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T he Supreme Court on Wednesday roped in CBI, Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police to go into the larger con- spiracy behind the attempt to “frame” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in a sexual harassment case. The court emphasised that it will go to the root of the alleged conspiracy and the sensational claims made by a lawyer that he was offered bribe to “fix” the CJI. A three-judge Special Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said if fixers continue to work and manipulate the judi- ciary as claimed, neither this institution nor any of “us” will survive. The Bench, also compris- ing justices RF Nariman and Deepak Gupta, asked lawyer Utsav Singh Bains, who has made claims of a larger con- spiracy, to file another affidavit by Thursday morning after he claimed that he has some more “incriminating evidence”. The Bench said it will take up the matter for hearing on Thursday. “We will inquire and go to the root of alleged claims of fix- ers at work and manipulating the judiciary. If they continue to work then none of us will survive... Fixing has no role to play in the system. We will inquire and take it to the logi- cal end,” it said. Earlier in the day, the apex court directed chiefs of the CBI, IB and Delhi Police to appear and meet in chambers the three judges who are hear- ing his claim that there was a larger conspiracy to frame the CJI. After meeting the directors of the CBI and the IB, and the Delhi Police Commissioner, the Bench reassembled at 3 pm to hear the matter at length. The court turned down a request by Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to order a court-monitored SIT probe into the matter, saying the court was not venturing into any enquiry at this moment. The Bench also clarified that there is no connection between the hearing of Bains’ claims of larger con- spiracy and the in-house inquiry ordered into the sexu- al harassment allegations against the CJI. “It is not an enquiry. We are meeting these officers in secret. We don’t want any evidence to be disclosed,” the Bench said. It had asked the three officers to meet the judges in chamber at 12.30 pm. At the outset Bains, who has filed an affidavit in the top court claiming a larger con- spiracy of alleged fixers to frame the CJI on allegations of sexual harassment, placed before the Bench material to substantiate his claims. The Bench after perusing the material, placed by him in a sealed cover, said “very dis- turbing” facts have emerged in the matter. “Can you call some respon- sible officers from the CBI, preferably the director? Can you call him to meet us in our chambers?” Justice Mishra asked Venugopal. He replied in the affirma- tive and referred to the April 20 Facebook post of Bains in which he had claimed that there was a larger conspiracy by some people to fix verdicts of the Supreme Court and malign the office of the CJI. Mehta told the Bench that he was very disturbed with the allegations against the CJI as well as claims made by the lawyer and said they concern the judiciary in the country. Continued on Page 4 I n a non-political interview on Wednesday Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed that notwithstanding political rivalries West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee used to send him Bengali sweets and his favourite ‘Kurta-Pyjama’ from Kolkata. In an interaction with film star Akshay Kumar, the Prime Minister detailed some inter- esting anecdotes of his life say- ing he has never been nervous while speaking at internation- al fora. Modi said so when Kumar asked him whether he was nervous when he first spoke in the United Nations after taking over as Prime Minister. Pointing out that contrary to public perception there is good bonhomie among polit- ical leaders and they keep good relations with each other, Modi said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazid used to send her Bengali sweets and when Mamataji (West Bengal Chief Minister) came to know about it she would also send him Bengali sweets. The Prime Minister said TMC chief would also send him a set of ‘kurta-Pyjama’ each year from Kolkata. Detailing some of his habits, he said he is in the habit of taking tea without sugar at 5 am and then in the evening at 6 pm under open sky. “But that is not possible in his South Block office”, he said. Asked what would he want if he gets the magical lamp ‘Aladdeen-ka-chirag’, the Prime Minster said there was noth- ing like this exists as the con- cept has come from outside. Neverthless, he said he would wish that all the people in the country be instilled with a notion that hard-work makes everything possible. This is what our ancient wisdom has bequeathed to us, he said. Relating an interesting inci- dent where he hit out at the `double-faced` practices of ‘Samajwadis’, the Prime Minister said once when he came out of the Pune Railway station and was walking down the road, a three-wheeler was slowly mov- ing by his side. After a distance he stopped and asked the ‘Rikshaw wala’ why he was fol- lowing him. To his surprise, the three-wheeler driver quizzed him, “Are you a Samajwadi ?” To that Modi asked, “ what makes you say so ?” “Sir, all Samajwadis walk a distance for a while before stepping into a rickshaw as they do not want public to see that they are taking to rickshaw comfort”, Modi said and laughed suggesting that there was a gap between the preach- ing and practice of ‘Samajwadis’ in the county. While answering the actor’s answer, Modi also quipped about his wife and columnist Twinkle Khanna’s views saying she takes her anger against (me) that would have balanced Kumar’s family life. “ That way I am doing a favour to you”, said an smiling Modi. “I keep tabs on social media to know what is happening in the world. I al- so keep an eye on your and Tw- inkle Khanna’s Twitter ac- counts. The way she vents her anger against me, your family life must be quite peaceful”. She would take out all the anger against me. You must be at peace. In a way, I feel I have helped you, especially in Twinkleji’s case,” Modi told Kumar in Hindi. Continued on Page 4 A day after being denied party ticket and outwitted by the poll managers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the sitting Member of parlia- ment (MP) from the North west Delhi seat, Udit Raj deserted the saffron party and joined Congress. He termed the BJP and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “anti-Dalit”. Launching a blistering attack on the BJP leadership, the dis- gruntled Udit slammed his for- mer party saying it wants ‘Dalit votes’ but not a leader from the community who speaks his mind. The BJP has replaced Udit from the North West Lok Sabha constituency with Punjabi Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans. High drama had unfolded on Tuesday the last day of filing of nomination for Delhi’s seven LS seats that go to the polls on May 12. Udit waited for some communication from the BJP and in the process kept chang- ing goal posts. He had threat- ened to file his nomination as an Independent candidate on Tuesday if the BJP denied him the party ticket, but did not do so. He removed the prefix ‘Chowkidar from his twitter handle in the afternoon, only to add it again by Tuesday evening. Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Police on Monday arrested wife of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari for allegedly killing him last week. Citing a turbulent and unhappy mar- riage as the motive behind the murder, police said Apoorva strangled her husband Rohit, the son of the late veteran politician ND Tiwari and choked him with a pillow fol- lowing a heated argument. Apoorva was produced in Delhi’s Saket Court on Monday where she was send to two days police custody. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat allowed inter- rogation of Apoorva after the police sought her 3-day custody. Rohit, 40, was smothered to death on the intervening night of April 15 and 16, an autopsy report said. Apoorva, a lawyer by profession, was questioned by police for last three days. Rohit was earlier believed to have died of a car- diac arrest but the autopsy report by the forensic experts of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), turned the case on its head. The autopsy said the cause of death in this case is asphyxia as a result of strangulation and smothering and also stated that the death occurred within two hours of his last meal around 11 pm. “Rohit had gone to Kathgodam in Uttarakhand to vote on April 10 and returned on the night of April 16. He was in an inebriated state when he returned home. During investigation it was also revealed that on way back to Delhi he had been drinking all the way along with a woman relative,” said Rajeev Ranjan, Additional Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. “The couple had a fight over a rela- tive. Rohit was in inebriate state and was not in a condition to resist,” said Additional CP. “She has confessed. As of now, from the fact and circumstances, it seems the killing was not planned. The background was there that they had a turbulent marriage and Rohit and his family were thinking of separation. After interrogation, it was found that Apoorva and Rohit had a rocky marriage and were not on good term owing to their inherent contradictions,” said the Additional CP adding that discrepancies were found in her statements which led police to suspect her involvement. Continued on Page 4 I n a major relief to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court here on Wednesday rejected a plea seeking to restrain her from contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Bhopal, even as it upbraided the investigating agency for mentioning in its response to the plea that it had given a “clean chit” to Sadhvi Pragya in the case. Hearing an application filed by Nisar Ahmed Sayyad Bilal, father of one of the vic- tims in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, seeking to restrain Sadhvi Pragya from contesting the Lok Sabha polls, Special Judge VS Padalkar noted: “In ongoing elections this court does not have any legal pow- ers to prohibit anyone from contesting elections; it is job of electoral officers to decide. This court can’t stop the accused number one (Pragya Singh Thakur) from contesting elections. This application is negated”. While dismissing Bilal’s application, the special court did not mince words when it expressed its displeasure over the NIA’s mention of “clean chit” being given to Sadhvi Pragya in its reply to the plea seeking a bar on her contest- ing the Lok Sabha polls. “There was no need to mention in your reply that you have given clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur. Applicant did not ask about it. Keep in mind that the court has framed charges against her because it found some substance in allegations made against her,” Judge Padalkar observed. Sadhvi Pragya is one of the seven accused who are being tried by Special Court under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and various other sections of the IPC for their alleged involve- ment in the 2008 Malegaon blasts. On October 30, 2018, the special court in Mumbai had framed charges against Sadhvi Pragya, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and five other accused in the 2008 Malegaon case. Continued on Page 4 T here seemed no political "hangover" of gifts being exchanged between Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee as the duo pounced on each other from public rallies hours after a televised interview of the Prime Minister highlighted Mamata's 'sweet diplomacy' with Modi. In the interview, the PM said he often received gifts like sweet and apparel from his stated arch rival, the Bengal Chief Minister. "Yes I send him sweets but I will not let him take votes," Mamata told a huge rally at Serampore in Hooghly even as the Opposition CPI(M) and the Congress promptly went to town "exposing the nexus between the BJP and the TMC so as to divide the votes in order to establish a pro-rich and anti-working class Government in Delhi”. The PM in an interview to film star Akshay Kumar con- ceded having received sweet and apparel from Mamata at the cost of affecting electoral prospects. “It may affect me during elections but I can admit that Mamata still gifts me kur- tas," said the PM, adding that when the Chief Minister heard that "Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina gifted me Bengali sweets, she also started sending me the same." But before the Opposition could exploit the statement, particularly among the Mamata's minority voters, the Chief Minister hit out at the Prime Minister saying how during his regime the two major scams had taken place in the name of Jandhan and demonetisation. She said, “Notebandi and Jandhan were two scams that happened during Modi's rule" paving way for huge amount of black money that went to the saffron coffer. "With that black money they have been fighting elections, buying votes," she said warning, "When we will come to power will definitely get them probed." She said, "If someone mis- takes political courtesy for something else then one is liv- ing in a fool's paradise because we in Bengal will give them sweets but not votes." Reacting to Banerjee's remarks a senior Marxist leader promptly said, "Didi will probe Modi the way he has probed the chit fund for the past five years." Continued on Page 4

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The Supreme Court onWednesday roped in CBI,

Intelligence Bureau and DelhiPolice to go into the larger con-spiracy behind the attempt to“frame” Chief Justice of IndiaRanjan Gogoi in a sexualharassment case. The courtemphasised that it will go to theroot of the alleged conspiracyand the sensational claimsmade by a lawyer that he wasoffered bribe to “fix” the CJI.

A three-judge SpecialBench headed by Justice ArunMishra said if fixers continue towork and manipulate the judi-ciary as claimed, neither thisinstitution nor any of “us” willsurvive.

The Bench, also compris-ing justices RF Nariman andDeepak Gupta, asked lawyerUtsav Singh Bains, who hasmade claims of a larger con-spiracy, to file another affidavitby Thursday morning after heclaimed that he has some more“incriminating evidence”.

The Bench said it will take up the matter for hearing

on Thursday.“We will inquire and go to

the root of alleged claims of fix-ers at work and manipulatingthe judiciary. If they continueto work then none of us willsurvive... Fixing has no role toplay in the system. We willinquire and take it to the logi-cal end,” it said.

Earlier in the day, the apexcourt directed chiefs of the CBI,IB and Delhi Police to appearand meet in chambers the three judges who are hear-ing his claim that there was alarger conspiracy to frame theCJI.

After meeting the directorsof the CBI and the IB, and theDelhi Police Commissioner,the Bench reassembled at 3 pmto hear the matter at length.

The court turned down arequest by Attorney GeneralKK Venugopal and SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta to ordera court-monitored SIT probeinto the matter, saying thecourt was not venturing intoany enquiry at this moment.

The Bench also clarifiedthat there is no connection

between the hearing of Bains’ claims of larger con-spiracy and the in-houseinquiry ordered into the sexu-al harassment allegationsagainst the CJI.

“It is not an enquiry. We are

meeting these officers in secret.We don’t want any evidence tobe disclosed,” the Bench said. Ithad asked the three officers tomeet the judges in chamber at12.30 pm.

At the outset Bains, who

has filed an affidavit in the topcourt claiming a larger con-spiracy of alleged fixers toframe the CJI on allegations ofsexual harassment, placedbefore the Bench material tosubstantiate his claims.

The Bench after perusingthe material, placed by him ina sealed cover, said “very dis-turbing” facts have emerged inthe matter.

“Can you call some respon-sible officers from the CBI,preferably the director? Canyou call him to meet us in ourchambers?” Justice Mishraasked Venugopal.

He replied in the affirma-tive and referred to the April 20Facebook post of Bains inwhich he had claimed thatthere was a larger conspiracy bysome people to fix verdicts ofthe Supreme Court and malignthe office of the CJI.

Mehta told the Bench thathe was very disturbed with theallegations against the CJI aswell as claims made by thelawyer and said they concernthe judiciary in the country.

Continued on Page 4

����� /*���*�'1

In a non-political interviewon Wednesday Prime

Minister Narendra Modirevealed that notwithstandingpolitical rivalries West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee used to send him

Bengali sweets and his favourite‘Kurta-Pyjama’ from Kolkata.

In an interaction with filmstar Akshay Kumar, the PrimeMinister detailed some inter-esting anecdotes of his life say-ing he has never been nervouswhile speaking at internation-al fora. Modi said so whenKumar asked him whether hewas nervous when he firstspoke in the United Nationsafter taking over as PrimeMinister.

Pointing out that contraryto public perception there isgood bonhomie among polit-ical leaders and they keepgood relations with each other,Modi said Bangladesh PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina Wazidused to send her Bengali sweetsand when Mamataji (WestBengal Chief Minister) came toknow about it she would alsosend him Bengali sweets. ThePrime Minister said TMC chiefwould also send him a set of‘kurta-Pyjama’ each year fromKolkata. Detailing some of hishabits, he said he is in the habitof taking tea without sugar at5 am and then in the eveningat 6 pm under open sky. “Butthat is not possible in his SouthBlock office”, he said.

Asked what would he wantif he gets the magical lamp‘Aladdeen-ka-chirag’, the PrimeMinster said there was noth-ing like this exists as the con-cept has come from outside.Neverthless, he said he wouldwish that all the people in thecountry be instilled with anotion that hard-work makeseverything possible. This iswhat our ancient wisdom hasbequeathed to us, he said.

Relating an interesting inci-dent where he hit out at the`double-faced` practices of‘Samajwadis’, the Prime Ministersaid once when he came out ofthe Pune Railway station andwas walking down the road, athree-wheeler was slowly mov-ing by his side. After a distancehe stopped and asked the‘Rikshaw wala’ why he was fol-lowing him. To his surprise, thethree-wheeler driver quizzedhim, “Are you a Samajwadi ?”To that Modi asked, “ whatmakes you say so ?”

“Sir, all Samajwadis walk adistance for a while beforestepping into a rickshaw as theydo not want public to see thatthey are taking to rickshawcomfort”, Modi said andlaughed suggesting that therewas a gap between the preach-ing and practice of ‘Samajwadis’in the county.

While answering the actor’sanswer, Modi also quippedabout his wife and columnistTwinkle Khanna’s views sayingshe takes her anger against(me) that would have balancedKumar’s family life. “ That wayI am doing a favour to you”, saidan smiling Modi. “I keep tabson social media to know whatis happening in the world. I al-so keep an eye on your and Tw-inkle Khanna’s Twitter ac-counts. The way she vents heranger against me, your familylife must be quite peaceful”.

She would take out all theanger against me. You must beat peace. In a way, I feel I havehelped you, especially inTwinkleji’s case,” Modi toldKumar in Hindi.

Continued on Page 4

�������� ����������/*���*�'1

Aday after being deniedparty ticket and outwitted

by the poll managers ofBharatiya Janata Party (BJP),the sitting Member of parlia-ment (MP) from the Northwest Delhi seat, Udit Rajdeserted the saffron party andjoined Congress. He termed theBJP and the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as “anti-Dalit”.

Launching a blistering attackon the BJP leadership, the dis-gruntled Udit slammed his for-mer party saying it wants ‘Dalitvotes’ but not a leader from thecommunity who speaks hismind. The BJP has replacedUdit from the North West LokSabha constituency with PunjabiSufi singer Hans Raj Hans.

High drama had unfoldedon Tuesday the last day of filingof nomination for Delhi’s sevenLS seats that go to the polls onMay 12. Udit waited for somecommunication from the BJPand in the process kept chang-ing goal posts. He had threat-ened to file his nomination as anIndependent candidate onTuesday if the BJP denied himthe party ticket, but did not doso. He removed the prefix‘Chowkidar from his twitterhandle in the afternoon, only toadd it again by Tuesday evening.

Continued on Page 4

�������������� /*���*�'1

The Delhi Police on Mondayarrested wife of Rohit

Shekhar Tiwari for allegedlykilling him last week. Citing aturbulent and unhappy mar-riage as the motive behind themurder, police said Apoorvastrangled her husband Rohit,the son of the late veteranpolitician ND Tiwari andchoked him with a pillow fol-lowing a heated argument.

Apoorva was produced inDelhi’s Saket Court on Mondaywhere she was send to two dayspolice custody. ChiefMetropolitan MagistrateDeepak Sherawat allowed inter-

rogation of Apoorva after thepolice sought her 3-day custody.

Rohit, 40, was smotheredto death on the interveningnight of April 15 and 16, anautopsy report said. Apoorva,a lawyer by profession, wasquestioned by police for lastthree days. Rohit was earlierbelieved to have died of a car-diac arrest but the autopsyreport by the forensic expertsof All India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS), turned the

case on its head. The autopsysaid the cause of death in thiscase is asphyxia as a result ofstrangulation and smotheringand also stated that the deathoccurred within two hours ofhis last meal around 11 pm.

“Rohit had gone toKathgodam in Uttarakhand tovote on April 10 and returnedon the night of April 16. Hewas in an inebriated statewhen he returned home.During investigation it was

also revealed that on way backto Delhi he had been drinkingall the way along with a womanrelative,” said Rajeev Ranjan,Additional Commissioner ofPolice, Crime Branch. “Thecouple had a fight over a rela-tive. Rohit was in inebriate stateand was not in a condition toresist,” said Additional CP.

“She has confessed. As ofnow, from the fact and circumstances, it seems thekilling was not planned. Thebackground was there that theyhad a turbulent marriage andRohit and his family werethinking of separation.

After interrogation, it wasfound that Apoorva and Rohithad a rocky marriage and werenot on good term owing to theirinherent contradictions,” saidthe Additional CP adding thatdiscrepancies were found in herstatements which led police tosuspect her involvement.

Continued on Page 4

����� ������ 2 0-1

In a major relief to SadhviPragya Singh Thakur, a

Special National InvestigationAgency (NIA) court here onWednesday rejected a pleaseeking to restrain her fromcontesting the Lok Sabha pollsfrom Bhopal, even as itupbraided the investigatingagency for mentioning in itsresponse to the plea that it hadgiven a “clean chit” to SadhviPragya in the case.

Hearing an applicationfiled by Nisar Ahmed SayyadBilal, father of one of the vic-tims in the 2008 Malegaonblasts, seeking to restrainSadhvi Pragya from contestingthe Lok Sabha polls, SpecialJudge VS Padalkar noted: “Inongoing elections this courtdoes not have any legal pow-ers to prohibit anyone fromcontesting elections; it is job ofelectoral officers to decide.This court can’t stop theaccused number one (PragyaSingh Thakur) from contestingelections. This application isnegated”.

While dismissing Bilal’sapplication, the special courtdid not mince words when itexpressed its displeasure overthe NIA’s mention of “cleanchit” being given to SadhviPragya in its reply to the pleaseeking a bar on her contest-ing the Lok Sabha polls.

“There was no need tomention in your reply that you

have given clean chit to SadhviPragya Thakur. Applicant didnot ask about it.

Keep in mind that thecourt has framed chargesagainst her because it foundsome substance in allegationsmade against her,” JudgePadalkar observed.

Sadhvi Pragya is one of theseven accused who are beingtried by Special Court underthe Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA) andvarious other sections of theIPC for their alleged involve-ment in the 2008 Malegaonblasts.

On October 30, 2018, the special court in Mumbaihad framed charges againstSadhvi Pragya, Lt Col PrasadShrikant Purohit and five other accused in the 2008Malegaon case.

Continued on Page 4

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There seemed no political"hangover" of gifts being

exchanged between NarendraModi and Mamata Banerjee asthe duo pounced on each otherfrom public rallies hours after atelevised interview of the PrimeMinister highlighted Mamata's'sweet diplomacy' with Modi. Inthe interview, the PM said heoften received gifts like sweetand apparel from his statedarch rival, the Bengal ChiefMinister.

"Yes I send him sweets butI will not let him take votes,"Mamata told a huge rally atSerampore in Hooghly evenas the Opposition CPI(M)and the Congress promptlywent to town "exposing thenexus between the BJP andthe TMC so as to divide thevotes in order to establish apro-rich and anti-workingclass Government in Delhi”.

The PM in an interview tofilm star Akshay Kumar con-ceded having received sweetand apparel from Mamata atthe cost of affecting electoralprospects. “It may affect meduring elections but I can admitthat Mamata still gifts me kur-tas," said the PM, adding thatwhen the Chief Minister heardthat "Bangladesh PM SheikhHasina gifted me Bengalisweets, she also started sendingme the same."

But before the Oppositioncould exploit the statement,particularly among theMamata's minority voters, theChief Minister hit out at the

Prime Minister saying howduring his regime the twomajor scams had taken place inthe name of Jandhan anddemonetisation.

She said, “Notebandi andJandhan were two scams thathappened during Modi's rule"paving way for huge amount ofblack money that went to thesaffron coffer. "With that blackmoney they have been fightingelections, buying votes," shesaid warning, "When we willcome to power will definitelyget them probed."

She said, "If someone mis-takes political courtesy forsomething else then one is liv-ing in a fool's paradise becausewe in Bengal will give themsweets but not votes."

Reacting to Banerjee'sremarks a senior Marxist leaderpromptly said, "Didi will probeModi the way he has probedthe chit fund for the past fiveyears."

Continued on Page 4

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Chief JudicialM a g i s t r a t e

(CJM) court hasgranted two-dayremand to theSpecial Task Forceof the four accusedincluding threesuspended police-men and a localCongress leader inthe case of cashbeing seized by thecops from a prop-erty dealer underthe pretext of elec-tion model code ofconduct enforce-ment.

An applicationwas filed by theCircle Officer(STF) KailashPanwar and wasproduced in court on Tuesday,for the remand to police cus-tody of all four accused in acase which saw seizure of a bagfrom property dealer AnurodhPanwar, allegedly filled withcash by the three policemenunder the pretext of checks andseizure for the enforcement ofmodel code of conduct on thenight of April 4. CJM VivekSrivastav on Wednesday grant-ed the STF the police remandof the four accused for 48hours, starting at 10 AM onThursday. The advocate of theaccused can also remain pre-sent during interrogation.

The Assistant ProsecutingOfficer (APO) Anup

Chowdhary told The Pioneer,“The court has granted 48hours policy custody which willstart at 10 am on Thursday.”

The STF AdditionalSuperintendent of Police (ASP)Swatantra Kumar said, “Onthe discretion of the court, theSTF was granted two-dayremand of the accused. We willdo the interrogation in ourpremises. The investigation isstill in process.”

It is pertinent to mentionhere that from the defendant’sside advocate Neeraj Pandeypresented objection on theremand application filed bySTF. Raising the objection, hesaid that according to the UP

Police regulations, policeremand should not be grant-ed unless the officer filing theapplication is able to showdefinite and satisfactorygrounds for the same. A gen-eral statement that the accusedmay be able to give furtherinformation should not beaccepted. He further statedthat his client AnupamSharma (Congress leader) hasnot given money to the com-plainant.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that the remand applica-tion filed by STF is to questionthe accused about the bagwhich changed hands on thenight of April 4.

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The agitation of the fieldworkers of the 108 emer-

gency ambulance servicesaffected health services in allparts of the state. The agitationensured that only 10 per cent

fleet of ambulances was on theroads to respond to the emer-gency calls. On the day the fieldworkers of the ambulance ser-vice facing an uncertain futuredue to the notices of termina-tion issued to them held a vehe-ment protest at agitation sitenear the parade ground. Theassociation of the field workersof the 108 ambulance servicehad given a call to march to thestate secretariat on the day tohighlight their plight.

The administration howev-er refused permission for the

march citing prevailing modelcode of conduct in the state.Denied permission, these work-ers organised a meeting at theparade ground. Later a delega-tion of the association submit-ted a memorandum directed tothe state chief minister.

The general secretary ofthe association, Vipin Jamlokisaid the new company which istaking over the responsibility ofoperating the ambulance ser-vice should be asked to retainthe old employees on thesalaries they were receiving.

The contract of GVKEMRI Company to operate108 emergency ambulance ser-vice is ending on April 30 as thestate government had recentlyhanded over the task of oper-ating the 108 ambulance ser-vice to Community Action

and Motivation Programme(CAMP). As the term of itscontract is ending on April 30,the GVK- EMRI managementhas issued letters to the all itsemployees in which it is men-tioned that April 30 would betheir last day in service.

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The FICCI FLOUttarakhand chapter

organised FLO AchieversAwards on Wednesday.Fourteen women from variousspheres and parts of India werefelicitated on the occasion. Theday also saw the outgoingchairperson of the state chap-ter, Shilpi Arora handing overthe office to Nazia Izuddin.

Speaking on the occasion,Arora said, “It has been a greatjourney and this is the last pro-gramme under my tenure. I amvery happy as many amazingprogrammes were held thatwere unique and special for us.’’

Addressing the talk session‘She Leads’ acid attack survivorLaxmi Agarwal said, “It washard to survive the trauma I was

facing after the attack. However,my family has always beenthere for me and their strengthand love helped to come outfrom the pain I was in. It tookme time to realise that face is notimportant- these are norms setby societies. It is important toaccept and love ourselves.’’

Designer Anju Modi wasfelicitated with the lifetimeachievement award. The otherwomen achievers who wereawarded on the occasion wereLaxmi Agarwal, Dr VeenaKhanduri, Ridhi Mehra, ArushiNishank, Nupur Agarwal,Devanshi Rana, Radhika Jha,lieutenant commander PSwathi, Karishma Manga Bedi,wing commander AnupamaJoshi, Anukriti Gusain, lieu-tenant commander VartikaJoshi and Prerna Dangi.

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The cyclistsparticipating

in the UltimateH i m a l a y a nMountain TerrainBiking Challengeare slated to reachDehradun fromSuakhal today.The traffic policehave made necessar yarrangements and will divertand stop traffic according tothe route plan of the cyclists.The department has alsorequested citizens to not over-take the cyclists or try tospeed up around them.

Superintendent of Police(traffic) Prakash Chandra Aryasaid, “The cyclists will reachDehradun after lunch as therace is supposed to terminate

in Mussoorie. However, theywill be reaching a hotel here, forwhich the route plan has beenmade.”

The route plan designatedfor the rally starts fromSuakhal, Lakshman Puri,Mussoorie Diversion, DilaramChowk, Survey Chowk, CJMT-junction, Buddha Chowkand Post Office T-Junctionbefore concluding at Hotel Drona.

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In the election atmosphere,every leader is seen adopt-

ing different tactics to elicitthe attention of the public.Away from politics, onWednesday, Yoga guru SwamiRamdev was seen cuttingwheat crop in the fields nearPatanjali Yogpeeth phase II.

He is the second popularpersonality to visit the farmafter Mathura MP and BJP candidatefrom there, Hema Malini also went tothe farm with a sickle. On Wednesdaymorning Ramdev was seen cuttingwheat crop and instructing his disciples

about harvesting when he went formorning walk in Patanjali Yogpeethphase II.

A video of him reaping the crop inthe farm went viral on the social media.

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More than a hundred and sixty five years ago, oneof the chapters of the tragic story of Punjab’s last

Maharaja was written in Mussoorie, the popular hill sta-tion of North India. The month of April brings to mindthe time when this Maharaja, at the age of 16, left hiscountry and was taken to England where he was tobecome a great favourite of Queen Victoria. It was Aprilof the year 1854.

He was Duleep Singh, born on September 4, 1838to the beautiful Maharani Jindan, a minor queen of thegreat Sikh monarch, Ranjit Singh. After Ranjit Singh’sdeath, his powerful kingdom was plunged into adecade of chaos and bloodshed. After the two Anglo-Sikh wars, the Punjab was ready for annexation by theBritish. The child king, Duleep Singh, had to sign awayhis kingdom and wealth to the Governor General ofIndia, Lord Dalhousie. His mother was sent into exileand Duleep Singh was taken in hand by Dr John Login,a Presbyterian army surgeon. Duleep lived under Login’sclose watch away from Punjab, in Fatehgarh, a small set-tlement on the banks of the Ganga and soon became aChristian. But before he left for England, the Maharajareached Mussoorie in 1852 after an incognito visit toHaridwar and a short stay in the Doon valley. He alsospent some time in Mussoorie in 1853.

He was kept at the Castle Hill Estate near LandourBazaar in Mussoorie.There has been al o n g - s t a n d i n gdemand by some thatthe governmentshould make aMaharaja DuleepSingh Museum atCastle Hill which isnow with the Surveyof India. When TheBlack Prince, a filmbased on DuleepSingh’s life, wasreleased in English,Punjabi and Hindilast year, it created agreat interest in hislife among the audi-ences.Those who hadbeen somewhatfamiliar with thistragic tale, were happyto see it on the silverscreen and inspired tofind out more. Thosewho had never heardthe story beforewatching this filmwere greatly movedand enlightened. Thefigure of this monarchwho lost his country,his throne and every-thing familiar beforethe age of sixteenevokes the feelings ofpity and fear whichare the essential emo-tions that a tragedymust evoke in audi-ences according toAristotle’s views inPoetics.

