1dsvtcbtbbx^]qtvx]bc^sphbp]b;^? - daily pioneer

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T he riot-hit areas of North- east Delhi, which had wit- nessed the dance of death in the last four days, seemed to be returning to normalcy on Thursday with heavy deploy- ment of the Delhi Police and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) on roads. Although no violence was reported on Wednesday and Thursday, there was palpable sense of fear in the areas. The security forces con- ducted flag march in the areas that saw communal violence over the CAA. Meanwhile, two more male bodies were found in a drain in Johri Enclave on Thursday. A few case arsons in Maujpur, Bhajanpura and other areas were reported in the wee hours of Thursday. Some vehicles shops were set on fire. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police booked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain for alleged involve- ment in communal riots and the murder of an IB official, Ankit Sharma. Reaction quick- ely, the AAP on Thursday evening suspended its Nehru Vihar councillor from prima- ry membership of party till completion of probe. Hussain has been slapped with other charges under var- ious sections of the IPC, a senior police official said. Police also took possession of all the incendiary materials found from his house and sealed the house. His other premises, including the office and shop, were also sealed, they said. Police have received the autopsy to the slain Intelligence Bureau staffer whose body was fished out from Chand Bagh drain flowing near the house of Hussain. Ankit was repeatedly stabbed over hours and there was not even a single part of his body that was left without stab injuries, said sources, adding that his intestines were ripped apart and he had suffered unimaginable brutality. Earlier, in Yamuna Vihar, three to four people were seen burning vehicles on Thursday around 4 am. A few kilometres away, a charred board of a pri- vate school in Brijpuri read “Welcome to a very happy school.” The 52-year-old Arun Modern Senior Secondary School looks no less than a cemetery, said an official, look- ing around at the damage which he estimated to be over 70 lakh. Most shops were closed with their shutters bearing marks of the violence that it had witnessed over the last few days and people chose to stay indoors. Some of the residents in Chand Bagh and Jaffrabad were seen on Thursday clean- ing the roads which were lit- tered with stones and sticks. On Thursday, the Delhi Police transferred the riots probe to the Crime Branch and formed two Special Investigation Teams (SITs). “The situation in the North-east is normal right now and no untoward incident has been reported today. Sufficient force has been deployed at every area and senior officers are monitoring the situation. The numbers of distress call have been reduced. We have received call on the two help lines which we released yesterday,” said Mandeep Singh Randhawa, the Additional Commissioner of Police, Crime. “A total of 48 First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered for arson, looting and the deaths. Police have evidence and registering FIRs. Police conducted around 350 meetings with Aman Committee in Delhi specifically in North-east district,” said Randhawa. “The investigation of the cases is going on and police have received evidence. Police teams are also conduct- ing raids in different areas to nab the miscreants involved in arson and rioting,” Randhwa further said. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had visited the Northeast Delhi’s riots affected areas, a day earlier to calm sen- timents and also reassured people that the security forces were standing by them. On Thursday, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) postponed Class 10 and 12 exams scheduled on February 28 and 29 in the vio- lence-hit Northeast Delhi and parts of East Delhi. “In view of a request received from the Delhi Government and to avoid inconvenience to students, staff and parents, the exams sched- uled for February 28 and 29 in Northeast Delhi and other affected areas stand cancelled. The next date for the affected students will be notified short- ly,” said Anurag Tripathi, CBSE Secretary adding that all exams in all centres across Delhi will be conducted as per original sched- ule from March 2 onwards. Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Thursday asked Sundari Nanda, the Special Commissioner of police (vigilance) to meet the families of Delhi violence vic- tims and ensure all possible assistance to them. A fter fire and smoke, gun shots and shouts for help in the riot-hit North-east Delhi gave way to an eerie silence, an all-out political war erupted over the violence on Thursday. While the Congress charged Home Minister Amit Shah of with “abdication of duty”, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar accused top Congress leaders of making inflammatory speeches to pro- voke communal violence. The NCP alleging that “Gujarat model” has been repli- cated in Delhi, and called for Shah’s resignation. Left parties wrote to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal assuring him of their help in efforts to bring peace and communal harmo- ny and blamed the Centre for its ineffective Delhi Police. Sonia-led a delegation of Congress leaders to President Ram Nath Kovind, called for the resignation of Amit Shah and reminded the Centre of its “raj dharma”. Questioning Shah’s role, Sonia asked where he was as the violence spread across north-east Delhi. “What was he preoccupied with since last Sunday that he was unable, apparently, to give his attention to these grave events? For that matter, the Delhi Chief Minister, and the newly elected Delhi Government were also com- pletely missing from the scene. “There was clearly a shock- ing and, in this day and age, unpardonable failure of intelli- gence agencies leading up to these heart-breaking events. Was there any information provided which could have helped prevent escalation of violence or was it not acted upon by the Home Ministry?” she asked. T he Government’s decision to shift Delhi High Court judge Justice S Muralidhar, hours after he slammed the police for not registering a case against three BJP leaders for their alleged hate speeches, has triggered a major row. While the Congress said the “midnight” notification was “shameful”, the Centre accused the Opposition party of politicising a “routine” shift on the February 12 recom- mendation of the Supreme Court collegium. The Opposition has flagged “timing” of the decision as its main concern and also reminded the Centre that it sat on Supreme Court’s collegium recommendation for months when it did not suit its interests. The Union Law Ministry on Wednesday issued three separate notifications for the transfer of Justice Muralidhar and two other judges — Justice Ranjit Vasantrao More of the Bombay High Court and Justice Ravi Vijay Kumar Malimath of the Karnataka High Court. Justice Muralidhar was transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court. The notifications said President Ram Nath Kovind approved the transfers after consulting the Chief Justice of India. The Supreme Court Collegium, in a meeting on February 12, had recommend- ed transfer of Justice Muralidhar to Punjab and Haryana High Court. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Justice Muralidhar was transferred on the recom- mendation of the Supreme Court Collegium and accused the Opposition party of politi- cising a routine transfer. Continued on Page 4 T he Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has postponed Class X and XII examinations sched- uled for February 28 and 29 in the violence-hit North-east Delhi and parts of East Delhi, officials said. The exam postponement announcement by the CBSE came for the third time this week due to communal vio- lence in North-east Delhi over the amended citizenship law which has claimed 38 lives. “In view of a request received from the Delhi Government and to avoid inconvenience to students, staff and parents, the exams sched- uled for February 28 and 29 in North-east Delhi and other affected areas stand cancelled. The next date for the affected students will be notified short- ly,” CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi said. “All exams in all centres across Delhi will be conducted as per original schedule from March 2 onwards,” he said. The board announced that it will conduct fresh exams for students who have not been able to appear for the papers in other parts of the national capital due to the vio- lence. C hief Minister Hemant Soren today said that jour- nalists are backbone of func- tional democracy and the pain through which the journalists and their kin are going across brings immense grief for him. The CM gave the statement after coming across a tweet about the illness of an impov- erished scribe. The CM on Thursday came to through a Tweet that a scribe working with a ver- nacular daily Prahlad Rana suffered from brain haemor- rhage. He is being treated at Raj Hospital. Due to financial con- straints, Pralhad needs to be shifted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), but the hospital management is not allowing him to shift to any other hospital because he is unable to pay the hospital bill. Continued on page 4 T he Budget Session of fifth Jharkhand Assembly will commence on Friday (February 28) and will con- clude till March 28. However, the session will be different from earlier session as for the first time in parliamentary his- tory of Jharkhand since the cre- ation of separate State in 2000, there will be no leader of oppo- sition (LoP) in the House even after two months of Assembly election. Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahto is yet to accord Leader of Opposition (LoP) status to Babulal Marandi, who was elected as BJP legislative party leader on February 24. Former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, who headed the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha on February 17 merged his party with BJP. A week later on February 24, he was elected as BJP legislative party leader in Assembly. The BJP on same day submitted the letter to Speaker’s house about the elec- tion of Marandi as BJP legisla- tive party leader. On the other hand, two other legislators of JVM— Pradeep Yadav MLA from Poreyahat and Bandhu Tirkey MLA from Mandar too joined Congress claiming themselves as real faction of JVM. As both the factions have claimed to be original JVM, the Speaker is yet to decide which faction will be considered as the real JVM. Moreover, the Speaker has also assigned seat to none of these three leaders—Babulal Marandi, Pradeep Yadav or Bandhu Tirkey. Speaker Mahto said, “As the matter is technical we have sought the guidelines of legal experts over the decision of Leader of Opposition (LoP).” Meanwhile, the BJP boy- cotted the all party meet called by Speaker Ravindra Nath Mahto ahead of budget session. The Speaker had invited senior BJP leader CP Singh for the meeting, but he refused to attend the meeting saying that their leader is Marandi in House. The boycott of BJP from all party meet indicates that the budget session is likely to wit- ness stormy session as the BJP is going to raise issue as BJP is likely to raise the State gov- ernment’s reported move to rollback the Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirward Yojana. The BJP will also raise the issue of reports that another welfare scheme might be withdrawn by the JMM- Congress-RJD coali- tion government led by Hemant Soren. Continued on page 4

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

� ��� ���� �� ������ �������� ��� � ���������� ����������� ��������������� !������������������������� "������� ���������#����������������������� !$�����������%��%������������������ �� ���������������������������� ��&�" '(������ ������������ �����������������������&���)���������������'*������ �����+*����������������� �����#����%�������&������������������������������������� !$������������������

�� ������������ ,-#��-./�

The riot-hit areas of North-east Delhi, which had wit-

nessed the dance of death in thelast four days, seemed to bereturning to normalcy onThursday with heavy deploy-ment of the Delhi Police andCentral Armed Police Forces(CAPFs) on roads. Althoughno violence was reported onWednesday and Thursday,there was palpable sense of fearin the areas.

The security forces con-ducted flag march in the areasthat saw communal violenceover the CAA.

Meanwhile, two more malebodies were found in a drain inJohri Enclave on Thursday. Afew case arsons in Maujpur,Bhajanpura and other areaswere reported in the wee hoursof Thursday. Some vehiclesshops were set on fire.

Meanwhile, the DelhiPolice booked Aam AadmiParty (AAP) councillor TahirHussain for alleged involve-ment in communal riots andthe murder of an IB official,Ankit Sharma. Reaction quick-ely, the AAP on Thursdayevening suspended its NehruVihar councillor from prima-ry membership of party tillcompletion of probe.

Hussain has been slappedwith other charges under var-ious sections of the IPC, asenior police official said. Policealso took possession of all theincendiary materials foundfrom his house and sealed thehouse. His other premises,including the office and shop,were also sealed, they said.

Police have received theautopsy to the slain IntelligenceBureau staffer whose body was

fished out from Chand Baghdrain flowing near the house ofHussain. Ankit was repeatedlystabbed over hours and therewas not even a single part of hisbody that was left without stabinjuries, said sources, addingthat his intestines were rippedapart and he had sufferedunimaginable brutality.

Earlier, in Yamuna Vihar,three to four people were seenburning vehicles on Thursdayaround 4 am. A few kilometresaway, a charred board of a pri-vate school in Brijpuri read“Welcome to a very happyschool.” The 52-year-old ArunModern Senior SecondarySchool looks no less than acemetery, said an official, look-ing around at the damage whichhe estimated to be over �70 lakh.

Most shops were closedwith their shutters bearingmarks of the violence that ithad witnessed over the last fewdays and people chose to stayindoors. Some of the residentsin Chand Bagh and Jaffrabadwere seen on Thursday clean-ing the roads which were lit-tered with stones and sticks.

On Thursday, the DelhiPolice transferred the riots probeto the Crime Branch and formedtwo Special Investigation Teams(SITs). “The situation in theNorth-east is normal right nowand no untoward incident hasbeen reported today. Sufficientforce has been deployed at everyarea and senior officers aremonitoring the situation. Thenumbers of distress call havebeen reduced. We have receivedcall on the two help lines whichwe released yesterday,” saidMandeep Singh Randhawa, theAdditional Commissioner ofPolice, Crime.

“A total of 48 First

Information Reports (FIRs)have been registered for arson,looting and the deaths. Policehave evidence and registeringFIRs. Police conducted around350 meetings with AmanCommittee in Delhi specificallyin North-east district,” saidRandhawa. “The investigationof the cases is going on andpolice have received evidence.Police teams are also conduct-ing raids in different areas tonab the miscreants involved inarson and rioting,” Randhwafurther said.

National Security AdviserAjit Doval had visited theNortheast Delhi’s riots affectedareas, a day earlier to calm sen-timents and also reassuredpeople that the security forceswere standing by them.

On Thursday, the CentralBoard of Secondary Education(CBSE) postponed Class 10and 12 exams scheduled onFebruary 28 and 29 in the vio-lence-hit Northeast Delhi andparts of East Delhi.

“In view of a requestreceived from the DelhiGovernment and to avoidinconvenience to students, staffand parents, the exams sched-uled for February 28 and 29 inNortheast Delhi and otheraffected areas stand cancelled.The next date for the affectedstudents will be notified short-ly,” said Anurag Tripathi, CBSESecretary adding that all examsin all centres across Delhi will beconducted as per original sched-ule from March 2 onwards.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal onThursday asked Sundari Nanda,the Special Commissioner ofpolice (vigilance) to meet thefamilies of Delhi violence vic-tims and ensure all possibleassistance to them.

���� ,-#��-./�

After fire and smoke, gunshots and shouts for help in

the riot-hit North-east Delhigave way to an eerie silence, anall-out political war eruptedover the violence on Thursday.While the Congress chargedHome Minister Amit Shah ofwith “abdication of duty”,Union Minister PrakashJavadekar accused topCongress leaders of makinginflammatory speeches to pro-voke communal violence.

The NCP alleging that“Gujarat model” has been repli-cated in Delhi, and called forShah’s resignation. Left partieswrote to Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal assuring himof their help in efforts to bringpeace and communal harmo-

ny and blamed the Centre forits ineffective Delhi Police.

Sonia-led a delegation ofCongress leaders to PresidentRam Nath Kovind, called for theresignation of Amit Shah andreminded the Centre of its “rajdharma”. Questioning Shah’srole, Sonia asked where he wasas the violence spread acrossnorth-east Delhi. “What was hepreoccupied with since lastSunday that he was unable,apparently, to give his attentionto these grave events? For that

matter, the Delhi Chief Minister,and the newly elected DelhiGovernment were also com-pletely missing from the scene.

“There was clearly a shock-ing and, in this day and age,unpardonable failure of intelli-gence agencies leading up tothese heart-breaking events.Was there any informationprovided which could havehelped prevent escalation ofviolence or was it not actedupon by the Home Ministry?”she asked.

���� ,-#��-./�

The Government’s decisionto shift Delhi High Court

judge Justice S Muralidhar,hours after he slammed thepolice for not registering acase against three BJP leadersfor their alleged hate speeches,has triggered a major row.

While the Congress saidthe “midnight” notificationwas “shameful”, the Centreaccused the Opposition partyof politicising a “routine” shifton the February 12 recom-

mendation of the SupremeCourt collegium.

The Opposition hasflagged “timing” of the decisionas its main concern and alsoreminded the Centre that it saton Supreme Court’s collegiumrecommendation for monthswhen it did not suit its interests.

The Union Law Ministryon Wednesday issued threeseparate notifications for thetransfer of Justice Muralidharand two other judges — Justice

Ranjit Vasantrao More of theBombay High Court andJustice Ravi Vijay KumarMalimath of the KarnatakaHigh Court. Justice Muralidharwas transferred to the Punjab& Haryana High Court.

The notifications saidPresident Ram Nath Kovindapproved the transfers afterconsulting the Chief Justice ofIndia.

The Supreme CourtCollegium, in a meeting onFebruary 12, had recommend-ed transfer of JusticeMuralidhar to Punjab andHaryana High Court.

Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said Justice Muralidharwas transferred on the recom-mendation of the SupremeCourt Collegium and accusedthe Opposition party of politi-cising a routine transfer.

Continued on Page 4

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The Central Board ofSecondary Education

(CBSE) has postponed Class Xand XII examinations sched-uled for February 28 and 29 inthe violence-hit North-eastDelhi and parts of East Delhi,officials said.

The exam postponementannouncement by the CBSEcame for the third time thisweek due to communal vio-lence in North-east Delhi overthe amended citizenship lawwhich has claimed 38 lives.

“In view of a requestreceived from the DelhiGovernment and to avoid

inconvenience to students, staffand parents, the exams sched-uled for February 28 and 29 inNorth-east Delhi and otheraffected areas stand cancelled.The next date for the affectedstudents will be notified short-ly,” CBSE Secretary AnuragTripathi said.

“All exams in all centresacross Delhi will be conductedas per original schedule fromMarch 2 onwards,” he said.

The board announcedthat it will conduct freshexams for students who havenot been able to appear for thepapers in other parts of thenational capital due to the vio-lence.

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Chief Minister HemantSoren today said that jour-

nalists are backbone of func-tional democracy and the painthrough which the journalistsand their kin are going acrossbrings immense grief for him.The CM gave the statementafter coming across a tweetabout the illness of an impov-erished scribe.

The CM on Thursdaycame to through a Tweet thata scribe working with a ver-nacular daily Prahlad Ranasuffered from brain haemor-rhage. He is being treated at RajHospital. Due to financial con-

straints, Pralhad needs to beshifted to Rajendra Institute ofMedical Sciences (RIMS), butthe hospital management is notallowing him to shift to anyother hospital because he isunable to pay the hospital bill.

Continued on page 4

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The Budget Session of fifthJharkhand Assembly will

commence on Friday(February 28) and will con-clude till March 28. However,the session will be differentfrom earlier session as for thefirst time in parliamentary his-tory of Jharkhand since the cre-ation of separate State in 2000,there will be no leader of oppo-sition (LoP) in the House evenafter two months of Assemblyelection.

Speaker Ravindra NathMahto is yet to accord Leaderof Opposition (LoP) status toBabulal Marandi, who waselected as BJP legislative partyleader on February 24. FormerChief Minister Babulal

Marandi, who headed theJharkhand Vikas Morcha onFebruary 17 merged his partywith BJP. A week later onFebruary 24, he was elected asBJP legislative party leader inAssembly. The BJP on sameday submitted the letter toSpeaker’s house about the elec-tion of Marandi as BJP legisla-tive party leader.

On the other hand, twoother legislators of JVM—Pradeep Yadav MLA fromPoreyahat and Bandhu TirkeyMLA from Mandar too joinedCongress claiming themselvesas real faction of JVM.

As both the factions haveclaimed to be original JVM, theSpeaker is yet to decide whichfaction will be considered as thereal JVM.

Moreover, the Speaker hasalso assigned seat to none ofthese three leaders—BabulalMarandi, Pradeep Yadav orBandhu Tirkey.

Speaker Mahto said, “Asthe matter is technical we havesought the guidelines of legalexperts over the decision of

Leader of Opposition (LoP).”Meanwhile, the BJP boy-

cotted the all party meet calledby Speaker Ravindra NathMahto ahead of budget session.The Speaker had invited seniorBJP leader CP Singh for themeeting, but he refused toattend the meeting saying that

their leader is Marandi inHouse.

The boycott of BJP from allparty meet indicates that thebudget session is likely to wit-ness stormy session as the BJPis going to raise issue as BJP islikely to raise the State gov-ernment’s reported move to

rollback the MukhyamantriKrishi Ashirward Yojana. TheBJP will also raise the issue ofreports that another welfarescheme might be withdrawn bythe JMM- Congress-RJD coali-tion government led byHemant Soren.

Continued on page 4

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The Jharkhand StatePollution Control Board's

(JSPCB) regional office organ-ised a workshop on 'Effectivemanagement of biomedicalwaste and implementation ofQR code' at the AdityapurSmall Industries Association(ASIA) hall on Thursday.

A team from JSPCBincluding its regional officerSuresh Paswan attended theworkshop. More than 100health care facility represen-

tatives in all the three districtsof Kolhan took part in theworkshop.

During the workshop thehospital representatives wereexplained how to weigh every-day waste using a digital plat-form Safe bio.

Founder of Safe BioAshok Kumar from Delhi whohas partnered with the JSPCBfor tracking and monitoring ofbiomedical waste explainedthe process to the representa-tives.

"Bio medical waste man-agement is the need of thehour. Many hospitals are notfollowing a method to safelydispose the biomedical wasteand thus this tracking systemwas necessary.

Everything will be man-aged digitally. From picking

up the waste to its disposal.Everything will be trackedand reported on an everydaybasis. In fact biomedical wasteneeds to be disposed of with-in 48 hours," said Paswan.

As per our plans thehealthcare facilities (HCF)will need to first registerthemselves on a particularlink given on the JSPCB web-site following which they willreceive four different QRcodes through courier.

These QR code stickerswill be put on the bio wastebaskets of four colours- yel-low, red, blue and white.

They shall also thendownload and register on theSafebio mobile app to get alogin id and password.

After the waste collec-tion per day, the QR codes

need to be scanned beforepicked up by the CommonBio-Medical Waste TreatmentFacility (CBMWTF). TheJSPCB shall charge Rs 7 perbed for each HCF for the ser-vice. Kolhan division cur-rently has around 357 HCFwhich will need to follow thenew system.

“Bio-medical wastes likeused gauze and bandages lyingstrewn, used injectionsyringes lying scattered andparts of human bodies likeplacenta are lying exposed onthe hospital premises, causingserious environmental haz-ards. At a several places,water-logging has generatedground for mosquito breed-ing.

Uncleaned lavatories andshippage of rain water are also

emitting offending smellthroughout the hospitalpremises. Immediate stepsmust be taken to ensure thatnew incinerator is set up,” saida Manoj Kumar, a humanrights activist.

He noted that hazardoushealthcare waste (also knownas healthcare risk waste) needsspecial regulation, but gener-al wastes can be dealt with bymunicipal waste disposalmechanisms. There are dif-ferent categories of healthcarewaste.

The one way to preventthe spread is proper biomed-ical waste disposal and adop-tion of universal precautions.Every surface in a healthcaresetting needs to be assumedinfected unless proven other-wise.

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Nand Ghar’ the flagshipCSR project of Vedanta

has been awarded with the ‘ETNow World CSR Awards -2020’ for ‘Best CSR Practices’.Khurram Naayaab, the Head –Operations of Nand Ghar pro-ject received the award in a glit-tering function held atMumbai.

Naayaab was also recog-nised as one of the “101Fabulous CSR leaders” global-ly by ET Now in the event,informed Vivek Anand, PublicRelation Officer Vedanta-Electrosteel, he said.

Vedanta’s Nand Ghar pro-ject is one of the largest com-munity investment projectsimplemented by any corporatein India,

We are committed to thePrime Minister’s national visionof eradicating child malnutri-tion, providing education,healthcare and empoweringwomen with skill developmentwith Nand Ghar project, saidAnand adding “Aims to touchlives of around 4 million com-

munity members while direct-ly impacting around 2,00,000children and around 1,80,000women on an annual basis.”

We take pride in holisti-cally supporting India in itsmarch towards progress, hesaid.

By fulfilling the PM’s com-mitment towards SwacchBharat, Beti Bachao Beti

Padhao and Startup India byequipping Nand Ghars withtelevisions for e-learning, solarpanels for reliable power, safedrinking water and clean toiletswe are at work to transformlives of about 8.5 crore childrenand 2 crore women across 13.7lakh Anganwadi Centers inthe country through NandGhars, said Anand.

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Bokaro district administra-tion is preparing to come

down heavily on illegal rationcard holders. The districtadministration has issued anorder and appealed the affluentpersons to surrender theirration cards issued underAntyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)within the next 30 days other-wise stringent action would betaken against them.

“Last year (2019) a total of5490 ineligible ration cardsunder Antyodaya Anna Yojana(AAY) were surrendered anddeleted following the directiveof deputy commissioner. But, alot of ineligible persons oraffluent persons are still havingration cards, despite givingsufficient time to surrender,”

said S P Singh, SDM Chas.Such people must surrender

their ration cards at their nearbyPDS shops at the earliest.Otherwise, they would be penal-ized and criminal case will be reg-istered against them, he added.

In order to identify the inel-igible ration card holders, adoor-to-door inquiry wouldbe conducted; strict disciplinaryaction will against those peoplewho found with an ineligiblecard, said the District SupplyOfficer. A fine of Rs one lakhalong with three times marketvalue of the goods, which theypurchased from a PDS shop,will be recovered from suchineligible persons, he said.

There are eight-pointguidelines for the ineligiblepersons of AAY card includes:Any family member having

vehicles including two-wheel-ers, Any family member havingbusiness with TIN (taxpayeridentification number) or paysIncome Tax, Service Tax orSales Tax, Any memberemployed with Central or StateGovernment, Family havingAir Conditions, Refrigeratorsor Washing Machine, Familyhaving more than five acres ofirrigated land or ten acres ofnormal land, Family having athree-roomed concrete house,Family having agricultureapparatus running on fourwheels were ineligible to getration AAY cards, informed anofficial.

The action would also betaken against PDS shopkeepers,giving ration to the affluentpeople; their license will becancelled, said the official.

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With throbbing heart beatsand pulsating nerves stu-

dents of the city participated inthe Indian Certificate ofSecondary Education (ICSE)examination began here onThursday. Nervousness ruledthe campus as students madelast minutes revision and dis-cussions with their classmates.Over 4,000 students from var-ious ICSE schools are partici-pating in the examinations.The first day’s paper wasEnglish language.

Candidates failing to clearthe exams this year will get asecond chance by taking com-partmental tests, which will beheld in July. The results will bepublished in August. But onlythose candidates, who will failto pass in only one subject,other than English, in the mainexams can avail of the oppor-

tunity.The CISCE has banned

digital watches and electronicsgadgets inside exam halls.

The students appearingfor the ICSE examination

(class 10th) said that the ques-tions were straightforwardhowever the paper was lengthydue to which they had tostruggle to complete the paperon time.

"I felt that the paper wasquite easy but it was a bitlengthy. However, length doesnot matter as long as you knowthe answers," said a student ofDBMS.

School authoritiesinformed said that specialarrangements have been madefor the 10th and 12th exami-nation. A flying squad hasbeen constituted to keep a vigillook on the examinationprocess. The exams will con-tinue till March end and theresults are expected to bedeclared in the second week ofMay.

Principals of the schoolsalso felt that the first day of thepaper was satisfactory and stu-dents looked contended afteranswering the papers. Thoughthe first timers, answering ICSEwere quite nervous, thingsbecame easier once they start-ed answering.

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The air in Ranchi will soonbe free of dust and pollu-

tion. Ranchiites can also lookforward to some spic and spanroads. Hi- tech mechanicalsweeping machines are expect-ed to make their debut on cityroads in the coming month.

Ranchi MunicipalCorporation (RMC) will soonstart using mechanical sweep-ing machines to clean theroads. The machines whicharrived in Ranchi on February13 will be operational once allthe administrative and techni-cal formalities are complete.

“A three- member inspec-tion team from IIT Patnainspected the machines onFebruary 24. The delegation islikely to give their report in thenext 10 days. Other formalitiesrelated to insurance, setting upthe control room are also inprocess and will be completedsoon. The routes on whichthese hi- tech machines will be

used will also be finalizedshortly. RMC is keen to startthe service at the earliest,” saidDeputy MunicipalCommissioner Shankar Yadav.

RMC has signed an agree-ment with Delhi based com-pany- Lions Services Limited tooperate these vehicles. Thecivic body will be payingapproximately Rs 25 Lakh forthe operation and maintenanceof the vehicles on a monthlybasis.

