara, MallikarjunKharge and HC Mahadevappa.

In another developmentthe confidant BJP is hoping toform the Government on itsown but they are also preparingfor looking at JDs in case of afractured mandate.

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Congress candidateVishwajeet Kadam was on

Monday elected unopposed tothe Maharashtra Assembly fromPalus-Kadegaon constituencyin Sangli district of westernMaharashtra, after BJP’sSangram Singh Deshmukh andeight other candidates with-drew from the day on the lastday of withdrawal of nomina-tions for the May 28 bypolls.

In a development that camefour days after the ruling ShivSena announced its support tothe Congress candidate, theBJP withdrew its candidateDeshmukh from the fray.Simultaneously, eight other can-didates, mostly independents,withdrew their papers, facili-tating the unopposed election ofVishwajeet.

The Palus-KadegaonAssembly by-polls in Sanglidistrict of western Maharashtrahad been necessitated by thedemise of senior Congressleader Patangrao Kadam, whodied of renal dysfunction atMumbai’s Lilavati Hospital onMarch 9 this year. Vishwajeet isthe son of late PatangraoKadam.

The Shiv Sena had put theBJP, its senior ruling alliance

partner in the State and at theCentre, in a predicament onThursday last, when it extend-ed its “active” support toVishwajeet’s candidature in viewof late Congress MinisterPatangrao Kadam’s contributionin the education, social and co-operative sectors. The Sena hadgone to extent of mocking theBJP for not coming forward toensure the unopposed electionof the Congress candidate.

Unfazed by the Sena’s can-didate, the BJP had indirectlytried to bargain with theCongress for withdrawing itscandidate from the Assemblyby-poll. Maharashtra’s seniorState Minister Girish Bapat hadsaid that the BJP would considerwithdrawing its nominee fromthe Assembly by-poll contest, ifthe Congress extended its sup-port to its candidates in PalgharLok Sabha by-poll and otherCouncil polls.

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Telangana Government hassuspended three officials of

the Juvenile Home in Hyderabadholding them responsible for theescape of 15 juveniles onSaturday night. Three of the 15minors were caught by thepolice and the search was on.Three police teams were con-stituted to nab the other 12 boys.

After the boys, aged 15 to17, escaped from the correc-tional facility at Chanchalgudaby cutting the grills of a windowon the ground floor, couple ofthem also stole a parked twowheeler.

On the complaint of the

officials of the Juvenile Welfareand Correctional ServicesSaidabad police registered acase and launched a search forthem.

Police said the fifteen boysbelong to Hyderabad, RangaReddy and Mahbubnagar dis-tricts. Their families have alsobeen informed and alerted, KSattaiah, police inspectorSayeedabad said.

Director of Juvenile Welfareservices Shailaja said that mostof the boys kept in correctionalhomes were addicted to drugsand the department had reachedan understanding with Ashahospital to help them in deaddiction program.

Chanchalguda Home hadhigh security and CCTV cam-eras which caught the scenes ofthe boys fleeing from there.

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As mercury is constantlysoaring in the pick summer

season, the issue of water scarci-ty in Gujarat too is becomingcritical as less than 30 per centwater remained in major damsof the State.

Sources in StateGovernment said that if mon-soon would not arrive in timedrinking water situation in theState, especially in aridSaurashtra-Kutch region wouldbecome bad to worse. Of the203 major dams in the State, 65have already become com-pletely empty. Other 153 damshave less than 25 per centwater. Of total storage capaci-ties of the State’s major dams,only 29 per cent water saved.But the officials concerned areworried about fast evapora-tion of water due to boilingtemperature. For the past onefortnight temperature in mostparts of the State touched orcrossed 42 degree Celsius.

Situation in borderingKutch district is even more crit-ical as only 15 per cent waterremained in 20 dams there.Same is the case with 138 damsof Saurashtra region wherehardly 17 per cent waterremained. People are facingacute water scarcity problems indistricts like Amreli, Botad,Dwarka, Junagadh, Kheda andChhota Udepur.

Only five per cent wateravailable in dams situated inAmreli district. In ChhotaUdepur district situation iseven worse as only 4.79 per centwater available in dams there.Junagadh, Porbandar, Jamnagarand Bhavnagar availability ofwater is 2.78 per cent, 9.72 percent, 11.66 per cent and 12.54per cent respectively.

Sardar Sarovar Dam, whichis considered as lifeline of thestate is filled with 31.73 per centwater of its capacity. People willhave to wait for monsoon for atleast one month and during theperiod, water level in all thedams would reduce consider-ably due to high evaporation aswell as increasing supply.

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�� ������������� ��.<=����-� ����&�PNS: Gujarat Governmenthas constituted a ‘WeatherWatch Committee’ to pre-view and review the climateand rainfall situation in theState during the rainy seasonand issue advisories fromtime to time, said Gujarat’sRevenue Minister KaushikPatel on Monday.

This committee will alsotake steps in advance toensure maximum safety oflives and property in theevent of atmospheric calami-ties. It was decided at a meet-ing presided over by State

Relief Commissioner, attend-ed by 24 senior officers ofGSDMA, UrbanDevelopment, Narmada andWater Resources, Fisheries,Energy, Water Supply, Health,Forest and Agriculture. Italso includes officials fromCentral Government organi-sat ions l ike IndianMeteorological Department(IDM), NDRF, Air Force,Army and Coast Guard.

It will include otherdepartments concerned asand when required. TheCommittee will meet every

Tuesday between June 1 andOctober 31, 2018 at the StateEmergency Control Room,also time to time.

It will review the disastermanagement preparednesswith respect to climatic situ-ation, temperature, issuingalerts for atmospheric depres-sion, likely development ofcyclone, rainfall and alertingfishermen.

The Committee will keepabreast the Chief Secretaryand Secretaries ofDepartments Concerned anddiscuss the latest situation.

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PNS: In a novel initiative,Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani on Monday reviewedthe progress of ongoing‘Sujalam Sufalam Jal SanchayAbhiyan’ with officials at sixworks sites in six districtsthrough drone monitoringcommand control wall tech-nology from his residence inthe State capital Gandhinagar.A direct link was establishedwith digging works at sixwater bodies in Rajkot, Tapi,Sabarkantha, Junagadh,

Dahod and Narmda districtsfor the purpose.

He also talked to keyofficials of these districts andsaid that funds shouldn’t bean issue for completing thedeepening and cleaningworks of water bodies toensure there wouldn’t bewater crisis for next 50 yearsin the State.

The water conservationcampaign has helped create19-lakh man-days job main-ly through MNREGA.

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After spending three dayshere and attending all the

rituals of the wedding of his sonTej Pratap Yadav, on MondayLalu Prasad went back toRanchi. He had been grantedthree days parole of whichperiod expired on Monday.However, during this paroleperiod the RJD chief, convict-ed in some cases related to fod-der scam of 1997, was grantedsix weeks provisional bail fortreatment by the JharkhandHigh Court.

He is likely to be releasedafter reporting to the Hotwarjail in Ranchi after fulfilling thebail provisions and expected to

return here on Tuesdayevening. Family sources saidthat Lalu would be flown toMumbai for treatment.

During three days Laluhad hectic schedule attendingthe pre and post marriage rit-uals apart from being presentat the mega wedding ceremo-

ny which was attended by sev-eral thousand visitors and someVVIPs including BiharGovernor Satyapal Malik andChief Minister Nitish Kumar.Many VIPs visited his residencebefore and after the marriage.Lalu, a day after wedding, wentto his samdhi Chandrika Rai’sresidence on Sunday andsavoured lunch of fish andrice. For a change Lalu brokehis resolve not to touch non-vegetarian food and ate fishserved by daughter-in-lawAishwarya Rai.

