16
P akistan chose Christmas, and the birth anniversary of its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, as a day for the “good- will and humanitarian ges- ture” to allow a meeting between captive Kulbhushan Jadhav and his mother Avantika and wife Chetana Jadhav. For the first time in 22 months since his arrest, his family members were granted such an access. The much- hyped meeting on Monday lasted for just about 40 minutes in high security. Jadhav was at the Pakistan Foreign Office before his fam- ily arrived. The entire area had been cordoned off by police and paramilitary forces. Sharp- shooters manned the roofs of the buildings along the roads. In a crumpled blue blazer, with injury marks visible on his left ear — tell-tale signs of torture — 47-year-old Jadhav appeared remarkably composed. If Jadhav’s mother and wife had hoped to hug and touch him, they were disappointed. Jadhav sat across to them in a cabin behind a wall of solid glass. They could see each other and talk through inter- com. And while they talked, Pakistan’s Foreign Office video recorded every bit of the con- versation and body language. All along, Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Islamabad JP Singh watched from a dis- tance. Jadhav, his wife and mother remained in his vision but he could not hear a word or talk to Jadhav. Such was the carefully choreographed meeting between ex-Indian Navy officer Jadhav, facing death penalty in Pakistan, and his family. These were the first visuals of the Indian who is captive in Pakistan for the last 22 months. Pakistan FO spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal later explained that the glass separa- tion was for security reasons. “We did not allow physical contact during the meeting due to security reasons. Security is paramount. Indian Government was informed prior about the glass wall. They did not object to it. Commander Jadhav was also aware of it,” the spokesper- son said. Faisal also made it clear that presence of Indian diplo- mat was not a Consular Access and that this was not going to be the last meeting between Jadhav and his family. He insisted that the meeting was arranged in light of “Islamic traditions and based on pure- ly humanitarian grounds.” Jadhav’s wife and mother arrived in Islamabad on Monday morning via Dubai route on a commercial flight. They were received by Indian diplomats at the airport and then taken to the Indian High Commission where the two ladies met the Indian envoy Ajay Bisaria. After lunch at the Embassy, Jadhav’s mother and wife were taken to the Pakistan FO in Islamabad where an area was prepared specially for this much-hyped meeting. Before the meeting, the two ladies underwent a thorough securi- ty check under ISI’s hawk eye. From Pakistan’s side, Foreign Office Director for India, Dr Fareha Bugti, and spokesperson Faisal were present. After the meeting the ladies and the Indian diplomat left the Pakistan FO premises amidst questions pouring from the Pakistan media. Avantika and Chetana flew out of Islamabad to India shortly after this. All along Jadhav and his family deprived the Pakistani Government and its media of any chance for melodrama. There were no tears and strong reactions. Just calm faces from both sides. While the details of the conversations between Jadhav and his family were not available, it was evident that both sides were cautious about their conversation being mon- itored as they spoke. The ini- tial time of 30 minutes allotted for the meeting was extended by 10 minutes at the request of Jadhav and his mother. After the meeting, Pakistan FO spokesperson reiterated that Jadhav is an Indian spy who was on a mission for espionage and terrorism in Balochistan and other areas. Faisal made it obvi- ous that Pakistan had hoped through this meeting they might be able to extract some evidence about his involvement with India’s top spying department — Research and Analysis Wing — and make his mother and wife concede that he was indeed a servicing officer of the Indian Navy. “We wanted to know whether he was getting pension or not. Continued on Page 4 P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugu- rated the 12-km Botanical Garden-Kalkaji Mandir sec- tion of the Magenta Line, which was thrown open to the public at 5 pm the same day. Initially, trains will operate at frequen- cy of 5.14 minutes on this sec- tion. Modi exhorted people to use the public transport to cut import on petroleum, and said travelling on a metro train should be a “prestige issue”. Until now, it used to take around 52 minutes to travel from Noida to South Delhi. The Magenta Line has brought it down to 19 minutes. The stretch can ferry approximate- ly 3.6 lakh commuters every day and help connect Noida with Faridabad through the Violet Line (Escorts Mujesar- Kashmere Gate). The entire Magenta Line will become operational by March, 2018. The Botanical Garden Station has been developed as the Metro’s first-ever inter- change station outside Delhi’s boundaries as it was already one of the stations on the Dwarka- Noida City Centre Blue Line. The other stations on this sec- tion are Kalindi Kunj, Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Millia Islamia, Okhla Vihar, Sukhdev Vihar, Okhla NSIC and Kalkaji Mandir. While the Kalkaji Mandir station is underground, all the other sta- tions are elevated. With this launch, the total length of the metro network in Delhi-NCR has increased to 228 kilometres. Delhi Metro’s first stretch was declared open by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on December 24, 2002. Modi was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief Mangu Singh during the metro ride. The PM boarded the train at Botanical Garden, which is the terminal station of the Magenta Line, at 1.05 pm and alighted at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary station. It was a four-minute journey. Both the stations are in Noida. The other end of the line, for now, will be South Delhi’s Kalkaji Mandir. However, by April, the entire 38-km corridor, stretching till Janakpuri West, is scheduled to be functional. Continued on Page 4 C ontinuing their raids on ashrams run by self-styled godman Virender Dev Dixit, a team led by Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Monday vis- ited two of Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya ashrams, one in Northeast Delhi’s Karawal Nagar and the other in Outer Delhi’s Nangloi. At Karawal Nagar ashram, the DCW team found six girls kept in pitiable condi- tion in a small prison-like cell whose doors were locked. The DCW said proper registers were not maintained at ashrams to record as to where did the girls come from and for how long have they been there. Moreover, the girls didn’t divulge any information. Three girls appeared to be minor. The concerned Child Welfare Committee has been request- ed to shift them to shelter homes to ensure their counselling. At Nangloi ashram, the DCW team found around 15 women. There were no minors there, but locals told the DCR that 20 girls had been taken out of the ashram in the morning itself. After the raid, DCW chief Swati Maliwal said, “It appears that the baba is running a human trafficking racket. CBI should urgently conduct raids at all ashrams of Virender Dikshit across India. By delay- ing raids, the CBI is giving the baba time to cover up his misdeeds. His teachings are evil. He persuades female disciples to sleep with him so that they don’t don’t get bad dreams. These ashrams should be closed down.” Hours before the raid at the Nangloi ashram, The Pioneer went inside the two- storey building of the ashram on Monday afternoon and spoke to the women who had been visiting the ashram for past one and a half years. Dimly lit stairs lead to the first floor with three rooms. On a verandah in the middle of these rooms, a middle aged woman sits and asks to sign in details in a register. Kamla Devi, one of the followers and owner of the building, told The Pioneer that minor girls do not live in the ashram. As opposed to the previous raids in the ashrams at Vijay Vihar and Uttam Nagar, neem leaves were found. On being asked if these are drugs, Kamla said, “These are neem leaves and are used for their medicinal values.” S howering praise on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for rising above “superstitions” by visiting Noida, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said, “Yogi Adityanath has risen above these superstitions and come to Noida. If anybody thinks not going to a place will prolong their CM tenure and visiting a place will curtail it, such a person does not deserve to be a Chief Minister.” Yogi visited Noida twice in three days rubbishing a wide- ly believed ‘Noida jinx’ in UP’s political and bureaucratic cir- cles that a CM visiting Noida would face problems retaining his or her post. Modi pointed to the saf- fron robed Yogi and said that looking at his dress, the CM appeared to be superstitious, but had actually shown that he had the courage to break superstitions. “I am very happy. Due to his dress, a few people find it fashionable to believe Yogi Adityanath is not ‘modern enough’ but it is Yogi Adityanath Ji, who has done what Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh did not do — he has come to Noida. Faith is impor- tant but blind faith is not desirable,” the PM said. A priest-turned-politician, Yogi, was seen smiling as Modi lavished praise. “Unfortunately, there were superstitions associated with Noida and in his own style, Yogi Adityanath has risen above these superstitions and come to Noida. If anybody thinks not going to a place will prolong their CM tenure and visiting a place will curtail it, such a person does not deserve to be a Chief Minister,” he added. New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was not invited to the launch of Metro’s Magenta Line out of the fear that he might pub- licly demand a rollback of the fare hike, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday. He also said that not inviting the Chief Minister to the inauguration programme at Noida was an “insult” to the people of Delhi. Detailed report on P3 F ormer national level volley- ball player and the first amputee to scale Mount Everest Arunima Sinha, here on Monday said she felt greater pain while visiting the Mahakal Temple Ujjain than scaling the Everest. Recounting her unpleasant experience at the temple on Saturday, she told that her dis- ability was mocked at. "I am very sorry to tell you that I felt greater pain in visit- ing Mahakal temple (at Ujjain) than scaling the Everest. My disability was mocked at there (at Mahakal)," she said on Twitter. Sinha also tagged the Prime Minister's Office and the Chief Minister's Office in her tweet. Temple sources said the sports person was stopped twice by security personnel while trying to enter the sanc- tum sanctorum of the temple and that she broke down while arguing with them. Mahakal Temple's administrator Avdhesh Sharma said that he came to know about the inci- dent only through media reports. "I have come to know about this from media reports. Arunima has not filed any complaint with the police or the temple administration," he said. "There is a ramp for the disabled and I will ask the secu- rity personnel why they stopped her. We are also check- ing the CCTV footage to iden- tify the guilty," the temple administrator added. Sinha was pushed out of a running train in April 2011 while resisting a robbery attempt. As a result, one of her legs had to be amputated below the knee. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008 C M Y K C M Y K

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Pakistan chose Christmas,and the birth anniversary of

its founder Mohammad AliJinnah, as a day for the “good-will and humanitarian ges-ture” to allow a meetingbetween captive KulbhushanJadhav and his motherAvantika and wife ChetanaJadhav. For the first time in 22months since his arrest, hisfamily members were grantedsuch an access. The much-hyped meeting on Mondaylasted for just about 40 minutesin high security.

Jadhav was at the PakistanForeign Office before his fam-ily arrived. The entire area hadbeen cordoned off by police andparamilitary forces. Sharp-shooters manned the roofs ofthe buildings along the roads. Ina crumpled blue blazer, withinjury marks visible on his leftear — tell-tale signs of torture— 47-year-old Jadhav appearedremarkably composed.

If Jadhav’s mother and wifehad hoped to hug and touchhim, they were disappointed.Jadhav sat across to them in acabin behind a wall of solidglass. They could see eachother and talk through inter-com. And while they talked,Pakistan’s Foreign Office videorecorded every bit of the con-versation and body language.All along, Indian Deputy HighCommissioner in Islamabad JPSingh watched from a dis-tance. Jadhav, his wife andmother remained in his visionbut he could not hear a wordor talk to Jadhav.

Such was the carefullychoreographed meetingbetween ex-Indian Navy officerJadhav, facing death penalty in

Pakistan, and his family. Thesewere the first visuals of theIndian who is captive inPakistan for the last 22 months.

Pakistan FO spokespersonDr Mohammad Faisal laterexplained that the glass separa-tion was for security reasons.“We did not allow physicalcontact during the meeting dueto security reasons. Security isparamount. Indian Governmentwas informed prior about theglass wall. They did not objectto it. Commander Jadhav wasalso aware of it,” the spokesper-son said.

Faisal also made it clearthat presence of Indian diplo-mat was not a Consular Accessand that this was not going tobe the last meeting betweenJadhav and his family. Heinsisted that the meeting wasarranged in light of “Islamic

traditions and based on pure-ly humanitarian grounds.”

Jadhav’s wife and motherarrived in Islamabad onMonday morning via Dubairoute on a commercial flight.They were received by Indiandiplomats at the airport and

then taken to the Indian HighCommission where the twoladies met the Indian envoyAjay Bisaria. After lunch at theEmbassy, Jadhav’s mother andwife were taken to the PakistanFO in Islamabad where an areawas prepared specially for this

much-hyped meeting. Beforethe meeting, the two ladiesunderwent a thorough securi-ty check under ISI’s hawk eye.From Pakistan’s side, ForeignOffice Director for India, DrFareha Bugti, and spokespersonFaisal were present. After themeeting the ladies and theIndian diplomat left thePakistan FO premises amidstquestions pouring from thePakistan media. Avantika andChetana flew out of Islamabadto India shortly after this.

All along Jadhav and hisfamily deprived the PakistaniGovernment and its media ofany chance for melodrama.There were no tears and strongreactions. Just calm faces fromboth sides. While the details ofthe conversations betweenJadhav and his family were notavailable, it was evident thatboth sides were cautious abouttheir conversation being mon-itored as they spoke. The ini-tial time of 30 minutes allottedfor the meeting was extendedby 10 minutes at the request ofJadhav and his mother.

After the meeting, PakistanFO spokesperson reiterated thatJadhav is an Indian spy who wason a mission for espionage andterrorism in Balochistan andother areas. Faisal made it obvi-ous that Pakistan had hopedthrough this meeting they mightbe able to extract some evidenceabout his involvement withIndia’s top spying department —Research and Analysis Wing —and make his mother and wife concede that he wasindeed a servicing officer of theIndian Navy.

“We wanted to knowwhether he was getting pension or not.

Continued on Page 4

�������������8�.9:��2�.�67�

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday inaugu-

rated the 12-km BotanicalGarden-Kalkaji Mandir sec-tion of the Magenta Line, whichwas thrown open to the publicat 5 pm the same day. Initially,trains will operate at frequen-cy of 5.14 minutes on this sec-tion. Modi exhorted people touse the public transport to cutimport on petroleum, and saidtravelling on a metro trainshould be a “prestige issue”.

Until now, it used to takearound 52 minutes to travelfrom Noida to South Delhi.The Magenta Line has broughtit down to 19 minutes. The

stretch can ferry approximate-ly 3.6 lakh commuters everyday and help connect Noidawith Faridabad through theViolet Line (Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate). The entireMagenta Line will becomeoperational by March, 2018.

The Botanical GardenStation has been developed asthe Metro’s first-ever inter-change station outside Delhi’sboundaries as it was already oneof the stations on the Dwarka-Noida City Centre Blue Line.The other stations on this sec-tion are Kalindi Kunj, JasolaVihar Shaheen Bagh, JamiaMillia Islamia, Okhla Vihar,Sukhdev Vihar, Okhla NSICand Kalkaji Mandir. While theKalkaji Mandir station is underground, all the other sta-tions are elevated.

With this launch, the totallength of the metro network inDelhi-NCR has increased to 228kilometres. Delhi Metro’s firststretch was declared open by

then Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee on December 24, 2002.

Modi was accompanied byUttar Pradesh Governor RamNaik, Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath,Union Minister for Housingand Urban Affairs HardeepSingh Puri and Delhi MetroRail Corporation (DMRC)chief Mangu Singh during themetro ride.

The PM boarded the trainat Botanical Garden, which isthe terminal station of theMagenta Line, at 1.05 pm andalighted at the Okhla BirdSanctuary station. It was afour-minute journey. Both thestations are in Noida.

The other end of the line,for now, will be South Delhi’sKalkaji Mandir. However, byApril, the entire 38-km corridor,stretching till Janakpuri West, isscheduled to be functional.

Continued on Page 4

����������� ��2�.�67�

Continuing their raids on ashrams run byself-styled godman Virender Dev Dixit,

a team led by Delhi Commission for Women(DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Monday vis-ited two of Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalayaashrams, one in Northeast Delhi’s KarawalNagar and the other in Outer Delhi’s Nangloi.

At Karawal Nagar ashram, the DCWteam found six girls kept in pitiable condi-tion in a small prison-like cell whose doorswere locked. The DCW said proper registerswere not maintained at ashrams to record asto where did the girls come from and for howlong have they been there. Moreover, the girlsdidn’t divulge any information. Three girls appeared to be minor. The concernedChild Welfare Committee has been request-ed to shift them to shelter homes to ensuretheir counselling.

At Nangloi ashram, the DCW teamfound around 15 women. There were nominors there, but locals told the DCR that 20girls had been taken out of the ashram in themorning itself. After the raid, DCW chiefSwati Maliwal said, “It appears that the baba

is running a human trafficking racket. CBIshould urgently conduct raids at all ashramsof Virender Dikshit across India. By delay-ing raids, the CBI is giving the baba time tocover up his misdeeds. His teachings are evil.He persuades female disciples to sleep withhim so that they don’t don’t get bad dreams.These ashrams should be closed down.”

Hours before the raid at the Nangloiashram, The Pioneer went inside the two-storey building of the ashram on Monday afternoon and spoke to the womenwho had been visiting the ashram for past oneand a half years.

Dimly lit stairs lead to the first floor withthree rooms. On a verandah in the middleof these rooms, a middle aged woman sits andasks to sign in details in a register.

Kamla Devi, one of the followers andowner of the building, told The Pioneer thatminor girls do not live in the ashram. Asopposed to the previous raids in the ashramsat Vijay Vihar and Uttam Nagar, neemleaves were found.

On being asked if these are drugs,Kamla said, “These are neem leaves and areused for their medicinal values.”

����������������� ���������� �� ��� �'()��������������������*� ���������+������� �� ��������&�&$�� �����

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������������ �8�.9

Showering praise on UttarPradesh Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath for rising above“superstitions” by visitingNoida, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondaysaid, “Yogi Adityanath hasrisen above these superstitionsand come to Noida. If anybodythinks not going to a place willprolong their CM tenure andvisiting a place will curtail it,such a person does not deserveto be a Chief Minister.”

Yogi visited Noida twice inthree days rubbishing a wide-ly believed ‘Noida jinx’ in UP’spolitical and bureaucratic cir-cles that a CM visiting Noidawould face problems retaininghis or her post.

Modi pointed to the saf-fron robed Yogi and said thatlooking at his dress, the CMappeared to be superstitious,but had actually shown that he

had the courage to breaksuperstitions.

“I am very happy. Due tohis dress, a few people find itfashionable to believe YogiAdityanath is not ‘modernenough’ but it is YogiAdityanath Ji, who has donewhat Chief Ministers of UttarPradesh did not do — he hascome to Noida. Faith is impor-tant but blind faith is notdesirable,” the PM said.

A priest-turned-politician,Yogi, was seen smiling as Modilavished praise.

“Unfortunately, there weresuperstitions associated withNoida and in his own style,Yogi Adityanath has risenabove these superstitions andcome to Noida. If anybodythinks not going to a place willprolong their CM tenure andvisiting a place will curtail it,such a person does not deserveto be a Chief Minister,” headded.

����������������������������������� New Delhi: Delhi Chief

Minister Arvind Kejriwalwas not invited to the launchof Metro’s Magenta Line outof the fear that he might pub-licly demand a rollback of thefare hike, Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia saidon Monday.

He also said that notinviting the Chief Minister tothe inauguration programmeat Noida was an “insult” tothe people of Delhi.

Detailed report on P3

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������������ �78�96

Former national level volley-ball player and the first

amputee to scale Mount EverestArunima Sinha, here onMonday said she felt greaterpain while visiting the MahakalTemple Ujjain than scaling theEverest.

Recounting her unpleasantexperience at the temple onSaturday, she told that her dis-ability was mocked at.

"I am very sorry to tell youthat I felt greater pain in visit-ing Mahakal temple (at Ujjain)than scaling the Everest. Mydisability was mocked at there(at Mahakal)," she said onTwitter. Sinha also tagged thePrime Minister's Office and theChief Minister's Office in her

tweet.Temple sources said the

sports person was stoppedtwice by security personnelwhile trying to enter the sanc-tum sanctorum of the templeand that she broke down whilearguing with them. MahakalTemple's administratorAvdhesh Sharma said that hecame to know about the inci-dent only through mediareports.

"I have come to knowabout this from media reports.Arunima has not filed anycomplaint with the police orthe temple administration," hesaid.

"There is a ramp for thedisabled and I will ask the secu-rity personnel why theystopped her. We are also check-ing the CCTV footage to iden-tify the guilty," the templeadministrator added.

Sinha was pushed out of arunning train in April 2011while resisting a robberyattempt. As a result, one of herlegs had to be amputated belowthe knee.

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Page 2: C M Y K - dailypioneer.com Violet Line (Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate). The entire Magenta Line will become operational by March, 2018. The Botanical Garden ... Bhopal. ˛˛ ˙ ˙

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������������ �78�96

To give a tribute to thenoted playwright Sanjay

Bhoskar, a theatre fest will beorganised in the city fromWednesday.

The three-day theatre fes-tival would begin here fromDecember 27 at ShaheedBhavan from 7 pm.

The fest is being organ-ised by the Ekta MadhyaPradesh GovernmentEmployees Theatre Troupeto pay a tribute to the SanjayBhoskar. It is noteworthy thatthe fest is being organisedunder Guru Shishya

Parampara.The fest will have a kick

start from Wednesday withthe Hindi play MamuManchale. The play is beingdirected by Sumit Diwedi andwould be presented by Ektatheatre group, Bhopal.

To mark the second day ofthe festival on Thursday, aHindi play Ashwathama willbe staged at Shaheed Bhavan.Ashwathama is a play whichshares a dialogue betweenDraupati and Ashwathama.This play will also be direct-ed by Sumit Diwedi.

The festival will be con-cluded with on December 29

i.e. Friday with the Hindiplay ‘Bapu Qaid Me Hain’directed by Sumit Diwedi.

While talking about thefestival, director of Ekta the-atre group Sumit Diwedi said,“This festival is being orga-nized in the memory ofSanjay Bhoskar.

Moreover as many as 35people from different back-grounds who are interested intheatres are a part of theatrefestival. We all work in dif-ferent departments and comefrom different backgroundsand have prepared the theatrefestival just with a motive toentertain audience.”

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������������ �78�96

This Christmas, the littlekids of the city have pledged

to give a gift to mother nature.The children of Parvarish TheMuseum School will celebrateChristmas as ‘Treesmas’ onWednesday at Imiliya Village,near Betwa river.

The children of ParvarishThe Museum School will plantsaplings of various trees at theImiliya Village.

Founder of Parvarish TheMuseum School, ShibaniGhosh said, “Every year we seta target for Christmas andother festivals to give and con-tribute something from ourside to the society. But this year,we have planned to give some-thing to nature. As nature givesus many gift and so it is ourturn to give some gifts to it.”

She further said that Imiliyavillage is a very beautiful placeand children are really excitedto visit there and plant thesaplings. The best part here isthat the teachers of governmentschool of Imiliya village andsome experts will also partici-pate in this event.

“After we will plant thetrees there, villagers will be tak-ing care of it,” added Shibani.The children will plant saplingsof coconut, jackfruit, mango,orange and some other fruitsduring the event.

‘Parvarish- The MuseumSchool’ is a non-formal holis-tic education model for theunderprivileged children fromurban slums. With an aim to letevery child learn to read andwrite and every child has a rightto education, Parvarish- TheMuseum School was estab-lished. With providing chil-dren the kind of education, theschool has completed 12 yearsof success.

������������ �78�96

The city theatre troupewowed the Kolkata people

during a national theatre fes-tival. The Karmyogi Theatretroupe gave a fantabulous per-formance at Kolkata leavingthe audience totally mesmer-ized.

The troupe went toKolkata to perform at thenational theatre festival‘Rangpeeth Natya Mela’. Theygave performances onDecember 23 and 24 and pre-sented play ‘Swapnalok’ writ-ten by Vijaydan Detha.

The play was directed byNitish Dubey and was beauti-fully presented by the artists ofKarmyogi Theatre Troupe,Bhopal.

The play was surrounded

in a magical world that madethe audience revive their child-hood.

Talking about the play,Nitish said, “We were reallyoverwhelmed with the responseof the audience. Earlier, wewere a bit nervous but as soonas we began with the play it allwent with the flow. It was suc-cessful show,” he added.

Nitish was the protagonistof the play. Sharing about thestory of the play, he said thatthe play begins with narratinga story of a woodcutter. Onenight, when the woodcutterwas very tired, he slept early inthe night.

He sees a very interestingand adventurous dream. Hesaw that he is married to theprincess of the kingdom.When he woke up from his

dream, he started laughingout loud. On the other hand,the princess is dealing with adisease and the king hasannounced the sad news.

In laughing aloud, thewoodcutter is arrested. Still, hedoes not stops laughing.Hearing his voice, the princessurges to meet the woodcutter.As she sees him, she fell in lovewith him and starts to recov-er. After various twists, thewoodcutter got married to theprincess.

There was a live musiccomposed by Anil Sansare andthe team of musicians includ-ed Aditya Sharma on guitar,Laxmi Narayan on tabla anddholak and SamikshaUpadhyay and Harshita Dubeyon vocals. Light was designedby Dhannu Lal Sinha.

������������ �78�96

Celebrating the zest ofChristmas, the Wonder

Women’s Club of the cityorganised a mega event onMonday. There was music,dance and a lot of fun at theSudarshan City Walk Mall onChristmas.

The immense talent ofyoung girls of the city was amust watch for the audience.The event was organised witha purpose to provide a platformfor females to showcase theirtalent before the Bhopalites.

There was a fashion show,dance performance, singingperformance and fancy dresscompetition for the females. Ahuge participation was seen atthe event. The participantsenthusiastically performed onstage with confidence andzest.

The event began with thefashion show. The participantswalked over the ramp show-casing their confident swag.The beautiful outfits and glit-tery makeup added to theirwalk. It was a marvelous eventfor the audience.

Next was the singing per-formance. The participantsbeautifully presented songs notonly in English language butalso few Bollywood tracks

added charisma in the evening.The musical performance byyoung artists added much zestin the Christmas celebrations.The audiences were seen total-ly engrossed in the melodiousmusic performed by the young-sters of the city.

As many as 40 perfor-mances were held on the day.There were solo dance perfor-mances on Bollywood tracksand there were solo singingmusical performances.

