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After marathon meetingsbetween the top leaders of

the Congress and the NCP thatsaw them arrive at “completeunanimity” on all issues relat-ing to Government formationin Maharashtra, the politicalscene will shift to Mumbai,where the senior leaders of thetwo parties will meet Shiv Senapresident Uddhav Thackerayon Friday evening to hammerout a power-sharing deal forthe “Maha Vikas Aghadi”Government in the State.

“Maharashtra will get aGovernment tomorrow. At themeeting scheduled, the threeparties will put a stamp on thenew Government. We (thethree parties) may meetGovernor Bhagat SinghKoshyari jointly on Saturdayand stake claim to form aGovernment in Maharashtra,”a confidant Shiv Senaspokesperson Sanjay Raut saidin New Delhi on Thursday.

After the top leaders of theCongress and the NCP for-malised the CommonMinimum Programme (CMP)and worked out modalities forthe Government formation,the Congress WorkingCommittee (CWC) onThursday granted in-princi-ple approval to the party toform a new Government inMaharashtra along with itspre-poll partner, NCP, and theShiv Sena.

After the CWC meeting,

which was chaired by partychief Sonia Gandhi, sourcessaid that the Congress and theNCP would work out finerdetails of the Government for-mation in Maharashtra duringtheir meeting with the Senapresident on Friday.

Former Maharashtra ChiefMinister Prithviraj Chavaninformed the media after ameeting that there was a “com-plete unanimity” on all issuesand when the alliance partners,which would include the Sena,announce their CMP, then thepower-sharing formula would

be disclosed.The major engagement on

Friday will be a crucial meet-ing to be held in the eveningbetween the Congress-NCPleaders with Shiv Sena presi-dent Uddhav Thackeray and afew of his senior party col-leagues. Apart from seniorCongress leaders, NCP presi-dent Sharad Pawar is alsoexpected to remain present atthis meeting.

On their part, seniorCongress and NCP leadershave kept Uddhav in the loopon what transpired at the meet-

ing between the seniorCongress and NCP leaders atthe meeting on Wednesday.

Given the unanimitybetween the Congress and theNCP on all issues relating to theGovernment formation andthe fact that the Shiv Sena is notin mood to impose any majorconditions, it is quite likely thatthe three parties will hammerout a power-sharing pact forthe “Maha Vikas Aghadi”Government in Maharashtra.

There will be two compo-nents for the power-sharingformula that will be discussed

at Friday’s meeting. The firstcomponent will be formalisa-tion of the CMP which will bean easy task for all the threeparties. The second componentwill be the power-sharingarrangement among the three.

As per the power-sharingarrangement devised by theCongress and the NCP at thenational Capital, the Shiv Sena(with 56 MLAs) and the NCP(54 MLAs) will get 15 min-istries each, while the Congress(44 MLAs) will get 12 min-istries in accordance with anapproximate ratio of 4 MLAs:one Ministry.

Both the NCP and theCongress have agreed to givethe Chief Minister’s post to theShiv Sena. Though there hasbeen a speculation that theNCP has been insisting on theChief Minister’s post beingrotated equally between it andthe Shiv Sena, the two partieshave not yet broached the issuewith the Shiv Sena.

Given the mood prevailingin both the Congress and theNCP, they would not be averseto giving the Chief Minister’spost for full five year period.But, the two parties, especial-ly the NCP, will demand theirpound of flesh in terms ofimportant ministries for for-going the Chief Minister’s poston a rotational basis.

If the Chief Minister’s postgoes to the Shiv Sena for fullfive years’ period, then therewill be two Deputy ChiefMinisters — one each from the

NCP and the Congress. Therewill be discussion on the shar-ing of the major Ministries likeHome, Urban Development,PWD, Revenue, Co-operationand Finance.

The crucial AssemblySpeaker’s post will go to theCongress in all likelihood.Senior Congress leaderPrithviraj Chavan is being dis-cussed as the next Speaker. Thesecond choice will be anotherformer Chief Minister AshokChavan.

Before the Friday meetingwith the Congress-NCP lead-ers, Uddhav will brief his partyMLAs about the ongoing talkswith the Congress and NCPleaders during the past fewdays. All the Sena MLAs havebeen asked to come fully pre-pared with their identity cards,the election certificates issuedby their respective poll return-ing officers and other relevantdocuments which may berequired in the coming days.

It remains to be seen ifUddhav, who is tipped to thechief ministerial candidate ofthe Maha Vikas Aghadi, will beelected as the leader of the ShivSena Legislature Party in placeof Eknath Shinde, who had ear-lier been elected as the Sena’sLegislature party leader.

Informed sources in theCongress and the NCP said thetwo parties have been insisting,informally though, on Uddhavbeing the Chief Ministerinstead of Eknath Shinde.

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Political firestorm eruptedover controversial BJP MP

Pragya Thakur’s inclusion inParliament consultative com-mittee on defence.

The 21-member commit-tee, headed by DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh, alsoincludes National Conferenceleader and parliamentarianFarooq Abdullah who is under-going detention in Jammu &Kashmir post re-organisationof the erstwhile State into twoUnion Territories after scrap-ping of the Article 370 thatgranted special status to J&K.The committe comprise 12members from the Lok Sabhaand nine from the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP strongly defendedher presence on the panel andasserted the Bhopal MP canhelp in “framing right method-ology” so that innocents are not“victimised” the way she wasdone by the Congress-led UPAGovernment.

Hitting back at theCongress which criticised

Thakur’s inclusion in the par-liamentary panel, BJP MPMeenakshi Lekhi said the partyseems to have lost its faith indemocracy and forgotten thatThakur is an elected memberof Parliament. People knowthat Thakur was falsely impli-cated by the Congress-led UPAGovernment, said Lekhi, whois in the panel.

Thakur, a first-time MPfrom Bhopal, is an accused inthe 2008 Malegaon blasts case,and is currently out on bail. Sheis facing trial for multiplecharges under the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act.

Thakur’s nomination tothe panel triggered a politicalrow as the Congress attackedthe Government, saying it wasunfortunate for the countrythat an MP accused of “spread-ing terror” has been nominat-ed as member of a defence-r e l a t e dcommittee.

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In a partial rollback of themilitary-like uniforms,

Marshals in the Rajya Sabhawere seen without their cap onThursday. On the first day ofthe Winter Session on Monday,their new attire had invited crit-icism from some ex-Army offi-cers and Opposition leaders.

On Thursday, as soon asthe House assembled to take upthe Zero Hour, some membersfrom Opposition benchespointed out to the change in themarshals’ uniform. To thisChairman M Venkaiah Naiduremarked, “As I have said,nothing reflects like Army...(thereview) process is on.”

Following criticism, Naiduhad on Tuesday ordered reviewof the new military-style uni-form of marshals in the House.

“I have decided to ask theSecretariat to revisit the same,”the Rajya Sabha Chairman hadsaid on Tuesday.

Their new uniform hadsparked off criticism, includingfrom former Army chiefGeneral Ved Prakash Malik,who had described the attireillegal and a security hazard.

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The pollution level in Delhiinched towards “severe”

due to wind losing steam, a dipin temperature and a rise inhumidity on Thursday. DwarkaSector 8 crossed “severe pluscategory” with Air QualityIndex (AQI) at 729, and AnandVihar recorded seasons’ high-est PM 10 at 1,729.

Experts said the situation islikely to worsen in the next 24hours, while some relief isexpected from Saturday.

System of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting andResearchn (SAFAR) warned

people against outdoor physi-cal activities. “If asthematics,keep relief medicine handy,”said SAFAR in health bulletin.

“The main factors workingtowards the deterioration of airquality is extremely low windspeed and strong near-surfaceinversion during the night.Low ventilation is leading tothe accumulation of pollutantsnear the surface,” SAFAR said.

An expert at SkymetWeather, a private forecaster,said moderate winds fromNovember 23 would bringsome relief but it will be tem-porary as another western dis-turbance from November 25will again slow dowm wind.

“There are chances of goodrain on November 25 and 26.If that happens, pollutants willbe washed away. A long-termrelief is expected only afterNovember 28,” he said.

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Abus marshal saved a four-year-old girl from the

clutches of a kidnaper in aCluster bus, earning praisefrom the Delhi Governmentwhich promised to reward himfor his exemplary service. Lateron the child was united withher parents.

Arun Kumar, 24, a marshaldeployed in the bus on route728, saved the child from a 17-year-old boy who had alleged-ly kidnapped the child fromNizamuddin Railway station.The boy had boarded the busat Palam flyover around 11 amon Wednesday. Kumar said hebecame suspicious of the boy’scredentials after he found thatthe girl was weeping bitterly.

The marshal questionedthe boy and his answers onlyaroused his suspicion of himbeing a kidnapper. With thehelp of the bus conductor, thedriver and other passengers, he

overpowered the accused andtook him to the police station.

“Realising that somethingwas amiss as the girl was cry-ing, I alerted the bus driver andalso informed conductorVirendra. The driver closedboth the bus doors to stop thekidnapper from fleeing. Thedriver then took the bus toDhaula Kuan police station,”said the bus marshal, whose actwas praised by Delhi ChiefMinister ArvindKejriwal.

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India on Thursday askedPakistan to provide consular

access to two of its nationalsIslamabad has arrested andsought their safe repatriation.The arrest of two Indians,Prashant Vaindam and DhariLal, as reported by Pakistanimedia, came as a surprise asIndia had informed Pakistanmonths back that they mayhave crossed over inadvertent-ly, External Affairs Ministry(MEA) Spokesperson RaveeshKumar said here at a briefing.

Kumar said India hadinformed Pakistan inDecember last about Lal’s pos-sible crossing over to thatcountry, while informationabout Vaindam was conveyedin May 2019.

“We hope that these twoIndian nationals do notbecome victims of Pakistanipropaganda,” Kumar said.

Following the reports inPakistani media about thearrests, India approachedPakistan and requested it forimmediate consular access tothe incarcerated Indians there.

“We also requested fortheir safety and security andalso early repatriation,” he said.

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The water war in Delhi con-tinues unabated with Union

Consumer Affairs MinisterRam Vilas Paswan on Thursdaycoming out with a team of 32technical experts and askingDelhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal to name his own teamof experts (non political person)to conduct a joint inspection totest Delhi’s quality of waterwhich the Bureau of IndianStandards (BIS) has termed asundrinkable.

Paswan said a list of 32technical experts from BIS hasbeen given to Delhi Jal Boardto take samples of drinkingwater to test quality standards.“The committee comprisingtechnical experts from the BISand the Delhi Jal Board(DJB),should be set up immediatelyto take samples from across 70constituencies and all wards inthe national capital by end ofthis month,” Paswan added.The Union Minister askedDelhi Chief Minister to makeBIS mandatory if he thinkswater supplied in the nationalcapital is 100% pure.

On Wednesday, the AAP

announced that it will also setup 32 teams to collect drinkingwater samples from across thecity and the test results will beput in public domain within amonth even as the issuereached the Parliament withVijay Goel displaying a bottleof water in the Rajya Sabhaleading to sharp exchangeswith opposition.

Rejecting the nominationof Dinesh Mohania, MLA, vicechairman of DJB, Paswan saidthe nominee should be a “non-political” individual and thewater samples should be test-ed at a Govt accredited labo-ratory and that the reportsshould also be made public.

Kejriwal wrote to Paswanon Wednesday nominating

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice-chairman Dinesh Mohaniyaand member Shalabh KumarSharma for the joint commit-tee to be formed by the UnionGovernment to test water qual-ity in the national capital.

Paswan also took a swipe atKejriwal for targeting the study.“I haven’t done quality check,country’s reputed institutionBureau of Indian Standards(BIS) has done it. BIS hasdeveloped around 25,000 qual-ity standards for various prod-ucts and services ,” Paswansaid. The Minister accusedKejriwal for politicising thewater quality issue, saying“baseless allegations” are beingmade against him and chal-lenged the Delhi Chief Minister

to make BIS standard manda-tory if water supplied in thenational capital is 100 per centpure.

“Kejriwal is committingmore mistakes to hide one mis-take. He is making baseless alle-gations against me,” Paswan said.

He also criticised Kejriwalfor raising questions about thecredibility of the Bureau ofIndian Standards (BIS), anautonomous body that hasdeveloped around 25,000 qual-ity standards for various prod-ucts and services.

BIS officials on Thursdayclaimed that they indeed tooka sample from one Deepak Rai’shouse. BIS officials claimed tohave call details and securityentry made by the BIS teamwhich collected the water sam-ple.

The Union minister andKejriwal have been involved ina war of words over waterquality in the city after Paswanshared findings of a BIS study,which suggested that Delhi’stap water had failed qualitytests. According to the study,Delhi, along with Kolkata andChennai, failed in almost 10out of 11 quality parameters ofdrinking water.

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Both Houses of Parliamenton Thursday witnessed

MPs cutting across party linesraising the issue of air andwater pollution in the Capital.

In the Rajya Sabha, theissue turned into a politicalslugfest between BJP and AAP,with BJP MP Vijay Goel flash-ing clippings of newspaperswith advertisements of airpurifiers and also displayingmini oxygen cylinder. In theLok Sabha which devotedafternoon for on the debate onthe matter, many MPsdemanded a stringent law toprevent for air pollution. Theyalso accused “Delhi-centric”people to blame only farmersfor stubble burning whileignoring the “much bigger”pollution created by the city’sindustrial units and construc-tion waste and large number ofdiesel vehicles.

In Rajya Sabha, brief dis-ruptions happened during thedebate on pollution in Delhi

and NCR. Members from the BJP

and the opposition led by theAAP and supported byCongress, SP and others wereinvolved in heated exchangesfor around 10 minutes, whenRajya Sabha assembled afterlunch to discuss about risingpollution levels.

After Union Minister ofEnvironment, Forest andClimate Change PrakashJavadekar read his statementinforming about the stepstaken by the Centre on theissue, BJP member Vijay Goelalleged that the DelhiGovernment is not takingproper action to tackle pollu-tion.

He also alleged corruptionby the Delhi Government indistributing 50 lakh masksamong the people and said theresidents of the national cap-ital are also forced to drinkbottled water as tap water wasnot safe.

Goel displayed clippingsof newspapers with advertise-

ments of air purifiers and alsodisplayed mini oxygen cylin-der. This was opposed by AAPmembers Sanjay Singh andSushil Gupta. They were sup-ported by other oppositionparties including Congress,SP and others.

During the second day ofdebate in Lok Sabha, Unionminister Babul Supriyo beltedout a few lines of the popularBollywood song ‘Hawa ke sathsath, ghata ke sang sang’ in LokSabha to drive home the pointthat the Government is takingsteps for “cleaner” air.Congress MP Shashi Tharoorsuggested that a legislativeframework be adopted toimplement the National CleanAir Programme (NCAP),which proposes multiple mea-sures to combat air pollution.He said political differencesshould be kept aside as therewas a need to work together toaddress this “toxicity”. “A leg-islative approach needs to beadopted to implement theNCAP,” he said.

BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy,Bhagwant Mann (AAP) andAnupriya Patel(Apna Dal) saidthat farmers should alone notbe blamed for stubble burning,considered as one of the mainreasons for air pollution in thenational capital region, anddemanded that they should beencouraged to grow cropswhich do not leave stubble.Rudy pointed out that theremany reasons for the increasedpollution in Delhi because ofuncontrolled industrial waste,existence of toxic exiting unitsand more vehicles in affluentfamilies. “It is unfair to blamefarmers alone.

They should be helped tochange the pattern of growingand find financial models onstubble etc,” he said. Rudywho is also a Pilot said thatmany of his foreign pilotfriends have already cancelledtrip to Delhi in Decemberand narrated how USGovernment implementedstrict laws to prevent air pol-lution in metros.

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The Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind,the largest body of Muslim

clerics, has backed filing of areview petition in the SupremeCourt against its verdict on theAyodhya issue and has reject-ed the offer of five acre plot forthe construction of the Babrimosque saying nothing cansubstitute the original mosque.The Jamiat’s articulation comesafter the outfit’s NationalWorking Committee onThursday passed resolutions tothe effect.

The Committee’s meeting

was held under the chairman-ship of Maulana QariMohammad UsmanMansoorpuri, the PresidentJamiat Ulama-i-Hind, to delib-erate upon whether to file areview petition against theSupreme Court verdict onBabri mosque and whether toaccept five acre plot as analternative land for the mosque.

The meeting also discussedother issues concerning thecountry and communityincluding followers’ entry intoASI-managed mosques andwakf properties.

“The working Committee

of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH)holds the recent SupremeCourt verdict on Babri mosqueunjust and overwhelminglyone-sided. It has confirmedthat the mosque was not builtafter demolishing any templebut there existed a mosque forseveral hundred years whichwas demolished and now thecourt has paved the way forconstruction of a temple overits site. As such the judgmentis the darkest spot in the historyof free India,” the Committeeresolved.

“In such a situation we can-not expect any better award

from the concerned judges.Rather, there is possibility offurther damage.

Therefore, the WorkingCommittee considers that fil-ing a review petition will not befruitful. Nevertheless since sev-eral Muslim organizationsavailing their constitutionalrights have decided to file areview petition, Jamiat does notoppose them and hopes that itdoes not produce any negativeeffect,” according to the Jamiatresolution.

The Working Committeeof Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind alsoseeks to clarify that nothing can

substitute the mosque.Therefore, the five acre plot inAyodhya in an alternative placeas a substitute to the mosquemust not be accepted, it said.

The outfit’s resolution alsolauded Muslims for displayingpatience as peace loving citi-zens during in the face of test-ing times.

The Jamiat also took aswipe at the Sunni Wakf Boardsaying the chairman of UPSunni Wakf Board has playeda role of Mir Jaafar for theMuslim of India in theR a m j a n m b h o o m i / B a b r iMosque case.

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Without offering any time-frame for cleaning river

‘Ganga’ the Government inthe Lok Sabha on Thursdaysaid the drive is a continuousprocess and it has sanctioned305 projects at an estimatedcost of over �28,600 croreunder the plan as the House onThursday witnessed membersraising questions on economyand Citizenship Bill with ShivSena seeking `Bharat Ratna`for Hindutva ideologue VeerSavarkar.

Shiv Sena memberRajendra Gavit demanded‘Bharat Ratna’, the highest civil-ian honour bestowed by theUnion Government, forSavarkar and tribal icon BirsaMunda.

Rajendra Gavit made thedemand during the Zero Hour.His short speech was mostlyconfined to contributions ofMunda as he sought the hon-our for him and then made amention of Savarkar as well.

“Freedom fighters like VeerSavarkar be also given Bharat

Ratna,” he said.Members questioned gov-

ernment on the ̀ Ganga` clean-ing projects with Minister forJal Shakti Gajendra SinghShekhawat saying there hasbeen improvement in the qual-ity of water of the River Ganga.

Replying to a question dur-ing Question Hour, the minis-ter said a total of 305 projectshave so far been sanctioned atan estimated cost of Rs.28,613.75 crore, out of which109 projects have been com-pleted and rest are at variousstages of implementation.

The central governmentlaunched the Namami GangeProgramme with a total bud-getary outlay of Rs 20,000crore for five year period till 31December 2020 to accomplishthe twin objectives of effectiveabatement of pollution, con-servation and rejuvenation ofNational River Ganga and itstributaries. He also said Gangain 2019 has shown improvedwater quality trends as com-pared to 2014. The minister didnot offer any time-frame forcleaning of the river.

Among other issues,Saugata Roy of the TrinamoolCongress spoke about the“worsening” economic situa-tion, citing reports to say thatunemployment is at 8.5 percent and household consump-tion has hit a new low. Realestate sector is also in a “crisis”,he added.

He alleged that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi wasshowing “cavalier attitude” andraising jingoistic and commu-nal issues instead of focusingon improving the economy.

BJP’s Tapir Gao asked the

government to take measuresto end apprehensions amongpeople in northeastern statesabout the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill.

TDP’s Jayadev Galla saidthe new political map issued bythe government does not show

Lok Sabha Speaker OmBirla on Thursday cautioned aCongress member againstquestioning the Chair’s impar-tiality.

The incident happenedduring the Zero Hour afterRavneet Singh Bittu, aCongress MP from Punjab,raised the issue of the Uniongovernment’s decision to with-draw SPG security cover givento the Gandhi family . Birla cuthim short saying the issue hasbeen raised repeatedly in thehouse.”You have also joinedhands with them,” Bittu told theSpeaker while pointing to BJPmembers.