BJP’s dissident leader andlocal MP Shatrughan Sinhawho could not reach the mar-riage venue on Saturday eveningdue to heavy crowd visited himat his residence on Monday andblessed the newly wed couplewho merrily had selfies with theactor turned politician. After the

visit he tweeted, “Special wed-ding celebrations, great atmos-phere, an evening for specialentry of the bride Aishwarya, aclose & special family gettogether for all of us. I wholeheartedly congratulate Laluji &his entire family on this occa-sion. What better could Rabrijiask for on Mothers Day.”

In another tweet Shotgunpraised Lalu’s younger sonTejashwi Prasad Yadav callinghim present and future of Bihar.“With lots of love & regards forour friend Lalu Yadav, his entirefamily including the new Betibahu (Aaishwarya), the beauti-ful person & desirable groom ofthe day Tej Pratap & of coursethe present and future ofBiharthe golden boy TejaswiYadav & entire family.” He alsoposted photo with grand chil-dren of Lalu.

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The investigations by thecity ATS sleuths have

revealed that terror suspectFaizal Hassan Mirza, who wasarrested at Juhu in north-westMumbai on Friday last, hadallegedly planned to engineerterror attacks in Mumbai,Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh withthe help of his group members.

Informed ATS sources saidhere on Monday that Mirza,who was arrested by the city ATSsleuths in a a joint operationwith Kolkata Special Task Force(STF), told the interrogatorsthat he was waiting for “instruc-tions” from his handlers abroadto undertake terror strikes inattacks in Mumbai,Gujarat andUttar Pradesh.

Mirza, who is suspected tohave been roped in and trainedas an operative by Lashkar-e-Taiba ( LeT), had planned ter-ror attacks in public places of

Mumbai and in the states ofGujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

The interrogation revealedthat Mirza had undergonetraining for two weeks at ter-rorist outfit’s training camp inKarachi, where he was trainedby his two handlers and onereligious preacher. The trainingthat Mirza had undergone wasin weapon handling, explo-sive making and suicide attacks.

Mirza had left for Sharjaha few months ago on the pre-text of taking up an overseasjob. The fact remained that hehad been called specially toSharjah by Farooq Devadiwala,who is linked to Karachi-basedunderworld don DawoodIbrahim and wanted in bombblasts in Mumbai. Devadiwalahad arranged air tickets forMirza to go to Sharjah.

After spending few days inSharjah, Devadiwala tookMirza to Dubai and arrangeda flight to Pakistan via Nairobi.

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Even as protest is intensify-ing across Kerala against the

continuing political violence inState’s Kannur region, theCPI(M) leadership hasembarked on a campaign todownplay the killing of anRSS-BJP worker in New Mahe,Kannur last week immediate-ly after a local CPI(M) leaderwas hacked to death in nearbyMahe enclave of Puducherry.

The Marxist efforts to findjustification for the killing ofRSS-BJP worker ShamejParambath, an autorickshawdriver, had started last Fridaywith CPI(M) central commit-tee member and Kerala’s LawMinister AK Balan stating thatthe abominable act was theresult of the ‘natural’ emo-tional response of partymen tothe murder of a party leader.

The latest such justification

for Shamej’s murder by a sus-pected CPI(M) killer gang hascome from Politbureau mem-ber MA Baby, according towhom the two murders ‘couldnot be weighed in the same bal-ance’. Earlier, party centralcommittee member andFinance Minister TM ThomasIsaac and CPI(M)’s IndustriesMinister AC Moideen also hadjustified the killing.

‘Emotional response is nat-ural when a popular leader iskilled brutally. This (murder ofShamej) should be seen in thatlight,’ Baby told the media. ‘Insuch a situation, how can youweigh both the incidents in thesame balance? How can onefind similarities between thesheep and the wolf?’ the CPI(M)Politbureau member said.

Shamej (36) was hacked todeath by a suspected Marxistkiller gang in New Mahe inKannur district on the night of

May 7 while he was returninghome in his autorikshaw, with-in less than an hour of thekilling of CPI(M)’s local com-mittee secretary KannipoyilBabu (45) by a gang near hishouse at Palloor in Mahe, anenclave of Puducherry bor-dering Kannur district.

Also, the failure of MarxistChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan,a native of Kannur district, tocall on the family of Shamej onSaturday night when he had vis-ited the mother, widow andchildren of Babu is being inter-preted as an indirect bid to jus-tify the killing of the RSS-BJPworker. Shamej’s house is justtwo and a half kilometers awayfrom that of Babu.

On Friday, Minister Balanhad tried to justify the killingof Shamej by saying, ‘Ourworkers had come under attackand it is normal (for them) toretaliate as an act of self-

defence.’ Stating that Babu’smurder was preplanned, Balansaid that the killing of Shamejshould be seen as such anincident and that linking thatto the political violence inKannur was unwarranted.

Minister and central com-mittee member Thomas Isaac,considered as one of the mostreasonable faces of the CPI(M)and party-led LDF Government,also justified the killing ofShamej by suspected Marxists.‘(Shamej’s killing) was the resultof a natural and momentaryreaction to the murder of theCPI(M) leader,’ he said.

Refusing to find fault withthe killers of the RSS-BJP work-er, Isaac said that the differencebetween the two incidents wasthat while Babu’s killing was aplanned act of violence, therewas no plot behind the murderof Shamej. On Saturday itself,Industries Minister Moideen

had justified the BJP worker’skilling by defending Balan’sstatement on it.

Meanwhile, thePuducherry Police have arrest-ed three BJP workers — JerinSuresh of Panur, PK Sarath ofPanthakkal and PK Nijesh ofChokli, all from Kannur district— in connection with the mur-der of Babu, CPI(M)’s formercouncilor of MaheMunicipality. A local courtremanded all the three in judi-cial remand for 14 days.

The police had taken sev-eral BJP-RSS workers into cus-tody on Saturday and Sundayfollowing which intense protestwas staged in front of thePallur police station in Mahe inwhich hundreds of activistsparticipated. The police hadtaken Jerin on Saturday nightwhen he was to get married onSunday. Six people were still inpolice custody on Monday.

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While the ruling AIADMKand all other Opposition

parties except the BJP are crit-icising the Union Governmentfor not doing anything to con-stitute the CauveryManagement Board, ChiefMinister EdappadiPalaniswamy himself declaredon Sunday that efforts were onby the Narendra ModiGovernment to transfer thefloodwaters of Godavari Riverto Cauvery.

Speaking at Salem, hishome constituency,Palaniswamy said that theCentre has proposed the link-ing of Godavari and Cauveryrivers to ‘facilitate optimumutilisation of surplus watergoing waste into the sea’. ‘I haddiscussions with the PrimeMinister as well as UnionMinister for Water ResourcesNitin Gadkari in this regard.Tamil Nadu will get 125 TMCft water once the Godavari islinked to Cauvery,’ said thechief minister.

He also revealed thatGodavari, flowing through theStates of Telangana and AndhraPradesh would reach theMayannoor barrage in Karurdistrict of Tamil Nadu. “Thiswill benefit farmers in the dis-tricts of Namakkal, Salemand Tiruchirppalli” saidPalaniswamy.

Linking of Godavari withCauvery is part of the majorproject of inter-linking themajor rivers of the countrythrough a network of canals,

dams and barrages. A taskforce headed by Suresh Prabhu(Union Minister for Commerceand Industries) had chalked outa project report to inter-link themajor rivers and had submit-ted it to the Vajpayee-headedNDA Government in 2004.Since the BJP was defeated inthe 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabhaelections, the report submittedby Prabhu has been gettingdusted.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had made it known thatthe water scarcity in the coun-try could be addressed only byinter-linking the major rivers.For decades, India has beenfacing the problem of simulta-neous drought and flood at thesame time.

Sanjeev Kumar Balian hasstated in Rajya Sabha inNovember 2016 that theNational Water DevelopmentAgency (NWDA) had identi-fied 16 links in peninsularIndia and this includedMahanadi -Godavari -Krishna-Pennar -Palar -Cauvery -Vaigai - Gundar linkage. Sincethe Government of Odishahad reservations against theproject because of its fear of

submergence of vast tract ofland , the plan was held up.