The machines include two

big and one small vehicle. Thebigger vehicles have a capaci-ty of about five tonnes each andwill be used on broad four laneroads while the smaller onewith a capacity of three tonneswill be seen on two lane roadsin the City. The equipmentscome fitted with GPS systemand CCTV cameras.

“Cleaning the streets man-ually not only causes pollutionbut also disturbs the traffic.These machines will absorbfine dust particles from the

roads and also clean in thespace between the dividers. Itwill also remove grease and oilfrom the surface without dam-aging the roads,” said an RMCofficial.

As per the agreement, thevehicles will cover a distance of121 Kms on a daily basis as apart of the sweeping process. Atotal of nine corridors orroutes- C1 to C9 will be iden-tified by the civic body wherethe vehicles will be opera-tional.

Sweeping on these markedroutes will either be done on adaily basis, alternate days, twicein a week or once in a weekdepending on the population ofthe locality.

For monitoring the smoothoperations of mechanicalsweeping, a control room isalso being set up by the civicbody. In order to avoid anyconvenience to the residents,the vehicles will be seen plyingthe roads of the Capital Cityfrom 10 pm to 6 am.

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Athree-day conference on‘Social Work Practice,

Emerging Trends andChallenges’ commencing onFriday will mark the GoldenJubilee of the Department ofPsychiatric Social Work at theCentral Institute of Psychiatry(CIP), Ranchi.

The conference will alsomark the completion of 50years of the Indian Society ofProfessional Social Work(ISPW) – a national conglom-erate of psychiatric social work-ers and doctors constituted inRanchi half a century ago.

“It is a proud moment forall of us at CIP that an initia-tive taken at this institute 50years ago has reached newheights. Today, the society is indire need of more psychiatricsocial workers, and the con-ference will focus on the vari-ous challenges and emergingtrends in the field of psychiatric

social work,” said CIP DirectorDr. D Ram.

Psychiatric social work is afield of psychiatry that helpsmental health patients reinte-grate in the society after theirtreatment is over. This processrequires expert guidance due tothe stigma and superstitionsrelated to mental illnesses inIndia, especially the rural soci-

ety, said doctors. A psychiatricsocial worker also helpspatients cope withunfavourable social conditionsthat may aggravate their men-tal illnesses. These profession-als study the social settings ofa patient, help him or heradjust in it, and also spreadawareness about the variousmental health concerns.

One of the most commonobjectives of psychiatric socialwork is to identify substanceabuse and initiate treatment forde-addiction.

Substance abuse is ofteneither a reason or an outcomeof an adverse social surround-ing or situation, said doctors ofthe institute. “People oftendevelop the tendency of sub-

stance abuse at a young age.And it gradually starts affect-ing their mental health depend-ing on the social surrounding,”said Dr. Christoday RJ Khess,the Director Professor ofPsychiatry at the institute. “Forinstance, if a man addicted toalcohol or marijuana gets mar-ried, his spouse may get toknow about his addiction andraise objections.

The patient in this situa-tion feels helpless and reliesmore on substance as he feelsthat his family fails to under-stand him,” added Dr. Khess,who is also the director for theconference.

CIP Director Dr. D Ramsaid that there are four pillarssupporting the larger umbrel-la of psychiatry. The four, hesaid, are psychiatrists, clinicalpsychologists, psychiatric socialworkers and psychiatric nurs-es. “We need a balance betweenall the four pillars in order toeffective address mental healthissues. There are many mentalhealth disorders that requiresupport from more than one ofthese pillars. For instance, onlymedicines may not treat apatient of depression. He or shemay also require psychothera-py,” said Ram.

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The State Capital is all set towelcome President of India,

Ram Nath Kovind who willarrive here on Friday on his twoday visit of the State.

President Kovind will bethe Chief Guest for the convo-cation ceremony at the CentralUniversity of Jharkhand (CUJ)and will also inaugurate its newcampus at Cheri Manatu area.The Ranchi district adminis-tration hass completed securi-ty arrangements for thePresident’s visit to Ranchi.

On his two- day visit toRanchi, the President and thefirst lady will land at the BirsaMunda Airport on February 28at 1:35 pm and is expected toreach CUJ at 4:40 pm.

After the convocation cer-emony, the President will inau-gurate the newly constructeduniversity building at Cheri-Manatu area in the StateCapital.

On February 29, Kovindwill attend a Vikas Bharti pro-gramme at Bishnupur, Gumlaat 10:20 am and proceed toBaidyanath temple, Deoghar at

1 pm. The entourage willreturn to the Raj Bhawan onthe same day while the digni-taries are scheduled to leave forRaipur on the morning ofMarch 1.The President hadearlier visited Ranchi inSeptember 2019.

It is first convocation pro-gramme of CUJ in 10 years ofits establishment in the State.Students from five year inte-grated session, post graduate,M.Tech and PHD studentswill be awarded degree andcertificates at the first convo-cation.

In 2009, the then PresidentPratibha Devisingh Patil gaveassent to the CentralUniversities Act, 2009 thatenvisages establishing andincorporating universities for

teaching and research in thevarious states. Based on this act,the Central University ofJharkhand came into beingunder this Act on March 1,2009.

Meanwhile, the CUJadministration has made elab-orate arrangement for convo-cation. A senior faculty mem-ber requesting anonymity said,“Passing out students from thebatch 2014, 15, 16, 17, 18 and19 will receive the degree at theconvocation. The studentsincluded from five year inte-grated batches, post two yearpost graduate, PHd, M.Techand others.”

Ranchi DistrictAdministration also ready toprovide complete securitycover to the President on his

arrival of the State Capital. Inthis regard, Ranchi DeputyCommissioner (DC) RaiMahimapat Ray chaired ameeting with the concernedofficials on Tuesday and issuednecessary instructions. TheDC enquired about the prepa-rations being made for thePresident’s arrival and gavepoint wise instruction todepartment officials.

“All mandatory arrange-ment for the President’s visit arein place. His main programmein Ranchi is regarding the con-vocation at the CUJ. The dis-trict administration has madeall arrangements related tosecurity, law and order andshall ensure that the entireevent happens successfully,”said the DC.

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With the impact ofCoronavirus, the regular

Chinese products seen in themarket may go missing thisHoli. However, products Madein India are ready to add to thecolours during the festival inRanchi.

Normally traders startordering Chinese colours andpichkaris sometime in themonth of August and receivethe supply about two monthsprior to the festival. With justabout a fortnight left for Holi,there is a shortage of theseproducts.

The Indian products avail-able in the market includecolours- both natural or organ-ic and synthetic, water guns,

sprinklers, balloons and wigs.Mohit Garodia, a shop

owner in Upper Bazaar, is veryhappy with the markets beingfull of Indian items for Holi.“Every year about 80 per centof the items are imported fromChina.

But this year not even fiveper cent of Chinese productsare seen in the market. Themarket is flooded with prod-ucts Made in India, which isgreat and it is fun to sell indige-nous products. From colourfulwigs, masks, hats, designerpichkaris, water tanks are allIndian.”

“There is absolutely no dif-ference in the quality and price.So far, the customers also seemto be very happy with theproducts. People would gener-

ally opt for Chinese goods butthis time due to the lack of it,they are discovering locallymade goods,” added Garodia.

“Chinese products arequite attractive and childrenusually insist that their parentsbuy them the goods. But theIndian make is equally goodand colourful.

The lack of Chinese itemswill give a boon to the Indianeconomy and also introducethe customers to productsMade in India. Various socialmedia posts are also floatingaround urging people to notbuy any product importedfrom China. Sunscreen lotionsand sunglasses are also in hugedemand this festival season,”said another shop keeperSanjeev.4����� �$���� ����#��� �� �����*����,������ ���� #�*�� �

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Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)President and former Bihar

Chief Minister, Lalu PrasadYadav got a major setback onThursday from the MedicalBoard of Rajendra Institute ofMedical Science (RIMS), dur-ing the meeting of the Board,it was decided that the RJDSupremo need not be referredto any other institution fortreatment. His treatment willcontinue in RIMS only.

Lalu Prasad is convicted inthe fodder scam cases. He isundergoing treatment at RIMSin the State Capital. There wastalk of referring him to AIIMS.

The team of Dr UmeshPrasad, who is supervisingtreatment of Lalu Prasad,reviewed his health along with

complete files related toPrasad’s treatment at the meet-ing of the board. The boardconsisted of doctors fromdepartments of medicine,surgery, bone, eye, radiology,cardiology, urology, neurologyand psychiatry. After seeing themedical history of Prasad, theboard said that there is no needto send him for treatment else-where. He is under propertreatment at RIMS and it willbe continued further.

After seeing the medicalreport of Prasad, who was suf-fering from 12 serious dis-eases, the board said that helpwill be sought from the expertnephrologists in respect ofserious kidney disease of RJDSupremo. If experts say thatLalu Prasad needs to be sent toAIIMS or some other hospital,

RIMS management will con-sider that. MedicalSuperintendent of RIMS, VivekKashyap said that the boardhad done a thorough study ofPrasad’s report. After checkingthe treatment and protocol, theboard said that they are pro-

viding proper treatment.It is worth mentioning that

on February 18, the unitincharge of Prasad wrote a let-ter to the RIMS managementand requested to constitute amedical board. The manage-ment was told by Prasad that

Lalu has been undergoingtreatment at RIMS for the pastone and a half years. The Courtsaid that if the doctors feel theneed to review Prasad’s healththen he can be referred to a big-ger health institution in thecountry.

Prasad is currently servinga sentence in the RC-68A / 96case and admitted to RIMS. Inthe four cases in which he hasbeen convicted, the CBI casenumbers are RC-20, 38, 64 and68 A / 96. In these cases, he hasbeen sentenced from three anda half years to a maximum of14 years.

The biggest case related toanimal husbandry scam isscandal number RC-47A / 96.This case is related to the ille-gal withdrawal of about Rs 139crore from Doranda treasury.

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Members of the InnerWheel Club (IWC) of

Swarnrekha, Ranchi executed aproject at Maher Orphanage inDelatoli, Kokar in support of‘Mission Mamta’. The initiativehas been started by the Innerwheel association PresidentMamta Gupta.

Members of club spenttime with the 20 girls in theorphanage and distributedcopies, pencils, erasers, sharp-eners, pichkaris, packets ofgulal, chocolates, fruits andchips among the children. Thegirls entertained the membersby singing songs and dancing.

The members were movedto tears thinking of the tough

life of the girls and said thatIWC Swarnrekha Ranchi willtry its best to work towardsmaking the children happy,educated, groomed and selfreliant.

Members present on thisoccasion included DebjaniSanyal, Neelam Akhauri, RinkuBanerjee, Mala Shrivastava,Sangeeta Sinha, Nita Singh,Soni Verma and NeetaNarayan.

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Health Minister BannaGupta on Thursday inau-

gurated a day care centre atSadar Hospital in Ranchi andsaid that the facility will providethe best possible treatment tonewborn babies suffering fromdiseases like Thalassemia andAnemia.

“Our purpose is to bringsmile on the faces of everychild,” said Gupta, adding thatspecial campaigns for blooddonation will be run in a bid tostrengthen the blood banks inState and ensure availability ofblood for all needy patients.“Educational institutions, vol-untary organizations andNGOs will actively participatein the campaign,” he said.

The day care center hasbeen upgraded underCorporate Social Responsibility(CSR) by ICICI Bank, a presscommuniqué from the HealthMinister’s office said. Guptasaid that neurosurgeries willalso be done in the hospitalvery soon, and it will be a hugestep towards providing qualityhealth services at Government-run facilities.

The hospital, in the heart ofthe city, currently has 200 bedsand infrastructure for 300 morebeds is under construction.Out of the existing 200 beds,150 are for maternity ward andremaining 50 for pediatrics. Atthe time of its inauguration, theGovernment decided to exclu-sively treat pregnant womenand newborns in the facility.

Sadar hospital already has

dedicated Medicine OutdoorPatient Department (OPD),Physiotherapy unit, child careOPD, Inpatient Department(IPD) and Intensive Care Unit(ICU), female care OPD, IPDand ICU, labour room andnutrition unit. “Neonataldeaths are a major concern inJharkhand. The facility will beof great help in averting suchdeaths,” said Civil Surgeon VBPrasad.

The Sample RegistrationSystem (SRS) survey of 2017revealed that the InfantMortality Rate (IMR) inJharkhand was 29 deaths per1000 live births. The figures,released in 2019, put Jharkhandamong the worst 10 states interms of neonatal deaths. Thefigures, however, haveimproved compared to 2015-2016, when the IMR in

Jharkhand was 44 deaths every1000 live births.

Gupta on Thursday alsoinaugurated Jharkhand's firstMamta Ghar. This dedicatedfacility for women will providetreatment and care to womenwho suffer from complicationsin pregnancy – before as wellas after delivering a baby. “I alsothank ICICI Bank for theirgreat work under CSR,” hesaid.

Besides Health Minister,Ranchi Deputy CommissionerRai Mahimapat Ray, CivilSurgeon VB Prasad, HealthSecretary Nitin MadanKulkarni and senior officials ofICICI Bank were present dur-ing the inaugural ceremony onThursday. Later in the day,Gupta chaired a meeting withofficials of the HealthDepartment in Ranchi.

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Close on the heels of deathof an elderly tigress fol-

lowing a fight with a bisoninside State’s lone reserve forbig cats, the Palamau TigerReserve (PTR) last week, theauthorities have decided totightened security at reserve.

According to the Status ofTigers in India report releasedby Prime Minister NarendraModi last year, it was revealedof five tigers in Jharkhand butnone in Palamu Tiger Reserve.The death of elderly tigress nowestablishes the fact that of PTRhaving bag cats.

Palamu Tiger Reserve fielddirector YK Das said, “Basedon the direct and indirect evi-dences, we had claimed thatthere are at least three tigersincluding two males and onefemale tiger at the PalamuTiger Reserve. With the deathof one tigress, we have decid-ed to tightened security atPTR.”

Das said, “Directions havebeen issued to intensify nightpatrolling in the reserve.

The forest officials alongwith local police and magistratehave been asked to conductpatrolling in the tiger reserve.”The field director claimed thatshoot at sight order has seenissued to security personnel ifthey see any poachers in thereserve.

The PTR will be closed fortourist in night.

The aged big cat was goredto death by a bison or a herd ofbison protecting its young. Thetigress was found dead on thegrass near road number 2 of the

Betla National Park — of whichthe Palamau Tiger Reserve(PTR) is a part — on the nightof February 15.

The carcass was crematedon February 16, after autopsyby a panel of five veterinarians.After the death the PTR offi-cials had closed the gate num-ber 2 for protecting the evi-dence of fight.

Das said, “Following thedeath of tigress to protect theevidence we had closed gatenumber 2 as the area had pugmarks and other evidences forten days.”

“However, in last day mostof the pug marks and other evi-dences of fight have beenwashed we have opened thegate number of PTR onTuesday (February 25).”

Moreover, the PTR havedecided to install a wooden

statue of tigress at the spotwhere the tigress was founddead. Das said, “We have askeda local artist from Chhipadoharto prepare the wooden statue ofthe tigress which is equal thesize of deceased. The statue willbe installed at the spot wherethe tigress was killed.”

Though the PTR officialsclaim that the death of tigresswas due to attack by bison,sources said that there areseveral unanswered questionsover the death of the big cat inthe Palamau Tiger Reservewhich is part of Betla NationalPark.

Moreover, IndependentMLA from Jamshedpur EastSaryu Roy too has urged theState government to order a“high level” inquiry into thedeath of the tigress in BetlaNational Park.

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From Page 1Taking cognisance of the

matter the CM asked HealthMinister Banna Gupta toarrange proper treatment ofRana. At the same time the CMinstructed DeputyCommissioner, Ranchi to takenecessary steps in the matter.

Meanwhile, the CM todayinstructed DeputyCommissioner of EastSinghbhum to take action andreport on a matter related to

lackadaisical approach of offi-cials in providing electric con-nection.

After the instruction theDC asked the ExecutiveEngineer of the Electricitydepartment to contact thecomplainant and solve hisproblem by taking appropriatesteps.

The Chief Minister wastold through a tweet that in theevent of non-payment of bribein Jamshedpur, LTIS electrici-ty connection is not beinggiven for the last one month.The Chief Minister was toldthat if the same situation per-sists, it will be difficult for smallbusinessmen and their employ-ees to survive.

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Under the PradhanMantriKaushal Vikas

Yojana, qualification packs inthe conference hall of CGM(Shops and Foundry) for thepersonnel of the Shops andFoundry Department of BSLand for the personnel of vari-ous departments of the plantduring February 17 to 27 in theworkshop of the HumanResource Development CenterVisit the Recognition of PriorLearning Training Program on"Fitter: Leveling, Alignment,and Balancing" organized. 41participants participated in theprogramme.

The participants wereassessed by an assessor deput-ed by the Indian Iron and

Steel Sector Skill Council(IISSSC) at an event organizedat the Human ResourceDevelopment Center. After theassessment, all the participantswill be issued certificate byIISSSC. The program wasattended by Chief GeneralManager (Human ResourceDevelopment) BS Popli,General Manager-in-Charge(Shops and Foundry) JVShekhar, General Manager(Human ResourceDevelopment) Neeta Ba,General Manager (StructuralShops) JN Hansda from IISSSCA Mukherjee was present. Theprogramme was conducted byManager (Human ResourceDevelopment) GK Singh andvote of thanks was extended byCS Dubey.

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From Page 1A spurt in Naxalism in

State will also be highlightedduring the session.

The budget session will beheld at new Assembly building.Chief Minister Hemant Sorenon Thursday inspected thenew building verifying thesound system and sittingarrangement of lawmakers.

AJSU Party chief and MLAfrom Silli Sudesh Mahto said,“The AJSU will sit in opposi-

tion benches and will raise issueof public interest.”

The new Assembly build-ing on December first weekcaught fire. Though there wasno report of any injury in thefire several files and docu-ments were gutted in fire. Theexact cause of the fire is yet tobe ascertained. The newly con-structed Jharkhand Assemblybuilding at Kute in Ranchiwas inaugurated by PrimeMinister Narendr

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From Page 1He added that a “well-set-

tled process” was followed inthe transfer.

At the BJP party briefing,senior leader and UnionMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid the transfer was in linewith the recommendation ofthe Collegium. The recom-mendation was made on

February 12.The Congress alleged that

the transfer of JusticeMuralidhar was aimed at sav-ing some BJP leaders in theDelhi violence case andexposed the Government’s“intimidation and vendettapolitics” against the judiciary.

Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra accused theGovernment of makingattempts to “muzzle” justiceand “break people’s faith in anupright judiciary”.“The mid-night transfer of JusticeMuralidhar isn’t shocking giventhe current dispensation, but itis certainly sad and shameful,”she tweeted.Taking a dig at theGovernment over what hecalled Muralidhar’s suddentransfer, former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi tweeted,“Remembering the brave JudgeLoya, who wasn’t transferred.”

Special CBI judge BHLoya, who was hearing thehigh-profile SohrabuddinSheikh fake encounter case,died in alleged mysterious cir-cumstances on December 1,2014. At a Press conference onthe issue of Justice Muralidhar’stransfer, Congress chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala alleged that the BJPGovernment was “waging abattle of revenge” against thejudiciary.

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The death toll in the North-east Delhi communal riots

reached 38 on Thursday withover 250 severely injuredreceiving treatment, said seniorofficials.

“Over 215 riot victims havebeen brought to our hospitaland treated since February 24.However, at present only 51patients are admitted. The con-dition of almost all patients,except one, is stable,” said Sunil

Kumar, GTB Hospital MedicalSuperintendent.

People injured over anti-CAA violence are being treat-ed in three hospitals — GTB,LNJP, and Jag Pravesh Chandhospital. According to hospitalauthorities, 34 deaths havebeen reported from GTB, andthree from LNJP, and one fromJag Pravesh Chand hospital.

GTB Hospital authoritiessaid most of the people werebrought with very seriousinjuries. “At least 25 patients

were brought dead and ninesuccumbed to injuries. Many ofthem were critically injuredwith their skulls smashed andbeaten “brutally” by kind of aniron rod,” a senior doctor of

GTB hospital said.Family members were seen

running from pillar to post,enquiring about their lovedones from hospital authorities.Some of them claimed that nei-ther police nor the hospitalauthorities are telling themexactly when the post-mortemwill be conducted.

Kehkasha Begum, a resi-dent of Maujpur, said her hus-band got injured when he wascoming back to home afterwork.

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The Congress on Thursdayalleged that the transfer of

Delhi High Court Judge SMuralidhar was aimed at sav-ing some BJP leaders in theDelhi violence case andexposed the ModiGovernment's "intimidationand vendetta politics" againstthe judiciary.

Congress said it seemsthose doing justice in countrywill now not be spared and theparty alleged the governmentwas "waging a battle of revenge"against the judiciary. Callingthe transfer a classic case of"hit-and-run injustice" by theBJP Government, Congresschief spokesman RandeepSurjewala said the saffronparty's "politics of revenge"has been exposed. He accusedthe BJP of attacking the impar-tiality of the judiciary.

Taking a dig at the gov-ernment over Muralidhar's"sudden" transfer, formerCongress chief Rahul Gandhialso tweeted, "Rememberingthe brave Judge Loya, whowasn't transferred." Special CBIjudge BH Loya, who was hear-ing the high-profile

Sohrabuddin Sheikh fakeencounter case, died in alleged-ly mysterious circumstanceson December 1, 2014.

Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra hit out at thegovernment over the transfer,saying the Centre's attempts to"muzzle" justice and "breakpeople's faith in an uprightjudiciary are deplorable".

"The midnight transfer ofJustice Muralidhar isn't shock-ing given the current dispen-sation, but it is certainly sadand shameful," PriyankaGandhi tweeted.

"Millions of Indians havefaith in a resilient and upright

judiciary, the government'sattempts to muzzle justice &break their faith aredeplorable," the Congress gen-eral secretary said.

The notification of Justice

Muralidhar's transfer to thePunjab and Haryana HighCourt came late Wednesdayevening, on a day when abench headed by himexpressed "anguish" over Delhi

Police's failure to register FIRsagainst alleged hate speeches byBJP leaders Parvesh Verma,Kapil Mishra and AnuragThakur.

Responding to Union Law

Minister Ravi Shankar Prasadaccusations the oppositionparty was politicising a routinetransfer, Surjewala hit back atPrasad, describing him as the"most lawless minister" this

country has ever seen."Mr Prasad at the instance

of Prime Minister Modi ishell-bent on destroying theindependent institution of judi-ciary.

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Congress chief Sonia Gandhion Thursday urged

President Ram Nath Kovind tocall for Home Minister AmitShah’s resignation over his fail-ure on Delhi communal vio-lence and remind the Centre ofits "raj dharma". Sonia led adelegation of party leadersincluding former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhand submitted a memoran-dum to Kovind.

"We call upon you and theconstitutional office you hold,that the life, liberty and prop-erty of the citizens is pre-served, secured and protected.You should immediately call forthe removal of the home min-ister given the gross ineptitude,abdication of duty and hisinability to contain the situa-tion. We owe this to the citizenswho have lost their loved ones,their homes and their liveli-hood and most of all their longcherished amity and brother-hood. We hope you will takedecisive action on this matter,"

Sonia told the reporters outsideRashtrapati Bhavan after meet-ing the president.

Reading out parts of thememorandum that the partysubmitted to the president, Soniasaid both the Delhi Governmentand the Centre remained "mutespectators" instead of trying totake remedial measures to con-trol the situation.

The delegation includedLeader of Opposition in RajyaSabha Ghulam Nabi Azad,Ahmed Patel, P Chidambaram,KC Venugopal, MallikarjunaKharge, Priyanka GandhiVadra, Anand Sharma, AKAntony, Kumari Selja andRandeep Surjewala.

Questioning Shah's role,Sonia Gandhi asked where hewas as the violence spreadacross northeast Delhi. "Whatwas he preoccupied with sincelast Sunday that he was unable,apparently, to give his attentionto these grave events? For thatmatter, the Delhi chief minis-ter, and the newly elected Delhigovernment were also com-pletely missing from the scene,"

she asked.Manmohan Singh, in his

remarks to the media, said theCongress leaders conveyed tothe president that what hadhappened in the last four daysin the national capital was amatter of deep concern andnational shame.

Sonia also said it was a"shameful indictment" of theCentral government, the Homeministry and the Home minis-ter himself, that the Delhi HighCourt had to step in (onWednesday). It had to remindthe Home ministry and thepolice of their principal duty toact against instigators, the riot-ers and those engaging in theacts of targeted violence, shesaid.

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The CPI(M) on Thursdayurged Delhi Chief

Minister Arvind Kejriwal totake action against AAP coun-cilor Tahir Hussain for hisinvolvement in the riots in thenational Capital.

In a letter to the CM,CPI(M) leaders Brinda Karatand KM Tewari also askedKejriwal to call an all-partymeeting in Delhi to bring com-munal harmony in the capital.

"We write to assure you ofour Party's cooperation inefforts to bring peace andcommunal harmony to Delhi.We request you to urgentlyconvene an all-party meetingin Delhi to decide how we canunitedly ensure communal

harmony and peace in theCapital," said the CPI(M)leaders.

"In this context, videoimages in the public domainof an AAP councilor standingon the roof of his house whilepetrol bombs and stones arebeing thrown by people on theroof in his presence, areextremely disturbing.Immediate action must betaken against him by thepolice. Sanjay Singh, MP hasmade a welcome statementthat no one involved in vio-lence should be spared regard-less of political colour or reli-gion. It would also send astrong message to the peopleof Delhi if you as the head ofAAP also took action againsthim at the organisational level.

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The BJP on Thursdayaccused the Congress and

the AAP of “politicising” theriots in the national Capitaland linked Congress presidentSonia Gandhi’s ‘aar yaa paar’(fight to finish) comment inDecember last as the startingpoint of deliberate provocationfor violence in the city.

Addressing a Press con-ference at the party office,senior BJP leader and UnionMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid the Congress's demandfor Union Home MinisterAmit Shah's resignation was"petty politics" as several stepshave already been taken torestore law and order in theCapital on the express instruc-

tions of Home Minister. Heasserted that peace wasrestored in two days due toShah's effective handling.

He accused Congress ofinstigating passions for vio-lence and quoted Sonia andPriyanka Gandhi's commentson anti-CAA protests and alsorefereed to senior Congressleaders' visits to Shaheen Baag,the venue of 'dharna' againstCAA for over 70-days.

The senior BJP leader alsosaw a pattern in Congressleaders' "unwillingness" tocondemn controversialspeeches of the likes ofAIMIM leader Waris Pathan.

He said other politicalparties were silent on theattack on the policemen andon the death of Intelligence

Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma."In such a situation, the dutyof all political parties should beto consolidate peace," he said.

Taking on the AAP, whichgoverns Delhi, Javadekar saidthat its MLAs should haveworked for peace, but ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwalidentified riot victims by reli-gion in the Assembly.

He alleged that attempts toinstigate violence had beenmade for the last two monthssince Sonia Gandhi gave the callfor 'fight to the finish' at a rally.

Javadekar said the BJPwas working to restore peaceand condemned the Congress,the AAP for doing politicsover the violence that claimed34 lives in northeast Delhi andleft over 200 injured.