Birla then stopped themember, who had stood up tospeak, and cautioned theCongress member againstquestioning the Chair in sucha manner.

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Humans forcing monkeys tomove away from their for-

est habitats and compellingthem to migrate to cities like‘Vrindavan’, ‘Mathura’ andDelhi for food and shelter fig-ured in the Lok Sabha onThursday with members askingGovernment to find a perma-nent solution to the ‘man-monkey conflict’.

The issue of monkey’s`intruding` presence at reli-gious places and in LutyensZone in the national capital wasraised in the lower house byBJP MP Hema Malini who saiddeforestation has led to mon-keys moving to the cities. Shesuggested that the Governmentcould develop a monkey safarithere in ‘Vrindavan’ and‘Mathura’.

TMC MP SudipBandyopadhyay recounted thatduring his visit to Mathura amonkey deftly lifted his spec-tacles without the MP evennoticing it but returned itwhen he offered him a fruitjuice. He said moneys weredrinking and eating food avail-able to them in the cities whichis not good for their health.

RLJP leader Chirag Paswanalso joined her in raising the

issue saying that in Delhi mon-keys do not allow children toplay outside their houses.Paswan, however, went on toadd that monkeys have beenforced out of their naturalhabitats by humans.

He said both sides canearn peace if forests are devel-oped moneys stay back there.“ This has happened becausewe have destroyed forests”, hesaid.

Raising the issue during

Zero Hour, the MP fromMathura, said large-scale pres-ence of monkeys at religiousplaces was a matter of concernand the government should dosomething about it.

“People in Vrindavan andMathura in my constituencyhave been hit by the menacewith monkeys snatching itemsfrom pilgrims,” she said. Theactor-turned-politician alsosaid sterilization attempts havemade monkeys “violent”.

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To ensure pan-India, widercoverage of farmers’

income support scheme --Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi (PM-Kisan),the Centre has now roped inCommon Service Centre(CSC) to speed up the enrol-ment process. The Ministry ofAgriculture has tied up withCSC, a special purpose vehicle(SPV) under the Ministry of ITand Electronics, to fulfil the tar-get of enrolling 14 crore mar-

ginal farmers across India.PM-Kisan is 100 per cent

income support scheme fund-ed by the Centre which waslaunched in December 2018.Under the scheme an incomesupport of �6,000 per year isprovided to all farmer familiesacross the country in threeequal installments of �2,000each every four months.

“CSC has been roped in bythe Ministry of Agriculture toexpedite the coverage of thescheme. Over 3-lakh CSCsspread across length and

breadth of the country will nowstart enrolling famers eligiblefor PM-Kisan scheme.

Farmers can now visitnearby CSCs to get enrolledand avail the scheme’s benefit.CSCs have also been given themandate to make any changesin previous enrolment.

Any farmer who is alreadya beneficiary and wants tomake changes in his enrollmentform like address or nomineecan visit CSCs to get it done,”said CSC CEO Dr DineshTyagi.

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As many as 38 lakh challansinvolving a total amount of

�577.5 crore have been issuedsince the implementation of thenew motor vehicles law, RoadTransport Minister NitinGadkari said on Thursday.

However, in a reply to theLok Sabha, Gadkari said the“challans are being referred tocourts. Actual revenue is notavailable”.

“As per information avail-able in the database of NIC(Vahan, Sarathi), 38,39,406traffic challans in 18 statesand union territories wereissued,” according to the reply.

The challans involved a

total amount of Rs5,77,51,79,895, Gadkari said.

The data is available forChandigarh, Pondicherry,Assam, Chhattisgarh, UttarPradesh, Odisha, Delhi,Rajasthan, Bihar, Dadra andNagar Haveli, Punjab, Goa,Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, Maharashtra,Himachal Pradesh, andHaryana. Tamil Nadu saw thehighest number of challans at14,13,996, While the least num-ber of challans were recordedin Goa at 58.

The Government recent-ly said it has no informationabout any State not imple-menting the Motor Vehicles(Amendment) Act, 2019.

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Twice the toll amount will becharged from December 1

for passing through FASTaglanes without the tags at tollplazas on national highways,Union Minister Nitin Gadkarisaid on Thursday.

From December 1, tollpayments will be made onlythrough FASTags under theNational Electronic TollCollection (NETC) pro-gramme, the flagship initiativeof the Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways.

However, there will be onehybrid lane, where usual tollwill be charged from non-FASTag vehicles.

“Double the toll amount willbe charged from December 1 fortravelling through FASTag laneswithout tags on 537 toll plazas onnational highways across India,”Road Transport and HighwaysMinister Gadkari said here.

He said 537 toll plazashave become 100 per cent elec-tronic toll collection compliantincluding 17 where FASTagswill be read through hand-helddevices. The Government hadalready decided that fromDecember 1, toll paymentswill be made only via FASTagunder the National ElectronicToll Collection (NETC) pro-gramme, the flagship initiativeof the Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways.

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As many as 566 nationalhighway projects are run-

ning behind schedule owing toissues ranging from land acqui-sition, forest and wildlife clear-ances to poor performance ofcontractors, Road Transportand Highways Minister NitinGadkari told Parliament onThursday.

“Construction work onGolden Quadrilateral hasalready been completed, how-ever 566 projects are behindtheir completion schedule.These projects are delayedmainly due to land acquisi-tion, utility shifting, non-availability of soil or aggregate,poor performance of con-tractors,” Gadkari told the

Lok Sabha in a written replyto a question.

The Minister’s revelation toParliament is a big setback tothe highway development pro-gramme in the country that hasthrown shining example ofperformance despite sluggishperformance by several othersectors of the economy. In thepast, success of the road devel-opment projects had providedopportunity for chest-thump-ing by Ministers in the rulingparty.

Gadkari said that on theirpart, action was routinely beentaken against contractors thatreported delays under the pro-visions of the contract.

The Minister also said thatin order to fast-track theseprojects, various steps such as

streamlining of land acquisitionand environment clearances,premium rescheduling, closecoordination with other min-istries, among others have beentaken.

“Some of the ongoingNational Highways Projectshave been delayed due to var-ious reasons such as delays inland acquisition, pre con-struction activities, law andorder issues, contractors’ cashflow problems, poor perfor-mance of contractors,” Gadkariadded.

Regular meetings are heldwith project developers, Stategovernments and contractorson expedite the delayed pro-jects and various steps havebeen taken in this regard, hesaid.

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RAIPUR | FRIDAY | NOVEMBER 22, 2019chhattisgarh 03

A meeting of Business Advisory Committee of the Chhattisgarh Assembly was held at the assembly’s meeting hall on Thursday. The meeting waschaired by Assembly Speaker Charandas Mahant and was attended by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushikand Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ravindra Choubey. Pioneer Photo

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh government onThursday decided to devel-

op places in state related toLord Rama’s exile (Rama VanGaman Path) as a tourist spots.A decision in this regard wastaken at the cabinet meetingheld at Vidhan Sabha premiseson Thursday afternoon.

Notable, it is believed thatLord Rama spent 10 out of 14year’s exile in Chhattisgarh,which was then known as‘Dakshin Kaushal’ and‘Dandakaranya’.

Minister RavindraChoubey briefing news personsabout the decision taken by thegovernment informed thatamong the 51 places beingearmarked, eight of the places

would be developed in the firstphase. These eight places com-prise Sitamadhi-Harchowka(Koria), Ramgarh (Surguja),Sheorinarayan (Janjgir-Champa), Turturia(B a lo dabazar-Bhat apara) ,

Chandrakhuri (Raipur), Rajim(Gariaband), Sihava (Dhamtari)and Jagdalpur (Bastar)

After a survey the govern-ment would facilitate the placeswith better connectivity andelectrification with other

amenities required for a touristplace, the minister said.Required budgetary provisionswould be made for this purposeand efforts would be made toget assistance from central gov-ernment too, the minister

added.The development of these

earmarked tourist spots wouldbe started from Chandrakhuriof Raipur where there is atemple of Kaushalya, themother of lord Rama.

Chhattisgarh to develop sitesrelated to Lord Rama’s exile

Eight earmarkedplaces of ‘RamaVan Gaman Path’from Surguja toBastar to bedeveloped astourist spot infirst phase

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

ASpiceJet flight fromGuwahati to Mumbai

made an emergency land-ing at Swami VivekanandaAirport Mana onThursday.

According to AirportDirector, Rakesh Sahay, theSpiceJet flight (6481) wasgoing to Mumbai fromGuwahati. One of the pas-senger, developed medicalcomplication when theflight was on Chhattisgarhair space ande as Raipurwas the nearest airport, itmade an emergency land-ing here. The Raipur ATCwas contacted after whichthe permission foremergency landing wasgiven.

After the landing at2.15 PM, the patientJitendra Shinde who hadsome breathing trouble wasshifted to an ambulancekept ready. The patient wasrushed to Raipur MedicalCollege and was admitted

there, he said.The flight had 175 pas-

sengers. It’s now strandedat Raipur as this categoryflight is not operated fromthe Airport here. Thepush-back equipment is

being brought from Delhi,which is expected to reachthrough Vistara flight at8.00 PM. After which theflight will take off forMumbai, stated AirportDirector.

SpiceJet flightmakes emergencylanding in Raipur


Chhattisgarh Pradesh CongressCommittee has decided to stage

demonstration in front of local residencesof BJP Lok Sabha MPs of the state for theirnon-cooperation in the paddy issue.

The demonstration programme will startfrom Friday and will be staged at differentLoksabha constituencies in different dates.

As the parliament session is on and theBJP MPs are silent over the paddy issue,the Congress had decided to state demon-stration in front of local office cum resi-dences of the BJP MPs. “Along with sit-in

programme the Congress workers will alsoplay drums in front of the residences ofBJP MPs to woke them up from their indif-ferences so that they can raise the state’spaddy issue”, said chief spokesperson ofPCC, Sushil Anand Shukla.

With the demonstration programme theanti-farmer attitude of the BJP MPs will bebrought to fore and they will be unmaskedbefore the state populace, he added.

The CGPCC Chief Mohan Markamhas instructed all the state office bearers,district presidents and office bearers of allthe frontal organisations to actively partic-ipate in the demonstration programme.

Cong to stage demo atBJP MPs residences


Chhattisgarh BJP state presidentVikram Usendi termed the pro-

posed agitation of Congress partybefore the residences and offices ofthe BJP MPs as ‘offensive act’, bythose “who are themselves dupingthe farmers and people of the state.”

In a statement, he said that theCongress leaders are indulging inpolitics by misleading the people. Hesaid government instead of skirtingthe issue, should commence the pro-curement of paddy from the farmers.BJP state president said the Congressitself before it’s the then presidentRahul Gandhi, while releasing theelection manifesto and taking pledgeby taking ‘Ganga Jal’ in hand, hadclaimed that for procurement ofpaddy from farmers of the state it

would arrange funds. Even theCongress manifesto committee con-venor T S Singdeo had given a simi-lar statement but why now they havetaken backseat and giving differentstatements.

He said Chief Minister is spread-ing lies that the Centre is responsiblefor non-procurement of paddy, whichcannot be accepted at any condition.The BJP will teach the Congress as tohow agitations are being staged iffarmers are duped, he warned.

BJP to counter Congagitation: Usendi

STAFF REPORTER nRAJNANDGAON

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel on Thursday said

despite not getting favourableresponse from the Centre hisgovernment will continue urg-ing the union government topurchase rice from the stateunder central pool and allowthe state to procure paddy at Rs2500 per quintal.

Addressing a public meet-ing here at State High SchoolGround, Baghel said it was dis-appointing that none of theBJP MP, including that ofRajnandgaon, was cooperatingon the issue related to interestof state farmers.

He particularly pointedthat Rajnandgaon MP was dis-

appointing in Lok Sabha onWednesday. “Why he did not

back our demand in the inter-est of the state,” asked Baghel.

Baghel asserting that hewill continue raking up theissue said even though he wasnot getting appointment fromPrime Minister he was notgoing to relent.

Baghel earlier dedicated tothe public and performed bhu-mipujan of development andwelfare works worth Rs 137crore. He also distributed landtitles under Rajiv GandhiAashray Yojana and inaugurat-ed Pension Mitan Yojana. Hiscabinet colleagues,Mohammad Akbar, RavindraChoubey and Shiv KumarDaharia were also present onthis occasion.

‘Despite disappointingresponse, we’ll not relent’CM on deadlock with Centre over paddy issue


Health and Family Welfare andRural Development Minister

T S Singh Deo said, “Informationis the key to address issues relatedto children. The UNICEF and theNSS should ensure that keymessages pertaining to the child’s

wellbeing are shared with parentsand caregivers and children haveaccess to their rights.”

He was addressing the WorldChildren’s Day with young NSSvolunteers and UNICEF repre-sentatives at DeendayalUpadhyaya Auditorium, Raipuron Wednesday as chief guest.

He said volunteers have thepotential to be change-agents intheir respective communities. Hereiterated the need for awarenesson child rights to protect childrenagainst abuse and harassment.

Higher Education MinisterUmesh Patel said the NSS volun-teers are driven by a strong desireto contribute to the society andthat the UNICEF partnership isan opportunity for volunteers tocontribute to the wellbeing ofchildren of Chhattisgarh.

“World Children’s Dayreminds us of our duty to listen tochildren and recommit ourselvesto the goal of seeing every childtreated fairly and living free fromoppression,” said Job Zachariah,Chief, UNICEF Chhattisgarh.

He added that the UNICEFand the NSS volunteers shouldstrive to build an enabling envi-ronment for children in the state.

NSS Volunteers in state tobecome child rights champions


Industry Minister KawasiLakhma on Thursday paid a

courtesy call on Haryana's ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattar andDeputy Chief Minister DushyantChautala in Chandigarh.

Lakhma invited them bothto National Tribal Dance Fest tobe held in Chhattisgarh fromDecember 27.

It is noteworthy that ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel hassent invitation letter to chiefministers of all the states toattend National Tribal DanceFestival being organised inChhattisgarh for the first time.

Baghel has also requestedhis counterparts from otherstates to send tribal dancetroupes of their states to

participate in this fest.Chief Minister has given the

responsibility to his cabinet col-leagues to personally invite chiefministers of various states forNational Tribal Dance Fest to beheld from December 27 to 29.

Lakhma is on a tour to Haryanawith the invitation. On the occasion,Lakhma informed Khattar about theculture, tourism and developmentjourney of Bastar region ofChhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarhminister hails from the area.


State Election Commissioner,Chhattisgarh Thakur Ram Singh

held a secretary-level meeting at thecommission’s office on Thursday toreview the preparation for three-tierPanchayat and civic bodies electionsdue in December-January 2019-20.

Secretary general administra-tion department D.D. Singh, specialsecretary urban administrationAlarmelmangai D, deputy secretary-cum director Jitendra Shukla, andsenior officials of revenue andnatural calamity managementdepartment and governmentprinting press were present.

The discussions were held onthe necessary amendment in theMunicipal Corporation Acts andRules, number of Panchayats,

reservation, delimitations, and otherActs and Rules related to the elec-tion. The meeting also discussed theappointment of returning officersfrom State Administrative Cadre,proposal for honorarium to be given,vehicle arrangement and arrange-ment for the observers with the gen-eral administration department.

It was also decided that revenuedepartment will provide Tehsildharsand naib tehsildhars as returningofficers while the government print-ing press will print the ballot paperalong with other necessary materialsfor the conduct of election.

The state government hasalready brought ordinance to holdthe election of Mayor and chairmanindirectly while the elections will beheld through ballot papers.

Preparedness for Panchayat andcivic bodies’ elections reviewed

CM visitshealth campRAIPUR: Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel on a tour to Dhamtari dis-trict on Wednesday visited a campconducted by the health depart-ment under Chief Minister UrbalSlum Clinic Scheme in primaryhealth centre at Itwari Bazar.Nearly 132 people availed thehealth checkup facility at thecamp. CMHO Dr Turre informedthat from October 2 to till date,health checkups of 1672 people ofslum areas have been done. 11cases out of these were referred toother medical institutions. Thereferred cases were that of tuber-culosis, leprosy and clubfoot. Onthe occasion, Chief Minister gavepolio and rota virus vaccinationdrops to three children and gavespectacles to two children. ChiefMinister also got his blood-sugartest done at the camp. During thevisit, he served suposhan kits tofive tiny tots of Hatkekkkshwarand Danitola ward. On the occa-sion, he also served freshly-cookedfood to five pregnant and lactatingmothers.

Lakhma calls on Khattar toinvite him for tribal dance fest

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This group of seven youngmen are different in so

many ways as well as the talentthey possess. What binds themtogether is the fact that theysuffer disability and have cometogether to form first of its kindmusic band on wheelchairs.

The seven-member bandby the name of Flowing Karmais excited for having got anopportunity to perform withBollywood singer, Tochi Rainaat a musical evening atChandigarh Spinal Rehab inSector 28 here on Friday. Allof them are going throughrehabilitation at the rehabcentre for acute disabilitieslike spinal cord and braininjury.

The band, which was offi-cially launched on Thursdayhas already performed atElante Mall, DT Mall and

Sector 17, and aspires to comeup with its own album some-day. They are all youngsterswith most of them in theirtwenties, and their determi-nation to live a meaningful lifeis undeterred despite havingbeen left paralysed by mishaps.

Nicky P. Kaur, Founderand CEO of ChandigarhSpinal Rehab said, SometimesKARMA can knock us down,even cripples us.

Then the spirit comes alivein full glory and Karma flowsonce again From destructionto joyous creation!

39 years old TridibChaudhary from Bogaigaon,Assam, the band leader,explained, “All of us face chal-lenges in life like anyone elsebut we have learnt to cope withthem.” A nasty fall had leftTridib paraplegic and as soonas his condition improvedafter rehab, he again started

practising guitar which hasalways been his passion.

Sandeep Singh, 31, fromAsansol, West Bengal, whoplays the keyboard and is thelead vocalist, had two yearsago suffered a bullet injurywhich left him paraplegic.When he came to ChandigarhSpinal Rehab, he was bed rid-den but, as soon as he recov-ered, he was more confidentabout living an independentlife. He also had a keen inter-est in music, which is why hewanted to become a part of theFlowing Karma.

Ashish Verma, 28, fromNarkanda, Himachal Pradesh,a guitarist is determined toplay on stage with Tochi Rainaeven when he is just out of theICU. He has been paraplegicfor more than 6 years aftermeeting an accident.

The youngest member ofthe band, Rajeev Kumar, 24,

hails from Kangra in HimachalPradesh. He was left quadri-plegic after he fell down froma tree about 6 years ago. Beinga quadriplegic, he is not ableto use his hands as well as legs.The rehab centre has createda special kind of shaker forhim that needs to be tied to hishands with the help of crepebandage and he spends hourspracticing it.

29 year old Rahul Singh,belongs to Lucknow and holdsa BTech degree. While on hisway to give his exams, he metan accident that left him withsevere Spinal Cord injuries.Chandigarh Spinal Rehabbought an octopad for himbut, since his limbs are notmuch in control, he was notable to hold the sticks proper-ly. The team here modified thesticks and, now, he plays itwith more confidence.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Thursday directedAdministrative Secretaries ofall the department to ensurefinalization of online transferpolicy in respect of every cat-egory of posts whose sanc-tioned strength is more than500 under their control as wellas data entry of all employeesof that designation latest byFebruary 28, next year in con-sultation with Unions.

Presiding over a reviewmeeting with administrativesecretaries and departmentheads of various departmentsregarding transfer policy here,

Khattar said that the data inrespect of all employees ofevery Department, Board,Corporation and Authoritymust be got filled up by therespective AdministrativeSecretary before December25, this year positively.

Khattar said online trans-fer policy of School EducationDepartment is not only appre-ciated in Haryana but otherStates are also following it. Hesaid that it is also a matter ofpride for the officers. He saidthat if any system is to be runwith complete satisfaction,then they will have to workdedicatedly.

He said the number ofvacant posts (sanctioned

minus filled up posts) of everycategory whether more than500 or less should be evenlydistributed over the relevantadministrative unit(s) dis-trict/blocks/tehsils etc.