In his historicalnovel The Exile,author and diplomatNavtej Sarna, in hisfictionalised historical

account of the life of Duleep Singh, writes, “Duleep Singhwas separated from his mother and his people, takenunder British guardianship and converted to Christianity.At sixteen, he was transported to England to live the lifeof a country squire. A child duped of his kingdom, aman who changed his religion twice, a king who yearnedto come back to his people but never could.” The pathosand poignance of Duleep Singh’s story is brought outvividly in this novel. Khushwant Singh wrote that TheExile presents a gripping tragedy. “A sordid tale ofintrigue, treachery and cold blooded murders that greet-ed the end of the Sikh Kingdom, and of the exile toEngland of its last Maharaja, Duleep Singh...”

When the boy-king was sent to England in 1854,he was under the impression, as his guardian – Dr JohnLogin- had told him, that he would be back soon aftercompleting his education and would settle down in alanded estate in Dehradun, free to spend his summersin Mussoorie. But this journey took him away forever.Earlier, there were plans for him to settle in “Dhoon”(Dehradun). It was in the month of May, almost 167years ago that Duleep Singh spent some days inMussoorie. The Maharaja reached Mussoorie in May1852 after an incognito visit to Haridwar and a shortstay in the Doon Valley. He also spent some time inMussoorie in 1853.

Login did his best to keep the king away from thegaieties associated with the hill station as the main ideabehind the temporary residence in the hills was to affordhim calm for his studies.

Duleep Singh was deported to England where helived in exile for the rest of his life. In 1849, on September5, John Login wrote a letter to his wife Lena (fromLahore) saying, “ Yesterday was the birthday of the lit-tle Maharaja;he is now eleven…I had the great pleasureof presenting to the Maharaja, on the morning of hisbirthday, a lakh of rupees worth of his own jewels fromthe toshakhana ..he appeared ..dressed most splendid-ly ..When I congratulated him on his appearance, heinnocently remarked that on his last birthday he hadworn the Koh-i-noor on his arm!” This was part of histragedy…he was being gifted things on his birthday fromthe very treasure which had been his own in the firstplace!

Duleep Singh died a tragic death in Paris on October21, 1893 and was buried in the little church at Elveden.

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The Uttarakhand HighCourt has directed the State

Government to reply withinfour weeks regarding theskeletal remains of pilgrimsmissing since the 2013 disasterin Kedarnath. The HC divisionbench of chief justice RameshRanganathan and justiceNarayan Singh Dhanik alsoasked that if DNA tests wereconducted on the skeletalremains and which laboratorywere these being conducted in.

Delhi resident AjayGautam had filed a PIL in thehigh court stating that since the2013 disaster, 4,200 personshad been missing fromKedarnath and that skeletalremains of 600 had been foundso far. The government is not

doing anything to remove theremains of thousands of peoplestill buried in Kedarnath, thepetitioner had stated. In thepast too, the court had directedthe government to remove theremains from Kedarnath valleyand cremate them but thegovernment has not done so.The petitioner has also statedthat even now remains of thedisaster victims are being foundin Kedarnath. More than 900

people had approached thegovernment so far seeking theremains and were also ready forDNA tests. The governmentshould extract the remains,get the DNA tests conductedand hand over the remains tothe family members, thepetitioner has demanded.Considering the seriousnessof the matter, the HC hasdirected the State Governmentto reply within four weeks.

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Nainital: The high court pulledup the government for notfollowing its previousdirections in the NationalInstitute of Technology (NIT),Srinagar case. The StateGovernment was unable tosubmit its reply to the previousdirections asking it to identifyfour potential locations forNIT. On Wednesday, the Statecited a meeting with theCentre, stating that thegovernment is consideringpossibility of establishing NITat Sumadi. The division benchheaded by chief justice RameshRanganathan expresseddissatisfaction, stating that this

information could have beensubmitted to the court in anapplication so that the courtcould reconsider its earlierdecision.

Former student of NITJasvir Singh had filed a PIL inthe high court seekingpermanent campus in alocation where necessaryfacilities are provided to thestudents. It will be recalled thatresidents of Sumadi and othervillages have stated in the pastthat though they had donatedland to the government toestablishing NIT, thegovernment was trying to shiftit to the plains. PNS

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Nainital: The high court hasdirected police inspector generalof Garhwal that investigation inFIR filed by Jhabreda MLADeshraj Karnwal in 2007 shouldbe completed in a month and areport should be submitted incourt. Hearing on the petitionfiled by Karnwal alleging pressurefrom Khanpur MLA PranavSingh ‘Champion’ preventingaction in the case, the singlebench of justice Sharad KumarSharma asked what the reasonwas for the investigation notbeing completed so far. Karnwalhad filed a petition in the HCregarding an FIR he had lodgedat Roorkee Kotwali in April2007.

In the FIR he had stated thatJaipal, Hari Singh and SurendraDabane had conspired andforged his ration card and familyregister in order to cause damageto him. Since these documentswere found to be forged in aninquiry, Karnwal had soughtlegal action against the three butpolice has been delaying actionin the case, he had alleged. PNS

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True to his style of hoggingthe limelight, former chief

minister Harish Rawat isattracting media attention byseries of posts on social mediaplatforms.

After his barb on chiefminister Trivendra SinghRawat that he has remained in

the heart and minds of thepeople of Uttarakhand evenafter suffering electoralreverses, the former CM hasnow launched tirade againstBJP on his Facebook page.

In his new message, HarishRawat has said that the BJP hasbecome highly arrogant.

Turning philosophical hesaid that electoral losses don’tcast any effect on importanceof any leader. In one of his latestposts on social media, theformer CM has sarcasticallysaid that he is happy as one ofhis tweets jolted theUttarakhand BJP which is nowtrying to portray chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat as itssuper star.

He added that the CMshould be thankful to him ashis party is now recognising hiscontribution albeit belatedly.

In his tweet on Monday,Harish Rawat had questionedTrivendra Singh Rawat; “wherewere you in the elections? Didanyone seek votes on yourname and works?”

What is interesting is thatthe former CM lost no time inleaving Assam where as a incharge of party he was

engrossed steering theCongress party’s campaignafter end of campaigning andtaking on CM of Uttarakhandon social media.

Political pundits are of theview that an astute politician heis, Harish Rawat is trying tounderline the fact that he stillis the tallest leader inUttarakhand Congress andelectoral losses has not

undermined his image in pastand nor it would do so infuture. It is known fact thatformer CM who also is themember of Congress WorkingCommittee (CWC) is fightingbattle of his life from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabhaconstituency against Presidentof state unit of BJP Ajay Bhatt.It is widely believed that aelectoral loss at this juncture of

time would push him to thepolitical oblivion. It is pertinentto mention here that HarishRawat contested from Kichhain Udham Singh Nagar andHaridwar rural assemblyconstituencies in 2017.However, the veteran leaderlost from both seats.

Senior journalist Jai SinghRawat said that the reasonbehind sudden spurt in theactivity of Harish Rawat onsocial media platform in whichhe has targeted CM Trivendra

Singh Rawat appears thatHarish Rawat wants to make itvery clear that he wouldretaliate and retaliate hard if heis targeted. “ Harish Rawat isvery intelligent and seasonedpolitician and knows what tosay and when to say. He wasperfectly right when he saidthat people have forgotten thenames of those who havedefeated him in the pastelections but he continues tolinger in heart and minds ofpeople,’’ Jai Singh Rawat said.

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The Bharatiya Janata Partyhas alleged that it appears

as if the Congress is now alsoresorting to sorcery againstPrime Minister Narendra Modiin its desperation to oust him.

The BJP State media in-charge Devendra Bhasin saidthat having failed in its varioustricks to defeat Modi, theCongress is now resorting totrantra-mantra.

“The Congress nationalgeneral secretary and formerCM Harish Rawat had recentlystated that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is under theinfluence of Kal Sarp Yog in hishoroscope, due to which he willbe defeated in the election bya woman. This shows thathaving failed to defeat Modi sofar, the Congress is nowresorting to tantra-mantra. It isclear from Rawat’s statementthat the Congress is checkingastrological aspects and whatmight damage Modi to hatch aplan against him. Rawat wenton to say that Modi should prayto god that Priyanka Gandhi

Vadra should not contest theelection from Varanasi (againstModi).”

Bhasin said that this onlyexposes the Congress’disappointment anddesperation to secure powerapart from the fear of Modi inthe minds of Congress leaders.“Whatever the Congress andother opposition parties doagainst Modi, the blessingsand support of the public arewith him. He is walking thepath of truth and the truthalways wins,” added Bhasin.

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Irked by the leakage whichdeveloped in sewer drain on

upper road resulting in sewerflowing directly into theGanga river, the TeerthPurohit fraternity hasexpressed concern. Due tosome construction worksundertaken by the PWD nearHar Ki Paidi, sewer water isflowing into the Ganga. Thesewage pumping stations are

shut down in the area whichshall not be tolerated, said thepriest fraternity.

Ganga Sabha presidentPradeep Jha said, “If sewerwater flows into the holyGanga, the faith of devoteeswill be shaken. The stategovernment must frame apolicy to undertakeconstruction works. Thedepartments shouldundertake construction worksin coordination. Alternative

arrangement in case of shutdown of pumping stationmust be made.”

Meanwhile BJPcouncillors have demandedformation of Nala Gang forcleaning of drains in the cityarea.

A group of BJPrepresentatives met themunicipal commissioner.They demanded 100sanitation workers forcleaning all drains of the city.

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Atal Ayushman UttarakhandYojana (AAUY), the dream

project of chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat hasbecome plagued by theinsurance claim relatedmalpractices.

The scheme under whichthe covered family memberscan avail the benefit of freetreatment up to Rs five lakh peryear has become a hotbed ofcorruption in which somepanelled hospitals in collusionwith corrupt doctors ofgovernment hospitals havemade claims worth Crores ofrupees from the state healthagency under the AAUY. Theregular audit of the state healthagency has brought to forethese malpractices. Acting onthe finding of the audit, the statehealth agency has taken actionon five hospitals so far. Thehealth department has also setup an inquiry team consistingof Assistant Director DrAmitesh Tripathi and DrMohan Lal which would submitits report in 15 days. In one ofthe case, a gynaecologist DrNavpreet Kaur working oncontract in the L D Bhatt

government hospital Kashipurwas referring patients to aprivate hospital in Kashipurwhich happens to be owned byher husband. In a similar casea private hospital in SultanpurHaridwar was found to beunduly favoured by Dr GeorgeSamuel who is deployed in theGovernment hospital Raisi inHaridwar.

The department has so farfound irregularities in the casesinvolving five hospitals. TheChief Executive Officer (CEO)of AAUY, Yugal Kishore Pantsaid that an inquiry has beenconstituted in the casesinvolving hospitals makingwrong claims and the inquirywould be completed in 15 days.

If the inquiry conforms tothe findings of the regularaudit, the state governmentcan initiate recovery process. In

the recovery thesehospitals can be penalisedand recovery of five timesthe claim amount wouldbe done from them.

Launched amid muchfanfare, on December 25,2018, the Atal AyushmanUttarakhand Yojanaprovides a cover of Rs 5lakh per annum to all 23lakh families ofUttarakhand in thepanelled hospitals underthe scheme. Patients can

avail benefit of the scheme for1350 types of diseases in thesehospitals. For treatment in theprivate empanelled hospitals,the patients are needed to bereferred from the governmenthospitals. As per the provisionsof the scheme, the patientsshould be referred only whenthe required treatment is notavailable in the governmentcentres.

Those associated with thehealth services are of the viewthat the system of referral froma government hospital shouldbe done away with to make thescheme free from corruptionand hassles.

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On the orders of secretary, Power,Radhika Jha, the Uttarakhand

Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) hassuspended Superintending Engineer(SE), Rudrapur, Executive Engineer(ExEn), Rudrapur and Sub DivisionalOfficer ( SDO), Gardarpur in theinfamous Yashoda Rice Mill power theftcase of Gardarpur. A vigilance team ofthe UPCL had raided the premises ofYashoda Rice Mill on April 20 andfound a major power theft of 96 KW.The team found that the Mill owner haddirectly connected an 11 KV line with

his private transformer. By using thisconnection, the mill owner was engagedin a major power theft from last severalmonths.

On the orders of Radhika Jha, themanaging director of UPCL, B C KMishra suspended the Rudrapur SE,Narendra Singh Tolia, Rudrapur Ex En,

Umakant Chaturvedi and GadarpurSDO Girish Chandra Arya onWednesday. The Chief Engineer of theUPCL has also been issued a show causenotice and the director of transmissionhas been directed to submit a reportwithin three days on the major powertheft.

Taking a stern view of the pendinginquires in the department; SecretaryRadhika Jha has also directed that all thepending inquires should be completedwithin next 15 days. She said thatresponsibilities of the senior officers ofthe power corporation would be fixedin the cases of power theft.

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Three persons were killed andone critically injured when

the car they were travelling in felloff the road, down themountainside in Pabo block ofPauri district on Wednesday.

The deceased have beenidentified as Shiromani Raturi,Pankaj Raturi and ShyamSharma while teenagerHimanshu Raturi has sufferedcritical injury.

Sub Inspector of Pabo policepost Ajay Lal said, “At about 6AM in the morning a car withfour people fell of the road nearNayeegaon. Three died on thespot while one is in criticalcondition.”

When asked about the causeof the mishap he said, “Theinjured Himanshu told us thatthere was some technical fault inthe car because of which they lostcontrol. Investigation is stillgoing on.” He further added,“After attending a marriagefunction in Pauri, the deceasedPankaj and Shiromani Raturiwere going to drop ShyamSharma and Himanshu Raturi tothe nearby taxi stand which isabout 15 kilometres from theirvillage. PNS

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The ‘Nirbhaya Cell’ whichwas set up in Dalanwala

area in the year 2016 to dealwith cases of crimes againstwomen is being run without afull-time counsellor for aboutnine months now.

Even after a visit by theUttarakhand State Commissionfor Women chairperson VijayaBarthwal in the month ofFebruary the condition of thecell has remained the same.

It is pertinent to mentionthat the counsellor plays a veryimportant in helping a victimin any case.

The USCW chairpersonVijaya Barthwal said, “The

issue was in my knowledge andI recently sought update on thecounsellor’s appointment inthe Nirbhaya Cell.

It is done by a processaccording to which the vacan-cy was also published in thenewspapers.

The appropriate candidatewill be selected for the position.

It is very likely that the appoint-ment of the counsellor will bedone in the coming months.’’

In charge of the Nirbhayacell said, “The position hasbeen vacant because the coun-sellor posted here was trans-ferred to some other place lastyear.

From then till now theposition has been vacant. We,however, have arranged for acounsellor who further takescare of all the cases that needcounselling. Also, as the elec-tion model code of conductwas implemented recently thenew appointment was deferred.As per our knowledge, theappointment will be donesoon.’’

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Rajendra Singh Chaudhary filed a com-plaint in Raiwala Police Station against a

man named Ankit Singh Rawat, resident ofPurola Uttarkashi. The complainant accusedRawat of duping him of �1,100,000 in 2018under the pretext of getting his son selectedin the Uttarakhand cricket team for RanjiTrophy.

According to the police, the complainant’sson Ankit Chaudhary is a decent cricket play-er, so to get him selected in the team the com-plainant transferred �1,100,000 in the bankaccount of Ankit Singh Rawat. The com-plainant told the police that after payingmoney when he asked Rawat about the selec-tion of his son, the answers weren’t satisfac-tory. When the Ranji Trophy got over andcomplainant asked for his money back theaccused refused to return it.

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From page 1It may be recalled that an

improvised explosive keptunder the seat of a LMLFreedom motor-bicycle hadexploded between BhikkuChowk and Anjuman Chowk,near Noorani Masjid, atMalegaon in northMaharashtra, on the night ofSeptember 29, 2008, leavingsix persons dead and injuring101 others.

During Wednesday’s hear-ing, Judge Padalkar also notedthat his court was not a prop-er forum to contest the bailgranted to Sadhvi Pragya.“This court has not grantedbail... wrong forum has beenchosen,” the judge said.Incidentally, a petition seekingcancellation of Sadhvi Pragya’sbail is pending before theSupreme Court.

Bilal, whose son had beenkilled in the 2008 Malegaonblasts, had filed an interven-tion application in the SpecialCourt last week, seeking adirection to restrain SadhviPragya, who has been nomi-nated as its candidate, fromcontesting the Lok Sabha pollsfrom Bhopal, where she is tak-ing on senior Congress leaderDigvijay Singh.

Billal had opposed themove by Sadhvi Pragya, one ofthe key accused in the case, tocontest the Lok Sabha polls onthe ground that she had defiedthe court order, granting her“conditional bail”. He stated

that Sadhvi Pragya had beengranted bail after consideringher failing ‘health.’

“Sadhvi got bail on healthgrounds but now she is clear-ly healthy enough to fight elec-tions in the cripplingsummer heat which means

she has misguided the court,”Billal had stated in hisplea.

“Sadhvi is not attendinghearing of the court on thepretext that she is unwell andshe is a breast cancer patient,but on the contrary she hasbeen seen participating invarious programs and givingobjectionable and instigatingspeeches since her releasefrom jail,” Bilal had said.

In its four-page reply filedbefore the special courtthrough special public prose-cutor Avinash Rasal, the NIAtold the court that it had notfound sufficient evidence toprosecute Thakur in the 2008Malegaon blasts.

The NIA had also statedin its reply that it had no juris-diction in the matter and thatit was for the ElectionCommission to decide.

In her reply to Bilal’s inter-vention application filedthrough lawyer PrashantMaggu, Sadhvi Pragya hadurged the court to dismiss theplea seeking a bar on her con-testing the Lok Sabha polls onthe ground that “pendency ofcases is no bar to contestingelections”.

“There is no provision inthe Representation of Peoples’Act, 1951 which disqualifiesthe candidate from contestingthe election, if criminal case ispending against him/her”,Maggu told the court.

“The sub-section 4 ofSection 8 of the Act states thateven if a person, who isMember of Parliament or Statelegislature is convicted, dis-qualification will not takeeffect if appeal or revision isfiled against the convictionwithin 90 days or if the con-viction is stayed by the Court,”Maggu said, in his reply filedon behalf of Sadhvi Pragya.

When the issue of cancel-lation came up before court,Sadhvi Pragya’s lawyer JPMishra said that Thakur gotbail on merit along with med-ical grounds.

He added that she is con-testing the poll, attendingmeetings and campaigning,but a doctor was always pre-sent with her roundthe clock.

“My client has not misledthe court. After the court’sorder (on bail), she underwentan operation and was unableto walk in 2016. Her conditionhas improved now, but she hasnot fully recovered,” Mishrasaid.

Meanwhile, reacting tothe relief she got from theSpecial court, Sadhvi Pragyasaid in Bhopal that “truth and religion”

always prevailed. “Truth istruth. Truth and dharma (reli-gion) always triumph,” shesaid.

It may be recalled that onOctober 30, 2018, a specialcourt in Mumbai framedcharges against Sadhvi PragyaSingh Thakur, Lt Col PrasadShrikant Purohit and fiveother accused under theUnlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA) andvarious other sections of theIPC for their alleged involve-ment in the 2008 blasts.

Seven key accused,including Lt Col Purohit andSadhvi Pragya, are being triedunder sections 16 (commit-ting a terror act) and 18 (crim-inal conspiracy) of theUnlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA), andsections 120(b) (punishmentof criminal conspiracy), 302(murder), 307 (attempt tomurder) and 326 (intention-ally causing harm to others) ofthe IPC. They are also beingtried for charges under theExplosives Substances Act.

If convicted under thesesections, the maximum pun-ishment can be life imprison-ment or death.

Apart from Sadhvi Pragyaand Lt Col Purohit, the otheraccused who are facing thetrial are: Sudhakar Dwivedi,Major (retd.) RameshUpadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni,Sudhakar Chaturvedi andAjay Rahirkar.

������������ �������� ��,,,�From Page 1

He did it when there was a rumour that thenomination papers of singer Hans Raj Hans,whom the BJP had fielded from that seat, wereincomplete. However, Udit changed his trackagain and joined the Congress on Wednesday butnot before her hurled a volley of accusations onthe BJP.

Earlier, Udit met Congress president RahulGandhi at his residence on Wednesday morningand addressed the media in the company ofsenior Congress leaders KC Venugopal, SheilaDikshit and Randeep Surjewala at the its head-quarters. The party took to Twitter onWednesday to welcome Udit. “Congress President@RahulGandhi welcomes Shri Udit Raj into theCongress party,” it said on Twitter with a photoof Rahul Gandhi and Udit Raj.

Congress spokesman Surjewala lauded Uditfor being the ‘voice of Dalits and the oppressed’and attacked the Narendra Modi Government,alleging that large-scale atrocities were commit-ted against the Dalits under the BJP rule. “I want-ed to join the Congress for a long time and RahulGandhi knows this. I dont lie. If BJP would havegiven me a ticket from there (northwest), I wouldhave fought from there. But because of this (notbeing given ticket), a big thing has come outbefore the people that how anti-Dalit, the BJP is,”Udit said. He went to say the BJP did not givehim a ticket as he had spoken out in support ofthe Dalits who were protesting last year againstthe alleged dilution of the Scheduled Caste andScheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.“My mistake was that when the atrocities act waschanged, I was not deaf and dumb in the BJP. Ifone stays deaf and dumb in the BJP, that personcan also be made the Prime Minister by them,”he said. Udit had courted controversy a few weeksago after allegedly being caught in a sting doneon several MPs, which purportedly showed law-makers accepting use of black money for con-testing polls.

From Page 1CPI(M) central committee member Sujan

Chakrabarty asked whether Banerjee had sentsame kind of gifts to other politicians likeRahul Gandhi or any other party.

"She sends it to Modi only as she sent hima bouquet even after Gujarat riots when hebecame the Chief Minister for the second timebecause she knows who is her real allyagainst the Left force," he said.

Banerjee who subsequently walked ahuge road show at Burdwan said "those whothink that they can demoralize MamataBanerjee by spreading canards are fools of thefirst order. The election results will only showthat. Banerjee had for the first time in the past8-9 years been leading road shows of suchmagnitude. Earlier she did road shows inSiliguri, Krishnagar.

The Prime Minister who was addressingtwo rallies at Birbhum and Ranaghat alsoseized the "sweet-and-kurta" stick from theLeftists' hand even as he doubled the decibelof his attack on the Chief Minister saying,"Didi's sun in Bengal is setting," which can beproved by the trend in the first three roundof polling.

"Didi's temper is going out of control asshe has understood the trend in the threephases. And so she has started attacking thecentral forces and the Election Commission,"Modi said reminding how "Mamata Banerjeeused to demand imposition of President's Rulein 2009 and before to remove the communistGovernment."

Now after seeing the TMC rule it seemedthat the "this is a worse Government than thatof the Left Front," Modi said demanding votein the name of national pride, security, endof terrorism and goonda raj particularly inBengal as also a logical conclusion of the chitfund probe.

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From page 1“On April 16, nobody tried

to wake Rohit because he suf-fered from insomnia (sleepdisorder). After he failed to getup, one of his servants wentinto his room around 4 pm,and saw him lying on bedwith a nosebleed,” said theAdditional CP.

Rohit’s mother UjjwalaTiwari was at Max Hospital fortreatment when she received acall from home that he wasunwell. She then took an ambu-lance that brought Rohit to thehospital. Rohit’s mother onSunday had alleged thatApoorva and her family weremoney-minded and wanted toacquire the family property. Shehad earlier said the couple hadstarted having fights right fromthe first day of marriage.

The judge also directedthat the accused will be med-ically examined as per rules andallowed her lawyer to be pre-sent with her during interro-gation and serve a copy of FIR.Police told the court that theywant to find out more cluesrelated to this case and ruledout the possibility of any othersuspect. The lawyer appearingfor Shukla opposed the plea forcustody saying she has coop-erated throughout the investi-gation.

Rohit joined the BJP aheadof the 2017 UttarakhandAssembly polls and recentlyindicated that he could join theCongress. In 2012, ND Tiwari,who had quit as AndhraPradesh Governor after a pur-ported video of his sexualescapade was leaked, wasforced to give samples of hisDNA for a paternity test afterwarnings by the Delhi HighCourt.

In 2014, ND Tiwari final-ly accepted Rohit as his son,putting an end to a prolongedlegal battle on the issue.

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From page 1“My submission is that let

a special investigation team(SIT) be constituted under thesupervision of this court. Thetruth must come out in theinvestigation monitored by thecourt. This will inspire confi-dence,” Mehta said.

Venugopal also supportedMehta’s submission and said athorough enquiry should beconducted in the matter.However, Justice Mishra saidthis is a “sensitive issue” and CJIGogoi has also taken action inthe matter.

“This action has beentaken by the CJI for the firsttime in the history of India.This was happening around inthe past also but no CJI had thecourage to do this,” he said,adding that the CJI is taking theaction “without any fear”.

The Bench said full pro-tection should be given toBains as the court doesn’t wantevidence to be destroyed orcompromised.

At the fag end of the hear-

ing, Bains told the court that hehas some more very importantand very critical piece of evi-dence related to the mater andhe be allowed to file an addi-tional affidavit.

The Bench allowed therequest of Bains and said, “Itshould be handwritten andnot typed.”

Bains had filed an affidavitfollowing the unprecedentedhearing on Saturday duringwhich Justice Gogoi had saidthat some “bigger force” wasbehind the controversy as theywanted to “deactivate” the CJI’soffice and he would not stooptoo low even to deny these alle-gations.

The hearing on April 20 inthe case, titled as a matter of“great public importancetouching upon the indepen-dence of judiciary”, was heldafter stories were publishedon some news portals about thesexual harassment allegationslevelled by a former employeeof the apex court against theCJI.

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No less than nine leaders areeyeing to traverse the road

from Punjab Vidhan Sabha tothe Parliament during LokSabha elections.

Banking on their not onlytried and tested, but also win-ning horses, the major politicalplayers in the State are bankingon their elected representativesto romp home to victory in theMay 19 elections.

While the ruling Congressand its arch rival ShiromaniAkali Dal (SAD) has decided tolay their bet on two sittingMLAs each, Bharatiya JantaParty has fielded a sitting leg-islator from one out of the totalthree seats it contests in alliancewith the SAD.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP),which has snatched the posi-tion of the main oppositionparty from SAD after 2017 stateassembly polls by bagging 20seats, has also decided to fieldits one MLA in the ensuingelections.

A total of three sittingMLAs would be representingthe Punjab DemocraticAlliance (PDA) — a conglom-eration of six political outfitsand newly-created splintergroups.

Maximum three legisla-tors would be facing each otherin the most watched-out elec-toral battle of Bathinda againstthe SAD’s sitting MP and theUnion Minister Harsimat KaurBadal. Congress’ MLA fromGidderbaha Raja AmarinderSingh Warring, AAP’s MLAfrom Talwandi Sabo ProfBaljinder Kaur, and AAP’s‘rebel’ MLA from BholathSukhpal Singh Khaira wouldfight it out against each otherin the known Badals’ bastion.

Khaira, who had rebelledagainst his party after he wasunceremoniously removedfrom the post of the Leader ofOpposition and left AAP, float-ed his own political outfit bythe name of Punjab Ekta Party(PEP) and would be contestinghis first Lok Sabha electionfrom Bathinda as PDA’s joint

candidate.Another AAP’s ‘rebel’ MLA

who left AAP to join Khaira’sPEP, Master Baldev SinghJaiton, would also be testinghimself in the Faridkot con-stituency. Elected legislatorfrom Jaiton assembly segment,Master Baldev would also con-test against Congress’ MohdSadique and SAD’s GulzarSingh Ranike as joint candidateof the PDA.

Lok Insaaf Party, whichcontested 2017 polls in alliancewith AAP but parted waysafter Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal’s meek apolo-gy to SAD leader BikramMajithia, is also the part ofPDA. Its president and AtamNagar MLA Simarjeet SinghBains would contest fromLudhiana Lok Sabha seat.

In 2014, Bains had alsocontested from Ludhiana as anindependent and managed tobag more than one lakh votes.

Congress has fielded itsanother MLA from Chabbewal,Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal,from Hoshiarpur reserve con-stituency, while denying theticket to its former

MP and former UnionMinister Santosh Chaudhary,who has been lobbying hard toget party nomination either forher or her daughter NamitaChaudhary.

Pushed back at the thirdspot in the state Assemblyafter staying in power for adecade, the Akali Dal has alsodecided to field its two MLAs,including party chief SukhbirBadal and former finance min-ister Parminder Singh Dhindsa.

Sukhbir, who has beenannounced the party candidatefrom Ferozepur only a daybefore, would be returning tothe national level politics afterover two decades to revive theparty’s dwindling fortunes inPunjab. He is currently repre-senting Jalalabad assembly seg-ment, a part of Ferozepur con-stituency.

Hit by rebellion by the tra-ditional Akali leaders and fac-ing allegations in sacrilege andrelated firing incidents, SAD is

facing its worst ever politicalcrisis forcing the party to fieldits stalwarts to ensure its victoryin the crucial elections.

Earlier reluctant, sittingLehra Gaga MLA ParminderDhindsa is fighting SAD’s can-didate from Sangrur notwith-standing his father and Akalistalwart Sukhdev SinghDhindsa’s advice against con-testing polls under Sukhbir’sleadership.

Sangrur’s former MP andformer Union Minister,Dhindsa was the first one toraise the banner of revoltagainst SAD and resigningfrom all party posts citinghealth concerns. Sitting RajyaSabha MP, Dhindsa was recent-ly conferred with the PadmaBhushan award.

BJP, which has just threeMLAs in the 117-memberHouse in Punjab, has alsodeclared its Phagwara MLASom Parkash as its candidatefrom Hoshiarpur replacing thesitting MO and the UnionMinister Vijay Sampla.

