› uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · to send men to jail. he will only ... the chandigarh...

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Karnataka Assembly SpeakerKR Ramesh Kumar on

Thursday disqualified twoCongress rebel MLAs and anIndependent legislator and saidhe will take a couple of days todecide the fate of 14 other rebelCongress lawmakers.

Kumar said members dis-qualified under the anti-defec-tion law cannot contest or getelected to the Assembly till theend of the term of the House.

The Congress leaders arekeenly watching the reactionsof the other rebel MLAs to theSpeaker’s decision to expel thethree MLAs who chose to skipthe vote of trust motion in theAssembly. Congress leadershope that some of the MLAsmay come back to their fold toescape expulsion, thus makingit difficult for the BJP to stakeclaim for the Government for-mation.

The Speaker said he wasconvinced that the resigna-tions by the three memberswere not voluntary and genuineand he had therefore rejectedthem and proceeded to dis-qualify them under the anti-defection law.

“They have violated theprovisions of the 10th Scheduleof the Constitution (anti-defec-tion law) and therefore aredisqualified,” he said.

The Speaker’s announce-ment came two days after theCongress-JD(S) coalitionGovernment headed by HDKumaraswamy collapsed as itlost the trust vote in the

Assembly against the back-drop of the rebellion by a sec-tion of their MLAs.

The coalition had needed103 votes in its favour to winthe motion as 20 MLAsCongress-JDS (17), BSP (1),Independents (2) skipped pro-ceedings, reducing the effectivestrength of the House to 205.

In Delhi, a group ofKarnataka BJP leaders, includ-ing Jagdish Shettar, ArvindLimbavali, Madhuswamy,Basavaraj Bommai andYeddyurappa’s son Vijayendra,met Amit Shah as they dis-cussed the development in the

State and explored the optionsahead for the party.

The State needs to pass theFinance Bill before July 31.Sources said if a Governmentis not in place before the monthend, then imposition ofPresident’s rule may be a con-stitutional necessity for thepassage of the Bill, which iswhy the BJP is also consultinglegal experts.

Meanewhile, seniorCongress leader and formerChief Minister Siddaramaiahon Thursday rubbished reportsthat he had instigated the rebelsto resign and destabilise the

coalition Government headedby Kumaraswamy.

Cautioning media housesagainst peddling “false news”,Siddaramaiah said he wouldgive them a befitting reply ifthey repeat the allegation infront of him. In a series oftweets, the he said the rebelswere trying to “shift the blameon me but the facts would sur-face once the dust settles.”

“Media houses are report-ing that a few rebel MLAs haveclaimed that I instigated themto resign and destabilise ourGovernment. This is nothingbut a false allegation with

malafide intention. I will givethem a befitting reply if theyrepeat the same in front of me,”Siddaramaiah said.

He said, “The rebel MLAsare trying to shift the blame onme after widespread publicbacklash against them forbetraying and back-stabbingboth the electorate and theparty. Everything will be clearwhen the dust settles but bythen they would have bitten thedust.” Recalling his days asChief Minister, Siddaramaiahsaid there were many baselessallegations against him — “avenom he digested to servepeople with good intent.”

“Time will answer every-thing! Satyameva Jayathe!!”Siddaramaiah said. As thecoordination committee chair-man of the coalitionGovernment, Siddaramaiahwas charged with not letting theJD(S) and the Congress Statepresidents to be part of thepenal led by him.

JD(S) State president-turned-rebel MLA AHVishwanath had been targetingSiddaramaiah for not bringingout the common minimumprogramme as agreed upon bythe two parties at the time offorming the coalitionGovernment.

Vishwanath had alsocharged him with betrayingJD(S) supremo HD DeveGowda by making him trustthe Congress during the LokSabha election and then work-ing for his defeat from theTumkur constituency at the fagend of his political career.

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Amid walkout by BJP’s allyJanata Dal(U), which

accused the Modi Governmentof “creating friction in society”,the Lok Sabha on Thursdaypassed Triple Talaq Bill afterintense debate and dramaticscenes. The Bill will now go tothe Rajya Sabha, where its pas-sage will depend on the standof the JD(U) and another NDApartner the AIADMK, which isalso opposed to the Bill.

The Congress and theTrinamool Congress walkedout of the House accusing theGovernment of targetingMuslim men “only”. The BJPcountered the Opposition par-ties saying they were engagedin playing vote-bank politicsand showing utter injustice tohapless Muslim women.

During the debate, theOpposition parties warned theGovernment that the Bill willbe defeated in the Rajya Sabhaand demanded that it should besent to Standing Committee.

Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said penal provisionsare meant to prevent the bar-baric Triple Talaq practice andnot for sending the husband toprison if he withdraws hisdecision or apologises.

“Then what is the point of

sending a person to jail if he orhis advocate apologises beforethe Magistrate. Then matter isover. I am amazed to see manymembers are saying this Bill isto send men to jail. He will onlygo to jail if he sticks to hisinstant triple talaq stand whichis a crime and banned by theSupreme Court,” said Prasad,citing many incidents of TripleTalaq even after the SupremeCourt verdict.

Prasad said it was the dutyof Parliament to create a law to

strengthen the landmark judg-ment of the Supreme Court toundo the injustice to Muslimwomen.

He pointed out that lawenforcement agencies are fac-ing difficulties in enforcingthe verdict due to the absenceof the law.

“When Hindus andMuslims are jailed underdowry law or DomesticViolence Act, no one objects.What is the objection in penal-ising the practice,” he said.

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Parliament on Thursdayapproved the amendment

to the RTI Act, with the RajyaSabha passing it amid theOpposition walkout on theissue of sending it to a SelectCommittee of the House.

After four adjournmentsagainst the backdrop of protestin the Well of the House, themotion was negated by 117members voting against themotion and 75 members vot-ing in favour. The Oppositioncharged the Government with“intimidating” them to get themotion for sending the amend-ment to the Select Committeerejected.

The Right to Information(Amendment) Bill, 2019, waspassed with a voice vote in theLok Sabha last week. Theamendment seeks to give theGovernment power to decide

the terms of the ChiefInformation Commissionersand InformationCommissioners at both theCentral and State levels, aswell as has a say on the salaries,allowances and other termsand conditions of their services.

RTI activists and theOpposition members haveaccused the UnionGovernment of seeking toweaken the law by gainingmore control over the workingof the InformationCommissions.

As many as five membershad given notice for amend-ment seeking to send the Bill toa select Committee. TheGovernment stuck to its point

that the motions for sendingthe Bill to select committee andpassage of the draft law wouldbe taken up only after the dis-cussion.

The House witnessed fourbrief adjournments amid thedin as Congress, DMK, CPI,CPI(M), TMC and AAP mem-bers remained in the Well ofthe House and raised slogansagainst the Government.Members rushed into the Wellshouting slogans against “suchstrong arm tactics”.

The Motion for sendingthe amendment to the SelectCommittee was put to voteafter a division was soughtwhen the pandemonium brokeout.

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The Government has decided to extendthe ongoing Parliament Session till

August 7 to take up and finish legislativebusiness. The session, which began on June17, was earlier scheduled to end on July 26.

While the Opposition is not in favourof the extension, the decision was taken bythe Cabinet Committee on ParliamentaryAffairs. Over half a dozen Bills, includingTriple Talaq, are yet to be passed byParliament.

As soon as the Triple Talaq Bill waspassed in the Lok Sabha, ParliamentaryAffairs Minister Pralhad Joshi rose toinform Speaker Om Birla about the deci-sion to extend the session.

The Government had indicated onWednesday that the session could beextended. Information and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekar said theOpposition parties should not have anyobjection as they have been in favour ofParliament working for at least 100 daysin a year.

Answering queries from reportersafter meeting of the Union Cabinet, he said80 per cent of the Bills being taken up werethose which had lapsed with the dissolu-tion of 16th Lok Sabha as these could notbe passed in Rajya Sabha.

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The Chandigarhadministration on

Wednesday ordered aprobe into the allega-tions by actor RahulBose that city-basedstar hotel, JW Marriott,exorbitantly chargedhim �442.50 for two bananas.

Rahul Bose had tweeted about “illegaland exorbitant charge of GST” by the lux-ury hotel.

Chandigarh Deputy Commissionerand Excise and Taxation CommissionerMandip Singh Brar has asked AssistantExcise and Taxation Commissioner toinvestigate how the hotel could charge GSTon fresh fruits.

Rahul Bose had posted on his tweet,“You have to see this to believe it. Who saidfruit wasn’t harmful to your existence? Askthe wonderful folks at @JWMarriottChd#goingbananas #howtogetfitandgobroke#potassiumforkings.”

“So I am shooting in Chandigarh andI am staying at this beautiful suite at JWMarriott where they give you all these ele-gant freebies like these chocolate cookies.God knows how much these beautifulflowers must have cost, but get this, I wasin the gym and I asked for two bananas andcheck the bill out,” the actor said.

“They’re just too good for me. Welldone JW Marriott Chandigarh,” the actorcommented before ending his video.

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The National Green Tribunal (NGT) onThursday gave its nod to Delhi

Government’s water conservation projecton Yamuna floodplains. The project aimsto conserve water on floodplains and buildmega reservoir between Pall andWazirabad to meet water demand.

“I am so happy to inform all Delhiitesthat finally all approvals have been obtainedfrom NGT n Centre for our water con-servation project on Yamuna Floodplains.Thank u Centre n NGT. Pilot project willstart soon (sic),” Kejriwal tweeted.

Under the project, small ponds will becreated to catch water from an overflow-ing Yamuna during this monsoon season.The Chief Minister has keenly pushed forthe ambitious pilot project and it is goingto be a game-changer for Delhi, theGovernment said in a statement later.

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Chairman of the 15thFinance Commission NK

Singh said Chhattisgarh is fac-ing three challenges to furtherits growth story.

He said the Chhattisgarhfirst needs a quantum jump inits growth rate and for this heemphasised on reforms, diver-sification of crops and contractfarming to push agricultureproduction and expand irriga-tion facilities.

Addressing the media per-sons on Thursday, Singh furthersaid these steps will assist toincrease the per capita incomeof citizens of the state and willalso help counter poverty.

Appreciating ChhattisgarhGovernment, Singh said theState has a fiscal deficit less than3% of the GSDP while theexpenditure (on salary, pensionand interest) has been kept at35.8% which is lower than allother States, including the rev-

enue surplus States.Against this backdrop,

Commission chairman said,“Per capita annual income is

just �96,887 against nationalaverage of �1,26,405 while thepoverty ratio is 39.8% againstnational average of 21%.”

He pointed out as per sus-tainable development goals(SDGs) the State has to act onanemia, infant mortality rate

(IMR), maternal mortality rate(MMR), education outcomeand doctors’ achievements.

With a forest cover ofaround 40% in the State, Singhsaid, the Commission wouldsupport steps of Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel in layingemphasis on opening minorforest produce value additionbased industries, as state hasone of the highest populationof tribal.He said Left WingExtremism is also a challengein the State.

Singh further saidCommission would sympa-thetically consider the demandsmade in the memorandumsubmitted by Chhattisgarh gov-ernment. The issue of GSTrevenue reduction was raisedwhich has also been raised byother States.

“As the GST does not fallunder its mandate, the matterwill be taken up with the GSTCouncil during interaction,”the chairman said.

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Samajwadi Party (SP) leaderAzam Khan on Thursday

courted controversy theumpteenth time as he yet againmade a sexist remark, this timeagainst none other than theofficiating Speaker of the LokSabha itself - BJP MP RamaDevi.

While it led to an uproarand demands for his apology,the National Commission forWomen (NCW) and the DelhiCommission for Women(DCW) condemned Khan'scomment, dubbing it "lecher-ous and disgraceful" and soughtthe Speaker to act against him.

Participating in the debateon the triple talaq Bill, Khanreferred to the intervention ofUnion Minister MukhtarAbbas Naqvi and read out acouplet "... Tu idhar-udhar kibaat na kar ..." (do not divertfrom the topic).

At this, Rama Devi, whowas presiding over the pro-ceedings, asked Khan not to"look here and there" andaddress the Chair. To this, theSP member made a sexistremark at the Chair, triggeringhigh drama, one that even sawformer Chief Minister AkhileshYadav getting drawn as he

sought to defend his party col-league Khan. This week, Khanwas in news as the UP policelodged three FIRs against himin connection with landencroachment cases.

Khan had just recentlywhile campaigning for thenational elections made certainobjectionable remarks targetedat his former colleague-turned-BJP candidate Jaya Prada. TheElection Commission hadbarred him from campaigningfor 48 hours for his indecentand derogatory remarks.

Khan's remark infuriatedunion ministers Ravi ShankarPrasad and Arjun Ram

Meghwal as they urged theChair to ask him to apologise.When Khan was asked to do soby Rama Devi, he said hemeant no disrespect to her asshe was like his "dear sister".

As Akhilesh rose to defendKhan, Speaker Om Birla tookover the proceedings. Yadavsaid there was no intention tomalign the Chair, sparkingfurther protests by the BJPmembers. He then made aremark on the conduct of BJPmembers to which the Speakertook objection and chided himto be mindful of words whichwere unparliamentary.

He also asked the SP chief,

a former chief minister ofUttar Pradesh, to apologise.But Yadav said the word heused was first used by the trea-sury benches. The Speakerasked him to point out themember who used the termand asked the SP leader toapologise.

"It is very easy for all of youto demand 'expunge this,expunge that', but why shouldthe need to expunge arise at all?Once a remark is made, it isalready in the public domain.Therefore, we all should speakkeeping the dignity ofParliament in mind," said theSpeaker.

Khan said he has spent along time in politics and if hehas used any unparliamentarylanguage, he is ready to resign"immediately".

As the Speaker listened toboth sides, Danish Ali (BSP)walked out of the House, say-ing he was not allowed tospeak. Khan joined him in thewalkout, saying he cannotspeak when he was beinginsulted. Later, members ofthe SP and BSP walked out.

National Commission ForWomen (NCW) chairpersonRekha Sharma said Khanshould be disqualified fromParliament.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday directedsetting up of a centrally-fund-ed designated court in each dis-trict having more than 100FIRs under the Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act to deal exclu-sively with cases of sexualoffences against children.

"We would expect ourabove stated directions to beimplemented and exclusivelydesignated courts to tryoffences under the POCSOAct, in terms of the abovedirections, to start functioningwithin 60 days from the date ofthe present order," a benchheaded by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi said, while asking theCentre and states to implementits direction.

In a slew of directions, theapex court also said that a shortclip, intended to spread aware-ness about prevention of childabuse and prosecution ofcrimes against children, bescreened in every movie halland transmitted by varioustelevision channels at regularintervals.

The top court directed thatthe special court be funded bythe Centre and take care ofappointment of presiding offi-

cer, support persons, specialpublic prosecutors, court staffand infrastructure, includingcreation of child-friendly envi-ronment and vulnerable wit-ness court rooms.

The court, which has on itsown taken up the issue ofalarming rise in the number ofrape cases against children,

took note of a report which saidthat one of the major causes ofhinderance in completing time-ly trial of POCSO cases wasdelay in receiving reports fromforensic science laboratory(FSL).

The top court perused thereport prepared by senior advo-cate V Giri, assisting it as an

amicus curiae in the case, andsaid the suggestion that thereshould be designated FSL inevery district of the country forthe purposes of POCSO Actcan be considered at a laterstage.

"For the present, we directthe directors of the state foren-sic science laboratories andthe concerned authority in thestate government to ensurethat the existing and availableforensic science laboratoriesin each state will function in aneffective manner insofar asanalysis etc of the samples col-lected under the POCSO Actare concerned and reports ofsuch analysis be sent prompt-ly and without any delay," thebench, also comprising JusticesDeepak Gupta and AniruddhaBose, said.

The bench directed thechief secretaries of all the statesand union territories to ensurethat its direction is compliedwith "forthwith".

"In each district of thecountry, if there are more than100 cases under the POCSOAct, an exclusive/designatedspecial court will be set up,which will try no other offenceexcept those under the POCSOAct," the bench said. PTI

New Delhi: Chief Justice ofIndia (CJI) Ranjan GogoiThursday expressed displeasureover the functioning of theSupreme Court registry withregard to non-listing of casesfor urgent hearing, saying that"there was something funda-mentally wrong" about it.

A bench headed by the CJIwas irked over the apex court reg-istry and said that everyday thereis a long queue of lawyers whowant their cases to be listed forurgent hearing on the groundthat they have been deleted fromthe cause-list despite court'sorder to the contrary.

Justice Gogoi has beenworking — ever since he tookoath as the 46th CJI on October3, 2018 —to devise a mecha-nism where lawyers are notrequired to mention cases forurgent hearing and get listedautomatically before a benchwithin a stipulated time.

"Everyday there is a sea ofhumanity seeking listing (of thecases)," said the bench, alsocomprising Justices DeepakGupta and Aniruddha Bose.

"There is something fun-damentally wrong with it (theSupreme Court registry)...Despite my best efforts, I have

been unable to deal with it (list-ing of cases)," the visibly irkedCJI said.

The observations camewhen a lawyer sought urgentlisting of his matter and allegedthat it was deleted from the listof business despite court's orderallowing the listing.

The bench then referred tothe fact that in a high courtaround 6,000 fresh cases arefiled in a week in comparisonto around 1,000 cases duringthe same period in the SupremeCourt and still, the apex courtregistry was unable to managethem effectively.

Listing of cases in theSupreme Court takes moretime than high courts, thebench said, adding that a highcourt judge has to deal withmore cases in comparison to

the apex court judge."In High Court, 6,000 cases

are filed every week and get list-ed the next day. In SupremeCourt, only 1,000 cases are filedand are not listed...We directthat matter should not be delet-ed from the list and still it getsdeleted," the CJI said.

Laughter broke out in thepacked courtroom, whenanother lawyer sought urgentlisting of his case, which wasfiled in 2014, on the groundthat his client was 72-year-oldman who can "die anymoment".