But Nitin Gadkari, UnionMinister of Water Resources,has stated in November 2017that the concerns of Odishahave been sorted out. ‘We willconnect Godavari, Krishna,Cauvery, the tributaries. Thatwill solve our problems up toTamil Nadu . Funding is not anissue. We will double our irri-gation potential,’ Gadkari hadtold reporters.

A research paper authoredby leading hydrologist PMNatarajan and senior IAS offi-cer Sambhu Kallolikar hadstated that during a normalmonsoon year, India wastesinto the sea 1263 billion cubicmeters (BCM) of preciouswater. ‘During normal mon-soon itself, Godavari discharges300 TMC (thousand millioncubic meter) flood water intothe sea per day. Mettur Dam inTamil Nadu could be filled tocapacity in nine hours with aportion of the flood waters inGodavari River,’ Natarajan toldThe Pioneer on Monday quot-ing from his paper.

S Kalyanaraman, director,Saraswathi Research Centre,Chennai, said that theGodavari-Cauveri link wasthoroughly studied by theNWDA and it was a win-winproposition for all stakeholders.‘This is going to be a gamechanger as all inter-state waterdisputes would die a naturaldeath with the linking of themajor peninsular rivers,’ saidKalyanaraman , a formedbanker with AsianDevelopment Bank.

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In a tragic mishap, four mem-bers of a family were killed

when they were run over by asuburban train while crossingthe railway tracks betweenKandivli and Borivli stations innorth Mumbai on Mondaymorning.

The mishap took place at6.30 am after they jumped outof a suburban local when itbriefly halted betweenKandivali and Borivali stationand they began to cross thetracks to head to their home atPoisar locality in Kandivali.However, while crossing thetracks, the four – all cousins –were knocked down by aChurchgate-bound local com-ing from the opposite direction.

The police identified thefour deceased cousins asSaiprasad Manohar Chavan(17), Manoj Deepak Chavan(17), Sagar Sampat Chavan(23) and Dattaprasad ManoharChavan (20). They were killedon the spot.

The four cousins had ear-

lier in the morning arrived atDadar railway station fromtheir native Kankavli inSindhudurg district by ShatbdiExpress. They had taken sub-urban local to Borivali to headtheir Poisar residence.

Meanwhile, the Railwaypolice said that the familymembers, who were suspectinga foul play, had refused toaccept the four bodies. ‘Thefamily members have told thatthey would not accept the bod-ies unless either they see thefootage of the incident or theRailway police ordered aninquiry into the incident,’ asenior Railway police officersaid.

The predicament that theRailway police are facing is thatthere are no CCTV cameras inthe vicinity of the spot wherethe incident took place. ‘In theabsence of CCTV footage,there is no way we can get toknow as to how the incidenttook place,’ the officer said.

The deaths on railwaytracks have unfortunatelybecome a common feature in

Mumbai over the years. As perthe response to an RTI querygiven by the GovernmentRailway Police (GRP) inJanuary this year, as many as3,014 commuters were killedon the tracks on the western,central and harbour suburbanservices in the metropolis dur-ing 2017.

Responding to an RTIquery posed by activist SamirJhaveri, the GRP had stated:‘Of the total number of deathsreported in 2017 across all thesuburban stations (on all threelines), 1,651 persons (1,467men and 184 women) losttheir lives while crossingtracks. Besides, 654 passen-gers, including 58 women,died after falling from runningtrains’.

‘There are three majorreasons (for the deaths)-sui-cide, falling from trains andbeing hit by trains while cross-ing the tracks illegally. Whilesuicides cannot be controlled,we can avoid the other two,’ aGRP official attached to theCentral Railway had said.

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Kashmiri migrants livinglike exiles in their own

home State have been direct-ed by the officials of theMehbooba Mufti-led allianceGovernment to fill ‘consent’forms before undertaking anannual pilgrimage to attendMela Kheer Bhawani(Tulmalla),Ganderbal.

However, the Minister forDisaster Management, Relief,Rehabil itation &Reconstruction, JavaidMustafa Mir, on Mondayissued a statement claiming noorders from the Governmentfor registration of pilgrims forvisiting Mela Kheer Bhawanihave been issued.

He said taking a seriousnote of the issuance of thenotice without any adminis-trative approval, theGovernment has initiated dis-ciplinary action against theDeputy Commissioner Relief(Migrants) Kuldeep KrishenSidha and has ordered hisimmediate attachment.

The Minister clarified thatthe Kashmiri Pandits are Statesubjects and do not need anykind of registration for theannual Kheer Bhawani Mela.‘There is no need for regis-tration of Kashmiri Pandits forvisiting the Mela,’ he said.

Every year thousands ofKashmiri pandit settled out-side the State and from Jammuregion travel to Kashmir val-ley to attend this festival asso-ciated with the HinduGoddess Ragnya Devi.

It is celebrated annually incentral Kashmir’s Ganderbaldistrict.

According to the Notice

issued by the Office of Reliefand Rehabilitat ionCommissioner (Migrant) inJammu, ‘All Kashmir migrantsdesirous of undertaking pil-grimage to Mata KhirBhawani Tulmulla(Ganderbal) / Tikker(Kupwara)/ Manzgam(Kulgam), Mattan (Anantnag)during the current financialyear of the ensuing ZeisthaAshthami which falls on 20-06-2018 are requested to pro-vide their consent on the fol-lowing format to the con-cerned zonal officer/campcommandant by or before 20-05-2018’.

The notice sparked offfresh controversy with sever-al prominent Kashmiri panditorganisations voicing theirconcern over the manner inwhich the sensitive issue hasbeen handled by the allianceGovernment in the State. ‘Wehave been attending MelaKheer Bhawani even aftermigrating from Kashmir butin the last over two decades wehave never been asked to fillin such consent forms. Wereally don't know the realmotive behind the move’, sev-eral Kashmiri pandits toldThe Pioneer while sharingtheir anger over the move.

As sharp reactions pouredin on the social media pagesand other platforms the StateGovernment immediatelywent in to damage controlmode. The said officer wasattached by the Govt and ahigh-level inquiry commit-tee was constituted to investi-gate the issuance of a notice bythe Deputy CommissionerRelief (Migrants) in thisregard.

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The Congress and the NCP onMonday hit out at the Union

Government, claiming that itspolicy of allowing the import ofsugar from neighbouringPakistan was leading to a crashin its prices in the domestic mar-ket.

The two parties questionedthe Centre over the need for suchimports when sugar productionin the country was in ‘excess’.National Congress Party chiefSharad Pawar said that there wasbound to be ‘some reaction’ ifsugar was imported fromPakistan. He said that severalstates had seen excess productionof sugarcane and have beendemanding that sugar be export-ed. ‘There is bound to be somereaction if sugar has been import-ed from Pakistan. I can under-stand that liberalisation in

import-export policies meansthat a lot of these things are notin the control of the Government.However the Indian Governmenthas the right to impose duty anddiscourage sugar imports,’ the for-mer Union Agriculture Ministersaid.

‘Maharshtra, Gujarat, TamilNadu and Karnataka have hadexcess production of sugarcaneand hence sugar production hasgone up in the country. Farmersfrom these states are demandingthat sugar be exported,’ he added.Speaking to reporters, formerState Cooperation Minister andsenior Congress leaderHarshvardhan Patil said, ‘ADelhi-based company calledSakuma Exports Limited hasexported chocolates to Pakistanand imported some 20 lakhtonnes of sugar from Pakistan.Why is this being done at the costof our farmers?’

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Arelative of Goa ChiefMinister Manohar

Parrikar has filed a complaintagainst activists of the GoaSuraksha Manch (GSM) forallegedly defaming the CMand his family members dur-ing a protest here.