"These evenly distributedposts would be blocked latestby 5 PM on November 25,2019 by every AdministrativeSecretary at their level fol-lowed by a confirmation tothe Chief Secretary the sameday," he said adding thatemployees of all departmentsshould get the stations oftheir choice is the mainobjective of the new onlinetransfer policy. The servicemanual of all employees,whether old or present,

should also be linked on theHuman ResourceManagement System(HRMS).

Chief Secretary KeshniAnand Arora, PrincipalSecretary to Chief MinisterRajesh Khullar, AdditionalPrincipal Secretar y V.Umashankar, AdministrativeSecretary and DepartmentHeads of various otherdepartments were present inthe meeting.

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Chief Minister ManoharLal Khattar also directed theFinance Department officials

to develop a mechanism forexpeditious disposal of filesrelated to important issuesthrough Run Through File(RTF) system for quick dis-posal of the files related toimportant issues. He also sug-gested the officials to preparea checklist of queries for theconcerned department tofacilitate quick disposal ofimportant files by the FinanceDepartment as well as theChief Minister Office

Presiding over a reviewmeeting with the officers ofFinance Department toreview and understand thefunctioning of Department,he also suggested the officialsto prepare a checklist of

queries for the concerneddepartment to facilitate quickdisposal of f i les by theFinance Department as wellas the Chief Minister Office.

During the meeting,Additional Chief Secretary,Finance Department, T.V.S.NPrasad also made a presenta-tion regarding the operations ofthe Finance Department andthe fiscal position of the state.

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A delegation led bySameer Gupta, Chairman ofthe Northern Region of theFederation of Indian Industry(CII) met Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattar

and held discussion on thetopics of employment, renew-able energy, industry, econo-my, infrastructure etc.

Gupta told the ChiefMinister that they want towork on renewable energy inthe State, which will boost thepace of development and analternative of the energy canbe developed. He further toldthe Chief Minister that theywant to work on a pilot pro-ject with the government inthe field of energy so thataffordable energy can be pre-pared. After this the ChiefMinister directed the con-cerned officials present at themeeting to work togetherwith the Federation and

explore possibilities for thistype of project.

Rhe Chief Ministerinformed the delegation thatthe State has improved itsranking in Ease-of-Doing-Business and in this case,Haryana is now at the firstplace in North India. TheChief Minister further saidthat he wants to take theState to the forefront of devel-opment and in this directionhis government is ready togive all possible support in thestart-up sector.

The delegation alsoexpressed their willingnessto work with cooperation inareas like electricity, water,pollution.

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Registration number(0001)of “CH01BZ” series

fetched a whopping biddingprice of Rs 15,35,000 against areserve price of only Rs 50,000in an e-auction of fancy num-bers held by Registering andLicensing Authority,Chandigarh.

A businessman namelyKulwinder Singh Bassi made thehighest bid of Rs 15,35,000 (Rs15.35 lakh) for the“CH01BZ0001” in the e-auction.

The number“CH01BZ0003” received thebidding price of Rs 777000 (Rs7.77 lakh) against the reserveprice of only Rs 30000 followedby “CH01BZ0007” which wase-auctioned for Rs 5,86000 (Rs5.86 lakh) against the reserveprice of Rs 30000.

The fancy numbers includ-ing “0009” and “0005” in

“CH01BZ” series received bid-ding price of Rs 451000 (Rs4.51 lakh) and Rs 201000 (Rs2.01 lakh) respectively againstthe reserve amount of Rs30000.

Among other fancy num-bers, “9999” was auctioned atRs 1.60 lakh against the reserveprice f Rs 20000, “0010” fetchedRs 1.57 lakh against the reserveprice of Rs 30000, “0006”received bidding amount of Rs1.47 lakh against the biddingprice of Rs 30000, “7777” wentfor Rs 1.41 lakh against the bid-ding price of Rs 20000 and“0011” fetched bidding price ofRs 1.40 lakh against the reserveprice of Rs 30000.

Only those who have pur-chased vehicles at aChandigarh address wereallowed to participate in the e-auction after submitting thesale letter, i.e. Form No. 21,UID i.e. Aadhaar card and

Chandigarh address proof.Under the e-auction

process, the vehicle ownershave to deposit a registrationfee for participating in the e-auction and the reserve amountfor the special/choice registra-tion numbers at the office ofthe Registering and LicensingAuthority in Sector-17 herethrough demand draft .

Notably, a city residentnamely Amarjit Singh had inthe year 2012 broken all previ-ous records by winning the bidfor a registration number forhis luxury car for a whoppingRs 26.05 lakh. Interestingly, thereserve price for “0001” num-ber for the CH-01-AP serieswas only Rs 25,000.

In the same year, anotherresident namely Jagjit SinghChahal, a city based business-man had made the bid of Rs 17lakh to purchase “CH-01-AN-0001” number.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) onThursday demanded that

governments of Punjab,Himachal Pradesh and theCentre should implement thepolicy on payment of compen-sation to the families of the mar-tyrs, as being paid by the ArvindKejriwal Government in Delhi.

AAP’s Punjab unit chiefspokesperson and MLA ProfBaljinder Kaur and MLA Meet

Hayer also sympathized withthe aggrieved families of the sol-diers, who attained martyrdomin the line of duty in the inhos-pitable Siachen glacier.

“While the sacrifices ofmartyrs could not be repaid interms of money, the govern-ments needed to be more sen-sitized to protect the families ofthe martyrs against financialhardships,” they said.

Citing the example ofKejriwal-led Delhi Government,

AAP leaders said that it hadbeen offering spot compensa-tion worth Rs one crore in theevent any personnel of thearmy, paramilitary forces andthe police, who attained mar-tyrdom in the line of duty.Three of the four soldiers killedin the Siachen glacier, ManinderSingh, Virpal Singh and DimpleKumar belonged to Punjabwhile Manish Kumar hailedfrom Himachal Pradesh.

AAP MLAs demanded

from the Capt Amarinder Singhgovernment and HimachalPradesh Government to provideall facilities to the families of themartyred soldiers, includinggovernment job to the next ofthe kin of the martyres, and paya cheque for Rs one crore to thebereaved families.

They lamented that thefamily of Sukhwinder Singh ofChak Bhai Ke village underBathinda parliamentary con-stituency, who attained mar-

tyrdom on March 10, 2018,had been running from pillar,for compensation and gov-ernment job. “The job appli-cations of the martyr's widow,Karamjit Kaur, seemed to havebeen consigned to the dust-bin,” he said adding that thelocal AAP MLA PrincipalBudh Ram had brought theissue to the notice of ChiefMinister’s office and localadministration, but no actionhad been taken so far.

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Demanding immediate dismissalof Punjab Cabinet Minister

Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD) onThursday minced no words toalleged that the former AkaliSarpanch Dalbir Dhilwan’s killing inDera Baba Nanak was a “politicalmurder executed as a part ofMinister-gangster-police nexus” totake revenge for a 2004 incident.

“It is a political murder to takerevenge for an incident in 2004when the Jails Minister SukhjinderSingh Randhawa’s turban was top-pled,” alleged the former MinisterBikram Singh Majithia while ques-tioning the Congress national pres-ident Sonia Gandhi and RahulGandhi for their silence when such

atrocities were being committedby their workers and leaders.

Majithia said that there werecomplaints of booth capturing inDhilwan village during 2004 par-liamentary elections duringRandhawa’s visit to the village andin the ensuing scuffle with Dhilwan’sfamily members, the then chiefparliamentary secretary’s turbanhad been toppled. “Randhawa heldDalbir and his father Sant Singhresponsible for this act and threat-ened Sant that he had lost two sonsand would lose another one,” hesaid.

“Subsequently, in 2004, duringthe SGPC election, 10 members ofDalbir’s family were arrested ontrumped up charges and Dalbir waseven tortured. Nothing happenedfor the next 10 years during the

SAD-BJP government, but now inCongress rule, Dalbir was againattacked to take revenge and suf-fered a horrible death after beingshot 15 times and even having hislegs cut off,” said Majithia.

Substantiating his claims withthe documentary evidence, Majithiaasserted that notorious gangsterJaggu Bhaganwanpura, whosemother had the support of the JailsMinister as village’s Panchayat mem-ber in Dera Baba Nanak, was flour-ishing in Congress rule.

Majithia also cited mediareports of senior police officials dis-closing how Bhagwanpura wasusing phones in jail and also run-ning an extortion racket from jailwith the support of 33 associates. Healso cited how the District policewas taking great pains to announce

that Dhiwan’s “murder” was not apolitical murder.

“Gurdaspur SSP OpinderjitGhuman is acting like a Congressspokesman by announcing within15 minutes of the murder that thereis no political motive behind thekilling. The SSP is even trying tomislead the people by stating thatthe murder is due to a land dispute,”said Majithia.

Showing revenue records toprove that that the killers andDhilwan did not share commonboundaries, Majithia said that it wasunfortunate that even a day before,the SSP had claimed that a politicaltinge was being given to the incidenteven though he had not met thefamily nor affected an arrest even 72hours after the incident.

“The truth is that the SSP and

the local police are not even readyto record the statement of the vic-tim family. Dhilwan’s son Sandeephad now written to the DGP statingthat his father had been murderedby Congressmen under politicalpatronage of Sukhjinder Randhawaand that the local police were notrecording the statement of the fam-ily,” he said.

Majithia declared that the SADwould not remain silent and wouldpursue all avenues, includingapproaching the High Court toensure justice to Dhilwan’s family.

“We will expose attempts tocover up the political murder ofDalbir besides going to the peopleand exposing the other such mur-ders including that of Jagmel Singhin Sangrur, Neha Shorey in Mohaliand Gurbachan Singh in Gurdaspur

besides others,” he said.Former Finance Minister

Parminder Singh Dhindsa said thatall recent killings had witnessed a setpattern under which Congressworkers had committed a crime andthe police had indulged in a coverup exercise.

“Even in the case of dalit JagmelSingh’s killing, the police did nottake any action when he was firstbeaten up by the same persons andeven forced him to enter into acompromise with his oppressors,”he said adding that even afterJagmel’s murder, the police shel-tered political persons who werebehind it and indulged in a cover upexercise by stating that the victimwas mentally unstable besides false-ly asserting that it was a Dalit-Zamindar issue.

Chandigarh: A ruling CongressMLA in Punjab has accused thepolice of tapping his phone,prompting the Opposition toattack Amarinder Government.

The matter of phone tappingcame to light when CongressMLA from Samana RajinderSingh raised the issue in a districtgrievance redressal committeemeeting on Tuesday in Patiala.

Singh alleged that a policeInspector posted at Samana inPatiala had recorded his phonecalls as well of his personalassistant.

"The police Inspector evenshowed me the call recordings hemade after a confrontation withhim over some issue,” Singh saidon Thursday.

"I told him (Inspector) thathe had committed a blunder byrecording my phone calls and itwas against my privacy," saidCongress MLA adding that hehad even brought this matter tothe notice of Patiala SeniorSuperintendent of Police twomonths back.

Singh said when no actionwas taken against the policeinspector, he raised this issueduring grievance redressal com-mittee meeting on Tuesday.

The grievance committeemeeting was also attended bytwo Congress MLAs --MadanLal Jalalpur from Ghanaur andHardyal Singh Kamboj fromRajpura.

After Congress MLARajinder Singh flagged this issue,Patiala SSP shifted the policeinspector from Samana to Nabhaon Wednesday, officials said.

Meanwhile, Aam AadmiParty MLA Aman Arora whiledubbing phone tapping as a"serious issue", on Thursdaysought a probe by a sitting judgeof Punjab and Haryana Highcourt into the incident.

"It is a breach of privilege ofMLAs,” he said.

"If the phones of rulingparty MLAs are being recorded,then you can well imagine aboutphones of leaders of oppositionparties,” said Arora.

The Shiromani Akali Dalhas also charged the Congressled government with committing"breach of privilege" against itsown legislators by “tapping”their phones.

SAD spokesman DaljitSingh Cheema urged PunjabVidhan Sabha Speaker Rana K PSingh to initiate action againstthe concerned officials and alsodemanded a separate criminalcase be registered.

Cheema said it was shock-ing that Congress legislator hadaccused his own government of"tapping" phone during a meet-ing of the district grievancesredressal committee. PTI

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The population of transgendervoters has increased by more

than 10 times in Ranchi since thelast Vidhan Sabha elections of2014.

The total number of thirdgender voters in 2014 was mere-ly 7, whereas in 2019 as of onNovember 21, the total numberof transgender voters registeredin the electoral roll is 73.

“There has been a significantincrease in the number of trans-gender voters since the 2014Vidhan Sabha elections. This isprimarily because of the variousprogrammes launched for pro-motion of inclusive voting,” saidDistrict Election Officer cumDeputy Commissioner RaiMahimapat Ray. After the judg-ment of the Supreme Court ofIndia in NALSA versus Union ofIndia in 2014, it has been estab-lished that a person by their ownright can determine their genderand no medical or psychologicaltests will be required for thesame. Various sensitization dri-ves across different levels andgovernment officials have beenconducted in Ranchi, to ensurethat government offices areaware of such right — andassure ease and respectfulness toall persons applying for officialchange in their name or gender.The district administration hasalso launched special drives rightdown to the booth level officerto include the names of trans-gender voters in the electoral roll.

Activities under SVEEP

(Systematic Voters Educationand Electoral Participation) arealso being conducted in specif-ic areas with high transgenderregistrations for voter awarenessand electoral participation. “Theevents are being organised inareas where the booths havemaximum enrollment of trans-gender voters. All posters forvoter awareness programmesalso have icons encouragingthem to come out and casttheir vote for inclusive voting.

This is being done to makeeveryone feel a part of the wholeprocess and no one is leftbehind. The aim is to give a mes-sage that voting is for all regard-less of the socio –economicbackground one belongs to,”said an official.

At polling stations in areaswith high transgender registra-tions, the administration is try-ing to sensitize the polling per-sonnel as well. Special confi-dence building measures are alsobeing taken including safe vot-ing process. The administration is alsoensuring that the voters are notdiscriminated at the pollingbooths and no untoward inci-dents take place.

As per the statistics, the totalnumber of voters registered inRanchi are 22,83,482 whichincludes 11,76,245 male and11,07,164 female voters. Thetotal voters registered for the2014 Vidhan Sabha electionswere 19,11,227 which included10,45,910 male and 8,65,310female voters.

�� '.4�+7

School Education MinisterPrabhuram Chaudhary,

while reviewing theNarmadapuram division atthe Mantralaya, said that theenvironment in schoolsshould be such that childrentake interest in studies. Hesaid that not only in urbanareas, but there is no shortageof talented students in ruralareas also. Every child has tal-ent.

There is a need to identi-fy and give opportunities tohim. Chaudhary said that alladministrative officers andteachers should try to ensurethat not a single child isdeprived from going to school.He told the teachers to play asignificant role in making thestate a leading state in the fieldof education. The District

Collector should also inspectthe schools and hostels on pri-ority basis during their visits.

Chaudhary conducteddetailed and pointwise reviewof Enrollment, One Campus-One School, Quality andPerformance of Skil lUpgradation, TARL (Teachingat the Right Level), Ankur,Tarun and Umang, Wall ofFame, Annual ExaminationResults, Remedial Teaching,PTM, Information ofLaboratories, Distribution andUse of Science-MathematicsKits, Elementary RemedialEducation (Skil lUpgradation), Bridge Course,Shala Siddhi-Hamari ShalaAisi Ho, Hostel Operations,status of construction works,Youth Club, Umang Life SkillEducation, Paramilitary andPolice training for girlsetc.

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Residents call this drought-stricken community a “for-

gotten town”.The flat, dusty roads to

Vosburg are surrounded bywithered fields. The streamsfeeding the community of a fewthousand people have gonedry. Signs warn drivers of wan-dering cattle and sheep butthere are none in sight.

The months-long droughtis affecting most of southernAfrica. The United Nationsestimates that more than 11million people now face crisislevels of food insecurity inplaces like Zimbabwe andMozambique, where twocyclones wiped out crops ear-lier this year.

Among the hardest hitareas is South Africa'sNorthern Cape province,where many farmers are strug-gling to keep their families andanimals alive while revenuefalls and debt piles up.

Commercial sheep farmerLouis van der Merwe, 64, brokedown as he described losingmore than 400 sheep and 450springboks in the past twoyears because of the worstdrought he has seen in 45

years of farming.Some animals died of

hunger. Others were sent pre-maturely to the slaughterhouseto reduce the number to feed.With tears running down hisface, Van der Merwe said henow relies on donations ofanimal feed so the rest can sur-vive.

“If we didn't have hope, wewould not be here anymore,” hesaid. “We have to have hopeand faith. There are a couple oftimes when we have felt it is notworth it.” Two of his fellowfarmers have killed themselvesdue to the stress, Van derMerwe said.

Northern Cape provincewill need over USD 28 millionin drought relief over the nextthree months to assist 15,500affected farms, according tofarmers' organization Agri-SA.

So far, South Africa's gov-ernment has pledged USD 2million.

The World Food Programsays southern Africa hasreceived normal rainfall in justone of the past five growingseasons, with small-scale farm-ers feeling it most.

Some like 55-year-oldGertruida Buffel, have resort-ed to sharing their own foodwith their animals.

�� 74�04�

Pakistani Prime MinisterImran Khan has been con-

ferred with a LifetimeAchievement Award at anawards ceremony in the UK tocoincide with the 550th birthanniversary celebrations forGuru Nanak.

The awards, hosted at theMayor of London's headquar-ters by the UK's All PartyParliamentary Group (APPG)for British Sikhs and LondonAssembly Member OnkarSahota alongside British Sikhgroups, honoured achieve-ments across different fields.

London Mayor SadiqKhan, Deputy Mayor for SocialIntegration and MobilityDebbie Weekes-Bernard andAPPG for British Sikhs Chair,Labour Party politician PreetKaur Gill, were among some ofthe speakers at the event, co-hosted by the Sikh Networkand Sikh Federation UK –British Sikh groups known forpro-Khalistani affiliations.

“I invite Sikhs from allaround the world to come toPakistan,” said SahibzadaJahangir, Imran Khan'sspokesperson for trade andinvestment in UK and Europe,as he accepted the LifetimeAchievement Award on behalfof the Pakistani Prime Minister.

Colombo: Sri Lanka's contro-versial Rajapaksa clan onThursday tightened its grip onpolitical power with PresidentGotabhaya Rajapaksa swear-ing-in his elder brotherMahinda as the prime minister,amidst apprehensions amongthe minority Tamils andMuslims on the new dispensa-tion's policies.

Mahinda Rajapaksaassumed duty in his new capac-ity on Thursday itself. The 74-year-old leader will function asthe prime minister of the care-taker cabinet until the generalelection in August 2020.

“I'm honoured to havetaken oaths as Sri Lanka's newPrime Minister. I look for-ward to serving all Sri Lankansas we take our country forwardwith a new vision to furtherdevelop and protect it for futuregenerations,” the new prime

minister tweeted, reaching outto all Sri Lankans.

Mahinda Rajapaksa tookthe oath as the new prime min-ister at the PresidentialSecretariat, three days afterGotabhaya Rajapaksa wassworn in as the president.Former prime minister RanilWickremesinghe, former pres-ident Maithripala Sirisena andother political leaders werepresent on the occasion.

“I wish to congratulate andextend my warmest wishes toHon Mahinda Rajapaksa,Prime Minister of theDemocratic, Socialist Republicof Sri Lanka,” PresidentGotabhaya Rajapaksa tweeted.

This is MahindaRajapaksa's second innings asthe prime minister. He waspremier for a brief period in2018 amidst a major politicalturmoil in the country. PTI

�� 285��+

The UN nuclear watchdogon Thursday urged Iran to

explain the presence of urani-um particles at an undeclaredsite, as a landmark deal aimedat curbing Tehran's atomicactivities threatens to collapse.

The International AtomicEnergy Agency (IAEA) said ina report made public last weekthat its inspectors had “detect-ed natural uranium particles ofanthropogenic origin at a loca-tion in Iran not declared to theagency”.

The agency's acting headCornel Feruta said IAEA andIranian officials would meet inTehran next week to discuss thematter, adding that the UNbody had not received anyadditional information.

“The matter remains unre-solved... It is essential that Iranworks with the agency toresolve this matter promptly,”he told IAEA member states ata meeting of the agency's boardof governors.