"Your prayer is rejectedfor obvious reasons. Let himhave a long life. That is ourwish," the CJI quipped. Thelawyer replied that his clienthas been suffering from manydiseases. PTI

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With China stressing that itenvisages building a

strong Navy in its white paperon defence, posing a threat tothe Indian interests especiallyin the Indian Ocean region,Navy Chief Admiral KarambirSingh said here on Thursdaythey have to watch and see how"we can respond within ourbudget and constraints thatwe have". China released thewhite paper on Wednesday.

"It is not just the Chinesewhite paper, it has been said inthe past also. Lot of resourceshas been shifted from otherarms to the PLA Navy obvi-ously in line with their inten-tion to become a global power.We have to watch that and seehow we can respond within ourbudget and constraints thatwe have," he said in his firstinteraction with the mediasince he took over as Chief ofNaval Staff on May 31. TheNavy chief made this observa-tion on the sidelines of a sem-inar on 'nation buildingthrough shipbuilding' jointlyorganized by the Navy andindustry body Federation ofIndian Chambers ofCommerce and Industry

(FICCI).On the Navy's budgetary

constraints Singh said theyrequire long term fiscal supportto build a Navy. "That is theonly way we can plan," he stat-ed. As regards the proposedsecond Indigenous AircraftCarrier (IAC-II) which hasbeen on the drawing board forsome time but yet to beapproved by the government,Singh said he cannot give anytimeline.

He said the Navy's plan isto build a 65,000 tonne carri-er with possibly electric propul-sion and a Catapult Assisted

Take-Off But ArrestedRecovery (CATOBAR) so that'if we have three aircraft carri-ers we can have two operationalat any given time," he saidadding the plan to build anIAC-II is part of the MaritimeCapability Perspective Plan(MCPP) 2012-27. The firstIndigenous carrier Vikrant isunder advanced stage of con-struction and is expected to bedelivered to the Navy byFebruary 2021 and commis-sioned by early 2023 after avi-ation trials.

Stressing the need for pru-dence and optimisation ofevery rupee spent, the Navychief said time and cost over-runs in ship construction cre-ate challenges in budget man-agement. Dismissing narra-tives that warship-building is adrain on the economy, he saidon the contrary a very largeproportion of every rupeespent on the Navy is ploughedback.

More than 60% of theNaval budget is dedicated toCapital expenditure, Singhobserved and said adding morethan 70% of this capital budgethas been spent on indigenoussourcing, amounting to nearlyRs 66,000 crore in the last fiveyears.

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In a bid to provide real-timeinformation related to defence

production to public, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh onThursday launched a web page.

Information related todefence production, exports,offsets, Make II projects andpatents filed, among others, willbe available on the dashboard-- ddpdashboard.Gov.In -- ofthe Department of DefenceProduction, officials said.

The information will beavailable on mobile phonestoo. However, some informa-tion will be restricted for the

use of officials only, AjayKumar, Secretary, Departmentof Defence Production, said.

During the launch of thedashboard, the officials told theminister that in 2018-19, thevalue of defence equipmentproduced stood at �80,000crore. The department has seta target of manufacturingdefence equipment worth�90,000 crore in 2019-20.

Kumar also told the min-ister that 44 start-ups are work-ing with the ministry to devel-op 14 technologies. The depart-ment is aiming at developing 25new artificial technologies by2024, he said.

New Delhi: India on Thursdaytermed as "glaring admission"Pakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan's comments that 30,000to 40,000 terrorists were oper-ating in his country, and askedhim to take "credible and irre-versible" action against the ter-ror networks.

External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid it was not the first timethat Pakistan and its leadershipowned up to the presence ofterrorists in that country whoare sent to India to carry outattacks.

"It is a glaring admission bythe Pakistani leadership.... Thisis not the first time thatPakistan and Pakistani leader-ship owned up to the presenceof terror training camps andterrorists in Pakistan.... It is alsoin public knowledge and inter-national community knowsabout it," Kumar said.

He said as Khan acknowl-edged the presence of terroristtraining camps in his country,"it is time for them to take cred-ible and irreversible actionagainst the terror camps."

"They should make surethat the safe havens and sanc-tuaries in Pakistan should beneutralised. We feel that half-hearted measures to please theinternational community won'tdo," he added.

India and Afghanistan havebeen accusing Pakistan of pro-viding safe haven to the AfghanTaliban, the Haqqani network,Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other militantgroups. PTI

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The CPI (M) on Thursday attacked theBJP over the incidents of mob lynching

accusing it of promoting a "cult of violence".Simultaneously, it also asked theGovernment to act against YouTube forallowing circulation of some videos whichshe alleged were designed to "incite com-munal hatred".

In a letter to Prime Minister NarendraModi, CPI (M) general secretary SitaramYechury slammed the ruling party leadersfor dismissing the concerns expressed by 49eminent people

"On being shown the truth of our real-ity today, all that the government does is totry and deny it. This is because forces patro-nised by the ruling party themselves,patronise the promotion of such a "cult ofviolence," Yechury tweeted.

For her part, CPI(M) Polit Bureaumember Brinda Karat wrote to HomeMinister Amit Shah demanding actionagainst YouTube. She also wrote a similarletter to DCP (Central) Mandeep SinghRandhawa listing links to some of thevideos.

"I am writing to you in connection witha number of videos...On YouTube channeland WhatsApp groups which are clearlydesigned to incite communal hatred, vio-

lence and acts of terror against one specif-ic community by anothercommunity...Another video threatens thosewho do not say 'Jai Shri Ram' will be sendto the graveyard," she said in the letter toShah. In the letter to the DCP, she identi-fied videos targeting Muslims.

"These videos are highly offensive,menacing, threatening and incite violenceagainst a specific community by anothercommunity," she said.

She said that the videos and their cir-culation constituted criminal acts under theIPC and the IT Act and also under the lawsagainst acts of terror.

"There is no doubt that by allowing cir-culation of such anti-national material ontheir channel, the owners/controlling autho-rizers of YouTube channel are also guilty.Since YouTube has a worldwide reach, suchcommunal hate and highly provocativevideos emanating from India seriouslydamage India's image across the world andcould have dangerous consequences," shesaid and demanded registration of an FIR.

Karat said that as the home minister,Shah had the responsibility to ensure thesecurity and wellbeing of all of citizens andurged him to take strong action in the case.She also demanded that YouTube be forcedto remove the video and stop the circula-tion of the offensive material.

New Delhi: A creative head willsoon be appointed forDoordarshan to enhance thequality of its programmes,Information and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid Thursday, asserting thatsteps are being taken to mod-ernise the public broadcaster.

Javadekar, who inaugurat-ed video walls in all eightDoordarshan studios and anearth station at the DD Kendrahere, said the national broad-caster is synonymous withcredibility.

He said that under thethree-year action plan of theMinistry of Information andBroadcasting, support has beengiven to Doordarshan to mod-ernise its infrastructure.

"The addition of state ofthe art video walls and spec-trum efficient satellite equip-ment, is a step in the directionof revamping the public ser-vice broadcaster," Javadekarsaid.

The minister asked officialsto work towards expandingthe spread of DD Free Dishfrom the current 3.25 crorehouseholds to 5 crore house-holds.

He announced that a cre-ative head will soon be broughtin for DD to further boost pro-gramming and high qualitycontent creation.

I&B Ministry SecretaryAmit Khare said the govern-ment is committed to sup-porting Doordarshan and theAll India Radio in every possi-ble way to ensure that the pub-lic service broadcasters are ableto provide services of contem-

porary industry standards,reaching out to every nook andcorner of India.

Chairman Prasar Bharati ASurya Prakash lauded theefforts of Doordarshan andhighlighted that in the recentpast a number of impactful andmeaningful programmes havebeen created, which have takenthe flagship schemes of the gov-ernment to the door steps ofpeople.

Director GeneralDoordarshan Supriya Sahu toldreporters on the sidelines of the

event that Doordarshan is fastmodernising and its capacity isunmatched.

She also said thatDoordarshan should not becompared with private channelsas its mandate is different -- itseeks to empower and informpeople.

The state-of-the-art videowalls, installed at a cost of Rs10.75 crores under the min-istry's action plan, are at parwith those in studio centres ofleading international broad-casters, an official release said.

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President Ram Nath Kovind willnext week travel to Benin, Gambia

and Guinea, in what would be the firstvisit of either a head of the state or headof the government from India to all thethree West African countries.

The visit, from July 28 to August 3,is expected to reinvigorate and give newdirection to India's ties with the threecountries, Secretary (East) MEA VijayThakur Singh said at a media briefing.

On the first leg of the visit, PresidentKovind will arrive in Benin on July 28and hold delegation-level talks with hisBeninese counterpart Patrice Talon thenext day.

Kovind will also address Benin'snational assembly in Porto-Novo. Hewill also have an interaction with theIndian community before concludingthe visit, Singh said.

He will reach Gambia on July 30 andhold talks with his Gambian counterpartAdama Barrow the next day, she said.

The President will address the nation-al assembly of Gambia and will also attendan event by the Indian community andinaugurate an exhibition on MahatmaGandhi and Khadi during his visit.

In the third and final leg of his visit,President Kovind will visit Guinea andhold delegation-level talks with Guineapresident Alpha Condé. He will alsoattend an Indian community event inGuinea, Singh said.

Various MoUs and agreements willbe signed during the Kovind's visit to thethree west African countries, she said.

President Kovind has visited 20countries in his tenure till now and afterthis visit the number will be 23, PressSecretary to the President Ashok Maliksaid.

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | FRIDAY | JULY 26, 2019

Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N.K. Singh called on Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday atMahanadi Bhawan in Atal Nagar.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Asserting thatChhattisgarh has

tremendous developmentpotentials, Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel sought cen-tre’s assistance to realizethose potentialities.

Baghel was addressing adelegation of 15th financecommission headed by itschairperson N.K. Singh. Hiscabinet colleagues were alsopresent on the occasion.

Citing various welfareschemes undergoing in thestate, Baghel urged thefinance commission mem-bers to help achieve thestate’s development target byassisting it in the fields ofeducation, health, employ-ment and malnutrition.

The finance commissionmembers were apprised ofthe challenges before the

state in improving HumanDevelopment Index (HDI),environmental conservation,leftwing extremism, regionalimbalance and challenges ofdevelopment of forest areas.

Chairperson of the com-mission Singh assured thatthe state would be providedall possible help to meetthese challenges.

The CM also apprisedthe finance commissionabout financial burden it hastaken to provide a minimumsupport price of Rs 2500 forpaddy, slash power tariff ofup to 400 units by half andlaunch universal PDS systemwhich ascertains food for alland provides 35 kgs of rice toAbove Poverty Line (APL)families along with the BelowPoverty Line (BPL) families.

Baghel also briefed thecommission members abouthis government’s flagship“Suraji Gaon Scheme’ which

ensures conservation anddevelopment of ‘NarvaGarva Ghurva Badi’(NGGB).

Citing loss to state due toenforcement of Goods andServices Tax (GST), the CMsaid the compensation tostate for that was meager andwas also time bound till theyear 2022. He urged thefinance commission mem-bers to extend it further fornext five year i.e. till 2027.

Baghel also urged thefinance commission delega-tion to increase the state’sshare in central tax from42% to 50%. Citing that sincethe inception ofChhattisgarh state it hasmaintained financial disci-pline, Baghel also demandedthat instead of revenuedeficit equalization grantmust be provided for health,education and infrastructuredevelopment.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Amember of 15th FinanceCommission and agricul-

ture expert, Ramesh Chand saidChhattisgarh has highest poten-tial to increase agriculturalproduction but taking targetoriented initiatives, as it has beenin all these years, would not help.

He was answering to a queryon agriculture sector during apress meet on Thursday, the lastday of the commission’s three-day visit to the state.

He said procurement ofpaddy at `2500 per quintal with`700 as bonus on MSP is high.“But, when farmers’ benefit andpaddy production are compared,something is missing.Production is at lower scale,which can be ratcheted up to 55to 60%. There is a need to giveattention on technology, makingproduce market driven and openmarket for competition, so thatfarmers can get higher pricethan the MSP,” he said.

Chand was of the view thatgovernment’s procurement athigher price would kill themarket, eventually affectingfarmers indirectly as govern-ment would end up procuringentire produces from farmersinvesting additional resources.

He felt that instead thegovernment should concentrateon amendment of AgriculturalProduce Market Committee Act(APMC) to reduce state

spending on procurement andutilise the funds in enhancingirrigation facilities and allowmarket to play a key role on produce.

Specifically he said,“Chhattisgarh has scentedvarieties of paddy, which can befocal point for getting highestprice for paddy than the MSP.”

The experts denied any tus-sle on Wednesday with politicalleaders on higher MSP for paddyprocurement.

Baghel seeks Center’s assistance for development of stateState cabinet holds meeting with chairman and members of 15th finance commission


Chhattisgarh state tennisplayer Samprit Sharma

has received an annual schol-arship of `1 lakh under AllIndia Tennis Association(AITA) Trust Vision Project.

The trust provides thescholarship to the emergingtennis players of the country.

Samprit was handed overthe cheque at a function heldat New Delhi.

As per information,Samprit Sharma in male

category and Samriddhi Singhin female (Under-14) categorywere two players selected fromthe state to participate in a oneweek advance camp organizedby the AITA, New Delhi.

Towards the end of thecamp, Samprit was selected forthe scholarship.

Around two players eachfrom 14 states participated inthe camp, out of them sevenplayers in both male andfemale categories wereselected for the scholarshipfrom across the country.


State Congress spokespersonVikas Tiwari on Thursday

sought legal action over allegedillegal appointment ofJageshwari Bisen-- wife of ArunBisen, a former OSD and aclose aide of former chief min-ister Raman Singh—in NayaRaipur Development Authority(NRDA).

Tiwari citied what heclaimed to be proofs of wrong-doings in the appointment doneduring the erstwhile BJP regime.

The Congress spokesper-son in a complaint claimed thatJageshwari Bisen was “unduly”appointed in Naya RaipurDevelopment Authority(NRDA).

In a press conference heldhere at party’s state headquar-ters Rajiv Bhawan, Tiwaridemanded complete recoveryof salaries paid to Jageshwari as

an IT officer of the then NRDA. He also demanded action

against the then CEO who gaveher the appointment and alsodemanded legal actions against

the guilty official.Tiwari also accused that

Jageshwari while working inthe NRDA at a high salary of Rs1 Lakh per month was also a

regular student of Masters inBusiness Administration(MBA). How she could do boththe work at the same time, hequestioned.


The wild elephant ‘Ganesh’,which was captured by the

forest department on Tuesday,escaped from captivity, officialsinformed here on Thursday.

The wild elephant onWednesday night ran to the jun-gle, confirmed Principal ChiefConservator (PCCF), WildlifeAtul Shukla.

According to Shukla, Ganeshwill not be re-captured soon.

“The scientists and veterinarydoctors have opined that since theelephant was recently tranquilizedit would be dangerous for itshealth to re-tranquilize and cap-ture it,” the PCCF said.

He further informed that thedepartment was keeping a closetab on the movement and activi-ties of the wild elephant.

Notably, the wild elephantwas captured by a team of expertsand Kumki elephants on Tuesday.

As per the forest officials thisrouge elephant was responsiblefor the death of 20 persons anddamages caused to several housesand crops.

It may be mentioned that for-est minister Mohammed Akbarduring the recently concludedstate assembly session hadinformed that there were 225 wildelephants in Chhattisgarh.

The department is attaching

radio collars to wild elephants totrack their movements and forthis the department has signed amemorandum of understandingwith Wild Life Institute of India(WII).

As per the MoU 12, wild ele-phants will be fitted with radiocollars. Already five elephants gotthe radio collars. However, threeout of five fell off due to differentreasons.


An important meeting ofChhattisgarh Pradesh

Congress Committee (CGPCC)is going to be held on Saturday.

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel and PCC Chief MohanMarkam will be specially pres-ent in the meeting to be held atparty’s state headquarters RajivBhawan from 12 noon.

After the executive body

meeting, a meeting of stateoffice bearers with office bear-ers of district and block head-quarters as well as office bearersof frontal organizations andmorchas will also be held.

According to officialsources the meetings will delib-erate on extending the welfareschemes to people and propa-gating the achievements of theBaghel government in the statein its six months tenure.

Committee formed toinvestigate promotionsin police deptRAIPUR: A special committee wasformed on Thursday to investigatealleged irregularities in promotion ofpolice officers/personnel betweenJanuary 2010 and December 2015.

As per official information, thecommittee will be headed byAdditional Director General of Police(Administration) Ashok Juneja.Other members of the committee willbe Deputy Inspector General ofPolice (SIB) Sundarraj P, DIG(Admin) OP Paul, DIG (Crime) SCDwivedi and DIG (Intelligence) AjayYadav.

The committee was formed onthe directives of Director General ofPolice DM Awasthi.

The DGP, officials said, whiletaking note of media reports thatalleged serious corruption in thedepartmental promotions happenedbetween January 2010 and December2015 has formed the committee.

Meanwhile, sources in the policedepartment informed that the deci-sion is a shocker for several policeofficials/employees who were pro-moted during the mentioned period.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Swami VivekanandaAirport, Raipur has made

it premises differently-abled(blind) friendly ensuing thatthey can avail services with-out any hindrance.

According to airportsources, to counter check thefacilities and its utility, itroped in a team of different-ly-abled persons to inspectthe whole arrangements.

On request of AirportAuthorities, National BlindInstitute’s Raipur branchsecretary Harjeet SinghJuneja, principal Hemlataand three girls from Prerna

Blind Girls Centre NirmalaPal, Chandini Sinha andKushbhu Viswakarma con-ducted the inspection.