Besides the sitting MLAs,the parties have also reposed itsfaith on the former lawmakersor ministers.

Congress has fielded twoformer MPs and UnionMinisters — Preneet Kaur fromPatiala and Manish Tewarifrom Sri Anandpur Sahib.Aming the former MLAs areJasbir Singh Dimpa fromKhadoor Sahib, Mohd Sadiquefrom Faridkot, and KewalSingh Dhillon from Sangrur.

SAD too has decided tofiled former MLAs — Bibi JagirKaur from Khadoor Sahib,Charanjit Singh Atwal fromJalandhar, Mahesh Inder Grewalfrom Ludhiana, Gulzar SinghRanike from Faridkot, and SurjitSingh Rakhra from Patiala.

10 PARLIAMENTARI-ANS SEEKING RE-ELEC-TION

As many as 10 sitting MPs,out of total 13 in Punjab, wouldonce again try their luck in May19 elections. Besides, one RajyaSabha MP is also in fray.

Congress, which has four

sitting MPs, has decided toonce again nominate them forLok Sabha elections. Amongthem are Gurdaspur MP SunilJakhar, Amritsar MP GurjitSingh Aujla, Jalandhar MPChaudhary Santokh Singh, andLudhiana MP Ravneet SinghBittu.

Winning four seats in 2014general elections, SAD went onto lose its two sitting MPs—Ranjit Singh Brahmpura fromKhadoor Sahib and Sher SinghGhubaya from Ferozepur—inthese five-year time.

While senior leaderBrahmpura decided to partways and form an Akali faction— SAD Taksali, Ghubayarebelled against the party andjoined the Congress, and is nowseeking re-election on Congressticket. Brahmpura, on the otherhand, decided against contest-ing the elections.

Left with two MPs, SADhas re-nominated both of them— Union Minister HarsimratBadal from Bathinda, andPrem Singh Chandumjra fromSri Anandpur Sahib.

BJP, which has dropped itslone MP Vijay Sampla, hasdecided to field its Rajya SabhaMP from Uttar PradeshHardeep Puri from Amritsar.

AAP, which stunned thetraditional political parties inPunjab by bagging four seats in2014, had also faced rebellionwithin the party. Out of four,party’s two MPs revolted. It hasnow re-nominated Sangrur sit-ting MP Bhagwant Mann andFaridkot MP Prof Sadhu Singhfrom their respective con-stituencies.

AAP’s “suspended” MPfrom Patiala, Dr DharamvirGandhi, would again give atough fight to Patiala Royalfamily, but this time as PDA’sjoint candidate. Dr Gandhihas also floated his own outfit,Nawan Punjab Party.

Its another sitting MP fromFatehgarh Sahib HarjinderSingh, also suspended for anti-party activities in 2015, hasjoined the BJP, but not con-testing the elections.

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BJP President Amit Shah will holdelection rallies in Chandigarh

and Yamunanagar (Haryana) on May5 to boost party’s Lok Sabha poll cam-paign.

Apart from these two rallies,Amit Shah may also address anotherrally in the region on the same day.

Chandigarh, being the joint cap-ital of neighboring states of Punjaband Haryana, is a prestigious LokSabha seat in northern India.

On the other hand, parts ofYamunanagar district falls under twoLok Sabha constituencies includingAmbala and Kurukshetra in the stateof Haryana.

The ruling BJP is facing a toughchallenge to retain three Lok Sabhaseats of Chandigarh, Ambala andKurukshetra in the ensuing LokSabha polls.

While voting to 10 Lok Sabha

seats in Haryana is scheduled to beheld on May 12, the polling inChandigarh will be held on May 19.In Haryana, the BJP had won 7 out of10 seats in last general elections.

Only a day before, the BJP hadannounced to re-nominate MP KirronKher to contest the general electionsfrom Chandigarh parliamentary seat.Seeking a mandate for the secondterm, BJP’s Kirron Kher is once againpitted against Congress’ nomineeand former four-time MP PawanKumar Bansal while the Aam AadmiParty’s candidate is former MinisterHarmohan Dhawan.

While Kher had managed to reg-ister her maiden victory and defeatformer MP Pawan Kumar Bansal in2014 polls while riding high on Modiwave and lapping up the anti-incum-bency votes against Congress, she islocked in a tough triangular battle inChandigarh this time.

Similarly, BJP nominee and out-

going MP Rattan Lal Kataria fromAmbala seat and Haryana MinisterNayab Saini from Kuruksherta con-stituency are pitted against strong con-tenders of opposition parties.

BJP’s Rattan Lal Kataria will takeon Congress’ heavyweight RajyaSabha MP Kumari Selja in Ambalaconstituency while Nayab Saini is fac-ing a triangular electoral contestagainst Congress’ former MinisterNirmal Singh and INLD candidateArjun Chautala, fourth generationpolitician from Chautala family inHaryana.

Rattan Lal Kataria, while talkingto the mediapersons said that the BJPchief Amit Shah will address an elec-tion rally on May 5 in Yamunanagar.Apart from him, Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, UnionMinisters Rajnath Singh and NitinGadkari will also address election ral-lies in the region in the coming days,he said.

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Sitting BJP parliamentarianfrom Mandi, Ramswroop

Sharma on Wednesday filed hisnomination papers from theseat. A total of four candidatesfiled their papers in HimachalPradesh Wednesday. With this,the number of candidates whohave filed their papers hasrisen to 15.

At the time of filing papers,Ram Swroop Sharma, 60, wasaccompanied by Chief MinisterJai Ram Thakur, former CMsShanta Kumar, Prem KumarDhumal, BJP HP affairsincharge Tirath Singh Rawat,state BJP chief Satpal Satti,ministers Govind Thakur andRam Lal Markandey and MLAsfrom Mandi district.

Earlier, addressing thegathering before filing papers,the CM claimed that BJP wouldwin over 400 seats in the LokSabha polls. It is the need ofhour that a stable governmentshould be at the Centre andonly the BJP can provide thestable government headed byNarendra Modi, he added.

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5�$�'"���)�����'"���������������'�$����������"��Shimla:The road to politicalsuccess that six-time HimachalPradesh Chief MinisterVirbhadra Singh and formerTelecom Minister Sukh Ram,both Congress veterans, havefollowed throughout their liveshas never been the same.

Arch rivals —VirbhadraSingh, 83, and Sukh Ram, 91 -- both three-time MPs fromMandi, prefer not to crosspaths with each other. Buttheir progeny are now trudgingtogether on the roads cuttingthrough the hill state.

Virbhadra Singh's legislatorson Vikramaditya Singh iscampaigning for Sukh Ram'sgrandson Ashray Sharma, whois making his electoral debut asa Congress candidate fromMandi, once the Congress bas-tion. He is pitted against BJP'ssitting MP Ram Swaroop

Sharma. "Vikramaditya Singhhas been touring Mandi exten-sively, with Ashray Sharma,though Virbhadra Singh is yetto start campaigning," stateparty President Kuldeep SinghRathore told IANS. Mandi isone of the country's largestconstituencies comprisingKullu, Mandi and some areas ofChamba and Shimla districts,besides the tribal-dominatedAssembly seats of Kinnaur andLahaul and Spiti.

Sukh Ram holds a massbase in Mandi and Kullu dis-tricts, but he needs VirbhadraSingh's support in other areaswhere he holds sway, says asenior party leader. The seat isalso seeing a battle of suprema-cy between Sukh Ram andChief Minister Jai Ram Thakuras both belong to Mandi dis-trict. IANS

From page 1Twinkle was quick to

respond to the quote from theinterview shared on the BJP’sofficial Twitter account.

“I have a rather positiveway of looking at this — Notonly is the Prime Ministeraware that I exist but he actu-ally reads my work,” she tweet-ed. The Prime Minister alsorecalled meeting Twinkle’smaternal grandfather, entre-preneur Chunnibhai Kapadia.

Twinkle, a newspapercolumnist, is the author ofbooks such as “MrsFunnybones” and “The Legendof Lakshmi Prasad”.

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With Congress general sec-retary Priyanka Gandhi

insistent on contesting theParliamentary polls againstPrime Minister Narendra Modifrom Varanasi, the party hasauthorised UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi to take a final callon the issue.

The decision was taken ina meeting on Tuesday nightattended by Congress presidentRahul Gandhi, party’s generalsecretary in-charge of EasternUP Priyanka, senior party lead-ers KC Venugopal, AhmedPatel and others where theGandhi scion was taking stockof the prospect of three phasepoll ending April 23.

AICC sources said whenthe deliberations over Varanasicandidate was initiated,Priyanka reportedly expressedher keen interest to take headson with Modi who is all sched-uled to file his nominationsfrom the seat which he repre-sented in the current LokSabha.

Though Priyanka has beenmaking statements regularlyabout her desire to contest theLok Sabha elections, Rahulhimself is learnt to be precari-ous about fielding his siblingagainst a heavyweight for thefirst time. The last date ofnominations for the last phaseof May 19 polls is April 29 and

the party has to decide the can-didature during the next cou-ple of days.

A senior leader in themeeting, sources said, recalledthat late Prime Minister RajivGandhi had once regrettedabout roping in Bollywoodstar Amitabh Bachchan, whosuccessfully defeated one of thetallest leaders of his time,Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna,in 1984.

“Retrospectively there hasbeen no big contest during thetimes of Jawahar Lal Nehru,Ram Manohar Lohia, JayPrakash Narayan, IndiraGandhi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee.It is a sort of convention. It stillexists barring a couple of exam-ple slike Sushma Swaraj takingon Sonia Gandhi once. RahulGandhi has given a secondthought to Priyanka’s idea andthus has thought it wise to sendthe matter to Sonia’s court. Sheis an astute politician and only

her advise will decide the fateof Varanasi Lok Sabha,” said atop leader privy to the meetingwhich discussed.

Priyanka is understood tohave conveyed that a win orloss does not matter to her butit has to be an exercise to res-urrect the grand old party inHindi heartland which hasonly two Lok Sabha MPs of the80 from Uttar Pradesh in theParliament.

“I have said this repeated-ly that I will do what the partyasks me to do. Am ready tofight from Varanasi if Rahul askme to do so,” Priyanka repliedto media when asked last onthe issue.

Priyanka was appointedGeneral Secretary incharge ifEast UP comprising of 40 seatsand has been campaigning inthe region which also includesRahul’s Parliamentary con-stituency Amethi and Sonia’sseat Rae Bareli.

�������������� /*���*�'1

India may be the largest man-ufacturer of generic medi-

cines in the world, but cancer-afflicted children, who areamong society’s most vulnera-ble groups, remain a deprivedlot as far as availability andaffordability of essential anti-cancer drugs are concerned.

This has been pointed outby a new study published in theBritish Medical Journal (BMJ)Global Health, which foundthat there is a lack of availabil-ity of essential anti-cancerdrugs, in both public and pri-vate sector pharmacies even inthe national Capital , for treat-ing childhood cancer, so muchso that it is much below theWorld Health Organisation’sprescribed standards.

The study titled, ‘Evaluatingaccess to essential medicines fortreating childhood cancers: amedicines availability, priceand affordability study in NewDelhi, India,’ was led by theGeorge Institute for GlobalHealth in collaboration with theUniversity of Sydney, CankidsIndia, Max Super SpecialityHospital, and Boston UniversitySchool of Public Health. Sevenhospitals — four public andthree private — and 32 private-

sector retail pharmacies weresurveyed.

The researchers used amodified WHO/Health ActionInternational methodology tocollect data on availability andprice of 33 strength-specificanti-cancer essential medicinesand four non-cancer essentialmedicines. Affordability wascalculated for the two mostcommon cancers in India:acute lymphoblastic leukaemiaand Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“Mean availability ofessential anti-cancer medicinesacross all hospitals and phar-macies surveyed was less thanthe WHO’s target of 80%. Lowavailability and poor afford-ability of anti-cancer essentialmedicines highlight the need tostreamline public sector andprivate sector medicine pro-

curement and supply systems,”said Neha Faruqui, principalauthor of the study from theGeorge Institute for GlobalHealth.

Median prices were calcu-lated by comparing consumerprices with international refer-ence prices. On an average, themean availability of essentialanti-cancer medicines in thesurvey hospitals and retail phar-macies combined was 70%, inretail pharmacies it was 38%, inpublic hospital pharmacies 43%and in private hospital phar-macies it was 71%.

The study found that onlythree anti-cancer essentialmedicines were available on theJan Aushadhi website. Theprices of Jan Aushadhi pricesare much lower than retailpharmacies but compared to

public-sector procurementprices, a patient would pay twotimes and 2.9 times for anti-cancer and non-cancer medi-cines in the private-sector.Therefore, initiatives toimprove public-sector medi-cines availability are needed,the researchers said.

“Availability is low in thecapital city of India which canbe considered the best case sce-nario for access to anti-cancermedicines. We don’t expectavailability to be higher inother states,” said Rohina Joshi,associate professor atUniversity of Sydney.

Medicine prices were rela-tively low in Delhi comparedwith international referenceprices. However, the cost ofchemotherapy medicinesseems unaffordable in the local

context. “When calculatedusing the lowest (and most-sold) generic price offered inpharmacies, the estimated costof chemotherapy medicinesneeded for treating a 30 kgchild with standard riskleukaemia was �27,850 and �17,500 for early stage Hodgkin’slymphoma, requiring 88 and 55days’ wages, respectively, for thelowest paid government work-er,” said Ramandeep Arora,paediatric oncologist. “If thepatient/family is not offeredany pharmacy discount andhad to buy the same medicinesat maximum retail price, theyrequire an extra 12 days’ wagesfor both diseases,” he said.

“Government insuranceschemes and discount phar-macy initiatives should expandthe inclusion of essential anti-cancer medicines, as a waytowards limiting the cata-strophic out-of-pocket expen-diture associated with cancertreatment,” said Faruqui.

Childhood cancer com-prises almost 3-5 percent of thetotal cancer cases in India.According to the Indian cancersociety, it is estimated thatabout 50,000 children and ado-lescents ages 0 to 19 years willbe diagnosed with cancer eachyear in India.

���� /*���*�'1

The Supreme Court warneda lawyer on Wednesday

that he will be “thrown out ofthe court” after taking umbrageat his remarks that AttorneyGeneral K K Venugopal was“personally targeting” him dur-ing the hearing on his claims offixing and manipulation in thetop judiciary.

A special three-judgebench headed by Justice ArunMishra told advocate UtsavSingh Bains, who has filed anaffidavit alleging “larger con-spiracy” to frame Chief Justiceof India Ranjan Gogoi, thatVenugopal is one of the mostrespected members of the barand he should also must respecthim.

“You (Bains) must knowthat we learn from him(Venugopal). You must respecthim,” the bench, also compris-ing Justices R F Nariman andDeepak Gupta, told Bains.

When Bains reiterated thatVenugopal was attacking himpersonally, an irked JusticeNariman said, “You must nothave even an iota of doubt onhim. He never attacks anyone

personally. He is the mostrespected member of the bar.We also learn from him.”

“...Otherwise we will throwyou out of the court,” JusticeNariman told the counsel,adding, “he (Venugopal) is atrue gentleman”.

Minutes later, Bains said,“Since Justice Nariman said hewill throw me out, I myself optto walk out of the court.”

However, Justice Mishratried to pacify Bains and saidthat what Justice Nariman

meant was that he shouldrespect the Attorney General.

“We, all of us, have somuch respect for him. You area young man and you shouldunderstand this,” Justice Mishrasaid.

“Do not take anything toyour heart. What my lord(Justice Nariman) advised youis to be polite. He does notmean to throw you out (of thecourt) really. Nobody is attack-ing you. You are doing animportant job,” he added.

����� /*���*�'1

With total assets worthmore than �660 crore,

Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Kamal Nath’s sonNakul Nath is the richest can-didate of the fourth phase ofpolls that will be held on April29. Nakul is contesting fromMP’s ChhindwaraParliamentary seat, represent-ed by Kamal Nath for nineterms.

He is followed by SanjaySushil Bhonsle of VanchitBahujan Aagadhi party, con-testing from Mumbai SouthCentral seat, with total assetsworth of �125 crore. BJP’sAnurag Sharma who is con-testing from Jhansi is the thirdposition having assets worth of�124 crore.

According to the ADR(Association for DemocraticReforms), three Independentcandidates-Priyanka Shiroleand Vithal Natha Chavan, bothof them from Nashik andPremlata Banshiwal from TonkSawai Madhopur have declaredzero assets in their affidavitwhile Prince Kumar ofJhalawar Baran, Shamshudin of

Chittoragarh and Baban Thokeof Mumbai North East havedeclared total assets worth of�500, �786 and �1100 respec-tively.

These candidates have notgiven details of their assets.There are 306(33%) candidateswho have assets worth Rs. onecrore and more. Among themajor parties 50(88%) out of 57candidates from Congress,50(88%) out of 57 candidatesfrom BJP, 20(37%) out of 54candidates from BSP, 13(62%)out of 21 candidates from SHS and 8(80%) out of 10 candidates from SP havedeclared assets worth morethan �1 crore.

As per ADR report, asmany as 24 candidates out of928 contestants, who are con-testing during the fourth phaseof polling, are facing attempt tomurder charges in the court.Five candidates have declaredcases related to murder (IPCsection 302 ) and 12 have beenconvicted cases against them.

The ADR also says 210(about 23%) candidates in thefray have criminal cases againsttheir names. Of them,158(17%) have declared serious

criminal cases. The ADR alsosays four candidates are facingcharges of kidnapping suchkidnapping for ransom (IPCSection-364A), kidnapping(IPC Section-363), Kidnappingor abducting with an intentsecretly and wrongfully confineperson (IPC Section-365),against them.

The report further says 21candidates have declared casesrelated to crime against womensuch as assault or criminalforce to woman with intent tooutrage her modesty (IPCSection-354), husband or rela-tive of husband of a womansubjecting her to cruelty (IPCSection-498A),” the ADR said.

The ADR says among the

major par-ties, 25(44%)out of 57candidatesfrom BJP,18(32%) outof 57 candi-dates fromC o n g r e s s ,11(20%) outof 54 candi-dates fromB S P ,12(57%) outof 21 candi-d a t e sa n a l y s e dfrom SHS,and 60(17%)

out of 345 independent candi-dates have declared criminalcases against themselves.

“Among the major parties,20(35%) out of 57 candidatesfrom BJP, 9(16%) out of 57candidates from Congress,10(19%) out of 54 candidatesfrom BSP, 9(43%) out of 21candidates analysed from SHS,and 45(13%) out of 345 inde-pendent candidates havedeclared serious criminal casesagainst themselves. Besides,37 out of 71 constituencies arered alert constituencies. Redalert constituencies are thoseconstituencies where 3 or morecontesting candidates havedeclared criminal cases againstthemselves,” it said.

����� �*�'1

The Congress on Wednesdaytook a dig at Prime

Minister Narendra Modi overhis interview to actor AkshayKumar saying it seems a “failedpolitician” who is about to berejected by the people on May23 - when the Lok Sabha elec-tion results come-is looking foran alternative employmentavenue in Bollywood.

The Congress’s swipe atModi came after channels aired the Prime Minister’sinterview with the Bollywoodstar, who described it as a“candid and completely nonpolitical” chat.

Reacting to the interview,Congress spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said:“Akshay Kumar ji is a greatactor and we like him. He is avery successful actor. Anunsuccessful politician whohas decimated

India’s economy, who hasdecimated India’s jobs, who hasmade life hell for India’s farm-

ers and the poor, is now tryingto become a better actor thanAkshay Kumar ji.”

“It seems a failed politicianwho is about to be rejected onMay 23, 2019, is looking for analternative employment avenuein Bollywood, but I don’t thinkso, a failed politician like Modiji will be a successful actor inBollywood. Akshay Kumar willremain Akshay Kumar,” hetold reporters.

To another question onthe interview, Surjewala saidPrime Minister Modi is tryingto “become a better actor thanAkshay Kumar but he hasagain failed miserably like hehas failed India”.

Asked about Modi’sremarks in the interview thatother prime ministers left early,but he works till 11 PM,Surjewala asked if he used towork in the Prime Minister’sOffice or he used to do PM’sscheduling. Surjewala allegedthat the Prime Minister makesa joke of everything.

“You looted the entire cur-rency of this country and wereclapping and laughing duringdemonetisation. Is the PM’s jobto make fun of people, makefun of institutions, make fun ofpeople whom the country feelsproud of, or will he do somework also,” he said.

In the interview, whichaimed to unveil “some lesserknown facts” about Modi, theprime minister touched uponvarious aspects of his child-hood and his journey before hecame to power.

���� /*���*�'1

The biopic on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is a “hagiog-

raphy”, which treats the subjectwith undue reverence, and itspublic screening during pollcampaign will “tilt the electoralbalance”, theElectionCommission (EC) hastold the Supreme Court whileopposing the release of themovie starring Vivek Oberoibefore the polls end on May 19.

In its 20-page report sub-mitted to the apex court benchheaded by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi on the film titled ‘PMNarendra Modi’, the poll panelsaid that the biopic “produces apolitical environment where anindividual acquired cult status”and its public screening duringthe period when model code ofconduct is in operation wouldfavour a particular politicalparty.

The EC said “there are sev-eral scenes depicting a majoropposition party as corrupt andshowing them in poor light.Their leaders have been depict-

ed in such a manner that theiridentification is clear and obviousto the viewers.”

It said that the biopic wasmore than a biography and wasa “hagiography” (which treats thesubject as saints and gives unduereverence) and the construct ofthe movie was “unabashedlyuni-dimensional”, which puts anindividual on a higher pedestalthrough use of specific symbols,slogans and scenes.

The report was submittedafter the apex court had on April 15 directed the EC to re-examine its earlier order and take an informed decisionon banning pan-India therelease of the biopic after watch-ing the full movie. The courthad asked the poll panel to pro-vide its report to the producerof the movie.

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The EnforcementDirectorate on Wednesday

attacheed 25 moveable andimmoveable assets worth over�40 crore belonging to the sonof expelled DMK leader MKAlagiri in connection with amoney laundering case.

The agency has attachedland, buildings in Madurai,Chennai and fixed depositstotalling to �40.34 crore ofOlympus Granites Pvt. Ltd.and others under Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act, 2002(PMLA) in the illegal granitemining case, the ED said in astatement.

The company’s share hold-ers S Nagarajan and AlagiriDhayanidhi along with otheraccused, criminally conspiredand indulged in illegal mining

activities in the adjacentTAMIN leased land and there-by causing wrongful loss to theGovernment and correspond-ing wrongful gain to them-selves, the agency alleged.

The ED initiated the probeunder PMLA against OlympusGranites P Limited, Madurai toidentify the crime proceedson the basis of FIR and chargesheet filed by Tamil NaduPolice against the company, itspromoters and directors andother individuals.

The charge sheet disclosescommission of various offencesincluding offences under theIndian Penal Code, ExplosiveSubstances Act, by the accusedconsequent to the illegal gran-ite mining indulged by thecompany and other accused.persons.

Investigation under PMLA

revealed that the company andits promoters have committeda scheduled offence andderived proceeds of crime byindulging in the illegal quar-rying and the trade proceeds ofthe company were furtherrelentlessly incubated resultingin further accruals of proceedsof crime, all of which werecamouflaged in the organisa-tional system as business earn-ings, the ED further said in thestatement.

The statement claimed thatthese earning were gained outof the illegal activity.Accordingly, 25 movable andimmovable properties wereidentified as part of crime pro-ceeds and the properties worthof �40.34 crore were provi-sionally attached under theprovisions of PMLA. Theseinclude land and buildings inand around Madurai andChennai and a fixed deposit, itadded.

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Congress general secretaryand UP east in-charge

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra onWednesday hit out at theBharatiya Janata Party andPrime Minister Narendra Modifor questioning the achieve-ments of the Congress in the past 50 years and wenton to dub Modi as ‘PradhanPrachar Mantri’.

In a tweet, Priyanka alsoaccused the BJP of “wastingdrinking water” to clean roadsin Banda, an arid town inUttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhandregion. Priyanka’s attack onModi and the BJP came a dayahead of the Prime Minister’svisit to Banda on Thursday.

“Water from tankers wasbeing used to clean roads to wel-come our Pradhan PracharMantri (chief publicity minister).This is happening at a time whenthe entire Bundelkhand, menand women living there, school-going children, crops, birds andanimals are facing the spectre ofdrought,” Priyanka tweeted.

“Is he a ‘chowkidar’ (watch-

man) or a ‘shahenshah’ (emper-or) coming from Delhi?” askedthe Congress leader in hertweet. Later, addressing a pollrally in Khaga town ofFatehpur, Priyanka attackedModi for questioning theCongress work in the last 50years. “The BJP is not sayingwhat they have done in the pastfive years but questioning whatNehru had done, what IndiraGandhi had done in the past 50years,” she said.

Priyanka claimed that nei-ther the BJP had any policy nordoes it have any intention to

develop the country. “Thementality of the BJP is just toattack my family as all speech-es of their leaders’ revolvearound Congress,” she said.

On Congress’ promise togive Rs 72,000 every year to thepoor, Priyanka said, “It is theBJP leaders who are spreadinglies that our NYAY scheme is ajumla. We have worked on itand my brother Rahul Gandhiis committed to fulfilling thepromise.”

The Congress leader did notspare the Prime Minister for hisinterview to Bollywood actor

Akshay Kumar, saying, “Nowthe PM is only interested in giv-ing interviews to big actors, toshowcase how big he is.’’

Reiterating her allegationthat the PM did not visit anyvillage of his Varanasi parlia-mentary constituency, Priyankasaid Modi had no concern forpoor in his constituency.

The Congress leader saidthough the Prime Ministercalled himself a ‘chowkidar’,everybody knew that only therich could afford ‘chowkidars’.

Priyanka appealed the vot-ers to help her and her partycandidates to end the politics of‘divisiveness and negativity’and teach the BJP a lesson inthe Lok Sabha election.

“Change the governmentnot only for your needs, but foryour future generations andsave the country as the coun-try is in danger. Remove thepolitics of divisiveness andnegativity, and usher in politicswhich speaks about you, yourgrievances and makes efforts toredress them. Do not to go fora person who speaks lies anddoes not work for you,” theCongress leader said.

“The reality of the BJP’spolitics is that farmers, youth,women and workers feelexploited, so wake up. Onceyou are awake, these people willnot be able to destroy thecountry,” she said.

������ �2(�/3�

The fourth phase of electionsin Uttar Pradesh will focus

more on political personalitiesthan on parties in the 13 LokSabha seats where polling willbe held on April 29.

The 13 seats are Kannauj,Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur,Hardoi, Misrikh, Unnao,Farukkhabad, Etawah, Kanpur,Akbarpur, Jalaun, Jhansi andHamirpur.

Among theseShahjahanpur, Hardoi, Misrikh,Etawah and Jalaun are reservedseats. For the Bahujan SamajParty (BSP), the five reservedseats provide a major challengesince the BSP has been losing on

reserved seats over the years.In 2014, the BJP had won

all seats, barring Kannauj,where Dimple Yadav had wonon a Samajwadi ticket, albeitwith a slender margin.

Dimple Yadav now facesthe challenge of retaining herseat in face of the tough chal-lenge posed to her by BJP can-didate Subrat Pathak. If DimpleYadav manages to retain theseat for her party for the eightconsecutive times, she willhave a lot to thank the BSP forher win.

In Farukkhabad, it is for-mer union Minister SalmanKhurshid who is battling tomake a comeback into centrestage politics. After his defeat

in 2014, Khurshid has beenkeeping a low profile and hissupporters want to see himback in action.

After denying MurliManohar Joshi the ticket, theBJP is facing a tough challengein Kanpur. Uttar PradeshMinister Satyadev Pachauri,contesting the seat, is facingresistance from party cadres,making the electoral battle eas-

ier for Congress candidate andformer union Minister ShriPrakash Jaiswal.

In Etawah, the BJP hasfielded its MP from Agra, RamShankar Katehria. This hasagain left the cadres upset.The denial of ticket to sittingMP Ashok Dohre, who is nowthe Congress candidate on thesame seat, is another factor thatis troubling the BJP.

Ashok Dohre said,“I am thankful to theCongress and theresults will prove thatthe scales have tilted inmy favour.”

In Unnao, BJP MPSakshi Maharaj, knownfor his controversialremarks, is seeking re-election but AnnuTandon of Congress is givinghim a run for his votes.

Sakshi Maharaj, however, isboisterously over-confident andsays, “Every person with aconscience and a golden heartwill vote for me. I am going toget elected with a record mar-gin this time.”

In Shahjahanpur, the BJP

has denied ticket to its unionminister Krishna Raj andreplaced her with Arun Sagarthat has made party workersrecede into their homes.

This phase, in fact, is rathertroublesome for the BJP sinceit has changed six of the 12 can-didates, causing ripples of dis-content among its cadres.

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Though elections to the 38Lok Sabha and 18 assembly

constituencies in Tamil Nadugot over on April 18, the heat and dust generated duringthe poll are yet to settle downin the State.

Tamil Nadu is in for yetanother bout of bypolls as fourmore Assembly constituencieswould elect their representativesto the State Assembly on May19. The results of these bypollswould be declared on May 23simultaneously with that of the38 Lok Sabha and 18 Assemblypolls which were held on April 18.

Bypolls for two constituen-cies (Thirupparankundram andSulur ) were necessitated by thedeath of the sitting members,while the remaining two con-stituencies (Aravakurichi andOttapidaram) saw the disqual-ification of the legislators by the

Speaker of the House under the provisions of the Anti-Defection Law.

Despite the support of 134AIADMK MLAs in a housewhich has an effective strengthof 234 members, the EdappadiPalaniswamy Government wasalways under the threat ofTTV Dhinakaran, the lonemember of the AMMK whohad declared from day one thathis ‘sleeper cells’ in the treasurybenches would strike at theright time and bring down thegovernment. But over the lastone year, Dhinakaran hasstopped speaking about thesleeper cells while it is theDMK which has upped theante with claims of change ofGovernment in the State.