A diplomatic source toldAFP that the IAEA would senda high-ranking technical dele-gation to Iran next week.

The particles are under-stood to be the product of ura-nium which has been minedand undergone initial process-ing, but not enriched.

While the IAEA has notnamed the site in question,diplomatic sources have previ-ously said the agency askedIran about a site in theTurquzabad district of Tehranwhere Israel has alleged secretatomic activity in the past.

Sources say the IAEA tooksamples from the site in the

spring and that Iran has beenslow in providing answers toexplain the test results.

The 2015 deal betweenIran and world powers hasbeen faltering since last yearwhen the United States pulledout and started to reinstatepunishing sanctions on Tehran,leaving the other signatoriesstruggling to salvage the agree-ment.

Over the past few months,Iran has breached several partsof the deal it signed with the USas well as Britain, China,France, Germany and Russia,in which it committed to scal-ing back its nuclear programmein exchange for sanctions relief.

But Britain, France andGermany have said they areextremely concerned by Iran'sactions in stepping up its ura-nium enrichment and otherbreaches.

Enrichment is the processthat produces fuel for nuclearpower plants but also, in high-ly extended form, the fissilecore for a warhead.

On Monday, the IAEAconfirmed Iran's stock of heavywater for reactors has sur-passed the 130-tonne limit setunder the agreement.

Heavy water is not itselfradioactive but is used innuclear reactors to absorb neu-trons from nuclear fission.

Heavy water reactors canbe used to produce plutoniumfor nuclear weapons as analternative to enriched urani-um.

The IAEA has also said oneof its inspectors was briefly pre-vented from leaving Iran, call-ing her treatment “not accept-able”.

Birmingham: British opposi-tion Labour leader JeremyCorbyn on Thursday sets outhis party's manifesto for nextmonth's election, promisingthe most radical plan forchange for decades.

The party's programme ofpledges includes nationalisa-tions, a huge investment inpublic services and corporatereform, which Corbyn insistsare “fully costed” and deliver-able.

On Brexit, the key issue ofthe December 12 election, hehas promised to strike a new exitdeal with the European Unionand hold a second referendumon Britain's membership.

Opinion polls show Labourtrailing Prime Minister BorisJohnson's Conservatives butthe opposition is still hoping togalvanise voters like it did inthe last vote in 2017.

Ahead of the manifestolaunch in Birmingham, centralEngland, Corbyn claimed theprogramme was “full of popu-lar policies that the politicalestablishment has blocked fora generation”.

He repeated the attacks onthe rich and powerful thathave been a feature of Labour'scampaign so far, arguing thatafter nine years of Tory aus-terity measures, it was “time forreal change”. AFP

�� 0)'+8

AUS aircraft carrier's passagethrough the Gulf is the lat-

est demonstration of the super-power's enduring military pres-ence in the West Asia aimed atreassuring allies, experts andofficials say.

In a potent symbol of mil-itary might, the AbrahamLincoln carrier and its atten-dant warships cruised throughthe Strait of Hormuz this week.

The voyage came afterUnited States President DonaldTrump wrote in a tweet lastmonth that “going into theMiddle East is the worst deci-sion ever”.

But since then, the USmilitary has taken action toemphasise its long-standingpresence in a region where theUS has deep strategic interests.

It conducted massive train-ings, announced the deploy-ment of more troops and cre-ated a maritime coalition head-quartered in Bahrain to protectshipping in the troubled Gulfwaters.

The Abraham Lincoln'stransit through the strait, whichearlier this year was rocked bya string of attacks thatWashington and its allies blameon Iran -- accusations Tehranfirmly denies -- was the first fora US carrier since April.

“This show of force is partof a 'say-do' gap that is emerg-ing between verbal US securi-ty guarantees in the region andactual American inaction,” saidAndreas Krieg, a professor atKing's College London.

“It is a desperate attempt toreassure allies in the ArabianGulf.”

For more than sevendecades, the United States has

played an important role in theconflict-ridden region, servingin particular as a defender ofGulf monarchies against exter-nal threats, most notably Iran.

But Trump's tweet and hiscalls for Gulf leaders to pay fortheir security suggested a moveto redefine the relationship --born on an American battle-ship in 1945 when Saudi KingAbdul Aziz bin Saud and USPresident Franklin D. Rooseveltfirst held talks.

There was further dismaylast month when the USwalked away from its Kurdishallies in Syria, opening a doorfor Turkey to launch a militarycampaign against the Kurdsthat was divisive even inWashington.

The apparent shift in USpolicy comes at a time of ris-ing hostility with Iran.

Since May, tensions in theGulf have increased withattacks against tankers, fol-lowed by drone and missilestrikes on key Saudi oil facili-ties.

Iran was blamed, butdenied involvement.

Despite the attacks on itsally and having one of its owndrones shot down, the US hasavoided equivalent retaliation.

Sending the carrierthrough Hormuz “is certain-ly supposed to send a messageof defiance and strength aftermonths of being humiliatedby Iranian escalation”, saidKrieg.

The strait, which separatesIran and the United ArabEmirates, is a chokepoint for athird of the world's seaborneoil. The shallow waterway isjust 50 kilometres (30 miles)wide, making it a vulnerableshipping lane.

�� 6+�.8�� 4�

President Donald Trumpsought on Wednesday to

distance himself from USenvoy Gordon Sondland as hemade an explosive appearancebefore an impeachment hear-ing, while also asserting that histestimony had exonerated himentirely.

“I don't know him verywell. I have not spoken to himmuch,” Trump told reporters atthe White House, after theambassador to the EU testifiedthat he followed the presi-dent's orders in seeking a “quidpro quo” deal with Ukraine.

In an October 8 tweet,Trump had described hisambassador to the EuropeanUnion as “a really good manand great American.” Trumpwent on to read from notes onSondland's ongoing testimony,saying it demonstrated he didnot pressure UkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyto investigate his political rivalJoe Biden. “It was a very shortand abrupt conversation that hehad with me,” Trump said.

“'What do you want fromUkraine,'” the president quot-ed Sondland as asking him.

“Here is my response, thathe gave. Just gave. Ready? Youhave the cameras rolling?”“Here is my answer: 'I wantnothing. I want nothing. Iwant no quid pro quo. TellZelensky to do the right thing,'”added the president, who reen-acted the exchange severaltimes to the reporters gatheredon the South Lawn.

“Then he says: this is thefinal word from the President ofthe United States. I want noth-ing.” “I would say that means it's

all over,” Trump said.Democrats are investigat-

ing Trump for allegedly abus-ing his office by pressing a for-eign power -- Ukraine -- tointerfere on his behalf in the2020 US election.

In his testimony, Sondlandsaid he was ordered by Trumpto seek a “quid pro quo” deal inwhich Ukraine would probe

Biden in exchange for a WhiteHouse summit.

Sondland said he “neverreceived a clear answer” on whythe White House suspendedsecurity aid to Ukraine, whichis battling Russian-backed sep-aratists, but that he also “cameto believe” it was tied to theinvestigations sought byTrump.

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Washington: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says there is clear evi-dence that President Donald Trump has used his office for hispersonal gain. She says doing that “undermined the national secu-rity of the United States.”

The California Democrat says lawmakers involved in theHouse impeachment inquiry haven't decided what charges theymight bring against Trump.

She says they don't know if they'll try hearing from additionalwitnesses.

Pelosi also says she doesn't want to hold up the inquiry towait for federal courts to decide whether some witnesses can tes-tify. She says the House investigation “cannot be at the mercy ofa court.” AP

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The 1980s were the infamous yearsof Gen Zia-ul-Haq’s murky coldwar machinations in Afghanistanand the “shariasation” of Pakistanthat muddied the cultural air of the

Pakistani military for posterity. After Gen Zia’smysterious death in an air crash, his bête noire,Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, took over the PakistaniArmy and was dutifully accused by Gen Zia’sson, Ijaz-ul-Haq, of being complicit in the con-spiracy to kill his father. It was only after thissuccessively controversial Chief of Army thatthe Pakistani military got a rare profession-al at the helm of affairs in the form of GenAsif Nawaz Janjua.

The thoroughbred and third generationsoldier from fifth Punjab Regiment (Sherdils),Gen Janjua was trained at the Royal MilitaryAcademy Sandhurst, the UK. He was a no-nonsense combatant, who had earned hisstripes as the “soldier’s soldier” for his vastexperiences in the field. He stayed away fromthe political intrigues of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi axis and could not tolerate overt-ly political, Machiavellian and bigoted col-leagues like Lt Gen Hamid Gul (also knownas the “father of Taliban”). The hardcore sol-dering instincts of Gen Janjua militatedagainst the wheeling and dealing style of somePakistani military staff, who partook shadypolitical initiatives. Prominent among themwas a mediocre though ambitious Brigadier,Pervez Musharraf, whom Gen Janjua aptlyand prophetically labelled “tricky Mush.”

The patent Pakistani saga of the longnight of the Generals soon consumed theupright Gen Janjua as he died a mysteriousdeath. Slamming it as “murder”, his familymembers suspected certain disgruntled col-leagues, who could not match up to his exact-ing standards. Providentially, “tricky Mush”was to become more famous later as hedeposed his one-time mentor, Nawaz Sharif,and ensconced himself as the Chief Executiveand then the President of Pakistan.

The incorrigibility, recklessness andruthless ambitions of “tricky Mush” were soonto emerge in his misadventures in Kargil,where he apparently kept even his own PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif in the dark. This devi-ously planned military operation happenedin the backdrop of reconciliatory movesbetween India and Pakistan, which includ-ed the Lahore Bus initiative, where democ-ratically-elected leaders on both sides wereseemingly thawing the freeze. The shame ofthe Kargil result notwithstanding for GenMusharraf, he was soon to manipulate whathe himself called a “counter coup.” He ban-ished the man, namely Sharif, who hadsuperseded two other senior officers tomake “tricky Mush” the Pakistani MilitaryChief as he had postured himself as the mostapolitical bet. He punished a senior generalin the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) aftercoming under intense pressure to admit apresidential referendum which he won washeavily rigged.

Almost immediately, Musharraf set about

re-scripting the official narrativepertaining to his Kargil debacleand was forced into officiallyreneging his past alliances withthe Taliban and supposedlyjoined the global “war on terror.”However, “tricky Mush” hadunprecedented standards ofduplicitousness, which wereinevitable in his blow-hot-blow-cold belligerence at the Agrasummit, as indeed, his continuedpatronage of terror outfits waseither India or Afghanistan-fac-ing.

Musharraf ’s continueddeceitfulness in handling terrororganisations frustrated and riledthe Americans to start taking uni-lateral and direct strikes viadrones. The US got increasinglyconcerned about Musharraf ’scommitment to nail the mostwanted terrorist, Osama binLaden. Former US PresidentBarack Obama had forewarnedof expecting any change in thePakistani fate with Musharraf ’spatent grandstanding and mega-lomania as the only leader capa-ble of doing the needful by say-ing, “I argued for years that weneed to move from a ‘Musharrafpolicy’ to a ‘Pakistan policy.’”

In 2011, Osama bin Ladenwas found just half a mile awayfrom the Kakul MilitaryAcademy in the garrison town ofAbbottabad when the Americanjournalist David Ignatius evenalluded to the said “safe house”to be arranged by the PakistaniIntelligence, on the orders of GenMusharraf. Former White HouseChief of Staff Leon Panetta, who

was aware of the Pakistaniinvolvement, unambiguouslystated the reason to keep the mis-sion a secret as, “It was decidedthat any effort to work with thePakistanis could jeopardise themission. They might alert the tar-gets.” A former CIA official,Bruce Riedel, had quoted formerInter-Services Intelligence (ISI)chief, Gen Ziauddin Khawaja, assaying that Musharraf “knewbin Laden was in Abbottabad.”Osama bin Laden had movedinto the Abbottabad compoundwhen Musharraf was in powerand had lived there ever since.

Brazenly, Musharraf was leftlamenting that the US had “vio-lated” Pakistan’s sovereignty byconducting the Osama bin Ladenraid, while meekly washing hishands of any complicity.However, by then, Musharraf hadlost all credibility inside andoutside of Pakistan. Had it notbeen for the timely interventionof the Pakistani military, “trickyMush” would have been convict-ed for various wrongs after hav-ing been disobliged by all polit-ical parties, including NawazSharif ’s Pakistan Muslim League(N), Benazir Bhutto’s PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP), which ques-tioned his role in her murder, oreven Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which spurned hisattempts to coopt him as hisPrime Minister.

Today, Musharraf is desper-ate to remain relevant and makesoutlandish (though often true)statements that may earn him a

following among extremist ele-ments in Pakistan. But that doesnot behove a former leader of anation, let alone a professionalsoldier. Recently, he belligerent-ly stated the obvious and theworst kept Pakistani secrets byadmitting that they had trainedKashmiri militants and that ter-rorists like Osama bin Laden andJalaluddin Haqqani were“Pakistani heroes.”

Recent video clips releasedby a Pakistani politician,Farhatullah Babar, whereMusharraf is seen stating theobvious — the disingenuousnessof Pakistani double-speak onterrorism — confirms it yetagain. While civilian politicianshave not exactly covered them-selves with glory, military men inPakistan like Gen Zia and GenMusharraf have done far moresystemic and institutional dam-age with the ISI directly undertheir charge.

The Chairman of the USJoint Chief of Staff, Gen JosephDunford, had told the UnitedStates Senate Committee onForeign Relations during aCongressional hearing in 2017, “Ithink it’s clear to me that the ISIhas connections with terroristgroups.” Till date, the likes of“tricky Mush” are responsible forthe sort of infamy that theyafford on the institution of thePakistan military, and by thatextension, Pakistan as a nation.

(The writer, a military veter-an, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands andPuducherry)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Power shift in Colombo”(November 20) by Ashok KMehta. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s vic-tory wasn’t surprising. As onewho has lived in Sri Lanka formore than 10 years as an expatri-ate banker during the real prob-lem days, Sri Lanka’s path over theyears has been interesting. TheEaster Sunday bombings did playa major role in a return of fearand, perhaps, resulted in thedesire for a stronger leader.Perhaps, in these circumstances,people chose to have a strongmanrather than backing a sober, peo-ple-oriented democrat.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

��

Sir — The brouhaha over theappointment of Firoz Khan asAssistant Professor of Sanskrit atthe Banaras Hindu University(BHU) is unacceptable. Like in anyother university, Khan wasappointed as per the guidelines setby the University GrantsCommission (UGC). He holds a

doctorate in Sanskrit literatureand has been awarded by theRajasthan Government. Moreover,our Constitution guarantees notjust equal education opportunitiesfor students but also equal expo-sure for teachers. Students mustend the protest.

M Shadab Bengaluru

��

Sir — The recent war of wordsbetween actor Rajinikanth andthe ruling party leaders in TamilNadu and the unexpected turn ofevents — actor-turned politicianKamal Haasan expressed hisintention to join hands with

Rajinikanth — point at the heavydose of “masala” in store for thepeople of the State.

Rajinikanth is known to be ahighly disciplined man, straightforward, honest, spiritual andcommitted. He is not the one whowould bow before corruption.From his earlier statements andhis hesitation to begin a party

unlike Haasan, one thought theactor had no interest in politics.

Haasan has his own ideologyand if Rajinikanth joins him,won’t there be a clash between ide-ology and principles? It would bebetter if Rajinikanth came out withhis own plan to mitigate the suf-ferings of the poor and the down-trodden and then step into thepolitical arena alone like actors-turned-mass leaders MGR andJayalalithaa, who worked withthe help of grassroots supportersand created a niche for themselves.

M Pradyu Kannur

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Sir — It is unfortunate that keymainstream political leaders inJammu & Kashmir remaindetained since the abrogation ofArticle 370. Does theGovernment fear that they willspeak the truth? India is a demo-cratic nation. The rulingGovernment must maintain thespirit of federalism.

KshitijVia email

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Seema was just 14 when she left her home inWest Bengal in the hope of a better life. Butall her dreams of becoming economically

independent and pulling her family out of pover-ty were shattered when she found herself in abrothel in Mumbai. Luckily for the teenager, shewas rescued two years after being trafficked. Buteven after Seema returned home, her ordeal did-n’t end. Stigma and the fear of local traffickers, whothreatened her with sexual violence if she daredidentify them to the police, impacted her deeplyand she never resumed her studies.

Among all States of India, West Bengal has thedubious distinction of topping the list in child traf-ficking as 34 per cent of all victims are from here.According to recent National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB) numbers, of these, 86 per centwere girls who were trafficked for commercial sex-ual exploitation. In fact, the National Family HealthSurvey (NFHS-4) found that every third woman,since the age of 15, has faced gender-based vio-lence of some form in the country.

Studies show that women and girls, who sur-vive rape and other sexual violence, face signifi-cant barriers to obtaining justice and critical sup-port services. Besides stigma, one of the biggestobstacles is lack of information and awareness. Arecent report on sex trafficking in West Bengalfound that about 59 per cent adolescents did notknow how to protect themselves from trafficking,and 72 per cent did not know about services thatcould help them. Even when they do seek justiceand other medical services, they often sufferhumiliation at police stations and hospitals, espe-cially if they belong to socially and economical-ly marginalised communities.

What can the media do in such a scenario?Does it have a role to play? Can it use its influ-ence to shift the discourse on violence againstwomen, human rights and empowerment? Canit help survivors like Seema? How can the mediabe leveraged to change perceptions and end gen-der-based violence?

These are some of the questions that came upat the International Conference on Population andDevelopment (ICPD+25) Summit held in Nairobirecently. Hosted by Centre for Women’s GlobalLeadership under its Journalism Initiative onGender-Based Violence (JiG), in partnershipwith the United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) Regional Syria Response Hub and theDart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, the ses-sion focussed on the importance of the media ineither shifting or perpetuating attitudes towardgender-based violence in the context of theICPD.

“Violence against women is a human rightsviolation. Violence is about silencing us and themedia is about breaking the silence. The mediahas a critical role to see that this silence is brokenand women’s voices are amplified,” said IngKantha Phavi, Minister of Women’s Affairs ofCambodia.

Phavi pointed out that the Government ofCambodia was committed to the ICPD+25 goalof zero sexual and gender-based violence by ensur-ing prevention and care services for all women andgirls. However, the persistence of social stereotyp-ing and social attitudes towards women prevent-ed them from seeking help and services. This iswhere the media can help as it continues to playa crucial role globally in key conversations. The

way gender-based violence (GBV) iscovered and reported in the news mediacan influence the way our communitiesperceive the issue,” she said.

Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, anaward-winning journalist from Samoa,agreed. “The media is a powerful toolin fighting GBV because they not onlyreport on society but help shape publicopinion and perceptions,” she contend-ed. The Chief Editor of JiG, Jackson saidthat the language used by the media wascritical and it had to be careful not tonormalise sexual harassment, objectifywomen or blame survivors.

Studies have shown that genderinequalities tend to get reinforced bymedia content that contributes to thenormalisation of sexual assault andother forms of sexual violence. There isa tendency to reproduce stereotypes thatassociate violence by men as a symbolof their masculinity and power. Manynews reports of violence against womentend to represent women as victims andas responsible for the violence.

Unfortunately, this is what has hap-pened in Syria, according to JafarIrshaidat, communications specialist,UNFPA, Syria. “We found that themedia could play a harmful role in gen-erating stereotyping and perpetuatingcertain myths about GBV. Their newsreports also harmed survivors directlyby disclosing their identities and shift-ing the blame away from the perpetra-tors. So we are working with the mediaon how they can change the narrative,”he said. This is where women journal-ists are making the difference. In India,one of the important examples of howthe media used its influence to impactpositive change was seen by thereportage, by women journalists inparticular, around the Delhi gang-rapein December 2012. This led to publicmobilisation and the enactment of theCriminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013.This mandated the compulsory filing of

First Information Reports (FIRs) inpolice stations, something that wasneglected earlier. It also criminalised var-ious kinds of attacks on women, includ-ing stalking, acid attacks and stripping.

“Women journalists have made sig-nificant contribution to changing thenarrative and defending human rightsthrough their reporting on gender-based violence,” stated KrishantiDharmaraj, Executive Director, Centrefor Women in Global Leadership(CWGL). The CWGL, a global women’srights organisation based out of RutgersUniversity is the founder and coordina-tor of the ‘16 Days of Activism AgainstGender-Based Violence’, an interna-tional campaign used by activists aroundthe world to eliminate of all forms ofGBV.