The facilities installedare reserved parking, pick-up and drop spot, airportpublic announcement sys-tem and public announce-ment system in lift andBraille inscriptions, textilecover ramp among others.The team after scrutiny offacilities appreciated the air-port management for ensur-ing conveniences which canhelp the differently abled(blind) persons to use theairport independently,besides travelling with ease.

Raipur airport becomes differently-abled friendly Samprit Sharma gets `1 lakhscholarship from AITA, Delhi

Cong spokesperson seeks legal action over‘undue’ appointment of Jageshwari Bisen

CGPCC executivebody’s meet on Saturday

Higher MSP for paddy can killmarket, says agriculture expert

“There is a need to giveattention ontechnology, makingproduce marketdriven and openmarket for competition,so that farmers can get

higher price thanthe MSP”

Captured wild tuskerGanesha ‘breaks free’

File Photo

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The owner of a printingpress was booked and an

official of the HoshiarpurDistr ict Elect ion Off ice(DEO) suspended onThursday for putting the pic-ture of a 2012 Delhi gang-rapeconvict on a hoarding whichencouraged people to vote.

Departmental action wasinit iated against RajanMonga, incharge of theSystematic Voters' Educationand Electoral Participation(SVEEP), an of f icialspokesman said. KarnailSingh, an election tehsildar,was suspended and Tajinder Singh of AnandSignways Printing Pressbooked for putting the pictureon the hoarding, thespokesman said.

Deputy Commissioner-

cum-District Election OfficerIsha Kalia on Wednesday saidthat she had handed over theinvestigation to AdditionalDeputy CommissionerHarpreet Singh Sudan afterthe matter was brought to hernotice.

The Punjab State ElectionCommission also had rec-ommended police actionagainst the printing pressowner after the picture ofMukesh Singh featured on theflex hoarding.

The printing press andthe officers concerned of theElection Department did notcheck whose photo was print-ed on it, officials said.

On Monday, the DelhiCommission for Women(DCW) had issued a notice tothe Election Commissionover the hoarding. The EChad then sought a report

from the chief electoral offi-cer of Punjab.

On December 16, 2012,six men assaulted and rapeda 23-year-old paramedic stu-dent in a moving bus in Delhiand a fortnight later, she didin a Singapore hospital.

The victim's mother hadapprised DCW chief SwatiMaliwal of the matter, sayinga picture was being circulat-ed on social media whereinMukhesh Singh's photographwas displayed on officialhoardings in Punjab.

Terming it the attack"most brutal, barbaric anddiabolical", the SupremeCourt in 2017, upheld thedeath sentence for four menconvicted of the savage rapeand murder of the youngwoman who came to beknown by an outraged nationas "Nirbhaya", the fearless.

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The northern states ofPunjab, Har yana,

Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Delhi, Jammuand Kashmir and the Unionterritory of Chandigarh onThursday decided to set up ajoint working group, involvingofficials of their respectiveHealth and Social JusticeDepartments to share experi-ences and best practices intheir respective campaignsagainst drugs.

Terming drugs a nationalproblem during the secondjoint conference of ChiefMinisters of the northernstates, the states expressedconcern over the inflow ofdrugs from Pakistan,

Afghanistan, Nigeria andother countries, while callingfor closer collaboration tobattle the menace and makethe region ‘Nasha Mukt’(drug-free).

The Chief Ministers ofPunjab, Rajasthan, Haryana,Himachal Pradesh andUttarakhand, joined by topofficials from Delhi, J&K andChandigarh, agreed on aseries of powerful measures toeradicate the drugs scourgefrom the region includingjoint operations at the inter-state borders, informationsharing and implementationof the best practices of theparticipating states.

There was consensusamong the states on theimportance of strengtheningthe information sharing

mechanism on drugs anddrug dealers or smugglers,for a more effective crack-down against them.

It was also agreed that allthe states would launch majorawareness programs and striveto make eradication of drugsa peoples’ movement.

The conference recog-nised drugs as a nationalproblem, requiring collectiveefforts of all the states for itssuccessful eradication. It pro-posed, therefore, to jointlypress the Central Governmentto come out with a NationalDrugs Policy in order to effec-tively tackle the menace.

It agreed to consideropening of a RegionalTraining Centre for Trainingof Investigators for properinvestigation of NDPS cases at

Chandigarh.The states also agreed to

take up with the CentralGovernment a proposal toestablish a Regional DrugDependence TreatmentCentre in Chandigarh Tricityarea, on the lines of NationalDrug Dependence TreatmentCentre (NDDTC) AIIMS,New Delhi.

“We believe that theseefforts will go a long way ineradicating this scourge fromthe region, thus protectingour youth and our future gen-erations, and ensuring a safe,secure and healthy society,”read the joint statement.

The states further saidthat they were committed to“continuing and strengtheningthe process of consultationand cooperation, to collabo-

rate even more closely andactively for making the region‘Nasha Mukt’.”

The conference, whichopened with Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh suggesting some toughmeasures to tackle the prob-lem, was attended by officialsof IB, NCB and other centralagencies.

Underscoring the growingthreat from ISI’s narco ter-rorism game-plan, CaptAmarinder said that themoney from the drug tradewas being used by Pakistan tocarry on its nefarious anddivisive activities in India.“ISIis trying to play on the sym-pathies of the Sikhs throughsteps like the Kartarpur

Corridor while, at the sametime, trying to destabilisePunjab by backing SFJ’sReferendum 2020,” he saidwhile adding that ISI contin-ued to back terror groups,with Pak factor y-madegrenades found to have beenused for terror activities inPunjab.

Describing the conferenceas a red letter-day for mutualcooperation among the states,the Chief Minister, however,called for closer examinationof laws like MCOCA beforeimplementing them in otherstates as they had a lot ofscope for misuse. He, howev-er, agreed on the need to fur-ther strengthen the NDPSAct.

Haryana Chief MinisterML Khattar called for a com-prehensive joint programmeto tackle the problem of drugs,which he described as a socialrather than a political issue.

He stressed the need tocut off drugs supply to preventyouth from getting addicted,and also advocated an inter-state cell phone base of livedata of absconding offendersand to keep track of dealersand their associates.

Khattar also underlinedthe need to strengthen inves-tigations to prevent acquittalof offenders and suggestedstringent laws and trainingprogrammes for investigators.“Haryana is all set to enactHCOCA (Haryana Controlof Organised Crime Act) toprevent organized crime, onthe lines of POCA,” he said.

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot said that hisstate was at the receiving endof drug smuggling due to itsshared border with Pakistan.

Supporting CaptAmarinder’s demand for aNational Drugs Policy, hecalled for strong steps todestroy the parallel economybeing run by drug smugglers.

Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Jairam Thakur alsocalled for a policy or plan tofurther strengthen the effortsof the northern states, with apublic movement to createawareness and reverse thetrend.

He appreciated Punjab’s

‘Buddy Programme’ sayingthat his government will try toreplicate it in his state.

Thakur said thatHimachal was considering alegislation on lines of HCOCAand MCOCA to tackle drugs.“In continuation of the deci-sions taken at the first con-ference, all the participatingstates will post their officersfor coordination, at the com-mon secretariat being set upfor the purpose in Panchkula,by August 15,” he said.

Uttarakhand ChiefMinister Trivendra SinghRawat was of the opinion thatthe awareness campaignagainst drugs should be madea part of school education,especially in view of the grow-ing use of women and chil-dren as couriers.

Punjab DGP DinkarGupta said that Attari borderwas being used actively tosmuggle drugs that go to allstates, and called for properinfrastructure, with full truckbody scanners and canineunits, to check the same.

He mooted creation of aseparate central agency onlyfor drugs, on the lines ofNIA, to probe national andinternational links of drugsmugglers, or alternatively thestrengthening of the investi-gation wing of NCB.

It was announced thatHimachal Pradesh will hostthe next regional conferenceon drugs in Shimla early next year.

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Haryana Control ofOrganised Crime Act

(HRCOCA) will soon be enact-ed by the State on the patternof Maharashtra Control ofOrganised Crime Act(MCOCA) to tighten noosearound those involved in theorganized crime, gangsterismand drugs smuggling, HaryanaChief Minister Manohar Lal

Khattar said on THursday. Addressing the second

regional conference on DrugMenace Challenges andStrategies, here, he urged all thenorthern states to work togeth-er by rising above the consid-eration of border and bound-aries for the eradication of thismenace from the society.

The Chief Minister saidthat multi-level arrangementshould be made to resolve the

problem of youth whether it ispersonal problem, family orany other problem that plungethem into habit of drugs.Besides keeping a check on thesupply of intoxicants, effortsshould be made to crackdownthe supply chain. For this,there should be a commondatabase of smugglers ortraders as lot of money isinvolved in this business whichworks as a regulator for the ter-

rorists group of countries likeAfghanistan and Pakistan. Insome cases, the State Police hasalso arrested few Nigerians inGurugram who were foundinvolved in drug smuggling, headded.

While emphasising theneed of data sharing betweenthe northern states, Khattarsaid that live data of criminalsshould be prepared and madeavailable to the States so as to

take effective action againstthem. He also expressed con-cern that the arrested accusedare usually released fromCourts due to lack of properinvestigation. To ensure thatthey do not let off easily, spe-cial training should be provid-ed to the investigating officers,said the Chief Minister addingthat Haryana has already start-ed training programme forthese officers in the State.

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Far away from the politicalwar of words and instigat-

ing statements by some politi-cians, Haridwar is presentinga picture of Hindu- Muslimunity during the KanwadMela. Members of the Muslimcommunity here have set upa Kanwad camp near Lal

Mandir where they are dis-tr ibuting fruits and bottled water among theKanwadias.

Members of the Muslimcommunity said that dozensof families from the commu-nity are enganged in makingand selling the Kanwads atJwalapur.

Rao Afaq Ali of Jwalapur

said, "Some political leadersmake biased statements toseek attention but their inten-tions to split us will not besuccessful. We have been liv-ing with the Hindu commu-nity members peacefully andwill continue doing so.”Another Muslim, Afzad saidthat they all were doing thework of Lord Shiva..

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Lightning strikes claimed atleast 31 lives in Jharkhand

in the past three days, takingthe death toll to 46 in less thana month, police said onThursday.

At least 21 people died afterbeing struck by lightning sinceTuesday night and six of them,including two minors, werefrom Jamtara. Lightning struckfive of them while they werereturning after bathing in apond and took shelter under abridge during rains inKushmapahadi block ofJamtara, Circle OfficerChandradev Prasad said. A60-year-old woman also dieddue to lightning strike here, he

added.Besides, lightning claimed

lives of two villagers in each ofRamgarh, Dumka, Pakur,Giridih, Garhwa and Gumladistricts, Officer In-Charge ofthe concerned police stationstold the media. One deatheach was reported fromPalamu, Bokaro and Deoghardistricts, police said.

Earlier this month, at leastfive deaths were reported fromLatehar, four from Chatra andone from Garhwa. Besides thedeceased, at least a dozen peo-ple are undergoing treatmentsat various Government hospi-tals after sustaining injuriescaused by lightning strikes,sources said.

The State DisasterManagement Authority(SDMA) has already disbursedfunds to all the districts for pay-ment to the families of thedeceased and those sufferingfrom injuries. “We have dis-bursed funds to the districts inadvance. The concernedDeputy Commissioner cansend the compensation amountto the families of the deceasedand also use it for treatment ofpeople injured in lightningstrikes,” said Manish Tiwari,Joint Secretary of SDMA.

Tiwari added that theSDMA was working on sever-al new projects that may helpprevent deaths caused by light-ning. Some of the projects, hesaid, may get launched withina month or so.

Lightning has beendeclared a natural disaster inJharkhand. The Governmentpays a compensation of Rs.4lakh to the family of peoplewho die in lightning strikeshere.

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Padma Shri ace archerDeepika Kumari has

resigned from Tata Steel end-ing her association with thecompany from 11 years.Deepika, the only Indianwoman in the list of top tenworld archers, will now joinBharat Petroleum CorporationLimited (BPCL) at Pune fromAugust this year.

Interacting with media atJRD Tata sports complex onThursday afternoon, theArjuna Award winner ( 2012)thanked Tata Steel for the con-tinuous support. She joinedTata Archery Academy in 2008and had sets many records inher name.

Expressing her happinessover her association with TataSteel she said that she spent herlife at the company like a fam-ily and each one supported her.

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Effectively addressing thechallenge posed by Iran

and ensuring freedom of nav-igation in the Persian Gulf andthe Strait of Hormuz are someof the top priorities identifiedby new US Defense SecretaryMark Esper.

“One is maintaining free-dom of navigation in the Strait-- of course, the Persian Gulfand the Gulf of Oman -- andthen, secondly, is deterringprovocative actions from Iran,”Esper told reporters at thePentagon on his first workingday as Defense Secretary.

Esper was confirmed by theUS Senate on Tuesday andsworn-in as the Pentagon chiefby President Trump later in theevening. He replaces Gen. (retd)Jim Mattis, who resigned last

year. The post had been lyingvacant for last seven months.

A former executive fromRaytheon, Esper (55) is travel-ling to the CENTCOM head-quarters in Florida next week.The US, he said would becoordinating with theEuropeans in the region.

“It's all sending the samemessages we are trying to send.That is freedom of navigationand no provocative acts in theStrait, and we have seenprovocative acts obviously in thelast, what, week or two since thefirst shoot down of our drone,”he said in response to a question.

Most countries transitingthrough the Strait, he observed,should have an interest in free-dom of navigation and shouldwant to participate and providesome type of forces to ensurenavigation of the Strait, free-

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Iran's seizure and continueddetention of a UK-flagged

tanker deals Boris Johnson animmediate loyalty test: Britain'snew Prime Minister may have tochoose between Gulf escorts ledby Europe or the United States.

Which way Johnson leanscould set the tone for a complexagenda that includes with-drawing from the EU, strikinga trade deal with the US, andmaintaining or breakingEuropean efforts to keep alivethe deal curbing Iran's nuclearambitions.

Some US commentatorssee this is a make-or-breakmoment for Europe's policy onIran as a whole.

“Johnson could simplyannounce that the UK is join-ing America's maximum-pres-sure campaign and calls for anew (Iran nuclear) deal,” theeditorial board of The WallStreet Journal wrote.

“The rest of Europe wouldlikely have no choice but to joinits Anglophone partners -- andfinally present a united front.”

The idea of a European-led

mission in the Gulf is carriedover from a meeting chaired byJohnson's predecessor TheresaMay this week.

Britain has proposed thatFrance, Germany and otherEuropean partnerjoin togetherin a “naval protection mission”to ensure commercial shipscan safely navigate in the Gulf.

But such an operationwould expose Britain's contin-ued reliance on EU allies at thevery same time that Johnson isdetermined to yank his coun-try out of the bloc on October31, “no ifs or buts”.

As an alternative, Johnsoncould instead sign Britain up toa US-led alliance outlined byDonald Trump's administra-tion at NATO last month.

That decision could boostLondon's chances of revivingstalled efforts to strike a post-Brexit trade deal withWashington, but carries therisk that British warshipscould be caught up in moreaggressive US rules of engage-ment.

Both Johnson and Trumpplayed up their friendship dur-ing the British leadership race.

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Vienna: The InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA)on Thursday chose Romaniandiplomat Cornel Feruta as itsacting director-general toreplace Yukiya Amano, whodied last week.

“In order to ensure theorderly and smooth function-ing of the Agency, the Board ofGovernors has decided to des-ignate Mr Cornel Feruta as act-ing Director General,” the UNnuclear watchdog said in astatement released after a boardmeeting.

The race to succeedAmano on a permanent basiswill be particularly keenlywatched given heightenedinternational tensions overIran's nuclear activities.

The agency is currently con-fronted with the unravelling ofthe 2015 nuclear accord withIran, which began whenPresident Trump unilaterallypulled the United States out of theagreement in May 2018. AFP

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At least 10 people — includ-ing several women and a

child — were killed and scoresmore wounded by a series ofblasts that rocked the Afghancapital Thursday ahead of theelection season.

The three blasts came amida wider surge in violence inKabul and around Afghanistan,where nine family memberswere killed in an easternprovince Thursday while dri-ving to a wedding.

The ISIS group'sAfghanistan affiliate claimedresponsibility for the first twoblasts, while the Talibanclaimed the third. US andAfghan security officials, how-ever, blamed the Taliban for allthree explosions.

The attacks came just daysbefore the official campaign sea-son for the September 28 presi-dential election gets underway.Previous polls have been marredby violence and bloodshed fromthe Taliban and other insurgentgroups who refuse to recogniseAfghanistan's fragile democracy.

According to security offi-cials and high-resolution sur-

veillance footage seen by AFP,the first blast came around 8:10am (0340 GMT) when a sui-cide bomber targeted a bus asit slowed to turn a corner in anarea just east of central Kabul.

Civilians could be seenscrambling to help strickenpassengers off the bus and car-rying the body of a small childfrom the vehicle as smokepoured out the rear window.Other bodies could be seenpooling blood onto the road.

About 30 minutes later, asecondary explosion from adevice that had been hidden atthe scene hit civilians andAfghan security forces as theyresponded.

A third blast, apparentlytargeting some sort of convoy,came later on in the morningalso in eastern Kabul.

Interior ministryspokesman Nasrat Rahimi saida total of 11 civilians were killed,including five women and achild, and 45 more wounded.

Health ministryspokesman Wahidullah Mayarsaid the toll was at least 10 deadand 41 wounded.

The attacks come as the USis negotiating for a deal that

would see foreign forces pullout of Afghanistan in return fora ceasefire and various Talibanguarantees, including a pledgethe country will not become asafe haven for terror groups.

Some observers say theinsurgents are increasingattacks to gain greaer leveragein the talks.

Despite the claim from ISfor the first two blasts, Afghanand US security officialsblamed the attack on theTaliban, saying the insurgentshad distanced themselves fromthe bloodshed once theyrealised how many civilianswere killed.