The DMK which has 97MLAs in its bench should win21 of the 22 seats for which by-polls are held to touch themagic figure of 118 for gov-ernment formation. Even hard-core DMK supporters do not

share the optimism of partychief MK Stalin who claims ateach and every opportunitythat the end of the AIADMKGovernment is near.

Senthil Balaji, the DMKcandidate for the Aravakurichiassembly constituency whofiled his nomination paper onWednesday said that TamilNadu would see a change ofgovernment immediately afterMay 23, the day when resultsare declared. “The DMK will

win all the 22 by-elections andStalin would be sworn in aschief minister,” said Balaji, whohad returned to the DMK aftera stint with the AIADMK andthe AMMK .

Enthused and energisedby the results of the opinionpolls held be certain privateagencies which claimed that theDMK would make a cleansweep in the election, Stalinand some of the senior leadershave even started the processfor forming the government,said a source close to the partyleadership. Udhayanidhi andSabari, son and son-in-law ofStalin are the persons entrust-ed with the task of selecting theMLAs to be sworn in ministers.

Some of the bureaucratsand leaders of Tamil NaduGovernment Employees andTeachers Organisation (afrontal organisation of theDMK) have started lobbyingfor positions at theGovernment Secretariat.

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Renowned theatre personal-ity and film actor

Naseeruddin Shah who is vocalin criticising Modi ledGovernment feels space forrational debate has disappeared.In a brief chat on Wednesday attheatre Ranga Shankara inBengaluru Naseeruddin Shahfeels sad about disappearingspace for rational expression.However he was very firm andsaid he stood by his earlierstatements which were sub-jected to right wing criticism.

He said, “Anything you saytoday becomes controversial.The space for rational debatehas just disappeared. I don’twant say anything. So far whatI have said I stand by it. I standby all my previous statements;I don’t want to make any fur-ther statements because myfamily and I have been put tolot of harassment”. “ I don’twant to get in to any sort ofcontroversies or create the con-troversies. And I have lot to doinside the theatre,” he added.

On Modi’s biopic he said itlooks hilarious. He said “Wemake terrible biopic. As youmust have seen the biopic ofMilka Singh. It’s bogus andfalse. And there is Dhoni oneI did not bother tosee. And I don’tthink we make goodbio picks. I don’tthink we should doit. Modi’s it lookspretty hilarious.That’s all I can say asI have seen only thetrailer”.

Na s e e r u d d i nShah made manystatements against

the divide created by the BJPand vehemently criticised theintention of divide of Hindusand Muslims. He had said hewas worried for children intoday’s India. He’s worriedbecause he imagines a situationwhere his children may be sur-rounded by an angry mob andasked: “Are you Hindu orMuslim?”

“My children will have noanswer,” Naseeruddin Shahsays, “Because we chose not togive a religious education toour children.”NaseeruddinShah also says that there is a“poison” that has spread in theIndian society. “It will be verydifficult to capture this djinn(genie) back into the bottle.”

“There is completeimpunity for those who takethe law into their own hands,”Naseeruddin says. “We havealready witnessed that thedeath of a cow has more sig-nificance [in today’s India]than that of a police officer.”

Recently he was one of thesignatories of artists askingpeople to vote against BJP.

He is in Bengaluru to per-form the play “Father” along withhis troupe. The play has hadthree-month-long runs inSeptember 2017 and 2018 at theNCPA, Mumbai, and November

to December 2017 atPrithvi Theatre,Mumbai. Written byFrench novelist-play-wright Florian Zellerand translated byBritain’s ChristopherHampton, The Father isan emotional play aboutDementia, and how amental dysfunction canaffect both the suffererand carer.

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BJP president Amit Shah onWednesday tore into the

Rahul Gandhi-led Congressand its allies accusing them ofbeing soft on terror and of tac-itly approving Kashmirs seces-sion from India.

Shah also lambasted theCongress for coming up withpromises of scrapping theArmed Forces Special PowersAct (AFSPA) and abolition ofsedition law in its poll mani-festo and declared that suchmoves would be stoutlyopposed by the BJP even if itwas no longer in power.

The BJP chief was on awhirlwind election tour of Biharwhere he spoke at three back-to-back rallies at Munger,Begusarai and Ujiyarpur in asmany Lok Sabha constituencies.In Munger, BJP’s ally JD(U)candidate Rajiv Ranjan SinghLallan, a close associate ofChief Minister Nitish Kumar isin the fray. Union MinisterGiriraj Singh is trying his luckfrom Begusarai while atUjiyarpur in Samastipur districtstate BJP president NityanandRai is the NDA nominee.

When elections were beingheld in Jammu & Kashmir, lead-ers of the National Conferencewhich is a Congress ally cameout with the demand that thepost of Prime Minister berestored in that State. “For thepast fortnight, I have been chal-lenging the Congress to comeclean on the issue. But Rahul issilent and so is his allies like Laluand Rabri Devi (RJD leaders,allies of the Congress in Bihar)”,Shah said at his rally in Ujiyarpur.

Can any country havemore than one Prime Minister.The Congress and its allieswant Kashmir to secede fromIndia. It is for the voters todecide whether it is acceptable,

Shah alleged referring to for-mer J&K Chief Minister OmarAbdullahs controversial state-ment favoring restoration of theoffice of Wazir-e-Azam.

With the surgical strikesafter Uri terror attack and the airstrikes after Pulwama, Indiafound itself on par with the USand Israel which are known toact tough against terrorism.But the leaders of the Congressmade faces as if a tragedy hadbefallen on them. Their facialexpressions resembled those ofthe Pakistanis. Were terroristsblown to smithereens by ourarmed forces cousins of theseOpposition leaders, Shah asked.

Let Rahul hear and let Laluhear inside his prison cell, youare free to do Ilu Ilu (a famousBollywood song of the 1990sthat abbreviated the expressionI love you) with terrorists. Butat present Narendra Modi is thePrime Minister and he is goingto assume power again. Evenwhen the BJP was no longer inpower, every worker of theparty will oppose your designsagainst AFSPA and sedition law.

“Rahul Gandhi will not beable to do as he pleases in hislifetime. We will ensure thatafter him if another Gandhirises to power, he too does notplay with national interests,Shah said evoking frenziedreactions from the crowds.

Earlier, speaking atBegusarai where Union ministerGiriraj Singh is in a triangularcontest with CPIs KanhaiyaKumar and RJDs TanveerHussain, Shah launched a caus-tic attack on the former JNU stu-dents union president, who isfacing sedition charge. You mustteach a lesson to this ‘namoona’(sample). Defeat this member ofthe tukde tukde gang and sendhim back to Delhi for cooling hisheels, Shah said without men-tioning the CPI candidate byname.

New Delhi: The ElectionCommission is examiningPrime Minister NarendraModi’s remarks urging youth tovote in the name of those whocarried out Balakot air strikes,but its grievance redressal por-tal shows that the complainthas been “resolved”.

Now, the Commission hassought an explanation from theconcerned returning officerfor the error.

“The status should haveshown that the matter hasbeen referred to ElectionCommission headquarters. Butthe entry reflected that thecomplaint as resolved ... It isbeing rectified,” explained asenior EC functionary.

An explanation has beensought from the concernedofficial the functionary said.

PTI

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The Election Commissionwill “soon” take a decision on

complaints regarding politicalleaders invoking armed forces incampaigns, highly-placedsources said on Wednesday.

While the commission hadasked Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath to becareful in his utterances infuture on his “Modi ji ki sena”remarks, it is examining reportson comments made by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP president Amit Shah on thearmed forces.

Union Minister MukhtarAbbas Naqvi was also asked tobe careful in future for his“Modi ji ki sena” remarks.

The EC had sought reportson Modi and Shah in the con-text of its advisory issued lastmonth asking parties to desistfrom indulging in political

propaganda involving actionsof the armed forces.

“...Parties/candidates areadvised that their campaign-ers/candidates should desist, aspart of their election cam-paigning, from indulging in anypolitical propaganda involvingactivities of defence forces,” thecommission said on March 19.

“Decision will be takensoon. The commission is exam-ining the matter,” highly-placedsources said. On Tuesday,Deputy Election CommissionerChandra Bhushan Kumar,responding to a question onShah’s reported remarks on‘Modi ji ki vayu sena’ made inWest Bengal on Monday, hadsaid, “details have to be col-lected which will come in a dayor two”.

Responding to a volley ofquestions on ‘delay’ on the partof the commission in finalisingits response on the prime min-

ister’s remarks in Latur,Maharashtra on April 9 urgingyoung voters to cast ballot in thename of heroes of Balakot airstrike, Chandra Bhushan Kumarhad said, before taking a deci-sion, the EC looks into the issuein its “entirety”.

Initially, he said, districtauthorities had sent only therelevant paragraph of the PM’sspeech. “The officials there aregood in English and Marathi.But Hindi is an issue. When wedemanded, a certified tran-script was sent to us on April16. The matter is (now) underexamination,” he said.

Asked why in some cases theEC has taken decisions imme-diately and why was it delayingin other matters, another DeputyElection Commissioner SandeepSaxena said the EC takes decisionafter looking into various aspectssuch as model code of conduct,legal angle.

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Firing a fresh salvo at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,

Congress president RahulGandhi on Wednesday accusedhim of shielding the interest of“15 selected people” and leav-ing “high and dry” farmers andthe poor.

Rahul was addressing anelection rally here to boost theprospects of the party’s candi-date for the Kheri Lok Sabhaseat Zafar Ali Naqvi and itsnominee for the NighasanAssembly bypoll Atal Shukla.

Claiming that Modi duringhis last visit to Kheri hadassured farmers in UttarPradesh that they will get theirsugarcane dues within 14 days,the Congress chief asked, “Hasany assurance come true in fiveyears?” “Narendra Modi in2014 made a number of falseassurances of ‘achhe din’ (bet-ter days), of two crore jobs, ofRs 15 lakh in every bankaccount but none of themcame true,” he said.

Taking a jibe at Modi forreferring to himself as “chowki-

dar (watchman)”, Rahulalleged, “This chowkidar oblig-ed 15 selected people during hisfive-year term but told sugar-cane farmers that cane-farmingcaused sugar (diabetes).”

The diabetes remark is,however, mostly attributed toUttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath. Raking up theRafale issue, the Congress chiefsaid, “Anil Ambani, who nevermanufactured an airplane, wasawarded with a Rs 30,000 crorecontract, but cane farmers weretold that cane-farming causedsugar (diabetes) when theydemanded their dues.”

The Government hasrepeatedly denied any corrup-tion in the Rafale deal.Elaborating on his party’s min-imum income guarantee ‘Nyay’scheme, Rahul said, “Thescheme was pronounced afterdue consultation with econo-mists and think-tanks.”

“The scheme will provideannually Rs 72,000 in individ-ual bank accounts of 25 crorepoor people,” he said. Theparty has promised to give anannual income support of Rs

72,000 to poor families underthe scheme, if voted to power,even as the BJP claimed ‘Nyay’will “ruin” fiscal discipline andthe Congress will impose newtaxes on the middle class tofinance it.

“The scheme has beenthoroughly discussed and ifcrores of rupees owed by AnilAmbani, Vijay Malya, NiravModi and Mehul Choksi can bewaived, then Rs 3,60,000 crorefor five crore families underNyay can also be afforded,”Rahul said in a bid to allay fearsabout the scheme’s feasibility.

He said, “Unlike noteban-di (demonetisation) and‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ by ModiGovernment which disturbedthe economy and employment,Nyay will benefit the economyby enhancing demand for con-sumer goods and thus, boost-ing the manufacturing sectorand employment.”

The Congress chief hasoften termed the Goods andServices Tax (GST) as ‘GabbarSingh Tax’. The Congress’smanifesto reflects the views andsuggestions of the common

people and not “mann ki baat”,Rahul said taking a swipe atModi’s monthly radio broad-cast. He said as per suggestionsfrom the people, the Congressmanifesto provides no jail termfor farmers who default loans.

“Similarly, the Congresshas decided to present a sepa-rate budget for farmers so thatthey can know about MSP(minimum support price),bonus and cane dues inadvance,” the Congress chiefsaid. He promised the youthsthat if the Congress is voted topower, the Centre will fill up 22lakh Government vacancieswithin a year after assumingoffice, besides employing 10lakh youths in panchayats.

Rahul also assured them“to scrap permission for newentrepreneurship for initialthree years to boost selfemployment.” Raising the issueof stray cattle in UP, he said,“The Modi Government hasmade every farmer chowkidarof their crops and he (PM)himself became the chowkidarof Ambani.”

He claimed that his party

will form government at theCentre and that “after the LokSabha polls, the next target was(UP) Assembly elections (in2022) to ensure that the Stateis at the top in education,health and employment as

before.” Earlier, Congress gen-eral secretary in-charge of westUP Jyotiraditya Scindia madea scathing attack on the Modiand Adityanath Governmentsand accused them of ignoringthe farmers and youths.

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SP chief Akhilesh Yadav onWednesday lashed out at the

Congress over its “big ego”while continuing his attack onthe BJP, suggesting that voterswill walk away this time fromthe tea being offered by the‘chaiwala’ Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Mocking Modi at a publicmeeting in Hardoi, he saidpeople voted for the ‘chaiwala’in 2014. “As you know the tasteof the tea now, will you vote forhim again?” the SamajwadiParty president asked.

He also called the PrimeMinister a “prachar mantri”, ora publicity minister. At hisKanpur rally, Yadav sharpenedhis attack against the Congress,which has been kept out by theSP and the Bahujan Samaj

Party from their alliance inUttar Pradesh for the LokSabha elections.

“Like the BJP, the Congresstoo believes in threateningpolitical opponents,” he said.

“We had an alliance with the Congress, but foundthat their ego is too big,” Yadav said.

The SP had an under-standing with the Congressduring the 2017 Uttar PradeshAssembly elections.

In the ongoing Lok Sabhaelections, the alliance of the SP,the Bahujan Samaj Party andthe Rashtriya Lok Dal hasshunned it.

However, the alliancedecided not to field any candi-date from Rae Bareli andAmethi, the bastions held byCongress leaders Sonia Gandhiand Rahul Gandhi.

Varanasi: PrimeMinister NarendraModi will hold a road-show and take part inthe Ganga ‘aarti’ onThursday, a day beforehe files his nomina-tion papers from thisUttar Pradesh con-stituency, a partyfunctionary said.

The nomination on Fridaywill also see a show of strengthwith several BJP allies, includ-ing Shiv Sena’s UddhavThackeray and Janata Dal-United’s Nitish Kumar, expect-ed to accompany Modi whenhe files the papers.

The roadshow will begin ataround 3 pm after the PrimeMinister garlands the statue ofBanaras Hindu Universityfounder Madan MohanMalaviya, according to the

schedule availablenow.

The processionwill end at about 7pm at theD a s h a s hw a m e d hGhat, the mostprominent ofVaranasi’s ghats,where Modi will take

part in the evening prayers.On Friday, the PM will

hold a meeting at 9 am withBJP workers at a hotel in thecantonment area. He will thenoffer prayers at the KaalBhairav temple before leavingfor the collectorate to file hispapers, seeking re-electionfrom the Lok Sabha seat.

Senior leaders from theBJP and other parties in theNational Democratic Alliancewill accompany Modi to thecollectorate. PTI

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General OfficerCommanding (GOC) of

the Srinagar-based 15 Corps,Lt Gen Kanwal Jeet SinghDhillon, on Wednesday saidafter the elimination of overone dozen top commanders ofPakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit,(cat-egorised as A+terrorists),postPulwama attack, no one inKashmir Valley is coming for-ward to take over the leader-ship in the Valley.

Addressing a joint Pressconference with the DirectorGeneral of J&K Police, DilbaghSingh in Srinagar, Lt-GenDhillon said, “post Pulwamaattack we have “targeted Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader-ship across Kashmir Valley”. Hesaid,”the situation now is thatno one is coming forward totake over the leadership ofJeM in the valley.

“Even after Pakistan’s bestefforts, we will continue to sup-press JeM, especially afterPulwama,” he said.

“Operations against theterrorists will continue with fullvigour and we will not let ter-rorism rise up,” the top Armycommander said.

Sharing details of CI oper-ations conducted so far in thisyear, Dhillon said, “as many as69 terrorists have been killedand 12 have been apprehend-ed this year. “Post Pulwama 41terrorists have been killed andout of them 25 belonged toJaish-e-Mohammed, 13 of

them were Pakistanis and 13were A+ Category terrorists,”he added.

During the Press briefing,Dilbag Singh revealed,

“Recruitment of local youthcontinues to be low, it is ahealthy sign. He said, in 2018,272 terrorists were eliminatedacross the State and a largenumber of them were appre-hended.”

After the Press briefingwas over, the State police alsoproduced a Pakistan basedLashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) ter-rorist in front of media.

LeT terrorist identified asMohammad Waqar Awan, aresident of Mohalla Miana inMianwali area of Punjab inPakistan, was arrested earlierthis week in Baramulla andparaded before the media at thePolice Control Room.

Senior Superintendent ofPolice (Baramulla), AbdulQayoom, said Awan had infil-trated in the Valley in July 2017.He was active in Handwara

(area of north Kashmir’sKupwara district). For the lastabout two years, he was activein different places of Srinagar.When he was returning toBaramulla, he was interceptedat a naka (check post).However, the driver of hisvehicle rammed it into policevehicle and sped away.

Police chased them andabout 1.5 km away from thenaka, they left their vehicle onthe road and tried to flee, butwere apprehended. The driver,a conduit, is a Kashmiri. Wewill share further details whenwe have them, the SSP said atthe Press conference.

Qayoom said Awan’s pri-mary task was to revive mili-tancy in those areas whichhad been declared militancy-free. We had this input thatsince Baramulla was declared

free of militancy, they (militantleadership) were under pressure to revive the militan-cy there and that is why thesetwo were going to Baramulla,he said.

He said a pistol and someother things were recoveredfrom the Pakistani militantwhen he was arrested. Asked

about Awan’s activities inSrinagar, the SSP said he most-ly visited areas aroundSrinagar-Baramulla highwayand few areas in downtown theinterior areas of the city here.

“We are identifying andpinpointing more peopleinvolved with him,” Qayoomsaid.

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APakistani terrorist, whowas indoctrinated and

trained by 26/11 Mumbaiattacks mastermind ZakiurRehman Lakhvi, was arrestedfrom Baramulla district ofJammu & Kashmir, police saidhere on Wednesday.

Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT)terrorist Mohammad WaqarAwan, who was tasked withreviving militancy in certainareas of the Kashmir Valley,was arrested earlier this weekand paraded before the mediaon Wednesday at the PoliceControl Room.

Awan, a resident ofMohalla Miana in Mianwaliarea of Punjab in Pakistan, wasindoctrinated by Lakhvi at hisresidence in Rawalpindi, offi-cials said. The initial armstraining to the Pakistani ter-rorist was also given by Lakhvi,who along with six others hasbeen charged by the Pakistaniauthorities with planning and

executing the Mumbai attacksin November, 2008 that left 166people dead. Lakhvi is cur-rently on bail, and the case ismoving very slowly.

Awan, known by alias of“Chota Dujana”, told reportersthat before he joined militan-cy, he was told that atrocitieswere being inflicted on the peo-ple of Kashmir by securityforces but he saw no suchthing in the Valley.

“I received training forfour months at a camp inMuzaffarabad. I was told thatatrocities are committed onchildren and women. Prayersare not allowed in mosques andhouses of Muslims aredestroyed,” he told reporters,adding he found that the con-ditions were different inKashmir. Police officials saidAwan’s arrest and “confession”is “live evidence” for Pakistanas to how youths are manipu-lated on its soil, prepared formilitancy and then sent here tojoin Jaish-e-Mohammad or

Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.Asked if he was involved in

any attacks in the valley, Awansaid, “I was not involved in anyattack.”

The Senior Superintendentof Police (SSP) of Baramulla,Abdul Qayoom, said Awanhad infiltrated into the valley inJuly 2017. “He was active inHandwara (area of northKashmir’s Kupwara district).

For the last about twoyears, he was active in differentplaces of Srinagar. When hewas returning to Baramulla, hewas intercepted at a naka(check post).

However, the driver of hisvehicle rammed it into policevehicle and sped away. “Policechased them and about 1.5 kmaway from the naka, they lefttheir vehicle on the road andtried to flee, but were appre-hended. The driver, a conduit,is a Kashmiri. We will sharefurther details when we havethem,” the SSP said at the pressconference.

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If one looks at India’s development dur-ing the five last decades, one can onlyadmire the progress made by it.However, there are some fields wherethe country has been left far behind by

the ‘great’ powers, particularly in the domainof innovation. China’s case is worth study-ing. Huawei technologies, which often forthe wrong reasons, has been in the news inrecent months, has been a role model interms of innovation for the Middle Kingdom.

In February 2018, Reuters reported thatthe giant telecom group of companiesincreased “its annual spending on Researchand Development (R&D) to between $15 bil-lion and $20 billion as it races to be a glob-al leader in 5G technology.” Can you nameany Indian telecom company investing inR&D in this way and on this scale? No. Thebig Indian business houses simply prefer toremain in the “service” field, without takingthe risk of investing in any long-term vision.As a result, during the next 10 or 20 years,China and Western companies will remainthe leaders while India will have to buy theirtechnologies, with all the risks involved.

According to Reuters, Huawei, China’slargest telecommunications equipmentand smartphone maker, spent $13.23 bil-lion on R&D in 2017, a whopping 14.9 percent of its total revenue. The world’s topR&D spenders, Amazon and Alphabet, thetwo biggest spenders on R&D in the USrespectively, spent $22.6 billion and $16.6billion in 2017. About 80,000 of Huawei’semployees or 45 per cent of its total work-force are engaged in R&D. Should India notstart emulating world leaders such asHuawei or even Google, Apple or Amazoninstead of just being proud of the Indianorigin of Google’s CEO? In the defencedomain, China is innovating too. Earlierthis month, the China ShipbuildingIndustry Corporation (CSIC) announcedthat the first armed amphibious drone boatwas successfully delivered to the People’sLiberation Army Navy (PLAN)

The Global Times pointed out: “Chinahas built the world’s first armed amphibi-ous drone boat, which military analysts saidcould be used in land assault operationsand is capable of forming a combat triadwith aerial drones and other drone ships.”

Named ‘Marine Lizard’, the drone leftthe factory in Wuhan in Hubei Province:“The 12-metre-long Marine Lizard is a tri-maran propelled by a diesel-powered hydro-jet and can reach a maximum speed of 50knots while maintaining stealth. Whenapproaching land, the amphibious droneship can release four continuous track unitshidden under its belly and travel at 20km/hour on land,” wrote a local newspaper.Another gadget, said to be capable of deliv-ering precision bombs, is the weirdlyshaped helicopter drone Blowfish A2. TheChinese Press said that it already “sparkedinterest from many countries’ militaries.”

In a statement from the Guangdong-

based Zhuhai Ziyan UAV com-pany, the manufacturerexplained: “The 1.87-m long,0.62-m tall helicopter dronehas a maximum take-off weightof 38 kilograms and is capableof carrying a 12-kilogram pay-load. In its strange belly-lessfuselage, the Blowfish A2 cancarry radar, jamming devices,guns or bombs under its spine.”The speed of the helicopterdrone is 130 km/hour.

The examples can be mul-tiplied. The most prestigious isundoubtedly the J-20 (orMighty Dragon), a single-seat,twin jet, all-weather, stealthfifth-generation fighter aircraftdeveloped by China’s ChengduAerospace Corporation. Thefirst aircraft was delivered to thePLA Air Force (PLAAF) inMarch 2017 and inducted inFebruary 2018. The J-20 is theworld’s third operational fifth-generation stealth fighter air-craft after the US F-22 and F-35.

In March 2016, on theoccasion of the third plenarysession of the National People’sCongress, President Xi Jinpingasked the PLA delegates to“pour efforts into developingcutting edge defence technol-ogy, which has strategic signif-icance.” Xi, who chairs thepowerful Central MilitaryCommission, affirmed: “Thecapability to innovate willdetermine the future of theChinese armed forces.”

In recent years, China hasbeen pouring funds into devel-

oping high-tech weapons; someof this armament is also beingexported. Another articlereported that the Chinese sci-entists continue to researchstealth and camouflage materi-als that can hide from a broadspectrum of electromagneticwaves, “after they successfullyfabricated a material that canhide a hot object from heat-sensing infrared cameras.”

The research, published inAmerican Chemical SocietyJournal, affirmed that the newmaterial, a kind of aerogelfilm, has good thermal insula-tion properties: “It is enhancedby coating its fibres with poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) and aprotective waterproof layer.”

One can also give the exam-ple of a new turbofan engine topower China’s carrier-basedstealth fighters, though the exactoutcome should perhaps betaken with a pinch of salt.According to The Global Times,a team of young researchers andaero engine designers receivedan award “for successfullydesigning and prototype testingof a new top-class turbofanengine that will help Chinesefighter jets take on theiradvanced foreign counterparts.”

The new engine may beinstalled on China’s new carri-er-based stealth fighter jets; theprevious aircraft had facedserious issues. The manufactur-ers’ statement said that this willhelp China rival advanced for-eign fighter jets.

Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told TheGlobal Times: “With the newengine, China’s future advancedfighter jets will finally solve the‘heart problem’ …This is great,great news.” All this does notimply that the outcome of theChinese research will soon bereaching the level of the US orEuropean technology but itsimply means that the gapbetween China and the mostadvanced nations is being filledup …while India is left behind.

At the same time, all is notrosy in China. The Hong Kong-based South China MorningPost recently observed: “Theslowing Chinese economy maybe claiming some unexpectedvictims …Despite healthy cap-italisation, investors are findingthat some companies’ underly-ing technologies may not be asinnovative as hoped…”. In otherwords, the most innovative willbe the fittest to survive. Even iftomorrow China produces lessnew Baidu, Alibaba or Tencent,there is no doubt that the futurebelongs to those who innovate.

In Nehru’s socialistic world,research was a state monopoly,it can’t remain so forever. Theprivate sector, with itsdynamism, has no choice but toinvest large parts of its profitsin the future. The next IndianGovernment has lessons tolearn from China if it wantsIndia to become a great power.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Terror returns” (April 23).Terrorism is a threat to humani-ty. A series of blasts in Sri Lankathat ripped through high-endhotels and churches on EasterSunday is a sad reminder that theworld is not free from terrorism.It is necessary that the world com-munity stands united in fightingterror. While the UN needs toimpose sanctions on nations,who sponsor terrorists and allowit to be used as a state-policy,India needs to remain persistent-ly on guard.

MC JoshiLucknow

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Sir — It may be true that casteand religious considerations doinfluence the voting pattern inrural areas. But it is not the onlyreason. In rural areas, people gen-erally back people who are pop-ular locally so as to gain employ-ment opportunities and otherbenefits. In urban areas, peopleare generally well-informed aboutthe policies and work of political

parties and form strong opinionson parties.

TR AnandanCoimbatore

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Hindu nationalism: Ultimatetrump card” (April 24) by KalyaniShankar. In a recent interview,

Prime Minister Narendra Modihad said that he felt “a sense ofresponsibility.” But by fieldingPragya Singh Thakur, an accusedin the 2008 Malegaon blasts casewho is out on bail, the BJP hasshown to the world that this elec-tion, the party will brashly playthe Hindutva card.

One wonders how the BJP hasremained non-chalant about theSupreme Court’s recommendation

to Parliament to enact a “stronglaw” which would direct politicalparties to revoke the nominationsof candidates against whom“heinous and grievous” chargeshave been framed. In India, thereare many lawmakers who holdcriminal charges. Their place is notin State Assemblies or Parliament.

The Modi-led BJPGovernment has failed to deliv-er on almost all of its major elec-

tion promises of 2014. Now, theonly option for it to attract votesis to use Hindutva as a politicaltool. Further, given that theCongress nominated two-timeformer Chief Minister DigvijayaSingh as its candidate fromBhopal, the BJP felt the direneed to ratchet up a Hindutvacomponent by announcing thecandidature of Thakur in thesame constituency. In effect, theBJP has let short-term electoralgains dictate its policies.Unfortunately, this will only serveto divide the Indian societyirreparably in the long-run.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — The world must unite tohelp Sri Lanka recover from thetragedy. In particular, India mustgo all out to help while also beingwatchful against terror elementsslipping into its own soil. The wayNew Zealand responded shouldbe a template.

AditiVia email

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It is now a universally-acknowledged fact thatIndia has shown spectacular performance infinancial inclusion and is now a guiding light for

the developing world. Several international surveysand studies have vouched for this. They also high-light the impressive gains made by women.Drumbeaters are excited about India climbing theladder of financial inclusion. According to the WorldBank’s Global Findex Survey (2017), 80 per cent ofadults in India now have a bank account — 27 pointshigher than the 53 per cent estimated in the Findex2014 count, which showed a 17-point addition tothe 2011 measure (35 per cent). Findex 2017 esti-mates that 77 per cent of Indian women now owna bank account against 43 per cent and 26 per centin 2014 and 2011. On this basic measure of finan-cial inclusion, females are more empowered thanbefore. The male-female difference, or the gendergap, in account ownership narrowed to 6.4 percent-age points in 2017; it was 19.8 in 2014.

However, a deeper view will reveal that thisgranular and rosy picture is tinted. While morewomen have been enrolled for bank accounts, a larg-er gender gap persists in account usage. And beyondaccount ownership, in terms of credit and insuranceusage, gender gap remains high. For example, femaleaccount owners showed 11 per cent point gap againstmen in terms of account usage; 54 per cent ofwomen with an account made no deposit or with-drawal in a year as compared to 43 per cent of men.The credit gender gap is more stark. Distributionof outstanding credit in small borrower accountsshowed 24.5 per cent share of female account own-ers against 72 per cent of men as on March 2017.

