dbd0 - daily pioneer

16
T he Uddhav Thackeray-led “Maha Vikas Aghadi” (MVA) on Saturday romped home in the confidence vote in the Maharashtra Assembly, securing the support of all present 169 MLAs in the 288- member House, after the Opposition BJP staged a walk out of the House over proce- dural issues. In the much-awaited floor test that Protem Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil conducted it through head count, the MVA polled 169 votes in its favour and zero votes against it. Four members — two belonging to the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad- ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLAs, one each to the Raj Thackeray-led MNS and CPM legislator — chose to stay neu- tral by abstaining from voting. After the head count, the Protem Speaker declared that Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA had won the floor test. Earlier, after former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan had moved a resolution expressing confidence in the MVA Government, NCP leader Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena’s Sunil Prabhu and other ruling MVA leaders seconded it. The Protem Speaker said that he had preferred to con- duct the floor test through head count in place of secret ballot which the Supreme Court recommended against in its interim judgment on the plea filed by the Shiv Sena- NCP-Congress combine against the Maharashtra Governor’s decision to swear- in Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister. Thanking the members for reposing confidence in him and his Cabinet, Uddhav, sport- ing a saffron turban, said, “Apart from all the members in the House who have reposed confidence in me, I would like to thank the people of Maharashtra. Without the blessing of the people, I can’t govern this State. It is for the first time that I have come to this House. It is my fortune that I have come here.” “When I came here after taking the blessing of Chhatrapati Shivaji, I had anx- iety and trepidation as to how should I conduct myself in the House. I am a man from the field. I have not so far had any legislative experience. After coming here, I felt that I would be better off in the field. I will not fight with empty benches (by then the BJP had walked out of the House). Let me make it clear: I am not the one to indulge in sword fight in an open and empty field,” he said. Taking a swipe at former CM Fadnavis for objecting to him and ministerial colleagues making references to Chhatrapati Shivaji, Mahatma Phule and BR Ambedkar dur- ing the oath-taking ceremony held on Thursday evening, he said, “We all say in our speech- es that Maharashtra is the land of Chhatrapati, Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar, but we have no regard for these leaders. What is wrong taking oath in the name of Shivaji.” Turn to Page 4 P rotests were held at several places on Saturday against the rape and murder of a 25- year-old veterinarian in Hyderabad with an angry crowd hurling stones at the police personnel, who escort- ed the four accused to jail from a police station in the Telangana capital, and demanding that the culprits be handed over to them. The accused were sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the executive magistrate who passed the order at the Shadnagar police station, where they were lodged, as they could not be produced in court due to the presence of the large number of protesters in front of the police station. Stones were hurled at a police vehicle as the accused were being taken to the jail in Hyderabad, and police used mild force to control the crowd. Some of the protesters demanded death penalty for the accused. “It is not enough if they are taken to court. They should be handed out the same treatment that they gave to the victim,” a protester said. “If you cannot do it, hand them over to us,” another said. The protests came two days after veterinary doctor, who worked in a state-run hospital, was raped and killed by the four accused, all lorry workers, on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Her charred body was found on the outskirts of Hyderabad and the accused were arrested on Friday. Many others lamented that the rape incidents were con- tinuing despite changes in laws after the Nirbhaya incident in which a 23-year-old paramedic was gangraped on December 16, 2012. National Commission for Women (NCW) member Shyamala Kundar, who was Hyderabad to enquire into the incident, said she has recom- mended action against police- men, after an enquiry, as they allegedly did not respond on time to a complaint from the victim’s family. Protests were also held by different student groups and others at various places in Telangana demanding severe punishment to the accused. The local bar association has said it will not offer any legal assistance to the accused. Amid widespread outrage over the incident, which brought back painful memories of the Nirbhaya case, a can- dlelight march was taken out at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. T wo Indian Army soldiers died on Saturday after they were trapped in an avalanche in southern Siachen Glacier at an altitude of approximately 18,000 feet. This is the second incident of avalanche accident in the same region in the last two weeks. On November 18, four Army soldiers and two civilian porters died in an avalanche on Siachen’s northern sector. Ministry of Defence Spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia in Srinagar said in a statement that an Army patrol operating at an altitude of approximate- ly 18,000 feet in Southern Siachen glacier was hit by an avalanche during the early hours of November 30. He said an Avalanche Rescue Team (ART) following the Army patrol team imme- diately rushed to the spot and managed to locate and pull out all its members. “Simultaneously, Army helicopters were pressed into service to evacuate the avalanche victims. However, despite the best efforts by the medical teams, two Army per- sonnel succumbed to their injuries,” the statement added. The Army soldiers were identified as Naib Subedar Tsewang Gialshan and Rifleman Padma Norgais. Senior officers of the Udhampur-based Northern Command headquarters of the Indian Army offered their con- dolences to the families of the soldiers. S teep fines under the amend- ed Motor Vehicles Act and the improvement in road infra- structure have brought down the number of traffic violations. Around 100 cameras have been installed at various points across the national Capital with the purpose to detect traffic light and speed limit vio- lations, which continue to be the most common offense in the national capital. In collaboration with Hyundai India’s “Be The Better Guy” initiative, where people are urged to be a better person on the road and follow traffic rules, The Pioneer team met West Delhi’s Patel Nagar circle Traffic Police Inspector Rajendra Prasad, who described the city Traffic Police and technology as “Siamese Twins” which have led to the reduction in violations of traf- fic rules in the national Capital. “After the new tech gad- gets, including 3-D Red Light Violation Detectors and over speeding detectors, were installed around the city, it has changed drivers/riders’ per- ception about law enforce- ment. One can now see people respecting rules: maintaining speed limit and wearing seat belt across the city. Another reason is the amended Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) which penalises traffic violators heav- ily,” said Prasad. “This system has also led to reduction in road accidents in the city as many overspeeding challans have been issued after the implementation of the sys- tem. After the introduction of the system, traffic police per- sonnel in my area focus on ille- gally parked cars, illegal mod- ifications, as well as pollution certificates,” Prasad said. “From 15,000 challans per month, it has decreased to 5,500 to 6,000 per month. One of the important factors behind the reduction in the number of challans is the presence of traf- fic police on roads. In my area, the credit for smooth traffic flow goes to both technology and the traffic police person- nel,” the inspector said. Turn to Page 4 T he ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Opposition BJP are set for a numerical showdown in the Maharashtra Assembly on Sunday when senior Congress MLA Nana Patole takes on the Kisan Kathore of the BJP in the crucial Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s election. Given the staked up num- bers in the House and the fact that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray won the trust vote by securing the support of 169 MLAs in the 288-member House, Patole’s victory in the Speaker’s election seems a foregone conclusion. But, the BJP — with strength of 105 MLAs of its own and another 10 MLAs supporting it — is likely to demand secret voting in the Speaker’s poll. It is quite unlikely that Protem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil will allow secret ballot. Instead, he may resort to head count to elect the new Speaker. It has long been a tradi- tion in Maharashtra to have the Speaker elected unop- posed. However, with fierce rivalry prevailing between the ruling MVA and Opposition BJP, the Amit Shah-led party will not let the election go uncontested. Turn to Page 4