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In the backdrop of vio-lence in Delhi which has,

so far claimed 38 lives, RSSgeneral secretary Suresh'Bhaiyyaji' Joshi on Thursdaysought the Government toensure peace is in Delhi.Talking to reporters inNagpur, Joshi also said thatnobody has the right to takelaw into their hands andthat necessary action shouldbe taken to restore law andorder in the national capital.“The government shouldinstill peace in areas wherethere is 'ashanti' (unrest)," theRSS functionary said.

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Taking exception to com-ments by a US Commission

expressing grave concern overviolence in Delhi and askingIndia to protect Muslims, NewDelhi on Thursday termedsuch statements as "irresponsi-ble" and said the remarks by thecommission are "factually inac-curate, misleading and anattempt to politicise the issue."The external affairs ministryalso hit out the Organisation ofIslamic Organisation whichalso expressed concern over

Delhi violence.The Indian reaction to the

comments by the USCommission on InternationalReligious Freedom(USCIRF)came a day after it expressed"grave concern" over the vio-lence in Delhi and asked theIndian government to pro-vide protection to people irre-spective of their faith.

US presidential candidateBernie Sanders and a numberof other leading Americanlawmakers have also expressedconcern over the clashes inseveral parts of Delhi in which

at least 32 people have beenkilled.

"We have seen commentsmade by USCIRF, sections ofthe media and a few individu-als regarding recent incidents ofviolence in Delhi. These are fac-tually inaccurate and mislead-ing, and appear to be aimed atpoliticising the issue," externalaffairs ministry spokespersonRaveesh Kumar said here.

Though the ministry didnot clarify the individualsbeing referred to, it is beingseen as a reference to US law-makers critical of India on the

issue of the Delhi violence. Kumar said law enforce-

ment agencies are working onthe ground to prevent violenceand ensure restoration of con-fidence and normalcy. "Seniorrepresentatives of the govern-ment have been involved inthat process. The prime min-ister has publicly appealed forpeace and brotherhood. Wewould urge that irresponsiblecomments are not made at thissensitive time," said Kumar.

The US Commission onWednesday said inWashington "the ongoing vio-

lence we are witnessing inDelhi and the reported attacksagainst Muslims, their homesand shops, and their houses ofworship are greatly disturbing."

"One of the essential dutiesof any responsible govern-ment is to provide protectionand physical security for its cit-izens, regardless of faith," theUSCIRF chair Tony Perkinssaid in a statement.

The CommissionCommissioner AnurimaBhargava said the "brutal andunchecked violence" acrossDelhi cannot continue.

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Accusing the Congress ofpoliticising a "routine

transfer", the BJP on Thursdayrubbished speculations on thetransfer of High Court judge SMuralidhar saying it was doneon the recommendations ofthe Supreme Court.

Stating this at a press con-ference here , UnionInformation and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid the transfer orders werefirmed up in February with theconsent of the Judge.

Union Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad also rejectedthe allegation saying JusticeMuralidhar was transferred

on the recommendation ofthe Supreme Court collegiumand accused the Congress ofpoliticising a routine transfer.

He added that a "well-set-tled process" was followed inthe transfer of JusticeMuralidhar to the Punjab andHaryana High Court.

"By politicising a routinetransfer, Congress has yet againdisplayed its scant regard forthe judiciary," Prasad said in aseries of tweets. His reactioncame after the Congressalleged that Justice Muralidharwas transferred by theGovernment to save BJP lead-ers in the Delhi violence case.

"Transfer of JusticeMuralidhar was done pur-

suant to the recommendationdated February 12 of theSupreme Court collegiumheaded by Chief Justice ofIndia," the minister said.

He said a judge's consentis taken before transferringhim or her. Continuing hisattack on the opposition party,Prasad said the people of Indiahave rejected the Congressand "hence it is hell bent ondestroying the very institutionsIndia cherishes by constantlyattacking them".

Referring to a tweet byCongress leader Rahul Gandhion the death of Judge Loya, theUnion minister said the Loyajudgement has been well-set-tled by the Supreme Court.

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As demand for environ-ment-friendly battery-

operated vehicles is all set torise in the near future in Indiaas a measure to cut down car-bon footprints, the NDAGovernment has prepared draftrules for battery waste man-agement that will make itmandatory for manufacturersand dealers to collect usedbatteries against the new onesthey sell.

The proposed draft rulesthe 'Battery Waste ManagementRules 2020' brings under itsambit all kind of batteries suchas . The notification was issuedby the Union EnvironmentMinistry recently which hasuploaded it on its website,seeking objection and sugges-tions from the stakeholders.

The Batteries(Management and Handling)Rules, 2001, had mentionedonly lead-acid batteries.

The draft rules put theresponsibility of collection ofbatteries and their safe trans-port to the recyclers on themanufacturers and dealers.

They will need to ensure thatused batteries are sent only tothe registered recyclers andthat environment is notharmed during their trans-portation, as per the notifica-tion.

Under the new rules, bat-tery dealers will have to issuepurchase invoices (when theycollect used batteries). Earlier,dealers were obliged to registerwith the state pollution controlboards, but there was no men-tion of issuing purchase invoicefor old batteries.

According to variousreports, an estimated 2.7 billion

pieces of dry cell batteries areconsumed annually in India,but there is no collection mech-anism to ensure that these bat-teries are safely transported torecyclers. Unsafe disposal ofbatteries can cause harmfulmetals like mercury and cad-mium to leak out and enter thesoil and water.

Discarded batteries, mean-while, can be a valuableresource to recover highly use-ful metals in an environmen-tally-friendly manner.

However, these regulationswill not be applicable on bat-teries used in equipment con-

nected with the protection ofthe essential security interestssuch as arms, ammunitionsand war material, and intend-ed specifically for militarypurposes; equipment designedto be sent into space (spaceexploration), emergency andalarm systems, emergencylighting and medical equip-ment.

As per Kenneth Research,the Indian electric vehicleinfrastructure market is expect-ed to grow at a compoundannual growth rate (CARG) ofover 40 per cent during a fore-cast period 2019-2025.

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The CPI(M) on Thursdaysaid Justice S Muralidhar's

transfer from the Delhi HighCourt was a "selectiveresponse" to his court orders inwhich he rapped the city policefor "trying to shield" BJP lead-ers who made "hate speeches".

The CPI(M) Polit Bureau instatement demanded the gov-ernment to keep the transferorder, notified late Wednesdaynight, in abeyance to reinforcethe confidence of the people inthe judicial system.

Justice Muralidhar wastransferred to the Punjab andHaryana High Court, on a daya bench headed by himexpressed "anguish" over theDelhi Police's "failure" to regis-ter FIRs against the alleged hatespeeches made by BJP leadersParvesh Verma, Kapil Mishraand Anurag Thakur. The CPI(M) said in a statement that thetransfer was recommended bythe Supreme Court collegium,but it has been protested againstby the Dei High Court BarAssociation for well-arguedjudicial-administrative consid-erations.

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The CBI on Thursdaybrought back a three-year-

old girl from Dubai who wastaken there by her father in vio-lation of orders of Delhi HighCourt that is hearing a custodybattle between the baby's par-ents.

The girl's father, AmanLohia, had taken Baby Raina toDubai amid a custody battlewith his wife Kiran Kaur Lohiain the High Court that hadasked him to deposit his pass-port with authorities to preventhim from leaving the country.

In a case against a HighCourt order, the SupremeCourt had directed the CBI tovisit Dubai to bring back thegirl to India.

A team of CBI officials hadrecently gone to Dubai whereit coordinated with localauthorities to ensure the safereturn of the girl and herfather, officials said.

After the agency teamarrived on Thursday morning,the CBI informed the apexcourt about the compliance of

its orders, officials said addingthe girl will be produced beforethe SC on Friday. The child ispresently at her mother's homeunder the agency's care.

The dramatic develop-ments of Thursday were a cul-mination of a six-month longtrail of a defiant father who ina desperate move escaped toDubai with his daughter claim-ing he was a "victim of genderbias" of courts and that it wasthe "love for his daughter"which directed his actions.

Aman Lohia, son of anoted businessman, was fight-ing a custody battle for hisdaughter Raina in the HCafter separating from his wife,a Delhi-based dermatologist.

The high court had grant-ed Raina's custody to themother with a parenting plan,according to which, AmanLohia could meet his daughterfor some hours on three daysof a week. The court alsoasked him to deposit his pass-port, which he complied, theofficials said.

On August 24 last year,when the girl had come to

meet Aman Lohia as per theparenting plan, he took heralong with family confidantPawan Kumar and maidShiuratia Debi to Dubai usinga circuitous route via Nepaland other gulf countries.

Considering "internation-al ramifications", the DelhiHigh Court had handed overthe probe to the CBI which hadregistered a case.

The Interpol had issued a'Yellow Notice' for the girl ona CBI request. Yellow Noticesare issued by the Interpol onthe request of member coun-tries to locate missing persons.The CBI had also filed a chargesheet on December 19 lastyear before a special courtagainst Aman Lohia, his moth-er Meena Lohia, allegedaccomplice Pawan Kumar andmaid Shiuratia Debi Mahto,officials further said.

The agency has invokedIndian Penal Code provisionspertaining to criminal con-spiracy, kidnapping from Indiaand kidnapping from lawfulguardianship among othersagainst the businessman.

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Panun Kashmir, an organi-sation of displaced

Kashmiri Pandits, on Thursdayreiterated its demand for carv-ing out a separate homelandwith a Union Territory statusfor the rehabilitation of thecommunity in the Valley.

It said a bill should bepassed in Parliament to “recog-nise the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the val-ley”.

“Neutralisation of Article370 has made future reorgan-isation now legally very easyand creation of a union terri-tory east and north of riverJhelum in Kashmir for thepermanent rehabilitation ofdisplaced Hindus of Kashmir adistinct possibility,” a state-ment issued by Panun Kashmirleaders Ajay Chrungoo andAgnishekhar said. PTI

Mumbai: Former Maharashtra Ministerand Congress leader Naseem Khan onThursday demanded that the MaharashtraAssembly pass a resolution against theimplementation of National PopulationRegister (NPR).

Speaking to reporters after meetingChief Minister Uddhav Thackeray andDeputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Khan saidthe BJP, which shares power with the JD(U)in Bihar had supported the resolutionagainst NPR in that State’s Assembly.

“I demanded that census be conductedas per the 2010 rules and not an NPR exer-cise, as it is the first step to the NationalRegister of Citizens, in which people, espe-cially the poor, will be affected,” hesaid.

Khan said the Chief Minister hadassured him that he would seek informationon the issue, discuss with the concernedauthorities before taking a decision. PTI

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Assembly onThursday witnessed noisy scenes afterParliamentary Affairs Minister SureshKhanna accused the Opposition of creat-ing anarchy in the State by supporting anti-CAA protesters.

Khanna made the allegation during aheated exchange with Leader of OppositionRam Govind Chaudhary, who earlier saidthe Minister had ignored a question raisedby him on the Budget tabled in the Houseon February 18. Khanna, who is also thefinance minister, had earlier finished hisreply to the debate on the 2020-2021 bud-get.

With Chaudhary accusing Khanna ofignoring his question, the Minister took adig at him over the Opposition leader’s ear-lier statement outside the House thatthose sitting on anti-CAA dharna wouldbe given pension.

This triggered a heated exchangebetween Khanna and Chaudhary with thelater reiterating that the pension is givento patriots.

“Those struggling for restoration ofdemocracy are given pension. We are also

getting it as ‘loktantra senanis’ (thosearrested during emergency),” Chaudharysaid.

Khanna at this asked what was thereto oppose in the CAA.

“The SP, BSP and Congress are tryingto create anarchy in the State,” he assert-ed. The Minister’s remark triggered anuproar in the House with the Oppositionmembers going on their feet and the rul-ing party members seen trying to shoutthem down. Chaudhary earlier accused theruling party of pursuing the politics ofdividing the society on Hindu-Muslimlines. PTI

Patna: The Bihar Assembly on Thursdayunanimously passed a resolution for thesecond time in just over a year favouringa caste-based census in 2021.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudharymade the announcement in the assemblyduring the pre-lunch session.

“... This is an appropriate time whenthe House should convey its sentimentsto the authorities concerned for a caste-based census... The proposed census2021 be conducted on caste basis,”Choudhary said.

He said Chief Minister Nitish Kumarhad made a proposal for a similar reso-lution during the debate on adjournmentmotion on Tuesday on the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, National Register ofCitizens and the National Population Registerin the Assembly, which found support from allother political parties in the House.

The Bihar Assembly had on February 18 last

year passed a unanimous resolution for carry-ing out caste census.

Caste-based census was conducted way backin 1931, the chief minister had said. PTI

Kolkata: A Bangladeshi stu-dent of Visva BharatiUniversity has been asked bythe Home Ministry to leavethe country for reportedlyengaging in “anti-Government activities”.

Afsara Anika Meem, anundergraduate student atthe central university, hasbeen served a ‘Leave IndiaNotice’ by the Foreigners’Regional Registration Office,Kolkata — under theMinistry of Home Affairs.

The notice —which hasasked Meem to leave Indiawithin 15 days from thedate of its receipt +did notspecify the nature of the“anti-India activities”.

The woman, who hailsfrom Kustia district ofBangladesh, got enrolled inthe Bachelor of Designcourse at the varsity in 2018.She received the notice datedFebruary 14 on Wednesday,one of her friends said.

Meem had allegedlyshared some posts onFacebook related to anti-CAA protests inside thecampus in December, andhas been trolled on socialmedia since then, a memberof the Students’ Federationof India (SFI) told PTI.

The Bangladeshi stu-dent, who did not receivecalls, told PTI in aWhatsApp message that “Iam not in a State to talkabout this now”.

A Bangladesh DeputyHigh Commission sourcein Kolkata said it is yet toreceive any official intima-tion in this regard. VisvaBharati University authori-ties, too, could not be con-tacted for comments. Thenotice said Meem also com-mitted visa violation. PTI

Chennai: NDA constituent PMKon Thursday welcomed the BiharAssembly adopting an anti-NRCresolution and lauded the TamilNadu Government for saying sucha move was under its considerationtoo.

Party founder S Ramadosscalled for implementing theNational Population Register as perthe 2010 format, even as he want-ed the Government to “allay fears”over NPR.

In a series of tweets, he urgedthe Tamil Nadu Government totake a leaf out of Bihar and pass anassembly resolution saying no toNational Register of Citizens(NRC).

“Tamil Nadu should followBihar and adopt a resolutionagainst NRC in the Assembly.

Similarly, the NPR should also beas per the 2010 format,” he said.

The Bihar assembly onTuesday unanimously resolvedthat there was no need of NRC inthe state and that the NPR exercisebe done strictly according to the2010 format.

On Wednesday, Tamil NaduChief Minister K Palaniswamihad said aspects like an anti-NRCAssembly resolution were underthe consideration of the state gov-ernment. Terming Palaniswami’sstatement as the “right approach,”Ramadoss also said “the govern-ment should allay” fears overNPR.

He also pointed out that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi had saidNRC was being implemented onlyin Assam and welcomed it. PTI

Thane:A public rally againstCAA, NRC and NPR, sched-uled to be addressed byAIMIM chief AsaduddinOwaisi at Bhiwandi inMaharashtra’s Thane districton Thursday evening, hasbeen put off following arequest by the police, an offi-cial said.

The police had request-ed the organisers to postponethe rally in view of the pre-vailing situation in the coun-try, he said.

Owaisi was scheduled toaddress the rally atParshuram Taware Stadiumin Dhobi Talao area of

Bhiwandi 6 pm onwards.The local unit of All

India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) hadorganised the rally.

However, the BhoiwadaPolice Station on Wednesdaysent a letter to the party’s localunit, urging it to postpone thethe event.

“The police sent a letterto the organisers and request-ed them to postpone thepublic meeting consideringthe prevailing situation in thecountry and the organisersagreed to the request,” DCP(Zone II) Rajkumar Shindesaid. PTI

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Ending the speculation overthe fate of selection list of

Jammu & Kashmir Bank,Probationary Officers andbanking associates the UTGovernment of Jammu &Kashmir on Thursday wentahead and scrapped the entirerecruitment process initiated in2018.

The AdministrativeCouncil which met under thechairmanship of the LieutenantGovernor G.C. Murmu inJammu also directed theFinance Department to adviseJ&K Bank to initiate a fresh,fair, norm based and transpar-ent recruitment for 250Probationary Officers and 1200banking Associates in the J&KBank through the IBPS.

This was stated by

Principal Secretary Planning,Development and Monitoring,Rohit Kansal at an eveningpress conference .

Addressing media, RohitKansal also informed that var-ious legal infirmities had beenpointed out in the ongoingrecruitment process. As a resultthe ongoing process of recruit-ment for these posts by thisbank shall stand scrapped,” hesaid and added that the bank isbeing advised to ensure that allapplicants eligible in the lastrecruitment which has beencancelled shall be eligible forthe fresh recruitment also.

He added, “The entirerecruitment process will becompleted by on a fast trackbasis within three months. Thedetailed modalities andannouncements in this regard

will be finalized by the bank inits next board meeting.

Among other importantdecisions, the Governmentalso announced new amnestyscheme for power consumersacross UT of J&K. The amnestyscheme for the power con-sumers will come into effectfrom March 1, 2020.

“It decided that as a welfaremeasure and in order to give anopportunity to power con-sumers to prevent disconnec-tion of their connections and tofacilitate easy payment, theamnesty scheme envisages pay-ment of arrears in three easyinstalments,” he announced. Itis estimated that waiver ofpenalties and interests will costaround �600 crore to the gov-ernment as against total pend-ing dues of �3,000 crore,” hesaid.

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With the focus on thesocio-economic devel-

opment of the southeast Asiannation, India and Myanmar onThursday signed 10 agree-ments as Prime MinisterNarendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with MyanmaresePresident U Win Myint.

The Myanmarese presi-dent, who arrived in India onWednesday, received a cere-monial welcome at theRashtrapati Bhavan. He andFirst Lady Daw Cho Cho werewelcomed by President RamNath Kovind and PM Modi.

The Prime Minister andPresident Myint later held talksat Hyderabad House and 10agreements were signedbetween the two countries.The focus of many agreementswas on development projectsunder India’s assistance, par-

ticularly in the conflict-tornRakhine state.

The agreements includedan MoU on ‘Cooperation forPrevention of Trafficking inPersons; Rescue, Recovery,Repatriation and Re-Integration of Victims ofTrafficking’.

An agreement regardingIndian Grant Assistance forImplementation of QuickImpact Projects (QIP) was alsosigned between the two sides.

Three agreements fordevelopment projects in theconflict-torn Rakhine statewere also signed during thepresident’s visit.

The Rakhine state has wit-nessed a lot of violence in thepast and scores of Rohingyashad fled the state facing perse-cution. The MyanmaresePresident and his wife alsopaid respects to MahatmaGandhi at Rajghat.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will on Saturday

lay the foundation stonefor the 296-km-longBundelkhand Expressway inUttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot.

The expressway will besupplementing the nodes ofthe Uttar Pradesh DefenceIndustrial Corridor announcedby the government in February2018, a statement from thePrime Minister’s Office (PMO)maintained on Thursday.

The Uttar PradeshGovernment is constructingthe Bundelkhand Expressway,which will pass throughChitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpurand Jalaun districts.

The expressway will linkthe Bundelkhand area to thenational capital through theAgra-Lucknow Expressway andthe Yamuna Expressway.

The prime minister willalso be launching 10,000 farm-ers’ producer organisations allover the country at Chitrakooton that day.

Nearly 86 per cent of farm-ers are small and marginalwith average land holdings in

the country being less than 1.1hectare.

These small, marginal andlandless farmers face tremen-dous challenges during agri-culture production phase suchas for access to technology,quality seed, fertilisers andpesticides, including requisitefinances.

They also face tremendouschallenges in marketing theirproduce due to lack of eco-nomic strength, the statementpointed out. FPOs (FarmerProducer Organisations) helpin collectivisation of such farm-ers in order to give them thecollective strength to deal withsuch issues.

Members of the FPO willmanage their activities togeth-er in the organisation to getbetter access to technology,input, finance and market for

faster enhancement of theirincome.

“Though the report of‘Doubling of Farmer’sIncome’ recommended for-mation of 7,000 FPOs by2022 towards convergenceof efforts for doubling farm-ers’ income, the central gov-ernment announced the cre-

ation of 10,000 new FPOs toensure economies of scale forfarmers over

the next five years,” it said.In Allahabad, Modi will be

distributing assistive aids anddevices to senior citizens, underthe Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana,and people with disablities,under the ADIP scheme, at amega distribution camp.

This is the biggest ever dis-tribution camp being held inthe country in terms of thenumber of beneficiaries cov-ered, number of appliancesdistributed and value of aidsand appliances distributed, thestatement said. At the camp,over 56,000 assistive aids anddevices of different types will bedistributed free of cost to morethan 26,000 of beneficiaries.The cost of the aids and devicesis over �19 crore, it said.

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Kolkata: Appealing to peopleto save the Country from divi-sive forces, two separate rallieswere taken out in Kolkata onThursday by the TrinamoolCongress's women's wing andthe Congress-backed ChhatraParishad over the communalviolence in Delhi.

Thousands of women tookpart in the rally organised bythe Trinamool MahilaCongress. It began at HazraCrossing and culminated at theGandhi statue in the Maidanarea.The rallyists, led by stateminister ChandrimaBhattacharya, shouted sloganstargeting the "politics of polar-isation and hatred professed bythe Sangh Parivar". PTI

Mumbai: The MaharashtraLegislative Assembly on Thursdayunanimously passed a bill whichmakes Marathi a compulsory subjectacross all schools in the state.

The development came on`Marathi Bhasha Din' (Marathi lan-guage day) which is celebrated onFebruary 27, the birth anniversary ofpoet and Jnanpith award winner lateV V Shirwadkar.

The state Legislative Council

had passed the legislation, titled`Maharashtra Compulsory Teachingand Learning of Marathi Languagein Schools Bill, 2020', on Wednesday.

Minister for Marathi LanguageSubhash Desai introduced the bill inthe Lower House on Thursday.

Desai said the legislation was onthe lines of laws in Telangana, TamilNadu, Kerala and Karnataka, and itmakes teaching and studying Marathicompulsory in all schools (irrespec-

tive of the board to which they areaffiliated).

Marathi will become a com-pulsory subject in all schools fromstandard 1st to 10th in a phasedmanner from the academic year2020-2021, he said.

It will be introduced in the firstand sixth standards from the com-ing academic year and extended tofurther classes in subsequent years. PTI

Sitapur (UP): Samajwadi Partychief Akhilesh Yadav onThursday blamed the BJP forthe communal violence in thenational capital, saying this istheir "Gujarat model", andalleged that the saffron partydoes politics "by spreadinghatred".

The death toll in the vio-lence over the Citizenship(Amendment) Act in areas innortheast Delhi increased to 34on Thursday, and over 200 peo-ple are injured.

"BJP is responsible for theriots. It's their Gujarat model,which is nothing but spreadinghatred," Yadav said when askedabout the violence in Delhi.

"When the US Presidentwas here and lakhs of police-men were deployed, how can ariot happen? Had the govern-ment and police wanted, theriots could not have happened ," he said. PTI

Mumbai: The cases filedagainst Aarey Metro car shedprotesters will be withdrawnwithin a month, MaharashtraMinister Satej Patil said onThursday.

Patil, the Minister of Statefor Home, made the remarksafter meeting some of the pro-testers here.

Thereis a due process towithdrawthe cases. I spoke tothem (the protesters who methim on Thursday) on the issue.I assured them that the word wegave to them on behalf of theMaha Vikas Aghadi will bekept.

"The cases will be with-drawn in the coming onemonth, Patil told reporters out-side the state legislature build-ing in south Mumbai.

The MumbaiPolice hadfiled cases against several pro-testers, including green activists,in October las year after they hitthe streets to oppose felling oftrees in the Aarey Colony, agreen belt in suburbanGoregaon, to make way for a carshed which is part of the metro-3 project. The Supreme Courtordered a stay on the defor-estation activity in the daysthat followed, but over 2,000trees had already been cut downby authorities by then.

The Shiv Sena-led MVAgovernment, which assumedoffice on November 28 lastyear, had in Decemberannounced withdrawal of thecases filed against metro carshed protesters. PTI

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Delhi mayhem may polariseBengal municipal elections

in a big way. There are reportsthat the political parties of theState are planning to ‘utilise’Delhi riots as an issue to influ-ence the voters in the upcom-ing municipal elections.

According to sources inthe BJP local leaders and work-ers have been asked to stagelocal level meeting and place theparty’s views not only on itsdevelopment plans but also thetumultuous situation in theNational Capital and the groupsresponsible for it.

“We will tell the truth to thepeople as to what happened inDelhi. How things were plannedto defame India duringPresident Trump’s visit. Thepolitically educated people ofBengal must know about thereality as the opposition partiesare running a hate campaign inthe media accusing the Hindusof perpetrating the riots whichis not the real side of the story,”said a senior leader of the Statecommittee accusing the rivalcommunity for holding the

Capital to ransom.“Is the central Government

a fool to embarrass itself byinciting riots when PresidentTrump is present. Is the BJP soimmature as not to understandhow Pakistan will take mileageout of the situation. In fact it isthe traitors of the nation whohave organized the riots todefame India… The DelhiPolice in fact has exercisedgreat restraint in not openingfire in many places just becauseour Government has greatregard for the minorities unlikePakistan,” another BJP leadersaid. This leader, and a partycandidate in the Lok Sabhaelections was himself accused ofgiving inflammatory speechesduring campaigning.

On whether the BJP will goto people with an intent ofpolarizing the atmosphere theleader said “the atmospherehas already been polarized asthe Hindus have awakened andlearnt to assert their rights. Ifsome people think that speak-ing the plain truth is polariza-tion, then so be it.”

The Trinamool Congresson the other hand was less vocal

while its leaders said the peoplewill be told as to how the BJPwas trying to divide India alongcommunal lines.

“It is not only Pakistanwhich is trying to divide Indiabut it is also the BJP which isdividing the country by playinginto the hands of Pakistan,” asenior TMC leader and aMinister said adding his partywould go to the people with thereport card containing whatChief Minister MamataBanerjee has done for the Statein the past nine years.

“And if the BJP tries to com-munalise the atmosphere thenwe will not let them do that.Rather we will use the situationto expose their communalplans,” the Minister said addingdefinitely Delhi riots would beraised during the election cam-paign but to tell how BJP and

Hindutva goons applied theGujarat model in Delhi to breakthe society along communallines. CPI(M)’s SujanChakrabarty, a party centralcommittee member howeveraccused both the parties forbeing “complementary to eachother.”

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The MaharashtraGovernment has with-

drawn 348 cases registered inconnection with the 2018Bhima-Koregaon violence and460 cases booked during thevarious agitations demandingMaratha reservations, HomeMinister Anil Deshmukhinformed the State LegislativeCouncil here on Thursday.

Replying to a question inthe upper house of theMaharashtra Legislature,Deshmukh said: “Out of thetotal 649 cases registered inconnection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence, the StateGovernment has withdrawn348 cases. Similarly, 460 casesout of the total 548 cases reg-istered during agitationsdemanding Maratha reserva-tions”.

Deshmukh said that the

process of withdrawing cases inconnection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence was con-tinuing. “The cases that weintend to withdraw are all ofminor nature. However, wewill not withdraw cases regis-tered for destruction of prop-erty and assault on police offi-cials in connection withBhima-Koregaon violence,” theminister said.