Financial inclusion of women is one of the manypowerful levers that can advance gender equality.Efforts to get more women signed up for accountshas seen good results in recent years as developmentagencies and Governments alike have stated focus-ing on financial products as a tool for poverty alle-viation and female empowerment. Despite increasedattention to financial inclusion for women, we havenot been able to translate these efforts into large-scale, meaningful progress. Significant change cancome only through focussed efforts fromGovernments and banks. It is here that increasingawareness can play a big role to bridge the gap.

Women have the power to make, spend, saveand control their money — they make gains not onlyfor themselves but also for their communities. It isnow a recognised fact that “women’s market” rep-resents numerous segments of clients — from low-income salaried workers (factory and domestic) andlow-income self-employed women in the informalsector to women who work in agricultural valuechains to small and medium enterprises.

Gender characteristics shape cultural beliefs,which, in turn, impact women’s attitudes aboutmoney and finances. The top barriers that constrainwomen’s effective financial inclusion are: Not hav-ing enough money to invest; unexpected expens-es; not knowing whom to trust; inability to main-tain balance between spending and saving so as toachieve a healthy balance between short-term needsand long-term goals; being overwhelmed by choic-es when it comes to financial options; and not under-standing financial jargon. More broadly, these bar-riers break down into three categories: Insufficientknowledge, insecurity and lack of control. Moreover,woman customers continue to be served by gener-

ic products that are only superficially tai-lored to their needs.

Women face several barriers towardstheir path to financial inclusion: Limitedaccess to mobile phones, low literacy lev-els, less confidence in using technologyand restrictions on travel or social inter-action. We need to address these throughbehavioural and reformist approachesinstead of the usual hardware-basedapproach so that demand and supply sidebarriers faced by them in accessingfinance are eliminated. A simple all-embracing broadest possible definition offinancial inclusion for women wouldinclude not just access to services andcredit but meaningful use of valuable andinnovative financial products to buildsecurity and prosperity.

Women’s participation in the finan-cial system can have significant benefitsin terms of economic growth, greaterequality and societal well-being. Whenwomen are empowered as economicactors, benefits touch everyone. Womenhave more child-centered preferences thanmen. Access and usage of financial ser-vices are levers for increasing their par-ticipation in the economy. This enhancestheir self-confidence and gives them thepower to make financial decisions, thusresulting in large development payoffs.

In short, financial inclusion enableswomen to smooth consumption, ensuresecurity, increase saving and investmentrates, lower financial risks and facilitatenew livelihood and income opportunitiesfor the family. It enhances financialresilience for low-income women. Further,there are several barriers that constrain thefull inclusion of women in formal finance.Product-driven financial literacy is nec-essary to ensure that poor women are notshort-changed. While financial productshave their benefits, there is a clear dan-

ger of mis-selling that can damage mar-ginalised segments, who have an uncer-tain cash flow. The philosophy shared bythe financial inclusion community is thatengagement creates knowledge, whichcreates confidence. The goal must be toensure that women become confidentfinancial stewards, make wise decisions forthemselves, their families and the world.Women are more discerning customers,asking for more information before buy-ing products and services than men.

Financial products are often notdesigned, distributed or bundled to meetthe needs of women. They are usuallytasked with stretching the family budgetin times of financial hardship. Providingmicro credits or a small affordable andaccount-linked overdraft can help womencover their day-to-day household emer-gencies. Women’s financial needs andresponsibilities require bundled solu-tions of savings, credit and insurance.

Professionals and practitioners haveput forth some silent features of financialproducts and services that foster women’sactive participation in formal finance.They found that women do not have asmooth financial journey and have moreinterruptions and life-stages in theirfinancial lives (withdrawal from employ-ment during pregnancy and in medicalemergencies for nursing sick familymembers). They may remain active usersof the accounts during these periods.Women should be able to reactivate theiraccounts without much hassles or penal-ties. Women are also more price-pointsensitive and expect affordable fees.

Women clients, particularly in ruralareas, find interacting with male staff atbanks an intimidating experience and maynot trust them. Banks are not consideredpart of their trusted service providers. Toovercome such psychological barriers,

financial institutions can increase womenstaff and appoint dedicated people to servewomen customers because most of themhave a preference for a non-inhibitingenvironment.

Women customers are likelier toentrust such a retailer with their finances.Women look for a consistently high-qual-ity experience and the qualities they lookinclude: Trustworthiness, understand-ing, dependability and accessibility. In fail-ing to develop client experiences rootedin men and women’s fundamentally dif-ferent perspectives on finance, financialservices institutions are missing a signif-icant business opportunity. Employingmore women as bank tellers or mobilemoney agents can make it easier forwomen to board financial services.Women want financial services to bedelivered to them by someone who expe-riences similar issues as them. The coun-try has only five per cent women as busi-ness correspondents. India has 8.7 millionSHGs comprising more than 100 millionwomen members. The number of SHGsin the business correspondent spaceneeds to be stepped up.

To make financial inclusion forwomen more relevant and meaningful, wealso need to educate men about the pecu-liarities and needs of the female lot.Inadequacies of focussing on women inisolation have long been recognised:Women live in communities, they live infamilies and with men. Abstractingwomen from their social realities distortsour understanding of the relational natureof gendered power and the interdepen-dency of women and men. This has astrong bearing on women’s motivations,choices and possibilities.

(The writer is Member, NITI Aayog’sNational Committee on Financial Literacyand Inclusion for Women)

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The spectre of climate changehas spread its tentacles farbeyond the ambit of the envi-

ronment. As global warming andGreen House Gas emissions scalenew heights, their aftershocks arebeing felt across new quarters.According to a recent StanfordUniversity study, global warminghas increased economic inequalitysince the 1960s. Changes in temper-ature caused due to climate changehave not only enriched cooler coun-tries like Norway and Sweden butalso dragged down economicgrowth of warmer countries such asIndia and Nigeria. These observa-tions are disturbing since Indiaspecifically features in the report.

According to the study, Canadaand Norway witnessed per capitagrowth of more than 30 per cent dueto global warming. On the otherhand, economies of India and Sudanhave become over 30 per cent small-er than what it would have been ifthere was no global warming.

Researchers at the universityexamined 50 years of annual tem-perature data as well as GDP from165 countries during the same timeperiod to analyse effects of temper-ature fluctuations on economicgrowth. By looking at 20 differentclimate models, the team deter-mined how much each nation hadalready warmed between 1961 to2010. The team also calculated20,000 versions of what a nation’seconomic output would have beenif climate change was not a factor.Post the examination of the data,researchers came to the conclusionthat crop yield and people’s healthare better when it’s neither too hotnor too cold.

This means that in countrieswhich witness cold conditions, lit-tle warming can help. The opposite

is true for places that are warm. So,ironically, countries with high his-torical emissions are among thosethat have enjoyed the highest percapita GDP and fastest economicgrowth since the 1960s. On theother hand, global warmingreduced per capita income in thepoorest countries by 17-30 percent. The researchers claimed thatclimate change has brought few ofthe largest economies to perfecttemperature for economic output,while some smaller nations aretaking the hit.

However, the good news fordeveloped economies is only shortlived for if uncontrolled globalwarming continues, it will push thebig economies further away fromthe ideal temperature optimum,thus changing the entire econom-ic scenario again. So, even thoughthe impacts of rising global temper-atures may seem smaller year toyear, they can yield dramatic gainsor losses over the next 30 to 50years. The study emphasised on theimportance of improving sustain-able energy access for the purpose

of economic development of thepoorer countries.

No matter how climate changefuels economic inequalities, it is alsotrue that economic and socialinequalities, too, are exacerbatingclimate change conditions. It is, infact, a vicious cycle. In order toarrive at a sustainable solution, it iscrucial to understand that socialand economic inequality itself canact as drivers of climate change.

Several researches in the pastfew decades have shown thatunequal societies inflict more envi-ronmental damage than more eco-nomical ones. One key issue that isstill being overlooked is how envi-ronmental degradation and cli-mate change are the toxic byprod-ucts of our inequality problem.

There is also an urgent need toget a grasp of the link between cli-mate change and inequality. Manypeople, who live in low-incomecommunities, for example, cannotafford to retrofit their homes tomake them more energy-efficient.Meaning, they use more powerthan necessary, thus generating

more pollution. Strategies for controlling cli-

mate change and ensuring econom-ic equality that are in consonancewith environmental principles haveto be tailor-made and region spe-cific. This due to the fact thatevery country and region has itsown peculiarities and differentiat-ing features.

India must understand that glob-al policies to control climate changeand ensure economic equality are notdirectly applicable for conditionsover here. The problem of poverty isdeep-rooted in our country and canonly be weeded out through a cus-tomised solution. To ensure that cli-mate change does not further wreakeconomic havoc, the agriculturalsector would have to be insulatedagainst the vagaries of climate change.

Additionally, the impact of cli-mate change in urban India willhave to be valued economically anddamage assessments must be doneat regular intervals. This is crucialbecause one cannot improve some-thing when it is not quantified.

The Government must also

embark on an awareness campaignthat seeks to educate the peopleabout their financial well-being.They must be told that their posi-tion in the society is dependent ontheir carbon footprint. This willencourage the masses to seek envi-ronmentally-friendly solutions fortheir energy and transportationneeds. An aware population that hasembarked on an eco-friendly way oflife can turn the clock back on cli-mate change and start restoring thetemperatures to previous levels.All of this is possible through ahybrid collaboration of the legisla-ture and the judiciary.

Socio-economic inequalities as aresult of climate change are not newand were long expected. What is con-cerning though is the alarming rateat which this is taking place, leavingno room for evasive action byhumanity. This is worrisome and hasto be resolved at the earliest. Thebeginning, as always, will have to beat the grassroot level by adopting sus-tainable development solutions.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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The Finance Ministry hasintroduced changes in the

e-way bill system, includingauto calculation of distancebased on PIN codes for gener-ation of e-way bill and block-ing generation of multiple billson one invoice, as it seeks tocrack down on GST evaders.

Touted as an anti-evasiontool, the electronic way or e-way bill was rolled out onApril 1, 2018, for moving goodsworth over �50,000 from onestate to another. The same forintra or within the state move-ment was rolled out in a phasedmanner from April 15.

With instances of mal-practices in e-way bill genera-tion getting detected, the rev-enue department decided torework the system for genera-tion of e-way bill by trans-porters and business.

The new enhanced systemwould come with auto-calcu-lation of distance between thesource and destination, basedon the PIN codes. The userwould be allowed to enter theactual distance as per themovement of goods, whichwill be limited to 10 per centmore than the auto calculateddistance displayed, according to

the e-way bill portal.For example, if the system

has displayed the distancebetween Place A and B, basedon the PIN codes, as 655 kms,then the user is allowed to enterthe actual distance covered upto 720 kms (655 kms + 65kms).

Besides, the Governmenthas decided not to permitgeneration of multiple e-waybills based on one invoice.This means, if the e-way billis generated once with a par-ticular invoice number, thennone of the parties — con-signor, consignee or trans-porter — can generate anoth-er e-way bill with the sameinvoice number.

The enhanced featurewould permit extension ofvalidity of the e-way bill when

the goods are in transit/move-ment.

The e-way bill portal,which has been developed bythe National InformaticsCentre (NIC), the country’spremier informatics servicesorganisation, would also gen-erate a report for users on thelist of e-way bills about toexpire.

This would help the user toanalyse the data and ensure thatthe goods reach the destinationwithin the valid time period.

Transporters of goodsworth over �50,000 would berequired to present e-way billduring transit to a GST inspec-tor, if asked. Failure to producean e-way bill can attract apenalty of �10,000 or amountof tax sought to be evaded,whichever is higher.

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Wi r e l e s sbroadband

subscriber basesurged to 532 mil-lion in February2019, onboarding10.2 million usersduring themonth, withReliance Jio cor-nering nearly 56per cent of theoverall wireless broadbandmarket, ICRA said.

“The wireless broadbandsubscriber base continues tomaintain its strong growth tra-jectory, increasing to 532 mil-lion in February 2019, or 45 percent of the total subscriberbase, witnessing addition of10.2 million during the month.R Jio leads the wireless broad-band market, with marketshare of 56 per cent, followedby Bharti and Vodafone-Idea at21 per cent each,” ICRA said inits latest report.

ICRA noted that 100 percent of Reliance Jio’s subscribersare broadband subscribers, whilethe same ratio for Vodafone-Ideastood at 27 per cent and forBharti at 32 per cent.

The wireless subscriberbase in India increased to1,183.7 million in February2019, adding 1.7 million sub-scribers over the previousmonth, the report said.

The active wireless sub-

scriber base remained steady at1,023 million. It added to thewireless broadband subscriberbase maintained strongmomentum, demonstrating agrowth of two per cent duringthe month of February.

“The growth in subscriberbase in February was primari-ly driven by RJio, which added7.8 million subscribers. State-owned BSNL or MTNL (BharatSanchar Nigam Ltd/MahanagarTelephone nigam Ltd) was theonly other telco gaining sub-scribers in the month, adding0.9 million users,” HarshJagnani, sector head and vicepresident — Corporate Ratings,ICRA said.

“The overall active sub-scriber base remained at 1,023million in February, as increasein RJio’s and BSNL or MTNL’sactive subscriber base has beenat the expense of other indus-try participants, who lost 10.4million active subscribers on acombined basis,” he added.

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The Reserve Bank has hasdivested its entire stake in

National Housing Bank (NHB)and the National Bank forAgriculture and RuralDevelopment (Nabard) for�1,450 crore and �20 crore,respectively.

The central bank sold stakein NHB on March 19, while itsold the stake in Nabard onFebruary 26, the bank said ina statement Wednesday.

“With this, theGovernment now holds 100percent stake in both thesefinancial institutions,” the RBIsaid.

Divestment has been doneon the recommendation of thesecond Narasimham commit-tee report and the discussionpaper prepared by the RBI on‘harmonizing the role andoperations of developmentfinancial institutions andbanks,’ the central bank said.

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US-based co-w o r k i n g

operator WeWorkon Wednesdaysaid it will offerjob opportunitiesto Jet Airwaysemployees, whowere affected bythe recent suspen-sion of operations.

Running intoa debt of morethan �8,500 crore,Jet Airways hasshut down opera-tions temporarilyafter lendersdecided againstextending emer-gency funds forits survival.

Cash-starvedJet Airways, which has around23,000 employees, has delayedpayment of salaries to theemployees, including pilots.

WeWork, in a statement,said it will actively consider jobapplications from Jet employ-ees for openings across mar-keting, community manage-ment and sales.

“In line with WeWork’s mis-sion to create a world where peo-ple work to make a life, not justa living, the company is openingup opportunities for jet employ-ees to be a part of the globalshared community,” it added.

WeWork said interested

candidates can send theirresumes to an email ID creat-ed specifically for applicationsfrom Jet employees, and theseprofiles will be considered onpriority for any of the openroles across verticals.

Lowe’s India — the tech-nology products and solutionscentre for $71.3 billion Lowe’sCompanies — has also offeredto recruit employees from theIT division of Jet Airways.

“We at Lowe’s India wel-come any employee of the ITdivision of Jet Airways to applyfor technology positions withus. Interested candidates can

send their resumes...And wewill fast-track the process toschedule a meeting with you,”it said in a statement.

SpiceJet Chairman AjaySingh has stated that the airlinehas absorbed nearly 1,000 JetAirways employees and willcontinue to hire more.

Startups like CureFit havealso stepped in to offer employ-ment to the distressed workersat Jet.

CureFit co-founder AnkitNagori had recently tweetedthat the company would beopen to hire candidates from Jet.

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The CBI has issued LookOut Circulars (LOCs)

against chairman of BhushanPower and Steel Limited SanjaySinghal and his wife Aarti,who is vice chairman of thecompany, in connection withcheating in loans worth over�2,348 crore, sources said.

The LOCs have beenopened recently to prevent anyattempt by the accused to leavethe country without permissionfrom the authorities, thesources said.

A look out circular is a let-ter used by authorities to keepa tab on an individual. TheImmigration authorities at allairports and entry-exit pointsacross the country will have toinform the CBI if Singhal andhis wife attempt to leave thecountry.

The agency had on April 6carried out searches at 18 loca-tions connected to the compa-ny after registering a case ofcheating amounting to �2,348

crore against Singhal and others.

Loans worth �47,204 crorewere availed from 33 banks andfinancial institutions from 2007to 2014 and the companydefaulted on their repayments,the CBI said.

The searches were carriedout in a number of cities,including the Delhi-NCR,Chandigarh, Kolkata, Odisha,at the office and residentialpremises of the company, itsdirectors and promoters andtheir associates in the bankfraud case.

The CBI has also alreadybooked Sanjay Singhal, AartiSinghal, directors Ravi PrakashGoyal, Ram Naresh Yadav,Hardev Chand Verma,Ravinder Kumar Gupta andone Ritesh Kapoor besidesunidentified public servants.

The company deliberatelydefaulted on repayment andalso claimed inadmissible cred-it causing a loss approximate-ly of over �2,348 crore to thebanks, the CBI had alleged.

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Giving relief to compositionscheme taxpayers under the

GST, the finance ministry hasallowed such businesses to file‘self-assessed tax’ return on quar-terly basis in a simplified form.

So far, businesses opting forcomposition scheme had to filetax returns every quarter inGSTR-4 which ran into aroundseven pages.

As per a Central Board ofIndirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) notification, composi-tion scheme taxpayers will nowfile GSTR-4 annually by April30 for the previous financialyear ending March 31.

The CBIC has notified thesimplified ‘statement for pay-ment of self-assessed tax’ inForm GST CMP08 to be filedby taxpayers who have optedfor composition scheme, under

which businesses have to paylower rate of tax on theirturnover.

The CMP08, which has tobe filed by the 18th day of thesubsequent month followingthe end of a quarter, willinclude details like outwardsupplies, inward suppliesattracting reverse chargeincluding import of services;tax, interest payable; and taxesand interest paid.

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Music streaming app Gaanaexpects to double the

number of monthly active userson its platform to 200 millionin the next two years repre-senting around 50 per centshare in the overall market, atop official of the company saidWednesday.

“With increased competi-tion, the market stands at about160 million total online musiclisteners. That will go to 400million in the next two years.We will continue to be the mar-ket leader. We will get next 100million (monthly active) newlisteners in two years,” GaanaChief Executive OfficerPrashan Agarwal said on thesidelines of achieving 100 mil-lion monthly active users(MAUs).

He said the next 100 mil-lion MAU will come for thecompany from Tier-III townsand cities.

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The Centre has purchased55.17 lakh tonnes of

wheat from farmers in theongoing 2019-20 marketingyear so far, a senior FoodMinistry official said onWednesday.

Haryana and MadhyaPradesh have contributed themost to wheat procurement sofar, the official said.

The Centre has set thewheat procurement target at357 lakh tonnes for the 2019-20 marketing year (April-March) on hopes of a record1,000 lakh tonne productionthis year.

State-run FoodCorporation of India (FCI)along with state governmentagencies buy wheat at the min-imum support price to meetthe demand of welfare schemes.The Government has fixed thewheat MSP at �1,840 per quin-tal, up from �1,735 a year earlier.

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New Delhi (PTI): Drug firmIndoco Remedies on Wednesdaysaid the US health regulator hadretained Official Action Indicatedstatus for its Goa plant and mayimpact approval of pending appli-cations from this facility. “The USFood and Drug Administrationretains the Official ActionIndicated status for Goa plant-I(finished dosages facility) ofIndoco Remedies Ltd,” the com-pany said in a BSE filing. Thefacility was inspected by theUSFDA in January 2019. “We arein the process of sending ourresponses to the regulators, as andwhen the commitments given inresponse to Form 483 observa-tions are fulfilled. We believe thatthis OAI status will not impactour current commercial suppliesto USA,” it added.

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Snapping its three-sessionlosing streak, benchmarkBSE Sensex surged 490

points on Wednesday asinvestors piled into finance,energy and IT stocks ahead ofexpiry of derivatives contracts.

Index heavyweight RelianceIndustries, HDFC and HDFCBank accounted for almost halfof the Sensex’s gains.

Markets were propelled byshort covering ahead of expiryof April futures and optionscontracts on Thursday amidpositive global cues, analystssaid.

After starting on a positivenote, indices were boosted by aburst of buying towards the fag-end.

The BSE Sensex soared489.80 points, or 1.27%, to

close at 39,054.68. The broaderNSE Nifty climbed 150.20points, or 1.30%, to 11,726.15.

In the Sensex pack, HCLTech spurted 3.40%, followed byONGC, IndusInd Bank, YesBank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC,RIL, Bajaj Finance, SBI, HDFCBank and TCS.

On the other hand, TataMotors, Hero MotoCorp, CoalIndia, PowerGrid, Maruti, AxisBank and NTPC fell up to3.33%.

“Despite mixed signalsfrom global markets, and wor-ries domestically on growthand elections, Indian marketsrallied almost 1.3%. After threestraight days of losses in theNifty, the headline index deliv-ered strong gains led by finan-cials and tech, while autos con-tinued to drag.

“Cement behemoth

Ultratech was the biggest gain-er on the Nifty with a 5.6% gainafter it surprised the analystcommunity with better thanexpected results, especially aftera weak show by ACC,” saidSunil Sharma, chief investmentofficer at Sanctum WealthManagement.

Aditya Birla Group firmUltraTech Cement onWednesday reported a consol-idated net profit of �1,014.19crore for the fourth quarterended March 31.

Sectorally, BSE oil and gas,telecom and energy indicesgained the most, rising up to2.32%. Banking, finance and ITindices too ended in the green.

The auto index was the onlyloser, dropping 0.29%.

In the broader markets, theBSE midcap and smallcapindices advanced up to 0.43%.

Meanwhile, foreign institu-tional investors (FIIs) sold equi-ty worth �237.47 crore onTuesday, while domestic insti-tutional investors (DIIs) pur-chased shares to the tune of�198.35 crore, provisional dataavailable with stock exchangesshowed.

The rupee, however,declined by 24 paise to close at69.86 against the US dollar.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, slipped0.08% to USD 74.45 per barrel.

On the Wall Street, theS&P 500 and Nasdaq indicesended at record highs onTuesday amid a slew of better-than-expected earnings reports.Elsewhere in Asia, benchmarkequity indices in Shanghai,Tokyo and Seoul ended in thered. European equites started offon a mixed note.

New Delhi (PTI): With the Commerce and IndustryMinistry taking steps to support budding entrepreneurs, as manyas 342 start-ups have received intimation regarding exemptionfrom angel tax since February, an official said. Giving a majorrelief to budding entrepreneurs, the government in Februaryrelaxed the definition of start-ups and allowed them to avail fullangel tax concession on investments of up to �25 crore.

“The ministry is taking all steps to promote and strength-en the start-up ecosystem in the country. A total of 381 start-ups gave undertaking that they should be exempted from angeltax and out of that, 342 have received intimation from CBDT(Central Board of Direct Taxes),” the government official said.

New Delhi (PTI)k Aditya Birla Group firmUltraTech Cement on Wednesday reported a con-solidated net profit of �1,014.19 crore for the fourthquarter ended March 31. The company had post-ed a net profit of �446.13 crore in the January-March quarter a year ago, UltraTech Cement saidin a BSE filing. The company’s total income stoodat �11,031.27 crore during the quarter underreview. It was �9,401.39 crore in the correspond-ing period previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, UltraTech informed that its resultfor the quarter and the financial year ended March31, “are not comparable with the previous period”due to merger of Binani Cements into the com-pany, which has now been named as UltraTech

Nathdwara Cements. Its total expense in the fourthquarter of 2018-19 came at �9,554.43 crore.

“Domestic sales volume jumped 16 per centover Q4FY18. The clinker capacity and cementgrinding facility at Manavar, Madhya Pradesh havestabilised with the clinker capacity operating at 100per cent utilisation. Variables cost were up 3 percent over Q4FY18 on account of higher fuel pricesand impact of rupee depreciation,” the companysaid.

For the 2018-19 financial year, UltraTechCements net profit stood at �2,431.59. It was�2,224.46 crore in FY 2016-17. Its total income wasat �37,817.27 crore in 2018-19, as against�32,461.02 crore in the previous fiscal.

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Script Open High Low LTPLT 1,355.60 1,363.20 1,350.75 1,360.35TATAMOTORS 233 233.05 217.95 223.7RELIANCE 1,370.00 1,394.60 1,366.35 1,390.00YESBANK 233 240.2 231.45 239.15MARUTI 7,052.00 7,103.75 6,908.40 7,024.35PCJEWELLER 128.5 138 127.95 133.1IBREALEST 108.5 119.7 107.1 116.35RELCAPITAL 145.5 157.55 139.65 155.35IBULHSGFIN 748.8 761.9 739 748.8SPICEJET 127 128.5 124.55 126.25ULTRACEMCO 4,150.80 4,436.75 4,116.20 4,396.45JETAIRWAYS 171.2 178.6 167.6 171.25INFY* 727.5 737.8 724.25 736.4STRTECH 215.05 217 192.25 193.35TCS 2,157.70 2,195.00 2,155.40 2,185.45ONGC 165.15 170.3 165.15 168.7TATASTEEL 527.85 527.85 513.2 525.3SBIN 307 311.85 303.6 310.7DHFL 140.5 146.15 140.5 144.7ACC 1,629.70 1,629.70 1,570.85 1,606.90SAIL 54.6 57 54.05 56.4DMART 1,292.00 1,362.00 1,291.55 1,332.45HDFCBANK 2,253.90 2,282.85 2,247.00 2,279.50BAJFINANCE 3,048.90 3,100.00 3,032.00 3,092.00INDUSINDBK 1,678.00 1,705.65 1,665.00 1,700.15ICICIBANK 396.5 402.25 393 401.05NTPC 133.95 134.6 132.35 133.8COALINDIA 256.95 258.2 253.5 254.2AXISBANK 755 755.1 738.5 752.6INDIGO 1,484.85 1,490.00 1,440.00 1,472.30WIPRO 292.05 294.1 290.3 293.1BRITANNIA 2,985.00 2,993.10 2,963.05 2,976.25KOTAKBANK 1,353.95 1,372.55 1,340.50 1,370.00HINDPETRO 254.9 269.9 254.9 268.35ASHOKLEY 92.45 92.45 90.55 91.2PNB 88.1 89 86.85 88.4BAJAJ-AUTO 3,025.00 3,080.00 3,009.00 3,076.25LUPIN 839 867.2 835.95 864.5ITC 303 307.2 298.7 306.45DLF 172 177 171.2 176.2RELINFRA 118.5 122.45 115.8 120.95JINDALSTEL 175.1 176.45 169.1 172.15BATAINDIA 1,450.00 1,466.00 1,442.00 1,461.90TATAELXSI 955 957.6 927 930.3TATAGLOBAL 204 211.55 200.5 208.9SUNPHARMA 469.05 470 462.7 469.15HCLTECH 1,101.00 1,145.45 1,099.95 1,140.50HEXAWARE 348 349.55 326.9 332.85TECHM 805.05 819.9 805.05 818.6JUSTDIAL 566 580.6 560.7 573.35BANKBARODA 124.1 125.45 122.8 125.1HEROMOTOCO 2,637.10 2,657.00 2,586.45 2,623.00IDFCFIRSTB 52.1 52.35 51.35 52.05BHARTIARTL 318.4 326.25 315.75 324.5HEG 1,840.00 1,842.65 1,767.80 1,792.45M&MFIN 425 436.6 425 433.2VEDL 175.15 175.95 171.15 174.85NIITTECH 1,304.25 1,314.00 1,299.25 1,310.50HDFC 1,949.00 1,988.85 1,934.10 1,979.15RNAM 192.45 211.15 191 208.3ZEEL 410.05 419.4 405.35 417.95HINDUNILVR 1,745.00 1,759.80 1,734.05 1,752.75CONCOR 510 510 497.5 503.25TITAN 1,124.00 1,152.45 1,124.00 1,147.55BPCL 339.15 349.45 339.15 348.5GRAPHITE 420 423.65 406.25 408.65TATAMTRDVR 113.25 113.25 104.75 108CHOLAFIN 1,425.00 1,439.50 1,377.20 1,424.25ASIANPAINT 1,435.00 1,458.45 1,433.65 1,449.15BANDHANBNK 581.05 606.85 580.05 603.6ADANIPOWER 52 53 51.15 52.65IOC 151.1 154.3 150.9 153.8AMBUJACEM 223.8 226 216.5 224.4BAJAJFINSV 7,485.00 7,680.00 7,478.20 7,647.35DRREDDY 2,829.40 2,865.00 2,813.10 2,855.35M&M 670 670 662.1 668IDEA 17.1 17.7 17.05 17.2JISLJALEQS 58 59.5 57.25 59.15RECLTD 147.35 151.5 146.8 150.6BEML 910 921.55 903 906.7INDIACEM 101 106.1 99.3 105.7RPOWER 7.71 7.86 7.31 7.74QUESS 686.6 715 685.2 689.45TATAPOWER 68.5 68.75 67.4 67.75CENTURYTEX 918 931 886.1 923.6ABB 1,468.50 1,503.50 1,464.90 1,484.45INFIBEAM 43.95 47.45 43.8 46.7CANBK 274.95 274.95 268 273.4EICHERMOT 20,350.00 20,595.65 20,175.70 20,546.40JSWSTEEL 288 293.4 286.5 292.5SUZLON 7.37 7.47 7.05 7.27GMRINFRA 17.5 17.65 17.35 17.4BLISSGVS 170.1 176.8 168.1 170.35GRASIM 863.5 886 850.1 880.95RAJESHEXPO 720.5 742 707 714.65CGPOWER 35.15 38.1 34.85 37.65BANKINDIA 92.35 93.6 91.15 93.05ICICIGI 1,064.00 1,077.25 1,064.00 1,069.75DABUR 404.95 405.05 397.5 398.75PEL 2,532.00 2,589.45 2,511.00 2,585.70GAIL 341 347.5 339.95 345.55MOTHERSUMI 150.5 151.75 146.55 149.1DCBBANK 208 215.1 206.85 212.8ESCORTS 746 756.5 738.45 754.65CIPLA 562 565.7 553.85 559.8PFC 115.5 119.95 115.45 119.15GRUH 300.05 318 296.9 313.8UNIONBANK 89 89.9 87.1 89.1