The Chief Minister'snephew, Akhil Parrikar, lodgeda complaint on Sunday at theAgassaim police station inNorth Goa district, accusingGSM leader HrudaynathShirodkar and others of ‘defam-ing and maligning the image ofManohar Parrikar and his fam-ily members’.

Meanwhile, GSM workersalso lodged a counter-com-plaint against BJP activists,including Akhil Parrikar, formanhandling and assaultingthem during the protest yes-terday near the venue of ameeting of BJP president AmitShah.

The activists of GSM, apolitical party floated by a for-

mer RSS functionary, protest-ed against Shah's reportedstatement at an election rally inKarnataka that he would ensuresupply of the Mahadayi riverwater to farmers in the south-ern State, if the party wasvoted to power.

The CM's nephew, in hiscomplaint, alleged that while hewas proceeding towards thevenue of Shah's meeting, theGSM activists stopped his carand threw a water bottle at hismother. He also accused theGSM supporters of manhan-dling him and his family whilethey were travelling in the car,and shouting slogans againstthe Chief Minister and theBJP that, he claimed, wereintended to ‘defame andmalign’ the CM's image.

In the cross-complaint filedat the same police station, theGSM workers alleged that AkhilParrikar along with othersstopped at the place where theywere ‘peacefully demonstrating’and hurled abuses at them. GSMgeneral secretary Atmaram

Gaonkar demanded actionagainst those who disrupted the‘peaceful demonstration’.

When contacted, a seniorofficial at the Agassaim policestation confirmed receivingboth the complaints and saidthat an inquiry was on.

‘We have taken the state-ments of those named in thecomplaints,’ he added.

Meanwhile, the Congresshas demanded the arrest ofAkhil Parrikar for ‘taking lawinto his hands’.

‘We demand immediatearrest of Akhil for assaultingsenior citizens and creating alaw and order situation near thevenue. Any other activistindulging in such activityshould have been picked upimmediately by Goa Police,’said Congress's Goa unitspokesman Avinash Tavares.

He said Akhil Parrikar's‘arrogant act’ of trying to bullythe activists of the GoaSurakasha Manch (GSM) dis-plays ‘immaturity and frustra-tion’.

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Smartphone shipments inIndia grew by 11%t to 30

million units in the first threemonths of this year a recordhigh for the first quarter, as perresearch firm IDC.

In contrast, about 27 mil-lion smartphones were shippedin India in the first quarter of2017.

As per the latest IDC data,Xiaomi maintained its lead inthe smartphone market for thesecond consecutive quarterwith 30.3% share, followed bySamsung (25.1 %),Oppo(7.4%), vivo (6.7%) andTranssion (4.6 %).

However, the smartphonemarket remained almost flatcompared to the previous quar-ter, it added.

Overall, more than 85 mil-lion phones, including 55.2million feature phones, wereshipped in India in the January-March 2018 period.

“Xiaomi maintained itslead in the (smartphone) mar-ket for second quarter in a rowwith further expansion in theoffline channel and popularityof its models such as Redmi 5Aand Redmi Note 5. Variousother companies, on the otherhand, used the online channelto expand their share in the

market, notable amongst thosebeing Honor, iVOOMi andTenor (10.Or), “IDC said.

It added that online chan-nel accounted for facilitating36% of the smartphone sales inthe March quarter compared to34.2% in the fourth quarter of2017.

IDC India Senior MarketAnalyst Jaipal Singh said thesmartphone market in India isexpected to continue its double-digit growth in 2018 with thepopularity and focus on budgetphones, efforts by ecosystem tomake devices more affordablewith finance schemes, aggres-sive offline expansion by keyplayers and push by the onlineplatforms driving this growth.

As per IDC data, the ultra-high-endsegment ($600/�40,000and above) saw a year-on-yeargrowth of 68 %, largely due tostrong shipments of SamsungGalaxy S9 series. OnePlus con-tinued to keep more than 50%share in the US 400-600 segment(�27,000-40,000) on the back of

popular models like OnePlus 5and 5T.

Senior Market Analyst atIDC India, Upasana Joshi saidretailers and distributors inthe offline channel fear a cut intheir commissions to absorbthe impact of price hikes ashandset makers reel undermargin pressure from increas-ing custom duty and raw mate-rial costs.

“Having said that, thesepartners will have to chalk outa way to mitigate some of theadditional burden through spe-cial offers or schemes to theend buyer,” Joshi said.

She explained that therecent import duty hike onPCBs, camera modules andconnectors by the Indian gov-ernment puts cost pressure onthe smartphone companies,till such time that they set uplines for CKD (CompleteKnock Down) type of manu-facturing to reduce this impact.

“This will increase thechallenges for smaller compa-nies even more,” she added.

IDC said the 4G featurephone market in India contin-ued to grow at more than 50%quarter-on-quarter, driven pri-marily by Jio Phone. RelianceIndustries (Jio) had a 38.4%share of the feature phonemarket in the March quarter.

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7���� �>����9��������'::?���-�����@��-� ����� ����������0�+�� ������ 9;.8�)>).

Walmart's acquisition of77% stake in Flipkart is

“credit positive” for the USretail giant, though the Indiane commerce firm is expected tocontinue to make losses for thenext few years, said ratingagency Moody’s in its CreditOutlook report issued onMonday. On May 9, WalmartInc said it is buying a 77% stakein Indian e-commerce retailerFlipkart for about $16 billion,but it is yet to disclose financ-ing plans.

Moody’s said it expects thedeal to initially weakenWalmart’s credit metrics, withretained cash flow (RCF) to netdebt ratio likely dropping to thelow-30% range from 40% cur-rently and debt to EBITDA(earnings before interest, tax,depreciation and amortisation)ratio likely to double from 1.6times currently.“Despite thisdeterioration, the acquisition iscredit positive because it pro-vides immediate scale in India'sburgeoning retail e-commercesector and we expect that acombination of increased cashflow and debt reduction willpush the RCF/net debt ratio

back above our 35%.”“Although we expect that

Flipkart will continue to gen-erate losses for the next fewyears, our credit-positive viewis based on India's compellingfeatures, including its 1.2 billionresidents and an economy thatgenerates more than 7% annu-al GDP growth,” Moody's said.India has more than 400 mil-lion millennials, a growingmiddle class and explodingsmartphone penetration, all ofwhich are critical as shoppingcontinues to shift online, therating agency said, adding

“Following the announce-ment, we affirmed Walmart'sAa2 rating and stable outlook.”

“As Flipkart is expected togenerate meaningful losses forat least the next few years, thisis clearly an investment for thefuture,”Moody's Vice PresidentCharlie O'Shea had said.Walmart has been embracinga more acquisitive approach toramping up online growth,rather than attempting to doso organically, given theimportance of rapidly buildingscale as other fast-growingonline competitors such asamazon RPT amazon keepexpanding.

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FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL)on Monday reported 14.2% increase in its

standalone net profit to �1,351 crore for thefourth quarter ended March 31, driven by astrong double digit volume growth.

The company had posted a net profit of �1,183crore in January-March period a year ago, HUL saidin a BSE filing. HUL's net sales during the quarterunder review stood at �9,003 crore compared to�8,773 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal, itadded.After the implementation of GST in July lastyear, revenue for the March quarter is reported as netof GST, whereas in the year ago period excise duty wasincluded in the revenue.

“During the quarter, our comparabledomestic consumer growth was 16% withunderlying volume growth at 11%,” said HULin a statement. It said during the quarter underreview revenue from home care was at �3,102crore as against �3,004 crore in Q4 FY 2016-17 led by laundry segment. “Laundry sawrobust double-digit growth across key brands.Comfort Pure - fabric conditioner for delicatebaby skin, was launched. Household Caregrowth was led by strong performance inVim,”the company said.

Revenue from personal care stood at �4,096crore as against �4,075 crore in the year-ago peri-od. It had “broad-based double-digit growth”acrosspersonal products and personal wash, it added.“Growth in skin care was led by Fair & Lovelyand Pond's. Hair care witnessed broad basedvolume led growth,” the FMCG majorsaid.Food segment contributed �299 croreduring the period under review as against�295 crore as its Kissan brand deliveredgrowth, led by ketchups.