“Women journalists who cover sto-ries about gender-based violence arehuman rights defenders in their ownright. They often face challenges, includ-ing misogynistic attacks online andoffline, as a result of their work.

“They also face the challenge ofdealing with their own trauma as theyhelp another girl or woman secure jus-tice,” says Sarah Macharia, Global MediaMonitoring Project (GMMP). TheGMMP is the largest and longest-run-ning research and advocacy initiative ongender equality in the world’s newsmedia.

Implemented collaboratively withgrassroots and national-level women’srights groups, other civil society organ-isations, associations and unions ofmedia professionals, university studentsand researchers around the world, theGMMP aims to advance gender equal-ity in and through the media by gath-ering evidence on disparities in portray-al, representation and voice of womencompared to men.

The latest GMMP study showed adecline in stories that focussed on gen-der violence, including issues such as

rape, sexual assault, family violence,female genital mutilation and traffick-ing. At the same time, there were pro-gressively higher proportions of womenas sources in GBV stories.

“In 2005, women were 38 per centof the people seen, heard or spokenabout in the stories, compared to 46 percent in 2015, a rise of almost 10 pointsin 10 years. At least three quarters ofthose who experience gender-basedviolence are women and yet, they con-stitute less than one half of people inter-viewed or are the subject of these sto-ries,” said Sarah Macharia, GMMPcoordinator.

However, even women journalistsare reporting fewer of the stories.Macharia pointed out that in 2010,women journalists reported 41 per centof the stories, compared to 30 per centin 2015, a fall of 11 per cent in five years.

Last year, a survey conducted by theInternational Women’s Foundation andTroll Busters found women journalists,who experienced online abuse, report-ed short-term and long-term emotion-al and psychological effects. About 40per cent had avoided reporting certainstories as a result of these incidents.

In India, the #MeToo movement hasbeen a catalyst to tackle GBV violencein the media with many women jour-nalists coming out to share their storiesof sexual assault and harassment.However, hardly any media organisationhas provided physical security, legaladvice and psychological support towomen journalists affected by sexualviolence and sexual harassment.

Women journalists face a triple risk:Risk as every other woman; the samerisks as their male colleagues and risksthat impact them specifically becausethey are women journalists. Unlessimpunity for attacks on women journal-ists ends, these risks will continue toimpact their work.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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We celebrated the fifthanniversary of the historicUN resolution on ending

child marriage yesterday. Hence, thetime is ripe to assess how far India hassucceeded in its goal of reducing thenumber of child brides. The UN res-olution, which came into effect in2015, is fundamental to buildingstrong international standards thatrecognise child marriage for what itis: A violation of fundamental humanrights. According to a UNICEFreport released in 2014, titled EndingChild Marriage: Progress andProspects, child marriage is most com-mon in South Asia and sub-SaharanAfrica, with South Asia accountingfor 42 per cent of all child brides

worldwide. Of these, one in three isfound in India, yet the nation was notamong the 116 countries that sup-ported the UN Resolution. In fact,barring Afghanistan and theMaldives, other South Asian nations,too, ostensibly failed to ratify the res-olution, despite persistently battlingthe challenge of child marriage andits concomitant adverse impacts. Apeek into history throws up anotherironical picture.

The Elizabethan and Jacobeaneras, spanning the mid-16th to early17th centuries in England, weresome of the most conservative peri-ods in history, replete with tales ofdocile women and chauvinistic men.Yet early marriages were rare.Although the minimum legal mar-riageable age was 12 years for girls and14 for boys, records reveal that themean marriage ages ranged from 25for women to 27 for men.

Historians assert that in medievalEngland, the primary reason for latemarriage among labourers and themiddle class was financial. Young

couples could barely afford a roof overtheir heads and had to keep theirromantic impulses in check till theirearnings reached subsistence level,well into their mid-20s.

In 20th and 21st century India,poverty is again the overarching rea-son for the anomaly in conjugal well-being, but its outcome is the exactopposite. In a 2011 research papertitled Delaying Marriage for Girls inIndia: A Formative Research to DesignInterventions for Changing Norms,UNICEF found that poverty inRajasthan was the biggest reason forfathers pushing their daughters intoan early marriage.

These data are ratified by theIndia Human Development Survey(IHDS), conducted by the NationalCouncil of Applied EconomicResearch (NCAER) in collaborationwith the University of Maryland,USA, in 2004-05 and 2011-12. TheIHDS includes a household moduleas well as a module administered to33,510 married women aged 15–49years. A ray of hope offered by data

from the UN and other agenciespoints to the declining rate of childmarriages in India between 1991-2011. The IHDS, too, found that anincreasing proportion of womenwere delaying marriage, but themean age of marriage for women inthe country continues to remainlow. As of the second wave of IHDSreleased in 2011-12, almost 41 percent of the women in the age groupof 15-32 years were married between16 and 18 years of age.

An analysis of data from theNational Family Health Survey,(NFHS-I) along with IHDS-II, indi-cates that the percentage of womenin the 20–24 age group, who weremarried before 18, declined from 56.8per cent in 1992–93 (NFHS-I) to 36.2per cent in 2011–12 (IHDS II).

However, the number of childmarriages and its prevalence amonggirls remains very high even inrecent times. According to the 2011census, 7.4 million people were mar-ried before the age of 18 years, 88 percent of whom were girls. Uttar

Pradesh (UP), Andhra Pradesh, WestBengal, Rajasthan, Bihar,Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh,together contributed to 70 per centof child marriages in the country, withfour districts of Rajasthan —Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Tonk, andAjmer — and Lalitpur from UP, being“hotspots” for the occurrence ofchild marriages in India.

Says an elderly resident of Tonk,himself married at the age of five,“There are a lot of child marriages inour community due to poverty andpoor literacy. My wife came to staywith me when I was 15 and she wasjust 12.” Citing his personal experi-ence, he avers that child marriage isantithetical to marital happiness andhealth, as it puts a major burden ofresponsibilities on the boy and entailsnumerous health problems for thegirl. Child marriage has been foundto have negative consequences on theyoung bride’s health, economicopportunities and her children’shealth. Early marriage negativelyaffects the bride’s autonomy over con-

traceptive use, resulting in a higherlikelihood of early and high-riskpregnancies. It also put her at risk ofsexually transmitted infections andintimate partner violence. Childmarriage also makes young girlsmore vulnerable because it leads tolower education attainment anddiminished opportunities to developsocial networks. Another UNICEFreport of 2005, Early Marriage: AHarmful Traditional Practice, pointsout that at 67 per cent, India has thehighest levels of domestic violenceamong women married by the age of18. What does the future hold forthese girls-women in a society con-fronted with unprecedented socialand economic challenges and a rapid-ly transforming anthropological anddemographic landscape?

According to Heather Hamilton,Global Coordinator of Girls NotBrides, a global partnership of morethan 1,300 civil society organisationsfrom over 100 countries, committedto ending child marriage, “The UNresolution situates child marriage

firmly within the post-2015 develop-ment agenda, recognising the need toend child, early and forced marriage.”

Alex George, Senior Consultantfor Child Rights, at Child RightsFocus advocates effective policyenforcement and stronger legalactions. The Prohibition of ChildMarriage Act, 2006, which makes itillegal for girls to marry before the ageof 18 and for boys under 21 years, alsomust be implemented stringently.

Actions, however, speak louderthan words. A small village in Tonkhas been taking the lead in monitor-ing child marriage and leading dis-cussions with other communitymembers on its damaging effects.

Last year, the village was declaredchild bride-free under the UNICEF’sLaadli Samman (Honour yourdaughters) campaign. A small stepbut with a gigantic portent for girlsto thrive and live their dreams beforebeing shackled in premature matri-mony.

(The writer is Editor at NCAER.Views expressed are personal.)

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Hours after Narendra ModiGovernment gave its in-

principle approval to the strate-gic disinvestment of five pub-lic sector units, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee saidthe step was a prelude to “dis-investment of India,” and calledfor an all-party meeting totide over the economic crisisthat India was currently in.

Speaking to reporters atBehrampore, Banerjee onThursday said that such knee-jerk strategies will at best pro-vide for a temporary pain reliefand not a complete eradicationof the financial crisis that Indiawas in.

She said “such steps canonly give you temporary reliefby bringing in some funds butit will never handle the prob-lem permanently,” and advisedPrime Minister Narendra Modito call an all-party meeting toget over the crisis.

“Instead of such hasty stepsto sell Government units whichis nothing but a temporarymeasure the Prime Ministershould call an all-party meet-ing so as to devise a permanentsolution to the ongoing crisisthat India is facing … I hopethe Prime Minister will consultthe experts during this hour ofcrisis,” Banerjee said adding “ifthe Government continues totake such reactive measuresthen one day they will end upselling all the PSUs … they willfinally sell the whole country… they will disinvest the wholeIndia.”

Earlier the Union CabinetCommittee on Economicaffairs had given in-principleapproval to the strategic disin-vestment in five State-runcompanies, including a sale ofthe Government’s entire stakein Bharat PetroleumCorporation Ltd (BPCL), whileretaining its ownership ofNumaligarh Refinery Ltd

(NRL) through another publicsector company.

The Chief Minister alsoattacked the Centre for tryingto digitise India. “I am notagainst digitisation but the waythey are trying to make Indiaa cashless society it will notaugur well for the economy infuture,” she said reminding the“horrible experience of demon-etization.”

She said demonetisation isstill haunting India as “a largenumber of people are left withvery little cash. They are facing

problems in small businessesand farming … and now theGovernment is experimentingwith reckless steps of disin-vestment. Such steps should bereconsidered.”

Suggesting that theGovernment should consider“public-private partnershipinstead of going for a sale andtransfer of ownership Banerjee said, “theGovernment has to preserve itsassets for public welfare other-wise a day will come when theGovernment will be left with

no company. Rather than fac-ing that situation, theGovernment may considergoing for the people pubicpartnership model in busi-ness.”

Saying that TrinamoolCongress never approved ofdisinvestment and merger ofcompanies she said some com-panies by rationalisation ofemployees “employment hascome to a halt in several sec-tors. People are not spendingbecause they don’t have anysavings,” Banerjee said the waythe Union Government wastaking merging banks andtransferring headquarters likeit did in the case of UnitedBank of India “it is creatinghuge problem for State runschemes.”

“A whole lot of stateschemes run through UBI. Ifthe headquarter doesn’t remainin this state what will be thefuture of those schemes?” sheasked.

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Questioning ̀ legitimisation`of anonymous donations

to political parties by way ofelectoral bonds and the pri-vatisation of State-owned firms,the Opposition Congress onThursday staged walkouts fromboth the Houses sayingGovernment has made cor-ruption "official".

The Rajya Sabha wasadjourned till noon asOpposition parties includingthe Congress protested after theChair did not allow discussionon the issues. In the Lok Sabha,the Congress membersreturned to their seats afterSpeaker Om Birla assured themthat they will be allowed toraise issues during Zero Hour.

Soon after laying of listedpapers by Ministers on the tableof the House, Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naidu

said he has received noticesfrom several members to sus-pend business and take updiscussions on the RBI’s objec-tion to electoral bonds, and dis-investment of PSUs. "They (thenotices) do not warrant sus-pension of other business and(notices) taken upon priority,"he said.

However, Congress mem-bers were on their feet and heldprotests. Naidu said it was theprerogative of the Chair todecide which discussionsshould be taken or not. Thisdid not pacify the protestingCongress and other oppositionparty members. The house wasadjourned till noon.

In the Lok Sabha, CongressMP Manish Tewari raised theissue during zero hour. Hesaid, “despite reservationsexpressed by the Reserve Bankof India and the ElectionCommission, the Government

went ahead with the scheme”.Congress members laterwalked out of proceedings.

Tewari said anonymity ren-dered to the donors was notacceptable. Speaker Om Birladid not allow Tewari to go fur-ther with his comment whenhe mentioned ‘PMO’ whileraising the issue. Tewari wasreferring to some documents inhis possession.

Under the electoral bondsscheme, the Government hasoffered complete anonymityto those making donations. Adonor could now anonymous-ly buy a bond, and deposit itwith the political party of his orher choice. eom "This is a bigscam.

The country is being loot-ed. Please allow us to speak,"Congress leader in Lok SabhaAdhir Ranjan Chowdhurysaid.

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Thiruvananthapuram:The Kerala Governmenton Thursday decided toban single use plasticproducts from Januaryone. A decision in thisregard was taken at a cabinetmeeting chaired by ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan.

After considering the envi-ronmental and health issuesrelated to mounting plasticwaste, the Government decid-ed to ban the single-use-plas-tic products in the state fromJanuary 1, 2020, a Governmentpress release said.

Plastic carry bags andsheets, cooling films, plasticplates, cups, thermocol andStyrofoam-based fancy items

and others havebeen banned.Single-use plas-tic can be usedonly once beforeit is either

thrown away or recycled and ismainly used by the food pro-cessing and food delivery,retailers for packaging andselling finished goods, phar-maceuticals and agriculture.

"Single-use plastic cups,plates, spoons, forks, straws,stirrers, bowls, plastic flags,water pouches, juice packs,pet bottles (under 300 ml),plastic garbage bags, PVC flexmaterials, plastic packets,among others have beenbanned," Vijayan said. PTI

Wayanad (Ker): A 10-year-oldgirl died after being bitten bya snake inside her classroom, asthe State Government sus-pended a teacher for allegedlapse in rushing her to hospi-tal, officials said on Thursday.

The fifth standard studentShehala Sherin was taken tohospital over an hour after theincident at around 3 pm onWednesday, students of theGovernment vocational high-er secondary school at SulthanBathery in Wayanad districtalleged.

Her parents rushed her tofour hospitals where no anti-venom was administered andthey were told to take the childto the Kozhikode Medical col-

lege hospital, which is about 90km from Sulthan Bathery, offi-cials said.

Shehala’s father said shedied before reaching the med-ical college.

Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan said the incident wasunfortunate and assured strongaction against those responsi-

ble for the lapse in savingthe child’s life.

"The teachers are sup-posed to educate the chil-dren on how to react in suchsituations. But in this case,the teachers, despite repeat-ed requests from studentsfailed to take the child tohospital," the Chief MinistersaidThe students have claimed

that the girl was taken to thehospital after the parentsreached the school, he said.

"Her death was unfortu-nate. We stand by the family.Strong action will be takenagainst those responsible forany lapses in their duty,"Vijayan added. PTI

Agartala: With the final Brurepatriation process hitting adeadlock, the TripuraGovernment has written tothe Centre, saying it couldaccommodate up to 500 fami-lies in the State if adequatefunds were sanctioned for thecause.

In a letter to the UnionHome Minister Amit Shah,Chief Minister Biplab Deb saidthe final repatriation processwas scheduled to end onNovember 30, as per theagreement signed between theCentre, Governments ofMizoram and Tripura, and therepresentatives of Bru migrants,but only 144 of 4,447 familieshave returned to their home

state so far.Thousands of Bru families

fled Mamit, Kolasib and Lungleidistricts of Mizoram in 1997 andmoved to Tripura in the wake ofan ethnic conflict.

The Centre, along with thegovernments of Tripura andMizoram, had been trying torepatriate them to their homeState over the past one decade,with little success. Several Brufamilies have refused to returnto Mizoram, citing security con-cerns and inadequate rehabili-tation package. Some have alsosought a separate autonomouscouncil for the community."Strong reluctance has beennoticed on the part of Brumigrants to return to Mizoram.

The repatriation process hasnot been successful. So far, only144 families (699 persons) haveshifted to Mizoram in the cur-rent phase of repatriation.

"The State Government is ofthe view that Bru refugees whowish to stay in Tripura may beallowed to do so The Ministryof Home Affairs (MHA) maygive them a suitable package atpar with what is being offered tothose returning to Mizoram,"Deb wrote to Shah onSunday.The chief minister, how-ever, pointed out that availabil-ity of land is likely to be a majorconstraint in Tripura andrequested the MHA to think of a suitable solution. PTI

Lucknow: The Uttar PradeshState Law Commission onThursday submitted a report toChief Minister YogiAdityanath, suggesting a newlaw to check forcible religiousconversions.

"The report was submittedalong with a draft legislation,Uttar Pradesh Freedom ofReligion Bill, 2019," law com-mission secretary SapnaTripathi told PTI.

The report was preparedafter going through pre andpost-independence laws in thecountry and neighbouringcountries like Nepal, Myanmar,Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan

besides keeping in mind courtjudgments.

"The commission is of theview that existing legal provi-sions are not enough to checkreligious conversions and onthis serious matter, a new lawis needed like in 10 otherstates," the report said.

The 268-page reportincluded recent newspaperclippings regarding forcibleconversions, internationalcovenants on the right to reli-gion, anti-conversion laws inneighbouring countries andIndia.

It also deals with the con-stitutional framework of the

right to freedom of religion inIndia, anti-conversion laws ofvarious states, along with acomparative study, recom-mendations of the law com-mission of India and extractsfrom important apex courtand high court judgmentsbesides proceedings of the UPLegislative Assembly.

It said states like MadhyaPradesh, Odisha, ArunachalPradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat,Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh,Jharkhand, Himachal Pradeshand Uttrakhand had made spe-cial laws to ban conversions byforce, fraud, marriage or allure-ment. PTI

Jammu: The Jammu & Kashmirunit of BJP on Wednesday target-ed the Opposition for questioningthe Centre’s claim of "total nor-malcy" in Kashmir post abrogationof Article 370 provisions and saidit is "back to its usual trick of emo-tional exploitation" of people.

It also recommended a "highlevel inquiry" into the alleged lackof facilities at MLA hostel follow-ing complaints by the relatives ofpoliticians detained there after itwas turned into a sub-jail.

"The return to normalcy inKashmir does not suit their (oppo-sition’s) narrative of opposing theGovernment’s decision of August5 and hence they continue in usual

mode of denial and victimhoodunmindful of their role in thepast," BJP spokesperson Brig (retd)Anil Gupta said in a statementhere.

Reacting to the discussion onthe Kashmir situation inParliament and the statements ofthe National Conference and thePDP casting doubt over theGovernment’s claim of "total nor-malcy" in Kashmir, Gupta said,"The opposition is back to its usualtrick of emotional exploitation of people based on false propa-ganda instead of factual data andwith statements laced withsuperlative adjectives to createan impression that hell has beenlet loose in Kashmir." PTI

Bengaluru: Ruling BJP inKarnataka on Thursday expelledfrom its primary membershiprebels Sharath Bachegowda andKaviraj Urs, contesting the com-ing Assembly bypolls as indepen-dent candidates, for anti-partyactivity.

In separate letters to bothSharath Bachegowda fighting fromHoskote Assembly constituencyand Urs from Vijayanagara, BJPsaid, their contest against the par-tys official candidate was beingconsidered as anti-party activity.

BJP on Wednesday had askedthe party rebels to withdraw theircandidature by Thursday, the lastday for the process.

As the two did not withdrawtheir candidature, the sent the let-ters, a copy of which has beenreleased to the media.

After the BJP gave the Hoskote

ticket to disqualified Congresslegislator M T B Nagaraj, SharathBachegowda has jumped into thefray as an independent.

JD(S) has decided to supporthim and has not fielded a candi-date.

Son of BJP MP fromChikkaballapura B N Bachegowda,he had remained adamant oncontesting with repeated attempts

by the party leadership topersuade him to back outin vain.

Sharath Bachegowda,who was also secretary ofBJP Yuva Morcha, had ear-lier been appointedChairman of KarnatakaHousing Board by ChiefMinister BS Yediyurappa inan attempt to "pacify" him.

Yediyurappa hadrecently indicated the party

has even decided to expel him, ifhe doesn’t withdraw from thecontest.

Nagaraj as Congress candidatehad defeated Sharath Bachegowdain 2018 assembly polls by over7,000 votes.

Urs has filed his nominationas independent candidate fromVijayanagara, rebelling against theBJPs decision to field Anand

Singh, another disqualified MLA.The partys decision to expel

Urs comes after repeated attemptsto "pacify" him.

With winning at least six seatscrucial for the Government’s sur-vival, BJP has fielded 13 of the 16disqualified legislators, who joinedthe party, asits candidatesfrom theirr e s p e c t i v econstituencies in the bypolls.