Slamming the previousDevendra Fadnavis govern-ment for carrying out animproper investigations intothe Bhima-Koregaon case,Deshmukh said: “The stategovernment may have handedover the case to the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA),but the state government willorder a probe into the Bhima-Koregaon case under theBombay Police Act, 1951 orsection 10 of the NIA Act,2008”.

Deshmukh also camedown heavily on the previousBJP-led government for dub-bing the activists who werevociferous critics of the rulingBJP and Modi government atthe Centre, as “urban naxals”.

The minister said thatdespite a directive issued byChief Minister UddhavThackeray on December 2 towithdraw all cases filed againstprotesters who had opposedthe proposed oil refinery andpetrochemicals complex atNanar in Rajapur taluka ofRatnagiri district, “only threecases” had so far been with-drawn. Deshmukh’s statementabout his plans to order a freshinvestigation into the Bhima-Koregaon violence case shouldbe seen in the context of chiefminister Uddhav Thackeray’sdecision to let the NIA takeover the investigations intothe 2018 Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case

Deshmukh had said earlythis month that the State HomeMinistry was seeking legal

opinion before going aheadwith its plan to order a freshprobe into the BhimaKoregaon-Elgaar Parishad caseunder section 10 of the NIAAct. “The Maharashtra gov-ernment may have let the NIAcarry out the investigations inthe Bhima Koregaon-ElgaarParishad case to the NIA, butwe will seek a legal opinion ifwe can institute an SIT toinvestigate the case,” th4e min-ister had said.

If the NCP—which holdsthe Home portfolio in the state– decides to go ahead with theSIT probe into the BhimaKoregaon-Elgaar Parishad case,it will send a clear cut messageto its ruling ally –Shiv Sena thatthe chief minister —can ill-afford to “overrule” his party’sallies in the MVA on crucialmatters like the one in the case.Simultaneously, the NCP isbound to trigger a confronta-tion between the State andCentre over a parallel probe onthe Bhima Koregaon-ElgaarParishad case.

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India on Thursday broughtback 112 people from the

coronavirus-hit Chinese cityWuhan and another group of124 from Tokyo who were onboard a cruise ship infected bythe deadly virus. All the evacueeswill undergo a 14-day quaran-tine in two batches at the ITBPand Army facilities in Chhawlaand Manesar respectively here.

The Union Ministry ofExternal Affairs said that AC-17Globemaster III transport air-craft of Indian Air Force evac-uated 76 Indians and 36 foreignnationals from Wuhan while anAir India flight brought back thegroup of 124 people from Tokyo.

The foreign national evac-uated from Wuhan included 23from Bangladesh, six fromChina, two each from Myanmarand Maldives and one eachfrom South Africa, USA andMadagascar.

Besides 119 Indians, thepeople evacuated from Japanincluded two from Sri Lankaand one each from Nepal, SouthAfrica and Peru. The groupwas among 3,711 people whowere on board the coronavirus-infected Diamond Princess shipwhen it docked at the Yokohamaport near Tokyo on February 3.

"In line with India's neigh-bourhood first policy and Indo-Pacific vision, the special flightalso evacuated five foreignnationals — two Sri Lankans,

one Nepalese, one South Africanand one Peruvian," MEAspokesman Raveesh Kumar said.

Three Indian crew membersdidn't board the Air India flightas they conveyed their wish tocontinue their stay on-board thecruise ship to complete the peri-od of extended quarantine putin place by the Japanese gov-ernment.

Out of the total 138 Indiannationals originally on-boardDiamond Princess, 16 Indiancrew members have tested pos-itive for coronavirus and arereceiving medical care at anonshore medical facility inJapan. They will undergo a 14-day quarantine at the facility setup by the Indian Army inManesar. Earlier, India had evac-uated around 650 Indians fromWuhan in two Air India flights.All these people later testednegative for the virus and wereallowed to go home after over afortnight of quarantine.

"In all 723 Indian nationalsand 43 foreign nationals havebeen evacuated from Wuhan,China in these three flights," anMEA statement said.

The AC-17 Globemasterflown to Wuhan on Wednesdayhad carried 15 tonnes of med-ical supplies for coronavirus-affected people in China.

On the medical suppliesdelivered by India to China, theMEA said they will help aug-

ment the country's efforts tocontrol the coronavirus out-break which has been declaredas a public health emergency bythe World Health Organisation. "The assistance isalso a mark of friendship andsolidarity from the people ofIndia towards the people ofChina as the two countries alsocelebrate 70th anniversary ofestablishment of diplomatic rela-tions this year," it said.

A team of doctors, para-medics and others will be pre-sent at thequarantinef a c i l i t yround-the-clock and theinmates willbe providedfacilities likefood, beda n dindoor enter-tainment tospend time,as per the state-ment.

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The controversy over a spatbetween the ruling Shiv

Sena-NCP-Congress allianceand the Opposition BJP overformer Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis’ ‘bangles’remark assumed a new dimen-sion on Thursday, as a Senaleader complained to the RSSabout ‘objectionable’ remarksby Fadnavis’ wife Amrutaagainst his party’s leader andMinister Aditya Thackeray.

A day after Fadnavis’banker-wife Amruta came tothe defence of her and hit outat Aditya through a tweet,president of the state-runVasantrao Naik ShetiSwavlamban Mission(VNSSM) Kishore Tiwari – ina letter written to RSS’ gener-al secretary Bhayyaji Joshi—objected to the term “cocoonedworm” used by her to describethe Sena minister in her tweetput out on Wednesday.

Addressing a BJP workersrally held at Azad Maidan onTuesday, Fadnavis had hadslammed the Sena for its fail-ure act against Pathan for hismuch-discussed “15 crore...”statement. "Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena may be wearingbangles but we are not. Ifsomeone says something thenhe will be given an answer inthe same way. BJP has thismuch power."

Responding to Fadnavis’“bangles” comment, Adityatweeted on Wednesday: “Shri@Dev_Fadnavi ji, normally Ichoose not to comment back.Kindly apologise abt bangles

comment: bangles are worn bythe strongest of all- the women.Politics can go on, but we needto change this discourse. Ratherdisgraceful coming from a fmrCM”.

A couple of hours later,Fadnavis’ banker-wife AmrutaFadnavis – who has of late beentaking political stands on var-ious issues and coming out insupport of her former chiefminister-husband – slammedAditya through a tweet. “Acocooned worm will neverunderstand the ‘Pun’ of life ! It’smeant to thrive on the glory ofthe silken life woven for itscomfort by its ancestors@AUThackeray ! Proud of urstruggles @Dev_Fadnavis &each and every hardworkingmember of @BJP4Maharashtra!," Amruta tweeted.

Tasking strong exception toAmruta’s tweet, Tiwari stated inhis letter to the RSS general sec-retary: “... celeb- banker AmritaFadnavis sought to defend herhusband (Devendra) by sug-gesting that Aditya was a“cocooned worm” and she said`A cocooned worm will neverunderstand the ‘Pun’ of life !It’s meant to thrive on theglory of the silken life wovenfor its comfort by its ancestors@AUThackeray !’.

“This unwanted activism ofboth Devendra and Amruta isthe main cause for souring ofgood relationship between BJP-Shiv Sena and due to over-con-fidence and arrogance, whichis core cause of historic SS-NCP-INC mega alliance (sic),”Tiwari stated.

In his letter -- a copy of

which he posted on hisFacebook page, Tiwari said:“Amruta’s unwanted politicalactivism is beyond the under-standing and culture of Indianculture as no opposition politi-cian’s spouses –husband/wife,anywhere all over India criti-cises Govt like this (No eventhe deserted Jadhodaben!.There are examples like wivesof L K Advani, Yeshwant Sinha,Jeswant Singh, ShatrunganSinha, Arun Shourie etc do notdo such things”.

“Shiv Sena founderBalasaheb Thackeray’s wifeMeenatai Thackeray quietlyfunctioned in shadow and hercontribution came out after hersad demise... Same is the caseof CM Uddhav’swife Rashmi,his cousin Raj T’s wife Sharmila( who are) in background with-out making useless remarksand controversial gestures,”Tiwari wrote.

Tiwari also took the exam-ples of the wives of BJP leadersAmit Shah, Nitin Gadkari andRajnath Singh who, he said, “don’t go around abusing Sonia/Rahul or husbands of politicalrivals” “What’s AmrutaFadnasvis’ hidden agenda? Isshe trying to take over the stateBJP which has no prominentwomen leader left now? Willshe be acceptable to the BJP-RSS mindset?. These are thequestions being asked by thepeople,” Tiwari stated.

Tiwari urged the RSS gen-eral secretary “to look into thematter and ensure that suchunhappy womenfolk does notspell doom for BJP in 2024, incentre & State”.

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When the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) was voted topower in 2014 and then evenmore resoundingly in 2019,one of the pillars that the

party sought to stand on was its claim thatPrime Minister Narendra Modi will representa strong Government and that it will protectthe country from any divisive internal or exter-nal force. It is this assurance that forms thebackdrop of the now-infamous belief that thePrime Minister’s “56-inch chest” will provideIndia with a protective shield. Events thatunfolded in Delhi over the past week, whereclashes broke out between communities thatled to the killing of 35 people (at the time ofwriting), have thrown cold water over thePrime Minister’s hollow claims of leading astrong Government.

In fact, there will be few instances in thehistory of independent India where a citizenhas felt more unsafe than he/she does rightnow. Delhi is in the midst of its worst riotssince 1984. And as relevant authorities exam-ine who exactly is to be blamed for the vio-lence that has been unleashed, there are someissues that are indisputable and require sometough answers.

The first is, how did such a riot take place,that, too, in the capital city? Delhi is not justthe capital of this country but is also hometo India’s most well-funded and trainedpolice force. Let this sink in. Theoreticallyspeaking, this means that the Delhi police,which functions under the CentralGovernment that is controlled by the BJP andmore specifically comes under the directsupervision of Union Home Minister AmitShah, is India’s best equipped police force. Thismeans that in terms of numbers and assis-tance, compared to other forces across thecountry, the law and order situation in Delhicould not have been better protected. Well,hypothetically speaking, at least.

In addition to this, Delhi is also the cen-tre for all intelligence agencies in the coun-try. It is home to several intelligence bodies,whose job includes to be alert about all pos-sible acts of violence or riots that may eruptin the country. But the intelligence bodies andthe police force have failed to prevent violencein not more than a 10-km radius fromParliament. How does this make those resid-ing in other parts of the country feel? If theGovernment could not stop acts of mass vio-lence in places where its base is the strongest,how exactly does it plan to protect the rest ofthe country?

Let’s once assume that this is not true. Butthe element of bias cannot be denied becauseas per reports, the Delhi police was sent at leastsix alerts on Sunday (February 23), asking fordeployment to be stepped up after BJP leaderKapil Mishra called for a gathering in supportof the Citizenship Act at Delhi’s Maujpur. Whythen was the police so helpless in preventingviolence? This is a greater cause for concernbecause if the Delhi police is better equippedto tackle violence than any other police force

in the country, why did it fail todeliver?

These are not the only ques-tions over the conduct of theDelhi police. Why are videos ofpolice personnel destroyingCCTV cameras doing therounds? The only way to getanswers and to ensure that suchriots do not happen again is to digdeep and find out as to whatexactly happened. But how willthe destruction of CCTV cam-eras help answer that question?

What I am concerned aboutand what should concern all ofus is the establishment of truthand the delivery of justice to allthose people who have beenaffected by this senseless violence.This can be done only by takingappropriate action against thoseinvolved in the violence.Perpetrators include leaders ofpolitical parties of every hue andany official, who allowed suchviolence to go unabated for threedays.

The more serious concern isthat slowly but steadily, we havereached this shameful place.There are a few reasons for this.One is the lack of resistance bythe bureaucracy. I have somesympathy for the bureaucratshere though. Governments of thepast have often shown — and theBJP Government has mastered— how adept they are in the artof abuse, twist and wrangle. Thisis in contrast to SardarVallabhbhai Patel’s vision of thecivil services being the “steelframe” of good governance.

Bureaucrats are now routine-

ly being threatened with transferorders, raids by income taxauthorities or the EnforcementDirectorate or any other agencywhich is at the Centre’s disposalwith a degree of reckless aban-don. I don’t think we would haveto go more than a few weeksbehind to find an instance of suchabuse. It has permeated all insti-tutions, including the ElectionCommission of India.

More recently came thebrazen example of Justice SMuralidhar of the Delhi HighCourt, who received a presiden-tial order transferring him to thePunjab and Haryana High Court.This order came a day later afterhe pulled up the Solicitor Generaland the Delhi police for inactionduring the riots in north-eastDelhi. Coming down heavily onthe Delhi police, he pulled it upfor its failure to register FIRsagainst alleged hate-speeches bythree BJP leaders, AnuragThakur, Kapil Mishra and otherusual suspects from the BJP.

While pressure by aGovernment on the bureaucra-cy and the judiciary is not aninvention of the BJP — there areobvious examples of theEmergency, 1984 and 2002 —rarely has there been as concert-ed an effort by a Government toundermine all institutions, all atonce. Circumstances are nothelped by members of theseinstitutions either. So often, wesee bureaucrats being asked tojump and respond back with,“How high?” In the judiciary, too,we have recently seen a sitting

Supreme Court judge lavishheavy praise on the PrimeMinister even as serious allega-tions of abuse of State power werebeing examined by the verysame court.

Such acts and comments byindividuals in positions of author-ity — whether in the bureaucra-cy or in the judiciary or any otherinstitution — have chilling effectson the citizens. It erodes theirfaith in the institutions and theConstitution. This poses a greaterrisk to India’s democratic healthin the long term than individualacts of abuse of power by the BJPthat I have highlighted in this arti-cle.

So what do we do? If theState machinery is failing us andinstitutions are displaying a lackof backbone, the answer and bur-den (unfortunately or fortunate-ly) fall on everyday people.Unfortunate because this is agreat burden that the civil soci-ety must now discharge when itsinstitutions appear to be foundwanting. Fortunate because thereis rarely a time in history whenany Government or institutioncan suppress the will of the peo-ple. The only thing we must makesure is that we fight, not with vio-lence, but with vigour, voice andvote to uphold the rule of the lawand the Constitution. Victorythen will be undeniable for every-one who wants to live in a uni-fied, peaceful and prosperousdemocracy.

(The writer is a former IPSofficer, a former MP and current-ly a member of the AAP)

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Sir — Every year, the country cel-ebrates February 28 as theNational Science Day in remem-brance of Dr CV Raman, who dis-covered the scattering of light, alsoknown as the “Raman effect.” Itis fascinating that great scientistsstrongly believed in the power ofprayer, which helped them discov-er the secrets of nature.

This reminds me of a storyabout a young businessmansharing a compartment on atrain with an elderly gentle-man. When he noticed that theold fellow was quietly andintently praying with his Rosary,the young man chided him forhis “superstition” and told himthat science had rendered thebeliefs of religion irrelevant.“How did you come to discoverthat?” the old gentleman asked.

His companion didn’t really know how to answer thequestion then and there, so heoffered to send him a few textsand public lecture notes on thesubject for his enlightenment.“What’s your address?,” he asked,“I’ll send you the material via thepost.”

The old man rummaged in

his coat pocket and produced atattered business card that read,Louis Pasteur, Paris Institute ofScientif ic Research.Undoubtedly, spirituality isgreater than science. Man hasonly learnt to clone the body, notthe soul.

TS KarthikChennai

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Sir — This refers to the report,“CCPD issues notice to centralmedical institutions for denyingjob to Divyang doc” (February26). The office of the ChiefCommissioner for Persons withDisabilities (CCCPD) has made

the right intervention by steppingin to issue notices to the Delhi-based central medical institu-tions, Safdarjung Hospital andVMM College. They allegedlydenied a teaching job to DrNonita Gangwani, an MD inphysiology and a wheelchair userwith 70 per cent disability due tomultiple sclerosis, despite her

clearing an exam and interviewfor the post. At a time whenPrime Minister Narendra Modihas given special status to thephysically challenged and calledthem Divyang to emphasise theirspecial place in the society, suchdiscrimination is condemnable.Action should be taken againstthe officials responsible.

Lalit AdesaraPune

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “The court rap” (February 27).The violence in the capital, aresult of political manoeuvres,was avoidable. It reflects badly notonly on the police force but alsoon the functioning of the highechelons of bureaucracy. Keepingthe Delhi police under the con-trol of the Union Government hasprovided much space for shame-less and dirty politics. To makegovernance accountable, the com-mand of the police must be givento the State Government.

Vineet KeshriVia email

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On May 23, 2013, while speaking at the foun-dation stone-laying ceremony for the IndianNational Defence University, Gurugram, the

then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exuded con-fidence that India was well-positioned and willing“to become a net provider of security” in its imme-diate region and beyond. In 2015, the Institute forDefence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), New Delhi,came out with an assessment report titled, India asa Security Provider. The report highlights India’sgrowing military capabilities and its proactiveresponses to the human and non-human threats tothe littoral nations of the Indian Ocean, which cor-roborates the country’s image and positioning as abenign power and net security provider in the region.But the question here is: Is India also willing to playthe role of net security provider when it comes toensuring water security in the region? The above-mentioned IDSA report points out, “While tradi-tional security threats limit India’s role; cooperationon non-traditional threats opens up a new oppor-tunity for India to play a regional role.” Thus, it isa geostrategic imperative for India to focus on non-traditional security threats in the region emergingfrom sectors such as water and energy.

Today all the nations of South Asia face a watercrisis in one form or another due to a range of fac-tors — population growth, urbanisation, inefficientuse, bad management and lack of governance,among others. The unfolding water crises pose a seri-ous threat to sustainable development, agricultureand industries, poverty reduction and the ecosys-tem. Climate change has exacerbated the brewingwater crises like never before. The United NationsSecretary General António Guterres has termed cli-mate change as “the most systematic threat tohumankind.”

Water is a common resource and managing andgoverning it has always been a challenge at any scale,be it local or regional. A participatory robust insti-tutional architecture for water governance is need-ed to manage and govern resources in a systemat-ic and efficient way. Many of the important waterbodies in South Asia are transboundary and thustheir basins spread in more than one country.Integrated basin management would not be a real-ity without regional cooperation at the SouthAsian level.

Most of the water treaties in South Asia are bilat-eral in nature, which form the core of the SouthAsian political ecology of governance. Be it upperor lower riparian, nations in the region are appar-ently not content with the existing treaties. For exam-ple, India, an upper riparian nation, does not seemto be happy with the Indus Water Treaty withPakistan, a lower riparian nation in this case.Between Bangladesh, a low riparian nation and India,the Teesta river issue still remains unresolved, withDhaka asking for an increase in water share.People in Nepal, an upper riparian nation, thinkwater treaties with India produces environmentalinjustices to the riverine people of Koshi river. Alongwith this kind of political ecology of the region, theissue of sovereignty in South Asia is a very sensi-tive topic. South Asia represents a typical case of theWestphalian concept of sovereignty, where eachnation has exclusive sovereignty over its territory andthe natural resources, including water. No nationwould like to be seen as compromising its sovereign-ty. However in reality, in the face of globalisation andtrade integration, each nation is bargaining its sov-ereignty with the other nations and regional andinternational actors. These two factors — theexisting South Asian political ecology and the powerpolitics played out in the name of sovereignty — both

hinder and open up opportunities forregional cooperation at the same time.Some may think that regional coopera-tion compromises on the sovereignty ofa State. However, the notion of sovereign-ty can be broadened to accommodate andfacilitate the idea of cooperation, whichis not about imposing suzerainty of onenation on another.

India has been quite active in theregion in terms of coming to the rescueof its neighbours when they are in trou-ble. A case in point is when Maldives faceda water crisis in December 2014, Indialaunched Operation NEER to immediate-ly provide Maldives with it. The peopleand the Government of Maldives wereappreciative of India’s quick response andhelp. Having said that, one must bemindful that those were more of aresponse to a crisis that emerged and sim-ilar exercises could be useful to tacklefuture contingencies of that sort. However,water woes coupled with the effects of cli-mate change have resulted in a distinct setof challenges that call for India’s proactiverole in the South Asian region. What isrequired today is a continuous regionalcooperation in providing water security,which is at present marred by the absenceof an institutional architecture for watergovernance in South Asia.

India should play a lead role in insti-tutionalising regional cooperation byestablishing a robust architecture. It hasalready set an example with the launch ofSouth Asian Satellite in 2017, whichPrime Minister Narendra Modi in histweet termed as a “symbol of South Asiancooperation” and “a journey to build themost advanced frontier” of regional coop-eration and partnership. With India look-ing for a larger regional role, it cannotafford to be a security consumer. It has tometamorphose itself into a credible secu-

rity provider. Benjamin Kienzle, a facul-ty member of Defence Studies at King’sCollege London, elucidates, “A securityprovider has a stronger interest in theimmediate security of a third party,rather than in direct security gains foritself…the action of a security providereasily lead to a win-win situation…A secu-rity consumer, on the other hand, is pri-marily interested in its own security andis largely indistinct towards the securityneeds of third parties…In general, secu-rity consumers create easily win-lose sit-uations...” Notwithstanding, he makes itclear that a security provider in no waycompromises its own security interests.

Domestically India has made someprogress to improve water governance.The then Ministry of Water Resources,River Development and GangaRejuvenation (now Ministry of Jal Shakti)constituted a committee led by Mihir Shahto suggest institutional reforms for watergovernance to deal with the water chal-lenges that India faces in the 21st centu-ry. In July 2016, the Committee came outwith a report titled, A 21st CenturyInstitutional Architecture for India’s WaterReforms. The report makes a number ofcritical suggestions to strengthen thegovernance of India’s water resources. Oneof them is about its shape and structure.The report underlines that “polycentricgovernance regimes characterised by a dis-tribution of power but effective coordina-tion structures perform better.”Considering water as one of the sectorsmost vulnerable to climate change, thereport stressed that the ability to respondto it is strengthened by polycentric gov-ernance regimes.

The existing political ecology ofSouth Asia makes the space of waterresources a geopolitically contested zone.Governance is needed to protect the envi-

ronment, to save the ecology and to man-age water resources in an integrated andholistic manner. Polycentrism is inherentin South Asia and by default distributionof power is effected by the very nature ofSouth Asian sovereignty. What is missingessentially is the effective coordination torealise and unlock water governancepotential in the region. Effective coordi-nation can be established only through awell-structured institutional architectureinvolving all the actors and stakeholders.With the emergence of non-State environ-mental actors and groups in the region,the role of governments has receded inwater governance and self-organised gov-ernance networks have found prominence.

In their article “Reflections on Actor-Network Theory, Governance Networks,and Strategic Outcomes”, Ludmilla MeyerMontenegro and Sergio Bulgacov cautionthat, “self-organised governance networkscan impede (policy) implementation…orthey can enhance the efficiency of policyimplementation…Thus, it is importantto determine how these networks areformed, who forms them and how theyfunction, since they have such directimpacts on governance. The more weknow about networks, the better weunderstand governance dynamics and itsrelationships with the Government,informal mechanisms, and privateactors.”

India should painstakingly study thegovernance networks that exist today inSouth Asia for conceptualising a region-al institutional architecture for watergovernance in the region, to not repeatanother SAARC which is failing under itsburden.

(The writer works as a SeniorProgramme Manager for climate andwater projects at a German foundation andis a policy commentator)

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It has taken the world a while toreach the understanding thatnature can never be taken for

granted. Unfortunately, in India, thisis not the case and utilisation of com-mon natural resources like forests,green cover, oceans, rivers, fish stocksand so on, doesn’t reflect anywhere inour Gross Domestic Product (GDP)accounting, as these are difficult tochronicle. This economic inconspic-uousness of nature’s services becomesan underlying concern, which hasgenerated debate and discussions like

The Economics of Ecosystems andBiodiversity (TEEB) initiated by theUnited Nations in 2007. TEEB is aglobal initiative focussed on “makingnature’s value visible”. Its main objec-tive is to mainstream the value of bio-diversity and ecosystem services intodecision-making at all levels. It aimsto achieve this goal by following astructured approach to valuation thathelps decision-makers recognise thewide range of benefits provided byecosystems and biodiversity, demon-strate their values in economic termsand where appropriate, capture themin decision-making.

Although conservationists likePavan Sukhdev and Gretchen C Daily— pioneers in illuminating and quan-tifying the economic value of our nat-ural environment — who are award-ed with the Tyler Prize forEnvironmental Achievement in 2020,have clearly put forward the sameopinion, acceptance remains elusive.The economic invisibility of nature to

drive humanity and dependence uponmarket-based economic systems,remain at the heart of deserved recog-nition to account for nature in theGDP, especially in relation to the sur-vival of marginalised sections of soci-ety. This invincibility somehow ham-pers the cognition to acknowledge theGDP of the poor via negative exter-nalities. Often, in the process, the sec-ondary sector (industrial) omits tomake the required dent due to aninvisible characteristic attached tothe transformation, from sourcing ofraw material to processing of finishedproduce.

Think-tanks and economistsrealised the requirement for truedemonstration of environmental eco-nomics or “greenomics” for its invis-ible values much earlier and Americanbiologist and philosopher GarrettHardin’s The tragedy of the commonsis an exemplar to this. For the unini-tiated, the tragedy of the commons isa situation in a shared-resource sys-

tem where individual users, actingindependently according to their ownself-interest, behave contrary to thecommon good of all users by deplet-ing or spoiling the shared resourcethrough their collective action. It isquite worrisome that big businesshouses and people at large are not ableto value the gratuitous support pro-vided by nature due to imprudenceand the incompetence to distinguishprivate goods from public goods.

Greenomics is all about econom-ic factoring of public and non-market-ed (those not made by man and nottransacted in the market) goods incomputation of the national domes-tic product of an economy. It is defi-nitely essential (and poses a challengein a way) to evaluate the intrinsic eco-nomic value, as most of the businessminds have tried to comprehendtoday. One such endeavour comesthrough the Global Initiative for aSustainable Tomorrow (GIST) plat-form to quantify the impact of nega-

tive externalities by allocating eco-nomic values to invisibles to make ita plausible option for inclusion by thebureaucrats and corporates.

The concept of GDP accountingof the poor appears to be crucial inthat it has to blend sustainability alongwith big data that is accessible to all.The TEEB framework facilitates all ofthe above by merging it with data ana-lytics, technology and sustainability.

Certainly, it is not about placinga price on nature, rather it is aboutrecognising, demonstrating and valu-ing nature’s services to people. Nobodyis buying or selling a cloud. The real-ity is that forests can generate rainfallthat is vital for agricultural productiv-ity. However, recognising and demon-strating that true scientific value is thereality now.

The idea propagated by TEEB’sIndian members, “GDP of the poor”,holds relevance especially in a fragileatmosphere of everlasting ecologicaluncertainties that undoubtedly will

decide the future placement of thenation on the global map. Theirreport signals that the rural produc-tion system would suffer the most,given the destruction of our ecosys-tems. The question that we must askourselves is, that if nations likeVietnam, Indonesia and so on, canseparately compute the GDP of thepoor, why not India, despite three ofthe members on the board of theTEEB being Indian. Initiatives likezero-budget natural farming inAndhra Pradesh and Maharashtra arewelcome and the need of the hour. Ifbureaucrats could accept poverty-alleviation as a mainstream agenda tomake a powerful diminution of ruralpoverty, accounting for the GDP of thepoor can be the way forward.

(The writer is Assistant Professorand Senior Research Scholar,DRC/FMS, University of Delhi. Inputsby Kushankur Dey, Assistant Professor,IIM Lucknow. The views expressed arepersonal.)