JUBLFOOD 1,325.00 1,333.00 1,308.75 1,315.90MRF 56,844.00 56,844.00 55,671.05 55,834.25L&TFH 139 140.85 138.25 139.75DISHTV 37 37.15 35.85 36.95SBILIFE 601.6 613.35 601 608.75IBVENTURES 300 312.8 300 304.35UPL 942.65 951.2 941.45 948.45HINDALCO 200.95 201.35 197.3 200.9RADICO 353.8 372.4 351.3 369.85HAVELLS 762.1 776.5 759.75 774.4DIVISLAB 1,690.00 1,748.25 1,688.85 1,740.60SRF 2,469.65 2,524.60 2,458.00 2,517.45NBCC 59.75 60 59 59.55RCOM 1.9 1.95 1.9 1.9PAGEIND 22,800.00 23,700.00 22,600.15 23,584.45

LTI 1,695.15 1,704.05 1,682.20 1,696.15TEAMLEASE 2,947.70 3,001.00 2,947.70 2,993.70MAHABANK 16.25 18.6 16.25 18.07BIOCON 618.7 618.7 609.55 613.6FEDERALBNK 96.4 96.4 94.9 95.3BHARATFORG 490 490 478.2 480.9LICHSGFIN 499.95 505 493.65 501.9RAYMOND 757.45 765 745.65 760.15STAR 475.65 478.65 465.65 474.45NCC 101.95 102.65 99.8 101.85BHEL 73.95 74.25 72.95 73.45GODREJCP 677.9 681.2 668.65 674.45PVR 1,680.00 1,717.00 1,676.00 1,711.80NATIONALUM 53 53.4 52.65 52.8WOCKPHARMA 428 429.75 423.4 428SRTRANSFIN 1,161.90 1,189.00 1,150.00 1,181.55INDIANB 254 258.2 250.25 257.5AUROPHARMA 783 786.3 777 784.55TATACHEM 585.6 587.2 576.95 582.3JAICORPLTD 120.2 123 119.6 122.05IDBI 42.6 43.5 42.25 43.15TVSMOTOR 515 520 509.45 516.95RBLBANK 679 679 668 671.8FSL 51 52 50.55 51.5UJJIVAN 320.55 324.05 314.55 322.95SANOFI 5,702.00 5,702.00 5,664.00 5,676.00BEL 89.05 89.05 87.7 88.6APOLLOHOSP 1,241.00 1,267.75 1,223.50 1,228.45VOLTAS 623.2 624.1 613.15 616.2SUNTECK 479.2 480.25 472.25 476INDHOTEL 151.75 153.45 151.1 152.35AMARAJABAT 677.9 681 672 674.1KAJARIACER 619.3 624.95 617 622.05POWERGRID 193 194.2 190 191.95RAIN 129.8 130.8 126.6 128.85SKFINDIA 2,000.15 2,020.00 1,992.80 1,998.70CUMMINSIND 745 745 720.35 737.4INFRATEL 300.9 303.95 291.35 302.15NESTLEIND 10,900.05 11,020.00 10,726.95 10,832.35GODFRYPHLP 1,129.70 1,146.00 1,112.40 1,128.50TRENT 355.05 358 353 353.95IRB 131 135 130.25 134.25COROMANDEL 439 452.55 434.1 436.3APOLLOTYRE 212 212 208 208.85SUNTV 584.2 590 583 587.75ORIENTBANK 100.05 101.8 98.65 101.4EDELWEISS 169.55 170 163 167.6BOMDYEING 123.5 126.5 123.45 125.8MGL 985 991.45 960.1 969.55GODREJPROP 900.35 907.5 887 894CASTROLIND 157.95 160.25 155.6 156.8PIDILITIND 1,217.65 1,227.00 1,210.65 1,222.15ADANIPORTS 389 394 386.55 391.95NATCOPHARM* 537.1 550 536.15 540.15ABCAPITAL 98.65 100 98 98.65CANFINHOME 319 321.1 313 316.95SWANENERGY 110 110.35 108.5 109.6SHREECEM 19,207.35 19,544.90 18,974.55 19,469.70MANAPPURAM 118.55 120.65 118.55 119.25OMAXE 210.95 211.1 209.9 210.5CHOLAHLDNG 510.9 510.9 505 505BHARATFIN 1,047.75 1,073.65 1,046.55 1,067.80CEATLTD 1,092.70 1,098.55 1,081.60 1,092.00EVEREADY 166.45 168.7 152.05 154.5ICICIPRULI 367.1 370.85 360.45 363.15SYNDIBANK 38.55 40.25 38.45 39.6KTKBANK 127.95 129.55 126.5 128.95

MCX 777 788.85 768.55 784.65UBL 1,430.00 1,434.90 1,401.55 1,431.10TAKE 146.45 152 145.2 150.75EXIDEIND 219 219 216.15 218.45FORCEMOT 1,749.80 1,760.05 1,730.00 1,735.20HDFCLIFE 398.2 401.1 397 400ENGINERSIN 116 116.15 114.6 115.55RAMCOCEM 755.3 779.55 745 772.15KSCL 455 471.8 452 468.85PHILIPCARB 165 165 160.6 161.5ALBK 49.95 50.35 49.05 49.75NMDC 103 103.2 102.05 102.4DELTACORP 247 247 243.55 244.15IGL 312.35 315 304 308.25LEMONTREE 76 76.5 74 74.4GSFC 100 101.7 99.9 101.25PNBHOUSING 793.8 796.2 785.35 791.7PETRONET 236.95 239.35 232.5 236.05SOUTHBANK 16.45 16.45 16.2 16.4GNFC 317.15 317.6 310.65 312.1BALKRISIND 964.15 967.3 947 951.4NAUKRI 1,941.05 2,047.30 1,919.45 1,998.35MFSL 437.4 447.7 431 443.6TV18BRDCST 33.25 33.25 31.95 32.45WELSPUNIND 55.25 55.6 53.95 54.55SUVEN 263.75 267.5 263.45 266.05ADANIGREEN 44.95 45.45 44.3 44.75SIEMENS 1,170.60 1,180.00 1,157.10 1,176.20EQUITAS 129.9 132.3 128.35 131.9KEI 415.65 422.1 405.2 418.6AUBANK 613.45 615.4 600.5 612.5MINDTREE 975.4 980 975.25 979.1OIL 178.75 180.2 178.05 179.9IFCI 12.19 12.2 11.98 12.18MEGH 63.9 65.65 62.4 65JUBILANT 692.5 696.45 684 687.05TORNTPHARM 1,797.65 1,799.10 1,773.50 1,778.70MUTHOOTFIN 591.35 591.7 582.3 586.95WESTLIFE 407.2 410.3 392.55 397.05VENKYS 2,107.05 2,107.45 2,065.00 2,076.05IDFC 42 42.7 41.6 42.3DBL 604.5 633.2 604.5 613.8CADILAHC 330.05 330.9 326.5 329.75TRIDENT 66.35 68.3 65.35 67.65ISEC 216 228.75 215.5 217.55MARICO 363.2 364.9 356.85 362.7MERCK 3,788.00 3,788.00 3,725.05 3,733.80JPASSOCIAT 5.7 5.8 5.6 5.74AVANTI 392 415 388.15 389.75HFCL 22.7 22.8 22.25 22.35FRETAIL 429.8 429.9 415.6 421.25GLENMARK 633.25 638 627.9 635.3TEJASNET 181.05 190.5 181 188.5APLAPOLLO 1,600.15 1,608.90 1,554.05 1,588.75OFSS 3,517.35 3,580.00 3,511.60 3,537.45JBCHEPHARM 343.45 360 340.05 348.25TORNTPOWER 257.85 257.85 253.45 255.5BOSCHLTD 18,101.35 18,101.35 17,882.50 17,991.25ISGEC 563 567 479 559.75COLPAL 1,215.50 1,216.50 1,205.00 1,214.90VIPIND 466.05 469.1 457.45 466.45NOCIL 137.95 139.5 135.45 137LTTS 1,699.95 1,702.00 1,666.95 1,697.95SYNGENE 601 610.2 598 601.15KANSAINER 435.2 443.8 428.8 436LAKSHVILAS 78.5 79.9 78.5 79.7CHENNPETRO 253.9 259 251.05 257.5DEEPAKFERT 149.9 151.5 145.15 148.3VGUARD 222.15 225.9 218.75 221.3PERSISTENT* 639.9 642.3 629.05 636.4NAVINFLUOR 693.5 697.3 671.25 674.85ABFRL 213.4 218.7 213.4 216.2FORTIS 138.85 139.5 138.65 138.9RCF 59.1 59.25 58.5 59.05BAJAJELEC 560.6 572.25 559.85 563.3OBEROIRLTY 525.75 527.4 518.55 523.75GRANULES 117.3 118 114.45 115.6HINDZINC 276.05 276.85 273 274.6CUB 205.95 206.5 201.05 205.4AJANTPHARM 1,035.70 1,038.25 1,015.00 1,025.90WELCORP 133.95 138 132.75 137.25MRPL 70.3 71.35 70 70.9WABCOINDIA 6,316.95 6,352.20 6,257.00 6,270.80MOTILALOFS 739.7 750.05 726 735.95BERGEPAINT 323.9 324.2 318.25 323.25REPCOHOME 429.8 437.1 424.15 435.15IPCALAB 985 985.1 960.05 967GODREJIND 508 510.05 504.65 507.2SYMPHONY 1,390.00 1,447.60 1,375.00 1,428.20ITI 94 94.65 92.9 93.7DEEPAKNI 258.5 266.3 258.5 263HINDCOPPER 48.55 49.15 48.55 48.75HEIDELBERG 174.1 183.45 174.05 182.3ASTRAZEN 2,226.80 2,265.00 2,224.75 2,252.50TATAMETALI 654 656.1 641 643.05PRSMJOHNSN 100 100 96.75 99.2NHPC 23.15 23.5 23.15 23.35BBTC 1,285.10 1,286.95 1,271.00 1,283.20MANPASAND 116.25 116.75 114.25 115PIIND 1,009.30 1,018.50 1,001.00 1,013.65PGHH 10,465.20 10,576.95 10,312.40 10,497.05CROMPTON 237.85 237.85 230.7 233.55MMTC 27.15 27.75 27 27.15JINDALSAW 83.55 84.25 83 83.55INTELLECT 222.45 226 221.5 223.2TATACOFFEE 91.4 92 90.8 91.3VINATIORGA 1,762.20 1,801.10 1,759.50 1,777.75CYIENT 585.05 593.5 583.55 587.05WABAG 286.65 292.7 285.9 290.5

HSCL 116.9 116.9 112.65 114.85SUPREMEIND 1,164.50 1,191.00 1,164.50 1,183.65J&KBANK 60 60.7 59.75 60.3UFLEX 236.9 238.95 230.6 236.4BAJAJHLDNG 3,294.80 3,335.00 3,287.90 3,313.85TATACOMM 576.05 582 570.1 577.5VBL 827.25 846.65 827.25 838.7SOBHA 492.6 498 482.15 488.45ASAHIINDIA 245 245.5 235 240.45SPARC 179.65 180.8 178.2 179.3IBULISL 345 345 323 327.83MINDIA 24,950.05 25,050.00 24,600.00 24,773.40JKTYRE 91 91 89.65 89.8PTC 69.8 69.95 69.35 69.75SUNDRMFAST 556.85 567 556.85 561.3AARTIIND 1,599.95 1,599.95 1,554.00 1,563.35HUDCO 43.25 43.35 42.5 42.8FCONSUMER 43.35 43.6 43.15 43.45GHCL 244.35 246.95 242.35 244.05JAMNAAUTO 58 58.45 56.9 57AEGISLOG 189 196.6 188 196.1MAHLIFE 370.25 381.5 370.25 379.8FINCABLES 453 457.55 447 455.7GUJGAS 158.3 160 155 157.3ELGIEQUIP 263.6 271.5 261.15 270.8ESSELPRO 135 135.2 133.5 134.3ADVENZYMES 189.75 191.9 189.6 190.35GUJALKALI 491.5 492.75 474 482.95MINDAIND 385.65 385.9 376.05 378.05SHANKARA 496.6 518.95 496.6 507.6LUXIND 1,370.00 1,388.00 1,350.20 1,376.65MPHASIS 964.3 972.7 961.25 968.1GRINDWELL 602.6 605 595 596.7RALLIS 158 158.3 155.4 157.4EMAMILTD 393.7 397.6 390.1 391.85NAVKARCORP 37.75 37.85 36.95 37.15ALKEM 1,725.65 1,742.00 1,720.00 1,727.65GODREJAGRO 522.55 526 520 524.2ATUL 3,610.00 3,610.00 3,430.25 3,463.65PFIZER 3,127.85 3,163.85 3,105.00 3,151.40GUJFLUORO 1,051.25 1,057.00 1,026.00 1,030.50LAXMIMACH 5,901.00 5,943.30 5,900.00 5,921.00WHIRLPOOL 1,400.00 1,409.00 1,388.00 1,404.25JKLAKSHMI 361.5 361.5 347.25 353.6JYOTHYLAB 181 182.85 178.9 180.65INOXLEISUR 316.1 317.4 312.25 313.95MAHSCOOTER 3,946.95 3,950.00 3,893.10 3,915.85APLLTD 540.05 547.2 528.5 530BAJAJCON 334.75 334.75 328 330.45GILLETTE 7,585.85 7,645.55 7,555.70 7,590.00JSLHISAR 87.35 89 85.95 87.45BASF 1,385.30 1,385.30 1,346.65 1,368.45CHAMBLFERT 162.55 163.3 159 159.5LINDEINDIA 496 498.65 490 492.5SCHNEIDER 104.25 104.25 102.25 104JSWENERGY 72.3 72.6 71.55 71.8TATAINVEST 843 847.6 840 842.05HSIL 264.15 266.35 260.55 264.95JMFINANCIL 90 90 85.95 87.7ZENSARTECH 233.45 234.7 231.6 232.75KEC 290.6 294.95 290.35 293.7THOMASCOOK 253.5 253.5 245.75 248.95HIMATSEIDE 218.9 223.7 217.1 221.35GLAXO 1,285.95 1,299.50 1,282.00 1,292.35FORBESCO 2,375.00 2,405.00 2,370.05 2,391.40GEPIL 891.1 905.7 885.55 897.25LAURUSLABS 386 390.3 386 388.1AIAENG 1,802.20 1,811.85 1,795.05 1,806.80CERA 2,859.15 2,873.40 2,789.00 2,837.45KRBL 350.8 354.25 340.5 349.35NLCINDIA 68.4 68.9 68 68.25FINOLEXIND 467.1 470 461 462.45DCAL 223.7 227.1 223.4 224.3NBVENTURES 104.05 104.9 102.55 104.55GICHSGFIN 254.8 255.8 252 253.8SCI 34.7 35 34.55 34.95ECLERX 1,140.95 1,142.00 1,135.55 1,137.65BAYERCROP 4,179.95 4,274.00 4,179.95 4,234.10ANDHRABANK 27.6 27.75 27.3 27.55SHILPAMED 405 422.45 401.5 403.2MAHINDCIE 226.1 230 225 226.15UCOBANK 18.35 18.4 18.15 18.25HATSUN 710.05 719.45 706.5 714.95SOLARINDS 1,071.05 1,077.60 1,065.00 1,071.15NESCO 490 505 487.95 501.85SHK 150.1 151.5 148 150.1ALLCARGO 112.6 114 110 112.95ITDCEM 126.6 127.5 124.2 126.35DCMSHRIRAM 400.05 406.35 400.05 402.9NETWORK18 33 34.15 33 33.55SHOPERSTOP 450.4 476 450.3 458.35SONATSOFTW 331.05 334 327.6 330.4COFFEEDAY 262 268.65 261.15 267.25ASHOKA 128.9 130 128.8 129.4MAGMA 122.3 127 122.3 125.25TTKPRESTIG 8,185.15 8,185.15 8,150.00 8,172.35EIDPARRY 202 202.7 199.85 200.45MOIL 156.95 157.1 155.25 155.95CRISIL 1,484.50 1,492.05 1,454.00 1,463.35SUDARSCHEM 330.7 334.1 325 327.85ORIENTCEM 90.2 94.8 89.85 93.55GMDCLTD 74.05 74.25 72.85 73.25EIHOTEL 192.45 193.6 191.5 192.65COCHINSHIP 382.2 383.75 381 382.9THERMAX 970.5 978 968.5 974.5CENTURYPLY 182.25 183.35 178.2 181.85LALPATHLAB 1,079.00 1,079.00 1,054.35 1,068.15KNRCON 246.75 250 246.65 248.35GICRE 250.15 251 247.85 248.95

HONAUT 24,300.25 24,300.25 23,682.55 23,733.30MONSANTO 2,544.00 2,550.00 2,531.00 2,539.35PRESTIGE 265 265.3 261.1 263.15JAGRAN 117 117 115 115.35INDOSTAR 402.2 405.5 399 402.75GSKCONS 7,291.85 7,300.00 7,194.00 7,261.85GREAVESCOT 142.5 144 141.55 141.9PARAGMILK 241.75 242 240 240.9GSPL 189.5 189.5 188 189.1JKCEMENT 853.7 885 842 872.65AKZOINDIA 1,748.95 1,765.75 1,733.80 1,755.10TIINDIA 379.55 384.05 374.45 379.15TIMETECHNO 95 95.3 94.3 94.45MAHLOG 539.2 545.15 526.1 532.5ABBOTINDIA 7,746.25 7,845.00 7,699.00 7,833.20BDL 286.35 288 283.9 286.45ENDURANCE 1,169.95 1,175.00 1,164.00 1,165.05ADANITRANS 218.05 221.95 214.6 219.75TNPL 200 202 198.1 201.35BIRLACORPN 511.5 517.95 503 515.05PNCINFRA 152.15 152.2 145.4 148.7SREINFRA 26.85 27.4 26.85 27.2MINDACORP 134.35 135.75 131.25 132.6GDL 142.95 143.3 140 141.9CCL 264.15 264.75 258 259.85GESHIP 288.05 288.1 284.65 285.85KPRMILL 603.05 614.35 603.05 612.65GPPL 94 95 91.45 93CARBORUNIV 372.85 374.4 370.5 373.85VMART 2,731.90 2,752.75 2,686.00 2,743.75NILKAMAL 1,380.00 1,391.00 1,370.10 1,376.40HAL 684 687.9 678.2 680.15CENTRALBK 33.55 33.75 33.35 33.65JSL 37.6 38.2 37.6 37.85GAYAPROJ 173.65 174.05 167.3 171.8CENTRUM 31.4 31.55 31.1 31.25IEX 160 160.6 158 158.6NIACL 185.95 186.9 183.3 184.35ASTERDM 149 152.85 148 149.3BLUESTARCO 656.6 661.85 647 649.45RELAXO 901.95 901.95 894.05 896.65KALPATPOWR 485.65 489.25 481.05 483.05GALAXYSURF 998.05 1,002.50 990.5 997.55VTL 1,135.00 1,143.00 1,121.50 1,142.35ITDC 268.1 269.9 265.5 266.2THYROCARE 491 499 490 497.45CORPBANK 28 28 27.55 27.7SHRIRAMCIT 1,721.10 1,729.80 1,651.00 1,678.80CARERATING 987.6 987.6 982.25 985ASTRAL 1,229.40 1,243.40 1,226.95 1,229.05IOB 14.5 14.66 14.18 14.59GREENPLY 167.9 170.4 162.5 169.15UNITEDBNK 10.88 10.99 10.87 10.92SOMANYCERA 408.25 408.25 398 399.1SJVN 24.4 24.45 24.15 24.35BALMLAWRIE 177.05 178.25 176.2 176.7

SADBHAV 227.05 232.05 226.8 227.6MAXINDIA 69.35 69.55 66.6 68.45DBCORP 187.85 189.95 182 188.85GULFOILLUB 870 878 870 876.95NAVNETEDUL 114.1 114.4 112.55 112.9SCHAEFFLER 5,553.50 5,583.70 5,518.40 5,528.55TRITURBINE 108.75 109.5 106.6 108.85FLFL 477.5 482.6 475.85 481.25REDINGTON 96.5 98.7 96.35 98IFBIND 873.5 873.5 858.5 864.5MHRIL 239.6 239.6 237.05 238.35CAPPL 378 384 374.05 381TVTODAY 313 315.5 310.75 312.85RATNAMANI 895.8 895.8 877.5 877.5TIMKEN 578.85 578.85 569 572.55TVSSRICHAK 2,209.00 2,209.00 2,193.10 2,196.75ZYDUSWELL 1,300.00 1,301.90 1,295.00 1,295.10HERITGFOOD 487.85 498 487.85 496.05SHARDACROP 381 383 381 383APARINDS 679.45 694.15 674.05 681.05STARCEMENT 105.05 107 103.35 106.25FDC 163.9 164.7 163 163.95SUPPETRO 218.2 219.15 216 217PHOENIXLTD 605.55 606.75 597.8 600.1DHANUKA 377.35 388.9 377.35 382.25INOXWIND 66.55 66.65 65.95 66.1SUPRAJIT 229.1 230.7 227 229.85GET&D 254.9 258 253.3 255.8BLUEDART 3,192.75 3,197.50 3,177.40 3,190.10LAOPALA 208.95 208.95 204 205.05SIS 827.2 834.95 827 834.95SUNCLAYLTD 2,875.95 2,875.95 2,855.00 2,855.00ERIS 619.95 635 619.8 623.6KIOCL 131.35 132.45 131 131.05NH 213.35 213.35 208 208SFL 1,360.00 1,360.00 1,360.00 1,360.00JCHAC 1,900.00 1,900.00 1,900.00 1,900.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11,601.50 11,740.85 11,578.85 11,726.15 150.2ULTRACEMCO 4,156.30 4,432.00 4,110.50 4,432.00 233.75BPCL 340.1 349.9 340.1 348.95 12.6HCLTECH 1,103.00 1,142.10 1,096.85 1,141.05 39.05INDUSINDBK 1,667.00 1,705.00 1,661.10 1,704.00 52.65ONGC 165.7 170.45 165.7 168.35 4.6IOC 151 154.15 150.45 153.55 4.15HDFC 1,943.90 1,985.00 1,933.25 1,984.70 50YESBANK 233 240.4 231.2 238.55 5.85INFRATEL 297 303.5 291 301 7BAJAJFINSV 7,490.00 7,672.50 7,475.55 7,667.45 172.4BHARTIARTL 316.5 326.3 315.6 323.75 7.25ZEEL 410.5 419 405.15 417.65 8.5GAIL 341.1 348 339.7 346.5 7.05RELIANCE 1,370.30 1,394.80 1,366.25 1,389.50 25.65SBIN 305.85 311.95 303.6 310.75 5.5BAJFINANCE 3,035.00 3,099.00 3,032.00 3,089.40 54.35GRASIM 867.5 887 849.6 884.95 15.5TITAN 1,128.00 1,152.00 1,125.55 1,149.00 19.45TECHM 807 820 806 818 13.05HDFCBANK 2,250.00 2,283.90 2,247.05 2,280.95 35.65JSWSTEEL 289.25 293 286.4 292.4 4.1ICICIBANK 397.1 402.65 393.45 401.6 5.1ASIANPAINT 1,436.00 1,459.40 1,431.00 1,449.30 18.3ITC 303.4 307.2 298.5 307.2 3.8EICHERMOT 20,400.00 20,580.00 20,140.00 20,550.00 235.1BAJAJ-AUTO 3,035.00 3,082.85 3,025.20 3,073.95 34.8DRREDDY 2,835.00 2,875.00 2,813.10 2,853.70 31.55INFY 728.2 737.9 724 735 6.8LT 1,353.00 1,363.45 1,350.00 1,359.00 10.8IBULHSGFIN 749.7 761.95 736.55 750 5.8UPL 942.75 951 941.1 950 7.25WIPRO 292.05 294.3 290.2 293.15 2.05TCS 2,158.00 2,195.00 2,156.10 2,168.60 13.55KOTAKBANK 1,355.00 1,370.00 1,339.65 1,363.75 8.4HINDUNILVR 1,744.60 1,755.00 1,735.00 1,754.90 10.7M&M 668 669.2 662.25 669 3.25ADANIPORTS 387.7 394 386.1 392 1.1SUNPHARMA 469.1 470 462.5 469.85 1.3TATASTEEL 526.9 527.85 512.7 524.1 0.75VEDL 174.95 176 171.05 175 0.2HINDALCO 200.4 201.4 197.2 200.5 0.15NTPC 133.65 134.45 132.3 133.7 0.05AXISBANK 754.7 755.7 738.35 750.9 -2.35BRITANNIA 2,988.00 2,997.55 2,952.05 2,977.00 -14POWERGRID 193.1 194.65 190.05 192 -1CIPLA 561.4 564.5 553.2 558.7 -3COALINDIA 256 258.3 253.4 254 -1.5MARUTI 7,065.00 7,101.95 6,910.00 6,994.35 -54.55HEROMOTOCO2,650.00 2,661.60 2,582.15 2,615.90 -22.15TATAMOTORS 231.65 232.95 217.6 224.25 -7.4

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27,885.55 28,085.00 27,811.95 28,057.85 183HINDPETRO 256.05 270.95 256.05 270.25 15.4BANDHANBNK 582.75 609.9 580 606.15 30.4DMART 1,290.00 1,336.30 1,290.00 1,335.00 48.95PAGEIND 23,000.00 23,680.00 22,588.00 23,650.00 757.25SAIL 54.85 57.05 54.05 56.45 1.8DIVISLAB 1,687.00 1,750.00 1,687.00 1,737.00 50.05DLF 172.45 177 171.15 176.25 4.25HAVELLS 765 776 759 775 13.5BANKBARODA 123.9 125.45 122.7 125.05 1.95SBILIFE 602 615 600.25 609.6 9.4SRTRANSFIN 1,167.00 1,185.00 1,149.60 1,183.75 17.8OFSS 3,506.90 3,585.00 3,502.00 3,547.80 40.9PEL 2,553.95 2,592.00 2,526.10 2,565.00 25.9IDEA 17.25 17.75 17 17.2 0.15AUROPHARMA 781.45 787 777.2 784.8 6.2ABB 1,465.00 1,505.00 1,460.70 1,490.00 11.7UBL 1,417.10 1,433.00 1,400.00 1,430.00 10.45HDFCAMC 1,577.85 1,595.00 1,577.30 1,590.85 10.5HDFCLIFE 397.6 400.9 397.3 400.2 2.4PIDILITIND 1,213.00 1,227.50 1,210.00 1,214.10 7.25BOSCHLTD 17,960.10 18,098.90 17,851.10 18,050.00 103.6SIEMENS 1,167.75 1,180.00 1,157.50 1,174.00 5.75PGHH 10,503.10 10,600.00 10,292.85 10,551.00 50.2L&TFH 139.25 140.8 138.2 139.8 0.6MARICO 363.5 365.2 356.85 364.45 1.35BIOCON 617 617.1 609.5 616 2.3INDIGO 1,483.00 1,489.80 1,439.10 1,474.10 5.35PETRONET 236 239.5 232.2 236 0.8GODREJCP 674 680.25 668.05 674 2.15COLPAL 1,215.00 1,217.10 1,202.80 1,213.70 3.65SHREECEM 19,250.00 19,425.00 18,917.00 19,351.05 58.65NHPC 23.3 23.55 23.2 23.35 0.05BAJAJHLDNG 3,300.00 3,335.00 3,293.05 3,298.00 6.25ICICIGI 1,071.00 1,082.35 1,065.35 1,070.90 1.9MCDOWELL-N 554 559.5 549.05 555 0.5CADILAHC 329.6 330.8 326.1 329 0.25HINDZINC 276 276.65 272.9 275.5 0CONCOR 505 510 497.4 504.5 -0.3ASHOKLEY 91.6 92.5 90.55 91.45 -0.1BHEL 73.4 74.35 72.9 73.4 -0.1GICRE 249.6 251.35 248.2 249.25 -0.35LUPIN 838.5 867.6 835 863.5 -4.1NIACL 185.3 186.9 183 184.8 -1MOTHERSUMI 151.3 151.7 146.4 149.1 -1NMDC 103.1 103.35 102.1 102.25 -0.7DABUR 403.85 404.3 397 398.7 -4.35MRF 56,600.00 56,800.00 55,555.00 55,749.65 -814.8ICICIPRULI 369.5 370.75 360.55 363.1 -6.4AMBUJACEM 223 226.35 216.05 222.15 -4.65ACC 1,625.00 1,625.00 1,570.00 1,600.70 -60.95

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The rupee on Wednesdaydeclined by 24 paise to

close at 69.86 against the UScurrency, weighed down by astrong dollar sentiment andhigh demand for the greenbackfrom importers.

The domestic currencydropped to more than four-month low of 69.97 in the daytrade in line with losses in otherAsian currencies against thedollar after positive US eco-nomic data.

Foreign fund inflows andstrong gains in equity marketshelped the domestic currencyreverse some of the lossesbefore close.

"The broader US dollar istrading strong today, with mostAsian currencies weakeragainst the greenback, whichgained after strong US housingdata dampened concerns aboutan economic slowdown in theworld's largest economy.

"Oil prices fell marginallytoday but still remained at ele-vated levels. Rising crude andstrong ICE Dollar Index havebeen the prime reasons fordomestic currency's weakness,"V K Sharma, Head PCG &Capital Markets Strategy,HDFC Securities, said.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex), the rupeeopened sharply lower at 69.80

and further fell to a four-month low of 69.97, the lowestlevel since December 3, 2018,against the dollar. Intra-day, theunit touched a high of 69.75.

The domestic currencyfinally settled at 69.86 per dol-lar, down 24 paise over its pre-vious closing. On Tuesday, therupee had appreciated by 5paise to close at 69.62 againstthe US dollar.