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Suspecting the role of executives inthe $2-billion fraud at Punjab

National Bank (PNB) in the firstchargesheet of Central Bureau of(CBI), the Government on Mondayinitiated action for removal ofAllahabad Bank CEO UshaAnanthasubramanian and two otherexecutive directors of the PNB. “ThePNB board divested its two executivedirectors, KV Brahmaji Rao andSanjiv Sharan, of all financial andexecutive powers,” Financial ServicesSecretary Rajiv Kumar said here.

Similar action is likely to betaken by the board of Allahabad Bankagainst its CEO and MDAnanthasubramanian, who was theManaging Director of PNB till May5 last year.

The secretary said the AllahabadBank board has also been asked todivest Ananthasubramanian of allpowers and initiate further action.Kumar said there is a set process forremoval and dismissal of directorsfrom the board of banks and that hasbeen initiated. However, sources saidthe Allahabad Bank board is likely tomeet in a day or two.

As per the ownership in thebank is concerned, the Governmentholds a little over 62% stake in PNBand close to 65% in Allahabad Bank.Earlier in the day, the PNB board con-vened an emergency meeting on theinsistence from the Government'snominee director.

“The PNB board has decided todivest EDs of the functional andfinancial responsibilities and have alsorequested the Government to replacethem,” Kumar said, adding theGovernment is committed to takingstrict action against erring officials.

The CBI also on Monday filed itsfirst chargesheet in the country's largestfinancial scam worth over $2 billion atPNB allegedly committed by billionairejeweller Nirav Modi. The chargesheetdetailed the alleged role of PNB's for-mer chief Ananthasubramanian in thescam. Ananthasubramanian was theMD and CEO of PNB from 2015 to2017 and was questioned recently bythe CBI in connection with the case.

“Today agencies have filed thechargesheet. Around 10 days ago wehad asked explanations from thetwo executive directors at the PNBand the current MD and CEO inAllahabad Bank. This was essential-ly because of the fact that SWIFT and

CBS integration was to take placebased on the circular issued by RBIin 2016,” Kumar added.

Kumar said there is a set processfor the removal and dismissal ofdirectors from the board of a bank.“One notice was issued 10 days back.Section 8 of Banking Regulation Actdefine how do you remove the direc-tor. We have initiated action for thatthe removal also. So this is a clearmessage that we have to be respon-sible for what we do. We will only takeaction when we have substantiveproof and not on hearsay,” he said.

When asked about action againsttwo MDs named in the FIR related toloans given to Aircel by IDBI Bank,he said, “I would like to make it clearthat you cannot take action only onhearsay. They are responsible personand it's only a few who are into thiskind of thing otherwise by and largebankers have contributed to the eco-nomic growth of the country.”

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With the trend risingprices, country's retail

inflation or consumers infla-tion rose to 4.58% in April,while at the same time, sky-rocketing petrol and dieselprices as well as costlier fruitsand vegetables items alsopushed the wholesale prices afour-month high of 3.18% inthe same period, according toCentral Statistics Office (CSO)data released on Monday. Thisupward trend of price risemay prompt the Reserve Bankof India (RBI) to harden stanceat the monetary policy reviewnext month.

The Wholesale PriceIndex (WPI) based inflationtoo rose to 3.18% in Aprilmainly on account of spike in

fuel prices, as per inflationdata released by theGovernment. The hardeningof inflation, both retail andwholesale, comes weeks aheadof RBI's Monetary PolicyCommittee (MPC) meet onJune 4 and 5.

Retail inflation, based onmovement in ConsumerPrice Index (CPI), rose afterdeclining since January onaccount of rise in prices ofcereals, meat, fish and fruits.As per the Government data,retail inflation was 4.28% inMarch and 2.99% in April lastyear.

As far as wholesale infla-tion is concerned, it stood at2.47% in March and 3.85% inApril last year. The WPI infla-tion, which was on a declin-ing trend since December

2017, accelerated in April dueto an unfavourable base effect,a seasonal uptick in foodprices as well as the passthrough of rising global crudeoil prices. Inf lat ion inDecember was 3.58%.

In the fuel and powerbasket in WPI, petrol inflationspiked to 9.45% in April from2.55% in March, while dieseljumped to 13.01% from 6.12%in the previous month.

A global rally in crudeprices pushed up domesticfuel prices, with petrol at�74.80 per litre and diesel ata record high of �66.14 alitre. The WPI inflation forFebruary was revised upwardsto 2.74% from the provision-al estimate of 2.48%.

With the spike in prices,Indian industry feel that the

breakdown of the April infla-tion data shows annualised

inflation of close to 10% forpetrol and over 13% for high

speed diesel. “Even more wor-rying is the fact that these lev-els are on a very high base inthe same month last fiscal.Going forward, increasingcrude oil prices and their cas-cading impact would be one ofthe key worry areas for Indianeconomy,” AssochamSecretary General DS Rawatsaid. PHD Chamber ofCommerce President AnilKhaitan too termed it worri-some and hoped that prices donot increase further in thecoming months. However,economists said that the pricerise was expected to continueto rise over the remainder ofthis quarter.

“The Government mayprefer to wait for additionalinformation about the level atwhich the monthly GST rev-

enues stabilise after the e-waybill introduction, beforereducing excise duty on fuels,”said ICRA PrincipalEconomist Aditi Nayar.

“Key factors that wouldinfluence the inflation trajec-tory include the level at whichglobal crude oil prices stabiliseand the extent to which theyare transmitted to domesticfuel prices, the early trend inthe monsoon dispersion andthe extent of change in MSPs,”Nayar added.

According to theGovernment data released,inflation in food articles wasat 0.87% in April 2018, asagainst a deflation of 0.29% inthe preceding month.Deflation in vegetables was0.89% in April, while in theprevious month it was 2.70%.

Inflation in fruits was indouble digits at 19.47% inApril, up from 9.26% inMarch. Inflation in fuel andpower basket also rose sharplyto 7.85% in April from 4.70%in March as prices of domes-tic fuel increased in line withrising global crude oil rates.

In its first monetary pol-icy review for the fiscal, theRBI last month maintainedstatus quo on interest rate cit-ing inflationary concerns. TheRBI mainly takes into accountretail inflation data, which isslated to be released later inthe day, while formulatingmonetary policy.

The central bank reviseddownward forecast for retailinflation to 4.7-5.1% for April-September and 4.4% forOctober-March.

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Juventus have extended their recordstreak to seven Serie A titles after their0-0 draw against 10-man Roma on

Sunday was enough to secure the trophywith a match to spare.

There was even more reason for theteam to celebrate as coach MassimilianoAllegri, who has now won four succes-sive league and cup doubles at Juventus,suggested he'd remain in charge next sea-son despite reported interest fromArsenal and Paris Saint-Germain.

"If they don't fire me, I see myself asstaying at Juventus next year too," he said.

Second-place Napoli won 2-0 atSampdoria but Juventus got the pointthey needed at the Stadio Olimpico towin their 34th Serie A title. They havea four-point lead over Napoli with oneround left.

The result also completed anotherdouble for Juventus, who had beaten ACMilan 4-0 in the Italian Cup in the samestadium on Wednesday.

"We have to congratulate Napoli,who kept pace with a great Juventus. It'shard to see these four years beingrepeated," Allegri said. "I congratulateeveryone who works for Juventus and thefans but the most credit goes to the play-ers. With a team like this, with these menand these players, it's easier to achieveyour targets."

The end of the season has seen sev-eral twists.

Juventus were six points clear amonth ago but had their advantageslashed to a point in the space of a week.That left many pundits — includingAllegri — naming Maurizio Sarri'sNapoli as favourites for the title.