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Industry body COAI has sentout a distress signal to the

government seeking easierterms for payment of statutorydues by telcos, including exten-sion of loans at lower rates tocover AGR liabilities, as also fastimplementation of floor prices,to rescue the troubled sector.

With the telecom industryplunging into a deep, unprece-dented crisis, the associationhas raised an alarm over banks’unwillingness to take any riskwith regard to the sector, andasserted the “need to give aclear message to banks thatgovernment is there to supportthe sector”.

“Banks are currentlyunwilling to take any risk withrespect to the telecom sectorand are constantly asking tele-com service providers to reducetheir exposures by refusing toissue new bank guarantees oreven to renew bank guaran-tees,” COAI Director General,

Rajan Mathews said in a letterto Telecom Secretary AnshuPrakash.

Cellular Operators’Association of India (COAI)has also said that the require-ment of financial bank guar-antees for securing licence feepayments should be done awaywith. In case TelecomDepartment is of the view thatfinancial bank guarantees areneeded, the same should bereduced to one quarter oflicence fee, as per the industrybody. COAI also sought animmediate cut in licence feelevy to three per cent from 8per cent and reduction in spec-trum usage charges.

Citing India’s low averagerevenue per user compared tomarkets like China, Brazil andRussia, it further said data pricesin India are a fraction of thosein markets like the US, China,Germany, France and others.

“Therefore, floor pricing isimperative to ensure the sectoris sustainable and in a positionto bear the deferred spectrumand adjusted gross revenue(AGR) dues, while continuingto invest in world class net-works,” COAI said.

COAI’s letter, dated

February 26, came even asVodafone Idea has reportedlymade it clear to the governmentthat it won’t be able to paycourt-mandated AGR dues inentirety, unless a bailout isextended immediately.

In all, 15 telecom entitiesowe the Government �1.47lakh crore in unpaid statutorydues — �92,642 crore inunpaid licence fee and anoth-er �55,054 crore in outstandingspectrum usage charges.

Of the estimated dues thatinclude interest and penalty forlate payments, Airtel andVodafone Idea account forabout 60 per cent.

These dues arose after theSupreme Court, in October lastyear, upheld the government’sposition on including revenuefrom non-core businesses incalculating the annual AGR oftelecom companies, a share ofwhich is paid as licence andspectrum fee to the exche-quer. The Supreme Court, ear-lier this month, rejected a pleaby mobile carriers such asBharti Airtel and VodafoneIdea for extension in the pay-ment schedule and asked com-panies to deposit their pastdues for spectrum and licences.

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Vodafone Idea has demand-ed fixing minimum tariffs

for mobile data at �35 per GB,around 7-8 times of currentprices, and for calls at 6 paiseper minute along with month-ly charges from April 1 toenable it pay statutory dues andmake its business sustainable.

The loss-making telco isunder pressure to clear adjustedgross revenue dues of more than�50,000 crore to comply with aSupreme Court order. The com-pany has sought 18 years time toclear the dues, including a three-year moratorium on payment ofinterest and penalty, according toofficial sources.

“There are number ofdemands that Vodafone Ideahas put across the governmentfor its survival. The companywants minimum price of datashould be fixed at �35 per giga-byte and minimum monthlyconnection charge at �50 fromApril 1, 2020. These are toughdemands which is a problemfor government to fulfil,” anofficial told PTI on the condi-tion of anonymity. Current

mobile internet prices are in therange of �4-5 per GB.According to the source, VodaIdea wants minimum price ofoutgoing calls should be fixedat 6 paise per minute.

The demand to raise calland internet rates fromVodafone Idea comes withinthree months of company rais-ing prices by up to 50 per cent.

“According to the compa-ny, increase in mobile call anddata rates will help it generaterevenue to the same level asVodafone and Idea individual-ly generated in 2015-16. Thecompany has said that it will

take three years to get tothat level after tariff hike henceit has sought three-year mora-torium for payment of AGRdues,” the source said.

A Vodafone Ideaspokesperson declined tocomment on the matter.

The Government levieslicence fee and spectrum usagecharge based on revenueearned by telecom companies.

Telecom companies andgovernment had entered into adispute over ascertaining rev-enue calculation.

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Troubled Vodafone Idea haswritten to the telecom

department expressing itsinability to pay full AGR duesunless the government takesurgent measures, includingallowing staggered payment,reduction in levies and imple-mentation of floor prices in thecrisis-ridden sector.

The letter to the commu-nications ministry comes at atime when the company isconfronted with AGR dues ofover �53,000 crore and has paida mere 7 per cent of its liabili-ties so far.

Warning that it is “not in asound financial state”, VodafoneIdea said the company wouldbe in a position to meet its lia-bilities only if the governmentinitiates steps including allow-ing set offs for GST creditaccumulated so far, and per-mitting staggered mechanismfor payment of balance amountof interest, penalty, and inter-est on penalty. It said adjust-ment of GST credit due fromthe Government could help in meeting its AGR payment.

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Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL)has told the government

that it is unable to pay SupremeCourt mandated �53,000 croredues and sought state supportto survive the crisis, a con-tention that was supported byindustry association COAI.

With the crucial meeting ofDCC likely to be held onFriday to discuss relief mea-sures for the AGR-hit industry,VIL has made a strong push forsetting off �8,000 crore of GSTcredits and a three-year mora-torium on payment of theremaining amount whichshould be staggered over 15years at a simple interest rate of6 per cent.

It has also sought drasticcut in licence fee and fixing ofa minimum price of calls anddata.

VIL, which had last weekpaid �3,500 crore out of theoutstanding dues, in a letter tothe Department ofTelecommunications (DoT)said it is “not in a sound finan-cial state” to settle the dues andsought “urgent support fromthe government”.

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The coronavirus outbreakmay negatively impact

global growth by 30 basispoints or $250 billion, industrybody PHDCCI said onThursday.

PHDCCI President DKAggarwal said disruptions inthe global supply chains willnot only hit China’s exports butalso the exports of the import-ing countries as they import alarge chunk of raw materialsand intermediate goods fromChina while exporting to otherrespective destinations.

“At this juncture, we needto boost our domestic con-sumption demand and domes-tic capacities to mitigate thelikely impact of coronavirus onglobal trade,” said Aggarwal,adding that sectors such aspharmaceuticals, solar and ironand steel have been facing dis-ruptions in imports of rawmaterials from China due tothe outbreak of the virus.

According to Aggarwal, asChina is a major player in glob-al trade, contributing around13 per cent in world merchan-dise exports.

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The government was “steadi-ly but clearly” moving

towards a less regressive taxa-tion system and removing thecriminal angles which areunwanted in every Act dealingwith tax issues, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamansaid on Thursday.

“Eventually, we hope tohave in India a simplified tax-ation structure, completelyreduced rates of taxation, andtherefore an easy-to-complysystem. So as regards taxationwe went in that route.

“Now, if you notice, as weare talking of removing orreducing the personal incometax, we removed the dividendDistribution Tax totally. Soevery time we are taking a steptowards simplifying, we areremoving that which is seen asa double taxation, or a regres-sive taxation,” Sitharaman saidduring an interaction withtraders and industry represen-tatives here on the UnionBudget 2020-21.

The Finance Minister, whowas accompanied by Finance

Secretary Rajeev Kumar, DEASecretary Atanu Chakraborty,Revenue Secretary A.B. Pandeyand SBI Chairman RajnishKumar, said it was a part ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s reform-mindednesswhen dealing with businesses.

“We are steadily but clear-ly moving towards less regres-sive system.”

Responding to queriesfrom the businesspeople, shesaid it was also the govern-ment’s clear cut policy toremove elements which intro-duce the criminality angle toeven a civil omission or com-mission as regards businesslaws.

“So I think even within thefirst six months of the presenttenure, we have, in one or twoActs, very clearly diluted thecriminality angle and in somecases clearly removed themalso.

“Even as we speak, there iswork going on to look at theCompanies Act to see what arethe provisions in which crim-inalisation is coming up and weare trying to remove them,” shesaid.

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Union CommunicationsMinister Ravi Shankar

Prasad on Thursday announcedthat India Post Payments Bank(IPPB) now has 2 crore cus-tomers under its ambit.

“In August last year, IPPBhad reached the landmark of 1crore customers in just its firstyear of operations. The next 1crore customers have beenacquired and onboarded injust 5 months. On an average,IPPB has been opening/main-taining a run rate of 33 lakhaccounts per quarter,” an offi-cial statement said.

With the launch of AadhaarEnabled Payment System(AePS) Services in September2019, IPPB has now become thesingle largest platform in thecountry for providing inter-operable banking services to thecustomers of any bank, it said,adding that with AePS ser-vices any common person witha bank account linked toAadhaar can perform basicbanking services such as cashwithdrawals and balanceenquiry irrespective of the bankthey hold their account with.

Paris: Chinese telecom giantHuawei said on Thursday thatit would begin manufacturingradio equipment for next-gen-eration 5G networks in France.The 200-million-euro (USD218-million) facility willemploy 500 people and pro-duce equipment for theEuropean market, Huaweichairman Liang Hua told apress conference in Paris. Theannouncement comes twoweeks after France said it wouldnot bow to American pressureto exclude Huawei from sup-plying equipment for its 5Gnetworks — a stance also takenby Britain. AFP

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Sebi on Thursday slapped atotal fine of �5 crore on fugi-

tive Mehul Choksi, GitanjaliGems and another individualfor violating various regula-tions, including listing norms,in connection with a massivefraud on state-run lender PNB.

Choksi, promoter andmanaging director of GitanjaliGems, is the maternal uncle ofNirav Modi, who is also facingcharges for defrauding state-run Punjab National Bank(PNB) of over �14,000 crore.

Both Choksi and Modifled India after the PNB scamcame to light in early 2018.While Choksi is said to be inAntigua, Modi is lodged in aBritish jail and has challengedIndia’s extradition request.

In its order, Sebi said it isimposing a fine totalling �5crore on Choksi, GitanjaliGems and Dhanesh Sheth, theexecutive director of Gitanjali.

“... The default is graveand the gravity of this mattercannot be ignored,” Sebi said.

It quoted a communicationfrom PNB that it had reportedto the RBI total fraud of over�11,394 crore in case of unau-thorized issuance of LOUs,foreign letters of credit andinland letter of guarantees inthe group accounts of NiravModi Group and GitanjaliGroup and in the account ofone Chandri Paper & AlliedProducts Pvt Ltd.

The overall fraud size issaid to be even larger at over�14,000 crore.

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India’s domestic gas demandis at an inflection point and

is expected to see a 66 per centvolume growth over the nextfive years, primarily driven bysustained weak LNG prices, asper a report. Gas demand isexpected to rise from 148 mil-lion standard cubic meters perday in 2018-19 to 250 mmscmdby FY25, Elara Securities saidin a report.

The bulk of the incremen-tal demand will come from citygas distribution (CGD) opera-tions being rolled out in 400districts. As much as 52mmscmd of additional demandwill come from retailing ofCNG to automobiles and pipednatural gas to industries andhouseholds, it said. Another 35mmscmd is to come from thepower sector and 15 mmscmdfrom fertilizer plants.

“Domestic gas demand isat an inflection point and weexpect 66 per cent volumegrowth or 102 mmscmd overthe next five years, given anenvironment of sustained weakLNG prices, owing to a globalsupply glut and muted demandfrom China, which has beenaggravated by the coronavirusoutbreak,” it said.

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Equity indices reeled for thefifth straight session on

Thursday, pressured by a sell-offin bank, IT and energy counters,as the global markets grappledwith fears of the coronavirusoutbreak turning into a pan-demic. The expiry of Februaryseries derivatives contracts tookept the domestic marketsvolatile, traders said.

After plunging over 465.69points during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex finally settled143.30 points, or 0.36 per cent,lower at 39,745.66. Similarly, thebroader NSE Nifty fell 45.20points or 0.39 per cent to end at11,633.30. The Sensex has nowlost 1,577.34 points in five days,while the Nifty has shed 492.60points. ONGC was the top loserin the Sensex pack on Thursday,dropping 2.61 per cent, fol-lowed by HCL Tech, M&M, SBI,IndusInd Bank and ICIC Bank.

On the other hand, SunPharma, Titan, Axis Bank andAsian Paints climbed up to 3.68per cent. World markets extend-ed their losses while safe-havenassets like gold and USTreasuries strengthened afterPresident Donald Trumpannounced that the US wasstepping up its efforts to combatthe Covid-19 outbreak, while thenumber of cases surpassed81,000. Indian markets were in

the negative territory as therapid global spread of the coro-navirus kept investors on theedge and made them seek safe-ty in gold and bonds, saidNarendra Solanki, HeadFundamental Research(Investment Services) - AVPEquity Research, Anand RathiShares & Stock Brokers.

India is at risk of gettingseverely impacted by the epi-demic economically because ofits high reliance on Chineseimports for various goods, henoted. Benchmarks alsoremained volatile on account ofmonthly expiry of derivativescontracts, he said, adding thatsentiment remained sluggishamid reports that GDP growthis likely to stay flat at 4.5 per centin October-December 2019.The government’s GDP esti-mate for the December quarteris scheduled to be released onFriday. Further, relentless sellingby foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) spooked retail investors,traders said. According to pro-visional data available with stockexchanges, so far this week,FPIs have offloaded stocks wortha whopping Rs 6,812.57 crore ona net basis. Sectorally, BSE real-ty, oil and gas, metal, teck, IT,industrials, energy, telecom andauto indices ended up to 2.09 percent lower, while consumerdurables and healthcare settledon a positive note.

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The outlook for India’s avia-tion industry remains “neg-

ative” in the wake of coronavirusoutbreak, which has resulted inmany international passengerscancelling their travel to SouthEast Asian countries, accordingto rating agency Icra. Morethan 81,000 people have beeninfected and over 2,700 peoplehave died due to coronavirus.China is the epicentre of thevirus outbreak.

Icra noted that the outbreakhas impacted travel to and fromChina as well as other SouthEast Asian countries. “The sus-pension of flights on the India-China sector will not result inany significant impact on thefinancial performance of the air-lines, unless the lockout is pro-longed, as the traffic on theseroutes account for only 0.9-1.3per cent of the total interna-tional passenger numbers.” Icrasaid on Thursday.

However, the agency saidthe impact is expected to besevere if passengers from otherSouth East Asian countries, hitby coronavirus, cancel theirtravel. Traffic from these coun-tries account for around 19.5-23.8 per cent of the total inter-national passengers flying toand from India, it noted. Theextent of impact of the flight/ticket cancellations on the prof-itability of the domestic airlines

would, however, vary depend-ing on the airlines’ presence inthese routes. In a note, theagency said it has “maintainedits negative outlook on theIndian aviation industry in viewof the ongoing lockouts in partsof China following the outbreakof the coronavirus”.

Some airlines have alreadydiscontinued flights to Chinaand Hong Kong until June2020. Air India has temporari-ly stopped flying to China andHong Kong till June 30. The air-line has also reduced the num-ber of flights to Singapore.Vistara has decided to cancel 54flights to Singapore andBangkok in March. GoAir hassuspended its operations toSingapore and has also scaleddown the number of flightsoperated to Phuket andBangkok.

Among other carriers,Singapore Airlines has extend-ed suspension of flights acrossits network, including India, tillend of May. However, Icra saiddecline in jet fuel prices wouldpartly compensate airlines’ lossof revenues due to flight can-cellations. Crude oil prices havefallen in the wake of the coro-navirus outbreak, which hasimpacted many countries.

Icra said the medium-termimpact on the domestic aviationindustry would also depend on

the economic shock to the glob-al economy due to the coron-avirus outbreak. Historically,foreign airlines have enjoyedhigh market share while domes-tic airlines account for less than40 per cent of the total passen-gers carried on internationalroutes to and from to India, IcraVice President Kinjal Shah said.

“Assuming the same pro-portion on routes to and fromChina and other impactedSouth East Asian countries, theIndian aviation industry couldsee a maximum impact (of19.5-23.8 per cent) on the inter-national passenger trafficgrowth...,” she said. This impactwould be there in case there isa complete suspension of flightsto and from these countries, asthey fly 4.5-5.5 million passen-gers, she added.

According to her, such ascenario would be negative forthe Indian aviation industry,which is already reeling undersignificant passenger trafficslowdown, with the interna-tional traffic growth for up toDecember quarter of the fiscalhaving witnessed a decline of 8.4per cent. As per Icra, prolongedshutdown of manufacturingactivities in China and subse-quent impact of the outbreak onthe global economic activitycould result in a slump in glob-al oil demand.

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Script Open High Low LTPINFRATEL 221.50 225.50 214.85 223.40HDFCBANK 1200.00 1202.50 1181.00 1199.35MARUTI 6237.00 6338.35 6170.00 6285.90ICICIGI 1234.00 1275.85 1216.00 1251.30BAJFINANCE 4830.00 4830.00 4711.10 4763.00BHARTIARTL 535.00 536.00 526.85 531.25IBULHSGFIN 326.70 328.00 308.20 316.45RELIANCE 1390.00 1393.95 1369.60 1385.80SBIN 328.25 330.00 318.05 321.95SRTRANSFIN 1280.00 1280.00 1241.95 1246.60AUROPHARMA 510.10 521.60 508.30 519.25YESBANK 37.20 37.95 36.05 36.75INDIACEM 109.40 111.90 98.50 100.40TATAMOTORS 144.70 146.70 141.10 145.00IDEA 4.04 4.20 3.71 3.82HDFC 2288.00 2289.70 2244.70 2273.65INDUSINDBK 1142.00 1142.00 1102.20 1115.60TATASTEEL 415.90 415.90 407.30 412.80LTI 1990.15 1991.55 1966.55 1982.35POWERGRID 186.80 187.80 181.45 186.65NESTLEIND 16332.00 16340.00 16050.00 16261.55ICICIBANK 524.90 524.90 512.85 514.95TCS 2140.00 2140.00 2086.85 2103.90MIDHANI 211.00 253.35 196.70 252.70LAXMIMACH 3279.00 3410.00 3224.05 3345.10LT 1216.95 1216.95 1200.00 1209.85PRSMJOHNSN 66.00 67.10 63.90 65.50JSWSTEEL 260.00 260.00 248.55 252.05JINDALSTEL 169.90 169.90 164.65 168.30HINDUNILVR 2245.00 2259.55 2200.70 2247.90SUNPHARMA 375.00 390.45 369.65 388.40NAVINFLUOR 1525.00 1554.00 1463.10 1477.95BASF 940.50 1111.00 930.75 1064.70ADANIENT 242.80 242.80 232.20 233.90IGL 460.00 460.00 448.50 456.30BANDHANBNK 395.70 406.00 387.50 398.55DMART 2348.00 2369.15 2310.80 2320.05VEDL 130.60 131.30 126.45 130.50PVR 2000.00 2000.00 1932.45 1958.10SRF 4120.00 4171.00 4093.90 4150.00MOTHERSUMI 111.00 111.20 106.60 109.15INFY 780.00 780.55 772.40 776.85ITC 199.00 199.30 195.95 197.50HCLTECH 584.00 584.00 568.25 570.85CIPLA 414.70 422.35 409.20 421.45MUTHOOTFIN 946.95 947.00 906.50 928.45PEL 1419.10 1442.15 1378.00 1395.40HDFCLIFE 559.90 569.35 544.05 566.65MFSL 589.75 606.85 586.65 598.60AXISBANK 729.80 739.15 717.20 738.30MINDTREE 1001.00 1010.50 979.00 981.50ONGC 96.00 96.00 92.15 93.30M&M 508.00 508.00 487.75 493.40SIEMENS 1333.00 1364.60 1319.20 1356.55ASHOKLEY 78.50 78.50 74.80 76.05DLF 213.00 213.00 205.00 208.00UJJIVAN 371.10 371.55 359.20 363.85TITAN 1260.45 1285.70 1251.00 1279.05WOCKPHARMA 339.80 339.95 324.45 332.10ULTRACEMCO 4350.00 4365.85 4280.00 4320.50MCX 1361.00 1378.00 1336.40 1344.00DEEPAKNI 503.00 511.15 474.00 496.90BANKBARODA 80.25 80.35 77.30 78.25NAM-INDIA 426.90 431.00 414.60 417.80RBLBANK 316.20 316.20 306.75 309.50PFC 127.00 127.80 122.35 125.05ESCORTS 828.00 828.00 809.00 817.55IOC 108.60 108.60 105.05 105.65APOLLOHOSP 1759.30 1803.00 1754.25 1797.05LICHSGFIN 349.30 349.65 333.70 336.40GLENMARK 299.70 299.90 289.00 293.80BAJAJFINSV 9375.00 9490.70 9271.00 9470.00ASIANPAINT 1827.00 1852.50 1812.15 1844.35LUPIN 669.90 671.40 655.00 662.65FORTIS 154.95 157.00 151.60 156.45PNB 49.45 49.45 46.80 46.95TATACHEM 749.65 749.65 725.90 732.05FEDERALBNK 85.25 89.50 84.65 89.05CANBK 159.75 160.20 154.20 155.45BPCL 449.95 449.95 438.65 445.55KOTAKBANK 1663.45 1688.00 1661.35 1678.40GAIL 108.00 108.25 105.15 107.40L&TFH 114.30 114.85 111.75 112.35EICHERMOT 17180.00 17211.95 16910.00 17100.00STAR 488.40 503.00 477.85 495.40MANAPPURAM 177.20 178.30 170.45 172.25ABCAPITAL 83.20 83.35 80.70 81.30COALINDIA 174.70 174.70 169.65 173.75IRCON 522.60 558.40 510.10 546.70NCC 40.10 40.10 37.75 38.50EQUITAS 113.60 114.85 110.40 113.85ADANIGAS 150.85 151.95 143.75 147.20HDFCAMC 3242.00 3266.00 3186.40 3245.60INDIGO 1382.90 1382.90 1359.20 1365.00POLYCAB 1139.40 1171.90 1110.00 1163.50HEROMOTOCO 2142.00 2158.20 2102.00 2111.20BIOCON 296.80 301.45 292.50 299.20CGCL 205.20 213.10 204.00 213.10RITES 304.00 304.00 298.25 299.25PIIND 1538.00 1540.00 1517.30 1533.05RAYMOND 551.00 553.00 540.90 545.40ATUL 4930.80 4985.45 4899.90 4985.00GRASIM 709.70 716.30 686.60 713.45HEXAWARE 363.60 366.80 360.80 363.20NLCINDIA 54.50 61.60 53.55 59.85BALKRISIND 1188.50 1190.25 1154.30 1170.00NIITTECH 1878.00 1906.40 1860.10 1880.95

NAUKRI 2601.00 2661.55 2553.10 2564.20JUSTDIAL 489.95 489.95 467.30 485.25MGL 1085.00 1089.00 1051.65 1062.10TVSMOTOR 434.00 443.90 423.20 436.05WIPRO 239.95 239.95 230.75 231.60HINDPETRO 209.00 211.55 203.10 206.00WELSPUNIND 43.40 44.75 42.00 44.00DIVISLAB 2179.00 2179.00 2118.50 2158.95NTPC 110.90 110.90 106.75 108.75BEL 81.70 81.70 77.15 77.50GODREJIND 411.35 415.00 400.10 414.05PIDILITIND 1549.00 1562.35 1528.00 1557.00DRREDDY 3075.00 3087.15 3030.00 3068.65STRTECH 103.10 103.10 96.35 99.30TATAPOWER 49.25 49.80 47.50 49.35APOLLOTYRE 150.05 151.60 145.50 150.30TATAELXSI 955.00 955.15 915.00 930.65DHFL 13.81 13.81 13.16 13.81HINDALCO 169.00 170.20 166.20 168.35AUBANK 1177.00 1194.00 1169.75 1180.25BHEL 33.45 33.45 32.10 32.55RAJESHEXPO 641.00 668.20 640.50 652.05ACC 1414.80 1414.80 1371.95 1383.70BRITANNIA 3038.85 3097.00 2960.70 3090.00ZEEL 253.35 253.45 243.30 244.35SOBHA 315.00 315.00 304.65 308.85JUBLFOOD 1899.00 1899.00 1825.05 1854.85LTTS 1680.25 1683.70 1665.00 1667.85TECHM 811.80 817.00 800.80 817.00VMART 2358.35 2358.35 2208.35 2320.00DIXON 4045.00 4138.25 3855.00 4021.45M&MFIN 360.60 360.60 350.50 351.00SAIL 38.75 38.75 37.05 37.90BDL 277.45 322.35 269.10 310.70TORNTPOWER 305.60 311.80 300.30 310.00UPL 569.90 569.90 549.25 550.70AVANTI 510.55 510.55 479.75 481.35TATACONSUM 368.00 368.00 360.30 363.40TORNTPHARM 2249.65 2260.75 2145.40 2174.45BAJAJ-AUTO 2930.00 2968.25 2917.00 2937.40PTC 52.50 52.65 50.85 51.95GMRINFRA 24.80 24.80 22.65 22.85GRAPHITE 254.80 254.80 240.00 241.10SPICEJET 89.00 89.25 86.85 87.40SANOFI 7200.00 7358.70 7146.50 7300.00AJANTPHARM 1420.50 1445.00 1372.05 1409.90IDFCFIRSTB 39.00 39.05 38.35 38.60ADANIPORTS 360.00 360.10 351.40 354.30SBILIFE 898.00 914.00 876.00 908.60WELCORP 193.95 204.80 187.05 200.95HEIDELBERG 205.00 217.80 197.30 210.00JAICORPLTD 94.00 94.65 91.40 92.75HINDZINC 171.00 187.50 170.00 182.50DABUR 502.80 508.00 501.45 506.75BATAINDIA 1689.70 1690.85 1641.00 1670.90NMDC 97.00 97.70 94.80 96.05GUJGAS 281.10 288.45 266.20 286.75AMARAJABAT 684.65 686.85 671.50 679.00IPCALAB 1377.45 1377.45 1332.10 1341.00MRF 68419.55 68419.55 66800.00 67465.50BERGEPAINT 562.20 580.00 562.20 576.90BEML 823.00 829.00 779.90 789.10SUNTV 465.00 465.15 446.60 452.40AMBUJACEM 214.50 215.20 210.60 211.00BANKINDIA 56.60 56.70 54.65 54.65RELAXO 766.00 766.00 710.50 721.45ADANIPOWER 55.50 55.50 52.40 52.80ADANIGREEN 165.10 167.75 162.80 162.80COLPAL 1335.00 1337.65 1313.95 1323.95UBL 1234.00 1262.15 1218.00 1248.45BHARATFORG 452.10 463.25 451.35 461.75AIAENG 1748.65 1960.00 1729.75 1830.00CUMMINSIND 534.00 534.75 511.75 517.70HEG 955.00 963.40 928.85 932.05DELTACORP 155.00 155.00 145.10 146.15PAGEIND 22250.00 22298.90 22000.25 22187.05HAVELLS 648.20 648.20 632.55 638.55SUZLON 2.81 2.84 2.66 2.83ICICIPRULI 474.85 483.35 466.50 481.90BOSCHLTD 13290.00 13290.00 12800.00 13025.05VOLTAS 695.75 696.00 680.00 685.10NATIONALUM 35.75 36.00 34.45 34.70MARICO 308.00 308.10 302.15 306.50CONCOR 511.90 520.65 503.25 510.00GODREJCP 603.00 603.50 589.20 597.50TRENT 737.70 748.15 728.35 732.05RADICO 426.40 430.40 415.00 427.45NILKAMAL 1406.85 1519.00 1315.00 1440.00