Upload: khangminh22

Post on 24-Feb-2023

1 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

��������������� ���� �������������� ������� ������������ ������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������!����������������������������"���� � ��

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

����!��� �"��#!$ #���%� ����&�����'��()��(*��� ,�����-��.������������"������"���� ����������������������������������������������/������������������������������� �!�����������/���������*��������.�!�� ��������������������������������0���1��������������%����20�%3� ��

+���� ���#����,�#-������,����.�(� 4�������.��������5'���"��!�����"���� �����*�������������!��!�����6���) 7������������������������������������6�����������7������#�������������6���) 7����������� �*��������������� ����������������/���������

�������

�������������"8�*�9�4�":,*#�

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

������������������������������������� ������� �������� ���������������������������������������!�"���������������� ��������������������#������$���������������������������������%�����������&�%�'������������������� �����������������������!

(������)���� ����������������������������������#�����$������������������������������)����������� �������� �����������!��������������������������������������������� ������ ������� ������ ������������ ������������������* ������������������� ��!�+������������ ���� ������������������������������ ���������������������* ����������������� �������������� ������������������������������ ������������������������&����'�������������,-�����������������������������!�.�������������������������������� ��������������������������������,�������$�������������������������� ������������)���������������������������������������!�(����� ������������������������������������� �#������ �������������������������������������������������������!