The performers not onlypresented the new filmy tracksbut also sang some of themusical tracks from oldBollywood movies that reallyadded to the event. KomalWadhwani, member of theclub said that it was not onlyChristmas celebration but preNew Year celebration toowhich were really enjoyed byeveryone.

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������������ �78�96

ASub Inspector (SI) postedwith Habibganj police sta-

tion was on Monday suspend-ed after a video went viral inwhich the police officer wasseen requesting pardon from avictim. The ASI was suspend-ed based on the prima facieevidences against him, said SP(South) Bhopal Rahul KumarLodha and shied away fromsharing details of the incident.

ASI Bahadur Singh Patel wasfound pleading in a video whichwent viral on Monday and laterattracted his suspension in theevening.TSP South RahulKumar Lodha said that primafacie findings led to the suspen-sion and enquiry would be con-ducted regarding the incident byconcerned officer assigned withthe job. In the enquiry if others

are found involved action wouldbe taken against them too.CSPHabibganj Bhupendra Singhwould look into the matter.

Earlier, ASI Patel along witha woman constable went to ahouse of victim Aman in RohitNagar late in the night onSunday and introduced them-selves as crime branch person-nel and told Aman that theyhave information that he wasinvolved in illegal weapons tradeand has a pistol in his house.Thepolice personnel broke mobilephone to avoid victim’s makingcall and inform someone andlater they made a deal of Rs50000 for not taking any actionagainst him and without evensearching house for the pistol thetwo returned with Rs 50000cash. Later, it was found that thepolice personnel were fromHabibganj police station.

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������������ �78�96

Sensation prevailed at GRPground area after a girl was

found hanging from poles ofcricket practice nets at GRPground in the morning onMonday.

The police said that a girlin the age group 20-25 yearswas found hanging at around8 am in the morning.

SHO GRP BhopalHemant Shrivastava said thatthe identity of the deceased isyet to be identified. The tat-too over the left hand of thedeceased has been tried toremove using the same inkused for making tattoos.

The mobile phone hasbeen recovered from theground which is probably ofthe deceased. The body wasaround 6-8 hours old.

There were no visiblemarks of injuries over thebody and no signs of struggleat the spot, he added.

The death is suspicious asthe body was found hangingwith a pole around 15 ft highand which makes is impossi-

ble to tie a noose at thatheight without any externalsupport and then hang self.

The mobile phoneobtained from the spot wasdamaged which made it dif-ficult to obtain data and con-tact on any of the phonenumbers.

Soon after the body wasspotted by the players whoreached the spot for practic-ing informed the police.

On the receipt of theinformation GRP Bhopalreached the spot and startedinvestigation.

Police have not ascer-tained that the death was sui-cide or murder as the postmortem report is awaited.

Police said that thedeceased was found wearingjacket of track suit and jeans.Nothing which could help inestablishing her identity hasbeen found.

After the preliminaryinvestigation the body wassent for the post mortem anda case under section 174 ofthe CrPC was registered byGRP Bhopal.

����������� � �78�96

Chhola Mandir police havenabbed an accused against

whom a permanent arrestwarrant was pending for thepast seven years. The accusedwanted in eight cases wasnabbed from Karond onSunday.

The accused was identifiedas Ram Kumar Shilpkar whowas nabbed after police actedswiftly on Sunday.

Apart from eight perma-nent arrest warrants ofNishatpura police, accusedwas wanted in two permanentarrest warrants by Sehorepolice.

The accused beforeabsconding used to work ascontractor and in the name ofproviding land plots collectedmoney from victims and pro-vided cheques of his bankaccount which were dishon-oured when presented.

The victims have lodged acomplaint against the accusedand based in the complaint acase under section 138 of theNegotiable Instruments Actwas registered in the year2010, 2011 and 2013 afterwhich the accused wentabsconding and remainedabsconding till Sunday.

During the investigationpolice found that the accusedwas in Indore during abscond-

ing and acting on a tip offregarding his movement in thestate capital police teamrushed to the spot and nabbedthe accused.

Meanwhile a 21-year-oldyouth was nabbed by CholaMandir police for using dif-ferent registration numberfraudulently on Sunday.

Police said that duringvehicle checking a MarutiSwift car bearing registrationnumber MPO4CJ2708 wasquestioned regarding the doc-uments he failed to providedetails.

After the accused failed toprovide details of the regis-tration documents of the carwhen the police checked the

registration number with thevehicle registration search ofMadhya Pradesh TransportDepartment e-service it wasfound that the registrationnumber was of ToyotaFortuner.

The accused was identifiedas Ubez Akhtar of Vidishaconfessed that vehicle isowned by Amit Taljera forwhom he works and as theregistration number of MarutiSwift car was awaited he usedToyota Fortuner’s registrationnumber to avoid been caughtby police during checking.

The police have registereda case under section 472 of theIPC and have started furtherinvestigation.

���� �782

The Army Public SchoolMhow celebrated its

Annual Function on Saturday.The Patron Lt Gen RajeevSabherwal VSM conveyed hisbest wishes to the staff and stu-dents of the school.

The chief guest MajorGeneral Pritam Bishnoi VSM,Deputy Commandant MCTEand the guest of honour NeelamBishnoi, Brig Sheode PrashantManohar CDR, FCE andChairman, APS Mhow,Vibhavari Sheode, Col MHaridas, Col John Prince theExecutive Officers, SAMCMembers, distinguished guestsand the parents graced the occa-sion with their auspicious pres-ence.

They were accorded awarm welcome by the PrincipalPK Tiwari, Vice Principal SKChoudhary and theCoordinators. The dignitariesand Parents witnessed thegrand cultural extravaganza'Pravaah'– The journey of stu-dent life with grandeur andSplendour.

The programme high-lighted the course of a student'slife from childhood to the ageof adolescence which the stu-dents relish in school. TheCartoon World was broughtlive on the stage through PowerRangers, Pooh and Piglet andChota Bheem spreading themessage of courage, bravery,friendship, mankind, savewater and life.

The rapport between theteachers and students was wellexhibited through a dancedrama by primary wing stu-dents. To inculcate the roots ofculture even holding hands ofwestern advancement the mid-dle wing students presented adance which was an amalgamof classical and western dance.

The principal presentedthe Annual Report in which heapprised the audience of theachievements of School. Thequest of life, exploration to findone's identity and state of per-plexity is common in adoles-cence which was critically pre-sented through a dance bysenior students.

���� �296�8%

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, HomeMinster Rajnath Singh and DGPs of

29 States and seven Union Territories willarrive at the BSF Academy, Tekkenpurfor the annual DGPs’ conference.

About 60 Inspectors General too willbe participating in the conference. Themeeting will be held from January 6 to 8.

Hundred police personnel fromvarious police stations of the city havebeen selected for the security duty.Gwalior SP Ashish addressed the policepersonnel during a mock parade at theSP office. He asked the duty officers to

look smart in front of the PM and otherdignitaries. A dress code consisting ofblue blazer, grey colour trousers andshining black shoes were prescribed forthe parade.

The personnel are allowed to wearinner in view of the severe winter but nopart of the inner must be visible.Regarding the use of mufflers he said thedepartment is awaiting instructions inthis regard from the police headquarters.

Briefing the constables, the SP saidthat they must keep in mind that they arerepresenting the State police. The SPasked them certain questions likewhether they smoke, chew tobacco and

whether they have any serious corruptioncharges or departmental enquiries againstthem.

The SP issued them some guidelinesto observe while performing their duties.The personnel in charge of the security arenot allowed to talk unless asked to do soby a VVIP, and even then the responsesmust be brief and to the point.Furthermore, no security officer is allowedto go near the VVIPs. Out of the hundredpolice personnel, eight are sub-inspectors.Sources in the department said that theexpenses incurred to buy new clothes andshoes must be borne by the police per-sonnel.

������������ �78�96

The citizens in Bhopalwould witness further dip

in the mercury within 48hours. The weathermen pre-dict that cold days and nightswould remain in Bhopal foraround six days.

Met official said thatnight temperatures are likelyto fall in the next 48 hours by1-2 degree Celsius, steepchange are less likely to occuras there are no systems whichcould induce steep dips intemperatures. Slight dip inthe day temperatures wouldbe witnessed.

The night temperaturesdipped across the state andrecorded lowest night tem-perature at 5 degree Celsiusin Mandla.

City witnessed shallowfog in the morning onMonday which was less ascompared to foggy condi-tions witnessed on Saturday.

Chambal and Gwaliorregions are likely to witnessfoggy conditions in the next2-3 days while Rewa, Satna,Jabalpur and Bhopal regionsare likely to witness mist andhazy conditions.

The day temperaturesincreased slightly and mod-

erate weather conditions werewitnessed on Monday acrossthe state and state capital.

Bhopal recorded day tem-perature at 24.6 degreeCelsius without any deviationwhile night temperature wasrecorded 1 degree Celsiusbelow normal temperatureat 9.8 degree Celsius.

Indore, Jabalpur andGwalior recorded day tem-peratures at 25.2, 26 and 25.3degree Celsius and night tem-peratures at 10.8, 6 and 9.3degree Celsius respectively.

The highest day temper-ature was recorded around 28degree Celsius in the statemaintaining the weathermoderate and normal duringthe day.

In the past 24 hours sev-eral areas recorded nighttemperatures at very lowerlevels.

Umaria and Nowgongrecorded night temperature at6.5 degree Celsius.

Among other regionswhich recorded low nighttemperatures were Rewawhich recorded 7.4 degreeCelsius, Raisen recorded 7.5degree Celsius, Sidhi record-ed 8 degree Celsius and Satnarecorded at 8 .4 degreeCelsius.

������������ �78�96

After around 37 years,Kolar road residents

would finally receive waterfrom Ker wa dam whichwould be carried to themfrom 13 km distance.

Celebrating water supplyfrom Kerwa dam in Kolararea, Jal Mahotsav was organ-ised by BJP MLA from Huzurconstituency RameshwarSharma, witnessing massivegathering welcoming thewater which would end waterwoes of the citizens in thecoming summer season.

The project worth Rs 52crore was made around fouryears ago and after three yearsthe project was started. In thefirst phase two colonies ofKolar would get water supplyand in the later phase com-plete Kolar area would getwater.

The testing of the waterpipeline was conducted forthe past one week but when

the water supply was made inLalita Nagar leakages werefound due to which roadswere water lodged.

Interestingly, Kolar area isnot supplied with waterthrough Kolar dam even thewater supply pipeline passesthrough Kolar area.

At present around 20000bore wells are there in Kolararea and with the water sup-ply from Kerwa the load onthe ground water woulddecrease and water problemfaced by the Kolar residentsduring summer season wouldbe addressed.

Among other projectsrelated with water supply,Kolar was neglected inNarmada water supply pro-ject.

At the time of the plan-ning Kolar was not includedin the project and later whenthe water crisis surfaced inKolar area water supply fromKerwa was found feasible andwas implemented.

������������ �78�96

Minister for PublicRelations, Water

Resources and ParliamentaryAffairs Narottam Mishra onMonday inaugurated an eyecamp organised by the GahoiVaishya Samaj at Datia.

Datia Nagar PalikaChairman subhash Agrawalpresided over the programme.More than 800 patients wereexamined at the camp. MLAPradeep Agrawal was also pre-sent at the camp.

Mishra said that if one haseyes, one has everything.Restoring eyesight is the biggesthuman service Mishra laudedthe Gahoi Samaj for organizingthe camp. At the onset, theMinister inaugurated the pro-

gramme by garlanding thephoto of Sant Bhavanand. GahoiSamaj members welcomed thePR Minister with garlands.Mishra celebrated former PrimeMinister Atal Behari Vajpayee’sbirthday with citizens in Datia.On the occasion he said thatVajpayee’s personality andachievements are a source ofinspiration to all sections. A glo-rious personality, Vajpayee is asplendid orator and is an iconof human service.

Among those present onthe occasion were VipinGoswami, Pushpendra Rawat,Hariom Singh Yadav and otherelite citizens. Mishra felicitatedoutstanding personalities andsenior citizens belonging to theKayasth Samaj in Datia.Addressing the gathering at theKayastha Ekta Samagam,

Mishra said that this samaj is anenlightened samaj. He said he

will always support the samaj.Several persons from vari-

ous fields including sports,education, writing, government

service were felicitated for theiroutstanding services.

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Aday after AIADMK suffered an embar-rassing defeat in the RK Nagar by-elec-

tion necessitated by the death of JJayalalithaa, the party struck back by sack-ing nine pro-TTV Dhinakaran func-tionaries for anti-party activities.

A meeting of the AIADMK leaderschaired by Deputy Chief Minister OPanneerselvam, who is also the conven-er of the coordinating committee over-seeing the party administration, decidedto remove P Vetrivel, MG Pathiban, MRengasamy and Thangatamil Selvan fromthe official posts held by them.

The meeting also eased out the party’spublic faces like CR Saraswathi, NanjilSampath, VP Kalairajan, V Muthiah andPugazhenthi (the Karnataka unit secretaryof the party) from their respective posts.

Addressing the media, Panneerselvamand Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamysaid the leaders were being removedbecause they went against the party’s prin-ciples and bringing disrepute to theAIADMK. “Party workers are requested notto have any truck with them,” OPS and EPSsaid in a joint statement released to themedia. The sentences are straight lift from

the statements used to be issued by lateJayalalithaa when she chose to oust leadersfrom the party for anti-party activities.

All the nine leaders/office-bearers hadworked tirelessly for the success of TTVDhinakaran, the rebel AIADMK leader,who humbled the official candidate of theparty E Madhusudanan by a margin of40,707 votes.

Saraswathy, who was ousted from theparty on Monday, hinted that Dhinakaranfaction was preparing for a showdown.“You wait for a couple of days and there def-initely will be major developments inTamil Nadu,” she said when asked about thefuture plans of Dhinakaran who remainedincommunicado throughout the day.

Meanwhile, TTV Bhaskaran, theMannargudi-based younger brother ofDhinakaran told reporters that the RKNagar bypoll result proved that the peo-ple of Tamil Nadu wanted the Sasikalafamily to lead the AIADMK and TamilNadu.

V Divakaran, brother of the jailed VKSasikala told reporters at Mannargudi thatthe RK Nagar result would be a turningpoint in Tamil Nadu’s political history.“Dhinakaran had lauded DMK leaders ARaja and Kanimozhi on their acquittal in

the 2G Spectrum case. I had also ferventlyprayed for their release. What we need tothink is how to keep the Northern Rulersat bay. They are using the division with-in us to gain ascendancy in the State,” saidDivakaran, popularly known as Bossamong followers and loyalists. The Bossalso said that the PalaniswamyGovernment would not last more thanthree months.

The DMK, whose candidate lost thesecurity deposit in the bypoll, has con-vened the meeting of its high power com-mittee on December 29. Sources said thatthe meeting has been convened followingdifferences of opinions among the topleadership about the strategy adopted bythe party at RK Nagar. It is widelybelieved that the DMK transferred itsvotes en masse to Dhinakaran to hastenthe process of disintegration of theAIADMK.

Thol Thirumavalavan, leader of theVCK and the new found ally of the DMKblamed the Dravidian party leadership forsubdued campaigning at RK Nagar whichresulted in Dhinakaran’s victory.Thirumavalavan also endorsedDhinakaran as the true inheritor ofJayalalithaa’s legacy.

From Page 1

We wanted to know aboutAnil Kumar Sinha, his han-dler. We wanted to knowabout his other passportdetails in which he is namedas Hussain Mobarak Pateland on which he has travelledout of India 17 times. But allthese questions remainedunanswered as India did notallow the wife and mother tospeak to anyone,” Faisal said.

Pakistan obviously want-ed to collect these as evi-dences to submit before theInternational Court of Justice(ICJ) where India has filed acase saying Jadhav was kid-

napped from Iran where hewas working on the Chabaharport in a private capacityafter retiring from Navy andwas abducted from there byPakistan security agencies.India had in May got a stayorder from ICJ on the execu-tion of death sentence award-ed to Jadhav by a Pakistanmilitary court.

The meeting proved justone thing that Jadhav is alive.Pakistani spokesperson saidthat his appeal for mercy ispending with higher author-ities. But since Pakistan isbound by internationalnorms, it has to wait for ICJruling too.

From Page 1

From the metro station,Modi proceeded to NoidaSector 125 Rally Ground atthe Amity University, wherehe was scheduled to address apublic rally.

Some features of the newline include platform screendoors, which are currentlythere only on the AirportExpress Line, and new gener-ation trains, which can run onan unattended mode or with-out operators. However, theDMRC has announced thatfor the time being, the trainswill be operated manually.

Ten trains would operateon the new line, while twomore would be kept in thereserve, one each at theKalkaji Mandir and BotanicalGarden stations, the DMRCsaid.

The coaches of the trainsrunning on this line will haveelectronic information dis-play boards, power-chargingfacilities, including directlythrough USB ports, and seatsof different colours.

The new, energy-efficienttrains would save about 20 percent energy as compared tothe existing coaches, theDMRC said.

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The new BJP Government inHimachal Pradesh will

review all the major decisionstaken by the previous VirbhadraSingh-led CongressGovernment at the fag end of itstenure.

Addressing media in hisfirst press conference, atPeterhoff, Shimla, after beingdesignated as the next ChiefMinister, Jai Ram Thakur onMonday said that all the majorpolicy decisions taken by theprevious Government in thelast three months of its tenurewould be reviewed.

On the priorities of his newGovernment, Thakur said thatdoing away with VIP cultureand practice of re-employmentand extension to the officerswould be done away with. Hesaid all the retired and tiredofficers, working after gettingextensions would have to go.

Expressing his concernover the financial health of theState, Jai Ram said that the newGovernment was inheriting adebt ridden economy and fur-ther financial burden on exche-quer would not be allowed.

He said that soon afterformation of new council ofMinisters, all decisions taken byhis predecessor Virbhadra

Singh in the last three monthswould be reviewed; however, hemade it clear that the status ofDharamshala would not bechanged.

Dharamshala had beendeclared second Capital ofHimachal Pradesh by the pre-vious Congress Government.He said that vendetta politicswould not be allowed in thenew Government.

Underlining the need foreffective implementation ofwelfare schemes funded byCentral Government, Jai Ramsaid that the effective imple-mentation of such welfareschemes could benefit the peo-ple and the State.

Jai Ram Thakur, who is setto take oath as 13th ChiefMinister of Himachal Pradeshon December 27, on Mondaymet Governor Acharya DevVrat in the day, after getting an

invite to form the Govt.With the preparations for

oath ceremony, the discussionsfor the new cabinet has alsostarted. Rajiv Bindal, KishanKapoor, Suresh Bhardwaj,Mahender Singh Thakur,Narendra Bragta, VirenderKanwar, Ram Lal Markandeyand Vipin Parmar are beingseen as best bet for securing acabinet berth in the newGovernment.

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Aday after being named asthe new chief minister of

Himachal Pradesh, the CMdeignate Jai Ram Thakur onMonday got into action modemaking visits to the Raj Bhawanand to hospitals and reviewingarrangements for the swearingin ceremony on Wednesday.

He distributed fruits to thechildren and patients at DeenDayal Upadhaya hospital,Shimla on occasion of birthdayof former Prime Minister, AtalBihari Vajpayee. He also

announced a digital x-raymachine for the hospital.

Accompanied by MLAs,Rajeev Bindal, SureshBhardwaj, Vinod Kumar andMember of Parliament, RamSwaroop Sharma, the ChiefMinister visited the childrenward. He also met otherpatients admitted in differentwards of the hospital andenquired about their well being.

Thakur also paid a courtesyvisit to Raj Bhawan and helddiscussion with GovernorAcharaya Devvrat.

He later took stock of the

arrangements of PrimeMinisters visit for the oath tak-ing ceremony on 27 Decemberat the Historic ridge.

Later, the Chief Ministerdesignate also met the blooddonors in the blood donationcamp organised by UmangFoundation at Ridge. Thakur,who will be sworn in onWednesday, will be the 14thChief Minister of HimachalPradesh. He won his fifth con-secutive assembly election fromSeraj, in Mandi district and willbe the first Chief Ministerfrom the district

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Chandigarh Traffic Police onMonday organized Road

Safety Awareness Programmesat different places in the city.

The main venues wereSukhna Lake, Plaza Sector-17,in front of Church Sector-19and Elante Mall.

The awareness programmewas organised with the assis-tance of NSS Students andmore than 2000 road safetyawareness pamphlets, educat-ing the people to wear helmetwhile riding two wheeler, notto use mobile while driving,don’t drink & drive, wear SeatBelt etc. on road safety weredistributed. Sweets were alsodistributed to the people

through the participant NSSStudents who were in cos-tumes of Santa Clause in viewof Christmas. A quiz was alsoorganised at these venues forfemales and questions on roadsafety were asked to them.

Helmets were awarded asprize to winners who answeredthe questions correctly as acompliment from ChandigarhTraffic Police. A total of 20 hel-mets were presented to girls atdifferent venues.

"The main motive to dis-tribute helmets amongst thefemales was to encourage themto wear it, so that accident fatal-ities due to head injuries maybe reduced in the CityBeautiful," said a statementfrom Traffic Police.

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Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev’sPatanjali Ayurved Limited

(PAL) will be investing �671crore in Chhattisgarh for settingup a ‘Food and HerbalProcessing Unit.’

The company has inked aMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) with theChhattisgarh Government toset up the unit in Bijetala villageof Rajnandgaon district on 500acres of land, officials informed.

The company intends man-ufacture and process honey,amla juice, aloe vera juice,tomato ketchup, frozen vegeta-bles, rice and pulses in the pro-posed Chhattisgarh facility.

Notably, Chief MinisterRaman Singh had also invitedentrepreneurs to invest in FoodProcessing sector ofChhattisgarh while on a visit tothe Chhattisgarh Pavilion at‘World Food India 2017’ in

New Delhi on November 3 thisyear.

He had interacted with a

number of investors to exploreinvestment possibilities for theState.

Notably, ChhattisgarhGovernment had earlierreceived an invitation from the

Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) on behalf ofUnion Ministry of FoodProcessing Industries, officialsinformed.

The State Government hadagreed to participate with agrand presentation in the event.

A global event to facilitatepartnerships between Indianand international businessesand investors, World FoodIndia (WFI) is a gateway to theIndian food economy and anopportunity to showcase, con-nect, and collaborate, officialsinformed.

Organised by the Ministryof Food Processing Industries,the event was the largest gath-ering of investors, manufactur-ers, producers, food processors,policy makers, and organiza-tions from the global foodecosystem.

It aimed to provide oppor-tunities for both investment andtrade in the food processing

sector for leading Indian andinternational companies.Encompassing the entire foodspectrum from production toconsumption, WFI is looking atcreating a better sourcing envi-ronment, thereby enablinghigher returns for farmers, cre-ating employment, and foster-ing entrepreneurship.

World Food India intendsto establish global linkages andfacilitate foreign investment inIndia’s US$ 915 billion farm-to-fork ecosystem that services theneeds and rising aspirations ofthe country’s 1.3 billion con-sumers.

The World Food India del-egation had generated hugeexcitement among the businesscommunity of Chhattisgarhduring the Roadshow organisedhere on August 4 this year .TheRoadshow was organised by theUnion Ministry of FoodProcessing Industries (MoFPI)in collaboration with CII.

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Agriculture MinisterBrijmohan Agrawal on

Monday launched a mobileApp carrying detailed infor-mation on the various schemesof his Department on the occa-

sion of birth anniversary of for-mer Prime Minister Atal BihaiVajpayee here.

The App can be down-loaded from Google PlayStore, an official press releaseinformed.

The App even has thefacility to apply for becomingbeneficiary of variousschemes.

The users of the App willalso be able to register com-plaints associated with variousDepartments through the App.

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As all political parties in thecountry, including the rul-

ing BJP are continuously com-pelled to be in an electionmode affecting governance andincurring �4,500 crore as elec-tion expenditure, aParliamentary panel headedby BJP MP Bhupender Yadavhas initiated the process tocome out with recommenda-tions, entailing major changesin legal provisions, to holdone-time Lok Sabha andAssembly polls in the country.

According to sources, theParliamentary standing com-mittee on personnel, publicgrievances, law and justice,which has a number of tasks athand, is currently examiningthe issue of simultaneous pollsin the country. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had againpitched for it recently.

The panel with 10 RajyaSabha and 20 Lok Sabha mem-bers has held four meetingssince it was constituted onSeptember 1, this year. It has

been collecting views from dif-ferent stakeholders and hasvisited various States in thispursuit, they said. The previouscommittee, headed byCongress MP (RS) AnandSharma, had not addressedthe issue of simultaneous polls.

It is felt that to begin withthe polls could also be held intwo phases first in the East andWest and secondly in Northand South India. “A lot ofwork has to go into it. Legal andmay be Constitutional changeswould be required to imple-ment the simultaneous elec-tions,” sources said, adding, “Itis not happening too soon.”

Besides Yadav, Dr KKeshava Rao (TRS), D Raja(CPI), Swapan Dasgupta (nom-inated), Vivek K Tankha(Congress), Prabhat Jha (BJP),Tiruchi Silva (DMK), MajeedMemon (NCP) are the panelmembers from Rajya Sabhaand Meenakashi Lekhi (BJP),Tariq Anwar (NCP), PralhadJoshi (BJP), Bhagwant Mann(Aam Admi Party), KalyanBerjee (AITC), BV Nayak

(Congress), Rajiv Pratap Rudy(BJP), Vincent Pala (Congress),Udhyankumar (AIDMK) andDr Vara Prasadarao Velagapalli(AIADMK) are among othermembers from the Lok Sabha.