"The greatest merit of the (Juventus)team was that they were always able tokeep their calm because in football thingscan change in a second," Allegri added."You need to take it one step at a timewithout getting overwhelmed by enthu-siasm when things are going well and

you need to never stop working in thedifficult moments. You need to work wellon a mental level because if you have toomany surges and dips of mood, you'renot going to win."

At the Olimpico, Roma — who hadalready qualified for the ChampionsLeague — had the better of the game'sfew chances but their prospects of win-ning the match diminished when mid-fielder Radja Nainggolan was sent off 22minutes from time after picking up twoyellow cards in five minutes.

Despite the numerical advantageJuventus still barely threatened. Paulo

Dybala had put the ball in the back ofthe net at the start of the second half butthe Argentina forward was narrowly off-side.

It mattered little as Juventus clinchedthe title with only a match againstalready-relegated Hellas Verona to play.

No club in Europe's top five leagueshas won as many league titles, althoughReal Madrid are only one behind.

"Behind their successes there is amentality which has been built over theyears," Roma coach Eusebio DiFrancesco said. "It is also a solid and unit-ed club, even in difficult times. This

anger and this desire to win has to be anexample to all the teams."

A number of players could leaveJuventus at the end of the season,notably club captain Gianluigi Buffon,although the veteran goalkeeper has yetto confirm his retirement.

���$"�"�����Napoli moved to 88 points with their

victory at Sampdoria, beating their clubpoints record ahead of the final round.

Arkadiusz Milik curled a delightfuleffort into the top left corner in the 72ndminute, seconds after coming off the

bench, while Raul Albiol headed in acorner eight minutes later.

The referee halted the match forthree minutes in a period between thetwo goals because of continuous anti-Neapolitan chanting by Sampdoria fans.

Sampdoria president MassimoFerrero went over to urge the fans to stopbut was also insulted by the ultras.

������$&����#The contest for the last Champions

League place is heading for a thrillingfinale in Serie A after Lazio were heldto a 2-2 draw at relegation-threatenedCrotone.

Lazio remained fourth, threepoints ahead of Inter Milan, who theyface next week in the final game of theseason with a place in Europe's premierclub competition at stake.

Despite the impressive result,Crotone slipped into the relegationzone, below Spal on their head-to-headrecord. They visit Napoli in theirfinal match.

Any one of five clubs could be rel-egated on the final day of the season.

Cagliari managed a surprise 1-0victory at Fiorentina to damage theiropponent's Europa League hopes andclimb out of the bottom three.

They moved a point above Crotoneand Spal, who lost 2-1 at Torino.

Udinese are a point further aheadafter a 1-0 win at Hellas Verona endedtheir dismal run of one point from 13matches.

They are level with Chievo Verona,who had a 2-1 comeback win atBologna.

Fiorentina remained eighth, threepoints behind Atalanta and the finalEuropa League spot.

The defeat meant AC Milansecured their spot in the EuropaLeague despite Atalanta scoring late torescue a 1-1 draw in a bad-temperedmatch which saw a player from eachside sent off in separate incidents.

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Rafael Nadal's surprise quarter-final exit at the Madrid Masters

has seen the Spaniard replaced asworld number one by Roger Federerin the latest ATP rankings publishedon Monday.

Federer returns to the top spotdespite not having played since March.Former world No 1 Novak Djokovicslipped six places to 18th after his sec-ond round defeat in Madrid, his low-est ranking since October 2006.

Madrid winner Alexander Zverevremains in third, but the man he beatin Sunday's final, Dominic Thiem,dropped a place to eighth despiteknocking out Nadal on his way to fac-ing Zverev.

Thiem saw off Kevin Anderson inthe semi-finals and it is the SouthAfrican who inherits his seventhspot, the 31-year-old's highest ever

ranking.The highest mover in the men's

charts is Madrid semi-finalist DenisShapovalov with the Russian teenag-er jumping 14 rungs to a best ever29th.

%��� &�����������%�����$�Czech Petra Kvitova jumped

two spots to eighth in thelatest WTA rankingsreleased Monday afterbeating Kiki Bertensto win the MadridOpen for the thirdtime on the week-end.

Kvitova, whowas also the cham-pion in Madrid in2011 and 2015, hasnow claimed four titlesin 2018 after triumphs inSt Petersburg, Doha and

Prague.Losing Madrid finalist Bertens

shot up five places to 15th, whileRussian Maria Sharapova's quarter-final showing meant she went up 12spots to 40th in the rankings headedby Romania's Simona Halep, DaneCaroline Wozniacki and Spaniard

Garbine Muguruza.

!�&�����<�Out of action

Yuki Bhambridropped eightplaces to 94 whileSasi KumarMukund, whomade his f irstever singles quar-terf inals at

Challenger level,jumped 45 places to

career-best 377 in theATP singles chart.

Yuki has not played since winningthe Sanitaizi Challenger title in Taiwandue to a minor foot problem.

He resumed training last week andwill be back in action at the BusanOpen.

He will open his campaign againstYoshihito Nishioka in Busan onTuesday.

Yuki had returned to top-100after winning the Taiwan Challengerand has earned a direct entry into theFrench Open.

After Yuki, RamkumarRamanathan is the next best Indian inthe singles chart at number 124 andis followed by Prajnesh Gunneswaran(175), Sumit Nagal (226, -2) andArjun Kadhe, who gained 29 places tobe at number 371.

Mukund, who reached the quar-terfinals at Karshi Challenger afterqualifying for the main draw, earned22 ranking points to touch 377.

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Without Lionel Messi to save the day, Barcelonabid farewell to their quest to make history in

Spain.Barcelona lost 5-4 in a wild game at Levante on

Sunday, ruining the champions’ chance to become thefirst team to finish a Spanish league season withouta defeat under its current format.

Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde left Messi — thecompetition's leading scorer with 34 goals — out ofhis squad to rest ahead of a demanding summer forthe Argentina forward at the World Cup.

The real trouble for Barcelona, however, came indefence.

Led by Emmanuel Boateng's hat trick and twomore goals from Enis Bardhi, Levante were headingtoward a historic rout of the recently crowned cham-pions when the hosts built a 5-1 advantage after 56minutes.

But Barcelona roared back, with PhilippeCoutinho adding two more goals to his first-half striketo complete a hat trick before Luis Suarez converteda penalty to cut the deficit to 5-4 in the 71st.

Suarez headed high from close range inBarcelona's last chance to snatch the draw.

Barcelona's upset against a modest Levante side— fighting to stay out of the relegation zone most ofthe season — came with just one round left after thismatch.

Two teams pulled off the feat in the 1930s whenthe competition only had 10 teams compared to 20now.

Barcelona's Liga record for undefeated gamesended at 43 straight — their previous loss was last sea-

son at Malaga in April 2017. For the 2017-18 leagueseason, Barcelona have 27 league wins, nine draws andone defeat.

Paco Lopez, the coach who has led Levante's turn-around of winning 25 of a possible 30 points since hetook over in March, said that beating Barcelona proved"nothing is impossible."

Valverde will be questioned — and not only forleaving Messi off his squad.

The manager could also be criticised for startingback-up Thomas Vermaelen and little-used Yerry Minaas his central defenders with Samuel Umtiti injured.

But even when Gerard Pique went on for theinjured Vermaelen in the 31st with Barcelona trailing2-0, the team's defensive troubles continued.

Boateng struck his first two goals in half an hourand Levante never trailed the rest of the way.

Coutinho pulled one back with a long strike thattook a deflection off a defender in the 38th, but Boatengstruck again while Bardhi got his two goals to buildwhat proved to be an insurmountable lead.

Coutinho put in a rebound from close range andstruck again with a shot that hit another player to foolgoalkeeper Oier Olazabal. Suarez then had the spot kickafter Boateng fouled Sergio Busquets while defendinga corner kick.

But that was as close as Barcelona got withoutMessi around to pull off some late magic.