(�������������������������������������������������������������������������� �!�/������������������ ����������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������������������������!�#����������������������� ������� ����������������������������������������������������������� ��������� ����� ���������������,�������$�������!�0� �������������������������������*���������� ���������������������������� ����������������!$����������������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ������ ���������������������������������������������������� �������������� ������!������������� �����������������#��������������������������������������,���,��������������������� ��������

���������������������������!

.����������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������� ��������� ����������������,����������������1������������������������������������������������1��������������"���������)����� ���������������������������!�$������������������������������������!�(�������������������������������������������������������������"�������������� ���������������� ��������������� ��������������������������������������)������������������ ����!

.���������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������� ���������2�����������������������������������������������������

������3�(���������� �����,-������������������������������������������������)�������������� �����������������������������������0�������/������)�������������������������� ������������������������������������������������!�$���������������������������������������������������� �� ��)���������������4���������������������5������������/������)������������� ��������� ������������������������!�$����� ������� ��������� �������� ������������������ �������������������������)�������!�6���������������������������������7� ����������1���������������������������������� ��������������������������1��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������!�$���,-��������������������������������!

6����� �����������������������!�$��� ����������������������������������������������������*��������������� ����(�����������������������������������������������,-������������������(��������������!�(������������������������������"�����������8������������������������ �������������������������������������������9�������������������������������������������������������!�(���������������������������� ����������������� ���������������������������������������������� �������� �������������������������������(����)���������������!.����������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������� ����������!

$����������������������������������������� ������������ ������������:;<=��������������8�������������������������� ���������������������������!�(�����������������������(����������������������8���������������������������������������������� ����������������!���������������������� ������������ ���������������������������������������!�$��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������,-����������������������������������������������������������!�>��������������� �������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������"���(����� ������������!�$���������������������������������������������������������(����)������������� �����������������������!

(����)���������������������������������������������������������������������)����������������������������!�(� ����������)���������������������������!�������������1������������������������ �����������������1�������������� ��������������������������������:;:<!�(��������������������� �������������� ������������������������������� �������������������������������� � �������������������������������������������� ���������������� ������!

;����<������������������������.����������������������������!�����������<����������������!��������������;��������������<��������!��������������������������!�������=���������������������!�������������� �����!=�.����������������� ������!��� �������������>��

���������������� ���� �� �������

����'�������� .,.%�;

The Uddhav Thackeray-led“Maha Vikas Aghadi”

(MVA) on Saturday rompedhome in the confidence vote inthe Maharashtra Assembly,securing the support of allpresent 169 MLAs in the 288-member House, after theOpposition BJP staged a walkout of the House over proce-dural issues.

In the much-awaited floortest that Protem Speaker DilipWalse-Patil conducted itthrough head count, the MVApolled 169 votes in its favourand zero votes against it. Fourmembers — two belonging tothe All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM)MLAs, one each to the RajThackeray-led MNS and CPMlegislator — chose to stay neu-tral by abstaining from voting.

After the head count, theProtem Speaker declared thatUddhav Thackeray-led MVAhad won the floor test.

Earlier, after former ChiefMinister and senior Congressleader Ashok Chavan hadmoved a resolution expressingconfidence in the MVAGovernment, NCP leaderJayant Patil, Shiv Sena’s SunilPrabhu and other ruling MVAleaders seconded it.

The Protem Speaker saidthat he had preferred to con-

duct the floor test throughhead count in place of secretballot which the SupremeCourt recommended against inits interim judgment on theplea filed by the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combineagainst the Maharashtra

Governor’s decision to swear-in Devendra Fadnavis as theChief Minister.

Thanking the members forreposing confidence in himand his Cabinet, Uddhav, sport-ing a saffron turban, said,“Apart from all the members in

the House who have reposedconfidence in me, I would liketo thank the people ofMaharashtra. Without theblessing of the people, I can’tgovern this State. It is for thefirst time that I have come tothis House. It is my fortunethat I have come here.”

“When I came here aftertaking the blessing ofChhatrapati Shivaji, I had anx-iety and trepidation as to howshould I conduct myself in theHouse. I am a man from thefield. I have not so far had anylegislative experience. Aftercoming here, I felt that I wouldbe better off in the field. I willnot fight with empty benches(by then the BJP had walkedout of the House). Let memake it clear: I am not the oneto indulge in sword fight in anopen and empty field,” he said.