The Yadav-headed panelwill now pick up threads fromthe Parliamentary committeewhich scrutinised in detail‘Feasibility of Holding

Simultaneous Elections to theHouse of People (Lok Sabha)and State Legislative Assemblies’and presented its report to theLok Sabha and the Rajya Sabhaon December 17, 2015. Thispanel of which Yadav was alsoa member was chaired by DrEM Sudarsana Natchiappan.

The committee felt thatone-time poll across the coun-

try was not possible immedi-ately but progress towards thatend could be made by six-month advancement of pollsfor the Lok Sabha or StateAssemblies.

“The Committee does notfeel that simultaneous electionin every five years cannot beheld in near future but slowlyit would reach in stages for

which tenure of some of theState Legislative Assembliesneed to be curtailed or extend-ed. Extension of term ofLegislature is not permissibleexcept under proclamation ofemergency. But election to LokSabha/State LegislativeAssemblies can be held sixmonths before under Sections14 & 15 of the Representation

of People Act, 1951,” it had said.The panel had quoted the

Law Commission of India in its170th report having suggestedthat election of some ofLegislative Assemblies whereterm is ending six monthsafter the general election to theLok Sabha can be clubbed withit but election result can bedeclared at the end of theirtenure. This can be possiblewith the cooperation of polit-ical parties which representspolitical will of the people.

The NatchiappanCommittee noted that out of 16Lok Sabha as many as sevenelected in 1969, 1977, 1980,1984, 1996, 1998 and 1999,witnessed pre-mature dissolu-tion due to emergence of coali-tion Government.

The Committee recom-mended an alternative methodof simultaneous electionswhich involves holding of elec-tions in two phases. It envis-aged conducting elections ofsome Legislative Assembliesat mid-term of the Lok Sabhaand remaining with the end of

tenure of the Lok Sabha. Election Commission has

suggested that (in order to avoidpremature dissolution) any ‘no-confidence motion’ movedagainst the Government in officeshould also necessarily includea further ‘confidence motion’ infavour of a Government to beheaded by a named individual asthe future Prime Minister andvoting should take place for thetwo motions together.

The Commission said inspite of the above arrange-ment, if there is a situationwhere dissolution of the LokSabha cannot be avoided, thenthere could be a provision forthe President to carry out theadministration of the country,on the aid and advice of hisCouncil of Ministers to beappointed by him till, the timethe next House is constituted atthe prescribed time.

Presently, the cost of hold-ing separate elections for theLok Sabha and LegislativeAssemblies of States and UTs ispegged at Rs 4,500 crore by theCommission.

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The improved electoral reapin Prime Minister

Narendra Modi’s home turfGujarat recently has made theCongress pull up its socks witha new vigour and take correc-tive measures to wrest crucialHindi belt States of MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh andRajasthan which go toAssembly polls next year-end.Newly-elected Congress pres-

ident Rahul Gandhi has sent amissive, particularly to hisparty workers in MadhyaPradesh, to start groundworknow to identify issues, concernsand above all winnable candi-dates for the assembly polls inNovember 2018.

As part of its strategy and inorder to avoid last-minute rebel-lion and internal rife in the cru-cial State which it lost 15 yearsago, the party has asked torequest or convince the leaderswho had lost in the last two-three elections to vacate the seatfor the young leaders. In MPtoo, just like Gujarat, the partyis struggling for a local leader-ship. However, it is not the casein Rajasthan due to the clout offormer CM Ashok Gehlot andfor which the Congress is con-fident enough to take over thereins from the incumbentVasundhara Raje regime.

The MP unit of theCongress has said the party will

start the exercise of identifyingprobable candidates from mid-January. As per the party’sstrategy, it will primarily focuson 60 to 65 seats where the

party could not win in the pasttwo elections.

“We will start the candidateselection process for the nextyear’s Assembly elections afterJanuary 15. The process ofstreamlining the organisation-al structure in the State will alsobe completed by the nextmonth,” AICC general secre-tary and party in-charge ofMadhya Pradesh, DeepakBabaria, told The Pioneer.

Babaria added theCongress chief has indicated tothe MP party leaders to pull uptheir socks, work hard and huntfor younger faces. “We wouldrequest the leaders who lost inthe last elections consistently topave way for the newer andpreferably young leaders. Theleaders who were defeated inthe last two-three electionscould be the choice for the nextGeneral Elections,” said a partyleader from Madhya Pradesh.

“In MP, we need to first

bring to table the heavyweightslike Digvijay Singh, KamalNath and Jyotiraditya Scindia.Only a proper coordinationbetween them can work for theparty,” he said. While Singh isa former Chief Minister, KamalNath and Scindia enjoy masssupport in their areas.

For Rajasthan, Lok SabhaMP Sachin Pilot said theCongress will launch an “affir-mative and positive” campaignin the State to counter the “acri-monious” charge of the BJP andadvocate a new model of gov-ernance while highlighting thefailures of the State Government.He said the results of recent by-elections to local bodies whichgave the Congress an upperhand is an indicative for theprospect of the party. The partyhas already launched its “Merabooth, mera gaurav (My booth,my pride)” campaign and willsoon unroll its mass contact pro-gramme across the State.

���� ��2�.�67�

As part of the digital Indiamovement, the Centre has

launched an online platformfor Central Governmentemployees to apply for leaveand access their service-relat-ed information. MoS PersonnelJitendra Singh launched theelectronic-Human ResourceManagement System (e-HRMS) as the Ministry ofPersonnel, Public Grievancesand Pensions observed GoodGovernance Day on Monday.

“With launch of e-HRMS,employees will be able to notonly see all their details withrespect to service book, leave,GPF, salary, etc. But also applyfor different kind of claims/reim-

bursements, loan/advances,leave, leave encashment, LTCadvances, tour etc. On a singleplatform,” the statement by the personnelMinistry said.

As per the state-ment, employees willnot be dependent onthe administration forupdating data. They may them-selves update it with their loginsubject to verification. “Theywill be able to track status andmatch details instantly. The sys-tem is designed in a way toobtain all management-relatedinputs/reports through itsdashboard and all pendency ofdata updating as well as claimswill be seen online by seniorauthorities that will instill more

responsibility and account-ability among all Governmentservants,” the statement read.

This is a step in the directionof a fully automatedhuman resourcemanagement systemwith a target to bringall Governmentemployees on

employee portal so that allprocesses of personnel manage-ment from hiring to retiring willbe on digital platform and man-ual system of handling person-nel management will be dis-pensed with, it said. “It will alsoenable Government to taketransfer and posting decisionsmore pragmatically based onreliable first hand data,” thestatement read.

���� ��2�.�67�

The Centre and theOpposition, which are at

loggerheads on the issue ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s remarks against his pre-decessor Manmohan Singh,may sit together to end theimpasse in the Rajya Sabhawhen Parliament resumes afterChristmas break on Wednesday.The Winter Session began onDecember 15 and is scheduledto conclude on January 5, 2018,with only five probable workingdays to pass Bills and discuss oncertain issues.

Both sides are likely totalk and work out a resolutionto end the stalemate inParliament over Modi’s “con-spiracy-with-Pakistan” remarksmade during Gujarat poll cam-paign against his predecessor,sources said.

Rajya Sabha chairman MVenkaiah Naidu has also nego-tiated a resolution of the issue bycalling upon both sides to sit andfind a solution, they said. TheHouse last week witnessed heat-ed exchanges between theOpposition and theGovernment over the allegationsleveled by Modi against Singhwith the Congress demandingan apology from Modi.

Sources said theGovernment and the Congress

are keen on ending the currentimpasse in the Rajya Sabha,which saw a washout of pro-ceedings in the first week of theWinter Session. While theCongress is sticking to its gunsseeking an apology or clarifi-cation from the Prime Ministerover his remarks, theGovernment is not ready for it.The last week’s proceedingswere washed out due to thestalemate. The House func-tioned normally only one daywhen the CompaniesAmendment Bill was passed.

There have been a fewmeetings between Leader of theHouse Arun Jaitley and Leaderof Opposition Ghulam NabiAzad, separately as well as inNaidu’s presence. Sources saidthe Government is keen onintroducing clear the contro-versial bill on triple talaq in theParliament within the next fewsittings. “The Governmentintends to get the statute passedin the current session ofParliament ending first week ofJanuary,” said sources.

The Session is important forNDA because the Centre isplanning to bring a bill to end thepractice of instant triple talaq,and another on the NationalCommission for BackwardClasses (NCBC). The latter isexpected to be reintroduced togrant constitutional status toNCBC. The Government is alsoplanning to bring Bills to replacethree ordinances — The Goodsand Services Tax (Compensationto States), 2017, The Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code(Amendment), and The IndianForest Act (Amendment).

���� ��2�.�67�

Former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee turned 93

on Monday. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was one of thefirst to visit and greet him at hisresidence here.

“Visited Atalji to conveybirthday greetings to him.Spent time with his family aswell,” the Prime Minister wroteon Twitter. Modi creditedVajpayee’s phenomenal andvisionary leadership which“further raised our prestige atthe world stage”. I pray for hisgood health, he added.

Vaypayee, considered a lib-eral-modern face of the BJP, isthe first and the only non-Congress leader who complet-ed his full term as PrimeMinister.

Vice-President MVenkaiah Naidu also wishedVajpayee on his birthday andposted a poem in Hindi onTwitter by the former PrimeMinister which urged people toremain united and not to giveup hope in tough times.

Jammu & Kashmir ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti also

wished the BJP veteran on hisbirthday. “Warm birthdaywishes to Atal Bihari Vajpyeeji.A visionary leader who calledfor peace, progress & prosper-ity in J&K by imbibing the spir-it of Insaniyat, Jamhuriyat &Kashmiriyat,” Mehbooba saidon Twitter.

BJP president Amit Shahand Home Minister RajnathSingh too visited Vajpayee’s res-idence to greet him. “VisitedAtalji’s home to wish him on hisbirthday,” Shah said in a tweet.

“Warm wishes to ourbeloved leader and guide, ShriAtalji on his birthday today.Atalji is a towering and vision-ary leader who introducedgood governance, developmentand politics of performance inIndian polity. I pray for hisgood health and long life,”Home Minister Rajnath Singhtweeted.

Several Union Ministers,including Ravi Shankar Prasad,Arun Jaitley, Smriti Irani andNirmala Sitharaman, alsogreeted Vajpayee.

Born in 1924, Vajpayeeentered politics during the QuitIndia movement in 1942. He

was also the first External AffairsMinister to deliver a speech inthe UN Assembly in Hindi.Vajpayee was elected to the LokSabha from Lucknow in 1991,1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.

The Prime Minister alsopaid tributes to freedom fight-

er Madan Mohan Malaviya onhis birth anniversary. “Hisimpact on India’s history isstrong and unforgettable. Hisefforts to further educationand a spirit of patriotism willalways be remembered,” Modisaid in a tweet.

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After losing job as a driverin a public sector compa-

ny in 1994, an employee’s des-perate wait to get a hearing onhis appeal got over recentlywith the Supreme Court direct-ing an Industrial Tribunal inKolkata to decide the disputewithin three months.

It is shocking that for twodecades the case was not takenup for the reason that one court

after the other had not decidedwhether the company which dis-missed the employee was aCentral Government organisa-tion. Much turned on this ques-tion as the State Governmenthad referred the dispute of thedriver to a State IndustrialTribunal to which the companyobjected claiming that being aCentral Government adminis-tered company, only Centre hadauthority to refer the dispute.

Finally, when the issue cameto Supreme Court in 2012, ittook another five years till aBench of Justices Ranjan Gogoiand R Banumathi on December8, 2017 worked out a middlepath. The Bench directed thematter to be taken by the CentralGovernment Industrial Tribunalat Kolkata on an expeditiousbasis and directed an order to be

passed within three months.The dispute arose between

the company Garden ReachShipbuilders Engineers Limited(GRSE) and its workman PradipKumar Ganguly who was dis-missed on April 4, 1994. Soon,the West Bengal Governmentreferred the dispute under theIndustrial Disputes Act to theSecond Industrial Tribunal onFebruary 7, 1995.

The company challengedthis reference on the questionthat the “appropriateGovernment” capable to refer thedispute was Centre. On October20, 2000, the Tribunal upheld thecompany’s stand. A series of peti-tions came to be filed later by theemployee (Ganguly) and thecompany before the CalcuttaHigh Court till a single judgefinally held on September 18,

2007 upholding the State’s rightto refer the dispute. This orderwas later approved by a DivisionBench on March 28, 2012, fol-lowing which the companyapproached the apex court.

The Bench said, “About22 years have gone by duringwhich the matter has travelledfrom one court to another onthe question whether the peti-tioner company is a CentralGovernment organisation andtherefore, the appropriateGovernment to refer the dis-pute to the IndustrialTribunal/Forum would be theCentral Government and notthe State Government.Naturally, the litigation havinggone on the said issue for thelast two decades the adjudica-tion of the validity of the dis-missal of the respondent-

workman (Ganguly) is yet tosee the light of the day.”

Seeking a way out, theapex court was faced with hardpositions taken by the compa-ny on one hand and both theState Government and theworkman on the other hand.Advocate Dushyant Parasharwho appeared for Gangulysubmitted that he had no dif-ficulty to submit to either theCentral or State Tribunal, pro-vided there is early adjudicationof his claims. There was asense of urgency in his plea asbeing out of job since 1994, thefate of his appeal will determinewhether he is entitled to backwages and compensation, ifany. The court further direct-ed the company to pay its for-mer employee �2 lakh to coverhis litigation expenses.

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New Delhi: Amid specula-tions of a dip in bilateral rela-tions between the two nations,Maldives President AbdullaYameen Abdulla Gayoom onSunday called India a closefriend against whom he willnot entertain negative senti-ments. Gayoom termed India’scontributions as invaluableand added that hisGovernment is working toboost ties with New Delhi. Hesaid a Free Trade Agreementbetween India and Maldives isbeing worked out.

Maldives recently signedits first FTA with China,despite an earlier announce-ment by Gayoom that Indiawill be the first country withwhich the FTA would besigned. The move triggeredspeculations of a dip in the ties.

Incidentally, shortly afterthis, three local councilors ofMaldives were suspended forthree months after their meet-ing with the Indian ambas-sador. The Maldives HomeMinistry defended the actsaying the meeting had takenplace despite a ban on meet-ing with diplomats withoutprior permission from theGovernment.

A couple of days later apro-Government website car-ried an anti-India article say-ing New Delhi was not a bestfriend but an enemy and thatit viewed the Maldives with“envy, self-interest and hostil-ity.” The article was with-drawn following heavy criti-cism from the Oppositionleaders and former MaldivesPresidents.

While appealing forrestraint in criticism and ask-ing not to engage in negativ-ity against India particularly inmedia, Gayoom underlinedthat India is the closest friendand ally of Maldives. Speakingat a function, he reiterated thathis administration will neverentertain negative sentimentstowards India and highlight-ed that India’s assistanceformed an invaluable contri-bution to the island country.

Defending the recent FTAbetween China and Maldives,Gayoom said that the pact willbring several opportunities tothe island country. PNS

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Page 6: C M Y K - dailypioneer.com Violet Line (Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate). The entire Magenta Line will become operational by March, 2018. The Botanical Garden ... Bhopal. ˛˛ ˙ ˙

So alarming is the security situationin Jammu & Kashmir that after fail-ing to hold elections to AnantnagLok Sabha constituency for over ayear, and now again postponing

panchayat and municipal elections (termsended July 2016, March 2010 respectively),Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has induct-ed brother Tassaduq Mufti into theLegislative Council on a seat vacated byYuvraj Vikramaditya Singh after he resignedfrom the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)to protest its anti-Jammu policies.

Anti-Jammu can be read as anti-Hinduand anti-minorities. Refusing to extendCentral grants for minorities to the State’sreligious minorities, the Mehbooba MuftiGovernment recently informed theSupreme Court that it would consider set-ting up a minority commission in the State“if the need arose”, as minorities notified bythe Government of India are entitled to ben-efits in Jammu & Kashmir despite the non-applicability of the National Commissionfor Minorities Act 1992, to the State.

To the uninitiated, this means that theState’s religious minorities, viz, Hindus,Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Christians, willnot get any relief from Central schemesand funds as they are notified as minori-ties at the national level, along withMuslims, but not in the State.

This legal anomaly allows the StateGovernment to funnel the benefits of allCentral schemes and funds for minoritiesalmost exclusively towards the Muslimmajority of Srinagar valley. The State’s reli-gious minorities are left high and dry.Neither the National Conference or thePDP, or even the Congress and theBharatiya Janata Party State units, have everespoused the need for a State minoritycommission to provide benefits to thebeleaguered minorities.

Instead, all Central funds and schemes,including under the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme for the welfare of minori-ties, are happily cornered by the majoritycommunity, even though the NationalCommission for Minorities Act 1992 is notapplicable to the State. Naturally, the valley-centric political parties that rule the State,by turns, happily corner the Centralschemes and funds in violation of the spir-it in which they have been conceived.

It defies reason why successive CentralGovernments do not withhold theseschemes until the State enacts appropri-ate legislation for distribution of benefits,as appropriation by the dominant commu-nity negates the objective of the pro-grammes. More pertinently, as Jammu &Kashmir has special status under Article370 of the Constitution, how can the StateGovernment permit extension of a Centralscheme without enabling a legislation? Bythis logic, all Central laws and pro-

grammes can be extended to the Statewithout special sanction.

Perhaps this case can be cited to proveto the Supreme Court that Article 370 isa political device to pamper the State’sMuslim political parties, with deleteriousconsequences for its citizens. Thisappeasement consciously excludes non-Muslim State subjects from its embrace,making it the worst form of communal-ism India has ever seen. But now that wehave evidence of successive regimes per-mitting Central schemes without enablinglegislation, in order to divert morallyuntenable benefits to Muslims, we mustchallenge the non-accountability bestowedby Article 370 and the legitimacy of theIndian taxpayer being made to fund a col-lectivity known best for its infatuation withthe land across the border.

Jammu-based lawyer Ankur Sharmafiled a public interest litigation in theSupreme Court in 2016 for scrapping ofminority benefits to Muslims in Jammu& Kashmir on the ground that they con-stitute the majority in the State; for get-ting a minority commission set up inJammu & Kashmir to identify religiousand linguistic minorities; and for exten-sion of the NCM Act to the State.

Interestingly, the apex court is alsohearing petitions seeking scrapping ofArticle 35A and Article 370 that bestowthe State with special constitutional sta-tus vis-à-vis the rest of India and make theminorities especially vulnerable.

Unfortunately, in the December 11hearing, the Supreme Court said it could

not direct the Jammu & KashmirAssembly to enact a law to set up a minor-ity commission, as the issue belonged tothe State Legislature. But on August 8,Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra hadobjected to the “disastrous” affidavit sub-mitted by the Mufti regime on the issueand asked the Centre and StateGovernment to jointly take a “consideredview” on the subject within three months.

Previously, on May 1, the centreinformed the court that a high-levelcommittee comprising the Union minor-ity affairs secretary, Jammu & Kashmirchief secretary and other officials was setup after the court’s March 27 order, to sub-mit a joint proposal suggesting solutionsto the problems faced by Hindus, Sikhs,Buddhists and Christians due to their non-identification as minorities in the State.The Jammu & Kashmir Government hadopposed the PIL for creation of a minor-ity commission on grounds that it was notthe only State where minorities declaredunder the National Commission forMinorities Act were in a majority.

However, a growing sense of depriva-tion has led to crystallisation of Hindusentiments on the issue. Recently, the BJPState spokesperson, Prof Virender Gupta,berated the coalition partner, saying,“The Kashmiri leadership that considersitself as the most secular lot in the coun-try cannot afford to ignore the plight ofminorities in the State who are criminal-ly victimised and discriminated against”.Gupta said it “amounts to cheating thenation and looting money from the cen-

tral exchequer meant for religious and lin-guistic minorities in the State”. But the BJPseems conflicted on the issue as State gen-eral secretary Ashok Kaul said Hinduscannot be a minority anywhere in Indiaas they are the national majority.

Meanwhile, discontent in Ladakh hascaused elected representatives to reiter-ate their demand for separation fromKashmir due to discrimination by succes-sive Governments in the past 70 years, inevery sphere — jobs, education, benefitsof schemes or political representation.Thupstan Chhewang, BJP MP fromLadakh, rues the BJP’s failure to imple-ment its promise of Union Territory sta-tus to Ladakh. Some MLAs favour cre-ation of “Greater Ladakh” comprisingKargil, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and allareas previously part of Ladakh regionbefore Partition.

The alacrity with which the ChiefMinister granted amnesty to 390 allegedly“first time stone throwers” in north Kashmirhas aggravated tensions in Jammu andLadakh; ultimately around 4,500 stone-pel-ters will be pardoned. At the other end ofthe spectrum, Hindu and Sikh refugeesfrom West Pakistan and Kashmiri Panditsforced to leave the valley in 1990, languishfrom sheer neglect, while funds are beingcollected to bring and settle illegalRohingyas in Jammu. Rohingyas are beingwooed by jihadi groups and pose a serioussecurity threat. For minorities, the playingfield is becoming increasingly lopsided.

(The writer is a political analyst andindependent researcher)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“If Gujarat was a battle, the warhas just begun” (December 25)by Kushan Mitra. Politics shouldrule over religion and not viceversa. Our MPs should have theauthority to take final decisionson the so-called religious prac-tices like triple talaq. If politicsgets controlled by religion thenthe latter will drag our societybackwards. We have enough evi-dence in history that proveswithout a shadow of doubt thatreligion after mixing with poli-tics produces poison.

Given that we have recentlybeen made to taste high levels ofsuch toxicity in the laboratory ofSyria, we must be cautious if anAssembly election in the 21stcentury India has been reducedto a temple-hopping competi-tion. Political leaders in a demo-cratic country like ours are sup-posed to detoxify political envi-ronment by strictly adhering tothe basic tenets of theConstitution.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — If Tamil Nadu politics wasalways tough to comprehend, theRK Nagar verdict has only reaf-firmed it. What led to such astunning victory for an indepen-dent candidate, TTVDhinakaran, who had a newpoll symbol and no party appa-ratus to back him? Dhinakarancountered the bigger players bymaking the election about him-

self. He played the underdog tothe hilt, even when the Chennaipolice did not allow him to cam-paign on the first two days.Dhinakaran allegedly matchedthe money power of the AllIndia Anna Dravida MunnetraKazhagam, note for note. If 2017was politically chaotic in TamilNadu, 2018 promises to be nodifferent. Tamilains must beready for a bumpy drive ahead.

Padmini Raghavendra Secunderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Justice upheld” (December25). For Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) chief and former BiharChief Minister Lalu Prasad, theBirsa Munda Jail in Ranchi is afamiliar turf — this will be histhird stint. The civil society maysquirm over his recurring infrac-tions of the law, chiefly becausenone of his jail yatras were in thecause of social justice — but oncharges of self-aggrandisement.

Lalu, though, wears his con-victions and imprisonments asbadges of honour; which, accord-ing to his narrative, is the pay-back for standing up to uppercaste hegemony, but he is notalone. Craftily, he has been try-ing to pass off his conviction asan assault by the BJP on the for-ward march of the backwardclasses but the big question nowis: Will Lalu Prasad be around tostump in 2019?

P ArihanthSecunderabad

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Page 7: C M Y K - dailypioneer.com Violet Line (Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate). The entire Magenta Line will become operational by March, 2018. The Botanical Garden ... Bhopal. ˛˛ ˙ ˙

The Gaekwad family lives in a sin-gle room house on the outskirtsof Mumbai. The family cooks,

eats and sleeps in the same room whichis also used as a play area by their three-year-old child. Lack of credit preventsthem from taking loan to improve theirliving conditions. The Gaekwads areamong the millions of Indians who liveon sidewalks, on railway platforms, inillegal slums and shanties.

There is little more critical to a fam-ily’s quality of life than a healthy, safeliving space. However, this section ofIndia’s poor lives in inhuman conditionsand is often under the threat of dis-placement, harassment and arrest.Over the last decade, India has substan-tially expanded its net of welfare poli-cies, aimed at lifting millions from

poverty. It seems that the time hascome for the ‘right to shelter’. Priorityfor housing ought to be higher thaneducation and health. Sustainable andinclusive housing solutions can bolsterlarge economic growth efficiently.

There was a time when landless-ness, which inevitably accompaniespoverty and its attendant ills, affecteda smaller chunk of the population.However, the number of landless peo-ple has been rising. The ones withoutland join the ranks of the worst onesin extreme poverty and the task ofpoverty alleviation became even moredifficult. Considering the links betweenlandlessness and poverty or the needto score better successes against pover-ty, it is important to put a hard brakeon the process of becoming landless.

Landlessness and the lack of secureproperty rights among the poor areamong those inequities that perpetu-ate poverty, hold back economic devel-opment and fan social tensions.Demographic shifts, combined withpoor or non-existent land ownershippolicies and insufficient resources haveresulted in a surge of slum creation and

further deteriorated living conditions.Hernando de Soto in his book, The

Mystery of Capital: Why CapitalismTriumphs in the West and FailsEverywhere Else, said, “The hour of cap-italism’s greatest triumph,” declaresthe famed Peruvian economist, “is inthe eyes of four-fifth of humanity, itshour of crisis.” Soto explains that formany people in the developing world,the land on which they live is their onlyasset. If that property is not publiclyrecognised as belonging to them, theylose out that is, when men and womendo not receive recognised legal rightsto their land and can, thus, easily be dis-placed without recourse — develop-ment efforts flounder, underminingconservation efforts, seeding injusticeand conflict and frustrating efforts toescape poverty.