IRB 93.90 97.00 92.85 93.85ALKEM 2636.00 2698.95 2605.90 2633.25BOMDYEING 75.95 76.20 73.15 74.70RECLTD 130.40 130.40 125.50 126.30GRANULES 174.10 180.10 171.45 173.05SUNTECK 357.00 359.30 349.00 349.65GODREJPROP 1066.95 1066.95 1034.00 1038.00ARVINDFASN 351.90 359.05 340.40 349.75PETRONET 261.90 262.95 259.00 261.75EXIDEIND 170.25 171.65 167.70 171.10GODFRYPHLP 1197.00 1205.85 1133.00 1158.50ABBOTINDIA 16300.00 16661.25 16010.55 16135.65PHOENIXLTD 913.80 913.80 873.00 884.20INOXLEISUR 481.25 481.70 460.00 465.85SHREECEM 23646.00 23888.00 23207.55 23834.15SUDARSCHEM 469.10 474.45 451.25 472.00CASTROLIND 155.40 155.40 147.80 148.30NOCIL 98.00 98.90 92.40 94.50ISEC 499.10 499.10 481.00 491.40TATAMTRDVR 60.05 60.95 58.40 60.55BAYERCROP 4457.25 4461.60 4293.25 4310.00IDBI 33.90 33.95 33.05 33.15INFIBEAM 58.10 58.10 56.50 56.60SPARC 155.00 157.40 148.10 155.45DHANUKA 514.00 514.00 400.00 513.00OMAXE 164.00 164.00 157.80 158.65BLISSGVS 128.20 130.35 120.35 124.40JINDALSAW 82.45 82.70 79.70 82.40CARERATING 496.10 505.00 488.05 497.90VENKYS 1377.00 1377.00 1321.30 1332.60IEX 185.20 195.15 183.65 189.25OIL 113.00 113.00 108.55 112.35ENGINERSIN 75.15 75.75 71.00 73.25SCI 51.00 51.00 48.10 48.40OBEROIRLTY 509.40 519.00 507.90 519.00GHCL* 180.10 188.80 178.00 185.85BAJAJELEC 435.10 453.40 426.25 434.30NBCC 28.00 28.05 27.25 27.45PNBHOUSING 399.50 400.00 383.35 387.95FORCEMOT 1185.45 1186.10 1145.00 1147.90HONAUT 33994.90 33994.90 32661.00 33317.65CREDITACC 940.00 940.00 874.15 883.70RALLIS 231.00 233.05 227.10 229.80VBL 839.35 858.10 816.00 819.35SWANENERGY 132.00 134.00 128.05 129.05ABFRL 262.60 266.60 255.00 259.80UNIONBANK 41.10 41.45 40.20 40.45AMBER 1500.00 1500.00 1377.60 1405.45LALPATHLAB 1649.25 1659.20 1620.00 1642.50WHIRLPOOL 2221.35 2249.00 2150.25 2214.00RPOWER 1.84 1.85 1.77 1.77JUBILANT 510.00 529.90 506.25 522.85HFCL 16.50 16.60 16.00 16.10RAIN 103.70 105.25 100.75 103.10MEGH 57.90 57.90 55.30 55.40CANFINHOME 506.20 507.90 500.45 505.65ADANITRANS 264.05 264.05 250.40 253.55IDFC 33.50 33.55 33.10 33.45GARFIBRES 1647.00 1694.05 1521.05 1575.75GNFC 170.00 170.00 164.80 165.45RELINFRA 21.40 21.60 20.10 20.35FCONSUMER 16.80 16.80 14.20 15.40RVNL 22.40 22.50 21.90 22.00IBREALEST 79.85 80.75 76.85 79.00JBCHEPHARM 567.00 569.40 552.00 560.80JMFINANCIL 114.75 117.80 113.60 114.20HSCL 55.90 56.85 54.00 54.55J&KBANK 19.50 21.45 19.45 21.00MAXINDIA 88.60 95.85 87.85 92.10GSKCONS 9695.00 9834.50 9610.00 9800.00DISHTV 9.85 9.89 9.25 9.47GLAXO 1357.80 1357.95 1327.85 1339.00PRESTIGE 331.20 333.00 315.50 317.00CADILAHC 264.90 264.90 256.10 262.80MPHASIS 857.00 900.30 857.00 894.65PARAGMILK 94.20 94.40 90.00 90.60BALRAMCHIN 150.50 150.85 145.65 146.75ITI 80.80 80.80 77.40 77.80ESSELPRO 187.05 198.00 170.70 187.25GICRE 189.80 189.80 178.00 178.80METROPOLIS 1870.10 1884.35 1817.25 1840.60KTKBANK 71.75 74.70 70.00 72.75GILLETTE 5833.00 5835.00 5791.00 5791.00BIRLACORPN 730.00 730.00 705.75 718.95AKZOINDIA 2300.00 2393.55 2253.00 2313.65REPCOHOME 290.70 294.00 283.50 294.00CHOLAFIN 320.00 320.00 311.45 314.95TIMKEN 1031.20 1045.90 1002.00 1017.00GODREJAGRO 495.60 495.60 476.40 479.00THYROCARE 611.70 613.50 595.00 607.00APLLTD 650.00 661.50 641.20 651.00PCJEWELLER 17.15 17.15 16.30 16.403MINDIA 20930.75 20930.75 20400.00 20544.80JSL 40.50 42.00 39.85 40.35ORIENTELEC 272.00 272.00 254.00 263.30WESTLIFE 472.10 474.30 460.00 461.75PFIZER 4228.25 4240.00 4133.70 4157.90PHILIPCARB 117.30 117.85 113.10 114.70DBL 328.95 329.80 319.10 321.15DCBBANK 163.55 164.45 161.50 163.00INTELLECT 124.40 125.50 120.30 121.45VINATIORGA 1017.00 1017.00 987.20 992.00VIPIND 440.70 442.45 431.00 433.65INDIANB 78.15 78.35 74.85 75.30MOTILALOFS 775.00 783.50 763.00 780.00CESC 668.45 668.45 642.35 665.35TATACOFFEE 89.60 89.75 85.45 86.20GULFOILLUB 720.00 849.05 719.50 778.10

WABAG 205.90 210.40 196.30 203.65RCF 41.60 41.60 40.15 40.65MASFIN 1118.50 1123.00 1050.00 1092.35SCHAEFFLER 4473.00 4558.50 4473.00 4530.10HAL 706.35 739.80 702.85 724.10RESPONIND 85.60 87.95 83.35 85.00APLAPOLLO 1980.00 2001.70 1925.70 1995.00KEC 331.20 331.20 314.00 314.00BBTC 1100.00 1109.55 1079.35 1095.00COCHINSHIP 360.00 360.00 337.20 354.00HERITGFOOD 350.00 402.05 324.75 365.80VGUARD 201.25 208.50 201.25 204.35MAHINDCIE 139.15 141.30 129.00 140.05BRIGADE 233.20 239.30 231.00 231.00CENTRUM 18.80 19.85 18.60 18.85EDELWEISS 96.90 97.55 91.60 92.10SUPREMEIND 1375.10 1388.70 1330.40 1355.00KEI 508.35 513.00 491.00 513.00NHPC 21.55 21.70 21.20 21.40CEATLTD 1010.00 1025.00 1008.00 1011.50FRETAIL 320.60 321.45 310.35 319.80CROMPTON 286.50 286.50 280.60 282.85LINDEINDIA 723.10 726.45 694.05 696.05CHAMBLFERT 150.00 153.25 148.50 148.65AAVAS 1908.80 1918.45 1871.70 1901.15UFLEX 225.00 225.00 220.90 221.95NATCOPHARM 621.00 621.00 593.10 606.10NESCO 728.40 728.40 703.55 711.05TIINDIA 549.00 577.00 543.00 566.70AEGISLOG 240.45 242.00 231.30 233.00VAIBHAVGBL 1130.00 1140.20 1100.00 1139.55JKTYRE 66.85 67.00 64.10 66.00

EMAMILTD 278.00 278.00 262.25 264.00INDHOTEL 139.40 141.25 137.10 141.25LUXIND 1521.65 1521.65 1455.25 1496.85ORIENTBANK 38.80 38.85 36.65 36.90KANSAINER 506.15 506.15 492.00 502.70RELCAPITAL 7.05 7.21 6.84 6.92TRIDENT 5.89 5.99 5.75 5.77COROMANDEL 606.75 620.00 602.50 612.40SOUTHBANK 9.53 9.72 9.40 9.58FSL 43.20 43.30 42.05 42.25GSPL 239.00 239.10 232.20 233.15NIACL 117.00 118.10 111.30 113.60KRBL 278.00 278.00 257.25 268.70JSWENERGY 60.80 61.00 58.65 60.00EIDPARRY 196.00 198.50 190.60 193.80TV18BRDCST 27.00 27.00 24.55 24.70IFCI 5.57 5.61 5.41 5.48ITDC 274.40 275.35 265.10 265.55FDC 251.10 251.20 239.60 240.95HUDCO 32.00 32.00 31.05 31.40TCIEXP 885.20 885.20 824.10 836.15CRISIL 1573.00 1606.00 1545.00 1547.00CCL 239.00 239.65 230.40 236.80RAMCOCEM 792.75 792.75 764.00 777.75CHENNPETRO 109.50 109.50 102.80 105.05HINDCOPPER 34.00 34.00 33.15 33.20NH 337.70 345.00 331.50 342.45GREAVESCOT 131.50 131.80 128.85 131.20BAJAJCON 190.00 194.00 182.00 194.00SADBHAV 76.50 83.20 75.25 75.80PNCINFRA 182.30 182.30 174.70 177.05DCAL* 82.20 83.85 80.15 81.15BAJAJHLDNG 3500.00 3500.00 3419.80 3451.10ORIENTCEM 82.65 84.10 80.95 83.25GUJALKALI 360.00 365.90 345.00 349.20MINDACORP 112.00 112.00 105.65 109.70IBULISL 103.65 104.90 98.00 98.35GSFC 66.50 66.50 64.15 64.80QUESS 535.00 544.35 526.00 538.65BLUESTARCO 847.00 851.60 830.00 842.85CUB 218.00 221.20 215.70 220.10LEMONTREE 53.60 54.20 52.70 52.90LAOPALA 205.00 228.00 202.00 223.15TVTODAY 232.75 232.80 225.85 227.70ASTRAZEN 2680.25 2689.95 2645.95 2661.45JCHAC 2836.40 2883.40 2784.65 2836.35JAMNAAUTO 37.20 37.90 35.60 37.20REDINGTON 112.80 112.90 109.60 110.20DALBHARAT 813.00 813.00 794.70 797.35MOIL 131.70 132.25 128.50 129.25SONATSOFTW 349.20 354.40 340.95 345.45KNRCON 268.10 278.80 265.80 271.75SHANKARA 479.95 486.00 461.50 475.65CAPPL 320.70 326.20 318.25 319.10SCHNEIDER 98.00 98.70 96.50 97.15DCMSHRIRAM 340.50 340.50 322.95 337.60DEEPAKFERT 92.25 92.25 90.10 90.70

FINEORG 2235.95 2244.25 2190.20 2210.00TATAMETALI 640.00 642.10 597.05 642.10TATAINVEST 910.75 913.85 885.05 897.75MHRIL 220.50 221.70 211.45 217.25KALPATPOWR 345.40 347.85 338.65 343.55STARCEMENT 93.00 93.90 87.00 90.00FINOLEXIND 566.05 566.05 549.70 554.30JKCEMENT 1433.95 1433.95 1388.40 1400.45INOXWIND 35.55 36.40 34.55 35.05PGHL 4168.90 4180.45 4116.15 4167.65KAJARIACER 543.10 547.00 525.15 534.45BALMLAWRIE 107.00 107.00 102.65 104.05MAHLOG 392.95 392.95 380.00 381.70SYNGENE 306.00 307.40 301.00 303.85GPPL 75.15 76.05 72.50 73.05ALBK 13.45 13.50 12.90 13.00PERSISTENT 700.00 724.00 698.70 713.55JISLJALEQS 5.97 5.97 5.57 5.60SIS 576.00 590.10 566.60 572.00HIMATSEIDE 108.45 108.45 101.55 102.70FINCABLES 348.00 348.00 333.25 343.90MMTC 18.60 18.60 18.05 18.15SYNDIBANK 22.30 22.30 20.05 20.10TEJASNET 57.60 57.60 52.50 53.10IFBIND 480.40 484.60 447.20 463.40ALLCARGO 108.00 112.80 107.95 111.25SYMPHONY 1315.25 1315.25 1285.00 1308.00OFSS 2768.00 2778.40 2708.85 2729.10MRPL 39.50 39.50 38.10 38.10CARBORUNIV 346.00 346.00 322.40 336.55THERMAX 931.00 936.25 912.20 926.40JYOTHYLAB 132.50 132.50 127.75 128.40SUNDRMFAST 430.00 430.00 415.90 424.05UCOBANK 12.80 12.90 12.55 12.55LAURUSLABS 419.50 420.25 410.90 413.50CENTURYPLY 156.00 163.00 154.00 160.10SFL 1650.00 1653.00 1597.85 1650.00JKLAKSHMI 319.20 322.05 315.40 321.10ASHOKA 93.00 94.80 91.65 92.85GEPIL 720.00 727.30 705.00 705.00VSTIND 4175.00 4222.90 4095.35 4162.10TTKPRESTIG 5816.40 5899.25 5816.40 5894.25NBVENTURES 65.40 71.55 64.20 69.00MAGMA 47.15 47.40 45.00 46.90VTL 1084.20 1100.55 1063.00 1091.25RATNAMANI 1333.00 1333.00 1278.10 1300.00GICHSGFIN 101.00 101.85 98.35 100.35MINDAIND 375.65 375.65 367.40 371.45PGHH 11186.90 11248.00 11162.45 11248.00TEAMLEASE 2359.00 2390.30 2325.30 2387.00ASTRAL 1174.60 1175.45 1160.40 1165.15IIFL 180.50 181.05 171.85 173.15NETWORK18 29.10 29.10 28.00 28.90JAGRAN 67.50 67.50 63.00 64.40GRINDWELL 595.45 613.40 590.00 594.55SJVN 23.60 23.60 23.05 23.60MAHSCOOTER 4530.00 4557.75 4503.00 4552.00ZENSARTECH 138.70 144.75 135.00 144.30IOB 8.82 8.82 8.70 8.73ITDCEM 57.00 57.00 54.65 55.50TNPL 166.90 166.90 160.35 160.60GMDCLTD 53.95 54.20 51.80 52.15WABCOINDIA 6781.60 6832.00 6761.00 6812.40CYIENT 432.45 433.70 429.70 433.00SHILPAMED 465.00 465.00 465.00 465.00ENDURANCE 955.00 1009.90 949.00 999.55ERIS 412.75 432.80 410.75 427.55ADVENZYMES 162.00 162.00 156.60 158.00HATHWAY 20.95 20.95 20.10 20.50ASTERDM 167.00 171.00 166.40 168.35GALAXYSURF 1597.05 1626.40 1585.00 1599.10BLUEDART 2831.70 2835.00 2763.00 2826.30MAHABANK 11.05 11.05 10.70 10.82CORPBANK 18.65 18.95 17.50 17.95TIMETECHNO 48.95 48.95 47.75 48.20GESHIP 257.45 257.45 252.00 256.50VARROC 399.00 399.00 375.10 377.50CERA 2417.50 2469.85 2416.75 2426.80ECLERX 592.90 592.90 575.00 580.00MAHSEAMLES 337.25 341.45 333.00 335.50LAKSHVILAS 15.85 16.05 15.20 15.65DBCORP 117.65 119.95 115.00 119.95GET&D 126.85 127.70 123.30 125.30TVSSRICHAK 1579.25 1598.00 1515.60 1530.95EIHOTEL 133.30 133.30 131.20 131.75SKFINDIA 1867.85 1920.00 1856.00 1893.50SOLARINDS 1219.40 1219.40 1170.00 1185.70SOMANYCERA 190.00 193.20 185.90 190.05CENTRALBK 16.10 16.30 15.90 16.05ANDHRABANK 14.75 14.75 14.45 14.55UNITEDBNK 7.60 7.60 7.35 7.38INDOSTAR 280.05 281.75 280.00 280.70FLFL 353.00 360.50 345.35 354.35JSLHISAR 69.35 70.60 68.40 69.70MAHLIFE 375.95 377.55 362.60 365.20VRLLOG 228.00 229.80 223.00 227.80SUPRAJIT 194.00 200.05 194.00 199.00TAKE 95.00 95.00 93.25 93.50CHOLAHLDNG 540.00 541.00 533.95 538.50SHK 108.00 108.00 105.00 107.65KPITTECH 85.05 87.00 84.00 84.70GDL 120.10 120.10 118.90 118.90ZYDUSWELL 1436.80 1440.40 1431.55 1435.00SHRIRAMCIT 1400.00 1405.50 1381.05 1399.10KPRMILL 607.05 612.15 607.05 612.15TCNSBRANDS 571.10 576.55 567.00 576.55CHALET 321.00 327.30 312.00 321.40GAYAPROJ 20.70 20.70 20.70 20.70

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11661.25 11663.85 11536.70 11633.30 -45.20SUNPHARMA 375.00 390.70 369.45 388.00 13.30BRITANNIA 3036.95 3100.00 2960.00 3099.95 58.60TITAN 1250.00 1286.00 1250.00 1278.50 23.40AXISBANK 728.70 739.45 716.55 737.30 7.90GRASIM 702.80 717.50 686.00 710.40 7.60INFRATEL 218.75 225.40 215.20 221.10 2.35MARUTI 6230.00 6338.05 6166.80 6291.00 56.15ASIANPAINT 1829.85 1852.00 1810.45 1843.10 16.45KOTAKBANK 1666.00 1688.90 1660.60 1678.50 12.00BAJAJFINSV 9385.00 9494.70 9266.80 9450.00 63.00HINDUNILVR 2241.95 2259.70 2200.00 2248.35 12.15TATAMOTORS 144.15 146.75 141.10 145.30 0.75POWERGRID 185.10 187.70 181.30 186.80 0.95COALINDIA 173.75 174.55 169.60 173.90 0.10HDFCBANK 1195.00 1202.50 1181.00 1199.65 0.40VEDL 130.00 131.40 126.40 130.20 -0.05NESTLEIND 16300.00 16340.85 16057.50 16224.25 -15.90LT 1212.35 1216.95 1200.00 1208.70 -2.45ULTRACEMCO 4332.55 4365.05 4275.35 4331.05 -10.45YESBANK 37.30 37.95 36.00 36.45 -0.10CIPLA 411.10 424.00 409.00 421.00 -1.20NTPC 109.20 110.30 106.65 108.75 -0.35DRREDDY 3094.00 3094.00 3029.10 3064.00 -11.35TECHM 807.00 819.70 800.20 808.35 -3.10BAJAJ-AUTO 2944.80 2969.95 2913.50 2935.15 -11.45EICHERMOT 17167.80 17248.00 16906.10 17085.00 -71.95HDFC 2279.80 2289.60 2244.55 2265.95 -15.50TATASTEEL 414.90 415.90 407.05 413.00 -3.30INFY 778.00 780.75 772.20 776.55 -6.20BPCL 446.85 449.65 438.50 445.10 -3.70RELIANCE 1388.00 1393.80 1369.00 1380.45 -11.55ITC 198.40 199.15 195.90 196.95 -1.65HINDALCO 169.95 170.30 166.15 168.40 -1.50BHARTIARTL 534.70 535.85 527.00 531.15 -4.80BAJFINANCE 4815.00 4815.00 4712.10 4763.50 -46.50ADANIPORTS 358.70 360.75 351.50 354.00 -4.40TCS 2119.95 2119.95 2086.20 2097.00 -26.60M&M 504.00 504.00 487.55 496.00 -7.00GAIL 108.00 108.45 105.15 106.55 -1.50ICICIBANK 522.80 523.30 512.65 514.40 -9.30HEROMOTOCO2147.90 2158.65 2101.00 2104.20 -38.35INDUSINDBK 1139.00 1139.40 1101.00 1114.00 -21.00SBIN 328.00 330.00 318.00 321.65 -6.55HCLTECH 582.10 582.40 568.00 571.00 -12.60UPL 561.55 561.55 548.85 550.50 -12.50ZEEL 254.80 254.80 243.50 245.55 -5.85IOC 108.35 108.35 105.00 105.65 -2.70ONGC 95.70 96.20 92.05 92.90 -2.90JSWSTEEL 259.00 259.00 248.30 252.90 -7.90WIPRO 238.95 238.95 230.50 231.45 -8.45

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27451.50 27458.55 27087.35 27404.30 -65.85HINDZINC 170.10 187.65 170.00 178.50 5.70SBILIFE 890.80 913.90 875.00 909.00 17.65ICICIPRULI 474.10 486.00 466.25 484.90 9.25HDFCLIFE 559.00 569.30 544.25 567.70 10.65ICICIGI 1220.00 1277.00 1215.00 1258.00 22.55BERGEPAINT 567.00 580.00 565.20 577.00 10.00PIDILITIND 1536.00 1563.80 1525.00 1562.00 26.30AUROPHARMA 512.25 521.80 508.45 518.50 8.50BANDHANBNK 395.00 406.00 387.30 398.70 4.60SHREECEM 23549.00 23927.30 23136.80 23729.00 263.85SIEMENS 1348.00 1363.00 1318.70 1357.80 11.40DIVISLAB 2148.00 2172.00 2117.05 2158.60 16.50DABUR 502.80 508.20 501.40 505.60 3.65UBL 1238.00 1265.80 1218.00 1244.05 8.60MCDOWELL-N 686.00 697.35 675.50 692.00 4.05PGHH 11277.00 11277.00 11188.00 11240.00 -4.05MARICO 306.80 307.90 302.00 306.00 -0.15COLPAL 1333.10 1338.40 1313.25 1324.40 -1.40CADILAHC 261.80 264.25 256.00 262.10 -0.75BIOCON 296.00 302.00 292.45 297.80 -0.95PETRONET 259.90 263.20 259.00 261.00 -1.05ACC 1399.50 1407.95 1373.00 1392.10 -7.40PAGEIND 22105.00 22320.00 21990.30 22000.00 -119.05BAJAJHLDNG 3485.00 3523.65 3415.30 3462.95 -20.05GODREJCP 602.00 605.20 588.95 597.00 -4.25HDFCAMC 3263.00 3265.00 3187.00 3247.15 -26.60LUPIN 669.10 671.30 654.60 664.00 -5.80NHPC 21.50 21.65 21.20 21.45 -0.20AMBUJACEM 213.60 215.15 210.50 211.35 -2.25CONCOR 511.10 521.35 502.55 510.00 -5.80OFSS 2785.00 2789.75 2710.30 2710.90 -31.05HINDPETRO 209.00 211.70 203.15 206.15 -2.70HAVELLS 647.00 647.40 632.60 638.00 -8.80BOSCHLTD 13280.00 13289.00 12818.00 13066.70 -223.95DMART 2347.30 2370.00 2310.00 2317.00 -41.40INDIGO 1380.00 1382.90 1358.55 1366.50 -24.95IBULHSGFIN 326.00 328.20 308.20 315.10 -6.40MOTHERSUMI 110.95 110.95 106.55 109.00 -2.25PFC 127.45 127.85 122.20 124.60 -2.60DLF 212.00 212.80 204.30 208.00 -4.45NMDC 97.50 97.75 94.85 95.50 -2.15SRTRANSFIN 1276.95 1276.95 1241.05 1248.00 -28.95PEL 1424.00 1442.00 1377.15 1395.25 -34.10NIACL 116.90 117.65 111.10 114.10 -2.80ASHOKLEY 77.90 78.15 74.75 76.05 -1.90L&TFH 114.10 115.00 111.70 112.00 -3.00BANKBARODA 80.00 80.35 77.20 78.00 -2.20IDEA 4.05 4.25 3.70 3.85 -0.15PNB 49.10 49.30 46.80 46.80 -2.35GICRE 189.60 189.90 178.05 178.05 -12.00

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Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on

Thursday said that investorsentiment has not been damp-ened by anti-CAA protests andthe recent Delhi violence.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, she said the investorsshe met in her recent visit toSaudi Arabia expressed will-ingness to invest more in thecountry.

When asked about theDelhi violence and anti-CAAprotests, Sitharaman said, "Thesentiments of foreign investorshave not been dampened."

On the possible impact ofcoronavirus scare on the indus-try and the economy, thefinance minister said there isnone as of now.

"However, if the situationdoesn't improve in the next twomonths, there may be shortageof raw material. We are work-ing on how to address theissue and help the industry," sheadded.

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Extending gains for the thirdday, the rupee climbed 4

paise to close at 71.61 againstthe US dollar on Thursdayamid easing crude oil pricesand weakening of the green-back overseas.

Forex traders said therupee consolidated in a narrowrange as gains were restrictedby sustained foreign fund out-flows and robust selling indomestic equities.

Moreover, market partici-pants will be keeping an eye onthird quarter GDP growthnumber scheduled to bereleased on Friday.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the localcurrency opened at 71.65 to theUS dollar. During the day, itswung between a high of 71.55and a low of 71.69.

The domestic unit finallyfinished at 71.61, up 4 paisefrom its previous close.

Meanwhile, investor senti-ment remained fragile amidconcerns over the coronavirusoutbreak turning into a pan-demic, traders said.

The death toll from thevirus epidemic now stands at2,744 in mainland China andthere are now nearly 81,000cases in total.

"Rupee consolidated in anarrow range but traded witha slightly negative bias againstthe US dollar ahead of the pre-

liminary GDP number thatwill be released from the USlater this evening," saidGaurang Somaiyaa, Forex &Bullion Analyst, Motilal OswalFinancial Services.

Somaiyaa further notedthat "on the domestic front,growth number will be releasedtomorrow and weaker-than-expected number could keepthe rupee under pressure".

The global crude oil bench-mark Brent futures fell 2.11 percent to trade at USD 52.30 perbarrel.

Meanwhile, foreign insti-tutional investors remainednet sellers in the Indian capi-tal markets, offloading equitiesworth a net Rs 3,127.36 croreon Thursday, according to pro-visional exchange data.

"Rupee heads for the thirdday of gain following weakerdollar index and lower crudeoil prices," said V K Sharma,Head PCG and Capital MarketsStrategy, HDFC Securities.

"Indian sovereign bondswere steady as a slide in oilprices is seen easing inflation-ary pressures. A decline in USTreasury yields and RBI'sannouncement of long-termrepurchase agreements pro-vided further support," headded.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback's strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, slipped 0.25 per cent to98.74.

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Washington: President DonaldTrump faces a critical person-al challenge in grappling withthe new coronavirus outbreak:asking Americans to believehim after he and some of histop advisers have contradictedfederal scientists in playingdown the threat.

Keenly aware of the stakesnot just for public health butalso his credibility, Trump con-ducted a lengthy press confer-ence Wednesday eveningaimed at reassuring everyonethat he has the crisis well inhand.

Trump surrounded himselfwith his administration’s tophealth experts. And he encour-aged Americans to be pre-pared for the virus’ potentialspread.

But he continued to mini-mize the risk, saying the out-break “may get a little bigger;it may not get bigger at all.” And

he continued to distance him-self from the stated opinion ofpublic health officials that it’sinevitable the virus will spreadwithin the United States.