“Over the past month, wehave seen increased numbers ofcivilian casualties. (TheTaliban) are not targeting coali-tion forces, they are injuringinnocent Afghans,” saidColonel Sonny Leggett,spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan.

The Afghan war is takinga brutal toll on civilians evenamid this push for peace.According to NATO, theTaliban has caused 1,075 casu-alties since April 11, the start ofthis year's fighting season.

��$%��&�'�� (�'�� London: Boris Johnson

promised British lawmakersthat he will work “flat out” tomeet the October 31 Brexitdeadline and called on Brusselsto rethink its opposition torenegotiate a more acceptabledeal in his first speech as PrimeMinister in the House ofCommons on Thursday.

Johnson, who took overfrom Theresa May after a lead-ership election fought on the basisof getting Brexit done – with orwithout a deal, reaffirmed hisstance on striking a better dealwith the European Union (EU)within 98 days' time.

“Our mission is to deliverBrexit on the 31st of Octoberfor the purpose of uniting andre-energising our great UnitedKingdom and making thiscountry the greatest place onearth… I will work flat out tomake it happen,” Johnson said,delivering a parliamentarystatement in his characteristicexuberant style.

“There is every chance thatin 2050, when I fully intend tobe around, though not neces-sarily in this job, we will lookback on this period, this extra-ordinary period, as the begin-ning of a new golden age forour United Kingdom,” he said.

While Brexit was at theheart of Johnson's firstParliament address, he tookquestions from MPs on a rangeof subjects and pledged extrapolice on the streets, invest-ment in education and health-care. On the sticky issue ofimmigration, he confirmedthat he will be launching a rad-ical review of the visa system tointroduce an Australian-stylepoints-based system.

“No-one believes morestrongly than me in the bene-fits of migration to our coun-try. But I am clear that ourimmigration system mustchange. For years, politicianshave promised the public anAustralian-style points basedsystem…I will ask theMigration AdvisoryCommittee to conduct a reviewof that system as the first stepin a radical rewriting of ourimmigration system,” he said.

But the bulk of his first par-liamentary address wasfocussed on Brexit, including acategorical stand against thecontroversial Irish backstop –which has deeply divided allsides of the Commons.

“The WithdrawalAgreement negotiated by mypredecessor has been three

times rejected by this House. Itsterms are unacceptable to thisParliament and to this coun-try…If an agreement is to bereached it must be clearlyunderstood that the way to thedeal goes by way of the abolitionof the backstop,” he said,addressing the most controver-sial aspect of May's Brexit agree-ment which led to its repeateddefeat in Parliament and ulti-mately ended her premiership.

In a clear message to Brusselsto return to the negotiating table,the new Prime Minister said histeam was ready to negotiate analternative in good faith, withprovisions to ensure that the Irishborder issues are dealt with in thenegotiations on the future agree-ment between the UK and theEU.

“For our part, we willthrow ourselves into thesenegotiations with the greatestenergy and determination andin the spirit of friendship. AndI hope that the EU will beequally ready and that they willrethink their current refusal tomake any changes to theWithdrawal Agreement,” hesaid, renewing his warning ofbeing ready to leave the 28-member economic bloc with-out a deal in place.

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Islamabad: Pakistan onThursday announced that it willsend its first astronaut to spacein 2022 using close ally China'ssatellite launch facilities.

Pakistan's decision came asIndia on Monday successfullylaunched its second lunar mis-sion Chandrayaan-2.

Fawad Chaudhry, Ministerfor Science and Technology,said the selection process of theastronaut for the space missionwould start from February 2020.

“Proud to announce thatselection process for the firstPakistani to be sent to Spaceshall begin from February2020. Fifty people will be shortlisted. The list will then comedown to 25 and in 2022 we willsend our first person to space.This will be the biggest spaceevent of our country,”Chaudhry said in a tweet.

Chaudhry said thePakistani Air Force will play alead role in the selectionprocess of the astronaut for the

space mission.“The Air force will be the

custodian of the selectionprocess. Globally pilots areselected for space missions,” hewas quoted as saying by theDawn News website. He saidthat initially 50 pilots will beselected, from which the listwill be brought down to 25 andthen 10.

“Ten pilots will be trainedand eventually one pilot will besent to space,” he said.

Last year, Pakistanlaunched two indigenously-built satellites into the orbit,using a Chinese launch vehicle.

The satellites werelaunched onboard the ChineseLong March (LM-2C) rocketfrom the Jiuquan SatelliteLaunch Centre located at theGobi desert, China, TheExpress Tribune reported.

One of them was a remotesensing satellite (PRSS1) – adual-purpose Earth observa-tional and optical satellite.PTI

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Tunisian President Beji CaidEssebsi, the North African

country's first democraticallyelected leader, died Thursday atthe age of 92, his office said.

The veteran politician, theoldest head of state afterBritain's Queen Elizabeth II,came to power in 2014, threeyears after the Arab Springuprising toppled longtimedespot Zine El Abidine Ben Aliand sparked revolts in severalArab nations.

He had been hospitalisedwith a severe illness in late Juneand was returned to intensivecare on Thursday.

Hanoi: Vietnam on Thursdaycalled for the “immediate with-drawal” of a Chinese ship in theSouth China Sea, as the stand-off over the disputed watersintensified.

Beijing last week issued anew call for Hanoi to respect itsclaims to the resource-richregion -- which have histori-cally been contested byVietnam as well as Taiwan, thePhilippines, Malaysia andBrunei.

Hanoi responded by sayingit had sent several messages toBeijing insisting that a Chinesesurvey ship vacate its waters,and doubled down Thursdaywith new demands for the ves-sel's removal.

“Vietnam has had severalappropriate diplomaticexchanges... Requesting imme-diate withdrawal from

Vietnam's exclusive economiczone,” a foreign ministryspokeswoman told reporters,while refusing to disclose theship's precise location.

“Vietnam resolutely andpersistently protects our sov-ereign rights... By peacefulmeans on the basis of interna-tional laws,” Le Thi Thu Hangadded.

The ship, owned by thegovernment-run ChinaGeological Survey, begunresearch around the contestedSpratly Islands on July 3,according to the US-basedCenter for Strategic andInternational Studies (CSIS).

Before it was spotted, aChinese coast guard vesselalso patrol led nearVietnamese supply ships in a“threatening manner”, CSISsaid. AFP

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Even as the draft NationalEducation Policy (NEP), 2019has proposed that the currentname of the Ministry of HumanResource Development be

changed to the Ministry of Education, itwas heartening to see that allocations forthe education sector saw a substantialraise in the Budget presented by Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman. Also, the emphasis onresearch and institutions of excellence willensure that our universities are able tomake significant contributions and in theprocess come up to the level of IndianInstitutes of Technology (IITs) and theIndian Institute of Science. But what isworrisome is the very basic aspect ofschool education.

It is quite a paradoxical situation thatdespite a growth in the number of mobilephones and its reach and penetration —both indicative of the levels of awareness— the percentage of school dropouts hashardly diminished; the national averagebeing in the neighbourhood of about 18per cent. While India has been countingon its demographic dividend and think-ing in terms of channelising youth ener-gy in national reconstruction, the currentstate of education at the school level doesnot augur well.

One does not need much of an elab-oration to understand that the founda-tions of a promising youth are essential-ly laid in the schools. In this context,much was expected of the draft NEP butas far as school education is concerned,it does not hold much promise.

To begin with, the main thrust of thevision statement is on an India-centrededucation system, contributing towardstransformation of our nation sustainablyinto an equitable and a vibrant knowledgesociety. Being India-centric is fine but theemphasis on children and youth is miss-ing from what should be a holistic vision.Let us not forget that it is they who haveto grow in the next 10-15 years and takethe nation ahead.

Earlier, the logic behind the enact-ment of the Right to Education (RTE) wasthat it was getting stratified into specif-ic social segments and for various reasons,a large proportion of girls and otherdeprived sections of society were beingleft out. A correlation of sorts was alsofound between poverty and illiteracy.According to official estimates of 2004-05, the number of poor was almost sim-ilar to the number of illiterates (300 mil-lion) in the country. This enactment wassupposed to benefit all sections of soci-ety but after the introduction of RTE, thesystem came under a severe strain andthough some earlier aberrations have nowbeen addressed, even the NEP falls shortof expectations in this regard; though areview has been recommended.

One of the major flawswhich was rectified earlierthis year was through anamendment to the RTE,which was notified in March2019. The Act was amended toprovide for regular examina-tion in Class V and VIII at theend of every academic year.

A provision for addition-al instructions and opportuni-ty for re-examination withina period of two months wasalso made. A specific provi-sion for detention in case of afailure was made but an expul-sion from the school till thecompletion of the elemen-tary education was prohibited.

A study commissioned bythe Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaanfound that actual teaching inthe classroom in some of theStates did not exceed morethan half-an-hour a day. Theactual attendance of studentsin classrooms in such Stateshad been registering an alarm-ing fall. High absentee rates ofteachers often contributedtowards absenteeism of students.

The problem only appearsto have got aggravated afterthe RTE stipulated norms forbasic infrastructure and facil-ities besides the teacher pupilratio. They were found diffi-cult for implementation. The

suggestions in the NEP onsharing of resources amongcluster of schools in respect oflibraries, IT and other labora-tories, music and sports facil-ities and some non-core teach-ers, would have very limitedpracticability and that, too,possibly only in certain urbanareas where commuting isnot a problem.

Considering that the NEPaims to achieve a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:25, sharing ofteachers may end up only asan exercise on paper. Evensimple hiring of more perma-nent teachers may not solvethe problem entirely as thereis a pronounced tendency tohand over the class to another teacher.

On the other hand, it hasbeen observed that the fre-quency of inspections bysenior education officers isstrongly co-related with low-ering of the absentee rate.Research has shown that reg-ular inspections may be manytimes more cost-effective thanhiring additional teachers.Such inspections by seniorswould be even better thanproposed parental or commu-nity-level monitoring.

In fact, such community-level monitoring should gohand-in-hand with regular

inspections.With all the emphasis on

better pedagogy and teacherpupil ratio, there would still bepitfalls as the latter would bedifficult to achieve. Studieshave shown that performance-linked pay incentives canimprove the quality of learn-ing as well as performance ofstudents, particularly in theareas of Mathematics and lan-guages. Such an incentive, tocurb absenteeism, can also belinked to the number of hoursactually spent on teaching.

While this comprehen-sive draft policy appears to bevery ambitious on paper, itssuccess would entirely dependon the actual implementa-tion of the plans with fullcooperation from States asalso the avai labi l ity offinances.

It has been proposed thatinvestment in education —both at the Central and Statelevel — would increase by 20per cent over a 10-year peri-od. Considering the financialconstraints, which is beingfaced by almost all States,this appears to be a very dif-ficult proposition.

(The writer is a retiredDelhi Police Commissionerand former UttarakhandGovernor)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Another regime change” (July25). The long-drawn suspensethriller in Karnataka’s politicaltheatre finally ended yesterdaywith BJP State president BSYeddyurappa having the last laughin the trust vote that he won 105to 99. There was not an iota ofdoubt that the KumaraswamyGovernment would ultimately fall.Leaders of the beleaguered JanataDal (Secular)-Congress coalitiondesperately attempted to persuadethe rebels to return while the lat-ter had no intention to do so.

But then, the collapse of thecoalition Government does notput an end to uncertainty. Thecoming months are not going tobe a smooth sail for the State andits people. After resignations areaccepted, Karnataka will witnessbypolls in 16 constituencies.Results of these can furthercomplicate matters in theAssembly where the BJP cur-rently has 105 MLAs in itsfavour. In full strength, aGovernment will need the sup-port of 113 MLAs to survive.

JS Acharya Hyderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Trumping policy” (July 24).Prime Minister Narendra Modihas not been alone in drawingflak at home over US PresidentDonald Trump’s claim that theformer had asked the latter tomediate on Kashmir. President

Trump, too, has drawn criticismat home for his comment, wide-ly perceived as jeopardising USrelations with an important ally,particularly in the context ofAmerica’s strategy of containingChina.

Both the US and India scram-bled to play down Trump’s claim.But the two principal protagonistsdid little to clear the air. If Prime

Minister Modi remained silentand deputed Foreign Minister SJaishankar to emphatically andrepeatedly deny that such a con-versation took place with the USPresident, a top aide to Trumpvouched for the credibility of hisboss.

While Pakistan might wel-come US mediation, frankly thereis no urgency to talk to the rogue

state. Our stand that talks underthe threat of terrorism are not fea-sible is perfectly viable. There isnever any urgency to talk to aneighbour who does not believein behaving like a neighbour.

Padmini Raghavaendra Secunderabad

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Sir — The collapse of theKarnataka Government was verymuch on predicted lines. TheCongress and the Janata Dal(Secular) were arch rivals. Theycame together with the singleagenda of keeping the BJP awayfrom power. Meanwhile,Karnataka always had the misfor-tune of not having the sameparty Government at the Centreand the State. This led to it beinggiven the step-motherly treat-ment. Now that the BJPGovernment is the ruling partyand may also form theGovernment in Karnataka, it is tobe hoped that people in thisState will heave a sigh of relief.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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The effects of climate change are nolonger knocking at our doors but haveentered our homes, unsettling normal life

and particularly destroying planet earth’s veryfibre and fabric of life — natural resources. Withheat wave conditions ravaging north and west-ern parts of the country, maximum tempera-tures went as high as 48°C in the national cap-ital. Churu in Rajasthan saw temperatures soar-ing to 50°C in June. Breaking its previous recordof 50.2°C recorded in May 2016, this year thedesert city recorded temperatures as high as50.8°C.

In fact, it has become an annual affair forseveral parts of the country to experience thesummer crisis of rising temperatures, whichbrings along with it drought and severe waterscarcity problems. This year, India experiencedits worst monsoon since 2014 with only 17 percent of the districts receiving excess rainwhile 51 per cent was deficient in showers, ason July 17. The southwest monsoon, which hashad an erratic run this year, is now making upfor the losses. It is now covering the length andbreath of the country — running 10-15 daysbehind schedule. Overall, India had a deficit of19 per cent rainfall as on July 23 with north-west, central and peninsular India, each record-ing 21 per cent deficiency.

The vagaries of climate change are there forall to see throughout the year. While inChennai, locals were praying for some rain, onthe other hand, Mumbaikars were reelingunder a deluge. Other weather-related eventssuch as floods and cyclones, too, have becomea yearly phenomenon. The frequency andseverity of these calamities is increasing.

A late start to the monsoon and deficientrainfall this year have both impacted the farmsector. This has led to delayed sowing of cropssuch as rice, soybean and corn. As of June 14,farmers had planted kharif crops across 8.22million hectares, down nine per cent from theyear-ago figure, according to data from theAgriculture Ministry. The problem is furthercomplicated by the fact that most such cropshave limited sowing period. Besides havingimmediate impact and long-term effect on thefarm economy, extreme events like droughts,floods and landslides result in the loss of livesand cause great financial hardship to individ-uals and communities.

India is among those countries that aremost vulnerable to climate change. Many fac-tors, both natural and human, have made thefight against climate change more real, be it themelting of the Himalayan glaciers, the deple-tion of the ozone layer and erratic monsoon.

Many countries around the world, especial-ly in Europe, have adopted a “wartime footing”strategy to address the existential threat of cli-mate change. The French National Assemblyrecently declared a “climate emergency.” TheBritain Parliament was the first in the world todo so. Others like Australia and Ireland fol-lowed suit.

The very purpose of “climate emergency”is to take radical steps to obtain “zero carbonemission” by 2050 by way of taking short andlong-term steps towards mobilisation ofresources so as to prevent deterioration of the

environment. So far, over 740 localGovernments in 16 countries havedeclared a “climate emergency.”

Last year, the UN had warned thatwe have just 12 years left to limit theclimate change catastrophe. In view ofthe lurking danger, let us examine theseriousness of the climate threat sothat it does not undermine our effortstowards the ultimate goal of endingpoverty. As far as India’s commitmentto the Paris deal is concerned, it is wellon the trajectory to achieve two of itsthree commitments. India hadpromised to reduce its emissionsintensity — greenhouse gas emissionsper unit of GDP — by 33 to 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. It hadalso promised to ensure that at least40 per cent of its energy in 2030 wouldbe generated from non-fossil fuelsources, like solar, wind or bio-fuels.In addition, it had said it wouldrapidly increase its forest cover so thatan additional carbon sink equivalentto 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbondioxide is created by the year 2030.

However, India had asserted thatits achievements will depend on theinternational financial and technolo-gy transfer as well as capacity-build-ing support from the developednations. During the Katowice ClimateChange conference, India asserted thatit is well on course in achieving itsParis commitments.

All said and done, at the interna-tional level, our planners have tobrush up for just glib-talking to tak-ing action on war footing. Rising tem-peratures, erratic monsoon as also nat-ural calamities such as storms and

cyclones cannot be handled by routinemeasures. India’s small industrial townof Aurangabad made headlines in2010 when it ordered 150 MercedesBenz cars at one go worth ��crore.This year, too, it was in the news foran unprecedented demand of watertanks during May and June. Prosperityand material wealth are of no use ifpeople do not get access to basic drink-ing water services. In Uttarakhand,people from hilly areas are migratingtowards plain districts due the lack ofsub-surface drinking water.

The country, therefore, needs totake radical steps to identify locations,which can be declared as areas of “cli-mate emergency.” Take the case of theDelhi-NCR region, which along withthe many climate change-related prob-lems battle other issues like pollutionand straw burning, is a fit case to bedeclared as a “climate emergency” zone.Air quality remains poor, the Yamunariver stretch remains highly polluted andnow the capital city is also witnessinga rise in average ozone levels.

The Modi 2.0 Government recent-ly formed the “Jal Shakti” Ministryand launched a countrywide waterconservation scheme focussing on 256districts with the lowest availability ofgroundwater. To tackle climatechange, a climate action strategy isneeded. First, a list of “climate emer-gency” hotspots must be prepared forfocussed implementation of pro-grammes on climate change.