A major impediment to the acqui-sition of housing finance is the lack ofofficial land titles. People do not havedocumentary proof of being owners ofthe piece of land on which they live.Many low-income villagers have ownedtheir land for generations. Community-recognised institutions can help legit-

imise claims to land that have been longtenured by a household.

The United Nations has estimatedthat more than 70 per cent of the world’spopulation lives without any formalacknowledgement of ownership ofland. That is both a human and eco-nomic problem. Without the securityof ownership, poor often invest little intheir homes, result being a fragile homethat cannot withstand natural disasters,including floods. Whereas, when peo-ple have secure land rights, they investin improvement projects, work morehours without fear of land theft and aremore likely to take loans using theirnew property as security.

Lack of ownership right deprivespeople of basic amenities. Once titled,they can obtain access to severalGovernment benefits. Even a small plotcan lift a family out of extreme pover-ty. Land ownership is often the bedrockof other development interventions, likeowning land boosts nutrition, educa-tional outcomes and gender equality.The converse is equally true.

According to the National FamilyHealth Survey, only 19 per cent of the

rural population lives in pucca hous-es, whilst the remaining 81 per cent livein kutcha or semi-pucca structures.Eighty-seven per cent of the homes invillages do not have access to toilet facil-ities. Nationally, the total economicimpact of inadequate sanitation isestimated at $53.4 billion. Kutcha (orraw) structures have walls and roofsmade of materials, such as unburntbricks, bamboo, mud, grass, leaves,reeds or thatches. Semi-pucca structuressignify that either the walls or the roofare made of pucca materials. Pucca(meaning solid) structures are consid-ered permanent and are made out ofcement, concrete, oven-burnt bricks,stone blocks, tiles, and timber.

Several State Governments haveprovided a degree of tenure security topoor households, which grants resi-dents of unauthorised settlements spe-cific period licences for their land or anofficial assurance that the user will notbe forced to vacate the property. It alsoprovides evidence so that usual and cus-tomary local practices support thisassurance. All these rights entitle theoccupant to presumed ownership.

The Government must imple-ment an out-of-the-box approach tobreak down the thickets of red-tapism.What is actually needed is revolution-ary and cutting-edge reforms that ripthrough the dense jungle of paperworkand documentation. Given the scale,the need for adequate and affordablehousing presents significant businessopportunities for the private sector,especially for developers, investorsand financial institutions.

What is finally needed is close andpassionate collaboration. Inspirationdoes not occur in vacuum. It is a beau-tiful contagion that passes through indi-viduals who touch each other’s lives.One inspiring achievement has a ten-dency to raise a sense of possibility inothers. The one who is inspired per-forms his own feats and inspires oth-ers, and so on down. Even as we grap-ple with mounting challenges, healersare rising up to cure the ills. They aregoing to hollow places and creatingcommunities and building relationshipsthat change lives, one by one.

(The writer is the author of VillageDiary of a Heretic Banker)

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With the Bharatiya Janata Party’s(BJP) sense of renewed polit-ical invincibility after its mas-

sive win in Uttar Pradesh, expectationswere rife of Prime Minister NarendraModi pushing for what he has long beenrooting for: One nation, One election.But two factors may now weigh againstthe BJP’s enthusiasm in propagating theone-election idea. First, the party’spyrrhic victory in Gujarat and with the2G verdict acquitting all the scam taint-ed of the UPA II, it has pulled out ofModi’s hands the anti-graft moral highground which has been a major pollplank that most of his campaign strikeis built on. Second, the Gujarat cliff-hanger masks national seedings offarmer and youth discontent. Added toit are concerns of the Indian economystruggling to inch back to seven per centgross domestic product with jobless con-cerns mounting. Despite saffronising 19States, some of which came under theBJP’s dominance recently, and the restbeing ripe for anti-incumbency, it seemsunlikely Modi will now push for consen-sus on One nation, One election.

Prior to these developments, the BJPwas confident enough with tail windsfavouring its national dominance. Also,as the lone mascot and star campaign-er for his party, few Prime Ministers havehad to plunge so deeply into State elec-tioneering which could be a possible rea-son for having contemplated the idea ofsimultaneous polls in the Centre andStates as Indian elections turn more pres-idential. Synchronised elections wereproposed when LK Advani was deputyPrime Minister, as also in 1999, when the Law Commission of India,headed by Justice Jeevan Reddy, calledfor an end to “this cycle of elections everyyear and out of season.”

In a feasibility report presented tothe Rajya Sabha in December 2015, theParliamentary Standing Committee onPersonnel, Public Grievances, Law andJustice declared a concurrence amongstpolitical parties who appeared before thecommittee for simultaneous elections tothe Lok Sabha and State LegislativeAssemblies, as a cost-effective nobleproposition, “but difficult to implementbecause of our Constitutional arrange-ment.” Recently, even the Niti Aayogoffered a detailed study on the merits anddemerits of One nation, One election.

Till the 1960s, General and Stateelections were combined in the periodof single-party dominance by theCongress. But the advent of coalition pol-itics led to premature dissolution ofAssemblies, altering the timelines forState elections. A call for simultaneousLok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha electionshas its merits in curtailing spends bypolitical parties, who own large war-chests used for manufacturing consentthrough advertisements, rallies and dis-tributing freebies, as also will cut downon the deployment of State machinery

needed for administering polls. Besides,frequent imposition of the ElectionCommission’s model code of conductmonths before the elections freezescapital expenditure, which is much-needed for developmental projects.

With 29 States and seven UnionTerritories holding elections cyclical-ly, Government efficiency is reduceddue to campaign overdrive. The cost tothe exchequer in 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tion was estimated at �3,870 crore,while State elections averaged �300crore per State, a figure that has beeninflating over the years. However, fis-cal prudence is unlikely to convinceState satraps to consent to convergence,apprehending that voter behaviour isloaded in favour of pan-Indian, main-stream parties, should One nation, Oneelection be implemented.

For example, in 2014, the BJPswept the Lok Sabha poll, but lost theelections in Delhi and Bihar in 2015.Both these losses may not have hap-pened had One nation, One election pre-vailed because the mood of the nationin 2014 was a resounding Modi waveand Bihar and Delhi could well havebeen swept with that momentum. AnIDFC research, with a sample size of 513million voters, points to 77 per cent ofthe electorate choosing the same partyif elections were combined.

Given India’s demographic diversi-ty, federalism necessitates that individ-ual States exercise franchise through astaggered three-tier structure more thanonce in five years by: i) addressing localand civic issues through municipalelections; ii) developmental issues, suchas health, housing and infrastructurethrough State elections; iii) finance,defence and foreign affairs through cen-tral elections. Hence, the right of the elec-torate to exercise their franchise morethan once in the span of five years and

hold Governments accountable is muchmore important than limiting theiroptions to One nation, One electionbecause thereafter, voters have norecourse to express their approval orrejection for the next five years. Besides,the rise of regional parties is attributedto the State leaders being in tune withlocal hardships and local aspirations thana mainstream party. Consequently vot-ers have different preferences for Stateand central leadership.

So, frequent elections have multi-ple merits in providing momentaryemployment, boosting domestic con-sumption, as also preventing the trans-fer of power to a single entity due topopularity surge that could help annexboth State and Central rule, as againstthe dual election filter. When a ‘nation-al wave’ phenomenon occurs, transienteuphoria tends to cause irrational andmomentary sweeps with no interim exitoption to overthrow if the incumbentregime underperformed at the level ofState governance or Central governance,as voter power is limited to being king-for-a-day in the ‘lustrum’ (the five-yeartenure of appointed Governments).

As the BJP rode the momentumafter its resounding successes in UttarPradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradeshelections, the wins were interpreted asserial referendums that endorsed centralpolicies. The BJP-led NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA) has saffro-nised 19 States across the country andin 13 of these States, the Chief Ministerbelongs to the BJP. Now at this stage, withanti-incumbency building up at the cen-tre, the proposed amendment may notnecessarily favour the ruling regime andmay also be its biggest gamble.

Besides, no Chief Minister wouldwant his term curtailed to less than fiveyears if he has recently won a tough elec-tion. Yet, Modi was expected to bring for-

ward and club forthcoming State elec-tions with the General Election, had theparty’s internal assessments pointed toa favourable national mood.

In favour of One nation, One elec-tion, voters have been fatigued with the‘revolving door patterns’ in States, suchas Mayawati followed by a Mulayam rulein Uttar Pradesh, or Dravida MunnetraKazhagam followed by All India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam rule inTamil Nadu, and seem to prefer nation-al and stable formations replicated inStates too. Going for One nation, Oneelection could well have been a winner-takes all for the Modi sarkar in 2019 ifthe reform gets passed, but that was pro-vided the momentum sustained infavour of the Modi sarkar. Unlike onenation one tax of the Goods andServices Tax (GST), the BJP has no con-sensus on the proposed reform outsideNDA. And even for the GST, where mostStates consented, it took seven years forthe Finance Minister to dialogue with hisState counterparts to make it a reality.

While the jury is still out on the prosand cons of synchronised elections, if theproposal is implemented with the intentto enhance administrative efficiency, itcould be a step in the right direction. Butthe sheer logistics of holding simultane-ous elections could be unmanageable toimplement, given that the electorateexceeds 670 million voters and 7,00,000polling stations spread across varyinggeographic zones that will have to con-sider localised weather conditions, fes-tivals and events. Also, local and nation-al issues could get subsumed by eachother and fears would abound on themisuse of Article 356 by the UnionGovernment, making One nation, Oneelection an impractical concept to caterto a diverse polity such as India.

(The writer is an author and columnist)

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One of the most wanted topleaders of the outlawed

CPI Maoist Jinugu NarasimhaReddy alias Jampanna, whohad surrendered to theTelangana police along with hiswife last Friday, was producedbefore the media by the StateDirector General of Police MMahinder Reddy on Monday.

Jampanna, a member ofpowerful Central Committee ofCPI Maoist and his wifeapproached the police througha ruling Telangana RashtraSamiti leader in Warangal andsurrendered before theMahabubabad DistrictSuperintendent N Koti Reddy,the DGP told the media.

57 year old Jampanna saidthat the reason for his decisionto surrender was his ill health.He said he was holed up inKandhamal in Odisha for manyyears and was suffering frommany ailments.

Involved in many seriouscriminal offences, Jampannacarried a reward of �20 lakhsand his wife, an M.Sc fromOsmania University carried areward of �5 lakh on her head.“As per the rehabilitation poli-cy of the State Government, thecouple will get the rewardmoney and we will help themin rehabilitation”, the DGP said.

Describing his surrender asa big shot in the arm for thesecurity forces, MahinderReddy said, “for more than 20

years, this man was responsiblefor strengthening the Maoistmovement in North Telanganadistricts and adjoiningDandakaranya area. He is verystrong, both ideologically andin terms of military strategy.”

While Jampanna joinedthe Maoist outfit 34 years ago,his wife Hinge Rajita joined in2003. The two got marriedthree years later.

Jampanna hails fromCherlopalem village in theerstwhile Warangal district.His family owns 11.5 acres of

prime wetland in the village.After graduating in 1980 fromthe Zila Parishad SecondarySchool at Cherlopalem andtaking a one-year break,Jampanna joined the IndustrialTraining Institute at Mallepallynear Hyderabad. He complet-ed the course in 1983 andimmediately joined the People’sWar Group (PWG) beforegoing underground.

Police said that his healthdeteriorated in recent years. OnDecember 16, 2014, he wasnearly killed in an encounter

with the Odisha Special Policein Telan forest near Kalahandi.Since then, he had been cool-ing his heels in Kandhamal, awell-protected Maoist turf.

Telangana Police dossier,before he became a centralcommittee member, Jampannawas the outfit’s NorthTelangana special zonal com-mittee secretary. He also brieflyheaded the Odisha State com-mittee, and was involved in sev-eral operations along theChhattisgarh-Odisha border.In the intervening night ofJanuary 14-15, 2005, Jampannahad a narrow escape when ananti-Maoist Greyhounds policeteam ambushed a Maoistsmeeting in a reserve forestarea on the Warangal-Khammam border nearKamaram village.

Pointing out that there were135 underground cadre of CPIMaoist from Telangana work-ing for the party across India,the DGP appealed to them tojoin the mainstream. “Theycan directly approach the policethrough their kith and kin,relatives, friends and media tosurrender. Upon their surren-der, the Government will takeall the measures to rehabilitatethem”, the DGP added.

Jampanna’s surrender wasbeing seen as a big blow to theCPI Maoist at a time when theoutlawed organisation was try-ing to regain a foothold inTelangana for the last three anda half years.

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Kerala joined the world inChristmas celebrations on

Monday with Christiansthronging churches for HolyMass and special prayers acrossthe State but much of the day’straditional colour and cheerwere taken away by the painand losses brought about byCyclone Ockhi that wreakedhavoc in the coastal regionalmost a month ago.

There were no celebra-tions in the fishing hamlets ofThiruvananthapuram likePoonthura, Vettukad andVizhinjam which had borne themaximum brunt of the cycloneas people continued their waiteven on Christmas day for the

return of their dear ones whohad gone to sea before thestorm hit the coast almost amonth ago knowing that theirwait most probably was mean-ingless.

The Latin Catholic Churchto which majority of the fish-ermen in Thiruvananthapurambelonged had taken a decisionnot to have any formal or spe-cial celebrations for thisChristmas in the parishes likeVizhinjam, Poonthura,Adimalathura and Thumba asthe fate of scores of fishermenwho had gone to sea from therebefore the cyclone was stilluncertain.

Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan wished a MerryChristmas for all Keralites but

the main point in his Christmasmessage was: “There should becare for the poor. We should bewilling to feed them. For thisChristmas, let us stand by our

brothers and sisters who aregoing through pain in the con-text of the continuing miseriesbrought about by CycloneOckhi.”

In his message to Keraliteson the special day, Governor PSathasivam wished thatChristmas enrich people’s liveswith the eternal spirit of love,compassion, generosity andforgiveness and strengthensocial harmony. CardinalBaselios Mar Cleemis led theHoly Mass at the St Mary’sCathedral of the SyroMalankara Catholic church atPattom, Thiruvananthapuram.

Leading the specialChristmas services at the StJoseph’s MetropolitanCathedral at Palayam inThiruvananthapuram, LatinCatholic Church’s ArchbishopM Soosapakiyam said theChurch was considering a com-prehensive package for reha-

bilitation of the cyclone victims.He also called for helping thenext of kin of the victims.

Almost all Christian fam-ilies in Poonthura gathered atthe St Thomas Church there forMidnight Mass on Sunday notfor singing carols but for pray-ing for those who were killedin the cyclone and those whowere yet to return from sea.After Vicar Justin Jude read outfrom the Gospel According toMatthew, the church court-yard turned into a venue forwailing and weeping.

Visiting the cyclone-affect-ed families in Vettukad fishinghamlet inThiruvananthapuram on theChristmas morning,Devaswom and Tourism

Minister KadakampallySurendran of the CPI(M)assured the fisherfolk that thefinancial assistance theGovernment had declared ear-lier for the families of thosekilled in the cyclone would bedistributed without delay.

Stating that the search inthe sea for the missing fisher-men would continue till the lastmissing man was found, theMinister said that 133 fisher-men were yet to return fromthe sea. “The Government willensure that the relatives of thefishermen who have gone miss-ing and have been consideredas dead are getting all requiredassistance,” he said.

The Government had theother day said 208 fishermen

who had gone to sea beforeCyclone Ockhi hit were yet tobe found and 166 of them werefrom Kerala. As per theGovernment’s estimates, thecyclone had claimed 74 livesand 32 of the bodies foundfrom the sea were yet to beidentified. However, theChurch is insisting that 317fishermen are yet to be found.

Meanwhile, a report quot-ed the Revenue Department asconfirming that six fishingboats of a group of nine thathad gone to sea from Kochibefore the cyclone hit the State’scoast had been destroyed in thestorm while there was no infor-mation about three boats. It issaid that the nine boats hadbeen carrying 92 fishermen.

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Even if mercury has comedown below 10 degree

Celsius in Gujarat’s capitalGandhinagar, political heatseems to soar on the eve ofhigh-profile swearing-in cere-mony of Vijay Rupani as ChiefMinister and his Council ofMinisters.

The ceremony to be heldon Tuesday will be attended byPrime Minister Narendra Modiand 18 Chief Ministers of BJPand its allies ruled Statesincluding that of neighbouringMaharashtra, Rajasthan andMadhya Pradesh apart fromIndia’s largest State UttarPradesh.

Contrarily from the antici-pation that the swearing-in cer-emony might be arranged ateither Mahatma Mandir inGandhinagar or at Sardar Patelstadium in Ahmedabad, theState administration decided toorganised at State Secretariatitself. As result of it, theSecretariat campus situated insector 10, has been transformedinto fortress in wake of PM Modiand other dignitaries’ presence.

Sources in the State HomeDepartment informed thatsecurity arrangement at thevenue would be monitored by

IGP level officer. There wouldbe more than 2500 policemeninside and outside theSecretariat that include three SPlevel officials, 45 police inspec-tors, 120 PSIs and 150 policewomen. More over a advancesecurity liaison process toowas completed on Mondayafternoon to ensure tight secu-rity for the Prime Minister.

Apart from PM and 18CMs, 250 VVIP guests fromacross the nation will remainpresent to witness coronation ofVijay Rupani as Gujarat CM. Asenior official with GeneralAdministration Department(GAD) said that nearly 10,000people expected to attend theofficial State function.

Luxury hotels inAhmedabad and Gandhinagarhave been booked by the StateGovernment. Three teams ofdoctors have been deployed at

Gandhinagar Civil hospital.Even at the venue of the func-tion, special medical facilitiescreated to cope up with anyemergency. An office set up forthe Prime Minister has beencreated at the State secretariatcomplex, so that he wouldremain in constant contactwith his New Delhi office.

Roads of the State capitalhave been cleaned and some ofthe roads were resurfaced in awar footing. Main roads lead-ing towards the Secretariatcomplex from where convoysof VIPs will pass have beenclosed for general public.

It is worth mentioning thatin the recently concludedAssembly polls BJP won 99 outof 182 seats which would allowthe saffron brigade to formGovernment in Gujarat for thesixth consecutive time since1995. The opposition Congresssecured 77 seats, three by inde-pendents, two by BharatiyaTribal Party and oneNationalist Congress Party(NCP).

Meanwhile, an indepen-dent MLA from Lunawadaconstituency in central GujaratRatansinh Rathod has extend-ed his unconditional support toBJP which would make theparty’s tally in the House to 100.

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The anti-talk faction of Ulfahas released one Arunabh

Phukan, who they had abduct-ed on December 15 from Jagunin Tinsukia district. Familysources said that the Ulfa fac-tion had released Arunabhwithout any ransom. Arunabh,son to Tinsukia based busi-nessman Dilip Phukan wasabducted on December 15 bya four members group of thefaction on the suspicion ofbeing a spy of security forces.

It may be mentioned herethat Assam police in associa-tion with Arunachal Pradeshhad intensified operation alongthe Assam Arunachal Pradeshborder areas in search ofArunabh. Police team had sus-pected that the abducted per-son was taken to Myanmar bycrossing the Indo-Myanmarborder in Arunachal Pradesh.

There was also a rumourdoing the round that the out-fit had demanded �2 crore forsafe release of Arunabh.

Commander-in-chief of theUlfa faction Paresh Baruah laterinformed some Assam basedtelevision channels that they hadtaken Arunabh over suspicionthat he was spying against theoutfit on behalf of the securityforces. “There is no question ofany ransom demand. We want-ed to grill him and so broughthim here. He is a ‘my dear’ boyand we have released him ingood health,” Baruah said.

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Union Minister AnanthKumar Hegde known for

his diatribe courted one moremajor political controversymocking the secularists bysaying they (secularists) cannotrecognise their own parents.49-year-old Hegde, a five-timeLok Sabha member fromUttara Kannada, is no strangerto controversies. A case wasregistered against him forallegedly using derogatory lan-guage against Karnataka ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah atKittur in Belagavi districtrecently.

He stoked another contro-versy ahead of Assembly pollswhich is crucial for BJP as wellas ruling Congress which isfighting tooth and nail toretain power in the State.

Taking part in a BrahminYuva Parishat programme atKukanoor town in Koppal dis-trict on Sunday, he said he feelshappy if people say proudlythat they are Muslims orChristians or Lingayats orHindus as they are aware oftheir lineage. He had beenslapped with cases for his ‘hatespeeches’, including one wherehe allegedly equated Islamwith terrorism.

He said, "But, I don't knowwhat to call those people whocall themselves 'secular'. Thosewho, without knowing abouttheir parental blood, call them-selves ‘secular’, they don’t havetheir own identity... They don’tknow about their parentage,but they are called intellectu-als.”

“When it comes to it (sec-ularism), they point to the

Constitution. Yes, we agree, itis included in the Constitution”.Anant Kumar Hegde who isfrom the RSS stable and holdsthe Skills Development port-folio in the Modi Cabinet,said that Manusmriti hadbecome outdated and in the

present times, 'AmbedkarSmriti' was being talked aboutinstead. “We respect the con-stitution and it has changedover the time, and it willchange in the future. We arehere to change theConstitution,” he added.

Hitting out at Hegde onMonday, Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah said the Ministerhas not studied theConstitution, does not knowparliamentary or political lan-guage. He said Hegde has notlearnt the social system andadded that people belonging tovarious religions live in India.

“Each and every individualin this country is an Indian,and every religion has equalright and opportunity. He doesnot have this basic knowl-edge,” Siddaramaiah toldreporters in Hubballi.�������������������������� ��*������ ���++ �� 5!� ������ ������������ �����������?� �� @�A����# ���� ����B� ��-�@������*�-�� � ������ � ����

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As the river Mahadayi(Mandovi) water sharing

between Karnataka and Goahas become a major issue in theensuing Assembly elections,Union Human ResourcesDevelopment Minister PrakashJavadekar blamed the rulingCongress Government led byChief Minister Siddaramaiahfor the stalemate and making ita political row. Addressing themedia in Bengaluru onMonday Javadekar who is alsothe election in charge of BJP inKarnataka said it was Congresswho stopped release of waterfrom Mahadayi to Karnataka.

He said “It was theCongress party which wasresponsible for the present sit-uation otherwise the issuewould have been solved yearsback. Congress party is the cul-prit. It was Vajpyee who gavethe permission for this project.It was Congress while in power

at Goa stopped release of waterto Karnataka on the directionby then Congress PresidentSonia Gandhi and not theNDA Government headed byPrime Minister NarendraModi”. “It is double speak of theCongress. They have betrayedthe State and the farmers” headded.

Appreciating Goa ChiefMinister Manohar Parikkarand his initiative to resolve theissue over a letter to KarnatakaBJP chief BS Yeddyurappa theUnion Minister blamed ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah for

making it political issue aheadof elections.

“ Siddaramaiah has makingit a political issue. ManoharParikkar is ready for talks toresolve the issue. He(Siddaramaiah) is unnecessar-ily blaming the BJP leaders. LetCongress not indulge in suchcheap politics,” he added.

Javadekar took strongexception to KarnatakaPradesh Congress Committee(KPCC) Working PresidentDinesh Gundurao’s statement

early in the day and said he wasnot staying in Raj Bhavan toplan something againstSiddaramaiah.

“I was staying in RajBhavan and Governor VajubhaiVala has left for Gujarat onDecember 23 (Saturday) itselfwhere the question of meetinghim and discusses about Stateissue. I have not come here todraw plans againstSiddaramaiah or hisGovernment,” he said. “It isridiculous. Congress has goneberserk. Governor is not here.I came only on Sunday. I con-demn this. Congress is lying. ”he added.

Earlier in the day local TVchannels have said Javadekargave a secret visit to Raj Bhavanand discussed about party’splea for permission to prose-cute Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah on illegal de-notification. It may be notedhere that senior BJP leader andMLC BJ Puttaswamy met the

Governor and gave a memo-randum seeking permission toprosecute Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah and Minister forBengaluru Development KJGeorge in connection with theillegal de-notification of 7.56acres of land in Bhupasandraarea in the city.

If Governor Vaju Bhai Valapermits as in the case ofYeddyurappa when he was theChief Minister then GovernorHans Raj Bhardwaj had givenpermission to prosecute whichsent him to jail, it has becomea major challenge to ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah who isplaying the appeasement poli-tics to the hilt. Governor hasaccording to sources has askedfor the legal opinion in thisregard. If Siddaramaiah is pros-ecuted it is going to change thepolitical space of Congress inthe State ahead of electionswhich is crucial for RahulGandhi as president to proveappoint in leading the party.

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Amid Christmas festivities,India’s first air-conditioned

local train journeyed fromBorivali railway station toChurchgate terminus in southMumbai on its inaugural run,completing the travel in 45minutes.

A few hundreds of passen-gers – comprising media per-sons, Western Railway offi-cials and political functionar-ies cheered, clapped, cut cakesand took selifies, as they trav-elled in the cool confines of theAC suburban local train whichdeparted from Borivali railwaystation at 10.30 am and reachedChurchgate terminus at 11.15am.

Maharashtra SchoolEducation Minister VinodTawade, city MPs KiritSomiaya, Gopal Shetty, MLAAshish Shelar, WesternRailway’s General Manager AKGupta, Divisional RailwayManager, Mumbai CentralMukul Jain jointly flagged offthe AC local train on its inau-gural run.

The passengers travellingby the maiden AC local trainwere cheered by people gath-ered at various suburban rail-way stations en route.