Global benchmark Brentcrude declined by 0.20 percent to $74.36 per barrel.

The BSE Sensex soared toa high of 39,095.35 at the fag-end of the session. It finally set-tled 489.80 points or 1.27 percent, higher at 39,054.68.

The broader NSE Niftytoo climbed 150.20 points, or1.30 per cent, to close at11,726.15. It hit an intra-dayhigh of 11,740.85.

The dollar index, which

gauges the greenback's strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, strengthened by 0.06 percent to 97.69.

Foreign institutionalinvestors emerged as net buy-ers in the capital markets,putting in Rs 974.88 croreWednesday, according to theprovisional data.

"The Reserve Bank ofIndia's (RBI's) second three-year dollar-rupee swap auctionwas a massive success like thefirst one, even as it took just fivelarge bids to cover the entire $5billion on offer.

"The second USD — INRsway auction received bids toexchange US dollars to IndianRupees at $18.65 billion com-pared with the RBI's promise totake in $5 billion in its secondsuch swap deal," Sharma said.

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Colombo: Sri LankanGovernment on Wednesdayadmitted that "major" intelli-gence lapses led to the horrif-ic Easter Sunday blasts andasked two top security officialsto resign, even as the death tollin the coordinated attacks roseto 359 amidst a nationwidemanhunt to nab the perpetra-tors.

Nine Suicide bombers,believed to be members oflocal Islamist extremist groupcalled National ThowheedJamath (NTJ), carried out aseries of devastating blasts thattore through three churchesand three luxury hotels.

President MaithripalaSirisena has asked DefenceSecretary Hemasiri Fernandoand Inspector General ofPolice Pujith Jayasundara toquit after their failure to pre-vent the blasts despite havingprior intelligence.

Sirisena Tuesday nightpledged that he will makechanges in top positions in the

security establishment withinthe next 24 hours, saying thepeople were questioning whyaction had not been taken bythe top security officials despitethe availability of intelligencesupport from a friendly neigh-bouring country.

Meanwhile, several peoplesuccumbed to their injuriessustained in the blasts, takingthe death toll to 359.

"The number of death nowis 359," police spokesman

Ruwan Guansekera said.He said that the search

operations were being carriedout and so far 60 people, all SriLankan nationals, have beenarrested in connection with theattacks.

Many of the arrested peo-ple have suspected links to theNTJ, the group blamed for thebombings. However, the NTJhas not claimed responsibilityfor the attacks.

The Islamic State has

claimed responsibility for theattacks and identified the sevensuicide bombers who carriedout the devastating blasts.

Guansekera said that therewere nine suicide bombersincluding a woman involved inthe bombings. "Eight of themhave been identified," headded.

Top officials have acknowl-edged that Sri Lanka receivedintelligence about possible ter-ror strikes ahead of the attacks,but both President Sirisenaand Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe have said thatthey did not receive the infor-mation.

State Minister of DefenceRuwan Wijewardene acknowl-edged that there had been"major" lapses in the securityarrangements.

"We (the government)have to take the responsibility,"he said.

"Some of them (the attack-ers), in earlier incidents, hadbeen taken into custody (after)

small skirmishes, but nothingof this magnitude,"Wijewardene told reportershere.

Intelligence suggested thatthe attackers were motivated bythe Christchurch shootings,the minister said.

"One of the suicidebombers studied overseas.Most of them are well-educat-ed, and come from maybemiddle-class or upper-mid-dle-class. So they are finan-cially quite independent andtheir families are quite stablefinancially.

"We believe that one of thesuicide bombers studied inthe UK and maybe later on didhis post-graduate in Australia,before coming back to settle inSri Lanka," he said.

Wijewardena said the mul-tiple bomb attacks were carriedout by a splinter group of theNTJ. The group had differ-ences and the final attack wascarried out by a group that leftthe main NTJ, he added.

Local and internationalmedia reported that India andthe US provided specific warn-ings about terror attacks to SriLanka, ahead of the EasterSunday bombings.

However, US Ambassadorto Sri Lanka Alaina Teplitzsaid, "We had no prior knowl-edge of these attacks."

Meanwhile, police said thatas many as 34 foreign nation-als who lost their lives havebeen identified.

Of them, 10 are fromIndia, three from Denmark,one each from Japan, theNetherlands, Portugal,Bangladesh, Spain, two eachfrom China, Saudi Arabia,Turkey, six from the UK, twoholding the US and the UKnationalities and two holdingAustralian and Sri Lankannationalities, officials said.

The mortal remains of nineout of 10 Indians have beensent to India, according to theIndian High Commission inColombo. PTI

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Colombo: A senior Sri LankanMuslim leader on Wednesdaydismissed as "nonsense" theGovernment's view that thedeadly attacks on Easter Sundayon churches and luxury hotelsmay have been a retaliation forlast month's massacre ofMuslims in two mosques inNew Zealand.

Addressing an emergencysession of Parliament on Tuesdayto discuss the country's worst ter-ror attacks, state minister ofdefence Ruwan Wijewardenesaid the early findings of the

ongoing probe found that thesuicide bombings were inrevenge for the March 15 killingsat two mosques in Christchurchwhich left 50 people dead.

But Hilmy Ahamed, theMuslim Council of Sri Lanka'svice president, did not buy thegovernment's version.

Pointing to the relativelyshort period of time between theattacks, Ahamed said it wasimpossible for the bombings inSri Lanka to have been plannedin the period, saying it was like-ly in the works for longer, with

foreign influence.The Islamic State terror

group has claimed responsibili-ty for the attacks in Sri Lanka, butdid not mention New Zealand asa justification.

"It is nonsense to link (theattacks) to New Zealand,"Ahamed told CNN.

"The New Zealand attackopened the eyes of the world tothe crisis the Muslims are facing,"he said, adding it was somethingof "blessing" for drawing atten-tion to growing Islamophobiaworldwide. PTI

-��� �� �.������)����) ����<(0�����1��)���!� ������������ Colombo: The US has said

that it did not provide SriLanka with advance intelli-gence prior to the EasterSunday militant attacks thatkilled over 350 people.

This comes amidst whatthe Sri Lankan governmentminister Harsha de Silva saidMonday that advance intelli-gence had been provided by"both India and the UnitedStates."

"We had no prior knowl-edge of these attacks," USAmbassador to Sri LankaAlaina Teplitz was quoted assaying by the CNN.

At least four Americanswere killed in the attacks.

She said, "the Sri Lankangovernment has admittedlapses in their intelligencegathering and informationsharing."

When asked her about deSilva's claim, Teplitz respond-ed, "Well I can't speak for oth-ers. I don't know what othersources of information thegovernment of Sri Lankamight have had. I can just tellyou that we had no priorknowledge."

Sri Lankan authoritieshave started an investigation

into how warnings about pos-sible attacks were not passedto top ministers.

Nine suicide bombers,including a woman, wereinvolved in the massive EasterSunday bombings and 60 peo-ple have been arrested so farfor their suspected links to SriLanka's worst terror attackthat killed at least 359 people.

Suicide bombers, believedto be members of localIslamist extremist group, car-ried out a series of devastat-ing blasts that tore throughchurches and luxury hotels inSri Lanka on Sunday. PTI

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Washington: President DonaldTrump threatened onWednesday to fight a possibleimpeachment effort byCongressional Democrats inthe US Supreme Court.

That could be difficult —the US constitution, and thecourt itself, have made clearthat it has no role in impeach-ment proceedings, which rep-resent the legislature's power tocheck wrongdoing by the pres-ident.

But Trump's tweet sug-gested the White House is tak-ing seriously a debate amongDemocrats on whether tolaunch the process that couldremove the president on thebasis of evidence of obstructionof justice in the Mueller reportreleased last week.

"The Mueller Report,despite being written by Angry

Democrats and Trump Haters,and with unlimited moneybehind it ($35,000,000), didn'tlay a glove on me. I DIDNOTHING WRONG," Trumpwrote.

"If the partisan Dems evertried to Impeach, I would firsthead to the US SupremeCourt." Released on Thursday,Special Counsel RobertMueller's final report from hisRussia meddling investigationlisted a dozen separate actionsby Trump that supportedobstruction allegations.

But Mueller demurred onconcluding if they amounted toa crime, leaving that decision toCongress, where the House ofRepresentatives has the powerto impeach a president — for-mally charge him — and theSenate to find him innocent orguilty. AFP

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L ondon: The ScottishGovernment will introducelegislation "shortly" as a firststep towards another inde-pendence referendum to beheld by 2021, First MinisterNicola Sturgeon announcedon Wednesday.

"We will shortly intro-duce legislation to set therules for any referendum,"the Scottish National Party(SNP) leader told lawmakersin Edinburgh.

She said she hoped thelegislation would be agreed bythe end of 2019.

Her government aims to"give people a choice on inde-pendence" from the UnitedKingdom before the end of thecurrent term of parliamentexpires in May 2021. AFP

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Tehran: Iran's supreme leaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei onWednesday called the end ofoil sanction waivers by theUnited States a "hostile mea-sure" that "won't be left with-out a response".

"US efforts to boycott thesale of Iran's oil won't getthem anywhere. We willexport our oil as much as weneed and we intend," his offi-cial English-language Twitteraccount said.

The United States onMonday announced it will nolonger grant sanctions exemp-tions to Iran's oil customersand will start imposing sanc-tions on countries such asIndia, China and Turkey ifthey buy Iranian oil.

In May 2018, PresidentDonald Trump withdrew theUS from the 2015 Iran nucleardeal which had given theIslamic republic sanctionsrelief in exchange for curbs onits nuclear programme.

Washington reimposed oilsanctions on Iran inNovember but initially gaveeight Governments six-monthreprieves.

Five of the countries —Greece, Italy, Japan, SouthKorea and Taiwan — havealready heavily reduced theirpurchases from Iran.

"They (the US) wishfullythink they have blocked Iranoil sales, but our vigorousnation and vigilant officials, ifthey work hard, will openmany blockades," Khameneisaid on Twitter. AFP

Berlin: The UN's human rightschief is calling Saudi Arabia'smass execution of 37 men,including three who were sen-tenced as minors, "shocking" and"abhorrent."

Michelle Bachelet's officesaid Wednesday the beheadingsin six cities across Saudi Arabiawere carried out Tuesday despiterepeated warnings from rightsofficials about lack of dueprocess. The men mostlybelonged to the minority Shiite

branch of Islam and had beenconvicted of terrorism-relatedcrimes. The body and severedhead of a convicted Sunniextremist were pinned to a poleas a public warning. Bachelet saidit was "particularly abhorrent thatat least three of those killed wereminors at the time of their sen-tencing." She urged Saudi Arabiato review its counterterror leg-islation, expressly prohibit thedeath penalty for minors and haltpending executions. AFP

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The mere mention ofAghoris triggers an imageof fear, intrigue, mystique

and bafflement in our minds,simply because little is knownabout this reclusive cult of sadhus.The instant visual that floatsbefore the eyes is that of an ash-smeared man with intense eyes,sporting dreadlocks, reciting vers-es and, the most intriguing aspectof all, practising cannibalism.But there’s so much more tothem than what meets the eyes.Did you know that a man wholooks just like us, has a job andseems well-adjusted sociallycould also be a worshipper ofAghora? Well, actor GauravChopra’s forthcoming showAghori revolves around the same

concept. He apprises us thatAghoris, contrary to their gener-al perception, are actually healers.

He explains that the impres-sion that we have of them is basedon misconception. “An Aghori issomebody who follows a life of anAghor, which is disciplined anddoes not demarcate between one-self and another human being.Practitioners are the purest andcan feel you like a beehive. ManyAghoris are part of modern soci-ety but at the same time also fol-low the discipline of an Aghor.Just the way there are all kinds ofpeople — Hindus, Christians,Muslims — similarly all kinds ofAghoris exist. They are the vic-tims of stereotypes. There areconvictions that get exaggerated

over a period of time. And onceexaggerated, they become a type-cast for the entire community.This show will reveal what theyare meant to do and how theyactually are.”

The Uttaran actor clarifiesthat Aghoris are followers ofShiva. And the God has twoforms — of the maker and of thedestroyer. As a manifestation ofthe latter, they practise their crafton cremation grounds whichhave an all-pervasive sense ofdeath.

“Everything comes from theGod who kills and he killsbecause he has to give you anoth-er life,” says the actor with final-ity ringing in his voice.

However, he disagrees withthose people who might arguethat shows like this feed mythsand make them grow bigger. “Idon’t want to talk about myths.I’m trying to explain the truth.Within them also there are goodand bad versions. There are thosewho go towards the cult and oth-ers who go towards tantra. Thiscan happen to anybody just likepeople get corrupted in office

with the sense of power. In a sim-ilar manner, when they acquirethese powers, some Aghorisdirect their energies towardstantra.”

People often refer to them assuper humans and they do haveimmense powers as compared toan ordinary person. “But it’s upto them where they channelisethe power. It is nothing but ener-gy. And that’s exactly what thisstory is centered around — thefight between good and evil.Even if Ravan wouldn’t haveabducted Sita, Ram, the protec-tor of the good, would havekilled evil,” he adds.

Gaurav explains further thatit is also the attitude whichmakes them different. He says,“As an Aghori, I don’t see a dif-ference between you and me oron account of colour and creed.I don’t have anger, vengeance orjealousy. All the powers and thesiddhis that he acquires is used forhealing. For instance, there’s painin my wrist and it’s bothering me,I’ll do something about it, prob-ably go to a doctor. Similarly, ifyou have a pain in your wrist, I’ll

do something about that too.Your pain is my pain.”

What if a girl happens to fallin love with a seemingly ordinaryman and later discovers that heis actually an Aghori? What if hehas consciously held back his trueidentity for a hidden motive?Gaurav tells us that it is a storyof love, mysticism and deceit. “Itwill shatter all the stereotypessurrounding love and happy end-ings. It will also present a sagawhich is set against the backdropof the Aghori world,” he says.

Gaurav had his reasons forsigning up for the show. He says,“When you have been around forso many years and have givensuccessful shows, people startslotting you. Every time they con-struct another character which issimilar to what you have playedbefore, they call you. However, asan actor, you feel trapped becausehow will you explore and do newthings? The whole point of beingan actor is to be versatile whereone can play different roles andlive different lives.”

To play such a characterrequires a lot of research. Gaurav

had 100 questions when he heardthe script and he says, “I didn’twant to misrepresent Aghoris. Idefinitely don’t want to wrecksomething which is so sacred. Iwatched many documentariesand did the groundwork. I wassurprised to see that there areAghoris who are engineers andare well-educated. It is just a wayof life. It doesn’t have to be in aform of a sadhu.”

Did his opinion change afterdoing this show? Well, he saysthat he had to modify his outlookeven before he started doing itbecause “how will I play withconviction if I do not get myselfinto the skin of the character.”

However, this show is not theonly thing that he has up hissleeve. Gaurav teases us aboutAvengers: Endgame, by sayingthat he is probably the only per-son who has seen the much-hyped film as “I am the officialvoice behind the character ofThor in the Hindi version,” hechuckles.

(The show will soon premiereon Zee TV.)

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About five years ago, MarvelStudios president Kevin Feigefound himself on a retreat inPalm Springs plotting thefuture for the wild, experi-

mental “cinematic universe” that hehelped start in 2008. He wanted to dosomething that they hadn’t done. Hewanted an ending.

And after a quick pitch to RobertDowney Jr, he, directors Anthony and JoeRusso and screenwriters ChristopherMarkus and Stephen McFeely, startedplotting a way to bring this saga to a close,brainstorming whenever they had amoment — even in between takes ofCaptain America: Civil War.

Anyone who saw Avengers: InfinityWar knows they weren’t kidding aroundeither. Thanos literally dissolved half ofhumanity, including Spider-Man andBlack Panther in an event known as “thesnap” that’s inspired tears, memes andmore fan theories than the internet canhold. Talk about a cliffhanger.

Endings are a rarity in the franchisemovie-making business; especially whenone’s popularity has only multiplied as themovies of Marvel have. But MarvelStudios, which has never shied away froma little rule-breaking, is taking a sledge-hammer to that old “don’t leave money onthe table” maxim, and audiences will final-ly be able to see how they do it whenAvengers: Endgame opens nationwidetoday.

“Ending is not a scary word,” Feigesaid. “It’s a necessary word.”

What exactly that means for theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) issomething of a state secret. Feige said thatthis will be “definitive,” though.

“People can debate and discuss whatthat means before they see the movie,”Feige said. “But for us that means bring-ing to a conclusion the first three phas-es, the first 22 films in the MCU, so thateverything thereafter is a new start.”

So “new” in fact that Feige won’t evendiscuss what’s to come beyond the Julyrelease of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Hewon’t confirm reportedly in-the-worksprojects like the Black Widow stand-alone,The Eternals or Shang-Chi, or talk aboutplans for the 20th Century Fox proper-ties like Deadpool and X-Men that are nowunder his purview. They have the next fiveyears mapped out; they’re just not lettingaudiences peek behind the curtain untilafter Endgame. It’s that big.

“How we leave Endgame will helpdefine where we’re going for many peo-ple,” Feige said. But how does one talkabout a movie that no press has seen andno actors or creators are allowed to dis-cuss in detail? Well, carefully and crypti-cally.

It was Robert Downey Jr.’s TonyStark (Iron Man) who kicked things offfor the MCU, and it’s him who opens“Endgame” and most often takes centrestage. Providing even the most basic ofplot points in Endgame is a fool’serrand, but it’s fair to say that it takesplace some time after the rapturecaused by the megalomaniac boul-der Thanos (Josh Brolin).Having obtained all six ofthe “infinity stones,” hewiped away 50 per centof Earth’s creatures(and superheroes) atthe end of InfinityWar with thesnap of his fin-gers.

Rather thanbask in theextra parkingspaces and

uncrowded check-out aisles, the sur-vivors have spent the ensuing time in aprolonged state of mourning. The remain-ing superheroes are also reeling, ashamedof their defeat. One has turned angry andvengeful, another has grown a beer belly.As nauseating as the aura of momentous-ness around Endgame has been for some,the movie — while certainly not lackingin ominous solemnity — is frequentlyfunny, as the Russos, working from ascript by Christopher Markus and StephenMcFeely, arrange their heroes in freshpairings and unlikely contexts.

That’s owed sizeably to the cast,which sports a number of top-tier comicactors, chief among them Downey Jr, butthere’s also the thankfully prominentPaul Rudd (Ant-Man) and Avengers reg-ulars Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and MarkRuffalo (the Hulk). While Marvel hasimproved in gender parity (Brie Larson’srecently launched Captain Marvel playsa small but pivotal role here) its cosmoscould still use some funny actresses. CanMaya Rudolph, please, be made queen ofthe galaxy?

From the previous outing, we knewsome things. That the heroes left like IronMan, Captain America (Chris Evans),Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor,Hulk and War Machine (Don Cheadle)are dealing with the devastating loss post-snap while trying to figure out what to dowith Thanos. A helpful “Avenge theFallen” campaign served as a reminder ofwho survived and who didn’t (some of thedusted were even a surprise, like BlackPanther’s Shuri). We also know theyhave a new weapon in Brie Larson’sCaptain Marvel, who Samuel L Jackson’sNick Fury managed to page before dis-solving into dust.

Characters die. But it is at least threeclown cars worth of superheroes. Seldom,if ever, have more movie stars been

brought together in one place; a filmwith this kind of collection of talent

really can’t help but be decent, atminimum.

Filming proved an emo-tional experience for

many of the actors, alot of whom have

now been work-ing together foralmost a decadeor more.

“I waspretty teary-eyed,” Evanssaid. “This isthe culminationof a really longendeavor. It kind

of wraps up the journey for a lot of thesecharacters.”

It led to a lot of reflection, about wherethey started and how they’ve grown.Johansson noted that she’d been develop-ing her character for 10 years now, and isexcited that Black Widow has evolvedfrom a “sexy secretary” type to a morefully realised woman.

“The whole shoot felt pretty nostal-gic,” Hemsworth added. “We were con-stantly talking about when it all started tohow we pulled this off and what we werea part of.”

But he also admits he was “kind ofhappy to get off the set.” An eight monthshoot can wear even on Thor.

And indeed the shoot was grueling.The directors, who did Winter Soldier,Civil War and Infinity War said it was thehardest of their life. “This went farbeyond anything we’d ever done before,”said Anthony Russo. “There’s a reason whymovies aren’t made this way normally.”

But that this was unconventional wasalso the draw. “I think the only reason westuck around, is because they were com-mitted to an ending and we’re deconstruc-tionists,” said Joe Russo. “We like to takethings apart and see the ramifications ofwhat happens. Winter Soldier the goodguys became the bad guys, Civil War, wedivorced the heroes, Infinity War, we killedhalf of them. We like to smash it and lookat how you can put the pieces back togeth-er.”

And no one, not even Feige, regretsputting the MCU on this one-way path.That’s not to say he never second guess-es himself, however.

Two weeks before Infinity War cameout he had a moment of panic about thesnap. “That ending was one of the reasonswhy we wanted to make the movie. That’show we sold it to Disney. We were confi-dent in it,” Feige said. “But then a week ortwo weeks before the film came out, I went,‘Oh no. We’re killing all these people. Whatif the audience totally rejects it?’”

Generous in humor, spirit and senti-mentality, Endgame is a surprisingly fullfeast of blockbuster-making that, throughsome time-traveling magic, looks backnostalgically at Marvel’s decade of worlddomination. This is the Marvel machineworking at high gear, in full control of itsmyth-making powers and uncoveringmore emotion in its fictional cosmos thanever before.

But the main difference is that a doseof finality has crept in to a universe wheredeath is seldom visited on anyone but thebad guys. Endgame will likely be mostremembered for its teary goodbyes. To saywho would, of course, invite my own

demise. But the send-offs, tender and sin-cere, capture something about the Avengersfilms. At their root, they are about fami-ly. Never has that been more apparent thanin the daughters, fathers, sons, mothers,sisters, brothers and spouses that populateEndgame, making up the connections thatbind this fantasy realm — one that, for allits turmoil, is far more unified than ours.

Other farewells are more legitimate-ly sombre. The late Stan Lee here makeshis final cameo, and it’s a good one. Lee’sswan song, as much as anything, verifies

that Endgame marks the end of an era. Theconclusion of this chapter in the MCU, ofcourse, won’t last long; Marvel’s assemblylines are already humming. And I suspectit will be some time before we understandjust what Marvel has wrought with thesemovies. At their worst, they are colossal,inhuman products built for a supersizedform of binge-watching. At their best, theyare grand, mega-sized Hollywood specta-cles. It’s not a spoiler to say that Endgameverges more on the latter.

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The liver (Yakrit), is a vitalorgan. It converts rasa

dhatu to rakta dhatu (blood).It also produces bile (ranjakpitta) and detoxifies the body,eliminating ama from theblood. Wrong diet and lifestyledamages the liver tissues andleads to diseases like jaundice,fatty liver and hepatitis.Thankfully, Ayurveda canhelp. Include these five simpleAyurvedic herbs in your life tokeep your liver healthy.

KUTKI: This bitter tastingherb is cooling in nature andhas a cleansing effect on theliver and the gallbladder. InAyurveda, kutki is prescribedto improve the appetite and to

treat jaundice or bile disorders.The herb is beneficial in skindisorders and also improvesthe metabolism.

TURMERIC: This yellowherb supports liver functionsand cleanses the blood. It canalso aid the process of trans-forming rasa into rakta.

Turmeric also promotes elim-ination of toxins from thebody. In most cases, you donot need to take any addition-al turmeric if you already useit in your meals.

GUDUCHI: This herb isknown for its detoxifying andblood cleansing properties.Ayurvedic herbal medicinesprepared for liver problems

contain guduchi. The herbalso has known benefits intreating Kamala (jaundice),hepatitis and fatty liver.Guduchi should be takenunder the guidance of anAyurvedic doctor.

TRIPHALA: The mixture ofamla, bibhitaki and haritakihelps in regularising metabo-lism and bowel movements. It

cools down the body and bal-ances all tridoshas in the body.Triphala churna can be takenby anyone every night beforebed.

ALOE VERA: Aloe vera juiceflushes toxins out of the liver(hepatoxicity) and promotes

good bowel movements. Inaddition to soothing the diges-tive system, aloe vera alsofights stress and strengthensthe immune system.NOTE: Please do not self-medicate with herbs. For treat-ment of liver problems, pleaseconsult a doctor.

(The views expressed arepersonal. Dr Partap

Chauhan is an author, publicspeaker and a

Ayurvedacharya).

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The 4th Trans India LawAssociates (TILA)International Energy

Conference was organised by the DrGopal Energy Foundation (DGEF)at New Delhi recently. The interna-tional event was inaugurated by thedirector general of the InternationalSolar Alliance, Upendra Tripathi.The chief guest on the occasionreleased the ‘Right to EnergyDeclaration’ and launched the ‘TICEAchievers Award 2020’, for institu-tions and/or individuals who con-tribute to accelerate the pace of ener-gy revolution through various inno-vative means. The dignitaries presenton the occasion included the man-aging director of Solar EnergyCorporation of India (SECI), J NSwain, the managing director ofPTC, Pawan Singh, the managingdirector of the Indian RenewableEnergy Development Agency(IREDA), KS Popli, Anjuli Chandrafrom Punjab State ElectricityRegulatory Commission (PSERC)and Ramesh Chaudhry from BERC,among others.

DGEF is a premiere non-profitorganisation founded on April 15,2015, which has been working toenable an energy revolution by serv-ing the international community inthe disciplines of power, petroleum,gas, coal, nuclear and renewableenergy sector, with the motto—‘Energy for All’.

The conference witnessed an‘Open House Multilateral Dialogue’on need for energy revolutionbetween representatives of variouscountries including Nigeria, SouthKorea, Cameroon and Canada

among others. The internationalcommunity, including representa-tives from the Solar Alliance,Electricity Regulatory Commission,public sector undertaking units,energy funding agencies and variousfinancial corporations, participatedin this conference.

The convener of the conference,Raj Singh Niranjan, who is also anenergy law expert and the manag-ing partner of TILA, said that theobjective of the conference is tobring about an 'energy revolution' bybringing together all key stake-holders on a single platform. Thiswould allow them all to discuss theexisting government's initiatives,policies and innovative ideas and tosuggest potential measures for awholesome implementation of theIndian government's initiative (UrjaKranti) to remove the course of

energy poverty in India. Some of thethemes on which the delegatesdeliberated included sovereignfund/lending to the power sectorand state regulatory bodies. Duringthe conference, the delegates and

energy experts from across theglobe resolved to observe April15th as ‘Right to Energy Day’ everyyear. Keeping in view the above, the5th TILA International Conferenceon Energy 2020 will be convened on

April 15 in New Delhi.The conference was supported

by leading companies in the ener-gy sector like Power FinanceCorporation (PFC), RuralElectrification Corporation (REC),IREDA, Tehri Hydro DevelopmentCorporation India Limited (THD-CIL), Satluj Jal Vidyut Limited(SJVNL), Railway EnergyManagement Company Limited(REMCL), National Hydro ElectricPower Corporation Limited(NHPC), Power System OperationCorporation Limited (POSOCO),Patel Engineering, Jakson, DelhiMetro Rail Corporation (DMRC),Gujarat Metro, Maharashtra Metro,PTC Financial Services and others.Trans India Law Associates, the legaladviser to the International SolarAlliance (ISA) was the knowledgepartner of the conference.

In an attempt to fulfill the aspira-tions of the Indo-Russian business

fraternity, the first ever national levelparticipation in the sixth edition ofthe Irkutsk International Trade Fair,Irkutsk, Russia (August 21 to 24,2019) is being organised by the IndiaTrade Promotion Organisation(ITPO) at the Irkutsk ExhibitionComplex in Russia.

The event aims to carry forwardthe momentum to further strength-en the bilateral trade relations andprovide an excellent business plat-form to the Indian companies inRussia’s untapped Balkan region.The event will feature bonhomie ofthe people of Russia towards Indianproducts as they have a special placein their hearts. Significantly, theevent will be visited by the companiesfrom main cities of Siberia, Russia andIndia’s neighboring countries likeChina, Mongolia, Kazakhstan,Ukraine, Belorussia and so on.

India's participation assumes spe-cial significance as both the countrieshave made a resolution to set a tar-get for US$ 30 billion in bilateral tradeby 2025 and both the countries areworking together towards devel-oping a Free TradeAgreement (FTA) tofacilitate this target.This also includesthe sale of com-modities alongwith civilnuclear energyand defenseequipment. Themulti-productB2B and B2Cevent is being heldwith the support ofthe Embassy of India inRussia, the Government ofIrkutsk Region, the East SiberianChamber of Commerce and theIndustry and City Administration of

the Irkutsk city. India's country levelparticipation will bring the two coun-tries together to work jointly towardsintegrating them into a regionalvalue chain, thereby promoting mutu-

al trade and investment.The multi-productdisplay profile includes

goods and indus-tries including

e n g i n e e r i n ggoods, informa-tion technolo-gy, renewalenergy, elec-tronics, build-ing and con-

struction indus-try (hardware, san-

itary ware, ceram-ics, tiles, interior and

décor), pharmaceutical,chemicals, medical and surgical

equipment, apparel, textiles andhandloom, jewellery, handicrafts,

footwear, coir and jute products, hor-ticulture, print and packaging tech-nologies, sports goods, food process-ing machines/equipment, food andbeverages, Ayurveda, yoga, herbalproducts and cosmetics, health careservices, educational institutions,hospitality and tourism industryalong with participation from themedia and entertainment industry.The business visitors to the exhibi-tion would include importers andexporters, wholesalers, local andregional buyers, among others.

Those who wish to participate inthe exhibition can pay the participa-tion fee of $300 per square meters forthe equipped shell stands. Theexhibitors can order additional equip-ment and furniture from the exhibitormanual. The catalogue and tariff forextra display stands, renting extrashowcases, tables, chairs, and otheraccessories are available on requestwith the organisers.