Second, on the policy front, oneimportant decision that has beencausing severe pressure on resourcesis population explosion. Unless

focussed attempts are made to controlthe demographic dividend, goals suchas poverty eradication, developmen-tal as well as climate mitigation willremain a pipedream. Population con-trol, therefore, is at the core of climatechange mitigation programmes. It’shigh time to formulate a legislation tocontrol population after broad polit-ical consensus.

Third, water management shouldfocus on river basin treatment,drought and flash floods. All watermanagement programmes must helpregulate and tap precipitation and runoff and channel it to recharge theaquifer, village ponds and lakes. Eachdrop of water must be conserved. Aresearch conducted by the CentralWater Commission and the IndianSpace Research Organisation, whichwas kept under wraps since 2017 butreleased recently argued that Indiamay be stressed for water, but it doesnot suffer from water scarcity.

Fourth, keep forest fires undercontrol. On this front, StateGovernments pay mere lip service.Forest fires are low killers of water, soiland forests and must be declared as anational emergency.

In a nutshell, we need to face thedaunting task of keeping climatechange under control with innovativeliving. And for this, the status quo-istmindset must go. Is the environmentministry prepared to tackle climatechange emergency? Does it have suf-ficient funds, qualified man power andtools to tackle it?

(The writer is a former civil servant)

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In Bihar, a State where many girlsare married early — some as soonas they step into their first year of

puberty — having children quickly isnot surprising or unexpected. The girlsare caught in an unfortunate bindwhere social and cultural circum-stances compel them to marry earlyand prove their fertility immediately.More often than not, they have a fewchildren in quick succession.

Reena Devi of Pariauna village, Nalanda district in Bihar, had herfirst child within a year of her mar-riage. Unfortunately, her son died ofjaundice soon after. She had her sec-ond child 10 months later. Ignorantabout the consequences of quickpregnancies on her health, Reena was

also unaware that she could controlher fertility by planning her family.

According to the 2011 census,girls marry young in Nalanda dis-trict, many of them below the legalage of marriage. Lack of information,coupled with early marriage andpregnancy, have contributed to ahigh Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 3.9for the district. TFR indicates theaverage number of children expect-ed to be born per woman during herentire reproductive span (15-49years). Much of this stems from thefact that Bihar has the highest per-centage of illiterate women at 26.8per cent and also continues to top thecountry as far as illiteracy levels areconcerned with a TFR of 3.2.

In fact, fertility for women likeReena begins too young, with toomany and is also too frequent.However, a new initiative pilotedsome years ago was expected tochange this situation. The Statehealth department launched familyplanning corners to provide postpar-tum contraceptive counselling. Thiswas after realising that even if cou-ples wanted to space their children,

public health centers were unable toprovide appropriate information orchoices to plan their family.

It was believed that in a societywhere women are reluctant to talkabout reproductive health, explainingthe right contraceptive choice for theyoung rural mother, especially afterthe birth of the first child, would makea big difference in slowing fertility.

Counselling is a crucial compo-nent in decision-making. If couples are

counselled and allowed to makeinformed choices based on the advan-tages and disadvantages of contracep-tives available, they will want familyplanning services, say experts.

Under this pilot project, theState health society set up two suchfamily planning corners at theNalanda Sadar hospital at BiharSharif and two primary health cen-ters (PHCs) at the block level inHarnaut and Noorsarai in partner-ship with an NGO working on fam-ily planning. These corners werewithin these Government facilitiesand were used by NGO counsellorsto disseminate family planning infor-mation and services, including post-partum contraceptives.

It took time but the family plan-ning corners began engaging couples.At the Noorsarai PHC, after the coun-sellor explained the importance of fam-ily planning to a new mother, it wasthe mother-in-law accompanying her,who took the responsibility of ensur-ing that the matter was discussed athome. This was a big opportunity forfamily planning corners. They wereable to ensure that the daughter-in-law

returned with her husband to learnhow to space the family.

Even at the Sadar hospital in BiharSharif, interest in family planninggrew. With the number of institution-al deliveries recording an increase here,the counselling desk became crucial,especially for postpartum contracep-tives. Since many women, who cameto the Sadar hospital for deliveries, hadlittle or no information about contra-ceptives, the active family planningcounsellor visits the maternity ward tointeract with the mothers. Here, sheidentifies women, who need familyplanning services, and then counselsthem on postpartum contraceptives aswell as on the basket of services avail-able. Ever since these centres were setup, the percentage of people accept-ing one of the family planning servicesoffered here rose from five per cent inthree months, indicating the increas-ing demand for services and the dif-ference counselling could make.

Clearly, there is a clear relation-ship between TFR and ContraceptivePrevalence Rate (CPR). Data hasshown that where there is very lowcontraceptive prevalence. Fertility is

very high as in States like Bihar. InStates like Tamil Nadu and AndhraPradesh, fertility is lower becausecontraceptive prevalence is muchhigher. There are thousands of cou-ples, who want to space their fami-lies, but do not have access to meansof family planning. More than one-fifth of the women in India report-ed that their last birth as unwanted.

In States like Bihar, unmet needis about 21.2 per cent. But only 11per cent of the health workers havetalked to women, who do not useany form of family planning. Sinceunmet contraceptive needs lead tounwanted fertility, an increasedinformed use of family planningmethods may lower total fertility sig-nificantly. So, an investment in fam-ily planning counselling corners isessential. This is not just becausescaling up the pilot project can helpIndia fulfill its pledge taken 25years ago at the InternationalConference on Population andDevelopment to give women repro-ductive choice, but because familyplanning is a woman’s right.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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Vellore (TN): Nalini Sriharan,one of the seven convicts in theRajiv Gandhi assassinationcase, was released from a prisonhere on Thursday on a 30-dayparole amid tight security tomake arrangements for herdaughter’s wedding.

Imprisoned since 1991,this is the first time Nalini willbe out on parole for 30 days.She had been out of on paroleearlier as well, but not for aperiod that extends to a month.

"She has been released onparole. The relief to her comeswith several conditions," aprison official told PTI.

As soon as Nalini, clad ina golden yellow saree, walkedout of the main gate of theSpecial Prison for Women here,she was escorted to a police vanand taken to the residence of apro-Tamil, Dravidian outfitleader at Rangapuram herewhere she will stay during herleave.

She was given an emotionalwelcome by her mother,

Padma, who performed a tra-ditional "arti" ritual.

In 2016, when Nalini'sfather, P Sankara Narayanan,died, she was granted emer-gency leave for 12 hours to par-ticipate in the funeral and later,allowed one day to take part inthe 16th day of post-death rit-uals.

In 2004, she was allowed togo for the wedding of herbrother, Bhagyanathan.

The 12-point conditions ofher parole include a bar on herfrom interacting with themedia, political parties or per-sonalities and an undertakingto keep good conduct and notdisrupt public peace.

The 30-day leave will notbe included in her total term ofimprisonment and she has alsoagreed to cancellation of leaveand return to prison in theevent of violation of any con-dition, the official said. Herlegal adviser, P Pugazhenthi,told PTI that the date of mar-riage of Nalini's daughter is

expected to be made known intwo weeks.

She has to remain inVellore district, 137 km fromChennai. She will also appear before the Sathuvacharypolice station daily and sign aregister, according to her legalcounsel.

Earlier this month, theMadras High Court had grant-ed her leave after she arguedher plea in person.

Nalini, lodged in theSpecial Prison for Women inVellore for over 27 years, hadsought a six-month leave tomake arrangements for herdaughter's marriage.

Besides Nalini, six others,including her husbandSriharan, alias Murugan, a SriLankan national, are servinglife imprisonment in the RajivGandhi assassination case.

The former prime ministerwas killed by an LTTE suicidebomber during an electionrally at Sriperumpudur nearhere on May 21, 1991. PTI

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Ahmedabad: The CBI onThursday informed a courthere that it will not challengethe discharge of former policeofficers DG Vanzara and NKAmin in the Ishrat Jahanalleged fake encounter case.

CBI lawyer RC Kodekarconveyed the decision in awritten submission before spe-cial CBI judge RK Chudawala.

The court scheduled fur-ther hearing for August 9.

On May 2, the CBI courtdischarged Vanzara and Aminin the case on the ground thatthe State Government had notgiven sanction for their prose-cution.

The court had noted thatunder section 197 of the Codeof Criminal Procedure,Government's sanction is nec-essary for the prosecution of apublic servant.

The remaining fouraccused policemen — GLSinghal, Tarun Barot, AnajuChaudhary and JG Parmar —are now likely to approach theCBI court seeking discharge,legal sources said.

Singhal, an IPS officer, iscurrently Inspector General ofthe Commando TrainingCentre in Gandhinagar.

Chaudhary, a commandoof State Reserve Police, is alsoin service, while Barot andParmar have retired.

Prior to Vanzara andAmin, the court had dischargedformer IPS officer PP Pandeyfrom the case.

Ishrat, a 19-year-old girlfrom Mumbra near Mumbai,Javed Shaikh alias PraneshPillai, Amjadali Akbarali Ranaand Zeeshan Johar were killedby Gujarat Police in an allegedencounter on the outskirts ofAhmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The police claimed theywere terrorists who were plan-ning to kill then Gujarat ChiefMinister Narendra Modi, whilethe CBI, which probed thecase on the high court's order,claimed that it was a fakeencounter. PTI

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Patna: Three Naxals were killed in anencounter with security forces in a forest areaof Bihar's Gaya district on Thursday, officialssaid.

The firefight took place around noonbetween the ultras and a joint team of theCRPF's CoBRA squad and district police in theChakarabandh area of the district, they said.

As the guns fell silent, the bodies of threeMaoists were found in the spot, the officialssaid, adding that seven guns, including an AK-47 and three INSAS rifles, and some impro-vised explosive devices (IEDs) were alsorecovered.

The Commando Battalion for ResoluteAction (CoBRA) led the operation, they said.The area is being thoroughly searched. PTI

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Jamui (Bihar): A man was beaten to death in Jamuidistrict after he allegedly shot at and wounded a per-son following a scuffle, police said on Thursday, thethird such instance of mob frenzy in Bihar in a week.

The incident occurred at Aliganj Bazar onWednesday after a mob got infuriated when AmarSingh whipped out a gun during a quarrel and firedat Bablu Yadav, district Superintendent of PoliceJagunath Jalareddy said.

Singh had picked up a quarrel with an auto-rick-shaw driver and Yadav sought to intervene. He shotat Yadav on his foot, leaving the teacher severelywounded, Jalareddy said. Singh panicked as he sawa crowd surging towards him in rage and soughtshelter in a cycle repair shop nearby. He was draggedout and beaten to death by the mob, which also setthe shop on fire, the SP said. PTI

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Kanpur: An Uttar Pradeshpoliceman was suspended onThursday for misbehaving witha woman who had gone to theNazirabad Police Station tolodge a complaint of sexualharassment.

According to the CircleOfficer (Nazirabad), GeetanjaliSingh, the incident came tolight after a video of the victimbeing subjected to moral polic-ing by head constable TaarBabu went viral on Tuesday.

In the short clip, thepoliceman is shaming the vic-tim, whose age is not known,by asking her questions likewhy she was wearing ringsand bangles and why could shenot take care proper care ofherself.

The victim had approachedthe police after she was alleged-ly sexually harassed by somelocals.

A departmental inquiryhas been ordered against thehead constable, who has beensent to Reserve Police Lines,city's Superintendent of Police(south), Raveena Tyagi said.

The SP also confirmed thatan FIR was registered againstthose who allegedly molestedthe victim and the matter osbeing probed.

Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi lashed out atthe state police.

"This is the type of behav-iour meted out to a girl whoapproached the police afterbeing molested. On one hand,there is no let-up in crimesagainst women in UttarPradesh and on the other handthis is how those who have toprotect the law behave. Thefirst step to ensure justice forwomen is to give them a hear-ing," she tweeted in Hindi. PTI

Mumbai: The roommate ofPayal Tadvi, a junior doctor ata hospital here who ended herlife following caste-basedharassment, has alleged thatthe three accused used to tauntthem saying they got admissionin the medical course as theywere from a reserved category.

Tadvi, 26, a second-yearpostgraduate medical studentattached to civic-run B Y L NairHospital, allegedly committedsuicide on May 22. The threeaccused doctors - Hema Ahuja,Bhakti Meher and AnkitaKhandelwal - were arrested onMay 29. They are in judicial cus-tody since then.

The Crime Branch onTuesday filed an over 1,800-pagecharge sheet against the three ofTadvi's seniors accused of abet-ting her suicide. It contains acopy of the three-page suicidenote allegedly written by Tadvi

before hanging herself in hostelroom.

The charge sheet reliesheavily on the suicide note.

Tadvi's roommate andfriend Snehal in her statementto the police, which is part of thecharge sheet, has said Ahuja,

Meher and Khandelwal used toharass and ill-treat them infront of other juniors, hospitalstaff and patients.

"The trio (Ahuja, Meherand Khandelwal) used to callme dumb and Tadvi oversmartand used to make fun of us,"Snehal said in her statement.

She added that in May,Ahuja asked Tadvi and Snehalhow much had they scored inthe NEET and taunted themsaying they got admission inmedical course as they werefrom a reserved category.

While the police are yet torecover the hard copy of the sui-cide note, they recovered pho-tographs of the purported notefrom Tadvi's mobile. The pros-ecution's case is that the threeaccused had destroyed the hardcopy of the suicide note.

Tadvi's family had allegedthat Ahuja, Meher andKhandelwal ragged her andhurled casteist slurs at her, forc-ing Tadvi to take the extremestep.

The suicide note beginswith Tadvi apologising to herparents for taking her own life,saying things at the hospitalhave become "unbearable".

"I hold Hema Ahuja, BhaktiMeher and Ankita Khandelwalresponsible for my conditionand that of Snehal Shinde's(victim's colleague and friend),"the note said.

It added that Tadvi triedseveral times to speak to otherseniors about the treatmentmeted out to her, but no actionwas taken.

"I literally do not see anyway. For the last one year wehave been bearing them, hop-ing that one day this will end.But now I can only see the end...There is no way out of it," thenote said.

In the note, Tadvi wonderedwhat was the personal animos-ity between her and the three

senior doctors that they weretroubling her.

"I have taken this decisionafter trying out everything. Ifound out that no one is thereto stand for us, support us in thisdepartment," the note said.

It further said that Tadviand her friend, who is a witnessin the case against the trio, werehumiliated before patients, staffand other doctors even whenthey were not at fault.

"I have lost my profession-al and personal life because ithas been declared by them thatthey will not let me learn any-thing till they are here in Nair,"the note said.

Tadvi further wrote in thenote that she was not allowed tohandle the labour room asAhuja, Meher and Khandelwaldo not find her efficient.

"Despite putting all efforts,the condition is not improving

but I am becoming mentally dis-turbed. Environment is nothealthy to work and I've losthope for anything to change asI know it won't," the note said.

At the end of the note, Tadviapologised to her friend Snehalfor leaving her alone with thethree doctors.

Snehal told police that onMay 22 evening, Ahuja told herthat Tadvi had locked herself inher hostel room and was notopening the door.

When they broke the dooropen, they found Tadvi hangingfrom the ceiling, she said.

The trio has been bookedunder IPC sections 306 (abet-ment to suicide) and 201(destruction of evidence) andunder the MaharashtraProhibition of Ragging Act andthe Scheduled Castes and theScheduled Tribes (Prevention ofAtrocities). PTI

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Kochi: Authorities of anEngineering College atKothamangalam near herehave withdrawn a college mag-azine following protests bysome Hindu outfits allegingthat its contents were anti-Hindu.

Announcing the decisionto withdraw the 2017-18 mag-azine, authorities of the MarAthanasius College ofEngineering said certainremarks in the magazine wereagainst the ideas and views ofthe college.

Right wing outfits allegedthat the magazine had carriedarticles targeting theSabarimala Lord Ayyappa tem-ple and Hindu belief.

The Christian manage-ment of the college has allowedpublication of articles hurting

the religious sentiments ofHindus, they alleged.

Leader of HinduAikyavedi, K P Sasikala hadtaken out a protest march atKothamangalam recently seek-ing withdrawal of the magazineand action against thoseresponsible for publishing sucharticles.

She claimed that no articlesrelating to controversies sur-rounding other religions wereincluded in the magazine and

only the Hindu faith wasattacked.

Rhwithwik M S, a studentleader who was part of the edi-torial team of the magazine,said it discussed issues includ-ing the Supreme Court judg-ment permitting entry ofwomen of all age groups intothe Lord Ayyappa temple froma "progressive point of view."

No attempts were made tohurt religious sentiments of anysection, he claimed.

He wondered why suchissues are being raked up fourmonths after the magazine waspublished in March.

Mar Athanasius College ofEngineering which pioneeredengineering education in cen-tral Kerala was established in1961. It is a state governmentaided institution. PTI

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Kolkata: In a sinister twist tothe menace of cattle smug-gling along the India-Bangladesh border, the BSF onThursday recovered cows withimprovised explosive devices(IED) tied around their necksaimed at targeting troops whotry to catch them.

Border Security Force offi-cials said this is the first timethey have come across thiscruel method that can poten-tially lead to fatal injuries toboth the cattle and force per-sonnel, in case the crude bombis triggered during handling.

Few such cattle, with anIED placed inside a small alu-minium canister tied aroundtheir neck, were recovered fromthe river near the Harudangaborder post along the southBengal frontier, they said.

After being tied withbanana trunks and ropes, thecattle were dropped in mon-soon-water laden rivers fromMalda, Murshidabad, North24 Parganas and Nadia districts,officials said.

"We are studying the typeof IED prepared by the smug-glers that is aimed to scare BSFtroops from intercepting cattlesmuggling incidents. A total of365 cattle being smuggledacross the border to Bangladeshhave been recovered since

Wednesday," they said.In an another incident, a

group of narcotics smugglersattacked and lobbed a country-made bomb towards a BorderSecurity Force patrol in theearly hours of Thursday in theBerhampore sector.