The Western Railway willoperate AC local train on anexperimental basis betweenChurchgate and Borivali sta-

tions till December 29.Beginning January 1, 2018,

the AC local train will run ona regular basis as per the sched-uled time table betweenChurchgate and Virar stations.

The authorities will oper-ate a total of 12 services of ACsuburban train — 6 serviceseach in up and down direc-tions— on weekdays fromMonday to Friday. The air-conditioned rakes will not beoperated on Saturdays and

Sundays to facilitate their main-tenance.

The new AC train serviceswill replace the existing 12non-AC services. After theintroduction of the new ACtrain services, the total averagenumber of suburban serviceson WR’s suburban section willremain 1355.

Out of the to-be intro-duced 12 AC local train ser-vices, eight ill run as fast localtrains between Churchgate and

Virar, stopping only at majorstations i.e. Mumbai Central,Dadar, Bandra, Andheri,Borivali, Bhayander and VasaiRoad in both directions.

Similarly, three fast serviceswill run between Churchgate &Borivali stopping at MumbaiCentral, Dadar, Bandra &Andheri stations in both direc-tions. The remaining one ser-vice will run as slow servicefrom Mahalaxmi to Borivali,which will stop at all interme-

diate stations. In this AC localtrain, coaches reserved forLadies and seats earmarked forSenior Citizens are differentfrom Standard Configuration.While 1st and 12th coach fromChurchgate end are earmarkedas Ladies coache and 7 seats in2nd and 11th coach fromChurchgate end are earmarkedfor Senior citizens, 10 seats in4th and 7th coach fromChurchgate end are earmarkedfor Divyangs.

In an effort to providesecurity to passengers travellingby AC locals, the WR willdeploy suitable number ofRPF constables in each coachof this train. Similarly, techni-cians will also be deputed in thetrain for trouble shooting pur-pose. Suitable announcementswill also be ensured for open-ing of the door as per the plat-form position of upcomingstation.

Manufactured by theIntegral Coach Factory,Chennai, the fully air-condi-tioned air-suspension coacheshave a capacity of carrying5,964 commuters per rake,automatic door opening-clos-ing system, LED lights,Emergency Talk Back Systembetween commuters and guardbesides a public address system,advanced GPS-based passengerinformation systems, speedsof upto 100kmph, air-tightvestibules inter-connecting all

12 coaches, other modernamenities and latest safety fea-tures for commuters. Each rakehas 1028 seats and 4936 stand-ing capacity.

The base fare for passen-gers travelling by AC locals fora single journey will be 1.3times of the base fare of exist-ing fare of single journey tick-et for first class. However as anintroductory offer for a periodof initial six months, the basefare of single journey of ACEMU shall be charged 1.2times of the base fare of exist-ing fare of single journey firstclass ticket. The differencebetween 1.3 times and 1.2times will be shown in the tick-et as discount during the intro-ductory period.

There will also be seasontickets for AC local travellers.The weekly, fortnightly andmonthly season tickets shall becharged equivalent to 5, 7.5and 10 single journey of ACEMU respectively. No othertype of season tickets shall beissued for the time being.

In addition, MUTP sur-charge or any other charges ifapplicable shall be levied sep-arately as per applicable rate forfirst class coach. Five per centGST be levied on the total fareas per the existing principle.The AC train ticket holderwill also be allowed to travel byfirst class compartments oflocal trains.

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President of India RamnathKovind started his winter

Southern Sojourn last nightwith a formal dinner hosted bythe Governor ESL Narasimhanat Raj Bhavan.

President Kovind alongwith the first lady arrived atHakeempet Air Force Station ina special flight and was accord-ed a warm welcome by theChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao and otherofficials.

Later he attended theChristmas eve dinner at RajBhavan. The dinner was alsoattended by the Chief Ministersof the two Telugu states KChandrasekhar Rao ofTelangana and N ChandrababuNaidu of Andhra Pradeshalong with several other digni-taries and senior officials.

A one on one chat betweenthe two Chief Minister caughtthe attention of many of thosepresent.

KCR and Naidu had aninteraction for fifteen minuteson the lawns of the Raj Bhavan.This was their first meetingafter quiet a while and it cameafter recent controversy overTelangana Government notinviting Naidu to the just con-cluded World TeluguConference in Hyderabad.

Film star turned politicianPavan Kalyan was also amongthe guests at the dinner and hispresence created a flutter. PavanKalyan who intends to create asplash in the next electionsunder the banner of his JanaSena party, also had brief inter-actions with both the ChiefMinisters and met many otherdignitaries.

The other prominentguests include formerGovernor K Roshaiah, manyfilm stars and socialites, theState Director General of PoliceM Mahinder Reddy, Ministersand MPs.

President Kovind who is onhis first Southern Sojourn inHyderabad after his electionearlier this year, will be stayingat the Rashtrapati Nilayam atBolarum till December 31.

He is also hosting at homeon Wednesday which will beattended by the governorNarasimhan, Chief MinisterKCR and other officials. As partof the sojourn he will also visitAndhra Pradesh for three days

and back in Hyderabad he willspend two more days at thePrashanti Nilayam.

It is part of a old traditionthat the President undertake aSouthern Sojourn toHyderabad to escape the harshwinter of New Delhi.

Rashtrapati Nilayam, aestate spread over 90 acresincluding many verdant gar-dens and green spaces, hasserved many presidents as theirsecond home after Delhi’smajestic Rashtarpati Bhavan.Various departments of theState Government were busy incleaning and sprucing up theRashtarpati Nilayam buildingas well as its surroundingincluding Herbal Garden, FruitGarden and other gardens. Asthe vast estate remains unusedin the remaining months of theyear it becomes infested withreptiles and other animals likemonkeys, authorities had todeploy the staff from the forestdepartment to catch andremove them this year too.

Meanwhile AndhraPradesh Government has start-ed preparations for PresidentKovind’s visit to Guntur onDecember 27 where he willattend the centenary celebra-tions of Indian EconomicOrganisation at the AcharyaNagarjuna University.

He will also lay the founda-tion stone for the Fiber Grid inAndhra Pradesh and attendlunch to be hosted by the ChiefMinister Chandrababu Naidu.

Guntur Urban SP VijayRao and other officials visitedthe venues of President’s pro-grams including the newlybuilt helipad at the JamesSchool grounds. About 1000police personnel were beingdeployed for Kovind’s maidenvisit to Guntur.

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has

arrested two more persons inconnection with alleged cor-ruption in the �2,150-crorere-development project ofITPO Complex at PragatiMaidan in New Delhi. NBCCchairman-cum-managingdirector Anoop Mittal has beenmade an accused in the case.

According to CBI, theagency has arrested SanjayKulkarni, managing director ofCapacite Structures andGhaziabad-based middlemanRishabh Agrawal in connectionwith the corruption case, tak-ing the total number of peoplearrested to four. The names ofboth Kulkarni and Agrawalfigured in the first informationreport (FIR) of the CBI.

The agency booked Mittal,Kulkarni, Agrawal, public ser-vant Pradeep Mishra and thealleged bribe delivery person,Akashdeep Chouhan, in thecase on December 22. It allegedin the FIR that the contract toredevelop the prime land atPragati Maidan was awarded toShapoorji Pallonji andCompany Pvt. Ltd. AndShapoorji Pallonji Qatar WLLfor `2,149.93 crore by NBCC,and Mumbai-based CapaciteStructures was trying to get thatwork from Shapoorji Pallonjion a subcontract.

Kulkarni had approachedAgrawal, the middleman, hav-ing good contacts with publicservants for getting the subcon-tract in favour of the company,it alleged. The FIR allegedAgrawal approached PradeepKumar Mishra, a public servant

in an intelligence agency whowas on deputation and was alsoclose to certain senior func-tionaries of NBCC Ltd.

Under the influence ofMishra, Mittal “strongly direct-ed” the executive director ofNBCC to settle the matter infavour of Capacite Structures,it alleged. The CBI said infur-therance of the conspiracy, ameeting was held on December15, 2017, between Kulkarni,representative of ShapoorjiPallonji, including SanjayKharkhanis and senior officialsof NBCC.

After the meeting, Mittalassured Kulkarni and Mishraabout getting work fromShapoorji Pallonji and that ifCapacite Structure does not getthe work, he would “ensure thatit would not be given to anyone else”, the FIR alleged.

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At 65 feet, or as tall as aseven-storey building, a

pine conifer at a society inWorli here is attracting visitors,for its tag of being India’stallest fully decoratedChristmas tree. The tree, locat-ed at a garden in Adarsh Nagarsociety in South Mumbai’sWorli area, has been decorat-ed with over 10,000 lights,bells, images of reindeer andsnowmen, and a waving SantaClaus.

The Saldanha family, orig-inally hailing from Mangalore,acquired the tree from a neigh-bour who grew it on his veran-dah, for �250 over four decadesago, Douglas Saldanha said.“My sister Twila and I re-planted it and watered it regu-larly,” the 56-year-old land-scape architect told PTI.

Saldanha said he has beentending to it for over fourdecades.

“For the past 12 years, wehave been decorating it onevery Christmas, from top totoe as you may call it,” he said.

“My sister Twila used tohelp me in the decoration, tillshe left for the US and died in2005 after battling cancer. Ihave been doing it since,” hesaid. “Twila’s last wish wasthat I keep on decorating thetree fully so that she could seeit from heaven,” he said.

Saldanha claimed that thepine conifer has “entered recordbooks as India’s tallest natural-ly grown fully decoratedChristmas tree.”

Come Christmas and theSaldanha family sees a steadystream of visitors who come towatch the tree and click selfieswith it on their smart phones.

Meanwhile, Mumbaikarsheralded Christmas with amidnight mass, the mostprominent one being at theMount Mary Church in subur-ban Bandra.

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More and more job seekersin India and other parts

of the world are looking for“flexible career” opportunitiesand getting inclined towardswork from home option, saysa report. An annual studyundertaken by Indeed global-ly noted that Indian job seek-ers put flexibility at a premiumwith searches for work fromhome increasing 111 per centin 2017.

“With companies offeringcompetitive salaries and gener-ous perks along with greatflexibilities, employees areincreasingly exploring flexiblecareer opportunities that allowtime for growth in personalcapabilities,” the report said.

Among others, digital mar-keting, government and tech-

nology-related jobs also sawsignificant rise in 2017.

Global technology disrup-tions coupled with the Indiangovernments aggressive focuson digital has seen its impacton the local labour market.

“With more companies inIndia wanting to increase theirdigital presence, there is a vis-ible surge in job searches fordigital marketing jobs withcore technology opportunitiesin the domains of Machinelearning, Data scientist andData analytics being the hotfavourites,” the report added.

The report further notedthat, while pharma sector sawa 40 per cent dip in search vol-umes in 2017 compared to2016, job search for Ayurvedasaw a growth rate of 56 per centin 2017.

Moreover, government job

searches witnessed a boostdespite a surge in tech oppor-tunities. “While globally techjobs are the most sought after,in India job seekers are inclin-ing towards public sector jobs,”it noted.

“While flexibility remainsa priority for most job aspirantsglobally and in India, the incli-nation of the Indian workforcetowards Ayurveda and publicsector jobs signify the impactof socio-economic develop-ments on the job market andpeoples preferences,” said SashiKumar, Managing Director,Indeed India.

Indeeds data science teamanalysed hundreds of thou-sands of search terms in tencountries to identify which ofthem dramatically increasedtheir share of search traffic inthe year.

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A29-year-old software engi-neer working in the city

has been missing since lastMonday after he put up his carfor sale online, the police said.Kumar Ajitabh, who hails fromPatna, had listed his vehicle ononline marketplace Olx forsale. Police said Ajitabh’s friendssuspect that he had gone out onDecember 18 evening around6:30 pm to meet a prospectivecar buyer. According to police,his phone is switched off.

It was reportedly active onWhatsApp till about 7:10 pmthat evening, they said. Ajitabhhad got through an executiveMBA programme at IndianInstitute of Management,

Kolkata and was about to shiftfrom the city, where he wasresiding with a friend since2010. He is said to have put hiscar up for sale to fund his stud-ies.The car also has not yetbeen traced, the police said,adding they are searching forhim.Ajitabh’s phone was lasttracked to Gunjur on the out-skirts of the city.

The engineer’s family andfriends have also started asocial media campaign withhashtag #FindAjitabh”.

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Senior National Conference(NC) leader Devender Singh

Rana on Monday met Jammu& Kashmir Governor NNVohra and voiced concernabout ‘unwarranted interfer-ence’ of the National GreenTribunal (NGT) into the pil-grimage to holy cave shrines ofAmarnath and Vaishno Devi.

Rana, the provincial pres-ident of the main oppositionparty, met the Governor at theRaj Bhavan and voiced seriousconcern about recent reportsregarding the proposal of var-ied restrictions to be imposedon the conduct of the two pil-grimages in the state, includingon the rituals in the sanctumsanctorum, an officialspokesman said.

The spokesman said theNC leader cautioned about thelikely consequences “if therewas any disturbance of thecenturies old traditions”.

The Governor observedthat both the shrine boards

would consider the issuesunder reference and take therequired action.

Vohra urged Rana to con-tinue sustained efforts for pro-moting the growth and the wel-fare of the people of the state,

the spokesman said.After meeting the

Governor, Rana said he tookstrong exception to “unwar-ranted interference” of theNGT into matters of faith andsought the intervention of theGovernor in getting the “illog-ical directives” on the pilgrim-ages of Amarnath and ShriMata Vaishno Devi revoked.

Rana said he expressedgratitude to the Governor, whois also the chairman of the twoshrine boards, for taking noteof the massive concern shownby various socio-politicalorganisations, including theNC, and convening the boardmeeting early next month toreview the developments tak-ing place in the wake of NGTdirectives. “One after anotherdirective over the conduct of

these pilgrimages is intriguing.The subsequent flip-flop andclarifications offered by theNGT make the developmentsmysterious,” he said, addingthat it was high time the shrineboards were “reined in”.

He said the boards have totake due care of religious con-cerns attached to these shrinesand that restrictions should beimposed on the NGT so as tocounter the ill-effects of its“illogical directives”.

Rana apprehended that thedirectives would lead to areduction in the number of pil-grims to Mata Vaishno Deviand would hurt the economy,saying it will also be colossalloss to religious pilgrims in theregion.

He wondered over thedirective about maintaining

silence before the holyShivlingam in the cave sanctumsanctorum, saying it betrayslogic as outpouring of mantrasduring the course of darshan isnatural manifestation of senti-ments and therefore “themouths cannot be ordered tobe shut or stitched”.

However, the NGT hadclarified regarding the decisionthat it had not imposed anyrestriction including on chant-ing of mantras and singing ofbhajans inside the Amarnathcave shrine in south KashmirHimalayas.

It said that the only restric-tion imposed was that anydevotee or any individualshould maintain silence whilestanding in front of the“Amarnath Ji Maha Shivling”, anatural formation in the cave.

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Mumbai: Miffed over seniordoctors remaining absent froma function he was attending ata Government hospital inMaharashtra, Union MinisterHansraj Ahir on Monday said,“These people” should join theNaxals if they don’t believe indemocracy, and theGovernment will then shootthem down.

The Minister was speakingat the inauguration of a 24x7store for generic medicines ata government-run hospital ineastern Maharashtra’sChandrapur, which he repre-sents in the Lok Sabha.

“The mayor came, thedeputy mayor came but whatstopped the doctors from com-ing for the event?” an angryAhir asked, noting the absence

of senior doctors at the event.“What do the Naxals want?

They don’t want democracy...So these people (the absentdoctors) don’t want democra-cy, then they should join theNaxals. Why are you here?Then (once you join theNaxals) we will pump youwith bullets, why you are dis-pensing pills here?” Ahir said,punning on the Marathi word‘goli’ — which means both apill and a bullet.

Ahir wondered if it wasappropriate for doctors to go onleave when a “democratically-elected” minister was on a visit.Chandrapur is one of the fourdistricts in Maharashtra whichhave been identified by the cen-tral government as affected byLeft-Wing Extremism. PTI

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Jammu: Jammu & KashmirForest Minister Lal Singh todaysaid the central government ismaking efforts to restore nor-malcy in the state and anyonecan talk to the Centre’s specialrepresentative DineshwarSharma about their problems.

“In a democratic set up,the governments always try tomake the situation peaceful tobring prosperity to the peopleand appointment of Sharma isin that direction,” Singh toldreporters on the sidelines of afunction here.

On the latest Kashmir visitof the Centre’s representative,he said a lot of people metSharma and briefed him abouttheir issues and problems.

About reports that Sharmahad a closed-door meetingwith some separatist leaders inthe past, Singh said there was no problem in meetinganyone.

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Indian Oil Corp (IOC) andBharat Petroleum Corp Ltd

(BPCL) are both keen to acquiregas utility GAIL India Ltd tobecome fully integrated energycompanies. IOC and BPCL haveseparately indicated to the petro-leum ministry their interest intaking over GAIL to help addnatural gas transportation andmarketing business to their kitty,official sources said.

GAIL, on the other hand,feels a merger with oil and gasproducer ONGC would be moreappropriate. The merger optionswere indicated followingFinance Minister Arun Jaitley’sannouncement in the 2017-18Budget speech on theGovernment’s plan to createintegrated public sector oilmajors that will be ‘able tomatch the performance of inter-national and domestic privatesector oil and gas companies’.

ONGC, India’s largest oiland gas producer, proposed toacquire oil refiner and fuel mar-keting company HPCL, whichwas approved by the Cabinet. Oiland Natural Gas Corp (ONGC)

is currently in the process ofacquiring the Government’s51.11 per cent stake in HPCL,which at current prices is worthover �3,000 crore. Sources saidIOC and BPCL gave separateoptions for the integration.

The Government’s 54.89per cent stake in GAIL is cur-rently worth about �46,700crore. Integration options sug-gested by other companieswould be taken up only afterONGC-HPCL merger is com-plete, they said.

IOC, the largest oil refinerand fuel marketing company inthe country, wanted to eitheracquire another refiner to addto its capacity or a gas compa-

ny like GAIL. The firm feels italready has a fledging gas busi-ness in under-constructionLNG terminals, city gas distri-bution projects and gas mar-keting. GAIL, the nation’sbiggest gas transporter andmarketing company, wouldcomplement that, it felt.

BPCL on the other hand toohas natural gas ambitions andwrote to the oil ministry sayingGAIL was its number one choicefor acquisition. It listed OilIndia Ltd (OIL), the nation’s sec-ond largest exploration firm, asits number two choice. TheGovernment holds 66.13 percent stake in OIL, which at cur-rent market price is worth about�18,000 crore.

GAIL feels merger withONGC makes more sense assuch a move would integrategas producer with transporta-tion and marketing network.Sources said the Governmenthas not taken any decision onthe proposals sent by otherPSUs. The Government is keenon the PSU-PSU merger orintegration options as it wouldhelp it cash out on its holdingyet retain its control.

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Every time I walk into a newemployee induction session,

I am caught looking at all thenew faces representing a multi-generational workforce.

For new employees, it isnever a surprise on the first dayat work to get introduced to aunder 35 something supervi-sor/manager, a plus 50-year-oldteam member and an aspira-tional bunch of millennials; allwanting to change the face ofhealthcare and making a dif-ference to the lives they touchevery day.

It is both humbling andexhilarating at the same time.Expectedly, a new workplacesetting and unfamiliar facescan make us nervous. There arehidden apprehensions aboutworking with older or youngercolleagues. One might even

wonder if they would be takenseriously. But if the workplaceis designed right, in a short fewweeks, new employees can findthe environment where innov-ative ideas are valued and imple-mented. New friendships formto inspire each other and drivecollaboration at the workplace.

Given that more than halfof India’s population is less than25 years of age, the differencesbetween generations, manifest-ed in their attitudes, values,motivations and communica-

tion styles, are far more pro-nounced here than it is else-where. Besides, with socio-eco-nomic, cultural and politicalcomplexities already in place, agenerational difference onlyamplifies these complexitiesfurther, resulting in a workforcethat is as diverse as it can be dif-ficult to manage.

A fundamental challengefaced by human resource (HR)leaders is managing a multi-generational staff with hiddenbiases that can hamper pro-

ductivity and make a dysfunc-tional workplace.

In an age where businessesconstantly seek smarter talentmanagement strategies for itsgrowing millennial workforce,it is important that firms alsotake up the challenge to lever-age diversity in every form andbring out the best in all theiremployees on merit.

If you look around anyworkplace today, you will findthe majority to be millennials.If managed carefully, wisdom,

experience and innovationalong with technical skills of allthe generations at the workplacecan be shared to deliver lucra-tive business solutions.

Another challenge is theworkspace design itself.According to the WorkplaceTrends Survey, in 2012 theaverage space allotment perperson was 200 sq ft. In 2013,companies shifted to 150 sq ftfor two-thirds of their peopleand 100 sq ft for another 20 percent.

“This is shrinking as timegoes by. The traditional 10 and5-year lease terms are understrong pressure to becomeshorter and more flexible,” saysthe survey.

Leaders must serve by help-ing employees bring their bestself to work every day by remov-ing internal stresses. Theyshould proactively ensure thatthat various cohorts are able toco-exist and work togethereffectively, with each one main-taining its unique identity.

By facilitating mentorshipand reverse mentoring, they caneasily open effective channels ofcommunication, knowledgetransfer and organisational trust.An inclusive workplace willdeliver the best outcomes toemployees and customers.

(The writer works as ChiefHuman Resources Officer at Johnson& Johnson - India & South Asia)

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Steering the ‘smooth and fast-paced’ journey of the insol-

vency law, the IBBI is now look-ing to put in place the regime forindividual insolvency in a phasedmanner, according to itsChairperson MS Sahoo.

Around 500 corporateshave been admitted for resolu-tion and about 100 companieshave commenced voluntaryliquidation under theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC), which is a littleover a year old. As it enters2018, individual insolvencyregime and facilitation of cor-porate insolvency transactionsare among the main prioritiesfor the Insolvency andBankruptcy Board of India(IBBI).

“We are looking forward toimplementing a regime forindividual insolvency in aphased manner. In the firstphase, we would implement theinsolvency regime in respect ofindividuals who are guarantorsto corporates undergoing reso-lution process,” Sahoo said.

This would be followed bythe regime for individuals whoare doing business -- propri-etorship or partnership firms.While emphasising that the jour-ney of the IBC has been “smooth,fast-paced and focused,” Sahoosaid all the constituents underthis Code are on the same pageand that regulations are beingamended to meet the emergingexigencies.

“A very tentative estimate ofthe total underlying defaultamount which formed the basisfor initiation of resolution ofabout 500 corporate debtors isabout Rs 1.3 lakh crore,” thechairperson told PTI in an inter-view. He also made it clear thatthis figure is neither the totaldefault nor total claim related tothese 500 companies.

The IBBI came up inOctober 2016 and the first cor-porate debtor was admitted forresolution in January this year. Acase is taken up for resolutiononly after approval from theNational Company Law Tribunal(NCLT). A significant number oflenders have initiated insolven-cy proceedings against various

companies with regard to stressedassets while proceedings havealso been started against realtyfirms and others. Another pri-ority for the IBBI is to facilitatecorporate insolvency transac-tions.

“Many resolution and liqui-dation transactions will maturein the next few months and thosemay throw up some lessons anddeficiencies in the regulatoryframework. We would addressthem expeditiously,” Sahoo noted.According to him, the NCLT, theNCLAT (National CompanyLaw Appellate Tribunal) and thejudiciary are at the forefront ofthe insolvency law reform.

“They have settled severalcontentious issues expeditiouslyand delivered many landmarkorders, bringing in clarity aswhat is permissible and what isnot, and streamlining the processfor future," he said. When itcomes to the institutional infra-structure, there are 12 benches ofthe NCLT, the IBBI, threeInsolvency Professional Agencies(IPAs), 1,300 InsolvencyProfessionals (IPs), 50 InsolvencyProfessional Entities and 1

Information Utility. “We would focus on building

capacity of IPs and keep a closewatch on their conduct. Wewould facilitate operationalisationof Information Utilities so thatauthentic information is availableto the adjudicating authority andinsolvency professionals to com-plete the transactions expedi-tiously,” Sahoo said.

Asserting that the environ-ment is conducive for the Code,the IBBI chairman said there isa helping hand from every-where, including the RBI, SEBIand the Government. “SEBI hasexempted resolution plansfrom the requirement of pub-lic offer under the TakeoverCode, preferential allotmentfrom pricing norms, etc.”

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NEW DELHI: The SeriousFraud Investigation Office(SFIO) has taken up probes into63 companies in the current fis-cal for allegedly indulging in ille-gal money pooling activities.This translates to an average ofseven companies being referredfor investigations per month(since the figures are tillDecember 18).

The count of such companiesbeing referred to the white collarcrime probe agency is also thehighest in the last 3 financial years,according to data available with thecorporate affairs ministry. Theagency comes under this ministry,which is implementing theCompanies Act. A total of 63 firmswhich were involved in ‘chitfund/MLM (Multi-LevelMarketing)/ponzi activities’ havebeen assigned to the SFIO fordetailed probes.

The number could go upsince there are three months togo before the financial year

comesto aclose. In2 0 1 6 -17, thenumberof suchcompa-nies thatc a m e

under the SFIO lens was just 27- much lower than 47 seen in2015- 16. As per the data, theSFIO investigations were orderedinto the affairs of 51 companiesfor alleged ponzi schemes.