Among the 15 constituenciesgoing to bypolls, 12 were held byCongress and three by JD(S),whose coalition Government col-lapsed due to rebellion by the dis-qualified MLAs. The Congress andJDS, contesting the bypolls on theirown, have vowed to defeat thedefectors (the disqualified MLAs)and said people would teach thema lesson. PTI

Lucknow: Amid reports ofdifferences in the UP SunniCentral Waqf Board over thefiling of a review petition in theAyodhya case, Muslim bodychairman Zufar Farooqi saidmembers can discuss the issuein their November 26 meeting.

"I have been authorised totake a decision on behalf of theboard but if any member hasobjection to it, he can raise itin the meeting scheduled forNovember 26 here," Farooquisaid.

The Sunni Central WaqfBoard will take a decision onwhether to accept land forbuilding a mosque in Ayodhyaat its meeting on November 26.Earlier, Farooqui had said that

they would abide by the apexcourt decision and would notfile a review petition.

Responding to mediareports about some membersof the board favouring thereview petition, Farooqi, who

has opposed the suggestion,said he had been authorisedthrough a resolution to take adecisions on behalf of theboard.

"But most decisions aretaken on the basis of the major-

ity view and if there is anymember who has any objec-tion, it can be raised in themeeting," Farooqi said.

Meanwhile, the All-IndiaShia Personal Law Board hassupported the AIMPLB standof filing a review petition anddeclining the offer of five acresfor the construction of amosque.

Their spokesman MaulanaYasoob Abbas said the Shiaboard was with the All-IndiaMuslim Personal Law Board inevery manner. "If there is anydoubt or complaint on theverdict, we have the legal rightto file a review petition and weshould not abstain from it,"Abbas said. PTI

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Bengaluru: leader H D Kumaraswamy onThursday indicated his party would takea call on its role, in case the ruling BJPin Karnataka loses majority after theresults of December 5 by-elections to 15

Assembly constituen-cies in the State. He also said the "maintarget" of his party was

to defeat the disqualified legislators,whose rebellion had led to the collapseof the Congress-JDS coalitionGovernment.

"In a democratic setup a Governmentshould have clear majority. In December 5 bypolls, if BJP doesn’t winthe required number of seats and get lim-ited to two or three seats, they will losemajority, they will have to resign and theGovernment will have to go,"Kumaraswamy told reporters in

Mysuru.Responding to a question about his

party’s role if BJP fails to win enough number of seats to retain itsmajority, he said, "What will happen then,we will see later, why should I say it now?How should I know about the

developments that will happen later?..."

"Whether this government will havemajority or lose it will depend on thebypoll results, let the results come out, wewill discuss it later," he said adding "let’sdiscuss it on December 9 (bypoll resultsdate)."

The BJP needs to win at least six seatsin the bypolls to 15 constituencies to remain in a majority inthe 224-member assembly, which wouldstill have two vacant seats-- Maski and RR Nagar. PTI

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Shops and businesses were shut and public transportremained largely off the roads in most parts of Kashmir

on the second consecutive day on Thursday, after posterswarning shopkeepers against opening their establishmentsappeared in some areas.

The posters calling for shutdown also appeared a daybefore Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliamentthat normalcy had returned to the Valley.

Officials said the shutdown was observed in Srinagarand Ganderbal districts in central Kashmir, Anantnag,Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian districts in south Kashmirand in some areas in the north.

Shop owners did not open their establishments dur-ing the morning hours they did over the past few weeks,they said. Public transport remained largely off the roadsin the city and elsewhere in the valley. However, a few auto-rickshaws and inter-district cabs were plying, the officials said.

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J a i p u r :RajasthanC h i e fM i n i s t e rA s h o kGehlot onThursday attacked UnionHome Minister Amit Shah overthe issue of National Register ofCitizens (NRC), saying he isnow stressing on implementingit across the country to avoidembarrassment following fail-ure of the exercise in Assam.

“The NRC has failed inAssam. Even the state unit ofthe BJP has opposed it. Everyparty is criticising the imple-mentation of NRC in Assam.The NDA spent crores on it andthe result has been a failure,” hetold reporters here.

Responding to a questionthat Shah has announced inLok Sabha that the NRC will beimplemented across the coun-try, Gehlot said, “The Congress,the BJP and all other parties aresaying what has happened inAssam... The result which hascome out after spending croresof rupees is in front of everyone. Amit Shah’s is talkinglike this to avoid embarrassment.” PTI

�� )6+.+ 8

The Assam Public Works(APW), the original peti-

tioner in the Supreme Court onupdating the National Registerof Citizens (NRC), onThursday welcomed UnionHome Minister Amit Shah’sannouncement that the NRCwould be updated again in theState along with the rest of thecountry.

The Congress, however,opposed the move claimingthat the BJP wants a freshNRC update without thesupervision of the SupremeCourt, as it wants to exclude asection of genuine Indian citi-zens from the religious minor-ity community and includeillegal migrants from a lin-guistic minority group.

Shah had announced inRajya Sabha on Wednesdaythat the NRC update processwill be carried out afresh inAssam concurrently with therest of India. On the same day,senior Assam ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma said theState Government has request-ed Shah to dismiss the NRC inthe current form.

“The Union HomeMinister’s announcement has

come as a ray of hope to theindigenous population ofAssam. We are definitely hope-ful but not excited about it. Wewill express our happiness onlywhen the Home Minister’sannouncement fulfils the gen-uine aspirations of the people,”APW president Abhijeet Sarmasaid here.

The updated final NRCwhich validates bonafideIndian citizens of Assam, wasreleased on August 31 exclud-ing names of over 19 lakhapplicants in the state.

In 2009, the APW — anon-governmental organisa-tion — had filed a petition inthe Supreme Court that led tothe start of the updation exer-cise of the NRC in 2015.

Assam, which had faced aninflux of people fromBangladesh since the early 20thcentury, is the only state hav-ing an NRC, which was firstprepared in 1951.

“An official’s bias and vest-ed interests led to the publica-tion of a flawed NRC.... Namesof genuine Indian citizens wereleft out while those of illegalimmigrants were included inthe final NRC,” the APW chiefclaimed.

The APW has submitted apetition in the apex court high-lighting the alleged discrepan-cies in the final NRC.

“We will file another peti-tion in the Supreme Courtsoon demanding an IT audit ofthe software used for preparing

the NRC data,”Sarma added.

After the finalNRC was publishedon August 31, theAPW had wonderedwhether the softwareused in the updationexercise was capableof handling so much data and if itwas examined by anythird partyI n f o r m a t i o nTechnology expert.

Opposing theidea of a fresh NRC

updation exercise in Assam,senior Assam Congress leaderDebabrata Saikia alleged thatthe BJP wants to keep theNRC issue simmering to fur-ther its agenda of polarizationalong religious lines.

The final NRC was pub-lished under the supervision ofthe Supreme Court and, “sig-nificantly, the apex court hasaccepted the validity of the finalNRC”, Saikia said.

“Shah’s announcementabout a fresh NRC update inAssam indicates that the(Narendra) Modi Governmentis unwilling to accept the deci-sion of the Supreme Court,”Saikia, the leader of the oppo-sition in Assam Assembly,claimed.

The NRC was updated byengaging over 50,000 employ-ees of the Assam Governmentand spending over �� 1,200crore of tax-payers’ money, hesaid adding that about 3.29crore people of the State wentthrough a great deal of troubleto collect documents and par-ticipate in the exercise.

“I would like to appeal tothe Supreme Court not toallow the Modi Government tocarry out another NRC updateexercise in Assam” so thatpeople do not have to facerenewed harassment, Saikiasaid.

The All Assam Students’Union (AASU), the signatoryto the Assam Accord, has alsofiled a petition in the SupremeCourt alleging flaws in thefinal NRC and its hearing willbe held on November 26.

The AASU is a signatory tothe Assam Accord, a 1985 doc-ument that provided for “detec-tion, deletion and deporta-tion” of illegal foreigners fromAssam.

AASU Advisor SamujjalBhattacharya said they werenot satisfied with the finalNRC but have full faith in theSupreme Court and “we haveapproached the highest court toredress the grievances of peo-ple of Assam”.

Hyderabad: AIMIMpresident AsaduddinOwaisi on Thursdayhit out at the NDAGovernments plan toconduct NRC acrossthe country, allegingthat the exercise is onlygoing to cause hard-ship to people, espe-cially minorities and“the weak”.

Khoda pahaad, niklachooha. Now BJP wants todisown it, but find one all overIndia,” the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)chief tweeted.

The proverb suggests a bigeffort for little gain.

Literally, it means findinga mouse after digging a moun-tain.

“Modi wants all Indians toyet again stand in line, detain-ing undocumented Indians &leaving minorities & the weakat the mercy of babus. Nowherein the world are people putthrough such hardship, hesaid.

He was referring to reportsover the Assam Governmenturging the Centre to scrap the

updated NRC in the State, thecost of conducting it all overthe country and other aspectsof the issue.

Assam Finance MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma onWednesday said the state gov-ernment has requested theCentre to reject the final updat-ed National Register of Citizens(NRC) in the state.

Welcoming Union Homeminister Amit Shah’s state-ment in the Rajya Sabha thatthe NRC process will be carriedout across India, Sarma said theState Government is happythat the Centre has “listened totheir heart” and that the exer-cise will begin after theCitizenship (Amendment) Billhas been passed. PTI

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The movies in which theystarred together were some

of the all time hits in Tamil.Even when both of themdeclared their political dreamsin 2018, nobody in Tamil Naduhad thought that they wouldjoin hands to forge an allianceto fight the election.

Rajnikanth and KamalHaassan were two differentpoles of Tamil films as well ascultural sphere. WhileRajnikanth was known for hismannerisms and style, KamalHaassan projected himself as atotal actor of global standards,though he was no differentfrom the former in style andsubstance.

When Kamal Haassan asthe early bird in launching hispolitical outfit Makkal NeethiMeiam, Rajnikanth choose toplay the wait and watch game.Haassan went to the extent oftaunting and ridiculingRajnikanth from all availableplatforms for the latter’s softapproach towards NarendraModi and Amit Shah. KamalHaassan went to the extent oflambasting the Hindutva partyand declared himself as a sec-

ularist to the core. Though the candidates

fielded by him finished poorfourth and fifth in the 2019 LokSabha election, Kamal Haassandid not lose heart and declaredthat he would stage a comeback by taking up public issues.But when six of his top rungleaders deserted him andjoined the BJP, the actor sawthe writing on the wall that pol-itics was a different game andhe needed extra adrenalin totake his rivals head on.

He made an announce-ment recently that he wouldnot hesitate to join hands withRajnikanth for the sake ofTamil Nadu. In a State which islooking for a third alternativeother than the AIADMK andthe DMK, the announcementby Haassan and the warm wel-come accorded to it byRajnikanth was a once-in-a-lifetime development. Thepolitical narration of TamilNadu has undergone a change

with the declaration of thefilm stars to work together.

Though the DMK leader-ship is yet to go public with theparty’s reaction to the comingtogether of the two super stars,the AIADMK has pooh-poohed the development as thescript of a Tamil potboiler.“Rajnikanth is yet to launch hispolitical outfit while Kamalhaassan was taught a lesson bythe Tamil Nadu voters in theLok Sabha election.

It is not that easy to launcha political party, sustain it andwin election,” said UdayaKumar, Tamil Nadu Ministerfor revenues.

Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswami was more aggres-sive in his reaction. “BothRajanikanth and KamalHaassan would meet the fate ofShivaji Ganeshan, the superstar of yesteryears who had tobite the dust following therejection of his party by theTamil Nadu electorate.It is noteasy for film actors to establishas mass leaders like M GRamachandran and JJayalalithaa, two personsknown for their charisma andnot by the image of superstars,” said Palaniswamy whilereacting to the developments.

Hyderabad: Union Minister GKishan Reddy on Thursdaysaid the Centre would takesteps to ensure that the strik-ing TSRTC employees get jus-tice.

“Union Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari has assured thathe will speak to the ChiefMinister, and do justice to theworkmen by speaking to theTelangana Government ontheir problems..” Kishan Reddytold reporters in Delhi.

Reddy, Lok Sabha member

from Secunderabad here, andother BJP MPs from Telanganamet Gadkari in the nationalcapital.

The RTC employees’unions was confident that jus-tice would be done when thematter was referred to thelabour court, employees unionleader Aswathama Reddy toldreporters on Wednesday.

The Telangana High Courthad directed the Commissionerof Labour to take a call onwhether the ongoing strike by

the unions of TSRTC should bereferred to the Labour Court ornot, in two weeks to decide thelegality of the stir.

Aswathama Reddy hopedthat the state governmentwould take steps to refer theemployees problem to thelabour court.

A formal response had notcome till Thursday eveningfrom either the RTC manage-ment or the State Governmenton the employees’ unionsstance to resume duties. PTI

Mumbai: The Congress should not back theShiv Sena and the NCP in Government for-mation in Maharashtra if it is not going to getthe chief minister’s post on a rotational basis,Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said onThursday.

Athawale’s comments came amid reports theShiv Sena and the NCP may share the ChiefMinisterial post for two-and- a-half years in theGovernment that the Congress is likely to joinas the third player and may get the deputy ChiefMinister’s post.

The Congress and the NCP are at presentin the process of forging ties with the Shiv Senato form the Government in the state, which is under President’s rule since November12. The Shiv Sena, which contested the October21 Maharashtra Assembly polls with the BJP,walked away from its ally over the issue of shar-ing the Chief Ministerial post on a rotationalbasis for two-and-half years. The BJP had reject-ed the Shiv Sena’s demand for rotational ChiefMinistership. PTI

Mumbai: A complaint of“cheating” has been filedagainst Shiv Sena chief UddhavThackeray and two other lead-ers in Maharashtra’sAurangabad district for seekingvotes in the name of Hindutva,but not forming Governmentwith pre-poll ally BJP, an official said onThursday.

A written application inthis regard against Thackerayand two other party leaders wassubmitted at the BegumpuraPolice Station in Aurangabaddistrict, around 325km fromhere, by a BJP supporter,Ratnakar Choure, onWednesday night, the officialsaid.

“We received the applica-tion for the same and have for-warded it to Special Branch,” hesaid.

According to the com-plainant, during the campaignfor the October 21 Assemblyelection, Thackeray, newly-elected Sena MLA PradeepJaiswal (Aurangabad Central)and the party’s former MPChandrakant Khaire soughtvotes for the Sena-BJP alliance

in the name of protectingHindutva.

On their appeal, the com-plainant said he and his fami-ly members, voters in the ofAurangabad Central con-stituency, cast their voters infavour of Jaiswal, the Sena -BJPalliance candidate from theseat.

With an aim to bring theSena-BJP alliance to power inthe state, BJP supporters of theconstituency also voted forJaiswal, following which hewon, Choure said.

After the results, the Senasnapped ties with the BJP (fol-lowing differences over power-sharing formula) and did notform Government with its pre-poll ally, he said in the appli-cation. PTI

Mumbai: Shiv Sena MLA Abdul Sattar onThursday warned that heads of those who try topoach his party’s legislators will be broken.

Sattar, who represents Sillod constituency inAurangabad, said poaching or buying out leg-islators was not legal in a democratic set up.The legislator made the remarks even as the ShivSena, NCP and Congress are working out a coali-tion in Maharashtra, which is placed under thePresident’s rule since November 12.

“BJP will not be able to poach any MLA. Butthose who try to poach MLAs will have theirheads broken, and as a special case, we will makearrangements to treat them at a hospital,” Sattarsaid.

“Poaching or buying out legislators was notlegal in a democratic set up. It is not some retailshop to (buy MLAs out),” he added. The BJP andShiv Sena contested the October 21 Assemblyelections together and won 105 and 56 seatsrespectively. The two parties, however, fell outafter the Shiv Sena persisted with its demand ofsharing the Chief Ministerial post for two-and-half years on a rotational basis. PTI

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India Inc on Thursday wel-comed the Government’s

decision to defer receipt ofspectrum auction installmentsdue from telecom serviceproviders, saying the move willprovide headroom to the sec-tor currently facing stress, gen-erate job opportunities anddrive consumer demand.

The Government onWednesday doled out a �42,000crore relief to debt-laden tele-com companies after it agreednot to take any payments forspectrum they use for the nexttwo years.

The Union Cabinet head-ed by Prime Minister NarendraModi approved giving BhartiAirtel, Vodafone Idea Ltd andReliance Jio an option to availa two-year moratorium onpayments they were supposedto make in yearly installments

for the spectrum bought inauctions.

This is a great break-through in the economicreform system and will have apositive impact on the growth and development oftelecom sector and the econo-my as a whole, PHD Chamberof Commerce and IndustryPresident DK Aggarwal said.

Deferment of spectrum auc-tion installments will provide apronounced relief to stressedtelecom service providers lead-ing to their continuous opera-tions, ease their cash outflow andgive them window to makepayments for statutory liabilities and interest on bank loans,Aggarwal said.

As the telecom sector isone of the major growth driverof economy, this move is wel-comed as it will generateemployment opportunities forthe potential workforce, driveconsumer demand sentimentsin the economy, provide furtherimpetus and pave way toachieve USD 5 trillion econo-my going forward, he added.

�� 56�057.8

As part of a Government-mandated outreach pro-

gramme, public sector banksdisbursed a record �2.5 lakhcrore of loans during the festivemonth of October, the FinanceMinistry said on Thursday.

In a bid to boost con-sumption and revive the econ-omy, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had in Septemberasked banks to reach out tocustomers and signal their will-ingness to lend following allprudential norms.

Under her direction, out-reach camps or loan melaswere conducted across 374 dis-tricts across the country duringOctober 2019.

State-owned banks dis-bursed a record �2,52,589 crore

of loans during the month. Asmuch as �1,05,599 crore wasgiven towards new term loanswhile �46,800 crore was dis-bursed as new working capitalloans, the Department ofFinancial Services said in astatement.

So fresh lending, includingnew term loans, was 60 percent of the total disbursement,it said. “This is a turnaroundstory. Banks are fully capi-talised and in a position tomeet any kind of credit require-ment,” Finance Secretary RajivKumar said.

Two years of sustainedefforts by the government haveturned around the public sec-tor banks, he added.

Credit to NBFCs duringthe month of October 2019 was�19,627.26 crore, the state-

ment said.As per the Finance

Minister’s directive, outreachprogrammes were conductedby banks in participation withprivate banks and NBFCs in226 districts from October 1-9 in Phase-I and 148 districtsfrom October 21-25 in Phase-II, it said.

Public sector banks active-ly reached out to their cus-tomers in these camps andmade concerted efforts towardsactivities such as sanctioning ofloans as per prudential norms,opening of accounts along withAadhaar, mobile seeding ofaccounts and popularising theBHIM app, it said.

The drive also simultane-ously galvanised similar out-reach efforts in individualbranches of banks, it added.

�� 56�057.8

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday exhort-

ed auditors to develop techni-cal tools to check frauds andimprove efficiency inGovernment departments aswell as play a role in makingIndia a USD 5-trillion economy.

Modi also emphasised thatthe government wants to moveto evidence-backed policymaking by 2022 and the theComptroller of AuditorGeneral (CAG) can contributeas a think tank by focusing onbig data analysis.

“We must challenge thefrauds. Both internal and exter-nal auditors need to find inno-vative methods to catch frauds.We must need to encourage thecore values of auditors for thesame,” Modi said whileaddressing a conclave of theCAG on transforming auditand assurance in a digitalworld. He said a lot of attemptshave been made in the last fewyears to control frauds in gov-ernmental organisations.

Stressing the need to makeevidence-based policy formu-

lation an integral part of gov-ernance, the prime ministersaid auditors must resort totechnical tools to iron out anychances of fraud in organisa-tions and give a new identity tonew India.

Modi, who addressed theCAG conclave for the secondtime since 2016, said India ismoving towards a USD 5-tril-lion economy target and “you(auditors) have a big role in thesame. Whatever you will dodirectly affect our policy making, efficiency, deci-sion-making, business, invest-ment, ease of doing businessand more”.

He also asked the CAG tothink from the perspective ofa think tank and not just froma point of view of an auditorwhose job is to find faults.Digital audit and digital gov-ernance can strengthen insti-tutional memory for severalorganisations, he said addingthat audit firms around theglobe are moving towardscrowd-based solutions.