While the troops escapedunscathed, a pump action gunbeing carried by a jawan wascompletely damaged by theimpact of the blast, they said.

A sudden rise in "floatingcattle" instances in West Bengalhas prompted the BSF todeploy additional troops,motorboats and surveillancegadgets to curb the crime.Over 1,500 cows and buffaloeshave been seized in over twoweeks' time at this border areaby the force, they said. The des-peration of the smugglers tocommit the crime hasincreased even as the cost percattle head has gone upto �1.4lakh, from the earlier �80,000,in anticipation of the Bakridfestivities in August. PTI

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&��!��#��<(�� $��=��'��Asansol (WB): Tension pre-vailed in Hirapur area nearhere after a Muslim hawkerwas allegedly beaten up andforced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'slogans, following whichauthorities have suspendedinternet services and steppedup security.

After the Tuesday nightincident, "fake" videos andphotographs of Hindu-Muslimriots were being circulated onthe social media to vitiate theatmosphere, police said onThursday, adding they haveincreased vigil to avoid anyuntoward incident.

According to officials, aMuslim hawker in his mid for-ties was beaten up on Tuesdayevening by a group of youthswho allegedly forced him tochant "Jai Shri Ram". He waslater admitted to a local hos-pital.

No arrest has been report-ed in connection with theincident.

"We decided to snap inter-net services so that no one isable to vitiate the atmospherethrough use of fake videos andphotographs. Police patrollingis also on. The situation ispresently under control,"Asansol police commissionerD P Singh told PTI.

The internet services willremain suspended for the timebeing, he said.

The ruling TMC and theBJP blamed each other for theincident. PTI

Srinagar: National Conference(NC) vice president OmarAbdullah on Thursday said theCentre should repose its faith inthe Supreme Court and refrainfrom bullying the people ofJammu & Kashmir with unwar-ranted threats of repealing arti-cles 35-A and 370 of theConstitution.

Addressing a party func-tion at Eidgah in the city, theformer Jammu & Kashmir chiefminister said petitions chal-lenging the constitutional valid-ity of articles 35-A and 370 aresub-judice and the Centreshould wait for the verdict.

"Do they not believe in thefinal decree of the SupremeCourt of India? Contrary to thedisdain the incumbent central

Government has for the rule oflaw and the procedures estab-lished by the law of country, ourparty has reposed its faith in theSupreme Court," Abdullah said.

"The matter is sub-judice,therefore it (Supreme Court)should be kept aloof from pol-iticking. I would appeal (to the)Government of India to refrainfrom commenting on the issuetill the final verdict comes," headded.

Article 370 grants specialstatus to Jammu & Kashmir andlimits Parliament's power tomake laws concerning the state.Article 35-A empowers thestate assembly to define 'per-manent residents' for bestowingspecial rights and privilegeson them.

The NC vice president saidthe untenable advisories issuedby the state administrationhave created a fear psychosis inthe state, particularly in theKashmir region.

"People in the Valley aregoing through anxiety in thewake of rumour mongeringset afloat by the administration.Whosoever goes to govern-ment offices is being warned tostock necessary householditems and other edibles beforeAugust 15. Here what is worri-some is that the rumours arebeing set afloat by the people inthe administration itself," hesaid.

"What is it that the gov-ernment of India and the statewant to achieve by bullying

people? It is not New Delhi thatsuffers whenever situation isdifficult in the state; it is thepeople of Kashmir who bear thedirect brunt of a tumultuous sit-uation," he added.

Abdullah alleged that state-ments by some Union minis-ters, hinting at abrogation ofArticle 35-A after August 15,have also kept the rumourmills churning.

The NC leader also warnedagainst trifurcation of the state.

"Today we are hearing thatthe state will be trifurcated.However, let me make it veryclear that any misadventure inthis direction will set the stateon fire," Abdullah said.

"Any whimsical attempt totrifurcate the state will eventu-

ally divide the state on religiouslines. In those circumstancesthe state will be divided onHindu, Muslim and Buddhistlines," he said.

In February this year, theJammu and Kashmir adminis-tration created a separate divi-sion for Buddhist-majorityLadakh, which was part ofMuslim-dominated Kashmirdivision.

Hindu-majority Jammu isthe state's third division.

Ladakh will now have aseparate divisional commis-sioner and an inspector gener-al of police with a full admin-istrative and revenue division atpar with Kashmir and Jammudivisions, an order issued by theadministration had said. PTI

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The Opposition NCP onThursday suffered a second

major jolt ahead of theMaharashtra Assembly polls tobe held in October this year, asits Mumbai unit presidentSachin Ahir joined the rulingShiv Sena.

Two months after NCP’ssenior leader, Beed district inMarathwada region, JayduttaKshirsagar switched to the ShivSena, Ahir joined Sena alongwith his supporters in the pres-ence of its president UddhavThackeray at the latter’s Bandraresidence “Matoshri”.

Sena’s youth wing presidentAditya Thackeray welcomedAhir — who was accompaniedby his wife Sangeeta and sup-porters — by tying a red threadon the former’s hand symbol-ising ‘Shiv Bandhan’ and hand-ing him a miniature party flag.

A former NCP MLA fromWorli in south-centralMumbai, Ahir had informallymet Uddhav and expressed hiskeenness to join the Shiv Sena.“Ahir’s entry to the Shiv Sena isof considerable significance.Ahir and I were in touch witheach other for several days. Ifacilitated a meeting betweenhim and Sena president

Uddhav Thackeray,” Adityarevealed.

Talking to media personsahead of his entry to the Sena,Ahir said: “Sometimes one hasto take hard decisions. Onlytime will tell whether my deci-sion (to join the Shiv Sena) isproper or not. I am happy thatI am joining the Shiv Sena. Atthe same time, I am not sohappy to leave the Shiv Sena”.

Later after his formal entryto the Shiv Sena, Ahir said: “Iam impressed by the develop-ment initiatives taken by AdityaThackeray. I have so far beencarrying pout developmentworks in my area. I will con-tinue to undertake people-spe-cific works in a much bigger

way in the way in the comingyears as well”.

Forty-seven-year-old Ahir,who had steadily moved upwithin the Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) ranks to becomeits Mumbai unit president,expressed his gratitude towardsNCP founder-president SharadPawar. “I am going from onestream of ideology to another.I tried to meet Pawar saheb. Iwanted to tell him about myplans to join the Shiv Sena. But,I could neither meet him nortalk to him over phone. But,Pawar saheb will always have apermanent place in my heart.But, I had in the past briefedhim about the situation in myconstituency in the past," Ahir

said. Ahir’s entry to the ShivSena comes on the heels ofNCP’s former minister JayduttaKshirsagar joining the Sena.Kshirsagar, it may be recalled,had joined the Sena on May 22,

2019. Kshirsagar was subse-quently inducted into theMaharashtra Cabinet, whenchief minister DevendraFadnavis expanded his Cabineton June 16, 2019.

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In an apparent effort to whipup national fervour ahead of

the Maharashtra Assemblypolls due in October this year,the BJP-led saffron alliancehas — through the CinemaOwners & ExhibitorsAssociation of India (CCEAI)— taken the initiative of hav-ing a special free show of thefilm, “Uri — The SurgicalStrike” for college and highschool students across the Stateon Friday.

Announcing this,Maharashtra Minister for SkillDevelopment Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar said: “In all, 2, 25lakh college and high schoolstudents will watch “Uri — TheSurgical Strike” on the occasionof Kargil victory day tomorrow.As many as 497 cinema hallsand multiplexes will simulta-neously screen the film at thespecial free show at 10 am in 36districts in the state” .

July 26 is celebrated asKargil Victory Day. Friday hap-pens to be the 20th anniversaryof the historic event when theIndian Army successfullytrounced the Pakistani forces

during the 1999 Kargil War.“The decision to hold free

screenings of “Uri — TheSurgical Strike” at cinemasacross the state, was taken at ajoint meeting that the ministerhad with the exhibitors lastfortnight. All cinema owners,distributors and servicesproviders have agreed to thefree show for the students as apatriotic gesture to mark thehistoric occasion of KargilVictory Day,” CCEAI presidentNitin Datar said.

The district collector’soffices across the state havereached out to high schools andcolleges and asked them toallow their students to go andwatch the special show onFriday by showing their iden-tity cards at the venue.

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Will Shiv Sena’s youth wingpresident Aditya

Thackeray contest theMaharashtra Assembly pollsfrom Worli constituency insouth-central Mumbai?

Though there is no officialconfirmation from the ShivSena in this regard, speculationdoing rounds in the state polit-ical circles is that the Senamight field Aditya from Worliconstituency in place of its sit-ting MLA Sunil Shinde in the2019 Assembly polls due inOctober this year.

Aditya, whose entry to theelectoral politics is more or lesscertain now, is understood tohave shown preference to Worlias a constituency from where heintends to contest the Assemblypolls. Worli has become a safe

seat for Aditya for two reasons:First, it is currently held by SunilShinde, who had defeated thenNCP candidate Sachin Ahir bya margin of 23,012 votes in the2014 polls. Secondly, Ahir —who had won the Worli seat inthe 2009 polls as an NCP can-didate in the 2009 Assemblypolls — is already in the Sena’sfold. Both Ahir and Shindehave done considerable work inWorli constituency.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena isconsidering putting up Ahir —who joined its fold on Thursday— from Byaculla constituency,a seat that is currently held byWaris Pathan of the All IndiaMajlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen(AIMIM). Pathan had won theByculla seat by a narrow mar-gin of 1,357 seats over BJP’sMadhu Chavan in the 2014Assembly polls.

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Uttarpara (WB): A collegeteacher was pushed andpunched on face and head inWest Bengal's Hooghly districtwhen he tried to intervene andresolve a quarrel between twogroups of students allegedlyover chanting "Jai Mamata"and "Trinamool Zindabad".

Two people, who are notthe students of NabagramHiralal Paul College, where theincident happened onWednesday, were arrested onThursday for assaultingSubrata Chatterjee, police said.

TV channels showed twoyoung men advancing menac-ingly towards Chatterjee as hecame out of the college gateflanked by some girl studentswho refused to follow the dik-tat of some members ofTrinamool Congress ChhatraParishad (TMCP), the stu-dents wing of the state's rulingTMC, to chant slogans hailingChief Minister MamataBanerjee and her party.

After heated argument,the duo was seen pushing theteacher and raining blows onhis head and face. Chatterjeestaggered and fell to theground holding his head andpanting, as girls sprinkled

water on his face and gave himsome to drink.

College sources said trou-ble began when some postgraduate female students ofNetaji Open University, whichfunctions from the collegecampus, were clicking selfie ina classroom. They got into anargument with some TMCPmembers, who asked them toimmediately vacate the place.

As the girls remained defi-ant and refused to leave, theTMCP activists demanded thatthey chant slogans hailing thechief minister and her party.

The girls refused to buck-le under pressure and claimedthey were assaulted by TMCPsupporters, who confinedthem to a classroom.

Chatterjee and somesenior teachers intervened andtemporarily resolved the issuewhich flared up again when hewas coming out of the collegewith the girls in tow.

"I was physically assaultedby two-three TMCP members.I am feeling hurt and insulted.They are all my students," a vis-ibly shaken Chatterjee said.

Police said Chatterjee hadlodged a complaint after beingassaulted and two men identi-

fied as Sandip Pal and BijaySarkar, who are not the stu-dents of the college, have beenarrested.

As the incident triggered ahuge row, Mamata Banerjeeswung into damage controlmode and called up the teacher,and promised him safety.

"The chief minister askedme not to get scared. She saidwe are on your side. We willgive you safety," he said.

Chatterjee said locaL TMCMLA Prabir Ghosal met him atthe college and apologised forthe conduct of some students.

"He (Ghosal) also touchedmy feet and said TMC stoodfor showing respect to teach-ers and will not tolerate anyhumiliation and insult tothem," Chatterjee toldreporters on Thursday.

He said he was told theparty has taken action againstthe local TMC councillor andwould like those arrested notto be let off with lightercharges.

TMCP state unit presi-dent Trinankur Bhattacharyasaid the organisation will takestrict action if any of its mem-bers was found to be involvedin the incident. PTI

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Allahabad: The AllahabadHigh Court has ruled thatthose holding a degree inengineering cannot beappointed as junior engineerswhen they apply for vacanciesrecently advertised by the StateGovernment.

A three-judge benchcomprising Justice B KNarayana, Justice RameshSinha and Justice PankajBhatia were of the view thatthe State Government hasthe power to prescribe therequisite qualif icationrequired for an advertisedpost and it cannot be a mat-ter for judicial review.

In the present case, the

State Government while issu-ing the advertisement for thepost of junior engineer hadinvited applications from onlythose holding a diploma inengineering.

Thus, candidates with anengineering degree were not

eligible to participate in therecruitment process.

"Engineering degree hold-ers are ineligible to participatein the selection process ofjunior engineers in the light ofthe advertisement issued," thecourt said. PTI

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Ahmedabad: A man was arrest-ed here on Thursday for hisalleged involvement in illegallyutilising and passing Input TaxCredit of �129.92 crore, an offi-cial said.

With his arrest, thePreventive wing of the CentralGST Ahmedabad-SouthCommissionerate busted theracket of issuance of fake invoic-es wherein huge amount ofineligible Input Tax Credit wasfraudulently availed and utilisedto evade the payment of GST,said Sachin Gusia, JointCommissioner (Preventive),CGST, Ahmedabad-South.

Aliasgar Vahidali Saiyed,31, a resident of Ahmedabad,was arrested for availing wrongInput Tax Credit of �129.92crore on bogus invoices withoutthe receipt of goods, he said.

He further issued bogusinvoices for �846.58 crore with-out supplying the goods, facili-tating wrong availment and util-isation of input tax credit byother companies, Gusia said,adding that his act has caused ahuge evasion of GST.

Saiyed, the mastermind ofthe fraud, created and managedas many as 61 fake firms whichhad been involved in the receipt

of fake bills/invoices andissuance of invoices without thesupply of actual goods, the offi-cer said. The purchase and saleof goods was merely on paperand at no point he purchased orsold any actual physical goods.The entire chain of transactionswas only on papers, he said.Saiyed confessed that he receivedfake Input Tax Credit in GSTreturns and fake Input TaxCredit was passed on to multi-ple firms across the states with-out any actual supply of goods,thereby illegally utilising andpassing Input Tax Credit of�129.92 crore, Gusia said. PTI

Srinagar: Three Kashmiri menarrested in the prime of theiryouth as "terrorists" but acquit-ted after 23 years in jail are nowtrying to come to terms withlife outside prison here.

First arrested by the Delhipolice from Nepal for theiralleged roles in the 1996 bombblast in the Lajpat Nagar mar-ket and then charged by theRajasthan police with "bomb-ing" of a state roadways bus atSamleti in Dausa a day later,Mohammad Ali Bhat, Lateef

Ahmad Waza and Mirza NissarHussain returned home earlythis week after a Jaipur benchof the Rajasthan High Courtfinally acquitted them.

Ironically, the three hadbeen acquitted in the LajpatNagar bomb blast case by theDelhi High Court way back inNovember 2012, but had to stayput in the jail, awaiting the out-come of their appeals from theRajasthan High Court since2014.

As exuberant youths in

their mid-twenties, the threehad left the valley for Nepal tosell Kashmiri handicrafts witha common goal of making afuture for themselves.

But they have been leftsharing a destiny more intri-cately, first enduring the 23-year-long incarceration till a"delayed justice" freed themearly this week, and now theyhave been left picking up piecesof their lives together.

"We were picked up bypolice from Kahtmandu where

we had been doing business ofselling Kashmiri handicrafts,"the trio said in unison.

"We all were innocent ...How could anyone carry outbomb blast in Delhi orRajasthan while one was inNepal? But the way we weretortured... Made to sign blankpapers, it was clear we werebeing made scapegoats," saidWaza, hailing from Khanqaharea of the city, who reachedhome early this week.

As the city's Hassanabadlocality native Bhat reachedhome, he had virtually no one towelcome him back. He had lostboth his parents in the 23-year-long span that he spent in jailsin Delhi and Rajasthan. PTI

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The National Company LawTribunal on Thursday

(NCLT) stayed its own orderallowing the Government toprosecute the three partners ofDeloitte and BSR Associates fortheir alleged culpability in theIL&FS RPT IL&FS fraud fol-lowing a plea to allow them toappeal at the appellate tri-bunal.

Staying its own order ofJuly 18, the Mumbai NCLTgave 10 days to Udayan Senand Kalpesh Mehta of Deloitte,and Sampath Ganesh of BSRAssociates to file an appeal andsaid the impugned order wouldremain inoperative for the nextfour weeks from today.

“We have heard the argu-

ments of the senior counsels forthe applicants and the argu-ments advanced by joint direc-tor on behalf of theGovernment. Since our order isappealable, the applicants arefree to appeal.

“Therefore, we stay theoperation of the impugnedorder and allow the applicants10 days from today for filing anappeal,” the tribunal said in anorder posted on its website andlisted the matter for hearing onAugust 6.

On July 18, the NCLT hadgiven the go-ahead to theCorporate Affairs Ministry toprosecute Deloitte and BSRAssociates for their failure todetect and report the scam thattook place across the nowbankrupt IL&FS group and 21

other entities, when they werethe auditors of the scam-rideenand cripppled IL&FS FinancialServices.

The NCLT order its orderis based on the findings of theprobe conducted by the SeriousFraud Investigation Office.

The tribunal also allowedto the Government to impleadUdayan Sen and KalpeshMehta, partners of Deloitte,and BSR Associates partnerSampath Ganesh.