Generally, ponzi schemesare illegal money pooling activi-ties wherein gullible investors arelured with promises of highreturns on investments in a shortperiod. Authorities, includingboth at the central and state lev-els, have been stepping effortsto curb these kind of schemesas a large number of peoplehave fallen prey to such activ-ities. PNS

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The finance ministry has askedpublic sector banks (PSBs) to

look at rationalising their domes-tic and overseas branches aspart of the reform process tostrengthen their financials. Thebanks have been advised to pur-sue closure of loss makingdomestic and internationalbranches as part of capital savingexercise, official sources said.

There is no point in runningloss making branches andputting burden on the balancesheet, so banks should look at notonly big savings but also smallsavings like these for improvingoverall efficiency, sources said.Many banks, including StateBank of India (SBI) and PunjabNational Bank (PNB), havealready taken initiative.

Besides, Indian OverseasBank has rationalised the num-ber of regional offices in thecountry by reducing 10 region-al offices from existing 59 with anobjective of optimum utilisation

of resources and reduction inadministrative costs.

With regard to overseasbranches, the ministry has askedthe lenders to discuss consolida-tion and take a final call on clos-ing some unviable operations.The ministry is of the view thatthere is no need of multiple banksin a single country, sources said,adding that banks can explore asingle subsidiary formed withfive-six banks coming togetherfor conserving capital and real-ising economy of scale.

Besides the subsidiarymodel, public sector banks arealso looking to close downbranches or selling off sub-sidiaries to focus on markets thatgive them maximum returns. Aspart of the rationalisation strat-egy, PNB is exploring possibil-ity of selling a stake in its UKsubsidiary PNB International.Bank of Baroda and SBI are alsoexamining the issue of consoli-dation. Bank of Baroda haspresence across 24 countriesthrough 107 branches/offices.

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In order to promote electricvehicles (EVs) in India, auto

industry body SIAM has sug-gested reduction of GST on suchautomobiles to 5 per cent, besidesone-time income tax deductionof 30 per cent of vehicle price fornon-financed buyers.

In a white paper submittedto the Government, the Societyof Indian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM) alsomooted exemption of road taxfor EVs, while stating that amulti- pronged, segment andcustomer specific policy will beneeded for a successful transitionto electric mobility.

The policy should collectivelyaim at improving affordability andacceptance of electric vehicles bybridging viability gap; enablingcharging infrastructure build-out; encouraging domestic man-ufacturing and creating publicawareness besides providing otherenablers, it said.

“Demand incentives or cashsubsidies can at best be a short-term measure to kick-start theprocess. However, tax rebatesand other fiscal and non-fiscal

measures can be sustained overa longer term and will have agreater impact and outreach,”the paper said.

On specific fiscal measures,SIAM said GST rate for all EVsmay be brought down from 12per cent to 5 per cent and roadtax be fully exempted. For EV

buyers, the paper proposed a‘one-time income tax deductionof 30 per cent of vehicle pricefrom total taxable income toindividual purchasers, who havenot availed any bank finance forthe purchase’.

To determine the cut-offprice for such an incentive, a max-imum vehicle price of �25 lakh(the same used to define SUVs asper SIAM classification) may beconsidered, it added. The paper

further said for individuals whohave availed bank finance topurchase a personal EV, ‘incometax deduction of up to �1 lakh onthe interest component for loanstaken may be given every yearduring the tenure of the loan, likeGovernment’s scheme on homeloans’.

On interest rate of finance, itsought a favourable treatmentsimilar to priority sector lendingfor electric vehicles. Seeking non-fiscal support, the white papersaid power tariff for charging ofEVs could be 50 per cent of theexisting domestic rate for homeand workplace charging.

“Attractive power tariff rateat public charging infrastruc-ture could be considered toenhance utilisation,” it added.

Exemption of toll chargesfor all EVs, parking fees for allpersonal EVs and allowingelectric 2-wheelers to be usedas taxis nationwide are amongseveral measures suggested bySIAM. The auto industry bodyhas proposed all new vehiclesales in India to be pure elec-tric by 2047 while the same forintra-city public transport fleetcan be achieved by 2030.

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MUMBAI: Kingfisher Airlines(KFA) founder Vijay Mallya is a“victim of flamboyance andarrogance rather than any polit-ical conspiracy”, Air Deccanchairman GR Gopinath has said.Gopinath, who is credited withmaking flying affordable throughthe no-frills airline, also said thatthe prevalent regulations ‘forced’KFA to acquire his company.

He sold Air Deccan to KFAfor a total consideration of�1,000 crore in 2007, during theheydays of the aviation sector.“I think he (Mallya) has becomemore a victim of flamboyanceand arrogance than of any polit-ical conspiracy,” Gopinath toldPTI over the weekend.

The near-bankruptKingfisher Airlines has beengrounded since 2012 and owesbanks over �9,000 crore, far lessthan bigger defaults in sectors

like metals and infrastructure. Aregular at global partying circles,Mallya, whose interests includeFormula-1 and an annualswimwear calendar, moved toLondon amid growing attentionfrom the Indian law enforce-ment agencies and courts.

He has now become theposter-boy of defaults. Theliquor baron was ‘not wise’about his activities during thedays of default, Gopinath said,referring to him as a ‘politicalfootball’, who borrowed moneywhen the Congress-led UPAgovernment was in power.

Without naming politicalparties, he pointed out that oneparty was disgruntled thatMallya was allowed to leave thecountry, while the other blamedthe former for not taking ade-quate action against him fordefaulting. PTI

:� ��� �<����������!�� ����������������.��������

��# ������ Just over 2 croreIndians, or 1.7 per cent of thetotal population, paid income taxin the assessment year (AY)2015-16, according to datareleased by the I-T department.The number of income-taxreturn filers increased to 4.07crore in assessment year 2015-16 (FY 2014-2015) from 3.65crore in the previous year butonly 2.06 crore actually paid taxas the others claimed incomebelow taxable limits.

In the previous AY 2014-15,1.91 crore, out of 3.65 crore whofiled returns, had paid incometax. But the total income tax paidby individuals declined to �1.88lakh crore in AY 2015-16 from�1.91 lakh crore in AY 2014-15.The data, released last week, indi-cates just over 3 per cent of the 120crore population filed returns. Ofthese, 2.01 crore paid nil incometax, 9,690 paid tax of over �1 crore.

Only one individual paidover �100 crore in taxes (�238crore to be precise). Maximumamong of 19,931 crore was col-lected from 2.80 crore tax filerswho paid between �5.5 lakh to�9.5 lakh in taxes. As many as 1.84crore returns were filed for pay-ment of income tax of less than�1.5 lakh or an average of �24,000.

Of the 4.07 crore tax returnsfield in AY 2015-16, close to 82lakh showed zero or income lessthan �2.5 lakh. Currently, noincome tax is for income up to�2.5 lakh. In AY 2014-15, 3.65crore filed tax returns with 1.37crore showing zero or less than�2.5 lakh income. The combinedincome of all individual tax filersrose to �21.27 lakh crore in AY2015-16 from �18.41 lakh crore inthe previous year. PNS

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NEW DELHI: TheGovernment has issued a freshset of norms to govern the con-duct of central PSU employees,which bars them from politicalactivities and criticising its poli-cies or actions. The rules willimpact over 12 lakh employeesworking in state-owned firms.

The ‘consolidated modelconduct, discipline and appealrules for CPSEs’ also prescribesthat employees must not acceptany gifts refrain from consum-ing any intoxicating drink ordrug in a public place, notappear in a public place in a stateof intoxication, or use any intox-icating drink or drug to excess.

“For the purposes of this rule,‘public place’ means any place orpremises (including a con-veyance) to which the public have,or are permitted to have, access,whether on payment or other-wise,” the Department of PublicEnterprises said. “No employeewill make any statement, whichhas the effect of adverse criticismof any policy or action of the anyGovernments, or of the CPSE, orwhich is capable of embarrass-ing the relations between theCPSE and public.” PNS

NEW DELHI: Pension fundregulator PFRDA is looking atfeasibility to allow minors openan account under the NationalPension System (NPS) and willgo through the legal aspectsassociated with the matter, itschairman Hemant Contractorhas said. “We are looking at thepossibility of allowing minors tojoin NPS because in some coun-tries it is allowed. So we are look-ing at that issue,” Contractor toldPTI. He said there are legalissues as far as allowing minorsto open such an account is con-cerned and the PFRDA is look-ing at ways to sort it out.

“There are legal issues like aminor’s capacity to enter a con-tract. Under the law, minorscannot enter into a contract.Another issue is like whether theycan discharge their responsibil-ities under the contract. So we aretrying to find out how to getaround those issues,” he said.When asked about the time-frame to bring any clarity on theissue, he said there will be a dis-cussion internally then only thePFRDA will approach the financeministry on the matter. PTI

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Bahrain's top military courtsentenced six men to death

today after convicting them ofcharges including plotting toassassinate the Gulf State'sarmed forces chief, State mediareported.

It was the first officialmention of any plot against thelife of Field Marshal SheikhKhalifa bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa,who is a member of the rulingfamily, but the Bahrain Newsagency gave no further detailsof when or where it was allegedto have taken place.

Tiny but strategic Bahrainhas been gripped by unrest foryears as its Sunni royal familyhas resisted demands from itsShiite majority for a constitu-tional monarchy with an elect-ed prime minister.

A judicial source told AFPthat all six of those sentencedto death on Monday wereShiites. BNA said that one ofthem was a serving soldierbefore his arrest and that all six

were also stripped of their cit-izenship.

The court sentenced sevenother defendants to seven-yearjail terms and deprived themtoo of their citizenship. Fivemen were acquitted.

Only 10 of the defendantsare in custody, BNA said. Theother eight are on the run -either inside Bahrain or inIran or Iraq.

Since crushing Shiite-ledstreet protests in 2011, Bahrainiauthorities have cracked downon all dissent, banning bothreligious and secular opposi-tion parties and jailing hun-dreds.

Human rights watchdogssay that counter-terrorism leg-islation has been abused toprosecute many peaceful oppo-sition figures.

The United States has crit-icised Bahrain for its humanrights record but the kingdomholds a strategic position justacross the Gulf from Iran andprovides the home base for theUS Fifth Fleet.

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Saudi police have recoveredthe body of a kidnapped

pro-Government Shia judgeafter a shootout in which apoliceman and a suspectedmilitant were killed, theInterior Ministry said onMonday.

The remains of JudgeMohammed al-Jirani werefound on a farm in the town ofAwamiya in the kingdom'sEastern Province, which hasbeen a hotbed of protestsamong the Shia minority foryears.

The raid took place lastTuesday and subsequent DNAtests confirmed that a bodyrecovered was that of SheikhJirani, a Ministry spokesmantold the official Saudi PressAgency.

The Ministry named theslain suspect as Salman al-Faraj, adding that he was want-ed on suspicion of terrorismoffences.

Sheikh Jirani was kid-napped in December 2016 infront of his Awamiya home.The authorities said at the time

that they had arrested threesuspects.

Considered close to theauthorities, the judge had beenthe target of several attacksbefore his abduction.

In 2011, his house and carwere set on fire and membersof his family barely escaped theflames. In 2012, his house wasattacked again by armed menwho failed to capture him.

Sheikh Jirani was critical ofthe protest movement amonghis fellow Shiites and accusedleading clerics in the commu-nity of being too close to Iranand neighbouring Iraq.

Awamiya, a town ofaround 25,000 people, has seenbouts of unrest since 2011when protesters emboldened

by that year's Arab Springuprisings took to the streetsdemanding an end to allegeddiscrimination by the Sunni-dominated Government.

The Shiite communitymakes up between 10 and 15percent of Saudi Arabia's pop-ulation of 32 million.

The latest wave of unresterupted in the summer whenauthorities began tearing downthe historic Musawara districtof Awamiya.

Authorities said that thewalled neighbourhood'slabyrinth of alleyways hadbecome a breeding ground for"terrorists".

The demolitions promptedarmed clashes between mili-tants and security forces.

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Iran's Supreme Court hasapproved the death sentence

of an Iranian researcheraccused of spying for Israel.

Ahmad Reza Jalali, whohas been jailed since April2016, was shown on state TVearlier this month confessing toproviding information toIsrael's Mossad spy agencyabout Iranian military andnuclear scientists, includingtwo who were assassinated in2010. It was not clear if he wasspeaking under duress. Rightsgroups say detainees in Iran areoften denied due process.

The semi-official ISNAnews agency reported thecourt's decision on Monday. Itis not clear when the sentencewill be carried out. The rulingis not subject to appeal.

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The Chinese Governmenthas urged countries to act

with restraint and work to easetensions after North Koreacalled the latest UN sanctionsto target the country "an act ofwar" that violates its sovereignty.

Foreign Ministry spokes-woman Hua Chunying saidtoday that nations should "exer-cise restraint and make positiveand constructive efforts to de-escalate tensions on the(Korean) Peninsula."

The UN Security Councilunanimously approved toughnew sanctions against NorthKorea on Friday in response toits latest launch of a ballisticmissile that Pyongyang sayscan reach anywhere on the USmainland.

Hua said the new UN res-olution emphasises "not inflict-ing adverse humanitarianimpact" on North Koreans andnot affecting regular econom-ic activities, humanitarian assis-tance and the activities of thediplomatic missions in NorthKorea.

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Hundreds of thousands ofpeople in Vietnam's

Mekong Delta were evacuated asthe region braced for the arrivalof Typhoon Tembin after thestorm left more than 160 peopledead in the Philippines.

Weather forecasters wereexpecting the delta's southern tipto be in Tembin's path, and saidheavy rain and strong windsstarting tonight could cause seri-ous damage in the vulnerableregion, where facilities are notbuilt to cope with such severeweather.

National television stationVTV reported that several hun-dred thousand people were evac-uated from their houses, whichare mostly made from tin sheetsand wooden panels.

In Vung Tau city, thousandsof fishing boats halted theirmonthslong fishing trips toreturn to shore.

Typhoons and storms rarelyhit the Mekong Delta. But in1997, Tropical Storm Lindaswept through the region, killing770 people and leaving morethan 2,000 others missing.

Over the weekend, Tembinunleashed landslides and flashfloods that killed at least 164 peo-ple and left 171 others missingin the Philippines, according toRomina Marasigan of the gov-ernment's main disaster-response agency.

Initial reports from officialsin different provinces placedthe overall death toll at morethan 230, but Marasigan warnedof double counting amid theconfusion in the storm's after-math and said the numbersneeded to be verified.

More than 97,000 peopleremained in 261 evacuation cen-ters across the southernPhilippines on Monday, whilenearly 85,000 others were dis-placed and staying elsewhere, theNational Disaster Risk Reductionand Management Council said.

The hardest-hit areas wereLanao del Norte and Lanao delSur provinces and theZamboanga Peninsula. Tembinhit the Philippines as a tropicalstorm but strengthened into a

typhoon before blowing out ofthe country Sunday into theSouth China Sea towardVietnam.

Philippine officials hadwarned villagers in accident-prone areas to evacuate early asTembin approached and thegovernment was trying to findout what caused the widespreadstorm deaths, Marasigan said.

She added that it was diffi-cult to move people from homesshortly before Christmas.

"We don't want to be drag-ging people out of their homesdays before Christmas, but it'sbest to convince them to quiet-ly understand the importance ofwhy they are being evacuated,"Marasigan said at a news con-ference in Manila.

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Asuicide bomber killed sixcivilians in an attack near

an Afghan intelligence agencycompound in Kabul on Sundayin the latest assault claimed bythe Islamic State group in thecapital.

The attacker struck asworkers were arriving at theoffices of the NationalDirectorate of Security (NDS),a week after militants stormedan NDS training centre inKabul.

Interior Ministryspokesman Najib Danish toldAFP six civilians in a car werekilled when the attacker blewhimself up. "Six people weremartyred and three others werewounded," Danish said. "They

were hit when they were pass-ing the area in their Toyotasedan vehicle. We still do notknow the target of the attackbut it happened on the mainroad."

The Health Ministry con-

firmed the death toll but putthe number of wounded at one.

An AFP reporter at theblast site said the attack hap-pened outside the mainentrance to an NDS com-pound. Security forces have

swarmed into the area, closingoff the main road leading to thebuilding.

Ambulances were seen leav-ing the scene, apparently takingcasualties to hospitals in thecity."Our initial informationshows a blast took place near anintelligence headquarters inShash Darak neighbourhood ofKabul," Deputy Interior Ministryspokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.

The Islamic State claimedthe attack in a statement viatheir Amaq propaganda arm. Itwas the latest claimed assault bythe Middle Eastern jehadistgroup in Kabul, which in recentmonths has become one of thedeadliest places in the war-torncountry for civilians.

Security in the city hasbeen ramped up since May 31when a massive truck bombripped through the diplomat-ic quarter, killing some 150people and wounding around400 others — mostly civilians.

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Bethlehem/Jerusalem: USPresident Donald Trump's recentdecision to declare Jerusalem asIsrael's capital has taken joy outof Christmas for the people inthe holy land who witnessed alow key celebration today withthousands of tourists choosing tostay away from festivities.

The Manger Square, wheretourists and locals generally jos-tle for space before the midnightmass, looked forlorn with signsof despair visible on the faces ofsellers and street vendors.

Michael Kumsiyeh, a sou-venir shop owner in the MangerSquare, squarely blamedPresident Trump for the doomand gloom.

"He makes a problem. Hedoesn't make any solution,"Kumsiyeh said. "Its a bad situa-tion. No celebrations, no touristsand everybody is unhappy,"lamented Kader, a coffee seller.

Trump declared Jerusalemas Israel's capital on December6 which sparked violence in theregion and worldwide protests.

Coming, as it did, just weeksbefore Christmas, the announce-ment forced thousands ofexpected pilgrims to pull out ofthe celebrations in the holy land.

The sparsely crowdedManger Square, the centre of cel-ebrations, had two big signsdeclaring "Jerusalem will alwaysbe the eternal capital ofPalestine", a message whichspoke of the prevailing mood.

Besides protests by thePalestinian Authority (PA),which controls the West Bankcity, cold and rainy weather alsodampened spirits, forcing peopleto leave the gloomy surroundingas the day progressed.

Jerusalem is at the heart ofthe Israeli-Palestinian conflict.For Israelis, it is home to theTemple Mount, the site of thetwo biblical temples and the holi-est place in Judaism. It is alsohome to Al-Aqsa mosque, thethird holiest place in Islam anda national symbol for thePalestinians.

The Trump administrationhas said its decision on Jerusalemdoes not mean it is pulling outof the Middle East peace processand that the US would supporta two-state solution if it is agreedto by Israel and the Palestinians.

However, PalestinianAuthority (PA) PresidentMahmound Abbas has said thathe no longer wants the US

involved in peace efforts follow-ing its decision which has erod-ed its credibility "as an honestmediator".

"Trump with his announce-ment became part of the conflictand not an honest mediator inthe Palestinian and Israeli peaceprocess," Bethlehem's MayorAnton Salman said.

Salman, a Roman Catholicwho was elected six monthsago, ironically leads a city whichhas a strong Muslim majority ofat least 70 per cent, with only 30per cent Christians.

It was once a Christiandominated city but emigrationarising out of a wave of violenceand economic hardships hasseen its Christian residents moveto several countries across theworld.

"There is no way we canaccept Trump's declarationbecause it compromises ournational principles, our nation-al rights, our national future andeverybody in Bethlehem andPalestine refuses and rejects thisstatement," Salman said, addingthat the "Palestinians are onepeople, and Jerusalem is sacredto Palestinian Christians andMuslims alike".

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Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu has promised Christians

around the world that he would betheir guide next Christmas and givethem a tour of the country's holy sites.

Jerusalem holds deep religious sig-nificance for Jews, Muslims andChristians. It includes the holiestground in Judaism, the third-holiestshrine in Islam and major Christiansites linked to the life of Jesus. "It's apleasure for me on Christmas Eve tobe here, standing, in Jerusalem, rightbehind me, the holy city," Netanyahusaid in a video message.

"I'm very proud to be the PrimeMinister of Israel, a country that says'Merry Christmas' first to its Christiancitizens and to our Christian friendsaround the world. I'm proud that Israelis the country in which Christians notonly survive, but they thrive," he said.

"Because we believe in this friend-ship among people and we protect therights of everyone to worship at theholy sites behind me," he asserts.

This follows the unusual offer inwhich the Israeli Prime Minister alsooffers to personally take Christian pil-grims on a walking tour of Israel's

Christian holy sites next year."So now I have a proposition for

all our Christian friends. I'm going totake next year on Christmas, for thoseof you who come to Israel, a guidedtour. In fact, I'll be your guide on thisguided tour," he says.

"And think of all the places youcan walk. You can go to the Jesus boaton the Sea of Galilee, you can get tothe Church of the Holy Sepulchre hereright behind me, any place that you’llwant to visit in the footsteps of Jesusand the origins of our Judaeo-Christian heritage," Netanyahu elab-orates.

"So please come to Israel, next yearin Jerusalem, and merry Christmas toall of you," he greets.

Christians gathered in Bethlehemon Sunday for an annual parade andother events, ending in midnightmass at the Church of the Nativity.

Extra police officers were deployedat crossings in Jerusalem andBethlehem for the holiday.

Jerusalem has been recently innews when US President DonaldTrump announced that he will recog-nise Jerusalem as Israel's capital andstart the process of moving the USembassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.

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Vatican City: Lamenting "the winds ofwar" blowing around the world, PopeFrancis in his traditional Christmasmessage on Monday called for a two-State solution to find peace in theMiddle East and prayed that con-frontation can be overcome on theKorean Peninsula.

The Pope took particular aim at

areas of global tension where PresidentDonald Trump is playing a critical role.

Trump's decision to recogniseJerusalem as Israel's capital has ignit-ed fresh violence in the Middle East,while confrontation with North Koreaover its nuclear tests has escalated ten-sions in Asia.

"The winds of war are blowing inour world and an outdated model ofdevelopment continues to producehuman, societal and environmentaldecline," the pope said in his traditional"Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and to theworld") Christmas message and bless-ing from the central balcony over-looking St Peter's Square.

As Christians celebrate the birth ofJesus, the pope depicted sufferingreflected "in the faces of little children,"citing war and other tensions in theMiddle East and Africa.

He asked for peace for Jerusalemand the Holy Land, and prayed "that thewill to resume dialogue may prevailbetween the parties and that a negoti-ated solution can finally be reached, onethat would allow the peaceful coexis-tence of two States within mutuallyagreed and internationally recognisedborders."

Francis also prayed for an end toconfrontation on the Korean Peninsulaand that "mutual trust may increase."

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Manila: The death toll froma storm that unleashedlandslides and floods acrossthe southern Philippineshas climbed to 240 withscores of others still missing,officials said on Monday.

Tropical Storm Tembinon Friday struck the coun-try's main southern island ofMindanao, which oftenescapes the 20 or so stormsthat batter the rest of thearchipelago nation each year.

Civil Defence officialssaid the number of con-firmed deaths from Tembinon Mindanao's Zamboangapeninsula had risen to 78,while the death toll in Lanaodel Sur province on theisland went up to 27.

The storm killed 135others in the northern sec-tion of the island, police saidon Monday, a figure thatwas unchanged from a dayearlier. Rescuers are stilllooking for 107 people inthese three areas. Manywere feared killed by mud-slides and flash floods thatburied or swept away hun-dreds of houses last week-end. AFP

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It's the question every good lit-tle girl and boy asks on

Christmas Eve: When is Santacoming? As it has done everyyear since 1955, a Canadian andAmerican defense agency istracking the jolly old man's patharound the globe in his rein-deer-powered sleigh.

A 3-D, interactive websiteat www.Noradsanta.org showsSanta on his delivery route,allowing users to click to learnmore about the various citiesalong the way.

The Santa tracker present-ed by the North AmericanAerospace Defense Command(NORAD) dates to 1955, whena Colorado newspaper adver-

tisement printed a phone num-ber to connect children with StNick mistakenly directed themto the hotline for the militarynerve center.

To avoid disappointing thelittle ones, NORAD's director ofoperations at the time, ColonelHarry Shoup, ordered his staffto check the radar to see whereSanta might be and update thechildren on his location.

When not spreading holi-day cheer, NORAD conductsaerospace and maritime controland warning operations --including monitoring for mis-sile launches from North Korea,something that may have beenon Santa's mind as he passedover the country's capital ofPyongyang.

"NORAD radars havesensed movement near theNorth Pole. It appears that theelves have finished loadingSanta's sleigh and Santa has lift-

ed off! Even loaded with all thegifts and goodies, Santa's sleighseems to be moving lightningfast," the website said in a videoclip at the launch of Santa's

global journey.As of 1545 GMT, Santa was

headed for the Indonesia cap-ital of Jakarta, having alreadyleft nearly 1.5 billion gifts forsleeping children in countriesincluding New Zealand,Australia, China, Japan, thePhilippines, and Malaysia.

This year, President DonaldTrump and first lady Melania,who are spending the holidaysat his Mar-a-Lago resort inFlorida, were expected to par-ticipate in Santa Tracker callsSunday afternoon.

Volunteers manning theNORAD phone line includedmilitary members in uniform,with a soldier completing hislook with a camouflage Santahat, according to photos on the

website's Twitter account.The Santa tracker "has

become a magical tradition forgenerations of families every-where," General Lori Robinson,commander of the USNorthern Command andNORAD, told Politico.

"While certainly a reminderthat we have the watch defend-ing North America, our ulti-mate goal is to provide goodwill and cheer during the hol-iday season."

Volunteers are armed witha 14-page handbook detailingthe "tracking operation,"Politico reported. "When arocket or missile is launched, atremendous amount of heat isproduced —enough for thesatellites to see them," it says.

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Skipper Steve Smith has confirmedpaceman Jackson Bird will replaceMitchell Starc in Australia's team for

the fourth Ashes Test against Englandstarting in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Smith also admitted he still had painin his right hand after being struck in thenets on Sunday but would play in theMelbourne Cricket Ground showpiece.