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The InternationalBasketball Federation

(FIBA) has set up India'sbasketball fraternity with analley-oop after giving a finalnod to the country's plans tointroduce the sport's 3x3 for-mat to its population.

In basketball, an alley-oop is an offensive play inwhich a player throws the ballnear the basket towards awaiting teammate whojumps, catches and dunksthe ball down the hoop inmidair.

FIBA has executed theinitial part of the move - theball-throwing. India hascaught the ball and taken thejump, and presently lies sus-pended in midair, waiting todunk the ball down the hoopto score home. Waiting,because there remains a lot ofwork yet to be done before3x3 basketball announcesitself to a country that has notbeen much of a basketball-crazy nation.

3x3 basketball is a disci-pline of basketball that usesthree players and one substi-tute from each team to engagein play for a single period of10 minutes on half court. Ithas been around since the late1980s and today is the largesturban team sport of theworld. The discipline wasincluded in the Olympics lastyear and is set to make itsdebut at the 2020 OlympicGames.

India's connections with3x3 basketball come throughRohit Bakshi, LeagueCommissioner for the 3x3Pro Basketball League IndiaSub-continent. Bakshi, whohas himself played in Japan's3x3 league, is the owner of the

company (YKBK Enterprises)that has been granted theexclusive rights to conductthe competition in India byFIBA 3x3.

"I started playing 3x3 in2016," Bakshi reveals. "Thatyear we won the champi-onship in Japan. We went tothe World Tour, reached theWorld Tour final and becamenumber second.

"That was a huge successas an Indian origin player andbecause of this FIBA hasgranted us these exclusiverights," explains Bakshi, one ofthe four Indian origin playerswho represented Japan'sHamamatsu Team at the FIBA3x3 World Tour in 2016.

With the arrival of aFIBA-approved 3x3 basketballleague in India, Bakshibelieves that the country cantruly reach an impressive level

in the discipline at the 2020Olympics and also holds theopinion that India will have acrucial edge at that stage.

"In India we have a first-hand advantage," Bakshipoints out. "Many countries -even the US - are not yet readyfor 3x3. Their entire focus ison 5x5.

"FIBA initially startedthis process for developingcountries like India to haveinternational exposure so thatthey will be able to winmedals in basketball. Andbecause we are starting aleague this year, I believe wehave a huge advantage ascompared to other countries,"he explained.

The "international expo-sure" that Rohit refers to is thepromotion of the league's topteams for representing India's3x3 fraternity in FIBA World

Tours based on the pointsthey gather at the end of thecompetition.

Besides LeagueCommissioner Bakshi, thereare some other notable play-ers who look equally excitedfor the competition to begin.This includes Bakshi'sHamamatsu teammatesInderbir Gill and AmjyotSingh.

"Basketball in India hasgrown a lot in the last fouryears in India," says Gill, "andto be part of it is really excit-ing."

"With 3x3 India has areally good chance for win-ning the medal in theOlympics," he adds.

Indian basketball playerAmjyot Singh also believesthat the competition will go along way in promoting youngtalent for basketball in India.

The league will also seethe likes of Palpreet SinghBrar, Jagdeep Singh andGurvinder Singh compete inthe fast-paced format. Thethree players have played 5x5in the UBA Pro BasketballLeague and for them to playin a thrilling new formatlooks quite promising.

"We are excited to playwith and against some of thebest players, with some inter-national players too," Palpreetsays. "It is going to be anenjoyable experience."

"This is going to be a funleague," Jagdeep puts in. "Thecrowd is going to love it."

The league begins in June,and with all the work that isbeing done in midair, it will allcome down to how it isreceived in India and how itwill help the sport to grow inthe country. That indeedwould be the final dunk downthe hoop.

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Even as the entire Indian foot-balling fraternity have gone

gaga over the Indian U-16National Team emerging cham-pions in the four-nationInternational tournament inSerbia, Head Coach BibianoFernandes isn't willing to readmuch into it.

"It actually doesn't meanmuch as this is only the processfor our main objective. We haven'tyet achieved anything much,"Bibiano told AIFF moments afterIndia beat Tajikistan 4-2 toemerge champions. "But yeah, Iam very happy that the boys areshowing great focus and hunger inthe process," he added. "Our maintarget is the AFC U-16 FinalsMalaysia 2018."

India defeated Jordan (2-1)and Tajikistan (4-2), both ofwhom have also qualified to theAFC U-16 finals before playing agoalless draw against Serbia tonotch an inspirational triumph inthe tournament.

The tournament was part ofthe series of India's exposuretours which are being arranged byAll India Football Federation and

Sports Authority of India to helpprepare the team in the best pos-sible fashion for the AFC finals.

"The boys are growing in theright direction, but we've got along way to go," Bibiano cau-tioned. "There are so many aspectson which we need to improve tac-tically. These exposure tours mak-ing the boys more confident andcapable," he stated.

"The tournament was a greatopportunity for our preparationand match temperament andgauging our fitness. The best partstays that we are improving withevery match."\

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In what will turn out to be a virtualknockout clash to secure the remain-

ing spots in the top-4 positions,Kolkata Knight Riders will host aresurgent Rajasthan Royals in anIndian Premier League match at EdenGardens on Tuesday.

A loss at Eden on Tuesday willdash the hopes for the losing team toreach the play-off places.

After losing successive gamesagainst defending champion MumbaiIndians, KKR returned back to win-ning ways by securing victory overKings XI Punjab in a high-scoregame at Indore.

Opener Sunil Narine and skipperDinesh Karthik took the charge andproduced excellent batting per-formances to help Kolkata postthe fourth highest total of IPL(245/6), before Andre Russell'sthree-wicket spell restricted theiropponents to 214 runs.

While at the verge of beingeliminated, Rajasthan Royalsbounced back in some style andwill go into this game on theback of three consecutive wins.

In their last game againstMumbai Indians, opener Jos Buttlercontinued his terrific form after JofraArcher restricted MI for 168/8.

The explosive English wicket-keeper batsman got a new life after hewas promoted to open the innings.Since adapting to his new role, the for-mer Mumbai Indian batsman hasscore five consecutive fifty plus scores.He is currently at fifth position in racefor Orange Cap after scoring 509 runsfrom 12 games. His last five scores of67, 51, 82, 95*, 94* makes him themost feared batsman currently inIPL.

While, Royals will hope for Buttlerto continue his form in the upcominggames, a lot will be expectEd from

skipper Ajinkya Rahane and BenStokes, who have failed to perform totheir abilities this season.

The biggest pick of the seasonStokes has managed to compile just185 runs from 12 innings, whereas,Rahane let his fans down with a stringof disappointing knocks.

Adding to that tally, D'Arcy Shortand Rahul Tripathi have also failed tolive up to that billing.

However in the bowling front,English all-rounder Jofra Archer madehis presence felt after scalping 13 wick-ets from seven games.

But the lack of support from otherend has been a cause of worry for theRoyals side. Jaydev Unadkat, BenStokes, Krishnappa Gowtham andDhawal Kulkarni have not performed

consistently.On the other hand, Dinesh

Karthik-led Kolkata Knight Riders hadan inconsistent run in the league so far.They have won six and lost the samenumber of games so far.

But because of a slightly better netrun rate they are placed in the top halfwith 12 points.

Their batting revolves aroundskipper Karthik (371 runs) and ChrisLynn (325 runs) mainly. Sunil Narine,Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana andAndre Russell have done well in fewinstances.

In the bowling section, the spintrio of Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla,Kuldeep Yadav have impressed.

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Kings XI Punjab wiltedunder pressure as a spirit-ed Royal Challengers

Bangalore bundled them out forpaltry 88 in a must-win IndianPremier League match here onMonday.

Sent into bat, Kings XIinnings never got going as theylost wickets like pack of cardsfrom the onset to be bowled outin 15.1 overs.

Backed by some good field-ing, Umesh Yadav (3/23) came upwith an impressive bowling effortup front to destabilise the KingsXI innings.