Taking a swipe at formerCM Fadnavis for objecting tohim and ministerial colleaguesmaking references toChhatrapati Shivaji, MahatmaPhule and BR Ambedkar dur-ing the oath-taking ceremonyheld on Thursday evening, hesaid, “We all say in our speech-es that Maharashtra is the landof Chhatrapati, Phule, Shahuand Ambedkar, but we have noregard for these leaders. Whatis wrong taking oath in thename of Shivaji.”

Turn to Page 4

������-?4(5�%�4@9(8�4($-;�

Protests were held at severalplaces on Saturday against

the rape and murder of a 25-year-old veterinarian inHyderabad with an angrycrowd hurling stones at thepolice personnel, who escort-ed the four accused to jailfrom a police station in theTelangana capital, anddemanding that the culprits behanded over to them.

The accused were sent tojudicial custody for 14 days bythe executive magistrate whopassed the order at theShadnagar police station, wherethey were lodged, as they couldnot be produced in court dueto the presence of the largenumber of protesters in front ofthe police station.

Stones were hurled at apolice vehicle as the accusedwere being taken to the jail inHyderabad, and police usedmild force to control the crowd.

Some of the protestersdemanded death penalty forthe accused. “It is not enoughif they are taken to court. Theyshould be handed out the sametreatment that they gave to thevictim,” a protester said. “If youcannot do it, hand them overto us,” another said.

The protests came two

days after veterinary doctor,who worked in a state-runhospital, was raped and killedby the four accused, all lorryworkers, on the outskirts ofHyderabad. Her charred bodywas found on the outskirts ofHyderabad and the accusedwere arrested on Friday.

Many others lamented thatthe rape incidents were con-tinuing despite changes in lawsafter the Nirbhaya incident inwhich a 23-year-old paramedicwas gangraped on December16, 2012.

National Commission forWomen (NCW) memberShyamala Kundar, who wasHyderabad to enquire into the

incident, said she has recom-mended action against police-men, after an enquiry, as theyallegedly did not respond ontime to a complaint from thevictim’s family.

Protests were also held bydifferent student groups andothers at various places inTelangana demanding severepunishment to the accused.The local bar association hassaid it will not offer any legalassistance to the accused.

Amid widespread outrageover the incident, whichbrought back painful memoriesof the Nirbhaya case, a can-dlelight march was taken out atJantar Mantar in Delhi.

� �� ��..,

Two Indian Army soldiersdied on Saturday after they

were trapped in an avalanche insouthern Siachen Glacier at analtitude of approximately18,000 feet. This is the secondincident of avalanche accidentin the same region in the lasttwo weeks.

On November 18, fourArmy soldiers and two civilianporters died in an avalanche onSiachen’s northern sector.

Ministry of DefenceSpokesman Col Rajesh Kalia inSrinagar said in a statementthat an Army patrol operatingat an altitude of approximate-ly 18,000 feet in SouthernSiachen glacier was hit by anavalanche during the earlyhours of November 30.

He said an AvalancheRescue Team (ART) followingthe Army patrol team imme-diately rushed to the spot andmanaged to locate and pull outall its members.

“Simultaneously, Armyhelicopters were pressed intoservice to evacuate theavalanche victims. However,despite the best efforts by themedical teams, two Army per-sonnel succumbed to theirinjuries,” the statement added.

The Army soldiers were

identified as Naib SubedarTsewang Gialshan andRifleman Padma Norgais.

Senior officers of theUdhampur-based NorthernCommand headquarters of theIndian Army offered their con-dolences to the families of thesoldiers.

������� �'�/'�0�����!���� 9(8�4($-;

Steep fines under the amend-ed Motor Vehicles Act and

the improvement in road infra-structure have brought downthe number of traffic violations.

Around 100 cameras havebeen installed at various pointsacross the national Capitalwith the purpose to detecttraffic light and speed limit vio-lations, which continue to bethe most common offense inthe national capital.

In collaboration withHyundai India’s “Be The BetterGuy” initiative, where peopleare urged to be a better personon the road and follow trafficrules, The Pioneer team metWest Delhi’s Patel Nagar circleTraffic Police Inspector

Rajendra Prasad, whodescribed the city Traffic Policeand technology as “SiameseTwins” which have led to thereduction in violations of traf-fic rules in the national Capital.