While Deloitte resignedfrom auditing IL&FS groupcompanies in FY18, BSR,which an affiliate of KPMG, didso in June well after theGovernment sought to banthem from for five years. TheNCLT is yet to give is nod tothe Government to do so.

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BSE-owned IndiaInternational Exchange

(India INX) on Thursday reg-istered an all-time high dailyturnover of over �31,253 crore($4.5 billion) on its derivativesegment.

The average daily tradingvolumes have crossed over�11,225 crore ($1.63 billion) in2019 while the cumulativetrading turnover has crossedthe �27,83,766 crore ($403 bil-lion) mark driven by a sub-stantial jump in market par-ticipation, the statement said.

India INX “witnessed anall-time high turnover of over�4.5 billion (�31,253 croreapprox) on its derivative seg-ment in daily trading turnoveron July 25, 2019,” the exchangesaid in a statement.

India INX, a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of BSE, is India’s firstInternational Exchange set upat Gujarat InternationalFinance Tech-City (GIFT City).

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Social media giant Facebookhas agreed to “significantly

enhance” its oversight practicesand will pay a whopping $5 bil-lion to the Federal TradeCommission as penalty forprivacy violations, in the largestever security fine imposed onany company for disregardingconsumer information.

In addition to paying therecord $5 billion in penalty,Facebook has also agreed tosubmit itself to new restrictionsand a modified corporatestructure that will hold thecompany accountable for thedecisions it makes about itsusers’ privacy.

Facebook agreed to all thisin order to settle Federal TradeCommission (FTC) chargesthat the company violated a2012 FTC order by deceivingusers about their ability tocontrol the privacy of their per-sonal information.

“Among other matters, oursettlement with the FTC requiresus to pay a penalty of $5.0 bil-lion and to significantly enhanceour practices and processes forprivacy compliance and over-sight,” Facebook said.

“In particular, we haveagreed to implement a com-prehensive expansion of ourprivacy programme, includ-ing substantial managementand board of directors over-sight, stringent operational

requirements and reportingobligations, and a process toregularly certify our compli-ance with the privacy pro-gramme to the FTC,” the socialmedia giant said.

The $5 billion penaltyagainst Facebook is the largestever imposed on any companyfor violating consumers’ pri-vacy and almost 20 timesgreater than the largest priva-cy or data security penaltyever imposed worldwide.

It is one of the largestpenalties ever assessed by theUS Government for any viola-tion, FTC said.

The settlement orderannounced Wednesday alsoimposes unprecedented newrestrictions on Facebook’s busi-ness operations and creates mul-tiple channels of compliance.

The order requiresFacebook to restructure itsapproach to privacy from thecorporate board-level down,and establishes strong newmechanisms to ensure that thecompany executives areaccountable for the decisionsthey make about privacy, andthat those decisions are subjectto meaningful oversight.

“Despite repeated promis-es to its billions of users world-wide that they could controlhow their personal informationis shared, Facebook under-mined consumers’ choices,”said FTC Chairman JoeSimons.

�� 36�-3$7.

The Finance Ministry hasdecided to gradually relax

the requirement of 100 per centphysical examination of exportconsignments of “riskyexporters” in case no discrep-ancies were detected on previ-ous inspections. In order tocheck GST evasion, the CentralBoard of Indirect Taxes andCustoms (CBIC) had last monthidentified 5,106 “risky exporters”who claimed GST refunds basedon bogus invoices.

It was decided that RiskManagement Centre forCustoms (RMCC) will insertalerts for all such riskyexporters and make 100 percent examination mandatory oftheir export consignments.

The CBIC said it hasreceived representations fromexporters and organisationssaying that their cargo is gettingdelayed and they have to incuradditional costs for carryingout re-packing.

In a circular issued to fieldformations, the CBIC said thatonly a miniscule percentage ofexport consignments are beingselected for examination onaccount of risk associated withfraudulent availment of IGSTrefunds. In order to bring downthe level of examination, theCBIC has decided that RMCCwill take into consideration thefeedback received from fieldformations with regard to the100 per cent examination con-ducted on exports of risk basedidentified entities.

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Boeing reported its biggest lossever on Wednesday as the

737 MAX crisis drags on, and thecompany warned it could beforced to temporarily halt pro-duction of the plane if thegrounding is extended muchlonger. The aviation giant’s trou-bles have been mounting sincethe MAX was taken out of ser-vice worldwide in March fol-lowing two deadly crashes thatclaimed 346 lives, and it alreadyset aside nearly $5 billion to com-pensate customers.

But the warning it mighthave to suspend production ofthe aircraft jolted Wall Street,prompting losses to accelerateduring a late-morning confer-ence call with Boeing executivesthat reinforced the cloudinesssurrounding the outlook.

Getting the MAX back in theair is a “complex” multi-regulatorprocess “that will take time to getdone,” Boeing chief executiveDennis Muilenburg said.

“We have a clear under-standing of the work that has tobe done but there is still uncer-tainty in the timeline.”

Boeing reported a loss of$2.9 billion for the second quar-ter, a huge drop from the $2.2 bil-lion profit posted in the sameperiod of last year.

The loss was not surprisingfollowing last week’s announce-ment the company had set aside$4.9 billion after taxes to com-pensate airlines for canceledflights and the delay in planedeliveries.

Meanwhile, revenues inthe latest quarter tumbled 35.1percent to $15.8 billion, reflect-ing the hit suffered due to halt-ed deliveries of the 737 MAX,a top-selling plane. Analystsfrom Cowen, an investmentbank, pointed to a “strong per-formance” in production ofBoeing’s 787, another big sell-er, but noted the companypushed back first flight of the777X, a new long-haul planeunder development.

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Smartworks, anticipating thegrowing demand for shared

office spaces, the firm plans toincrease its footprint by addingmore than 2 million sq. ft. inthese micro markets by 2021.

With a growing footprint of2.8 million sq. ft across pan India,Smartworks is focused on serv-ing large enterprises in need ofnew age office spaces, and is ina leading position to cater to bothexisting as well as projecteddemand for office space.Smartworks has a well-diversi-fied client base comprising ofIT/ITES, manufacturing, health-care, automobiles, BFSI,Marketing and HR.

Commenting on growth,Neetish Sarda, Founder,Smartworks said, “Our growth isa testament of support and trustof our members and the boom-ing market potential. Chennaiand Pune have shown significantgrowth in last three years.”

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New Delhi: Bajaj finserv has come up with the 365-day denguecover at a premium of �299 which provides coverage up to�50,000. The policy covers doctor’s fees before, during and afterhospitalization. Vector-borne diseases like dengue and malariaare spread through mosquitoes and affect many people acrossIndia every year. In 2018, more than 89,974 dengue cases werereported in the country, with 144 deaths. This year, this mos-quito-borne tropical disease has so far claimed six lives and affect-ed 6,210 this year, according to information given by theGovernment in Lok Sabha on June 21, 2019. PNS

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The meeting of the GSTCouncil on Thursday,

which was to decide on cuttingtax rates on electric vehicles,has been postponed as FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanwas pre-occupied inParliament, officials said.

The 36th GST Councilmeeting, which was to be heldthrough video conferencing,had only one item in the agen-da and that was to considerCentre’s proposal to slash GSTrates to 5 per cent from 12 percent on e-vehicles.

The GST Council meetinghas been postponed and thenew date would be decidedlater, officials said, addingSitharaman was required to bepresent in Parliament, as RajyaSabha was scheduled to take upfor discussion amendments tothe Insolvency and BankruptcyCode.

West Bengal FinanceMinister Amit Mitra had onTuesday written to Sitharamanobjecting to a hurriedly called

‘single agenda meeting’ andsaid other important issuesflagged by the states should beincluded in the agenda.

Mitra said that the Centrewas taking a “myopic view” ofthe automobile industry byproposing a sharp cut in GSTrate on e-vehicles, and com-pletely ignoring the “disastrousimpact” of such a move on theexisting automobile units andentire auto service sector.

GST rate for petrol, dieselcars and hybrid vehicles arealready at the highest bracketof 28 per cent plus cess.

The Council, which ischaired by Union FinanceMinister and has state financeministers as members, in itsmeeting last month, hadreferred the issue relating toGoods and Services Tax (GST)concessions on electric vehicle,electric chargers and hiring ofelectric vehicles, to an officerscommittee.

The recommendations ofthe officers committee were tobe placed before the Council onThursday.

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Arsenal announced the sea-son-long loan signing of

Real Madrid midfielder DaniCeballos on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Spain inter-national, who made 23 La Ligaappearances in the 2018/19 cam-paign, helped Spain's Under-21sto European glory last month.

"We're excited to see Danijoin us," Emery said. "He is atalented player with big tech-nical ability, creativity andprecision." Ceballos reported-ly had other options, includ-

ing offers from rival PremierLeague clubs, but he said the lureof playing for Emery made uphis mind.

"The coach was the turningpoint in terms of me joining thismassive club," Ceballos toldArsenal's official website.

"He's a Spanish coach and heknows me from my time at otherclubs. I'm really happy to be ableto help Arsenal achieve ourobjectives."

Ceballos is Arsenal's secondsigning of the summer, follow-ing the arrival of 18-year-oldforward Gabriel Martinelli fromItuano in Brazil.

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Olympic Silver medal-list P V Sindhu and BSai Praneeth moved

into the quarterfinals of JapanOpen badminton tournamentafter registering contrastingwins but it was curtains for HS Prannoy here on Thursday.

While fifth seed Sindhuhad to toil hard in an hour-long battle to get the better ofunseeded Japanese Aya Ohori11-21, 21-10, 21-13 in a secondround women’s singles match,Praneeth sailed past anotherlocal shuttler, KantaTsuneyama, 21-13, 21-16 in amen’s singles encounter thatlasted 45 minutes.

Prannoy, who knocked outcompatriot Kidambi Srikanthin the opening round, thoughcrashed out of the men’s sin-gles event after going down toRasmus Gemke of Denmark 9-21, 15-21 in the second round.

Her latest result at theBWF World Tour Super 750tournament extended Sindhu’shead-to-head record to 8-0over Ohori.

Sindhu will next facefourth seeded Japanese AkaneYamaguchi, to whom she lostin the final of the IndonesiaOpen last week.

Sai Praneeth will faceIndonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto inthe men’s singles last-eightround.

It was good news for Indiain the men’s doubles event asthe pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shettymade it to the quarterfinalsafter emerging victorious in atough three-game secondround affair in 53 minutes.

The Indian pair came froma game down to quell the

challenge of China’s Kai XiangHuang and Cheng Liu 15-21,21-11, 21-19 and set up aquarterfinal clash with secondseeded local combination ofTakeshi Kamura and KeigoSonoda.

It was curtains for India inthe mixed doubles event as thepair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and AshwiniPonnappa lost 16-21, 17-21 tofourth seeds DechapolPuavaranukkroh and SapsireeTaerattanachai of Thailand inthe second round.

In the match betweenSindhu and Ohori, the RioOlympics Silver medallistIndian shuttler was slow to getoff the blocks as the local girl

came out on top in the earlyexchanges to race to a 5-1 andthen 11-5 lead at the break.

Sindhu took it easy in thefirst game and it worked inOhori's favour as the Indiancommitted a lot of unforcederrors.

An error-prone Sindhunever looked in the contestinitially as she kept hitting thenet or the shuttle landed out-side the court, enabling Ohorito pocket the first game com-fortably.

In the second game too,Sindhu struggled initiallybefore finding her bearings.Trailing 0-2, the Indian madea great comeback to drawlevel and then took the leadfor the first time in the con-test.

Once she managed to takea 3-2 lead, there was no look-ing back for Sindhu as shekept on extending her domi-nation to grab the secondgame, roaring back into thecontest in style.

Sindhu continued in thesame vein in the decider andsurged ahead 3-1 and then 8-4 before Ohori clinched four

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Teenager Angel Gomes squeezed in the win-ner 10 minutes from time as Manchester

United beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in an occa-sionally bad-tempered friendly on Thursday inShanghai.

French striker Anthony Martial put OleGunnar Solskjaer’s United ahead in the first half,before Spurs substitute Lucas Moura replied witha scrappy effort in the second.

After wholesale changes from both sides —Solskjaer swapped out all 11 starters at the break— Spurs had looked the more dangerous, beforethe 18-year-old Londoner Gomes struck.

Victory makes it four wins from four pre-sea-son games for United.

The Norwegian Solskjaer, under pressure toprove that he is the man to take United back intothe Champions League, named a strong side thatincluded wantaway midfielder Paul Pogba andnew signings Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Counterpart Mauricio Pochettino fielded amore experimental team, but started the Englandinternational duo of Dele Alli and Harry Kane,along with new man Tanguy Ndombele.

United nearly took the lead on just four min-utes when Martial fired across stand-in goalkeep-er Paulo Gazzaniga, but his powerful effort struckthe post.

Martial, whose United career has threatenedto peter out at times, made no mistake on 21 min-utes when he rifled the ball under Gazzaniga fromclose range. United were incensed when MoussaSissoko left the sprightly winger James in a heapby the corner flag, suspecting a stamp by the Spursmidfielder.

Tottenham captain Kane angrily waded inand there was a scuffle, with Gazzaniga leavinghis goal to join in and several United players alsoinvolved.

Andreas Pereira, a combative midfield pres-ence for United, was next to be booked after hecut down Kane. Young Spurs defender JaphetTanganga was yellow-carded too.

Spurs, fresh from a 3-2 win over Juventus inSingapore on Sunday, brought South Korean for-ward Son Heung-min on at the break in place ofKane. Brazil’s Moura also came on.

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Michael Phelps paid trib-ute to Hungarian

teenager Kristof Milak's"beautiful technique" after hetook down the American leg-end's long-standing 200metres butterfly record at theworld championships inSouth Korea.

Phelps described Milak'stime of one minute, 50.73 sec-onds in Gwangju as "incred-ible", although he admittedhis astonishment was tingedwith sadness at losing a worldrecord which had stood since2009.

"As frustrated as I am tosee that record go down, Icouldn't be happier to see howhe did it," Phelps told the NewYork Times.

"That kid's last 100 was

incredible. He put together agreat 200 fly from start to fin-ish."

The 19-year-old Milaksliced a whopping 0.78 sec-onds off Phelps's previousworld best, which wasachieved during the bodysuitera, after flirting with therecord for much of the pastseason.

"It happened becausethere was a kid who wanted todo it, who dreamed of doingit, who figured out what itwould take to do it," saidPhelps, who had a specialfondness for the 200m fly.

"(He) worked on his tech-nique until it was beautifuland put in the really, reallyhard work that it takes to doit -- my hat's off to him."

Milak became the firstswimmer to go under 1:51

minutes, while his winningmargin was, remarkably, morethan three seconds as Japan'sDaiya Seto finished a distantsecond and the South AfricanChad le Clos third.

Le Clos, who famouslybeat Phelps in the 2012London Olympic f inal,shrugged: "Kristof is in anoth-er league -- he's a hell of a lotfaster than all of us."

Milak said he was "hon-oured" to break a worldrecord held by Phelps, who hehad worshipped growing upand watched videos of to pol-ish his technique.

"I wasn't expecting tobreak the record," he admit-ted. "But if you put in the hardwork, good things happenand I was ready. I just tried toblock everything out and finda good rhythm."

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Spare a thought for Sebastian Vettel this week-end as he and Ferrari hope to push Lewis

Hamilton and Mercedes out of the spotlight andoff the top of the podium at their home GermanGrand Prix.

Four-time champion Vettel will be seeking toend a miserable "nightmare" year since hecrashed out of the lead at last year's German con-test and, in the process, handed a remarkable vic-tory and the impetus in the title race to his Britishrival.

Vettel has won only once, in Belgium last year,since that embarrassment.

Five-time world champion and current seriesleader Hamilton has not looked back since andleads this year's championship by 39 points, aheadof Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Vettel, who was born at nearby Heppenheim,has endured a run of mistakes and disappoint-ments that have thrown his future into doubt andleft him languishing in pursuit.

On top of that, Hamilton is seeking his fifthGerman triumph this weekend as Mercedes cel-ebrate their 200th start as a constructor and hisfourth at Hockenheim, where the luckless Vettelhas never won.

His sole German victory came at theNurburgring in 2013, a year after Ferrari's last tri-umph on German soil when Fernando Alonsowon at Hockenheim in 2012 -- statistics that Vettel,a keen student of his sport, will not enjoy beingreminded of as he bids to claim Ferrari's first winsince last year's United States Grand Prix.

"I know how it is and I know that we have tomake up for last year," conceded Vettel.

"I am looking forward to racing atHockenheim -- the atmosphere is phenomenalthere always and the crowd is great too. I hopewe can do something good for them."

Vettel has received support in his difficultiesfrom Hamilton who reeled off another mighty vic-tory, the 80th of his career, at the British GrandPrix where the Ferrari driver crashed into the rearof Max Verstappen's Red Bull on another undis-tinguished afternoon.��#��9

But he needs more than sympathy now as the21-race season reaches its half-way point andFerrari team-mate Charles Leclerc is pushed by

the Italian sports media as being ready to replacehim as the team's outright number one driver.

The 21-year-old Monegasque already hasmore poles, podiums and fastest laps than hissenior partner this season and appears to haveeradicated his own errors, albeit that he is still wait-ing for his maiden F1 victory.

A special occasion for the 'Scarlet Scuderia'may not be expected, but should not be ruled outon the weekend that Mercedes will run in a spe-cial livery to make 125 years of motorsport at theirhome race where they are also title sponsors.

Team boss Toto Wolff warned that Mercedes'only defeat this year in 10 outings came in swel-tering heat at the Austrian Grand Prix whereVerstappen banged wheels in passing Leclerc toseize victory while Bottas and Hamilton struggledwith cooling problems.

"High temperatures are forecast so we muststay vigilant," said Wolff.

"We must stay humble and work hard toachieve the best possible result."

It is expected that Mercedes will introduce anew cooling system for their cars and ensure anenthralling three-team scrap for success withFerrari and Red Bull also likely to be competitive.