The CAG should also adoptthe best global practices andinstill them into the Indian

system, while working on thecountry-specific tools. “CAGaudits several internationalorganisations and provides tech-nical support to other countriesas well. You can start an organ-isational mechanism throughwhich the teams that audit suchfirms can share their experi-ences and share best practices inthose countries/organisations,”the PM said.

In order to improve effi-ciency and transparency, Modisaid the auditors should organ-ise a hackathon that will helpfind solutions to many issuesbeing faced.

The apex auditor shouldalso focus on process audit forbetter efficiency, he said addingthat the CAG must come for-ward as a catalyst for good gov-ernance and not restrict itselfto statistics and steps.

“You are working towardsconverting CAG to CAG+,and this has helped the nationas well,” he said while appreci-ating the new initiatives takenby the Government auditor.

Earlier, Modi unveiled astatue of Mahatma Gandhi inthe CAG complex.

�� 56�057.8

Trai on Thursday asked telcosto submit, on a monthly

basis, lists of permanently dis-connected mobile numbers onthe authority’s website in a bidto enable companies which usesubscriber mobile numbers foridentification and authenticationto keep their systems updated.The latest move by the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) is aimed at ensuring thatbanks, insurance companiesand others would have a readylist (without names) of mobilenumbers that are disconnected.

This, in turn, will preventservice delivery platforms from using those numbers for any authentication pur-pose, say through one timepassword.

“And whereas a mobile

number, when surrendered orpermanently disconnected,after a certain time period getsre-allocated to some other cus-tomer, but many service deliv-ery platforms/ systems are notupdated by the earlier cus-tomer, who may either not beusing the service regularly andhence do not find a reason toupdate his mobile number, ordue to lack of awareness ofpotential danger due to mobile number reuse, thuscreating huge potential of anidentity/profile take over on re-allocation of a mobile number,”Trai said in a statement.

There is no platform/sys-tem available by which banksand other stakeholders can getthe information about perma-nently disconnected numbersand deregister them.

“...Therefore, in order to

make available the MobileNumber Revocation List(MNRL) to the stakeholders fortransparency and efficiencyand to enable the interestedparties to clean up their data-bases thereby not sending onetime password etc. To someoneother than their customer...,”Trai added.

MNRL, the digitally-signedlist of permanently discon-nected mobile numbers, wouldbe published on Trai’s websiteevery month, allowing variousagencies to independentlydownload and easily clean uptheir database using their ownworkflows, it said. For instance,it said, a bank could downloadthe list, check each number andif it is one of their customers’,they can flag it and let the cus-tomer update with a currently-operated number.

�� 56�057.8

Prime Minister NarendraModi’s highly ambitious

Bullet train project of theNational High Speed RailwayCorp (NHSRCL) betweenMumbai-Ahmedabad may hita roadblock if the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena combine comesto power in Maharashtra.

Modi and Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe had jointly laid the foundationstone for the Bullet train pro-ject in Ahmedabad inSeptember 2017.

A senior NCP source toldIANS that “during the firstmeeting of the three parties inMumbai last week, discussionswere held on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet train project inwhich we informed the leaders

that according to Central gov-ernment, the Maharashtra gov-ernment would be bearing�5,000 crore of the total �1.08 lakh crore cost.”

“And then we came to aconclusion that once we formthe Government in the statethen we will inform the CentralGovernment that the StateGovernment will not bear thecost of the high speed train pro-ject and will spend the samemoney on some other pro-peo-ple schemes,” he said.

The party source said thatthe State Government willspend the amount for farmers’welfare.

The 508-km Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed train project is slated to be complet-ed by 2023.

The NHSRCL, which isresponsible for undertakingthe construction, has, till date,acquired over 48 per cent of theland for the project and alsofloated tenders for severalworks.

New Delhi: Niti Aayog ViceChairman Rajiv Kumar onThursday urged India Inc toassess and review the impact oftheir CSR initiatives.

Speaking at the ‘CSRImpact Conclave’ here, Kumaralso said that companies should focus on nutrition andinnovation as part of theirCSR mandate.

“India has excellent exam-ples of CSR. Going forward, thecorporate CSR should focusmore on two additional areaslike nutrition and innovation asa part of their CSR mandate,”he said.

Kumar added, “I think cor-porate must find a way to dowell by doing good. ‘Doinggood’ must be integrated inbusiness practices in line withconscious capitalism by mak-ing self-interest a very small part of our way of doingbusiness.”

The gap between the socialgood and the corporate goodshould be studied, he added.He also urged the National CSRNetwork to work with the NitiAayog for an objective impactassessment of the five years ofthe CSR initiative. IANS

New Delhi: Gold prices on Thursday declined by �53 to �39,007per 10 gram in the national capital on marginal appreciation inrupee, as per HDFC Securities. In the previous trade, the pre-cious metal had closed at �39,060 per 10 gram.

Silver prices also witnessed a marginal correction of �20 to�45,830 per kg as compared to �45,850 per kg on Wednesday.“Spot gold prices for 24 Karat in Delhi were trading down by �53on marginal rupee appreciation. The wedding demand is set tocheer spot gold markets in India,” HDFC Securities Senior Analyst(Commodities) Tapan Patel said. PTI

Sethurathnam Ravi (S Ravi)is the former BSE Limited

Chairman and Founder andManaging Partner of CharteredAccountants’ firm Ravi Rajan& Co., an advisory and accoun-tancy firm, headquartered inNew Delhi, India. In his tenurespanning more than threedecades, S Ravi has gainedextensive experience in thefield of banking and finance,financial and managementconsulting; including mergersand acquisitions, valuations,rehabilitation & restructuringof companies and turnaroundstrategies, auditing of compa-nies and banks among others.He spoke to The Pioneer’sKushan Mitra on the recentdecision by the FinanceMinistry to merge severalPublic Sector Banks.

What according to you is thebiggest challenge of the bank-ing mergers announced by theFinance Ministry?

There are some challengesthat come across, the biggest ofcourse is the emotional uncer-tainty that will play on theminds of the bankers them-selves. When you have spent anentire career in one place it canbe very unsettling to leave. Thesecond thing is uncertainty onthe career front, because some-one will suddenly be droppedinto a new ecosystem especial-

ly for those coming from thesmaller bank. That is a very bigchallenge, there will be a lot oflearning and reevaluation thatwill need to take place.

What about the customer,they also get emotionallyattached to a bank?

The customer will have tolook at it is a very different wayand that will need to be artic-ulated by the new banks. Seewhat has happened to the PMCBank and smaller banks arefeeling the pressure. The choicefor the customer is stark, wouldthey want to stay with an iden-tity or move to a newer bankwhere their money is safe? SoI believe customers will moveto safer banks.

So you believe that customersafter having seen what hap-pened to PMC bank will behappier to accept the merger?

I think customers haveseen that the government haspumped in a lot of money intothe banks and they will see thatthe government is supportingthese banks. From a customerviewpoint you feel safer andeven as borrowers, the small-er, weaker banks were notextending credit and now thatsituation should change. Atthe same time, the powers willbe realigned. Hypothetically, aGeneral Manager in United

Bank had authority over just�50 crore, now as part ofIndian Bank, he or she canmanage �200 crore. The deci-sion making will become a lotfaster and that should help the small to medium segmentof businesses.

And with the reassurance ofno job losses things will alsobe smooth?

A branch consists of 8-12people and those jobs are goingnowhere because the brick andmortar will remain the same,some banks might havebranches next to each other sosome realignment might hap-pen, but people will not losejobs. Also, the skillsets ofbankers are changing, there willbe a lot of demand for theyounger people who are moreaware of aspects like digitalbanking. Also, you have toremember that other thanHDFC bank, most private sec-tor banks in India have hadtheir own challenges, so youmust not think that it is onlythe PSU banks in trouble.

What about the subsidiariesof many of these banks? Like Can Fin Homes ofCanara Bank?

Almost all these sub-sidiaries are either joint-ven-tures or already partially divest-ed. Keep in mind when these

were set up a decade ago, theinvestments were made at par.Now the banks will get a goodpremium for them. And manyof the subsidiaries were innon-banking areas like insur-ance, pensions, these are notyour core business. In housingfinance, the banks themselveswere capable, so why werethey set up? To access a new tal-ent pool and new investments.It is a competitive market insectors like housing finance,and if teh banks can unlockgood value by divesting thefirms, they should.

So do you also believe thatbank employees have realisedthat a larger bank is also bet-ter for them in the long run?

See this is the single mostimportant aspect, the emo-tional aspect. The bankemployees have to be takencare of, how do hold theirhands through the entireprocess. I would set up task-forces for all these major chal-lenges. There is another hugechallenge as well, in the ITspace, just to collect and sani-tise data. The margin money isdifferent for different types of borrowers in differentbanks, now collecting that datais important and should havea dedicated taskforce behind it and then finally takea decision.

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New Zealand targeted thewicket of “freak” Ben

Stokes on Thursday as they bat-tle to get back into the first Testagainst England at MountMaunganui.

The honours were evenwhen the New Zealand-bornStokes went to the middle justbefore tea on day one withEngland 120 for three.

But by stumps, with Stokesin imperious form, the scorehad doubled and England willresume on Friday on 241 forfour, with the 28-year-old all-rounder unbeaten on 67.

“He’s a special talent. He’sa bit of a freak at times,” NewZealand short-ball specialistNeil Wagner said after Stokes

clubbed his bouncers fourtimes to the boundary.

“Everyone wants to gethim out because you knowwhat an important wicket it is...But that’s my thing, we alwaystry and strive to get the goodplayers out.”

As well as dispatchingWagner’s short stuff, he alsoshowed a liking for the fullerdelivery when he took fourboundaries off successive ballsfrom Trent Boult, includingone that burst through thehands of the usually reliableRoss Taylor at first slip.

It was a drop that frustrat-ed the New Zealanders whohad earlier seen opener RoryBurns survive three chancesincluding a waist-high edgethat went between Taylor and

Tom Latham in the slip cordon.However, Wagner believed

that despite England goinginto day two with six wickets inhand, the game was not out ofNew Zealand’s control.

“They haven't got awayfrom us. If we can come in themorning and get a couple ofearly wickets and put it back onthem we'll be in a really goodposition. I think we're happywith where we are at.”

�� Stokes and Joe Denly (74)

put on 83 for the fourth wick-et to lift England after they hadslowly accumulated runsthrough the first two sessionsagainst a New Zealand bowlingtight lines.

Denly had been locked ina fascinating battle withWagner where the edges fellshort of the cordon, and ballsthat did beat the bat thenmissed the stumps.

But Denly refused to beintimidated by the onslaughtand smacked five rising deliv-eries to the fence.

England’s top three playedtheir part in getting a safe startwith Surrey pair Rory Burns(52) and Dom Sibley (22)putting on 52 for the firstwicket before Burns and Denlyadded 61 for the second.

Captain Root, however,took 21 balls to get off the markwith a two and then wafted ata wide next delivery fromWagner and was caughtbehind.

Burns might also havebeen removed cheaply but acaught behind appeal when hewas on 10, and the total 14, wasturned down when replaysshowed he edged the ball.

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India’s young shooters touched anothersensational high with Manu Bhaker,

Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Panwarwinning Gold medals in their respectiveevents for the country’s best-ever show inthe ISSF World Cup Finals here onThursday.

The 17-year-old Manu fired her way tothe Gold with a junior world record in thewomen’s 10m air pistol event, while the 20-year-old Elavenil claimed the top honoursin the women’s 10m air rifle competition.

Later, another teen sensation Divyansh,who is all of 17, finished on top in the men’s10m air rifle competition with a final scoreof 250.1. India are currently top of the tablewith three Gold medals, followed by China(two Gold, one Silver, one Bronze).

Manu shot 244.7 to notch up the topprize in the prestigious season-endingtournament of International Shooting SportFederation (ISSF). The Haryana girl beat aclassy field for her maiden WCF gold.

In the same event Manu’s compatriot,

Yashaswini Singh Deswal, finished sixth inthe final.

Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic won theSilver with 241.9, while Quian Wang ofChina bagged the Bronze with a score of221.8.

Elavenil shot a score of 250.8 to edgepast Taiwan's Lin Ying-Shin (250.7).Romania’s Laura-Georgeta Coman fin-ished third with a score of 229.

Elavenil had qualified second for thefinals with a score of 631.1 behind Ying-Shin(632.3).

Mehuli Ghosh also qualified for thesame event’s final but ended sixth with ascore of 163.8.

Divyansh then ensured that women did-n’t hog the limelight completely with his stel-lar performance. He qualified third for thefinal with a score of 627.1.

In the final he steered ahead ofHungary's Istvan Peni (250) and Slovakia’sPatrik Jany (228.4) to clinch the top prize.

In the men's 10m air pistol event,Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudharyqualified for the final but couldn't claimmedals.

Verma topped the qualifications with588 but ended fifth in the final with a scoreof 179.4, while Chaudhary was seventh inthe qualification with 581 before signing offsixth in the last-eight stage with 159.8.

Manu had a tight qualification roundand was behind at the start of the finals aswell. She took the lead after the 11th attemptof the 24-shot final and then kept gettingstronger to finish a massive 2.8 points aheadof two-time former world championArunovic.

�� 56�057.8

Worrying about the venueis never an option when

it comes to playing for India,asserted Leander Paes, daysafter several of his colleaguesexpressed reservations abouttravelling to Islamabad fortheir Davis Cup tie.

A number of top playersand captain Mahesh Bhupathihad refused to play in thePakistan capital due to securi-ty concerns but Paes, alongwith Saketh Myneni andJeevan Nedunchezhiyan, wereavailable.

All three are now part ofIndia’s Davis Cup squad whichwill travel to Nur-Sultan for theNovember 29-30 tie, the win-ner of which will compete in

the 2020 World GroupQualifiers.

“I am very pleased to beplaying for the country again.My job is not to worry about

the location or the opponent,my job is to put my best footforward. Given the circum-stance, part of my job was tomotivate the youngsters,” Paestold PTI after a practice ses-sion.

“We did not want India toeither default or forfeit this tie.When it comes to playing forIndia, I don’t ask where andwho my opponent is,” he addedfirmly.

Does it mean that Paes wasnot worried about his safety inPakistan?

“Regardless of where weplay, we do due diligence tomake sure safety of the team isthere. That being said, I knewthat once venue was decided,players were picked, home-work was being done and right

measures were taken for us toplay.”

It was widely believed thatPaes had played his last DavisCup tie for India when he gotthe record-shattering 43rddoubles win while playingagainst China in April 2018.

He was not considered forselection after that. However,the AITA had to fall back onthe iconic player when thecountry’s top doubles playerRohan Bopanna refused totravel to Islamabad and DivijSharan was unavailable due tohis wedding reception.

For the 46-year-old legend,the season was already over ashe had not played since the USOpen in September and theDavis Cup call did catch himby surprise.

�� 56�057.8

Blue Tigers head coach IgorStimac was left disappoint-ed after his team failed to

win any of the two 2022 WorldCup qualifiers away gamesagainst Afghanistan (1-1 draw inDushanbe) on November 14and Oman (0-1 defeat inMuscat) on November 19 to vir-tually get out of reckoning aberth and the Croatian tacticianon Thursday cited injury to keyplayers like Pronay (Halder),Adil (Khan) and Rahul Bheke asthe main reason behind thecountry’s early exit.

Speaking at the sidelines ofthe launch of the 13th edition ofthe Hero I-League which startsfrom November 30 and will betelecasted on DSport, Stimacsaid, “In regards to the last twogames we played, we came backhome bit disappointed with theresults. But that didn’t under-mine our fate and believe inwhat we do. We faced big diffi-culties in regards to opponents,climate differences which are notsomething we are trying tomake an excuse. But the injuryproblems were something wefind it most difficult at themoment. Losing the mostimportant players in regards tostamina, to character, not hav-ing Sandesh (Jhingan) andBorges (Rowllin) there, missingPronay (Halder) in first coupleof games, also having earlyinjury during the game againstOman were the obstacles, bigenough, to stop us from gainingbetter results.”

The team is at fourth spot inGroup E table with three pointsfrom five matches. They haven’twon a single match out of thefive played so far in this secondround of the qualifiers.

But the coach said his teamhas done better than the previ-ous one which was coached byEnglishman Stephen

Constantine, who resigned afterIndia’s group-stage exit in theAsian Cup earlier this year.

“When we look back at theresults we need to be positiveand the simple reason is the factsare there — in the last WorldCup qualifiers, there were fiveconsecutive defeats, now wehave two defeats and threedraws.”

“In the last qualifiers afterfive games we were with zeropoints now we have three points.And we have more games tocome and we are on our way toachieve what we promise we aregoing to lurk on, that is compet-ing at the 2023 Asian Cup doingbetter than before once we getthere and preparing teams forthe future and going into nextWorld Cup (2026) qualifierswith much better and higherexpectations, That’s the work weare providing at the moment,building up for the future andgiving opportunities to youngand new players who are manyin this team in regards to AsianCup to gain experience andbecome our future stars,” he said.

Discussing about theinjuries to Pronay, Adil andRahul during Oman tie whichaffected India’s game plan thecoach said, “Pronay had sufferedshoulder relocation after one

dual in the second minute andit took us ten minutes to warmup on us for an unexpected sit-uation which occurred there, wecouldn’t let Pronay coming outand staying there with ninemen in such an importantgame.”

“The second injury was toAdil Khan, who was ok beforethe game and there was noinjury risk. I had an individualmeeting with him before thestart and told him that if thereis any doubt in his mind abouthe can or he can’t, I will leavehim out. But he said, ‘No, I amok, I can start the game coach,I don’t feel any pain, no doubt atall’ but when you go into thegame, you make few tackles, fewdifferent movements and allthat, the pain starts comingback and unlucky for us, hecouldn’t keep playing longer.”

“And at the end, in the sec-ond half there was Rahul Bhekealso, who received another bigpain in his groin which was anold injury he was facing, theseare the things you are notexpecting to happen especiallyin early stages of such an impor-tant game,” he added.

There is a lot of talk aboutIndia’s inability of scoring goalsin the games and when quizzedabout that, Stimac expressed his

unhappiness at the clubs for notplaying Indian players as strik-ers in the domestic leagues.

“Can you mention to meone player with Indian passportplaying as striker and scoringgoals in the leagues? Why areyou expecting that we are goingto score goals in the internation-al games if we don’t have a sin-gle striker in the league?”

“And I don’t work with theplayers on a daily basis, I workwith them five days before thegame, but the good and impor-tant thing is that we are creatingchances.”

“India is not anymore teamwho is going somewhere andfearing someone. No way. Indiawherever it goes, it goes withoutfear, it goes to play football andface it’s opponent, never mindwho that is. And we are going towin the games to try to do that,we are not holding back insideof our box and fighting for ourlives, we are there trying to playfootball whoever it is, on theopposite side. This is what webuilding upon, New Brave India— India with a heart, with thecourage to play football, nevermind facing problems withdefeat because that’s the only wayupgrading your game, bringingand developing new quality intoyour team.”

�� 56�057.8

Indian record goal scorer SunilChhetri remains an irreplaceable

part for the team feels head coachIgor Stimac as the former Croatiandefender referred Indian captainas ‘valuable’ to his side.

Currently the second highestinternational goal scorers amongactive players, only behindPortugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (99),Chhetri is the most-capped play-er and also the all-time top scor-er for the Indian national team,with 72 goals in 115 appearances.

The 35-year-old forward hasbeen in prolific form in 2019 aswell scoring seven goals in 11games but since netting India’sonly goal in the 1-2 loss to Omanin September, he has not found thetarget in the last three matches ofthe 2022 World Cup qualifyingcampaign.

And on Thursday when askedif he (Stimac) has found any play-er in India who can replaceChhetri in the future, he said, “Iam trying to do everything possi-ble so that Sunil keeps scoringgoals. You are all mentioningreplacing Sunil, I don’t know whyyou saying that. He is not goinganywhere. He is there, alive and fitand doing his best in to keep scor-ing goals.”

“He had some great chances ifyou remember one in the gameagainst Afghanistan, which nor-mally he scores nine out of tentimes. It didn’t happen that day butthat doesn’t mean something haschanged in his game.”