IndianOil’s Northern Regionkicked off the ‘Safety Week’

celebrations by observing the‘National Fire Service Day’ tocreate awareness on fire pre-vention, fire protection andrenew its employees’ com-mitment towards safety. Thecompany’s employees under-took the safety pledge whichwas followed by various safe-ty awareness events and com-petitions. A safety trainingprogram for contract workersof the Northern Regionaloffice was also organised dur-

ing the week, wherein, inputswere provided to all the work-ers on usage of various fireand safety equipment, firechemistry, fire organogramand emergency evacuationprocedure. An exhibition offire and safety equipment,inaugurated by HarshSachdev, Executive Director(Regional Services),IndianOil, Northern Region,was also set up to refresh theoperating knowledge. He alsoreleased a booklet on ‘SafetyBriefing’.

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The first knowledge sharing workshop between the PublicRelations Society of India (PRSI) Chapters was conducted

in Bhopal recently, under the patronage of Pushpendra Pal Singh,the chairman of the Bhopal Chapter and Naresh Kumar, the chair-man of the Delhi Chapter. The former general manager (PR) ofthe Airport Authority of India, G S Bawa, was also present onthis occasion. The workshop was organised by the Bhopal Chapterof PRSI on the occasion of the National Public Relation Day. Theevent was attended by professionals from the industry and stu-dents of the Makhanlal Chaturvedi University.

Anew coast guard vessel —C-441—was commis-

sioned at the VizhinjamHarbour by the chief secre-tary of the Government ofKerala, Tom Jose. He com-missioned the ship into theseries in a ceremonial func-tion hosted under the aegis ofthe Regional CommanderWestern Region, InspectorGeneral Vijay D Chafekar,PTM, TM. The function waswitnessed by senior officersfrom the Army, Navy, AirForce, BSF, police, AirportAuthority of India, Centraland state authorities and theNational Cadet Corps. It wasconducted with full ceremo-ny of parading the guard andthe band. The Indian CoastGuard ship C-441 is capableto undertake multifarioustasks such as close coast sur-

veillance, interdiction, searchand rescue and renderingassistance to boats and craftsin distress at sea. It willenhance the search and res-cue capacity of Kerala seas.

The ship is commanded byAssistant Commandant AmitK Choudhary, TM and has a13 member crew onboardwith specialisation in variousfields.

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At the recently concludedGoafest 2019, Muthoot

Finance’s 45-day mega activa-tion effort at the PrayagrajKumbh 2019 called ‘MuthootVishwaas Ki Tijori’, bagged theSilver Medal at the AbbyAwards 2019. Abhinav Iyer,DGM (Marketing andStrategy) accepted the awardon behalf of the brand.

Partnered with RadioMirchi, ‘Muthoot VishwaasKi Tijori’ offered technology-enabled, free locker servicesfor all devotees. This is for thefirst time in the history of theKumbh Mela, that locker ser-vices were offered to all visi-tors to keep their personalbelongings safe before theyproceed to have their holy dip.

It was observed that moreoften than not, people comingfor the festival found it amajor challenge to keep theirvaluables safely and had toleave their personal belongingsunattended on the banks of the

river and thus were unable tofocus or enjoy having a peace-ful holy dip. Identifying thisproblem, Muthoot Financedecided to leverage on its coreasset of ‘trust’ and offer thisunique solution.

Powered by a speciallydesigned mobile App, onlinee-KYC was done while avail-ing this service. Photographsof their belongings were takenand a physical confirmationdocument along with thephotograph of their belong-ings was given to the depos-itors, providing them anadded layer of assurance. Thelockers were also equippedwith 24x7 CCTV surveillancesystems, security guards,metal detectors, alarm sys-tems, fire extinguisher andother essentials to ensureadded safety. On their return,their belongings and identitywas re-verified and handedover to them in the same pris-tine condition.To sweeten

their experience, all theirbelongings were returned inMuthoot branded biodegrad-able non-plastic bags along with some interestinggoodies.

To add to this, the exteri-or design and overall look andfeel of the locker too was likethat of an actual golden vaultwhich by itself became a spec-tator’s delight. During the acti-vation, more than 10,000 ben-eficiaries availed this free ser-vice thereby, letting more than50,000 family members have apeaceful holy dip during theirKumbh visit.

In addition to the above,innovative Muthoot BoatServices were also introducedto ferry people. Free transitshelter homes were also organ-ised at multiple cities for devo-tees, free of cost. For overseasvisitors who converged forthis festival, Muthoot Forexhelped them with instant for-eign exchange services.

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Barcelona will win La Liga onWednesday if Atletico

Madrid lose to Valencia after a2-0 victory over Alaves gavethem a 12-point lead at the topof the table.

Lionel Messi started on thebench at Mendizorrotza onTuesday in a move that madeclear just how comfortableBarca are in this title race, itsconclusion surely nowonly a matter of whenrather than if.

Should Atleticoavoid defeat to Valenciaat the WandaMetropolitano, theCatalans will still becrowned champions onSaturday at the Camp Nouwith a victory over Levante.

They could even have itwrapped up before kick-off onSaturday if Atletico fail to takeat least four points fromValencia and Real Valladolid,the latter whom they face a fewhours earlier on Saturday.

"It's an incredibly valuablewin," coach Ernesto Valverdesaid. Real Madrid, who playtheir game in hand againstGetafe on Thursday, sit 16points adrift in third. Alavesstay eighth, their hopes of aEuropa League spot fading fast.

Messi came on as a substi-tute in the 61st minute shortly

after his team had scored twice,Carles Alena guiding one intothe corner before Luis Suarez,in Messi's absence, took anddispatched a penalty.

Valverde leaving out hiscaptain and star player, presum-ably with an eye on next week'sChampions League semi-finalagainst Liverpool, was a luxu-ry Barcelona have earned andcan afford.

Liverpool, still jostling withManchester City in thePremier League, areunlikely to feel thesame sort of confidencewhen they faceHuddersfield onFriday.

Other players werepreserved too. Jordi

Alba, Clement Lenglet andArthur Melo all began on thebench, allowing Samuel Umtitimore minutes as he recoversfrom a knee injury, while thestruggling Philippe Coutinhostarted in a front three withOusmane Dembele and Suarez.

Alena, the 21-year-oldSpaniard, scored his second LaLiga goal and showed againwhy many believe he could bea key figure for Barcelona in theyears to come.

Suarez's goal, meanwhile,was his 21st in the league andmarks the fourth consecutiveseason in which he has passedthe 20 mark for Barca.

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Mauricio Pochettino admittedhis tired Tottenham stars arepushing themselves to their

limits after Christian Eriksen's superblate strike sealed a hard-fought 1-0 winover struggling Brighton on Tuesday.

Pochettino's third-placed sidedominated from start to finish at theTottenham Hotspur Stadium, but acombination of brave Brighton defend-ing and poor finishing kept the matchin the balance until the 88th minute.

Eriksen finally ended Brighton'sstubborn resistence with a sensation-al long-range drive that liftedTottenham three points clear of fourth-

placed Chelsea and four ahead ofArsenal in fifth.

"The team are not as fresh as wewanted, not just legs, but minds, so wehave to congratulate the players. I'mso proud of them," said Pochettino.

"Brighton were a really braveopponent. The most important thingis we believed, we didn't give up."

Although Arsenal can close thegap to one point if they win at Wolveson Wednesday, this was a vital resultin Spurs' bid to qualify for next sea-son's Champions League via a top fourfinish.

Tottenham have now won all fourgames in all competitions at their plushnew arena, scoring eight goals with-

out reply.This was the most frustrating fix-

ture at the £1 billion ($1.3 billion)ground as the hosts looked hamstrungwithout injured striker Harry Kaneuntil Eriksen came to the rescue withhis ninth goal of the season in all com-petitions.

But Pochettino was delighted withthe way his players kept plugging awayright to the end despite the drainingeffects of their hectic fixture list.

"There were more than 20attempts and the reward is massive,"he said.

Tottenham can take another steptowards securing their top-four berthin Saturday's crucial London derby

against West Ham before focusing onthe first leg of the Champions Leaguesemi-finals against Ajax next week.

������������������ ��������Southampton strikerShane Long scored the fastest goal inPremier League history on Tuesdayafter netting just 7.69 seconds into hisside's 1-1 draw at Watford, whosnatched a point thanks to AndreGray's late equaliser.

Long's record-breaking goal cameimmediately after the kick-off when heblocked a clearance from Watforddefender Craig Cathcart, allowingthe Republic of Ireland internationalto dink a cool finish over Ben Foster.

The 32-year-old's effort surpassedthe previous fastest Premier Leaguegoal, scored by Tottenham defenderLedley King in 9.9 seconds againstBradford in December 2000.

"It's a record, is it?" Long told SkySports News with a grin after the game.

"Straight from the kick-off wewanted to put them under pressure. 99times out of a hundred you block it andit doesn't work but this time it did."

Long's historic goal, just his fourththis season, didn't prove to be the win-ner at Vicarage Road after Gray's 90thminute equaliser for the FA Cupfinalists but nonetheless moved themsix points from the relegation zonewith three matches remaining.

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Amit Dhankar clinched aSilver medal while

Commonwealth Games cham-pion Rahul Aware won aBronze as Indian men'sfreestyle wrestlers continuedtheir impressive performanceat the Asian WrestlingChampionships here onWednesday.

Amit, who won Gold in66kg in the 2013 edition, set-tled for a Silver in the men's74kg freestyle event after los-ing to Daniyar Kaisanov ofKazakhstan 0-5 in the final.

Aware, who won a 57kgGold at the CWG in GoldCoast , produced a dominantdisplay to beat Jincheol Kim 9-2 in the men's 61kg freestyleBronze medal play-off.

The 27-year-old Indianlost to Behnam EshaghEhsanpoor of Iran in the quar-terfinals in a Victory by Fallverdict.

But since Ehsanpoorreached the final, Aware wasup against Siripong Jumpakamin the repechage round whichhe won 12-1 in in a Victory byTechnical Superiority.

���� /*���*�'1�

GSathiyan was the lone sur-vivor at the 2019 ITTF

World Championships as theIndian edged past ChristianPletea of Romania 11-5, 11-9,6-11, 11-7, 11-6 in a round of64 match in Budapest.

The world No 28 willmeet Hugo Calderano ofBrazil, ranked No 7, in theround of 32 later onWednesday.

Sharath Kamal, on theother hand, was woefully outof sorts against Tomislav Pucarof Croatia when he went down9-11, 10-12, 11-8, 4-11, 9-11 inthe round of 64.

The Indian, ranked No 36,failed to come to grips againstthe world No 58, who had abetter control over the matchand Sharath.

Manav Thakkar, who had

made the main draw cut,failed to go past AustrianRobert Gardos despite a verygood fight. The young Indianpaddler lost 13-11, 6-11, 11-8,11-3, 2-11, 10-12, 6-11 in theround of 128.

Both Manika Batra andSuthirta Mukherjee endedtheir world championshipscampaign, bowing out in

round of 64 Tuesday night.Taipei's Szu-Yu Chen beat

Manika 11-2, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9 as the world No 24needed mere 34 minutesagainst the world No 56Indian. In contrast, Suthirtamanaged to take two games ofher rival before losing toPuerto Rican Adriana Diaz 11-4, 8-11, 11-7, 5-11, 3-11, 9-11.

�����2'-/�

Top Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwalnotched up contrasting wins to enter the second

round but Kidambi Srikanth suffered a shock defeat inthe Asia Badminton Championship here on Wednesday.

Olympic and world championship Silver-medallistSindhu eased pastTakahashi Sayaka ofJapan in straightgames.

Sindhu looked incommand from thebeginning and regis-tered a thumping 21-14, 21-7 victory in just28 minutes. Thefourth-seeded Indianwill next faceChoirunnisa ofIndonesia.

World numbernine Saina had to workhard to get the better ofChina's Han Yue.

The seventh seed-ed Indian came backstrongly to pull off athrilling 12-21, 21-11,21-17 win after con-ceding the first game. She will next square off againstKim Ga Eun of South Korea.

In men's singles, fifth seed Srikanth lost toIndonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito in 16-21, 20-22 ina match that lasted 44 minutes.

Sameer Verma notched up a hard-fought 21-13, 17-21, 21-18 victory over Sakai Kazumasa of Japan.

It was end of the road for the men's doubles pair ofM R Arjun and Ramchandran Shlok, who went down18-21, 15-21 to the duo of He Jiting and Tan Qiang.

In the women's doubles event India's campaign cameto end as all three pairs lost their matches.

Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram lost 21-13, 21-16 to the Thai pair followed by Pooja Dandu andSanjana Santosh going down 21-13, 12-21, 21-12.

Aparna Balan-Sruthi K were ousted after a 12-21,10-21 loss in just 25 minutes to the unseeded Singaporeanpairing of Jin Yujia and Sugiarto and Barkah Yulfira.

���� 0-/��3��

The men have already equalled theirbest ever medal haul, while the

women have maintained their consis-tent domination to put India on top ofthe standings ahead of the semifinalsof the Asian Boxing Championshipshere on Thursday.

Thirteen of the country's boxers —seven men and six women — areassured of at least Bronze medals afteradvancing to the last-four stage of themarquee continental championship.

The performance has placed Indiaahead of powerhouses Kazakhstan(seven men and four women) andChina (two men and eight women).

The men in medal rounds areDeepak Singh (49kg), Amit Panghal(52kg), Kavinder Bisht (56kg), ShivaThapa (60kg), Ashish (69kg), AshishKumar (75kg) & Satish Kumar (+91kg).

Nikhat Zareen (51kg), Manisha(54kg), Sonia Chahal (57kg), L SaritaDevi (60kg), Simranjit Kaur (64kg) andPooja Rani (75kg) make up India's rep-resentation in the women's semifinals.

Wednesday is rest day in the tour-nament, being held simultaneouslyfor men and women for the first time.

"So far we have done exceptional-ly well but now comes the big test. Allthese semifinals are being treated asfinals," India's High PerformanceDirector Santiago Nieva said.

The best performance by menwas in 2009, which led to seven medalsin India's kitty, including one Gold. Thebest by women was back in 2005 inTaiwan when India finished overallchampions with 11 medals, seven ofthem Gold.

The Indian juggernaut has beenunstoppable so far and national coachC A Kuttappa said rediscovering theaggressive streak has been vital to thesuccess.

"It's good to be cautious when youare faced with a tough opponent butoverall it is better if you make a state-ment from the word go. That's what wehave succeeded in doing consistentlyhere," he said.

���� -//1/��

India's top women's singles playerAnkita Raina shocked former US

Open champion Samantha Stosur forthe biggest win of her career, progress-ing to the second round of KunpingOpen here on Wednesday.

The Indian, an Asian GamesBronze medallist, shocked the fanciedAustralian 7-5, 2-6, 6-5 in a gruellingtwo hours and fifty minutes battle atthe WTA 125K event.

This is the second time the twofaced off, with Stosur winning their lastencounter in straight sets.

The 26-year-old Indian struggledto hold her and managed only threeaces throughout the match comparedto Stosur, who smashed seven aces.However, the world No 77 mademore errors — 18 double faults —compared to Ankita's six.

She will face Kai-Lin Zhang ofChina in the second round.

����� &2&&�6-&

Angelique Kerber will face compatri-ot Andrea Petkovic in the second

round of this week's WTA tournamentin Stuttgart, after Petkovic beat Spain'sSara Sorribes Tormo in straight sets onTuesday.

World number five Kerber was

granted a bye to the second round afterSimona Halep withdrew from the tour-nament with an injury, and will now faceher friend and compatriot in an all-German duel on Thursday.

"I will send Angie a SMS or two thisevening," said Petkovic after beatingTormo 6-3, 6-4.

"Usually, the loser has to buy theother one dinner," she added.

In the other ties Belgium's GreetMinnens sprung a surprise when shebeat Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova,ranked 159 places above her, to set up asecond round meeting with world num-ber three Petra Kvitova.

Laura Siegemund became the thirdGerman to reach the second round whenshe beat Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko,while Anna-Lena Friedsam went downfighting in two sets against Dutch sixthseed Kiki Bertens.

Earlier in the day, Elise Mertens ofBelgium was knocked out by Russia'sDarya Kasatkina, and AnastasikaSevastova overcame fellow Latvian JelenaOstapenko in a rollercoaster battle overthree sets.

����� 0-6(*�3/-

Alexander Zverev has admitted he is ata loss to explain his dip in form after

the world number three was beaten bylucky loser Nicolas Jarry in the secondround of the Barcelona Open on Tuesday.

Zverev spurned a match point at 6-5and then a 3-0 lead in the final-set tie-break before going down 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/5)to Jarry, ranked 81st in the world.

The German had taken a late wildcardin Barcelona in search of both matches andform after a string of surprise defeats.

"I just play bad, it's not a secret,"Zverev said afterwards.

"The tennis was very low-level. Mostof the points that I won were unforcederrors by him. I'm in a hole and I don'tknow how to get out of it."

Jarry had even lost in qualifying toSpain's Marcel Granollers but, after beinggiven a reprieve, knocked out the sameopponent in the first round to set up ameeting with Zverev, long-considered a

future star of the men's game.The Chilean upset both Marin Cilic

in Shanghai and Dominic Thiem inHamburg last year but this was thebiggest victory of his career and anothersetback for Zverev, with just over a monthto go before the start of the French Open.

Jarry, meanwhile, will face eitherBulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov or veteranSpaniard Fernando Verdasco in the thirdround on Thursday, with Japan's KeiNishikori now the highest ranked seed leftin the bottom half.

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Kuldeep Yadav's sudden loss of form in the ongoingIPL will not in any way impact his performance in

the World Cup where he will have ample chance of acomeback, feels senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Kuldeep, who is expected to be a vital cog in India'sWorld Cup campaign, has got only four wickets in ninegames forKolkata KnightRiders and wasdropped in thelast gamea g a i n s tS u n r i s e r sHyderabad dueto "poor form".

"There isno doubt thatKuldeep isgoing througha rough patchin IPL. T20 is aformat whichcan destroy theconfidence ofany bowler butlet's not com-pare formats.O n e - d a y(match) is adifferent ballgame and you will see a very different Kuldeep,"Harbhajan said.

Harbhajan said from what he has seen Kuldeepbowling in the IPL, the wrist spinner has no technicalproblems as such.

"I have watched a bit of his bowling and I don't thinkthere is any technical problems. And please check whoall are hitting Kuldeep? The Indian guys are primari-ly hitting him. Virat (Kohli) in two games, Mayank(Agarwal), Mandy (Mandeep), Prithvi Shaw, ShreyasIyer, Shikhar Dhawan.

"Leave aside Virat, who is in a different league, allthese guys are competent players of spin bowling. Theyread Kuldeep's wrists much better than foreign bats-men. So in World Cup, Kuldeep will be bowling most-ly to those who are still not reading him well. I thinkyou will see a different Kuldeep," said Harbhajan, whohas played two World Cup finals.

���� �3��-&-

His job safe for now, skipperDinesh Karthik will be pray-

ing for a turnaround in the for-tunes of a struggling KolkataKnight Riders, as they meetRajasthan Royals at EdenGardens on Thursday.

KKR have suffered fivedefeats on the trot, exposingtheir over-reliance on AndreRussell, and Karthik has coppedcriticism for not promoting thebig-hitting West Indian up theorder.

Chosen ahead of the youngRishabh Pant in the World Cupsquad, the Tamil Nadu veteran,who was KKR's leading run-get-ter last season, is struggling forruns with an average of 16.71from nine outings.

Facing a must-win situationahead of the remaining fourmatches, head coach JacquesKallis has backed the under-fireskipper to script a 2014-like turn-around when they won their sec-ond title with nine wins in a row.

The biggest letdown for theteam has been its bowling unit,especially the spinners who havelacked sting at the Eden Gardens,something that was its mainstrength during the title-win-ning campaigns in 2012 and2014.

The famed trio of Kuldeep

Yadav, Sunil Narine and PiyusChawla have accounted for just 16wickets from 10 matches, sum-ming up their misery.

The seam attack too has beenordinary and they may be forcedto rejig their bowling attack onceagain.

Clinging to one spot belowKKR at seventh in the eight-teamstandings, Rajasthan Royals' fatetoo hangs by the thread. Theyshowed urgency with Steve Smithreplacing Ajinkya Rahane as thecaptain ahead of their clashagainst Mumbai Indians.

The move has clicked and RRwere able to bring their campaignback on track beating Mumbai.Rahane, too, roared back to formwith an elegant century, albeit ina losing cause, against DelhiCapitals in their last match.

���� 0-/�-�36*

AB de Villiers' scintillat-ing half century and a

121-run stand with MarcusStoinis propelled RoyalChallengers Bangalore to202 for four against Kings XIPunjab in a must-win IndianPremier League match hereon Wednesday.

Sent into bat, De Villiersscored a brilliant unbeaten82 off 44 balls with threefours and seven sixes, whileStoinis hammered 46 off 34balls with two fours andthree sixes.

In the last two overs,both Stonis and De Villiershamered 45 runs offMohammad Shami andHardus Viljoen.

After reaching his 50off 35 balls, De Villiers,smashed Shami for threesixes, plundering 18 runs inthe penultimate over.

In the last over, both

Stoinis and De Villiers ham-mered 27 runs off Viljoen,which helped the hosts torace past 200 runs mark.

Put into bat, openerParthiv (43 off 24 balls) andVirat Kohli gave a rollickingstart getting 35 runs onboard in 18 balls but RCBcaptain was dismissed byShami after he was caught byMandeep Singh at extracover.

Parthiv then got intothe act for RCB, hitting outof the park Shami for threeboundaries and a six in sixthover, who conceded 18 runsin his third over.

The left-hander also wassevere on Ankit Rajpoot,hitting him for four bound-aries and a six. The wicket-keeper batsman did not lastlong as he was caught byRavinchandran Ashwin offMurugan Ashwin, after hehad smashed seven 4s andtwo sixes.

Looking good at 71 for2 in 38 balls, RCB lost twoquick wickets of Moeen Ali(4) and Akashdeep Nath(3), leaving RCB at thecrossroads way 81 for 4.

De Villiers brought upthe fifty runs partnership forfifth wicket with Stioniswith a mighty six over deepmid-wicket off Murugan.

Giving him an able sup-port at the other end wasStoinis, who notched up auseful knock.

It turned out to be a for-gettable day for Shami andVilljoen as they conceded 53and 51 runs, respectively.

���� ('*//-1�

Shane Watson couldn'tthank Mahendra Singh

Dhoni and StephenFleming enough after end-ing his prolonged slump inform, saying he wouldhave been "dropped a longtime ago" in his previousfranchise.

He had gone withouta fifty in his first 10innings of the ongoingIPL before striking 96 off53 balls on Tuesday toguide Chennai SuperKings to a win overSunrisers Hyderabad.

"I can't thank StephenFleming and M S Dhonienough for their belief inme. Just about every otherteam I've been in... For meto miss out on not scoringruns for long as I hadthroughout the tourna-ment, if I had been in aprevious team I wouldhave been dropped a long

time ago," Watson said.Thanks to Watson's

knock, CSK chased downa target of 176 with sixwickets to spare.

"... So, for Stephen

Fleming and MS Dhoni inparticular to keep the faithin me and knowing that Ihad a really good inningsin me it was great," the 37-year old Watson told

reporters."For me personally,

knowing that I had comeoff from the PSL and com-ing into this I was flyinghigh and then things did-

n't go my way. I lost a bitof rhythm in my batting.

"So, for them to keepfaith in me I really appre-ciate it. In the end, youneed a bit of luck goingyour way as well. Bhuviworked me over in thefirst couple of overs in par-ticular and you need thoselittle bits of luck," headded.

The strongly builtbatsman who hammeredleg-spinner Rashid Khanfor quite a few runs, saidthe Afghan is one of thebest in this format.

The Australian waseffusive in his praise ofcompatriot and SRHopener David Warner,who has been in tremen-dous form this IPL.

"I really don't sort ofremember for the lastfour-five years a tourna-ment where Warner has-n't scored a hell lot of runs.He's a world-class player.

���� ('*//-1�

Chennai Super Kings' success mantra is a "tradesecret" revealing which could leave Mahendra

Singh Dhoni unsold at the IPL auctions, jocularlysays the talisman.

"(On CSK's mantra of success) If I tell every-one what it is, then they won't buy me at the auc-tions. It's a trade secret," Dhoni said cheekily afterCSK's six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad and

their 97th overall.Dhoni has led

his team to glorythree times in theIndian PremierLeague (2018, 2011and 2010) andunder himChennai SuperKings have quali-fied to the playoffin every season ofthe league, barringin 2016 and 2017,when they werenot part of the IPL.

"The crowdsupport and fran-chise's support arekey of course.Huge credit has toalso go to the sup-port staff who playa huge role inkeeping the teamatmosphere goodfor the team andother individuals.

"Other thanthis, I can't reveal

anything till I retire. It's alright, not showing signsof getting worse. With the World Cup coming, I needto be careful as that comes first," the 37-year-old said.

CSK, sitting pretty at the top with 16 pointsfrom 11 games, will next lock horns with MumbaiIndians on Friday.

Chennai Super Kings have lost only three offtheir 11 matches in the 2019 IPL.

Dhoni has led CSK in 155 matches and won 97while losing 57.

Battling a sensitive back for a long time, Dhoniwants to be careful with it as the ICC World Cupis round the corner.

The CSK skipper said that there has been somestiffness but it is holding up as of now.

"The back is holding up, it's not getting worse,with the World Cup coming up, can't afford that,because that's too important," Dhoni said at thepost-match presentation ceremony after CSK beatSunrisers by six wickets.

Dhoni said that at the highest level, there aren'tany players who are not playing with a niggle ortwo.

"If it becomes worse, I certainly take some timeoff but at this level you play with some niggle orthe other. Because if you wait to get fully fit, thenthere will be a gap of five years between two match-es," the skipper said.

In 10 matches for Chennai this season, Dhonihas been their top-scorer scoring 314 runs at anaverage of 104.66 and a strike rate of 137.11.

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Former skipper Rahul Dravid reckonsIndia's recent 2-3 loss to Australia in a

home ODI series will not have much impactin the Men in Blue's 2019 World Cup cam-paign and their good show in the past fewyears has made them the strong title con-tenders.

After taking a 2-0 lead in a five-match ODIrubber last month, India faltered and weredefeated in the rest three matches and lost theseries.

"In the last 30 months, India has beenplaying really well, and the loss, much to thecredit of the way Australia played, came at theback end of a very busy series," Dravid wasquoted as saying by The Times of India.

"We have the right combination for theWorld Cup. If India wins the World Cup, wewill not be worrying about who won 2-3 or3-2. There will be an odd series that India willlose. But the (ICC) rankings prove that Indiais there and should win the World Cup tobecome No 1," he said.

When asked what he thinks of the Indiansquad for the showpiece event as stumperRishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu were notincluded in the team, Dravid termed the sideas 'well-balanced'.

"India has a very good, balanced team forthis World Cup. They have a lot of combina-tions, lot of options. It is a question of them

performing in the tournament. You canalways argue one or two cases, one or twonames. The team has been picked and hopethey do really well," the 46-year-old opined.

Dravid also felt that unlike the previoustimes, the wickets have changed in Englandand the upcoming tournament will witnesshigh-scoring games.

"This World Cup will probably be amuch high scoring one, and India is well

equipped for that. English conditions haveactually changed, especially for ODIs. We werethere last year for an 'A' series, and the scoreswere really high, 300 was par score, and wasbeing chased consistently.

"ODIs have changed in England and youcan't go with the typical mindset that it willbe the old English conditions of swing andseam. Wickets have become flatter, encourag-ing higher scores."

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World Cup snub couldsurely be disappointing

but 21-year-old Rishabh Pantwill play "many more WorldCups" and don the nationalcolours for at least 15 years,said former skipper SouravGanguly.

The 21-year-old Pant waspipped by veteran DineshKarthik as the second-choicewicketkeeper in the WorldCup squad.

"Dhoni will not play onforever. DK will also not playon forever. Rishabh is thenext best. Pant is the futureabsolutely," Ganguly said.

"He's got 15-16 yearsahead of him. I don't see it asa major blow. I don't think it'sa problem. He might miss thisWorld Cup but he will playmany more World Cups. Thisis not the end of road forhim."

As a 'selector' Gangulywould have picked Pant in theside but overall he said it's awell-balanced side for theshowpiece event beginningMay 30.

"Maybe I would have(picked Pant as a selector).But I think Dinesh Karthik isalso very good... I think it's agood team, they picked them-selves. I don't think manymissed out. Rishabh wouldhave been great but that's theway it goes."

As an advisor, Ganguly'spat on the back during toughtimes was something thatPant needed and he got fromone of India's greatest cap-tains.

"Obviously, you tell him,he's just 21 years of age. Youget upset for a couple of daysand then you recover. I thinkRishabh has been a betterplayer outside Delhi than inDelhi because of the wickets.He enjoys fast wickets wherethe ball comes on to the bat,"Ganguly said talking aboutPant's explosive knock in inJaipur.

A passionate Ganguly wasseen lifting the youngster inthe air in celebration, some-thing many related to with hisjersey-waving celebration atthe Lord's balcony after win-ning the NatWest Trophy.

Ganguly also posted thepicture on his official Twitterhandle with a caption:"Rishabh pant@ R i s h a b P a n t 7 7 7@ParthJindal11 u deservethis.. U r wow."

"Old habits don't go, whatto do? It means a lot becauseyou get involved with teams tomake them successful. Whenyou win the happiness isthere," Ganguly said.

Ganguly is also creditedfor Shikhar Dhawan's turn-around as he's back amongruns with three half-centuriesincluding an unbeaten 97against Kolkata Knight Ridershere.

"I can help him becausehe's a left-hander. During atournament, you can't talkmuch about skills, you just tellthem how to bat in most sit-uations. Dhawan's record inone-day cricket is as good asanybody in India. So the tal-ent was always there. When heplayed for SRH, he had a fan-tastic record. He's just a goodplayer."

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We have right combination for WC: Dravid