Australia have already reclaimed theAshes after taking an unassailable three-nil lead in the five-Test series and are chas-ing a 5-0 whitewash over the beleagueredtourists.

Starc, Australia's leading wicket-takerin the series with 19, withdrew from theteam on Sunday with a bruised heel andwill be replaced by Bird.

Smith said Bird, the leading SheffieldShield wicket- taker with 25 at 16.56 in fourgames for Tasmania this season, deserveshis chance.

"He's worked very hard. He hasn'tplayed since this game last year and he'sbeen on a few tours," Smith told reporterson Monday.

"He's bowled exceptionally well in thefirst couple of Shield games that he played(this season).

"He bowls well out here (at the MCG).He deserves a crack and hopefully he goesreally well."

Bird has been onseven overseas Test toursand has played in onlytwo of them, mostrecently being over-looked during series in India andBangladesh.

"It's tough at the time but he's takenevery bit of advice and every bit of criti-cism," Smith said of Bird.

"He's been fantasticaround the group the wholetime. Never complained,never whinged, just got on

with the job and that shows great charac-ter."

Smith, who boasts a Test average of127.6 at the MCG after posting centuriesin the past three Boxing Day games, said

he still wasn't feeling 100 percent after tak-ing a blow on his right hand on Sunday.

"It was a little bit sore today playing afew different shots," Smith said.

"But I'll be able to deal with it and I'llget on with it.

"Maybe I'll just have to use a bit moreof my top hand throughout the game, a bitless wristy.

"I copped a few (on the right hand) inthe nets in Perth and a few more in thegame. It just seems to be whenever you'regetting hit in a spot -- it just continuallygets hit."

Smith, who was part of the Australiateam that swept their home Ashes seriesagainst England 5-0 four years ago, said hewas determined to keep up the pressure

on tourists.But he also warned his team-mates

of the dangers involved with getting toofar ahead of themselves.

"We've now got an opportunity tokeep winning. That's been my messageto the boys, don't worry about 5-0 at thisstage," Smith said.

"You've got to win this one first."Smith said the MCG drop-in wick-

et looked flat meaning hard work for thebowlers.

"It looks pretty flat. It doesn't looklike there will be great deal of sidewaysmovement, maybe a bit of reverse swingas the game goes on," he said.

Meanwhile, batsman PeterHandscomb has been released from theTest squad to play for Melbourne Starsin their Big Bash League game againstPerth Scorchers in Perth on BoxingDay.

Wicketkeeper Tim Paine has joinedhis team-mates at training after hisarrival into Melbourne was delayed byfamily health problems.

����������������/����Young paceman Tom Curran will

make his Test debut in England's onlychange for the fourth Ashes Test againstAustralia.

The Surrey 22-year-old fast bowlerreplaces injured Craig Overton, who suc-cumbed to a rib injury when the touristsrelinquished the Ashes to the Australiansin last week's third Perth Test.

Curran has played three Twenty20sand a one-day international and was notoriginally chosen in England's Ashestouring squad.

But he got his chance when SteveFinn left the tour early with knee carti-lage problems and now has a Test oppor-tunity following Overton's injury setback.

Captain Joe Root said he was back-ing Curran to make the most of hisopportunity in the showpiece Boxing DayTest before huge crowds.

"Tom offers a lot and is a real com-petitor," Root told reporters whenannouncing the team on Monday.

"He has that real sort of work ethicand the way he goes about things is verysimilar to Craig (Overton) actually.

"The way he gets involved in the con-test and you know he is going to getinvolved in absolutely everything. He'salso very skilful and hopefully he canhave a really good week here."

Curran won the Test nod ahead ofMark Wood and Jake Ball.

Wood is nearing full fitness aftertouring with the England Lions, whileBall struggled in his only Test appearanceon tour in Brisbane.

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India have never managed a serieswin in South Africa, but coach

Ravi Shastri is determined to rewritethe history books when the men inblue tour the country next month.

"Nothing changes the way weapproach any other month. For us allopposition is the same, all opposi-tions have to be respected and everygame is a home match.

"And as it turned out that nextwe are in South Africa. Where SouthAfrica is different is that we haven'twon a series in South Africa. Thereinlies a massive opportunity for theteam to do something special,"Shastri told a news channel onMonday.

"The belief is there. We aregoing there and we will treat SouthAfrica like we treat any other oppo-sition we have played against. Therewill be respect but we will go thereto win," he added.

Shastri also lashed out at formerplayers who have crit icisedMahendra Singh Dhoni's form andquestioned his place in the limitedovers squad. Shastri, however, feelsthat the veteran wicketkeeper-bats-man is fitter than players 10 years hisjunior. "We are not stupid. I havebeen watching this sport for the last30-40 years. Virat has been a part ofthis team for a decade now. Weknow, at this age, he can beat play-ers aged 26. People who talk forgetthat they played the game. If they

look at themselves in the mirror andask the question 'what they were atthe age of 36?', would they have runtwo runs faster? But the time theyfinish two, this guy will run three.Then he has won only two WorldCups and averages only 51. Tilltoday you don't have a wicket-keep-er to replace him in the one-dayteam," the former all-rounder insist-ed.

"He is still one of the best around,not only in the Indian team but theworld. Some of the things you seewith him are not sold in the market.You will not get it anywhere else. Thefact that he does not play Test crick-et, means he should be playing asmuch cricket as possible till theWorld Cup in 2019," Shastri added.

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India captain Virat Kohli lost his pole position inthe latest ICC T20 Rankings as his absence due

to personal commitments led to loss of 48 rank-ing points.

India's 3-0 win over Sri Lanka enabled themto move up from their pre-series tally of 119 pointsto 121 points.

They have leapfrogged England, New Zealandand the Windies to move from fifth to second posi-tion in a list led by Pakistan with 124 points.

Kohli, who was at the top with 824 points pre-viously now has 776 points as he did not take partin the three-match series against Sri Lanka.

As players lose two per cent of their ratingpoints for each T20I missed, Kohli is now behindAustralia's Aaron Finch (784) and WEst Indiesopener Evin Lewis (780).

India's KL Rahul gained significantly to beplaced fourth in the table for his back to back halfcenturies in the just concluded series.

In the bowlers' list, Jasprit Bumrah not play-ing the final T20 International saw him slip to thirdplace behind Pakistan spinner Imad Wasim andAfghanistan's Rashid Khan.

Among other bowlers, leg-spinner YuzvendraChahal's eight wickets in the series have helped himmove up 14 slots to reach 16th position whileHardik Pandya (up 40 places to joint-39th) andKuleep Yadav (up 48 places to 64) have also movednorthwards after taking six wickets each.

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Comeback from a career-threatening injury is never

easy and that's why SouthAfrican pace ace Dale Steynmight not turn out to be as biga threat for India in next month'shighly-anticipated Test series,feels senior spinner HarbhajanSingh.

Steyn was out of competitivecricket for a year after sufferinga shoulder dislocation during aTest match against Australialast year.

"Dale Steyn is unarguablythe best fast bowler of the last 10years but coming back intointernational cricket is not easy.A Test match against Zimbabwewill not exactly be an indicatorof what he can do against India,"Harbhajan said during an inter-view on the upcoming SouthAfrica series.

"Look at the Indian battingline up. We have so much qual-ity. Murali Vijay, CheteshwarPujara, Virat Kohli, AjinkyaRahane, Rohit Sharma. This isperhaps among the best line-upin world cricket.

"For both Steyn and Morkel,it will be a challenge to stop thisline-up especially when theythemselves will need to get intothe groove," the 'Turbanator'assessed.

The lack of lateral move-ment in South Africa means thatbatsmen would only need tocounter the bounce.

"The kookaburra ball, aseveryone knows, will stop seam-ing after 20 odd overs. Plus it'sonly the bounce that needs to betaken care of."

There is a debate whetherHardik Pandya for his all-roundabilities should be India's choiceas No.6 but Harbhajan thinksotherwise.

He wants to see RohitSharma at the No.6 position ashe is still not sure how HardikPandya would shape up as abatsman in that important posi-tion.

"Rohit is a fabulous player.Someone who plays the pull shotwell and also plays the cut shotwell. Rohit is my pick at No.6. Hecan ride the bounce and play hisstrokes," he further explained.

"Hardik is a talented boy butRohit for me is a complete bats-

man," Harbhajan gave his takeon the subject.

Harbhajan did not want toread too much into India notplaying a practice game in SouthAfrica before the first Testmatch.

"It is a very team-specificdecision. The team manage-ment must have put some seri-ous thought while taking sucha decision. Obviously if theydon't have a practice game,possibly, the net bowlers who aregoing, will provide them withmatch simulation," he opined.

He is the fastest to reach 300Test wickets and that's why it willbe surprising if RavichandranAshwin is not an "automaticpick" in the Indian Test XI inAfrica, feels Harbhajan Singh.

India are expected to playsingle spinner in the three Testmatches and it is going to be atoss up between Ashwin andleft-arm spinner RavindraJadeja.

For Harbhajan, if Ashwin isfit, then there should not be anydebate about who the singlespinner in the playing XI shouldbe.

"If Ashwin is still not anautomatic pick after 300 wick-ets then when?" questionedHarbhajan.

For someone, who wasknown as Ricky Ponting's neme-sis (he got the former Australiancaptain 12 times in Tests),Harbhajan refuses to believethe theory that off-spinnerswould only be effective againsta team that has more left han-ders. "The South African pitch-es will test patience of spinnersas there won't be much purchaselike the sub-continent trackswhere the ball will turn andjump from Day 1. That's whereskill comes into play as one hasgot to be patient," saidHarbhajan.

The seasoned off-spinnerbelieves that India has the teamto beat South Africa in their ownden. "It's a confident team andit's always good to win match-es before any overseas tour.Any team that travels overseasloves to believe that it is goingthere to win the series. TheIndian team is no different. Wehave a good batting line-upand a quality pace attack," hesigned off.

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Sri Lanka won just one ODI in thejust-concluded full tour of India

but their coach Nic Pothas hassought to take the positives, sayinghis side were good in patches andwould return home as better play-ers.

Sri Lanka lost the three-matchTest series 0-1, followed by 1-2defeat in the ODIs and then suf-fered 0-3 humiliation in the T20Internationals. They lost the thirdand final T20I game by five wick-ets here last night.

"We have been good in patch-es. I will probably say that in the firstT20 we did not compete at all, inthe second T20 you had two fan-tastic innings," said Pothas, refer-ring to India stand-in skipperRohit Sharma's blistering knock of208 not out and Angelo Mathews'111 not out at Mohali.

"So we've competed then andwe've competed here as well.Certainly, you've seen glimpses ofwhere we're heading, and hopeful-ly this next tour to Bangladesh, thisis going to stand us in very, verygood state," he said.

The 44-year-old South Africa-born Pothas, who has played 200first class games as a wicketkeep-

er-batsman besides turning outfor a handful of ODIs, is set to goto Bangladesh in his original capac-ity of fielding coach after filling upthe vacant head coach's job in India.

The Lankans are to visitBangladesh for a short tour to playa couple of Tests and as many ODIsbetween January 31 and February18.

"Any tour to India is going tobe tough and I think from an edu-cational point of view and thedevelopment of our players, it hasbeen fantastic. Everyone is going toleave here as a better player,

whether it be mentally under-standing what they need to improveor physically within their skills," hesaid.

"So, I think you've always gotto look at the opportunity that we'vebeen given to come to India andcertainly there's a lot of these thatwe need to work on. But everyoneis going to leave with a better placeand with a better understanding oftheir own game," added Pothas.

����������������������South Africa-born Sri Lanka

head coach Nic Pothas has pre-

dicted a close contest when Indiaface the Proteas in the upcomingTest tour beginning next month,provided the Virat Kohli-led battingline-up measures up to the homeside's lethal new ball attack.

The 44-year-old Pothas saidthat the Indian team under Kohliseemed to have covered all theirbases. "They (India) have got alltheir bases covered. If you providethem with a green wicket they havegot bowling attack to knock overother batting line-ups. If it's a flatwicket, they have got those basescovered. If a wicket spins they havegot their bases covered," saidPothas. "If the Indian batting line-up can get runs against SouthAfrica, then South Africa is goingto find them (India) very tough,"said Pothas.

Talking about the India'spotential in the limited over format,Pothas said the Kohli-led side haveplenty of depth. "In one-day crick-et they (India) have got a lot ofdepth, even in the 3rd T20I, theymade a few changes (and) it did nothurt them. I like the fact that MShas closed games for a long timenow. He is the best in the world indoing that," said Pothas, who hasplayed 200 first class games as awicketkeeper-batsman.

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Selection is likely to be South Africa's biggestchallenge ahead of their one-off day- night

Test against Zimbabwe, starting at St George'sPark on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe are unlikely to stretch the homeside but South Africa, ranked second in Testcricket, will want to establish their best XI in thisfour-day Test ahead of athree-match series againstIndia, starting in Cape Townon January 5.

With the return of ABde Villiers and Dale Steyn after long absencesfrom Test cricket, and with all South Africa'sfront-line fast bowlers fit for the first time inmore than a year, coach Ottis Gibson describedthe selection issue as "a good nightmare".

"India are the number one team in the worldat the moment and we know we need to be at

our best if we are going to compete with themand beat them, which is our ultimate goal," saidGibson.

Six or seven batsmen? Three or four fastbowlers? A spin bowler? An all-rounder? Theseare all questions that will be troubling Gibsonand his fellow selectors.

The situation is complicated by SouthAfrica's unique racial balancing act, with

Cricket South Africa committed tohaving an average of six players ofcolour, including two blackAfricans, in their starting teams.

Three black Africans — bats-man Temba Bavuma, all-rounder AndilePhehlukwayo and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada —played in South Africa's most recent Testmatches, two one-sided encounters againstBangladesh.

But with batsman De Villiers and fastbowlers Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne

Morkel back in the mix, only Rabada of the threeseems guaranteed to start.

Assuming captain Faf du Plessis is passedfit after recovering from shoulder surgery, it willbe difficult to fit Bavuma into the batting line-up, while Phehlukwayo's medium-pace isunlikely to be required when there are fourworld-class fast bowlers in the squad.

�������������������@�����#���Captain Faf du Plessis is a doubt to start

South Africa's one-off day-night Test againstZimbabwe, starting at St George's Park onTuesday.

He said he was still feeling some discom-fort and would only play if he felt he was fullyfit and that his progress had been slowed by avirus he picked up a week ago. "The professionalssay that if there is still pain in the disc it's a lit-tle bit dangerous so that's why we're seeing howit works today," the 33-year-old said.

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Friendship refers to the mutual rela-tionship of affection, trust, cooper-ation, and support between two or

more individuals. A good friend is con-sidered a true blessing of God. We all feelcomfortable in the company of friends.

It is vital to live life to its maximum.We can spend delightful moments withour friends. All of us need somebodywith whom we can share our emotions.A friend is someone on whom we canplace our trust. When the tide doesn'tseem to be on our side, a friend is some-one who fills courage and confidence inour heart. Someone rightly said, "walk-ing with the friend in the dark is betterthan walking alone in the light."

Having a good friend adds happinessto your life. A friendship is a positive rela-tionship that adds great value to your life.A good friend doesn't argue with you allthe time, betray your trust, disrespect youor hurts you in any way.

Being with friends means an oppor-tunity to share and hear endless jokes. Weall have those little hints and code wordsfor the people we dislike that only ourgroup of friends knows. Those are themoments that remain enlightened in ourhearts forever. The jokes about theannoying teacher or boss, the uncivilizedguy or over-dramatic girl in the locali-ty, are something that can light up themood anytime.

Friends know us so well that theyhave the ability to predict and capture sit-

uations which we are in denial of. It couldbe the ridiculous outfit we are wearingor the boyfriend cheating on us. Theybring the harsh truth in front of us.Friends make sure to keep our foot onearth when we are wandering on the 7thheaven with happiness, away from theugly reality. Initially, we may fight andturn away from acceptance, but in thelong run, they are always right.

They know us inside out. They knowour flaws, weaknesses, ugly truths, darkpast, and insecurities and still choose toremain by our side. Friends accept andlove us for who we are. With goodfriends, we are assured that even afteryears of separation; they will always showup when in need. It may be 3 am in thenight or 12 noon, friends are foreverready to help.

Our parents love us because we aretheir children. Our wives or husbandslove us because of the marriage. Our fam-ily loves us because we share blood.However, friends love us without anysuch condition or relation. They uncon-ditionally love and care for us withoutexpectations and assurances. We get toshare the most amazing kind of love andrelation with friends.

Friends are the open and free accessto ultimate laughs and fun times. Theycan make us roll on the floor laughingeven without any funny reason. It's trueto say when a group of friends are togeth-er, the comic level is higher than any

comedy show. They encourage us to trythings we can never imagine doing. Allof them may not be positive, but theysure are adventurous. The memories ofthose moments are the factors that makelife exciting and joyous. Without friends,life would be unimaginably boring.

One's life cannot me imagined with-out people around him or her. We allneed people in our everyday life to talkwith, share our joys, sorrows, views etc.

Besides, the people of our family, we goout and interact with people every day.And some people, we like are called asour friends. Friends make life beautifuland worth living. They add a certain kindof spark of life. You can talk to yourfriends about each and everything; shareyour deepest secrets and even your stu-pid little everyday stories.

As we grow through different phas-es in life, we meet new people and make

new friends and do not necessarily giveup on old friends. It all depends on howstrong the bond of your friendship is.Friends are always there to guide andsupport you through the ups and downsof your life. They are the people who arealways there to lend a helping hand toyou.

No one ever wants their friends tobitch about them behind their back.Friendship is a very special bond whichstands on the pillars of trust and loyal-ty. You should be able to share your deep-est secret with your best friend withoutthe fear of the secret being leaked. If youdon't feel that your friend is loyal to you,what is the whole point of spending timeor being friends with that person? A truefriendship is a one where you can trusteach other and know that your friend willalways be loyal to you.

A good friend reflects life back toyou and with all the things you have incommon, being alone doesn't feel as lone-ly. A best friend is the one who knowsyou like no one else in the world does.You people can literally talk throughexpressions without saying a word. Youtwo look at something or someone andinstantly know what the other is think-ing and then share an evil smile. Theyknow you so well that you cannot hideanything from them. They will noticeeven the slightest change in your expres-sions and will instantly know that some-thing is wrong with you.

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Described as “woven silk” byRoman author Petroniusin the 1st century CE, the

soft and delicate muslin was wornby Indian royalty since the days ofthe Indus Valley Civilisation.Kautilya’s Arthashastra, a book oneconomics, is thought to be theearliest account of the origin ofMuslin and its development.Bengal’s muslin finds mentioneven in the writings of Pliny, wholived in Rome from AD 23 to AD79. You would be interested toknow that the muslin variety,which was produced during theMughal era was so fine and trans-parent that even when Zeb-un-nisawore seven layers of muslin tocourt, her father and EmperorAurangzeb chided her for obscen-ity as her attire remained transpar-ent.

Jamdani uses the technique ofloom embroidery wherein discon-tinuous extra or supplementaryweft yarn is woven into the warpthreads with the desired patternwhile the weaving progresses.Considered to be precious cargo, itis one of the most complex weav-ing technologies ever developed inIndia.

This wonder fabric was dis-played as part of a revival projectby the Delhi Crafts Council. Masterweaver Jyotish Debnath, who con-ceptualised the exhibit, has beencredited with the development ofthe muslin for the last 35 years. Saidhe, “For the past six generations,Jamdani runs in our blood. Muslinhas a language of its own and onceyou understand and know how tocraft it, you would be amazed byyour creations. It has infinite pos-sibilities.” Debnath has taught 180weavers the traditional art of mak-ing Jamdani, including his son, atKalna, West Bengal. Over the past10 years, he has produced almost500 designs. It takes two months toweave a than. “The most essentialwork of setting up the wefts andthreads is done by the women.” Thefather and son wish to establish aschool which will impart trainingof this weaving culture so theirbeloved tradition is preserved.There is no end to learning andDebnath hopes to be a passionate

student till his death. As we entered the hall at

Bikaner House, we found hand-woven, fine cotton fabric embell-ished with intricate motifs, expert-ly woven into it. On each displaypanel was our inheritance, our for-gotten history from as far back asthe 19th century.

The Jamdani is woven in sev-eral parts of India, mainly WestBengal, Uttar Pradesh and south-ern India.

The Benares Jamdani is elab-orate where a single warp is usual-ly ornamented with two extrawefts followed by ground weft. Themango motif signifying fertility,growth and marital bliss is a pop-ular design woven on the old fash-ioned Jala loom, where ‘jala’ is akind of frame on which the designis first created using threads bynakshabands or pattern-makers.This is attached to the loom as a

master harness.It has a modern innovation or

variant in the form of the tanda,that has small simple designs madewith gold threads on warm, darkcolours.

The one that had everyonetransfixed was the indigo orNilambari Jamdani from WestBengal. Indigo was consideredauspicious and sacred when thefirst weavers attempted it. The flo-ral pattern on the pallu is very pre-cise and accurate, its broad goldborder shimmering in contrast.The Jamdani sarees of West Bengalhave tighter weaves and depict thelotus, lamp and the fish scalematrix. The weavers of West Bengaldraw designs on paper beforearticulating them on the sari. Giventhe intricacy of extreme detailing,they usually work for around twohours each day. If a weaver worksfor more than two hours, they

might lose their vision and becomecompletely blind in a span of fouryears. Or so said Debnath. It takesup to nine months to weave a sari.Of course, weavers are nowadaysnoticing a revivalism in story-telling, with each sari telling a storyfrom either the Ramayana,Mahabharata or other mythologi-cal lores.

In southern India, the patternsare bold motifs on pure silk. Theweaving is carried out using thejacquard loom. Uppada is one of

the most time and labour-intensiveweaving traditions with tapestrylike patterns of paisleys, flowers,leaves and creepers. The contem-porary Uppada has a new designvocabulary, contemporary colourpalette, delicate zari patterns and anaturally light drape.

Mulmul or Dhakai Jamdani isdescribed as the wind, the sky, thesmoke, the dew, resembling asnake skin and running water. Afabric like that can make anywoman envious. One finds men-tion of it in Jane Austen’sNorthanger Abbey, written duringthe Regency era.

The term Mulmul can be bestdescribed as lightweight, gauzy,expensive and fine texture.

Jamdani is now being show-cased by various Indian designersat international fashion weeks.With the rising demand for exclu-sive clothing, the modern version

of Jamdani is woven in pure silkalong with cotton and contempo-rary designs. The two popularmodern styles include the “selfcoloured style” and the “half andhalf style.” An authentic Jamdaniis high maintenance but in aworld of good appearance andgreat dressing, it can be flauntedat weddings and corporate gath-erings as a statement piece.

Throughout theMahabharata, Jamdani is narrat-ed as a phenomenal cotton butmany samples have beendestroyed today due to climaticchange. The industrial revolution,colonisation by the British and thedecline of the Mughal dynasty ledto its decline. The fixing of pricesby the agents of East IndiaCompany, who exploited weaversfor their own financial gains,imports of cheaper and shoddierquality yarn and mass producedmachine textiles from Europewere the most destructive factors.

According to representativesof the Delhi Crafts Council, it tookthem eight months and immenseresearch to showcase and designthe exhibit. “If you washed themuslin and threw it in the air, itwould be dried. The cloth wasdried on a bed of thorns to keepthe threads intact,” shared RituSethi, who has worked on thisproject tirelessly with her team.The exhibition is an attempt atreviving the ethereal fabric andeducating the nation. “The aim ofthe display was to educate our-selves and analyse the facts to givepeople a contextual and historicalbackground for better under-standing. Education, awarenessand consumerism are inter-con-nected dots”. The elite society iswilling to pay incredible amountsto possess this fabric, therebyincreasing the wages of the crafts-men and weavers.

A few stalls by weavers fromBenares, Fulia and Venkatagiriwere set up for sale of Jamdanisarees, wall hangings and dupat-tas. The designs involved birds,flowers, tree of life and evenbulls. The price ranged between�2500 to 80,000.

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The year has sped past, a tad tooquickly during which the art

world in all its dimensions has seensome dramatic and not so earthshaking changes. But by itself, art istoo large and an all encompassingdescription. One could sharpen thefocus on mosaic art which is animage made from the assemblage ofsmall pieces of colored glass, stone,or other materials is called mosaicart. It is often used in decorative artor as interior decoration. Mostmosaics are made of small, flat,roughly square, pieces of stone orglass of different colors, known astessera.

There are some trends that arelikely to be seen in the coming yearaccording tohttps://blog.mozaico.com.

������� �������As an addition to bright andvibrant colors, expect metal-lic tiles to enter the world of mosa-ic art and create a “wow” effect.Often combined with other hottrends such as 3D compositions andcreative texture, this 2018 trendbrings the effect of a real-life com-position.

��������������A/�������Back in 2016 when Instagramchanged its logo into a colorfulgradient, nobody thought this

trend was going to become sohuge! It was just the

commencement of its rise! In2018 we will be seeing more andmore of these colorful gradients,not just in web design but also inmosaic art!

�������B������Double exposure, another trend

that has been a thing for several yearsnow, despite the fact that someartists have put this technique asidefor a while, we definitely see a riseof double exposure mosaic designswhich is expected to amaze themosaic community this year.

��C������D�����As far as we can tell, contempo-

rary mosaicists have been obsessedwith the “art of destroying”.Everything that includes splashing,scratching tiles, negative mediums,breaking or any other form of ruin-

ing the aesthetics of a compositionis considered modern in 2018.