As businesses, schools andpeople in general think aboutpreparing, the X-factor may be

an unpredictable president whohas clashed repeatedly withscientists in his own adminis-tration and tends to see any cri-sis through the lens of his ownreelection chances.

“I don’t think it’sinevitable,” Trump said at the

news conference, where heannounced Vice PresidentMike Pence would lead theadministration’s response tothe outbreak. “I think it has achance that it could get worse.There is a chance you can getfairly substantially worse. But

nothing’s inevitable.” He alsosaid he had recently learnedthat thousands die from the flueach year, contrasting that tothe coronavirus.

After two days of the stockmarket tumbling, Trump tookto Twitter Wednesday morning

to blame the media andDemocrats for causing unduealarm and harming Americanfinancial markets.

He singled out MSNBCand CNN for “doing everythingpossible to make theCaronavirus look as bad as pos-

sible, including panicking mar-kets, if possible,” and added that“incompetent Do NothingDemocrat comrades are alltalk, no action.”

He blamed part of thisweek’s stock market slide onpeople’s reaction to Tuesday

night’s Democratic debate andthe possibility one of those can-didates might replace him.And Trump acknowledged thatthe outbreak could “have animpact on GDP” but insistedthat the U.S. Economy is still“doing great.” AP

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Beijing: The virulence of thenovel coronavirus continues toshow a declining trend in Chinawhich reported 29 new fatalities,the lowest in weeks, taking thedeath toll to 2,744 while the con-firmed cases climbed to 78,497,officials said on Thursday.

The country’s NationalHealth Commission (NHC) saidit received reports 433 new con-firmed cases of the coronavirusinfection and 29 deaths on

Wednesday from 31 provin-cial-level regions on the main-land. Among the deaths, 26were from the epicentre of thevirus Hubei province and itscapital Wuhan and one eachfrom Beijing, Heilongjiang andHenan, it said.

In Hubei province alone2,641 people died due to thevirus since it erupted inDecember last year including2,104 fatalities in Wuhan. PTI

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Dubai: A state-owned newspaper in Iran saysMasoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president in theIslamic Republic and a spokeswoman for the1979 hostage-takers, has the new coronavirus.

The report came from the English-lan-guage IRAN daily newspaper via its Twitteraccount.

Ebtekar was known during the hostagecrisis as “Mary”. The report comes as othertop officials in Iran’s Shiite theocracy havecaught the virus. AFP

.��"��3%�$���6������� ��=@<@��������%��6�� � ������� ���� ��*�9�� � Tehran: Iran has confirmed

seven new deaths from coro-navirus over the past 24 hours,the health ministry saidThursday, taking the overalltoll to 26, the highest outsideChina.

An additional 106 con-firmed infections took thetotal number of cases so far to245, ministry spokesmanKianoush Jahanpour told adaily briefing. AFP

.������ ���7>������*�9 � ��� Tokyo: A woman in Japan

who contracted the newcoronavirus and wasreleased from hospitalafter recovering has test-ed positive again, offi-cials said Thursday.

The case is the firsttime a patient apparentlycleared of the virus hassubsequently tested pos-itive for it, a local officialin Osaka said.

The woman in her40s was first confirmed as

infected with the coron-avirus on January 29.

She was working as aguide on a tour bus withtourists from Wuhan, theepicentre of the outbreak,in January. The driver ofthe bus was also diag-nosed with the virus.

After being dis-charged from hospital shetested negative for thevirus on February 6,although she still had acough at the time.

She had no symp-toms a week later, butreturned to the doctor onFebruary 21 complainingof a sore throat and chestpains.

On Wednesday, shetested positive for thecoronavirus for a secondtime, officials said. Atleast 186 people in Japanhave so far contractedthe virus, with four deathsin the country linked tothe outbreak. AFP

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Paris: President EmmanuelMacron said on Thursday thatFrance was preparing for a jumpin the number of coronaviruscases, adding “we are going tohave to deal with it as best wecan.”

“We are facing a crisis, anepidemic that is coming,”Macron said while visiting staffat the La Pitie-Salpetriere hos-pital in Paris, where the firstFrench person carrying thenew coronavirus died Tuesday.

“We know that we’re onlyat the beginning... We’re goingto try with all our caretakersto make the right decisions,”Macron said alongside Health

Minister Olivier Veran.“You had a case here... I

know this affected many ofyour teams,” he said, pledging toaddress the crisis “truthfully” sothat measures can be taken“calmly”. France has reported 18cases so far and two deaths,including an 80-year-oldChinese tourist who was the firstcasualty of the virus reportedoutside Asia. AFP

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Tokyo: Japan’s PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe onThursday urged schoolsnationwide to close for sev-eral weeks to prevent thespread of the new coron-avirus, as authorities report-ed the country’s fourth deathlinked to the outbreak.

The move comes as crewmembers from the DiamondPrincess, a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quaran-tined off Japan, began leav-ing the vessel where morethan 700 people have testedpositive for the disease.

“The government con-siders the health and safetyof children above anythingelse,” Abe said. AFP

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Washington: Donald Trumphas said he was consideringUS travel restrictions onItaly and South Korea overcoronavirus fears, addingthe situation would notinevitably worsen in theUnited States.

The president’s opti-mism about containing thepathogen contradicted asenior health official in hisown administration andcame as authorities said theyhad identified the first caseof unknown origin in theUnited States. AFP

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Riyadh: Saudi Arabia onThursday suspended visasfor visits to Islam’s holiestsites for the “umrah” pil-grimage, an unprecedentedmove triggered by coron-avirus fears that raises ques-tions over the annual hajj.

The kingdom, whichhosts millions of pilgrimsevery year in the cities ofMecca and Medina, alsosuspended visas for touristsfrom countries with report-ed infections as fears of apandemic deepen.

Saudi Arabia, which sofar has reported no cases ofthe virus but has expressedalarm over its spread inneighbouring countries, saidthe suspensions were tem-porary.

But it provided no time-frame for when they will belifted, and the decision lefttens of thousands of pilgrimspreparing to visit the king-dom from around the worldin limbo. AFP

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Geneva: Religious minoritiesin Pakistan continue to face vio-lence and repeated attacks ontheir places of worship

and government’s failure toamend the blasphemy law pro-visions led to violence againstthem, UN rights chief MichelleBachelet said on Thursday.

Bachelet, the UN HighCommissioner for HumanRights, briefing the ongoing43rd Session of the HumanRights Council in Geneva onhuman rights developmentsaround the world, mentionedthe case of Junaid Hafeez, a uni-versity lecturer in Pakistan, whohas been sentenced to death inDecember for blasphemy.

“Religious minorities inPakistan continue to face vio-

lence, repeated attacks on theirplaces of worship, and discrim-ination in law and practice,”Bachelet said. “The Government,despite recommendations frominternational human rightsmechanisms, has not amendedor repealed blasphemy law pro-visions which have led to vio-lence against religious minorities,as well as to arbitrary arrests andprosecution,” the former Chileanpresident said in a statement onPakistan’s controversial blasphe-my law. “The death penaltyremains mandatory for blas-phemy, and in December, theMultan Court sentenced JunaidHafeez to death on a blasphemycharge, in contravention of inter-national human rights law,” shesaid. PTI

, ��!��"�����#� � ��� ��" � ����� �$��� �� �����5A�:��#�!� ���� � Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime

Minister Sheikh Hasina onThursday told her party lead-ers that the mosquito, despitebeing a small insect, is quitepowerful and they should notallow it to take a toll on theirpopularity among voters.

Speaking at the oath-takingceremony for the newly-elect-ed mayors and councillors ofDhaka, Hasina told them tofind ways to keep the mosqui-to menace in check, bdnews24news website reported.

“You must make sure themosquito menace does nottake a toll on your popularityand reduce the number ofvotes. Despite being a smallinsect, the mosquito is quitepowerful,” she said.

Hasina asked the publicrepresentatives to ensure equalservices for all citizens and alle-viate their sufferings by con-trolling the mosquito menace.

“Sometimes you confrontmultiple problems at the sametime. Right now, we’re facingthe risks of coronavirus; denguewas another problem just daysago. We need to destroy themosquito breeding grounds,”she said.

Last year, Bangladesh facedits worst-ever dengue feveroutbreak as hospitals wereflooded with patients, puttinga severe strain on the country’salready overwhelmed medicalsystem. PTI

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Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’sinterim leader MahathirMohamad on Thursday saidParliament will pick a newprime minister next week fol-lowing the collapse of the rul-ing alliance and that snap elec-tions will be called if the voteends in an impasse.

Mahathir, who met theking earlier on Thursday, saidthe monarch couldn’t find acandidate with a clear majori-ty to lead the nation after con-sulting all 222 lawmakers overthe last two days. As such, hesaid the king decided to havethe lower house of Parliamentvote on a new leader on March2.

“If the lower house fails tofind a person with the majori-ty, then we will have to go fora snap election,” he told a news

conference.A failed bid by Mahathir’s

supporters to form a new gov-ernment without his designat-ed successor, Anwar Ibrahim,and Mahathir’s shock resigna-tion on Monday broke apart theruling alliance less than twoyears after it defeated a cor-ruption-tainted coalition thathad led the country for 61 years.

Both Mahathir and Anwarare vying for the premiership,renewing a political feud thatstretches back more than twodecades.

“The king is obviouslybeing very cautious. He decid-ed not to give Anwar orMahathir to form a governmentand let the MPs decide,” saidJames Chin, head of the AsiaInstitute at Australia’s Universityof Tasmania. “This means horse

trading will carry on all week-end until Monday morning.”

Anwar was Mahathir’sdeputy in the 1990s duringMahathir’s first stint as primeminister, but he was sacked fol-lowing a power struggle andlater jailed on sodomy andcorruption charges that he saidwere trumped up.

Anwar led a reform move-ment that helped build a fledg-ling opposition but was jailed asecond time for sodomy in2014 in a move he said wasaimed at killing his politicalcareer.

Mahathir, who retired in2003 after 22 years in power,made a comeback in 2016,spurred by anger over a massivegraft scandal involving a stateinvestment fund. AP

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Berlin: Germany’s highest court on Thursdayupheld a ban on headscarves for Muslimtrainee lawyers in courts, finding that therequirement of maintaining religious neutral-ity was justified.

The Federal Constitutional Court’s rulingcame after a Frankfurt-born German-Moroccan legal trainee filed a challenge toHesse state’s rules. In the western state, traineeswho keep their headscarves on are not allowedto take on tasks in which they may be seen tobe acting as representatives of the judiciary orthe state. This means for instance that head-scarf-wearing trainees are not allowed to sit onthe judges’ bench as they observe proceedingslike other trainees, but would need to followthe process from the floor. AFP

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Geneva: A team preparing for UN rights chiefMichelle Bachelet’s possible visit to the tightly con-trolled Muslim-majority Chinese region of Xinjiangthis year should be given “unfettered access”, she saidon Thursday.

In a speech in Geneva, Bachelet welcomed theinvitation from China to tour the region butadded: “We will continue to request unfettered accessfor an advance team in preparation for this proposedvisit”.

“We will seek to analyse in depth the humanrights situation in China, including the situation ofmembers of the Uighur minority,” she said, address-ing the UN Human Rights Council. AFP

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Kevin De Bruyne orchestrat-ed a dramatic ManchesterCity comeback on

Wednesday as they stunned RealMadrid 2-1 at the SantiagoBernabeu to put one foot in theChampions League quarter-finals.

Madrid looked on course toedge a cagey contest after Isco’ssmart finish early in the secondhalf, but De Bruyne teed up GabrielJesus in the 78th minute and thentucked away a penalty five minuteslater.

A pulsating finish saw SergioRamos sent off for preventingJesus from going clear and Madrid’s

captain will now be banned for thesecond leg at the Etihad Stadiumon March 17.

City’s two away goals willmake them heavy favourites to gothrough, even if manager PepGuardiola was quick to discouragecomplacency.

“It’s still not over,” he said. “Ifthere is one team that can over-come this it is this club (RealMadrid) with their experienceand their history.”

“We know the situation,” saidReal Madrid manager ZinedineZidane. “We have to go there andwin.”

Madrid have now won onlyone of their last five games, with the

Clasico against Barcelona in LaLiga to come on Sunday.

“We are on a bad run but wehave to get ourselves out of it,” saidZidane. “Sunday is a chance tochange.”

STRIKERS ON BENCHGuardiola sprung a surprise by

picking De Bruyne up front andleaving Raheem Sterling, SergioAguero and Fernandinho all on thebench.

“We played without a properstriker because of the way theydefend,” said Guardiola.

“They are so aggressive downthe middle and when that happensyou have to make the pitch wide.”

His gamble paid off hand-somely, even if Nicolas Otamendimade the mistake that led to Isco’sopener while an injury to AymericLaporte meant Fernandinho had tobe introduced midway through thefirst half.

Laporte must now be doubt-ful for Sunday’s League Cup finalagainst Aston Villa.

RAMOS REDCity enjoyed their best

spell after the break.Casemiro carelessly conced-ed possession and De Bruynetore away, feeding Mahrez,who cut in and curled wide.Jesus drove another shot atCourtois.

Zidane considered a changeand Gareth Bale was warming upwhen Madrid took the lead.Otamendi failed to control a Rodripass and Vinicius broke, with KyleWalker and Fernandinho rushingto meet him.

They left Isco free behindthem and Vinicius picked him out,giving the Spaniard a simple fin-ish.

The hosts smelt an opportuni-ty for a second as Dani Carvajalweaved through and Ramos’s vol-ley was deflected over byFernandino.

Bale came on for Madrid andSterling for City. Shortly after, DeBruyne’s clipped cross was too high

for Ramos at the back post andJesus’s header beat a weak righthand from Courtois to equalise.

Five minutes later, City com-

pleted the turnaround whenCarvajal slid in late on Sterling andDe Bruyne made no mistake fromthe spot.

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The national shootingfederation of South

Korea, one of the globalhotbeds of the deadly novelcoronavirus, has asked itsIndian counterpart to makeits position clear onwhether athletes from theEast Asian country wouldbe allowed at next month’sISSF World Cup here.

In a letter to NationalRifle Association of India(NRAI) PresidentRaninder Singh, KoreaShooting FederationSecretary General YongjaeLee has said that shootersare keen to participate inthe event from March 15 to26.

“Currently, most of theKorean athletes are wishingto acquire MinimumQualification Standard atthe ISSF World Cup —New Delhi. However, thereis a great deal of concernand worries among athletesand officials that theymight not be able to partic-ipate,” Lee said.

“Kindly state yourposition regardingCOVID-19,” he added.

Lee said the tickets forthe athletes and officialshave already been bookedand their visa fees have alsobeen paid.

The letter was prompt-ed by a February 26 direc-tive from the IndianEmbassy there in which itwas stated that people com-ing to India from Korea,Iran and Italy — all severe-ly affected by the virus —after February 10 “may bequarantined for 14 days onarrival.”

South Korea has morethan 1700 confirmed casesof coronavirus and 13 peo-ple have so far died of thedisease.

Meanwhile, Bahrainhas become the latest coun-try to pull out of the WorldCup. China, Taiwan, HongKong, Macau, North Koreaand Turkmenistan havealready pulled out of thetournament due to thevirus.

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Steven Gerrard hailed a “fault-less” Rangers performance as

an impressive 1-0 victory atBraga on Wednesday bookedtheir place in the last 16 of theEuropa League, winning 4-2 onaggregate.

Gerrard has been critical ofhis side in recent weeks as theyhave fallen 12 points behindCeltic at the top of the ScottishPremiership.

But the former Liverpoolcaptain was bursting with prideas Ryan Kent scored the only goaljust after the hour mark innorthern Portugal and the visi-tors should have scored manymore.

“Super proud of the players.To a man tonight they were out-standing. I thought they werefaultless, certainly out of posses-sion,” said Gerrard.

“This is no fluke. This hascome from sheer hard graft.”

Rangers were without top

scorer Alfredo Morelos throughsuspension and the absence of theColombian could have provedcostly as they missed a host of bigchances before the break.

Kent has been criticised forhis lack of impact when Rangershave most needed their £7 mil-lion signing most of late.

However, the formerLiverpool winger produced abig goal when he had too much

pace for the Braga defence to latchonto a long ball before firing lowinto the far corner.

Rangers’ first win in aEuropean knockout tie for nineyears means they will be in thehat for the last-16 draw today.

“We knew there was anopportunity,” added Gerrard.“We need to enjoy tonight. We’llbe really proud when the draw ismade.”

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World number two Rafael Nadalstepped up his bid for a third ATP

Mexico Open title with an impressivedisplay of serving and shotmaking to beatSerbian youngster Miomir Kecmanovicon early Thurday.

The Spaniard hit 20 winners as hekept his hopes alive of regaining the topranking with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over the20-year-old Kecmanovic to reach thequarter-finals at the Acapulco hardcourttournament.

“He’s a very dangerous player. Young,with a lot of power. I’m very pleased withthe victory,” Nadal said.

“I played a very good first set andthat’s important for me. That gives meconfidence.”

Next up for Nadal is Kwon Soon-woo, who reached his fourth quarter-final of the month with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-0upset against eighth-seeded DusanLajovic.

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Young tennis players DevV Javia and Vaishnavi

Adkar emerged victorious atthe Roland-Garros JuniorWild Card Series at theDelhi Lawn TennisAssociation on Wednesday.

Tournament ambas-sador and 4-time GlandSlam champion Mary Piercewitnessed the action on thefinal day of the tournamentand gave away the covetedtrophies to the winners. Thetwo players will now travelto Paris to compete againsttheir counterparts fromMexico, Brazil and China inthe Roland-Garros JuniorQualifiers with a shot to

qualify for the maindraw of the Roland-Garros JuniorTournament 2020.

In the Girls’ cat-egory unseededVaishnavi Adkar andSanjana Sirimallapulled off upsetsagainst the top seedsto reach the final.The two young play-ers battled it out in atense, three-setterwhich went down tothe wire. After losingthe first set 4-6,Maharashtra girlVaishnavi Adkar reg-istered yet another

gritty comeback to win the2nd set 6-4. In the third set,fortunes fluctuated till Adkareventually clinched the set 7-6 (3) in a tie-breaker.

The Boys’ final was amore straightforward affairas top seed Dev V Javiastamped his authority overthe competition once againto defeat Chirag Duhan 6-2,6-1. Gujarat player Javia’sdominant performancethroughout the tournamentsaw him clinch the titlewithout losing a single set inall three matches. Up andcoming player Duhan put ona brave display but ulti-mately proved to be nomatch for Javia.

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Leicester manager BrendanRodgers is confident Jamie

Vardy will end his currentdrought and reach a centuryof Premier League goals.

The former England for-ward, 33, has scored 97 timesin the top-flight but has failedto find the net in nine match-es in all competitions.

Rodgers, whose side trav-el to bottom side Norwich onFriday, said he had no worriesabout Vardy's recent poor forform. "It is only a matter oftime before he gets back toscoring goals again," he said."He doesn't look like the ner-vous type to me."

Vardy found the net ineight successive matches frommid-October through to earlyDecember but has just onegoal in his past 12 games.

"Sometimes you get a runlike it ," Rodgers said."Probably when he came backfrom his (glute) injury (in lateJanuary) he was maybe notquite up to speed.

"But I thought againstManchester City (in Saturday's1-0 home defeat), you saw thereturn of that running powerand speed.

"I have no doubt he willget the goals and beyond that.You don't force it, you don'tput the pressure on, he knowsthat is his job. As long as heis contributing, then I'm fine."

Vardy's drought has coin-

cided with Leicester's incon-sistent form since mid-December. They have collect-ed just 15 points from the past36 on offer.

Former Celt ic bossRodgers said his side, third inthe Premier League table,could not afford to rely onVardy's goals.

"You have threats fromvarious parts of the team,and for long periods of thisseason we had a central threatwith Jamie, and other guyswere working hard, and theystarted to contribute, but it'sdried up a little bit," he said.

"It's a team responsibility.The strikers are important, butthere are other things.

"Look at Roberto Firminoat Liverpool -- he's scored 10,but you look at his influencein the team and what he givesand allows to the other play-ers."

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Britain's Dan Evans upset sixth seedAndrey Rublev 6-2, 7-6 (11/9) on

Thursday to reach the fourth ATP semi-finalof his career with victory at the DubaiChampionships.

World number 37 Evans said thethought of playing another set after morethan two hours was just too much to con-sider and worked hard to wrap up victoryin straight sets.

"It was tough, I just hung in at the endand got through," unseeded Evans said.

"But I just didn't fancy playing anoth-er set; I think that's what got me through."

The 29-year-old, whose previous lastfour appearances came in Zagreb in 2014,Sydney in 2017 and Delray Beach a year ago,needed nearly two and a quarter hours toadvance.

He now awaits a Friday opponent as sec-ond seed Stefanos Tsitsipas plays Jan-

Lennard Struff."Semi-finals in any tournament on the

ATP Tour is great," he said."It doesn't matter who it's (semi-finals)

against. Everyone is so good here."Evans faced constant pressure from the

Russian who started this season with an 11-match win streak, lifting back-to-back tro-phies in Doha and Adelaide.

Evans needed to battle to earn the open-ing set, finally taking it after a final game inwhich he saved five break points before win-ning on his third set point.

The second set was equally intense.Evans was broken while serving for victo-ry leading a set and 5-4, with Rublev tak-ing it into a tiebreaker.

Evans missed on his first two matchpoint chances in the decider before his oppo-nent sent a return over the baseline to endit. The victory was the second tight contestin a row for Evans, who saved three matchpoints in the previous round.

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Jurgen Klopp recently labelled Juventusas the favourites to succeed his

Liverpool side as winners of theChampions League, and Lionel Messi hasalso talked up the Italians' chances, butthey looked nothing like contenders tolift the trophy as Cristiano Ronaldo andhis teammates fired blanks against Lyonon Wednesday.

Juve will have to come from behindin the second leg of their last-16 tie onMarch 17 after going down 1-0 inFrance as a first-half goal by LucasTousart separated the teams.

The French side were worthy win-ners, despite enduring a mediocre sea-son in Ligue 1 and only just scrapingthrough their group. They will be con-fident of scoring an away goal in Turin,too.

All the pressure is on the Serie A out-fit. While their rivals talk them up, thosewithin the club admit winning the com-petition is the major objective, althoughthey have emphasised the importance ofluck in the knockout phase.

"We are very lucky to be able to chasethe Champions League dream, becauseif we achieve it, it will be bliss, and if wedon't the journey will have been beauti-ful," insisted coach Maurizio Sarri on theeve of the Lyon game.

However, no Juventus supporter, ordirector, will agree with that if they donot improve on their performance inLyon.

The Italian league leaders musteredjust one attempt on target, with Ronaldounable to continue the form that had seenhim score in each of his first nineappearances of 2020, and bag 19 goalssince the beginning of December.

He is 35 now, so Juve are in a hurryto win the Champions League with thePortugal star, who cost them 100 millioneuros ($109 million) from Real Madridin 2018, not to mention his astronomi-cal wages.

- No holding back -The Italian press did not hold back

on Thursday, with Turin-based sportsdaily Tuttosport leading the assault bycomplaining that "This is not Juve!"

Meanwhile, Gazzetta dello Sportasked: "Juve, where are you?" The paperalso warned Sarri "is in trouble".

Skipper Leonardo Bonucci acceptedhis side "got it all wrong" while Sarri him-self admitted his team had been "slow andsluggish".

Yet there are enough young legs inthe Juventus team -- not least 85.5 mil-lion-euro centre-back Matthijs de Ligt -- for them to play with greater energythan they did against Lyon.

Perhaps there is simply too muchpressure on Juventus, who are desperatefor Champions League success havinglost five finals since last lifting the trophyin 1996. Along with Paris Saint-Germainand Bayern Munich, they are also one ofthose European mega-clubs whosedomestic dominance has become soentrenched it is now all about theChampions League. European failure canleave any other success feeling rather hol-low.

Lyon, probably the worst team left inthe competition when the draw for thelast 16 was made, looked transformed onWednesday, with Brazilian January sign-ing Bruno Guimaraes outstanding inmidfield.

However, their coach Rudi Garciaknows not to get carried away.

"We demonstrated that we are not inthe last 16 purely by chance, but there isstill the second leg to come and it will bevery difficult there," he said.

Home advantage could be decisivefor Juve, who have not lost in front oftheir own fans in Turin since Ajaxdumped them out in last season's quar-ter-finals.

In the round before that they lost 2-0 at Atletico Madrid only for a Ronaldohat-trick to turn the tie around in thereturn leg.

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Defender Sandeep Jinghanand striker Jeje Lalpekhlua

on Thursday returned to the foldfor the 18-day national footballcamp ahead of India's FIFA2022 World Cup qualifieragainst Qatar in Bhubaneswar.

India's World Cup qualifieragainst Qatar will be played onMarch 26.

Jhingan had been sidelinedbecause of a knee injury whichhe sustained six months ago,while Jeje is returning from aknee injury he suffered in Junelast year.

Lalengmawia, JerryMawihmingthanga, JeaksonSingh, Liston Colaco, PratikChowdhary, Shubham Sarangi,

Rafique Ali Sardar, PrabhsukhanGill, Sumit Rathi, SeritonFernandes, Edwin SydneyVanspaul are among the oneswho have been handed their firstcall-up to the senior team.

A total of 23 player havebeen called up in the first phaseof the training camp inBhubaneswar on March 9 before20 other players, from four ISLsemi-finalist teams join onMarch 16.

"Time is very crucial for us.We have planned to utilise themaximum time possible, so wewant to see as many players aspossible before the Qatar match,"India's head coach Igor Stimacsaid.

"As some players won't beable to join the camp because oftheir club commitments beforethe 16th, we'll use this time toassess other players."

"Sandesh (Jhingan) and Jeje(Lalpekhlua) have been long-standing servers of Indiannational team and I stronglybelieve in their abilities. I havebeen updated about their currentmedical status and we'll monitorthem closely in Bhubaneswartoo," he added.

Jeakson Singh, who etchedhis name in Indian football his-

tory following his thunderousheader against Colombia inthe FIFA U17 World Cup at

the JLN Stadium inOctober 2017, has also

earned his maiden call-up for the senior

national team camp.

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�)� Cristiano Ronaldo drew ablank as a Lucas Tousart goalhanded Lyon a surprise 1-0 winover Juventus in the first leg.

Midfielder Tousart netted inthe 31st minute to giveLyon a lead to defend whenthey head to Turin for thereturn on March 17.

The goal came withJuventus defender Matthijsde Ligt off receiving treat-ment, but it was just rewardfor an excellent first half by

a Lyon side enduring a mediocrecampaign.

They then survived lateJuventus pressure to claim theirfinest European result since defeat-ing Manchester City in last season’sgroup stage.

“It was a top-class first-halfperformance from us. It was muchharder in the second half, but I washappy with how we hung in there,”said Lyon coach Rudi Garcia.

“I said to the boys that whenyou’re at home in the first leg it’svery important not to concede,

and now we need to go and scorethere. We must remain humble, it’sonly half-time."

Maurizio Sarri’s side havegenuine ambitions of winning atrophy that has evaded Juventusfor almost a quarter of a centurynow, but they could not claim aprecious away goal here, withPaulo Dybala seeing a late effortdisallowed.

“In the first half it was not theJuve that we know. We didn’t getgoing in attack. I am struggling tounderstand certain things,” saidSarri, who thought his team couldhave had two penalties.