“After the new tech gad-gets, including 3-D Red LightViolation Detectors and overspeeding detectors, wereinstalled around the city, it haschanged drivers/riders’ per-ception about law enforce-ment. One can now see peoplerespecting rules: maintainingspeed limit and wearing seatbelt across the city. Anotherreason is the amended MotorVehicle Act (MVA) whichpenalises traffic violators heav-ily,” said Prasad.

“This system has also led toreduction in road accidents inthe city as many overspeeding

challans have been issued afterthe implementation of the sys-tem. After the introduction ofthe system, traffic police per-sonnel in my area focus on ille-gally parked cars, illegal mod-ifications, as well as pollutioncertificates,” Prasad said.

“From 15,000 challans permonth, it has decreased to5,500 to 6,000 per month. Oneof the important factors behindthe reduction in the number ofchallans is the presence of traf-fic police on roads. In my area,the credit for smooth trafficflow goes to both technologyand the traffic police person-nel,” the inspector said.

Turn to Page 4

������������ �������������

����'�������� .,.%�;

The ruling Maha VikasAghadi (MVA) and the

Opposition BJP are set for anumerical showdown in theMaharashtra Assembly onSunday when senior CongressMLA Nana Patole takes on theKisan Kathore of the BJP in thecrucial Maharashtra AssemblySpeaker’s election.

Given the staked up num-bers in the House and the factthat Chief Minister UddhavThackeray won the trust voteby securing the support of 169MLAs in the 288-memberHouse, Patole’s victory in theSpeaker’s election seems aforegone conclusion.

But, the BJP — withstrength of 105 MLAs of itsown and another 10 MLAssupporting it — is likely to

demand secret voting in theSpeaker’s poll. It is quiteunlikely that Protem SpeakerDilip Walse Patil will allowsecret ballot. Instead, he mayresort to head count to electthe new Speaker.

It has long been a tradi-tion in Maharashtra to havethe Speaker elected unop-posed. However, with fiercerivalry prevailing between theruling MVA and OppositionBJP, the Amit Shah-led partywill not let the election gouncontested.

Turn to Page 4

����������� ������ ��������������������������� ������ ������ ������������ ���������� �! ������������"����������� ������

����������� ��������������� �� ��! ����������������"� ��

#��� �$����� ������� � ��%���� �&'���������'���������

#�$�%����� �����&������'��!�������&��!��

���&&�����%������()������� ����*()������

��������������� ���

� ����������������� ������������ ����� �� ���������������������� !��"��#��! ��� � ������� �$%

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

��������������������������+����'�$��&"������� ��)������������������� ��' �������� �����������&��,�����-�"���������.�) �����&��&������ ������������������������������������������ � ������� �$%

� ������!()���*�������������� ������ ������"��� ����

��������� ����������������� ����������������� ���������������������������������� �������!�"� ����

A$���0�� -�*1 �B��$$.( ���A����"�����!��()���������������

�$2�3*�$�(��45�� ������������ ��������������� ���������� ���������������� �����!"���#$%���

###$%��&'��( $)��

�+�,-�.&.�-;9#"��#�

.C5(�;9#(5D(9#;C9"�

'�+/0��18�59(5�-;#"���E/�".;#-

"-�##(5"�5(0C54��"�*�+�",&&(5

2+/�3�4+�5#�5*,5�8;$$

-,5#�;94;�F�*�+�.;9

�,������6� ���0� ��#�!&���46�7849:���'� �47;���

G#��4�� *������ ����������@��� �������5�&&�%�����6 ����!����@��� �������@

����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0 �� ��������'7+2�08�,

�+����3+�9:���6�;��<�������%�&=�����'�� ��=����� ��3�� =>�&����3�������/����6�*)�1

It is a no-brainer that amovie that is set in thebackdrop of a terror attack

waiting to happen on India isgoing to keep the interest ofthe audience. Director AdityaDatt and producer VipulAmrutlal Shah havecapitalised on this and lo andbehold — Commando 3.Shah, of course, has been theman behind all theCommando series whichbegan in 2013. The seriessomewhat caught theimagination of the viewersbecause of Vidyut Jammwaland his action sequences.