After seven wins in 10 races, however, it is dif-ficult to see beyond Hamilton.

�� 36�-3$7.�

Star javelin thrower NeerajChopra on Thursday said he

would consider participating inthe World Championships laterthis year after it emerged that hehas qualified for the showpieceevent.

Earlier, there was a confu-sion on whether Neeraj hasqualified for the September 27to October 6 event in Doha withofficials having no clarity thatIndian's 83.90m mark duringthe 68th All India Inter-ServicesAthletics Championships atJalahalli (September 17-20)would be considered for WorldChampionships qualifications.

But it has now emerged thatthe Services meet fulfils the cri-teria to be considered for theWorld Championships purpos-es. The World Championshipsmen's javelin throw qualificationmark is 83.00m and the quali-fying period is from September7, 2018 to midnight onSeptember 6, 2019.

An AFI source confirmedthat Neeraj has qualified for theWorld Championships from theServices meet though a finaldecision on his participation willbe taken later.

"Technically, Neeraj is qual-ified by virtue of his perfor-mance (at Services Meet).However, final selection restswith the selection committee ofthe AFI," the AFI source toldPTI on the condition ofanonymity.

The IAAF (internationalathletics federation) listedNeeraj's performance at theServices meet at the 91st posi-tion in the 2018 men's javelinthrow in all athletes' chart(including repetitive perfor-mances), which would meanthat the international bodyrecognises it.

Under rules, all perfor-mances must be achieved dur-ing competitions organised orauthorised by the IAAF, its AreaAssociations or its NationalFederations and conducted inconformity with IAAF Rules.

Neeraj, who is recuperatingafter a surgery on his rightelbow (throwing arm) in May,said he was contemplating skip-ping the World Championshipsthinking that he has not quali-fied for it but he may change hismind if he made the cut.

"The last date of qualifica-tion for World Championshipsis September 6 and so I wasthinking of not taking risk andtry to qualify for the event. Butif I have already qualified thenI can think of taking part in theWorld Championships since bythat time (end of September) Ican be fit and can try for it," hesaid from his training base inKarnataka.

The 21-year-old Neeraj iscurrently based at InspireInstitute of Sports at Vijayanagarin Karnataka after his surgery onMay 2.

"I did not know that I havequalified for WorldChampionships. I was thinkingthat if I have to participate I haveto qualify before September 6.That would have been difficultfor me and a risk also to partic-ipate in a competition and try toqualify," he added.

"If I have already qualifiedfor the World Championships,I can take it easy for some timewithout exerting myself muchand I feel I can get fit by the endof September."

National record holderNeeraj won the gold inCommonwealth Games(86.47m) and Asian Games(88.06m) last year to emerge asa true world class javelin throw-er and Olympic medal prospect.

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Liverpool wrapped up theirUS tour with a 2-2 draw

against Sporting CP as theEnglish Premier side failed towin a game in their first tripabroad since being crownedEuropean champs.

Liverpool finished withno victories to show fromtheir three-match statesidetour but did manage to salvagea tie against the reigningPortuguese champions atYankee Stadium in New York.

Marcus Wendel tied thegame at 2-2 in the 53rdminute on Wednesday with aright footed shot from thecentre of the box to the bot-tom right corner after beingset up by midfield star BrunoFernandes.

Fernandes and Wendelalso combined on the firstgoal of the game in the fourthminute for the 18-timePortuguese champs.

Fernandes right footed aseemingly harmless long shotthat Liverpool goalkeeperSimon Mignolet mishandledbefore it went into the net.

Divock Origi andGeorginio Wijnaldum scoredgoals for the Reds who playedall three exhibition contests iniconic American sportsvenues.

Jurgen Klopp’s side wasmissing several of their top

players, including forwardsRoberto Firmino, MohamedSalah and Sadio Mane, whowere taking a break after com-peting in COPA America andAfrican Cup of Nations.

Goalkeeper Alisson alsodecided not to make the trip.

Liverpool will now headhome to Merseyside beforefacing Napoli in Edinburghthis weekend and then departfor a training camp in Evian.

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straight points to level thescores at 8 apiece. But Sindhulifted her game and won six

consecutive points to take a14-8 lead.

World No 23 Praneeth, on

the other hand, had a relative-ly easy outing against higher-ranked Tsuneyama (17th).

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Malvika Bansod's singlescampaign at the

Badminton Asia JuniorChampionships ended in thethird round but not beforecausing a huge upset at Suzhou,China, on Thursday.

Bansod, ranked 83rd in theworld junior rankings, facedworld No 1 junior playerPhittayaporn Chaiwan, whoeven holds a ranking of 59 inthe senior category. That couldnot deter the young Indian who

held her nerves to pull off astunning 21-18, 21-19 secondround win over the Thai in 38minutes.

Malvika, however, failed torepeat her heroics in her nextgirls' singles match a few hourslater and went down 14-21, 8-21 to China's Tan Ning.

In the boys' singles,Maisnam Meiraba also had tobite the dust in the secondround after being the best-per-forming Indian over the lastfew days at this tournament.

The junior world No 14

began on a thunderous note,snatching the first game fromtwo-time world junior champi-on Kunlavut Vitidsarn only tosee the Thai storming back foran 18-21, 21-15, 21-8 win in 55minutes.

Unnati Bisht was anotherIndian to reach the third roundin girls' singles following a 21-6, 21-10 victory over HongKong's NG Tin Yan. TheIndian's campaign, however,was cut short 21-8, 21-13 inthat round by the fifth seedBenyapa Aimsaard of Thailand.

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Veteran Sri Lankan star LasithMalinga said on Thursday

that he is “very happy” to makeway for younger players as he callstime on his illustrious 15-yearcareer in the 50-over format.

Malinga will play his finalone-day international in Colombotoday in the first of three ODIsagainst Bangladesh, but hopes tocontinue playing in the shorter T20format.

“I am very happy to leave atthis time. This is an opportunityfor new players to prove them-selves and prepare for the nextWorld Cup,” Malinga, 35, toldreporters on Thursday at the team’sfinal training session.

“We may have had some set-backs, but we have the capabilityto win another World Cup,” headded, pointing to Sri Lanka’ssuccess at the 1996 World Cup and2014 T20 World Cup.

Malinga — known for histrademark blond-highlighted mopand piercings — called on cricketadministrators to be patient withup-and-coming stars and let them

develop ahead of the next ODIWorld Cup.

“The young players need tobelieve that they can deliver. Theyneed to be dedicated and developto a level that they can decide forthemselves when they go to themiddle,” Malinga said.

Malinga has his sights onnext year’s T20 World Cup inAustralia, and Sri Lanka’s cricketboard confirmed he would beavailable for selection for the T20squad.

Malinga is leaving as SriLanka’s third-highest wicket-takerin ODI cricket with 335 wicketsin 219 innings so far since his firstODI against the United ArabEmirates in 2014.

Only Muttiah Muralitharan(523) and Chaminda Vaas (399)have taken more wickets thanMalinga in ODIs for Sri Lanka.

He was Sri Lanka’s highestwicket-taker at the World Cup,claiming 13 scalps in seveninnings.

Malinga retired from Testcricket in 2011 but continued toremain available in other for-mats.

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The Indian cricketers will weara new brand name on their

official jerseys from Septemberwith Chinese mobile manufac-turer Oppo transferring thesponsorship rights to onlinetutorial firm Byju’s, the BCCIannounced on Thursday.

“BYJU’S will be taking overall obligations of the currentteam sponsor OPPO mobiles

India private limited,” the BCCIsaid in a statement.

“The BCCI is pleased towelcome India’s leading educa-tion and learning app BYJU’S asthe official Team India sponsorfrom 5th September, 2019 until31st March, 2022,” it added.

The deal between the BCCIand Oppo, which was inked in2017 for a five-year period, wasreportedly worth �1079 crore.

Virat Kohli and his team-

mates will wear the jersey withthe new brand name from theupcoming home season, begin-ning with a series against SouthAfrica from September 15.

A source said that the trans-fer is a “tripartite agreement”

between Oppo, Bengaluru-basedByju’s and the BCCI.

In March 2017, Oppo wonthe Indian team jersey rights fora five-year period after outbid-ding Vivo mobiles’ � 768 crorebid.

As per the deal, Oppo waspaying BCCI � 4.61 crore perbilateral match and � 1.56 crorefor an ICC event game.

“Any transfer of sponsor-ship requires the interested par-

ties to inform BCCI about nego-tiations. Accordingly Byju’s andOppo have informed about theirdiscussion. The BCCI doesn’tstand to lose any money as thenew company will pay exactlywhat the old one is paying.

“The BCCI has a clausewhich allows transfer of sponsor-ship. Since there is a secrecyclause, the financial dealingscan’t be spoken about,” said aBCCI official.

Another official said thetransfer could, in fact, translateinto more money for the board.

“The BCCI stands to gain ifthere is a transfer of sponsorship.The two parties in question willhave to pay an extra 10 percent(between them) and also give anotice of six months,” the officialsaid.

In its statement, the BCCIdid not disclose the financialaspect of the deal.

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Australia’s Twenty20 BigBash League unveiled

a new-look finals seriesand a shorter season onThursday following fanfeedback.

The ninth year of thedomestic competition,starting on December 17,will again see the eightfranchises playing 56 reg-ular season games, but theywill be condensed into 42days with more double-headers.

Five teams will nowbe involved in the finalswith a new system thatgives a double-chance forthe regular season’s toptwo teams.

The fourth and fifth-placed teams will play inthe newly titled “TheEliminator” with the win-

ner facing the third-placedteam in “The Knock-Out”.

Teams finishing firstand second play “TheQualifier”, with the losertaking on the winner of“The Knock Out” in “TheChallenger”.

It will culminate with“The Final” between theChallenger and Qualifierwinners.

“We’ve listened andnow have a shortened fix-ture, more consistenttimeslots, a continued

regional footprint and astronger finals formatwhich will give fans thebest opportunity to experi-ence the BBL,” said BBLhead of leagues AlistairDobson.

“The finals format hasbeen set to make it the bestpossible end to the season,rewarding the top twoteams with a double chanceand giving the winnerhosting rights of TheFinal,” he added.

“At the same time, it’s amore challenging andentertaining prospect forfourth and fifth to go onand win the competition.”

Aaron Finch’sMelbourne Renegades wonthe 2018-19 title, beatingcity rivals the Stars in atense final. Brisbane Heatkick off this year’s eventagainst Sydney Thunder.

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Former captain Michael Vaughanlabelled England an “embarrassment”

after they were dismissed for 85 beforelunch on the first day of their one-off Testagainst Ireland.

England won the toss yet wereunable to cope with the early movementas Tim Murtagh took 5-13 at Lord’s,where the seamer has long been a main-stay for county side Middlesex.

“When the ball does anything youshut your eyes and hope England getthrough it,” Vaughan told Test MatchSpecial.

“There were some good balls butthere was also some timid play and poorstrokes.”

“Let’s be honest, it’s an embarrass-ment — you’re at ‘the home of cricket’,in a Test against Ireland and you’re all outfor 85, there is no other word to describeit,” the former Yorkshire batsman added.

England have now lost all 10 wick-ets in a single session four times since2016, having previously not done so since1938.

“All out for 85 against Ireland is prob-

ably the lowest of the low out of those,”said Vaughan after England came backdown to earth with a bump followingtheir World Cup triumph at Lord’s 10days earlier.

The Ireland match is England’s lastTest before they attempt to regain theAshes from Australia, starting on August1 at Edgbaston.

“England have so much talent, theyhave got the game to be successful, butyou worry about the mentality of theteam when it becomes tricky and the ballmoves around,” said Vaughan.

“Unless they change their mentali-ty when playing the moving ball, thereare going to be many more days like thisover the coming weeks.

“You wouldn’t want to have third-dayTest tickets for the Ashes.”

But another former England captain,Alastair Cook, said all was not lost forJoe Root’s side against the Irish.

“England are still in this game,which is remarkable after getting bowledout for 85 batting first. “They will haveto bat very well now but anything over160-170 will be incredibly hard for thisIreland side to chase.”

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Ireland rocked England afternightwatchman Jack Leachfell just short of what would

have been a remarkable Test hun-dred as the visitors pressed for ashock victory at Lord's onThursday.

England were 209 for five intheir second innings at tea on thesecond day, a lead of just 87 runs.

Leach made 92, his highestfirst-class score, after being sentin as a nightwatchman onWednesday.

That was more than the 85 allout England, with Leach at num-ber 11, managed between them intheir first innings as veteranIreland seamer Tim Murtaghtook 5-13 on his Middlesex homeground on Wednesday.

Leach and Test debutantJason Roy, who made 72, put on145 for the second wicket.

But from 171-1, England lostfour wickets for 23 runs as theyslumped to194-5 in what isIreland's first Test against themand just their third in total.

England resumed on theirovernight 0-0 after Ireland hadmade 207, featuring AndrewBalbirnie's 55.

The one-off fixture wasscheduled to last four days, ratherthan the standard five for a Test.

Wednesday had seen Englandbowled out in a single session forthe fourth time since 2016 -- aworrying sign ahead of an Ashesseries that starts next week.

Unexpected opener Leach,

who survived a Murtagh maidenon Wednesday, played watchful-ly straight.

And when fast bowler BoydRankin, the first cricketer sincethe Nawab of Pataudi in 1946 toboth play for and against Englandin a Test match, dropped short,Leach cut him for four.

Left-hander Rory Burns fellfor six when he pushed hard atRankin away from his body andedged a simple catch behind towicketkeeper Gary Wilson.

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England's problem position ofTest opener his own after starringin their World Cup triumph, off-drove a four off paceman MarkAdair and hoisted off-spinnerAndy McBrine for six.

Leach went to 47 with astraight-driven four off StuartThompson before his edgedboundary through third man offthe medium-pacer saw theSomerset left-arm spinner to his

fifty.It was a fine effort by Leach,

playing his fifth Test but first onhome soil.

And when Roy cutThompson to the point fence, hecompleted a 47-ball fifty includ-ing seven fours and a six.

The bespectacled Leachshould have been out for 72when he edged Rankin, only forWilson to drop the chance despitegetting both hands to the ball.

Roy, however, was bowledfor that score by a Thompson in-ducker.

Leach had another reprieveon 92 when he edged Murtaghonly for Adair, standing excep-tionally close at second slip, todrop the chance.

But two balls later a softer,defensive, edge went straight toAdair and this time he made nomistake.

Leach, who had been in sightof an achievement that eludedbatting greats Brian Lara, RickyPonting and Sachin Tendulkar —a Test hundred at Lord's —walked slowly off to a standingovation after batting for 220 min-utes and facing 162 balls, hitting16 fours.

At 182-3, England were only60 ahead and they then suffereda self-inflicted wound when JoeDenly was run out after being sentback by Root when the skipperwas already two-thirds of theway down the pitch.

And when Adair had JonnyBairstow lbw for a duck, Irelandwere back on top.

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Niroshan Dickwella andDanushka Gunathilaka

are among the five playerswho have been dropped fromthe 22-member Sri Lankasquad initially picked for thethree-match ODI seriesagainst Bangladesh startingtoday.

Amila Aponso, LakshanSandakan and LahiruMadusanka are the otherthree players who failed tofind a spot in the final 17-member squad for the ODIseries. Meanwhile, ShehanJayasuriya, WaninduHasaranga, Akila Dananjaya,Lahiru Kumara and DasunShanaka have all been includ-ed in the squad.

After the first match of theseries Dasun Shanaka willtake Malinga’s place for theremaining two matches whichwill be played on July 28 and31.

Sri Lanka squad: DimuthKarunaratne (c), Kusal Perera,

Avishka Fernando, KusalMendis, Angelo Mathews,Lahiru Thirimane, ShehanJayasuriya, Dhananjaya deSilva, Wanindu Hasaranga,Akila Dananjaya, LasithMalinga (1st ODI), NuwanPradeep, Lahiru Kumara,Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana,Kasun Rajitha, DasunShanaka (2nd and 3rd ODI).

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American Reilly Opelkaupset John Isner with a

7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5)victory in the second roundof the Atlanta Open here.

The loss on Wednesdayby the tournament's top seedgave Isner his earliest exit atthis event in 10 appearances.

The 21-year-old Opelkasaved three break pointswhile serving at 4-5 in thethird set, including two con-secutively from 15/40 as heserved his way out of trou-ble.

The unseeded Opelkaalso defeated Isner at theAustralian Open and at theNew York Open in February,where he went on to win hisfirst ATP title.

“I was clutch on bigmoments in the match. First-set tie-break I played unbe-

lievable, pretty much flaw-less, hit some great shots,”Opelka said.

“It’s so hard to play threetie-breaks with him becausethere’s just so much pressure,there’s so much stress forthree hours straight. It’stough. I’m thrilled to getthrough.”

Isner was the two-timedefending champion andhad reached the Atlanta finalin nine of his 10 appear-ances.

“It’s his tournament. Italways will be. Definitely atough guy to beat in Atlanta,”Opelka said.

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Partnering JonathanErlich, India’s Divij Sharanwill test his skills against thelegendary Bryan brothers,Mike and Bob, in the ATP

Atlanta Open quarterfinalclash here.

Sharan and Erlich camefrom behind to beat MiomirKecmanovic and RobertLindstedt 2-6, 6-3, 13-11 inthe first round of the ATP250 event.

The Bryans, who havewon more than 100 ATPdoubles titles together, oust-ed fellow American wildcard pair of ChristopherEubanks and Donald Young6-4, 6-2 in their opener.

In the bottom half of thedraw, veteran Leander Paesand his partner Marius Copilmade a first-round exit fol-lowing a close 6-7(2), 4-6defeat to British-Americancombination of Taylor Fritzand Cameron Norrie.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran,the only Indian featuring inthe singles draw, had lost hisfirst round on Wednesday.

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