�������Guess what? In 2018, Futuristic

mosaic art or “post-human” will con-tinue to be the main meeting pointfor contemporary mosaic artists. AsI explained last year, this trend isinspired by artificial cleverness, toillustrate tech-driven designs andadd a new generation of technolo-gies and creative mediums.

These futuristic designs can bedefined by otherworldly facets likeembossed textures, sophisticatedstones, laminated finishes, and glow-ing LED tiles inside of mesh mate-rials.

Actress Priyanka Chopra expressed her viewsabout inculcating the feeling of equality in chil-

dren and that it is important for parents to not dis-criminate between their kids on the

basis of gender.The actor, who is a

UNICEF Goodwill ambas-sador, said the change willonly be visible if the soci-ety starts teaching boys torespect girls. “I would liketo convey it to the parentsthat they should not differ-

entiate between theirkids on the basis of

gender.”“...Boys, when

they walk onroads, feel it isokay to tease agirl. It is becauseour society hastaught us that itis cool for a guy

to tease a girl. Weneed to teach theboys that realman is someonewho respectsgirl ,” saidChopra.

The actorwas speaking at adiscussion onthe need fore m p o w e r i n g

adolescent girlsand boys, organisedby the UNICEF.

Priyanka, 35,said she is fine withthe idea of womenbeing homemakerby choice, but doesnot like it whenthey are preventedfrom achievingtheir dreams.

“If I had amagic wand Iwould have

changed things in aminute. There isnothing wrongwith being a homemaker. But, the

problem is the mindset.”She added, “Like people say

they need to get married so thatsomebody is there to help their moth-

er with household work. I don't understand if thesepeople want a wife or a servant. Girls should not bestopped from achieving their dreams.”

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An Iranian musician callsDelhi his second home.

A cellist from Hawaii hasstudied Islamic music tradi-tions. Two Indians play thesitar and the tabla. But theircollective power rises aboveborders as was witnessedthrough their soulfulmelodies at the SacredPushkar festival. All wereunited by their sheer passionrepresenting varied shades ofclassical traditions acrossthe globe.

Their music aspires tobreak the shackles of nation-ality as each one of themcomes from diverse musicaland cultural traditions.Fakhroddin Ghaffariemphasised, “We hope thatthe notes we compose doesjustice to whichever musicaltraditions it is inspiredfrom.”

The band has performedin dif ferent parts ofRajasthan including Nagaur,Jodhpur and Jaipur. Thiswas their debut act inPushkar.

He said, “I have fallen inlove with this city, it’s soscenic and pious. For ourkind of music, we expect aquiet listening audience andthey were indeed quietpatient and appreciated us.The response was positiveand quiet overwhelming.”

He added that theirmusic is composed for the

purpose of creating art andtheir vision is to not view itsolely as a “medium of enter-tainment but to connectwith passionate minds.”Ghaffari has around 23 yearsof experience in percussion.

Ghaffari is an Iranianmusician from Kurdistan(25 per cent Turkish and 75per cent Kurdish) who callsDelhi his second home. “Imoved here with my familywhen I was 15. I grew upimbibing an artistic cultureas my family is filled withartists, musicians, painters,calligraphy artists.” So, artruns in his genes.

The World Ethnic MusicEnsemble (WEME) wasformed in 2009, comprisingGhaffari on tonbak; FatehAli Khan from India onsitar; Sultan Masood fromAfghanistan on violin; LoicSanlaville from France onguitar; William Rees fromUK on the Afghan Rubab;Nawahineokala’i Lanzilottifrom USA on cello andMohit Lal from India ontabla.

The band has been con-stantly evolving. Ghaffariusually composes on sitarand has been learningIndian and Persian classicalmusic since a long time now.

“As a band we take folkmelodies and modify themtaking inspiration from clas-sical forms of India, Iran and

various other countries. Forinstance, one of our compo-sitions is called Greek as it’sa melody from Greece thatwe have shaped according toour sensibilities. We haverecomposed and restruc-tured Greek — changed itsrhythm while retaining itscore.”

The band members pos-sess a diverse set of skills thatwas depicted in their versa-tile performance and exper-imental style. Lanzilotti is acellist from Hawaii who hasstudied Islamic music andplays Hawaiian music. Sheand Masood are inclinedtowards Indian classical.Masood is a skilled westernviolinist while Sanlaville is ajazz guitarist, learning tabla.Rees is adept at playingrubab and sarod. Accordingto Ghaffari, Ustad Fateh AliKhan is one of the finest sitarplayers and Lal creates magicwith tabla.

“The rehearsals are lim-itless creating spaces for allof us. It’s like a canvas wherewe are all sitting aroundpainting it with sounds.”

They have performed inan array of musical festivalsincluding ContemporaryArts Week, Arman Festival(organised by Iranian cul-tural house), DelhiInternational Art Festival(DIAF), Hampi Utsav and soon.

Everybody knows thatVikku Vinayakram is theforce behind popularising

ghatam, an earthen pot, as asource of primal music. Butwhen the Grammy award-win-ning veteran percussionistmatched beats and rhythmswith three generations of hisfamily on the ghats of Pushkar,we knew how Carnatic musiccould find its relevance amongyoung listeners.

At 75, Panditji speaks rarely,preferring to patch up stray con-versations. His son Selvaganesh,who plays hand drums,exclaimed, “As a family, this isour first performance at TheSacred Pushkar concert. As athree-generation group, myfather, me, and my son,Swaminathan performedtogether. We have been tonumerous festivals in India andacross the globe but this ambi-ence gave a great colour to ourmusic. Carnatic music is a lotabout improvising, even thoughwe are fixed on the endpoints.So whatever happens on stageis due to the ambience which isbased on the vibes we get fromthe audience. If you think thatthe concert was good, the cred-it goes to Pushkar and thespectators. They added to theoverall experience.” As if inconsonance, Swaminathan cre-ates some melodious tunes withkanjeera.

Vinayakram has been apercussionist for 62 years, hav-ing forayed into it at 13. “I learntfrom my father; he is my guru.It was him who insisted that Ishould learn the artform, and itis god’s grace that I have reachedthis point,” the man himself toldus, interceding. WhileVinayakram learnt from hisfather, Selvaganesh learnt fromhim and his uncle. “My primeteacher is my uncle. That’sbecause when I started learn-ing percussion, father wasalready travelling and per-forming mostly outside the

country. Even though my unclekept busy, he somehow foundthe time to teach me. But myson Swaminathan has learntpercussion from my father.”They have a saying that if a sonlearns from his father, it won’tgo through him. SoSwaminathan is expected tocarry forward the legacy of hisgrandfather.

Selvaganesh divulged detailsabout his father’s riyaaz. “He is75. Dhanurmas starts aroundDecember 14 and extends up tothe middle of January. Duringthis period, he wakes up by fourin the morning and does hisriyaaz till six. Other than that,whenever he has the time, hepractises music. If you see hishand, it seems he is always cal-culating something. He swayshis fingers even during sleep. Inthat sense, he has internalised his

riyaaz; he lives with the rhythm.We all are on our path of learn-ing, observing him. Even thoughit is really difficult at times, we tryour best.”

He believes that learningmusic requires thorough dedi-cation as well as discipline. “In thebeginning, one needs to dedicateunlimited time and dedication toriyaaz. The more time onespends with it, the more one willlearn the finesse of the craft anduse it to refine one’s perfor-mance. So dedication is a pre-requisite according to me.”

The sons have performed atacclaimed festivals, includingNH7 Weekender and Rock fes-tivals. “Every where we go, we tryto present our music in a differ-ent manner. We come from atraditional South Indian back-ground but we produce music ina contemporary manner so that

we can reach to the youngeraudience.”

He believes that we all livewith rhythm, though we fail torecognise it. “As a rhythm play-er, I can say that we don’t evenrealism that we all live withrhythm. Which is why when onelistens to a rhythm, one imme-diately turns around and feels asense of familiarity. It happens asit resides within us. The heartbeatgoes with a certain rhythm. Wetalk with rhythm, we walk withit, everything in this world goeswith a rhythm. Without know-ing it, we all live with it, so it’squite easy for us to draw the audi-ence — holding their attention,controlling their minds. Ourcriteria is to tell people thatrhythm is not isolated fromthem, it is not separate fromtheir identities, it is inside them.So we interact with the audience

a lot.”Swaminathan expressed his

views on the complexities ofIndian classical music: “If youknow Carnatic music, then youare good enough to play anyform of music according to me.It is the base encompassing all theessential elements. I learnt therhythm from my grandfather andit is a pure classical Carnaticrhythm. When I try to jam withdifferent musicians across theworld, it’s quite easy for me tounderstand. But they do notunderstand or imbibe mygenre that easily. The Carnaticrhythm comes with its own setof complexities and thus is noteasily understandable by artistswho are unaware about itsgrammar. So, if one is thor-ough about classical music, itis a piece of cake to grasp otherforms.”

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Art is not just about the creator’s visionbut the viewer’s interpretation of it.

This aspect was most evocatively depict-ed by around 44 artists at a group outingrecently in mixed media.

One of the most visionary ideas wasdepicted in the work of Prasanta Kalita,who has used wires in his paintings. Theartist’s own experience made him believethat an understanding of visuals comesfrom the knowledge of real and unreal,dream and drama. “I am an abstractpainter and my work comprises the sym-bolic representations of all desires, socialsystems, value systems, power and socio-political adversities in the surroundings.I don’t restrict myself to see a dream and,therefore, I consider that nothing isabsolute, it only transforms from one formto another.’’ The artist, who belongs toAssam, has also showcased his works at theinternational art fair.

Shafali Wadhawan showcased present-day struggles of women beyond cause-

related “isms.” Said she, “I believe humanbeings are so wrapped up in themselvesand the routine that somewhere it limitstheir thinking process which does not letthem see the bigger picture of theirdreams.’’

Discussing the idea behind the exhi-bition, curator Aakshat Sinha shared,“The artists’ works in this exhibition werenot restricted to a particular theme. Theyhad the freedom to unveil their creativeminds.’’

Apart from wire, artists used charcoal,ink and even waste paper. What reallycaught our attention was that most of the

canvases were small, the intention beingto help narrow down the viewer’s focusto the concentrated detailing.

The curator himself had put up a dra-matic artwork — red lips surrounded withempty speech bubbles — as a statementpiece of protest art. Said Aakshat, “My ideawas to display the present scenario of Indiawhere people generally choose not tospeak or take a stand for themselves.Therefore, the empty speech bubbles sig-nify your decision to not speak out or airyour views.”

Expressing his thoughts about youngartists, Aakshat believes that an artist must

travel, both literally and metaphorically,to invest their works with a richness ofexperience. “Just because you are young,doesn’t mean that you can get away withthe inexperience. It’s purely your job to getthat experience,” he added.

Asked about the selection process, heshared, “I started with people I knowaround myself, ensuring that each artisthad something new to showcase. Theywere selected with the aim of showcasingthe diversity of Indian art and deliveringthe message that Indian artists have moreto show than just the traditional back-ground of India in their paintings.’’

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Rising Indian Sameer Verma cel-ebrated Christmas with a grandvictory, consolidating Mumbai

Rockets' position against the DelhiDashers in the Vodafone PremierBadminton League at the KarmabirNabin Chandra Bordoloi IndoorStadium, Guwahati, on Monday.

Sameer outplayed the Dashers'Trump player Wong Wing Ki Vincentof Hong Kong 15-11, 15-11 to notonly fetch the second point for histeam but also pushed the Delhi teaminto negative territory.

Ranked No 30 in the world,Sameer showed his mastery over thecourt, covering the angles well andtoying with the higher rankedVincent. His cross-court jump smash-es were particularly effective, fetchinghim points almost at well.

The 23-year-old Indian starwrapped up the first game in less than20 minutes and seemed on his way toanother facile win. But at 14-8, a fewnerves surfaced and Vincent pulledback three points. But a perfect netdrop gave Sameer a comfortable vic-tory.

Earlier, the South Korean-Malaysian duo of Lee Yong Dae andTan Boon Heong drew on their vastexperience to down the Russian pairof Ivan Sozonov & Vladimir Ivanov14-15, 15-14, 15-10 in the openingMen's Doubles match.

In an intense battle between near-equals, Yong Dae and Boon Heongstruggled against the towering 6 foot6 inch presence of Ivanov. They failedto ravel his booming smashes and lostthe opening game 14-15.

They got into their own in thenext though. Despite falling behindmidway through the game, theyclawed into the contest by tighteningtheir defence. Yong Dae was particu-larly impressive, covering the courtwell and killing the key points smart-ly.

They enjoyed a couple of gamepoints but Sozonov-Ivanov held on tomake it 14-14. But they lost the nextpoint to allow Mumbai Rockets anopportunity to assert themselves.

The third game too was tight, withthe lead exchanging hands till 5-5.That's when the Russian pair startedmaking mistakes, repeatedly findingthe net in their way. Suddenly, theywere down 5-8 and then 7-11. Theytried to get back but it was too late.

������Men's Doubles: Lee Yong Dae & TanBoon Heong bt Ivan Sozonov &Ivanov Vladimir 14-15, 15-14, 15-10Men's Singles: Sameer Verma btWing Ki Wing Vincent (Trumpmatch) 15-11, 15-11

#�����������������#��North Eastern Warriors will be

aiming to put behind the disappoint-ment of their loss to HyderabadHunters and get their campaign backon track when they take on the debu-tants Ahmedabad Smash Masters inthe third Vodafone PremierBadminton League on Tuesday at theKarmabir Nabin Chandra BordoloiIndoor Stadium.

“It was really unfortunate that welost the opening tie. We had lost twoclose matches which could have goneeither ways. But we will take lot of pos-itives in the next one againstAhmedabad. Since we have alreadyplayed one tie we now have a betteridea of it and we are sure that we willexecute our plans better. We areexpecting to turn around and give abetter account for ourselves,” Northeastern Warriors’ Ajay Jayaram said.

"North Eastern Warriors are agood team and we will have to be atour very best against them. We do toohave a good team as well and wouldsay we are ready for the challenge. Ibelieve that we just need to stick to theplan and give our best and the resultswill follow,” HS Prannoy, fromAhmedabad Smash Masters, said.

����9�57��!�%

English football has never seen a team so utterly dom-inant as Manchester City entering the packed

Christmas program.There seems little doubt Pep Guardiola will be rais-

ing the Premier League trophy for the first time in May.It is just a question of when City will wrap up its thirdtitle since 2014, and how many records will tumble onthe way.

City has already reeled off the most consecutiveEnglish top-flight wins — a record extended at theweekend to 17 games. Manchester United's recordPremier League title-winning margin of 18 points from2000 could also be under threat. And England couldbe looking at its third unbeaten "Invincibles" team afterPreston in 1888-89 and Arsenal in 2003-04.

So it doesn't bode well for a compelling second halfof the Premier League season? Think again.

The chase for the other three Champions Leaguespots should be fierce with eight points separating sec-ond-place Manchester United and Arsenal in sixth.Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham are in the mixamong them. Two leading sides will fall by the way-side and be denied a place among the European elite.

The battle to stay in the world's richest soccer leagueis also intense. No team is stranded at the bottom, withSwansea in 20th place only six points behindSouthampton in 13th.

A closer look at the first half of the season:

�������City leads by 13 points at the halfway stage after

winning 18 of its 19 games and drawing one in the bestever start to a Premier League season. The only droppedpoints came at home to Everton in the second gameon Aug. 21, when City played more than a half with10 men following Kyle Walker's sending-off.

Man United is in second place, with defendingchampion Chelsea three points further back in third.United manager Jose Mourinho says the title race isstill on, but the rest of his peers among the chasing packdon't see City faltering now.

���������������Kevin De Bruyne is playing in a deeper role for City

this season, virtually as a center midfielder, and it isbringing the best of out the Belgium midfielder.

He has provided many of this season's wowmoments, from scoring the winning goal at former clubChelsea in September with a fierce left-footed strikefrom outside the area to the assists for goals by LeroySane and Raheem Sterling in the 7-2 win over Stokein October. Dovetailing perfectly with fellow playmakerDavid Silva, De Bruyne has six goals and eight assistsbut it's more than just his statistics. His prodigious workrate, range of passing and crossing ability - arguablythe best in the Premier League since the days of DavidBeckham — that make him a strong contender for theplayer of the season awards.

����/��/����Amid an offseason of record spending in English

football, little was made of Watford signing Richarlisonfrom Brazilian team Fluminense for 13 millionpounds ($17 million).

Yet the 20-year-old forward is proving a bargain,settling in quickly to the pace and intensity of thePremier League and being one of the key factors inWatford's impressive start to the season that, at onestage, saw them challenging around the top four.

Direct, skilful and quick, Richarlison already hasfive goals and keeps getting himself in great positionsto score more, with his finishing sometimes letting himdown. Opponents have cottoned on to his impact, withRicharlison telling ESPN Brazil this month: "Teams arealready marking me individually, they are putting twoplayers there on my side."

�����������An unfashionable club is mixing it with the heavy-

weights of the Premier League against all the odds.We've heard this before, right?

Two years ago, it was Leicester delivering a soccerfairy tale by somehow winning the league. Now it'sBurnley's turn to provide the feel-good story of the sea-son. Widely regarded as a relegation candidate at thestart of the season, Burnley is currently seventh. Don'trule Burnley out of staying in the tussle for theChampions League qualification places, with Liverpoolonly three points better off in fourth. The northwestteam hasn't finished a season higher than sixth placein the top flight since 1974.

������������� ��2�.�67�

Aleague that was expected to be eas-ier after their splendid debut with

a 3-0 win against lackluster ChennaiCity FC, Indian Arrows have slumpedto three consecutive defeats againsttough outfits such as Minerva Punjab(both home and away) and GokulamKerala FC in the I-league. Now thechallenge is going to be monumentalas the teenagers take on big boysShillong Lajong at the Dr AmbedkarStadium on Tuesday.

An apparent weakness - surmisedby many — that became evident aftera brace from an imposing WilliamOpoku for league-leaders MinervaPunjab in a 2-0 win,Luis Norton de Matos-coached boys can betamed using physicalsuperiority.

It has been a com-mon occurrence since then as theArrows were bullied by aggressive,towering and physical players of everyclub they played. Whether it's Opokuor Khaled Alsah and Daniel Addo (ofGokulam), the home-side had nosolution to deal with the muscularstrength of these foreign players.

Arrows' assistant coach Pinto alsoadmitted physicality of other teams hasbeen an issue but he felt this is the bestgroup of boys capable of absorbingsuch adversity and move forward.

"Yes it has been an issue, and suchexperience is mostly required. Theywould love to play any opponent ona given day, be it Lajong or MohunBagan. Trust me, they're the toughestbunch of boys which I've worked withso far. They've endured a lot andthey're learning every day."

In last three matches, Arrowshave shown composure and keptthings tight at the back by defendingin numbers. But have conceded three

of their five goalsfrom dead-ball situa-tions.

Despite givingaway goals, the team

have always reacted positively andhave showed intent to get back into thegame. The presence of players such asAniket Jadhav, KP Rahul andNinthoinganba Meetei on wings haveprovided that thrust the side neededto get inside the opponent's box andtrouble the shot-stopper but lack ofprecision have seen those chancesgone begging.

"We are aware of earlier defeats butif you see our matches, our opponentscould not run a riot against us. Yes, weconceded silly goals which cost us thematches but they have been veryclosely-fought contests until now….We haven't taken the chances thrownat us and we are working on that," saidthe former under-19 Indian teamcoach.

Arrows, which mostly incorpo-rates the squad from the under-17World Cup, have added few under-19players in their squad. And two ofthem - Edmund Lalrindika (striker)

and Deepak Tangri (centre-back) haveturned into a vital cog of coach Matos'side. Lalrindika's pace and trickeryoften helps in providing the individ-ual brilliance that the side lacked in theWorld Cup. Whereas, Tangri's abilityto provide diagonal crosses and longpasses fulfills the inadequacies of cre-ativity from the back.

Shillong Lajong, on the otherhand, have a resemblance when com-pared with their teenage opponents;the Meghalaya side consisting of 13players from under-22 category. Theyhave always led emphasis on devel-oping players from the NorthEastregions through their academies andthat reflects on the coach BobbyNongbet's current squad.

Spearheaded by 19-year-oldSamuel Lalmuanpuia, the club has hada decent outing in the I-league seasonso far. Sitting fourth on the table with10 points (3 points away fromMinerva), the Shillong-based clubhave showcased slick performances inmajority of their matches - barring 5-1 drubbing against East Bengal in arain-drenched match.

Coach Nonbgbet-led side harsh-ly lost their last game - NorthEastDerby - against Manipur's NEROCAthrough a solitary goal by SubhashSingh after missing majority of thebest chances. The side will be des-perate to get back into scheme ofthings and keep chasing Minerva atthe top.

"We were the better team on thepitch but unfortunately we ended upon the losing side. It happens in foot-ball and you have to move on. We'rehere and were thinking nothing lessthan a win tomorrow," Nongbet madeit clear.

The Red Army's work will be cutout on Tuesday as skipperLalmuanpuia is unavailable for thematch owing to an injury.

��� 9���.79��

Serena Williams is returning tocompetition with an exhibition

match Saturday in Abu Dhabi againstFrench Open champion JelenaOstapenko.

Williams has not competed sincewinning the Australian Open lastJanuary while she was pregnant.

She will face Latvia's Ostapenko atthe Mubadala World TennisChampionship in the first year thatwomen will be taking part, tourna-ment organizers announced Sunday.

"I am delighted to be returning tothe court in Abu Dhabi for the firsttime since the birth of my daughter inSeptember," the 36-year-old Williamssaid in a statement.

Williams has won 23 Grand Slamsingles titles, a record for the profes-sional era.

She is expected to compete for her24th at the Australian Open, the firstmajor of the year.

Williams gave birth to a girlnamed Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. onSept. 1. She married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in November.

"The Mubadala World TennisChampionship has long marked thebeginning of the men's global tennisseason and I am excited and honoredto be making my comeback as part ofthe first women to participate in theevent," Williams said.

The Australian Open startsJanuary 15.

������������� ��2�.�67�

2017 has been a very fruitfulyear for Indian badminton.

Apart from the success achievedby the two leading ladies, Sainaand Sindhu, what came as a pleas-ant surprise was the showing ofplayers in the men's singles divi-sions.

While Kidambi Srikanth reg-istered four Super Series wins, BSai Praneeth got the better of himin the Final of Singapore Open toclaim the title. Another name thatshone brightly this year was HSPrannoy who registered victoriesagainst both the Olympic cham-pion Chen Long and the runner-up Lee Chong Wei in this year andthen defeated Srikanth in theFinal of the National champi-onship. He capped the year bybecoming the costliest buy in thePBL auctions for the third season.

On being asked about the

camaraderie in the men's singlesdivision, Srikanth revealed thatthe leading men enjoy a healthyrelationship with each other.

"The rapport between theplayers is really great in the men'ssingles division. When we enteronto the court, we switch off frombeing friends and get into thecompetitive mode. Everyonewants to win every match that heplays. After the match, we go backto being friends again.

"So, there has been a greatrapport between all the players,not just a few of us. Off the court,we are really good friends andhang out with each other veryoften. That's really good for thesport and we are matured enoughto understand the level we areplaying right now and be thor-ough professionals," the Nationalchampion revealed.

He created a mild upset in theFinal of the National

Championship by getting the bet-ter of Kidambi who was on a hotstreak of form at the time.Prannoy locates his successagainst Srikanth to better execu-tion on his part on the day.

"We play against each otherevery single day and practicetogether also. So, we know exact-ly what is coming our way from

the other side. It's the executionpart that needs to be better on thatday. The player who executesbetter, wins. In French Open also,I was playing really well and lostnarrowly against Srikanth. Onthe day of the National Final, I wasa little bit better than Srikanth asfar as the execution is concerned.He couldn't really execute well.That was the only differencebetween me and him. I was pret-ty lucky to win the nationalsprobably," the self-effacing worldNo 10 asserted.

Looking ahead, the 25-yearold accepts that Srikanth's successhas encouraged them to aim high-er.

"Everyone has goals. Everyoneis striving to do his best in a veryconsistent way. I think perfor-mance from Srikanth has beenreally encouraging for all of us andserves as a motivation. It's reallymotivating for all of us. And I

think in the next couple of years,I will have a couple of Super Seriestitles."

The player fromThiruvananthapuram was effusivein his praise for the National headcoach Pullela Gopichand andgave him all the credit for himselfand his compatriots' accomplish-ments.

"He (Pullela Gopichand) is theman behind our success. I don'tthink there could be any otherperson or coach at the moment inthe country who could do this. Heworks on everything, from top tobottom. We have been with himfor so many years now. We haveall been blessed that he has beenable to spend time with us andwhenever he is on court, he does-n't just deal with the technicalaspect but also talks about eachand everything on the court whichwe need to do on a daily basis toimprove our game. So I think I am

really glad that he is with us," the2017 US Open winner empha-sized.

Being the costliest player inthe PBL auctions, Prannoy wouldbe watched closely when he takesthe court for Ahmedabad SmashMasters. But he denies feeling anyextra pressure on account of hismonetary worth in the league.

"I don't think there would beextra pressure on me because I amnow playing against the best of theworld. So, all matches would be50/50 affairs and the entire teamknows that. It's just about takingthe responsibility whenever thetime comes. The trump matcheswould be very crucial. I think if youhave that responsibility, you haveto take it and say I am ready to doit. That's the thing a team needs. Iam not at all in any pressure rightnow, I would just go out there andenjoy myself," a confident Prannoyconcluded by saying.

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