“We didn’t do enough giventhis was a Champions Leaguematch but fortunately we stillhave 90 minutes to turn it around.”

The match went ahead beforea full house at the GroupamaStadium, including around 3,000Juventus supporters allowed toattend despite calls from someFrench politicians to block theiraccess amid fears about the spreadof the coronavirus. AFP

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How to rebrand an old con-cept and link it to the discov-ery of new destinations,given the Government’sintent to develop 17 iconic

tourist destinations? How to get domes-tic travellers to look for exotica within,given the Prime Minister’s call to travelto at least 15 destinations at home? Howto develop a hub and spoke model wherethe hinterland of known tourist spots canbe developed as a linked experience?These were some of the questions thatwere answered by panellists AshwaniLohani, Ritu Beri, Pronab Sarkar and AnilChadha at the inaugural session of theExotica Tourism Summit. Moderated byDr Chandan Mitra, it explored the pos-sibilities of a deep-pore look within.

Unveiling another of his films in theVirtual Bharat series, filmmaker BharatBala said that the familiar corners of Indiaevoked different emotions when lookedat through the eyes of its people. His filmon the shabad singers of Amritsar was aninteresting perspective of the holy town.Highlighting the need for “felt emotion”to convey a refreshing idea of IncredibleIndia, he said, “It’s very critical to show-case what we are doing and how we canbuild a new idea for tourism in this coun-try. A place is not a destination, it’s anemotion, a story and a culture. You tell astory, you will find the traveller. Whendomestic or international tourists traveland hear a story, they become a part ofthat destination. Almost 20 years ago, Istarted Incredible India, all thanks toAmitabh Kant. It’s time to discover thenew avatar of Incredible India. It has donea wonderful job of showcasing the diver-sity of this country but today’s marketingand advertising needs are different. Weneed to move on from typical advertis-ing and find new ways to reach the audi-ence. We talk about 5,000 years of her-itage, at least we can make 1,000 storiesout of them. I have travelled 150 km byroad, discovering India. And what I dis-cover, I put into films. In September, westarted the new initiative called VirtualBharat. It is going to be a repository ofvirtual stories of India. To start with, wedecided to do 1,000 stories of the coun-try. Deeper stories will connect deeperwith the audience and they will havesomething to take home as emotion.When we talk about culture, it is some-thing you need to win over as an emotion.When people look at India, they see theTaj Mahal because they find it as anembodiment of a great love story. We area 5,000 year old country, we don’t needto hide only behind Taj Mahal. There’s alot more to showcase.”

Ashwani Lohani, Ex CMD, Air India,felt that there is always scope for explo-ration and rebranding India. “Nobody canever beat the impact of tourism in thecountry. It is the biggest job creator andalso sways the image of the country. A fewyears back, whenever somebody used totalk about tourism of India, it was alwaysabout international market and footfalls.Yet the numbers were not encouraging.The fact is you cannot make tourism agrowth driver till you cater to a domes-tic market. When I got a chance to headMadhya Pradesh tourism, I decided togenerate new interest in its diversity.”

Lohani shared that people have a fairidea about the places abroad but they arenot aware about the rich culture they haveat home. He said, “We need to startexploring our own country. Indiantourism has something on offer foreveryone in every category with all bud-gets — India on shoestring, India in lux-ury, the royal India, urban India, the com-mon man’s India, historical India andmuch more. Why not circulate the fundsin our own country for the good of ourown people? There is a need to catalysea movement of people within the states.Tourism is a sector which has a massivepotential to grow. And I feel we are mov-ing towards that.”

Luxury entrepreneur and fashiondesigner Ritu Beri believes in the idea ofIndia. She understands the value ofbeing Indian. She tries to promote thecountry in everything that she does. “Myfirst fashion show in Paris was based onIndian heritage. From culture, designs,motifs to fabrics and embroidery, every-thing was Indian. I presented the collec-tion in Hindi, it had French translationsand the music was Indian too. Peopleabsolutely loved it. The country is verywell accepted abroad,” Ritu said.

“If I go anywhere in the world wear-ing Pashmina, people go crazy. Khadi, Ifeel, is true luxury because it’s handmadeand today, more and more people are for-getting the art of handcrafted things. Thatis why it’s our strength and we need topromote it. So when we talk abouttourism of India, it’s the whole conceptof being Indian. I have a 12-year-olddaughter. I am always telling her thatIndia used to be the richest country in the

world in recorded history. Our countryis very proud of many inventions. Fromzero, yoga, geometry, snakes and laddersto chess, it all comes from India. So whyare we not proud of being Indian or tak-ing a holiday here? Why are we alwaysaping the West. Why are we apologetic ofwhat we stand for. From the Taj Mahal toRabindra Nath Tagore to MahatmaGandhi, we have a prolific history,” sheadded.

Ritu said that we are all empoweredtoday to present an India that is richly feltand authentic. An India that we don’t eventhink can exist. “Platforms like these arevery important for first, us Indians, toaccept the fact that we are above the restof the world. And then to spread the mes-sage abroad. I know we can do it togeth-er,” said she.

Anil Chadha, COO, ITC Hotels, saidthat in colleges they always teach you a few

lines — if it is to be, it is up to me.Somebody has rightly said that the threebiggest drivers in this century are going tobe tele communications, informationtechnology and tourism. “India has had agood story so far. Our growth rates havebeen better than the world. A lot has beendone by the government. However, thereis still a lot to be done because the num-bers coming in are much less in compar-ison to the numbers going out. One big

thing that we all have been speaking aboutis domestic tourism. I feel, we should takepride in our own country. Domestictourism is something that has the capabil-ity to catch the eyeballs of the world mar-ket. That’s probably the way to move theinternational tourism forward,” saidChadha.

He felt that if we compared ourselvesto certain benchmarks available with ref-erence to footfalls, India was at one per

cent, China was at three per cent for theirdomestic tourism and the US was at six percent. “That is exactly where we probablyneed to reach. And it has to be a collabo-rative effort. It has to be a great partner-ship between the Centre and the states, pri-vate players and the government.Everybody has to put their best foot for-ward,” he says.

As a hotel chain, for example, Chadhasaid that they had the honour of hostingthe US President, Donald Trump. Thehotel was full of Americans. They got tosee motifs of India that the hotel sports inits decor. “They saw all the artworks andwanted to know what went into their cre-ation. So there’s a lot of storytelling thatneeds to be done. The travellers are look-ing for experiences more than anything.And we need to create that for them. Theywant to really get enriched at the destina-tion they travel, in the hotel they live, inthe food they eat, the clothes they wear, themode of transport they use, it’s all gettingexperiential day by day,” said Chadha.

The president of Indian Associationof Tour Operators (IATO), Pronab Sarkar,has been in this industry for last 45 years.He felt that the government plays a big-ger role in the promotion of tourismbecause they are the ones framing guide-lines and all the taxes. “We also have toinclude the state government. It is not pos-sible without their help. India is blessedwith domestic tourism with more than 180million tourists. We get only 10 millionforeign tourists in comparison, which isvery low. As far as the world scenario isconcerned, it is less than 0.5 per cent. Wedon’t even get one per cent of internation-al tourism. Therefore, there is a hugescope,” he said.

Though some of our neighbours aresmaller and have a finite infrastructure,they have had higher international foot-falls. “It is very important to state that weare losing out to our neighbours becauseof the highest taxes. I feel, tourism is nota luxury. It is an economic activity, whichis very important. Domestically, we haveto be very well connected. Our peoplemust have easy access to reach where theydesire. Everybody has to come togetherand make it happen,” said Sarkar.

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Hours long traffic jam in hill stations,hotels displaying “full” in red on

their gates, internet flooded with picturesof people forming a beeline for water andresidents left with no adequate resourcesdue to over-tourism. All these incidentshave become common, especially duringthe summer as the temperatures goes upand more and more visitors head towardsthe hill stations. Now the question hereis: where do we draw the line and wheredo we divert the travel addict withoutdenting the tourism economy?

To ponder upon the issue and comeup with various solutions across theindustry, Mandip Singh Soin, SumantBatra and Seema Bhatt spoke on Over-tourism and Sustainability at ExoticaTourism Summit organised by ThePioneer media group. It was moderatedby Saimi Sattar.

A mountaineer, explorer and envi-ronmentalist, Mandip Singh Soin beganthe session talking about the potential ofeco-tourism and the need to reflect uponresponsible tourism. “We will soon askthe government to launch an itirenary forresponsible tourism. There will be vari-ous checkpoints that the travellers willneed to look at before embarking on ajourney. It will also include checklist forthe travel operators of the industry,” saidhe.

Another panelist, Sumant Batra, aninsolvency lawyer and founder of TeAroha, shared the instances which helpedhim set up his property in Uttarakhand.

He said, “This place was not much dis-covered earlier. We started with fiverooms and now have 22.” It has an unusu-al but appealing way to attract the visi-tors through storytelling. It has a muse-um and houses a library of 12,000books. This new experiential helped drawtourists to a new Himalayan experienceand ease the pressure off usual favourites.

Sitting next to him, Seema Bhatt whohas worked extensively on issues relatedto eco-tourism, biodiversity and cli-mate change emphasised upon carryingcapacity, setting industry standards andstriking a balance between sustainabili-ty and livelihood. “There is over-tourismbecause there are too many people vis-iting a certain location only. It is veryimportant for us to see the figures of aparticular location, set standards and puta limit on the number of people visiting,”said she.

She talked about the factors thatdetermine the carrying capacity of aregion. When its an ecologically fragilearea like Ladakh, it depends on its eco-system. It requires detailed involved

research such as the revenue generationof the area, population, number oftourists visiting, water consumption,waste disposal and many other factors.

But in order to keep the number oftourists intact, it is very important toroute them to a different location. So weneed to diversify tourism. “As we areoperating in a country, which has thelargest number of youth, we need tomove beyond the old definition oftourism of just visiting places andfocus more upon the experiences,”added she.

However, every solution comeswith its own challenges. Mandip saidthat the people usually don’t take eco-logical challenges into account duringthe beginning. For instance, the num-ber of jeeps in Ladakh increased fromfour to 450 after people watched the film3 idiots. “When we suggest people on thecarrying capacity they say ‘we have juststarted, we need people.’ And they onlyreact to it when it gets worse. But youneed to consider this problem during thebeginning in order to disperse the peo-

ple in a better way,” said he.While building a property in a local

area, it is very important to strike a bal-ance between the local people, the areaand tourists. Sumant said that he wasvery clear about not destroying theapple orchards to build the rooms. “Ialso decided that I would hire only thelocal people. But most of them hadn’tstepped out of their homes. So I calledan expert from Mumbai who trainedthe locals for six months. They are veryquick learners. Now they are all well-trained, some of them can also readwine labels,” he added.

The emphasis is to aid the local eco-system and ensure that the tourists donot impact the local people adversely.There are literature, art and film festi-vals to boost the local culture and attractmore visitors.

For Seema, it is important to hirethe local people, not just as labours butbuild their capacity too. “One must trainand empower them. The local cuisineis a strong tool in their hands, one mustuse that wisely,” she added.

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Stars, light, mountains, trees,river....everything is yours in

Punjab. So said Punjabi poet LalaDhani Ram Chatrik. At the ExoticaTourism Summit organised by ThePioneer media group, TourismMinister of Punjab, Charanjit SinghChanni, recited this poem and madepeople aware about everything thatPunjab has on offer. “We have alwayshad a very rich culture. Nowadays,even the Punjabi music and danceindustry is making waves. No film issuccessful without its music anddance. We have the heart of India.Whether it’s the independence move-ment or any other fight for the nation,Punjab has always been in thefront,” said he.

There have been manyreasons everyone has been inlove with Punjab, which iswhy the state governmentis making efforts to pro-mote tourism in thestate. The farmers arenot only involved inagriculture but alsoare now setting uphomestays bybuilding cottagesin their farms.Coupling farmingwith tourism isthe growing trendin the state.

He apprised usof the fact that Virasat-e-Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib

has the largest footfall inAsia. The state has also

developed wetlands. Ithas large number of

birds coming fromoutside. Efforts are

being made toupgrade the farm-

houses so thatpeople can stay

and seePunjab’s cul-

ture. Theycan inter-

act witht h e

local musicians and potters. “We are trying to tap the tourists

from everywhere. There’s also a greatconnectivity, which will in turn helppeople from all across to visit us. Therail connectivity is good. We aredeveloping the State highways for abetter road connectivity. Five air-ports have been developed to garnermore visitors.”

Rahat Indori, lyricist and Urdupoet once said, “Chalte Phirte HuyeMehtaab Dikhayenge Tumhe, HumseMilna Kabhi Punja Dikhayengetumhe...” The minister said that thispoem sums up Punjab very well. In thestate, one would feel home. “I invite allof you with a big heart. Come and wit-ness the beauty of the state,” he added.

He also expressed his gratitude forThe Pioneer for dedicating a day to

promote tourism.

Punjab is the heart of India: Charanjit

What if all the goodnessof the world comesalive in a single place?

This is Punjab as presented byHarkirat Ahluwalia, founder ofCitrus County Farm Stays.

“You will find that thebeautiful smiles of the stateseem to weave a poetry. That’sthe magic of Punjab. It casts aspell and the rich heritagetakes everyone by awe. Thespiritual ardor will bring innerpeace and every stone in everywall has a tale to tell,” he toldus.

Taking pride in being aPunjabi, Ahluwalia focussed onthe Kartarpur corridor andthe benefits it has broughtalong. “When people celebrat-ed 550 years of Guru NanakDev Ji, almost 60,000 peoplehave visited Sultanpur Lodhi.

The government handled thepilgrims in such a way thatthere was no mishap.

Another advantage thatthe State has is the connectiv-ity and also the fact that it’s

geography is good. “It is the new stop in the

tourism line. We will promotethis state as one of the besttourism destinations, especial-ly its rural tourism, said he.

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India entered the semifinals of thewomen’s T20 World Cup afterShafali Verma’s 34-ball 46 fol-

lowed by a superlative performancefrom the bowlers helped the teamnotch up a narrow four-run win overNew Zealand here on Thursday.

Invited to bat, India posted abelow-par 133 for eight in the groupA match with Shafali top-scoringwith a 34-ball 46 and Taniya Bhatiachipping in with a 25-ball 23.

They, however, produced a dis-ciplined performance with the ball torestrict New Zealand to 129 for sixand register their third successive winin the tournament and seal a last-fourspot.

With this win, India toppedGroup A, having beaten Australiaand Bangladesh in their last two out-ing.

“It is a great feeling when yourteam is performing like that,” Indiaskipper Harmanpreet Kaur said afterthe match.

“We did the same mistakes, wegot a good start in the first 10 oversand we didn’t carry the momentum.We did bowl well in patches andsome times, we were not up to themark and have to focus on thoseareas,” she added.

Defending a below-par total,India introduced spin straight awaybut Deepti Sharma bled 12 runs withopener Rachel Priest (12) hitting herfor two boundaries.

But experienced pacer ShikhaPandey removed Priest in the nextover when she had her caught at midwicket.

With Shikha and left-arm spin-ner Rajeshwari Gayakwad bowling intandem, New Zealand played withcaution to reach 28 for one.

Back into the attack, Deeptithen cleaned up Bates with a beau-ty of a delivery as New Zealandslipped to 30 for two.

Poonam Yadav and Radha Yadavthen mounted the pressure on theKiwis and soon the Black Caps were34 for 3 when the former dismissedskipper Sophie Devine (14).

Maddy Green (24) and KateyMartin (25) then tried to resurrectthe innings with a 36-ball 43-runstand.

However, Gayakwad returned to

remove Green, who danced down thepitch only to end up with an outsideedge as Bhatia did the rest.

Radha then dismissed Martin toleave New Zealand at 90 for 5 in 16.3overs.

Needing 44 off 21 balls, Kerr (34)blasted four boundaries to accumu-late 18 runs in the penultimate overbowled by Poonam to bring theequation down to 16 off six balls.

In the final over, Heyley Jensen(11) and Kerr cracked a four each butShikha held her nerves in the end toensure India’s win.

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������������� Ajinkya Rahane wants to takeon the New Zealand pace battery with moreintent in the second Test and his foolproof strat-egy includes countering the awkward angleswhich became a nightmare for Indian bats-men during the first Test.

Rahane, who top-scored with 46 inthe first innings of the opening Test,is hopeful that a turnaround willhappen on a green top at theHagley Oval, which he reckons willbe better for batting compared tothe one they got in Wellington.

“I am not saying (we have to be) moreaggressive but having that intent and clearmindset will help us,” Rahane toldreporters on Thursday.

New Zealand pacers Trent Boult, TimSouthee and Kyle Jamieson used the shortball liberally after coming wide of the creasewith an angle that was disconcerting for thebatsmen.

“I think they used that angle really wellin Wellington. Bowling wide of the crease orfrom the centre, they changed angles whilebowling the short balls. I think their plan wascompletely clear.

“As a batsman, if you going to think about aparticular shot, then you need to back yourself andplay that shot. You cannot doubt yourself. Weneed to forget what happened in Wellington,”the Indian vice-captain said.

According to Rahane, the two net sessions

at the Hagley Oval is being used to practicenegating the awkward angles that Neil Wagnerand company can create.

“That’s what I said: try and learn what mis-takes we did as a group, what

can we learn. I think we haveto practice those angles. Wehad a practice session and wehave one more tomorrow.And you have to practicethat and trust your ability in

the middle,” Rahane said in areassuring tone.

While net sessions are important, it’sthe instincts in match situations that

counts, he said.“But to change or adjust those angles

there are times you need to be instinctivewhile you are batting. It can mean stand-

ing on off-stump, or standing outside thecrease or staying deep inside the crease - like

if it is a pitch for cut shot then you can standdeeper in the crease. This is the mental side

of the game,” Rahane said.“For me, as a batsman it is important you

show your intent to the bowler, if you standin one spot then the bowler doesn’t need tochange anything. These are small things wehave been working on in practice and how touse the crease and the angles. Doesn’t mat-ter how much you practice you must trust orhave the belief to be able to do it in the mid-

dle,” he added. PTI

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Virat Kohli will be itching to make acomeback in the second Test and the

best chance for New Zealand will be toexploit the sideways movement which canspell trouble for the Indian captain, feelsopener Tom Latham.

Kohli had an indifferent tour of NewZealand so far. He was out for 2 and 19 inthe first Test in Wellington.

“When Virat comes out to bat we will beready. He is a quality player and there is areason why he is up around that No 1 rankfor such a period of time,” Latham said atthe media conference on Thursday.

“He has done it for long time and doneit in all conditions. If the surface is conduciveto sideways movement we will try andexploit that,” said Latham.

Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shamimight have had a below par game inWellington but Latham said they remainworld class bowlers and the team would becertainly wary of them.

“We have played those guys really wellin the first Test. But they are World class per-formers and we will be wary of them.Certainly they would be on top of their gameand if we play well it will give us a goodchance. We need to be consistent for longperiods,” he said.

Latham is sure that Neil Wagner’s come-back will add firepower to the side.

“I haven’t yet seen him but when herocks up for training he will be absolutelyfizzing up to get going and obviously he willbe raring to go. He is been a quality per-former for a number of years for us,”Latham said.

The Hagley Oval surface will havebounce and Latham expects Wagner to bemore than a handful.

“It’s something that Neil has obviouslybeen so good at for so long and he is sec-ond to none in terms of accuracy.

“He is a short guy and that makes himharder to play. If the surface is up for thatplan he will be looking to go round withthat.”

The first day will be important reckonedLatham.

“Generally, it’s a good surface and sur-faces in NZ have been on the greener sideat the start and then flatten out. So we needto do well on day one.”

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Young opener Prithvi Shawmissed Thursday’s train-

ing session due to a swelling onhis left foot, increasing Indianteam management’s worriesahead of the second Test againstNew Zealand beginning onSaturday.

According to sources, Shawwill undergo a blood test onThursday to ascertain the rea-son of the swelling.

In case the medical reportis favourable, a call will betaken during Friday’spractice session on hisavailability for the secondTest. If Shaw is notcomfortable whilebatting, he will notmake it to the playingXI.

Shubman Gill had agood net session onThursday and it isexpected thathe would beasked to openthe inningsa l o n g s i d eM a y a n kAgarwal ifShaw is unableto make it.

During Thursday’s nets,head coach Ravi Shastri wasseen paying extra attention toGill’s session. At one point,Shastri walked up to Gill andwas seen giving some technicalinputs about footwork to Gilland what's required to check hisuppish drives.

The Indian team manage-ment is hopeful that theswelling will not be a seriousconcern for Shaw.

The Mumbai open-er didn't even takepart in the custom-ary warm-up sessionwhere players had agood time playing

touch rugby.Shaw had a

poor outing inthe first Testin Wellington,getting dis-

missed cheaplyin both theinnings.

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David Warner and AaronFinch launched a brutal

assault on the South Africanbowlers to set up a comprehensive97-run Australian victory in theseries-deciding third Twenty20international at Newlands.

In a near-repeat of Australia’srecord 107-run win in the firstmatch of the series inJohannesburg, South Africa cap-tain Quinton de Kock’s decisionto bowl first backfired spectacu-larly.

Led by opening batsmen

Warner (57) and captain Finch(55), Australia piled up 193 forfive — three fewer than they madein Johannesburg.

They then bowled out SouthAfrica for 96, just seven more thanthe host country’s record low inJohannesburg.

As in Johannesburg, left-armfast bowler Mitchell Starc bowledDe Kock, South Africa’s star bats-man, in the first over of thehome team’s reply.

He followed up by dismissingformer captain Faf du Plessis inthe third over and was namedman-of-the-match after taking

three for 23.Finch was named man of the

series for his aggressive battingand astute captaincy.

“The guys have bought intothe roles they have been asked toplay,” he said.

It was the first time Warnerand Steve Smith had played atNewlands since both were bannedfor a year after a ball-tamperingscandal at the same ground twoyears ago.

South Africa were never in thegame after Warner and Finchthrashed 120 for the first wicket off74 balls.

Apart from some powerfulhitting by both players, they forcedthe South Africans into fieldingerrors with their aggressive run-ning between wickets.

“It’s something we pride our-selves on,” said Finch.

“It’s quite disappointing theway we lost,” said De Kock. “Wehave to keep our heads up andkeep looking forward."

Although Finch said he wouldhave batted if he had won becauseof the dryness of the pitch, DeKock said he would make thesame decision to bowl again.

He said he still thought chas-ing a target at Newlands was a pre-ferred option, but admitted:“Australia were 20 runs above par.”

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Ex p l o s i v eAustralian bats-

man David Warnerwas on Thursdayreinstated as IPLfranchise SunrisersHyderabad’s cap-tain, a position thathe had to give upafter the ball-tam-pering scandal in2018.

The 33-year-old Warner, wholed the Sunrisersto the trophy in2016, will take overfrom New Zealandskipper KaneWilliamson for theseason starting March 29.

“I am thrilled to be given the captain-cy for this coming IPL 2020. I’m extreme-ly grateful for the opportunity to lead theside once again,” Warner said in a videoposted by the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“I’d like to thank Kane (Williamson)for the way you guys led the teamthroughout the last couple of years andI’d be leaning on you guys for support andinsight to the game as well,” he said.

“To the management thank you forthe opportunity and I’m sure I’ll bedoing my very best to try and lead us andlift again the IPL trophy this coming year,”he added.

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Wicket-keeper batswomanTaniya Bhatia says the

Indian team has got better at read-ing and handling different situa-tions, which was evident duringthe recent tri-series in Australia.

India on Thursday becamethe first team to seal a semifinalspot at the T20 World Cup follow-ing a narrow four-run win overNew Zealand here.

“In the last 12 to 14 months,we have improved a lot as a unit.We’re in a really positive position.We’ve been playing well eversince the tri-series. I think we’vegot a lot better as a team in work-ing out how to handle and readsituations well,” Bhatia said at thepost-match press conference.

“The results are in our favour,

but we need to keep up themomentum. If we do that, we willdo well and hopefully we can winthe final,” Bhatia added.

Bhatia is optimistic that theirbatters will definitely come goodin the remaining matches of thetournament.

“We’re playing well, it’s justone or two odd games where ourbatters failed to perform. Shafaliis giving us a good start and therest of us batters will take upresponsibility,” she said.

Bhatia said she is open to batat any position for the team'scause.

“I can bat well up the orderand I know I’m capable of scor-ing runs there,” she said.

India will play Sri Lanka intheir last Group A game onSaturday.

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Alyssa Healy and BethMooney hit attacking half-

centuries in a dominating 151-run opening stand as Australiahammered Bangladesh by 86runs in their ICC Women’s T20World Cup match, here onThursday.

The partnership betweenHealy (83) and Mooney (81 notout) is Australia’s highest forany wicket at the Women’s T20World Cup.

Australia’s 189 for one, thehighest total of the tournament,proved too much for Bangladeshwho could manage only 103 fornine.

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$�������������������� ���� ��������� ������* ���Wasim Jaffer, a domestic crick-et giant, says unless the Indian batsmen buildon their starts and put a big total on the board,bouncing back in the Test series against NewZealand will be extremely difficult.

“Virat has a lean patch for a while, so I amexpecting him to come back stronger. Pujaraneeds some runs under his belt. Most impor-tantly they need to convert their starts intothree figures, if that dosen’t happen and if wedon’t put score of 350-400 runs then it is dif-ficult,” Jaffer told PTI.

“In 200-250 (runs) you can’t win a Testmatch unless there is much help from thepitch. When we bat first or bat second, we needto score 400-450 runs,” Jaffer said.

Jaffer also felt that the team getting bun-dled out for below 200 in the first Test was notbeffiting of its number one rank in thelongest format of the game.

“They kept our run-rate in check and keptour batsmen under pressure for long periods.I felt that in the first innings the conditionswere favourable for bowlers, but they workedout an strategy of bouncers and we shouldhave batted better in the second innings. Toget out both times under 200 is unlike thenumber one Test team,” he said. PTI

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The Barsapara Stadiumin Guwahati will host

former champions RajasthanRoyals’ f irst two homematches during the upcom-ing edition of the IndianPremier League, the BCCIsaid on Thursday.

“They will now playDelhi Capitals & KolkataKnight Riders on April 5th& April 9th respectively inGuwahati. Both games willhave an 8 PM IST start,”BCCI secretary Jay Shahsaid in a release.

Rajasthan Royals willplay their remaining fivehome matches at their des-ignated home ground ofSawai Mansingh Stadium inJaipur.

The Steve Smith-ledRajasthan Royals will opentheir campaign with an awaymatch against ChennaiSuper Kings on April 2.

“The Royals are bring-ing the IPL to the Northeastfor the very first time,expanding cricket’s footprintin the region. See you in

April, Guwahati!,” RajasthanRoyals wrote on their officialtwitter handle.

Last year, RajasthanRoyals had made a requestto play few of their matchesin Guwahati and have beenin talks with the AssamCricket Association (ACA)for quite sometime. Themove, which is backed bythe IPL Governing Council,was however challenged bya PIL at the Rajasthan HighCourt earlier this year.

The reason behind sucha move was Royals' unhap-piness with the ailing crick-eting ecosystem in the stateand also their poor relationwith the Rajasthan CricketAssociation (RCA).

The Royals also hadbeen incurring losses due toreasons such as highdemands for free tickets andmandatory allotment ofseats to RCA.

Inaugral edition win-ners Rajasthan Royals hadearlier played at Ahmedabadin 2010, and Ahmedabadand Mumbai's BrabourneStadium in the 2015 season.

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