“He is very valuable to us, hisbody is like 29-year old, so as long

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Australia seized the advantageon the opening day of the

first Test when they bowledPakistan out for 240 just beforestumps at the Gabba in Brisbaneon Thursday.

After the visitors resistedstubbornly in the first session,reaching 57 for no wicket atlunch, pace trio Mitchell Starc(4-52), Josh Hazlewood (2-46)and Pat Cummins (3-60) torethrough the Pakistan battingorder to put the home side incharge at the close of play.

Australia seized the initia-tive after lunch when theyreduced Pakistan from 75 fornone to 78 for four, then 94 forfive.

Pakistan were rescued fromdisaster by Asad Shafiq, whoplayed a lone hand, scoring 76well-made runs.

Shafiq came to the creasewith his side 75 for two, then sawHaris Sohail (1) and BabarAzam (1) fall for the addition ofonly two runs.

But good partnerships of 49between Shafiq andMohammed Rizwan, who made37, and then 84 with Yasir Shah(26) enabled the visitors to

achieve a respectable score.Rizwan, who was counter-

attacking fearlessly, fell contro-versially with Cummins appear-ing to have just overstepped themark, only for TV umpireMichael Gough to give the ben-efit of the doubt to the bowler.

The visitors had frustratedthe Australian pace attack in thefirst session, going into lunch at57-0 with openers Azhar Ali andShan Masood unbeaten on 28and 21 respectively.

The pair began to open up

after the break with somesparkling attacking shots, butHazlewood and Cummins at lastfound their length and began toturn the screws.

The pressure began to telland with the score on 75Masood waved at a Cumminsdelivery outside off stump andedged to Steve Smith at secondslip. Azhar went the next ballwhen he edged Hazlewood toJoe Burns at first slip, beforeSohail and Azam both fell topoor shots.

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The 52-year old formerCroatian coach is hopeful thatwith time Indian football willrise to the next level and will beable to rub shoulders with thebest in Asia and the world.

“I am a very realistic per-son, in regards to expectationsmines are not different to yours.And I said in the beginning thatif we all stick together and pos-itive it will be easier for all of usto gain better results. There arealways some negative com-ments because of higher expec-tations but we got what we got,we cannot go beyond that. It’sa long process, it will take time,you know all the problems weare facing, we need to be patientand need to be altogether with

a strong belief and faith inwhat we do and that’s theonly way we can come tothe successful path. That’sthe way and the approachwe are having and that’show we work and operate.”

He also had a word ofencouragement for the ILeague players and saidthat he will be keepingclose tabs on Indian play-ers in the league and theirgood performance canearn them national teamcall up.

“I am here to showthat the Hero I League isfor us as much importantas Indian Super League(ISL). I am here to give mysupport to all the playersthat are going to participatein the upcoming seasonand to send them the mes-sage that all those who arehaving Indian passport arethe possible candidates forsenior Indian nationalteam. I am here to tell themalso that all the Indiansenior players camethrough I League and that’sthe way. It’s upon themhow they going to perform,how they going to presentthemselves and how theygoing to represent theirclubs. There is anothermessage I’ll send to them,‘I will come to watch thegames live whenever I can’to support once againwhatever they do. To showthem that they should notfeel lonely and forgottenbecause they have greatimportance for Indianfootball future.”

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as he is training like he is, behav-ing like he is and giving his bestto the national team he will be withus, I can assure you about that,”Stimac said of his team’s captain.

However, the coach said thatthe current team also has playerswho can score goals and he ishopeful of them stepping up andgetting the job done for India.

“But I hope at the same timethat I will have chance to find outfew more like Sunil Chhetri, I hopethat once Jobby Justin starts play-ing games, he will start scoringgoals, so I can have him in thenational team. I hope a few otherplayers like Seiminlen Doungelfrom FC Goa will start playing incentre-forward position in fewgames and Manvir Singh startscoring goals. So we have differ-ent options because they are a dif-ferent kind of players. I am veryexcited about all that,” he added.

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Novak Djokovic bookedSerbia's place in the quarter-

finals of the Davis Cup onThursday as he eased past BenoitPaire to send France crashing out.

Djokovic beat Paire 6-3 6-3 inMadrid after Filip Krajinovicwon a close encounter 7-5 7-6(7/5) against Jo-Wilfried Tsongato give Serbia a 2-0 advantagewith only the doubles rubber toplay.

It means France cannotadvance as one of the best tworunners-up by virtue of theirrecord on sets, even if they winthe doubles.

France's early exit is a majorsurprise given they were the topseeds in the competition, whichthey have won on 10 previousoccasions and were only deniedan 11th success by Croatia in lastyear's final.

Serbia will now meet Russiaon Friday and were joined in thelast eight by Germany, whosecured the one rubber theyneeded against Chile as PhilippKohlschreiber defeated NicolasJarry 6-4, 6-3 in the singles.

Germany await the winner ofGroup E, where Britain weredue to play a dramatic doublesclash against Kazakhstan, with thevictors going through and thelosers going out.

Andy Murray could be calledupon after being rested from thesingles following his close matchagainst the Netherlands' TallonGriekspoor on Wednesday.

Britain made a strong startafter Kyle Edmund played bril-liantly to see off MikhailKukushkin 6-3 6-3 but DanEvans was beaten 5-7 6-4 6-1 byAlexander Bublik to leave the tiein the balance.

Spain are already safelythrough after Rafael Nadal ledthem to a 3-0 victory over defend-ing champions Croatia onWednesday.

They will face Argentina,who are guaranteed to progress asa runner-up with Russia.Australia play Canada in thefirst quarter-final later onThursday.

The Davis Cup has a new for-mat but Andy Murray's love of acomeback remains intact after theScot battled from behind to beatTallon Griekspoor as GreatBritain edged past Holland.

Murray came from a setdown and then trailed 4-1 in thedecider in Madrid before beatingthe spirited Griekspoor, ranked179 in the world, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4,7-6 (7/5).

"I've found a way to winmatches many times in my careerwhen I've not been playing well,"Murray said.

"You can draw on that a lit-tle bit."

A scrappy victory gave GreatBritain the lead in their openingGroup E tie and while Dan Evanslost the second singles rubber toRobin Haase, Jamie Murray andNeal Skupski finished the job inthe doubles.

Rafael Nadal won his 26thconsecutive Davis Cup singlesmatch later on Wednesday asSpain booked their place in thequarter-finals with a 3-0 victoryover defending championsCroatia

Murray had given short shrifton Tuesday to those he believeshave been too quick to criticisethe revamped Davis Cup, whichfor the first time is featuring all18 World Group countries com-peting for the trophy across a sin-gle week in one venue.

And in what will be music tothe ears of the organisers, amongthem Barcelona footballer GerardPique, Murray was full of praisefor the atmosphere inside the CajaMagica's cosy Stadium 3.

"The atmosphere was bril-liant," Murray said afterwards.

"That was the one concern Ihad about the event, about itbeing on neutral ground, but itwas great."

�� =47=+ +

Indian cricket will finallyembrace the pink revolu-tion after initial reluctance

when Virat Kohli’s seeminglyinfallible galacticos lock hornswith a deflated Bangladesh intheir maiden Day/Night Teststarting here today.

It took India a new BCCIregime under maverick formercaptain Sourav Ganguly to takethe pink ball plunge, a goodseven years after theInternational Cricket Councilapproved the format to reviveinterest in Tests.

Ganguly convinced theBangladesh Cricket Board toagree to a Day/Night Test justa few days before their teamwas to land in India.

The bone of contentionwas the SG pink ball, whichmany still believe is difficult tosight after sunset. Add to it thedew factor, which playersbelieve aggravates the bowlers'problems.

But Ganguly found Kohlion the same page and the cur-rent Indian captain took just“three seconds” to agree tothe Board President’s idea.

So far, the build-up to theTest has been smooth. A sell-out crowd for the first four dayshas been managed, somethingthat has been the primary goalof playing the traditional for-mat under lights.

Amid all the hype, there isalso the small matter of Indiabracing up for a 12th successivehome series victory.

The challenge for the play-ers would be when the dewcomes in to play after the sunsets early and it remains to beseen how both the teams andthe groundsmen cope with thepink ball.

The Cricket Associationof Bengal has made all effortsto turn the match into a carni-val for fans with several gim-micks. So, there are pink-ballmascots, Army paratroopers todeliver the match ball and agalaxy of sports and politicaldignitaries, includingBangladesh Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina, are also expect-ed at the venue.

The menacing pace attackof Mohammed Shami, IshantSharma and Umesh Yadavwrapped up the Indore Test

inside three days with aninnings and 130 runs victory —the 10th innings win for India.

The pace attack along withthe blazing form of the new-found opening duo — Rohit

Sharma and Mayank Agarwal— has been the story of theseason in Indian cricket.

Already at the top of theWorld Test Championshipstandings, India would look to

consolidate their position afteranother series victory.

While a handful of Indianplayers have pink-ball experi-ence, having played threedomestic seasons of DuleepTrophy under lights, theBangladeshi squad would befacing the challenge for the firsttime.

Bangladesh have struggledin batting and only MushfiqurRahim posted a 50-plus scorein the Indore Test.

Having been handed thecaptaincy after Shakib AlHasan’s suspension for failureto report corrupt approaches,Mominul Haque is strugglingto handle the pressure, madeworse by his batsmen’s contin-uing flop-show.

In such a gloomy scenario,the skipper may find someinspiration from his pacers,especially Abu Jayed, whoimpressed in the Indore Test.

SQUADSIndia: Virat Kohli (c), RohitSharma, Mayank Agarwal,Cheteshwar Pujara, AjinkyaRahane, Wriddiman Saha(wk),Ravichandran Ashwin,Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant,Mohammed Shami, IshantSharma, Umesh Yadav,Hanuma Vihari, KuldeepYadav and Shubman Gill.Bangladesh: Mominul Haque(c), Liton Das (wk), MehidyHasan, Nayeem Hasan, Al-Amin Hossain, EbadotHossain, Mossadek Hossain,Shadman Islam, Taijul Islam,Abu Jayed, Imrul Kayes,Mahmudullah, MohammadMithun, Mushfiqur Rahim,Mustafizur Rahman.

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The pink ball feels like a“heavy hockey ball” to

Virat Kohli, who isextremely wary of the chal-lenges its weight, hard-ness and colour could posewhile fielding.

“One thing that sur-prised me was the fieldingsessions. In the slips ballshit so hard it almost feltlike a heavy hockey ball, allthose synthetic ball thatwe're used to play with inthe younger days,” Kohlisaid on the eve of thematch.

“It's purely because ofthe extra glaze on the ball,it is definitely much moreharder. For some reason itfelt heavy and even thethrows took a lot moreeffort than the red colourto reach the wicketkeeper.”

India had their firstbrush withthe SG pinkball afterthey wrappedup the open-ing Test insidethree days inIndore.

India had asession underlights at the EdenGardens onWednesday.

“I think dur-ing the day, highcatches will be verydifficult. With thered or white ball youhave the idea of whenthe ball reaches you butwith the pink ball if youdon’t look at it your palmsare gone.

“Fielding ses-sion for me was farmore challenging.People are going tobe surprised howchallenging pink ballcan be.”

Visibility in twilighthas also been cited as oneof the biggest challengesthe historic match couldpose.

“Not having a great

visibility and the ability topick that colour makes iteven more difficult. Thedecision making has to bevery precise like the idea ofoff stumps. Even when wepractised yesterday we feltas if the ball is far but it hitsyou very quickly.

“The extra glaze of theball is making it travelfaster. It hits the hand

hard. It should exciteeveryone. Sometimeyou have to changethe template. I think

we have to be veryprecise and our

skills will betested in

this Test.”

�� =47=+ +

Bangladesh captain MominulHaque on Thursday rued that his

team didn’t get a practice game toprepare before taking on India intheir first-ever Day/Night Test.

“We did not get any opportuni-ty to play a practice match and atthat moment (when it was decided)we could not do anything. The onlyway to prepare for us was by prepar-ing mentally. But definitely, if youplay any Test match with the pinkball, you have to play practice match-es,” Mominul said on the eve of theTest here.

The current Bangladesh teamhave no pink ball experience even atthe domestic level and they only hadfour sessions, including two inIndore, before their first ever D/NTest.

“It’s new for everyone. We hadvery good preparation we hope we

can capitalise on that. We will lookfor the opportunities and we areexcited to play the first ever pink ballTest for the country,” the skippersaid.

The skipper urged his batsmento be more careful while facing thepink ball, which is likely to havemore lateral movement on a greenwicket.

“It”s about being strong mental-ly and have to be more patient. Theidea is to play session by session. It’sabout learning from the past.”

Mushfiqur Rahim was the lonehalf-centurion in Bangladesh inningsas they crashed to an innings and130-run defeat inside three days inIndore.

“We made some mistakes inthe first innings. There was no part-nership in the top order. We did nothave proper shot nd go forward. Wehope to rectify our mistakes,” theskipper said.

�� Opener Shikhar Dhawan’s leanpatch continued but Delhi still managedto register a comfortable 77-run win overMaharashtra in their opening SuperLeague match of the Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy T20 tournament here on Thursday.

Delhi made 167 for five after beinginvited to bat and then produced a disci-plined bowling effort to bundle outMaharashtra for 90 in 17.2 overs. Part-time off-spinner Nitish Rana stole theshow with the ball with figures of four for17.

Meanwhile in the other two matches,Punjab thrashed Jharkhand by 109 runswith skipper Mandeep Singh top-scoringwith an unbeaten 81.

At the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium,Baroda defeated Rajasthan by 15 runs. ForBaroda, opener Aditya Waghmode stucka quick-fire 88.Brief Scores: Delhi 167/5 (Dhruv Shorey48 not out, Himmat Singh 32;Shamshuzama Kazi 2-20) beatMaharashtra 90 all out (Ruturaj Gaikwad42, Digvijay Deshmukh 9; Nitish Rana 4-17) by 77 runs.At C B Patel Ground: Punjab 199/4(Mandeep Singh 81*; Abhishek Sharma72; Shahbaz Nadeem 2-27) beat Jharkhand90 all out (Utkarsh Singh 24, Virat Singh15; Mayank Markande 3-13) by 109 runs.At Lalbhai Contractor Stadium: Baroda201/5 (Aditya Waghmode 88, KedarDevdhar 64; Aniket Choudhary 2-27)beat Rajasthan 186/8 (Ankit Lamba 54,Arjit Gupta 41; Atit Sheth 3-34) by 15runs. PTI

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The Indian women’s crick-et team completed a 5-0

series whitewash over theWest Indies after half cen-turies from VedaKrishnamurthy andJemimah Rodrigues, com-plemented by the bowlersclinical show, steered theside to a 61-run triumph inthe fifth and final T20International here.

Rodrigues (50) andKrishnamurthy (57 not out)shared 117 runs for the thirdwicket as India Womenscored 134 for 3 after elect-ing to bat.

The decision seemed tohave backfired when Indiawere reduced to 17 for 2 inthe fourth over with ShafaliVerma (9) and captain SmritiMandhana (7) getting outcheaply.

But the Rodrigues-Krishnamurthy duo steadiedthe innings and took the sideto a decent total.

Rodrigues needed 56balls for her 50, which wasstudded with three bound-aries, while Krishnamurthy'sunbeaten 57 came off 48deliveries, which includedfour hits to the fence.

In the West Indies runchase, the Indian Women

bowlers produced a disci-plined performance torestrict the hosts to 73 for 7in their allotted 20 overs.

The West Indies were 13for 2 in the fourth over andthey never recovered fromthat. Half of their batterswere out for 53 runs in the14th over.

Opener Kyshona Knightwas the top-scorer with 22while Shemaine Campbelleremained not out on 19.

For India Women, off-spinner Anuja Patil grabbedtwo wickets for just threeruns while Radha Yadav,Poonam Yadav, PoojaVastrakar and Harleen Deoltook a wicket each.

� 5 � �� Former opener GautamGambhir feels the India and Bangladeshcaptains need to be innovative whilehandling their pacers with the pink ball,including using them frequently underlights for more effectiveness.

“...Captains will now need to usetheir fast bowlers differently,” saidGambhir, who had led India Blue to thefinal of the Duleep Trophy tournamentwhich was played under lights in 2016,on ‘Star Sports’.

“In red ball cricket they use themearly in the morning but in the day andnight matches they will probably haveto use them under lights as well as it willbe of more help as compared to if it’s a1 pm start.”

The India opener said it will be achallenge to pick the wrist spinners.

“One thing I realized was under thelights it was really difficult to pick the

wrist spinner because sometimes if youdon't pick it in the hand and you pickit in the end once you watch the scene,”he said.

But once, its artificial lights and hasa black theme as well so I am sure wristspinners will play a huge role under thelights.” PTI

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Afit-again BhuvneshwarKumar on Thursday

returned to the Indian teams fornext month’s T20 and ODIseries against West Indies, whileall-rounder Shivam Dube wasrewarded with a maiden call-upin the 50-over format.

India is scheduled to playthree Twenty 20 Internationalsagainst the West Indies with theseries-opener in Mumbai onDecember 6 followed by match-es in Thiruvananthapuram(December 8) and Hyderabad(December 11).

The three ODIs will beplayed in Chennai (December15), Visakhapatnam (December18) and Cuttack (December22).

A side strain and a ham-string injury forced seamerBhuvneshwar to come backmidway from the tour of WestIndies in August.

The Indian squad bears afull-strength look with skipperVirat Kohli back at the helm andhis deputy Rohit Sharma alsonot opting for a break.

Kohli coming back meantthat Sanju Samson, who wasincluded in the last series as spe-cialist batsman had to go outwithout getting a match. It islearnt that Samson wasn’t seenas a back-up keeper.

Senior opener ShikharDhawan, despite his poor run ofform, gets another go at the topwhile in-form speedsterMohammed Shami and left-armspinner Kuldeep Yadav wereback in the shortest format aftersome time.

Another veteran KedarJadhav has also managed to hold

on to his ODI place despite thepresence of Shreyas Iyer andManish Pandey in both squads.

Seamer Deepak Chahar,who recently had a brilliantT20 series against Bangladeshwas recalled in the ODI squadafter he played in last year’s AsiaCup in the UAE.

His younger cousin broth-er Rahul was, however, droppedfrom the squad with the sea-soned Kuldeep back in the mixwith his partner in crime,Yuzvendra Chahal, who madehis shortest format comeback inthe last series.

Krunal Pandya, who hadbeen a regular feature in the T20setup for a year has beendropped, with Ravindra Jadejaback after a break.

The pace bowling depart-ments in both squads bear afamiliar look with Bhuvneshwarand Shami leading the way. It isexpected that Jasprit Bumrahwill join the duo soon and, alongwith Deepak, could be the mainfour pacers in white ball format.India’s squad for 3 T20Is: ViratKohli (capt), Rohit Sharma,Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul,Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey,Rishabh Pant (WK), ShivamDube, Washington Sundar,Ravindra Jadeja, YuzvendraChahal, Kuldeep Yadav, DeepakChahar, Mohammed Shami,Bhuvneshwar KumarIndia’s squad for 3 ODIs: ViratKohli (capt), Rohit Sharma,Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul,Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey,Risbhabh Pant (WK), ShivamDube, Kedar Jadhav, RavindraJadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal,Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar,Mohammed Shami,Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

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India’s Jemimah Rodrigueson Thursday jumped to the

fourth position in the battingchart, while slow left-armspinner Radha Yadav isplaced second amongbowlers in the latest ICCWomen’s T20I PlayerRankings.

Besides Rodrigues,young Shafali Verma alsomade significant progress inthe just-released T20I Player

Rankings, after playing stel-lar roles in a stunning 5-0series sweep over the WestIndies.

Rodrigues moved upthree places to fourth posi-tion and teen sensationVerma gained 57 slots toreach 30th position as Indialeapfrogged the West Indiesto fourth position in theICC Women’s T20I TeamRankings after the 5-0 victo-ry over the former T20World champions.

Another India batter toadvance is Veda , who scored77 runs including a match-winning 57 in the final matchto move from 61st to 49th.

There are now threeIndian bowlers in the top fiveas left-arm spinner RadhaYadav has moved up fromfifth to second spot.

Deepti Sharma, whotook eight wickets in theseries, has retained her fourthposition while PoonamYadav is fifth.

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