Besides, Yadav, YuzvendraChahal (1/6), Colin deGrandhomme (1/8), Moeen Ali(1/13) and Mohammed Siraj(1/17) picked up a wicket each.

Aaron Finch top-scored forKings XI with a 23-ball 26 whileKL Rahul made 21 up the order.

RCB bowlers were very wellcomplemented by some goodoutfield catching and three runsouts.

Kings XI witnessed a terriblestart to their innings after beingsent into bat as they lost fourwickets with the scoreboard read-ing just 50 in 6.5 overs.

Rahul gave Kings XI a briskstart with a 15-ball 21 in the com-pany of Chris Gayle (18) beforeYadav struck twin blows in thefifth over, dismissing both theopeners.

While Rahul pulled onestraight to de Grandhomme adeep square leg, Gayle departed insimilar fashion caught by Siraj offanother short delivery three ballslater.

To make matters worse forKings XI, Karun Nair edged adelivery straight to RCB skipperVirat Kohli at the lone slip inthe next over.

Wickets kept on tumblingfor Kings XI as Marcus Stoinisand Mayank Agarwal too per-ished when their team neededthem the most.

While Stoinis was cleanedup by Chahal, Agarwal got a faintedge to a de Grandhomme deliv-ery in the leg side and ParthivPatel did the rest behind the

stumps.From there on, Kings XI

never really recovered and were

eventually bundled out for thesecond lowest total of this yearsIndian Premier League, courtesy

some brilliant work at the field byRoyal Challengers Bangalorefielders.

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Brimming with confidence after smash-ing his fifth successive half-century, in-

form Jos Buttler said familiarity of theWankhede track helped him score runs asRajasthan Royals beat Mumbai Indians byseven wickets to keep play-off hopes alive.

Buttler's unbeaten 94 helped Rajasthandefeat defending champions MumbaiIndians with two overs to spare keepingthem firmly in contention of reaching theplay-offs.

"Nice to come back here, I enjoyed mytime at Mumbai and it properly helped toknow the conditions. The familiarity of theground and the wicket helped me onSunday. I'm in a good head-space and look-ing forward to the next game againstKolkata," Buttler said at the post-match pre-sentation ceremony.

Buttler, who played for Mumbai Indiansin 2016 and 2017, has been in tremendousform scoring five consecutive half centuries,including unbeaten knocks of 94 and 95 inthe previous two games against MumbaiIndians and Chennai Super Kings respec-tively. He also scored 82 against Kings XIPunjab.

"I'm really enjoying it, found some goodform, it's a do-or-die situation and I'm fullof confidence so want to keep it going," theEnglish batsman said.

The swashbuckling batsman is hopinghis experience in the middle order will helphim bat through the innings scoring moreruns.

"I've spent a lot of time batting in themiddle order, so if I can bat through the firstsix overs I can tie the two together. I try tobe there till the end," Buttler said.

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Having secured a hat-trick of wins,Rajasthan Royals will look to carry

the winning momentum against KolkataKnight Riders in their next IPL fixture andinch closer to a play-off berth, said RRseamer Dhawal Kulkarni.

Rajasthan kept alive their play-offhopes by beating defending championsMumbai Indians by seven wickets withtwo overs to spare on Sunday.

The Ajinkya Rahane-led side will facetwo-time champions Kolkata KnightRiders on Tuesday at Edens Gardens.

"All the games are crucial for us.Maybe, in the next game we've got a goodchance to beat Kolkata Knight Riders.With the momentum that we've got, I'msure we'll be able to do that," saidKulkarni after the Royals' victory at theWankhede Stadium.

Rajasthan Royals climbed up to thefifth spot with 12 points in as many gamesfollowing their third victory on the trotachieved riding on opener Jos Buttler'sblistering unbeaten knock of 94 in 53 balls- his second successive, unconquered 90-plus score in the competition.

On the move to promote Buttler tothe top of the order, Kulkarni said: "I think

it was a collective decision of the captain,(head of cricket) Zubin (Bharucha),(mentor) Shane (Warne) and (battingcoach) Amol (Muzumdar). So he's doingwell for us and I hope he continues to bein that form for us."

Fast bowler Jofra Archer also con-tributed with early strikes in successive

balls to send back in-form MumbaiIndians opener Suryakumar Yadav andskipper Rohit Sharma.

Kulkarni said he was not surprised bythe impact made by Archer againstRajasthan.

"I feel a bowler who's bowling at 145(kmph), it's very difficult for a batsman

to face that - especially with the way hebowls, the high arm action that he's got.Wankhede's wicket has got good bounceand good carry. He's been bowling con-sistently well. But on Sunday it was spe-cial," he said.

"The wicket assisted him really well.The way he was getting that bounce! I justwished that he got a hat-trick."

MI's Australian all rounder BenCutting felt the hosts were 20 runs shortof a winning total.

"To be honest I'm probably thewrong person to ask - I faced four ballsand I didn't bowl. From what I saw, it isalways a little difficult with little bit of dewcoming in batting second.

"We were probably 20 runs short withthe bat. And that was the difference," hesaid when asked about the track on whichhis side were restricted to 168 for 6.

He said it was a difficult task to stopan in-form batsman like Buttler.

"It's tough. I'm not sure. We were pret-ty close to our plans tonight. Missed a fewballs with execution here and there, butthat happens in Twenty20 cricket. He's inred hot form and he has scored, what, 500runs? His confidence is high and he'sstriking the ball well. He played very well,"said Cutting.

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Terming Ajinkya Rahane as a "quali-ty player", spin great Shane Warne

reckons that Rajasthan Royals' skipperRahane will soon return to the Indianlimited-over squads.

After a below par show with the six-match ODI squad in South Africa earli-er this year, Rahane was excluded fromthe 16-man ODI squad for the three-match series in England in July this year.

The 29-year-old was involved in amatch-winning partnership with ViratKohli in the first ODI in Durban, play-ing a 86-ball 79 run knock but could onlymanage 11, 8, 8 and 34 (not out) runs inthe rest of the series.

Warne said, "I think he (Rahane) isobviously disappointed. But Rahane is aquality player, he is a quality act. We

know he has the class.""He will be captaining the Test side

against Afghanistan. Rahane isa wanted player and willbe back. He will beplaying ODIs andT20Is soon,"opined theR a j a s t h a nRoyals' mentor.

Warne alsoheaped praiseon Jofra Archer,the medium-pacer whomissed the firstfew games for theRoyals but lateremerged with some clin-ical shows to help the side getback on the winning track and said

Rajasthan still have a chance to enter theIPL play-offs.

"Archer is a class player, with him wehave more chance (to enter the play-offs).Disappointed not to have him for the firstfew games," the 48-year-old said.

"Our chances are pretty good as play-ers like Archer definitely help the side.He has been brilliant for us," addedWarne.

On being queried whether it has beena regret for him for not being able to leadthe Australian side, the cricketing greatsaid, "No, not all regret. Lucky to haveplayed under good captains for Australia.I enjoyed being the vice captain."

"I had a wonderful opportunity towork with captains like Mark Taylor,Allan Border. But I really enjoyed beingthe captain of Rajasthan in the first everIPL 2008," said Warne.

�"���� �����Rajasthan Royals skipper Ajinkya

Rahane has been fined � 12 lakh after histeam maintained slow-over rate duringtheir Indian Premier League matchagainst Mumbai Indians at the WankhedeStadium here.

On Sunday, the Rahane-led sideoutclassed the defending championsMumbai Indians by seven wickets.

Rajasthan Royals captain AjinkyaRahane has been fined after his teammaintained a slow over-rate during theirIPL match against Mumbai Indians at theWankhede Stadium, Mumbai on May13," an IPL release said on Monday.

"As it was his team's first offence ofthe season under the IPL's Code ofConduct relating to minimum over-rateoffences, Mr Rahane was fined � 12 lakh,"the release said.

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