His fans love the actionthat the actor has become

synonymous with. This isquite an achievement giventhat in this day and age ofguns, people love to see thehero get fisty with the badguys. Though why would heeven try to arm himself whenin the end he has to use hisfists to bring out the villain isa bit of a surprise.

While he is no JackieChan, his use of whatever isaround to use it as a prop tofight is interesting includingthe use of hilt (handle of thesword). But probably the bestof the entire fight sequence inCommando 3 is towards theclimax; it is short, brutal andworth a whistle.

Then there is the fact thatdirector Datt has embellisheda patriotic genre to thestoryline with the herosporting a man bun.

Though which force inIndia would allow an officerto sport one is difficult toswallow. Then there are thedialogues itself. Pehle pardonmein chupa karta tha, abmardon mein. Bahut jald kabrmein chupega tu. Bacha saktahai tu khudko toh bachale orKaafi jazbaati ho, sirfBharatvaadi. Very cliché eventhough they do manage topique one’s interest.

A special mention forGulshan Devaiah here whoplays the bad guy. He isintense and maniacal to theextreme. So much so that oneloves to hate him.

Watch this one if onelikes to see films where jabdhai kilo ka haanth padta hai,toh aadmi uthta nahin, uthjaata hai.

/� ������ �"���

8��� ������������������!����

���������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� �� ���������������������������������������������������������� ������������ ����� ��������������� ��������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������� �!����������������"���������� ���������������������������� �������������������� ���� ��������������������������������� �����������������������������#��������������������������� ���� ����$����%����&�������������������������� ��������������� �����������������������'����������������������������������� ���������������"��������������������(�����������������������������

����������� ������ ����������������� ������������������������������������� �� �� �����!��"����#��� $����%&&'''(� �����)'&&%*'&&'*++���,,��������-�����).%/&�!��������-0$1����,�����#�%('&/'&�2��������)'&('%*3453''6*3455''����������7#����8�������$(&'�(&&!�����%�/�����92���:�;�����)����������10<!2<�=1<�;��� (�'';��)������������)���>���)��, �61�,�� �!����)��#����6�������������)��?��������8�� -�����)*��.�����!��!������#�������.�@ �<������8�� %((�'&��A���������)'+((%(/*�**/�(/*�***�(/*�**+�

�&��-�� �������

#�<(�=��($2�>�*-(�.(��*������.��/�#!����:����/�9���4����,�(���#����4��������/��>�B��<(��H���������

&������������������������������/������I������ �����������)����������������������!������

*��������������!�����!�����0��� �&�������*�����!������������������������������������

��'� ����������� �����#����/����������������J�������������������������������+����������������������������!��!���!������ ���������������

8�����������������!����/����#���������������������������������!�������������'������?����<��'���������� �������������������!���������������������J��������������������������������� ���������!������������������������������������

"������!� �����������/���� ���� ������������������!����!������ ��������������!���������������#����<����� ���������������������������!�

�?�>(**��@�(A��3�2���-(�.(��#���0��� /�0��� ����,�(���#����4�������H/��>�B��<(����������>��

-��K�����������5��!���-��K�����9���4������5��!���-������������!��)������������������������������-��K�

-����!���������#����������������)���������������� �������������

������������H���� �#����� �-��K�/����������������������/�������������������

%�������!����������������L����-��K���������������*���/����������I������������������������!���������������!��/������)������������������������������1����������� ����������� ����������!�����������������������������������������������!�����������������������������������

������#?�B2�,((C-(�.(��:.5�������� /�9���4����,�(���4������� ����4�������B/��>�B��<(�������������

;����0����8������������J� ����!����������������������������������������!����!����������������������J

�������������/�����!����/�������������/�������������/�����������!��������/������!�������������������������������!!��!�����/����������/��)���������/���������������������������

�?�$�� .���=�&?.���-(�.(��#���;�����-����/�4$&�.������;���/�9����,�(���(��� �"��� ��<(���������� ��#�$2����BEMM�����������/������2��������� ���3���� EMM����������

?����������������!����������������������������������������� ���

"��� ������!�������������������� �"��� ��������%���!� ���'��!��!����#���;����-���������)����������������� ���������� ���"��� ������������#����<�����������!� ����������!��������� ���������;����!��������!����������/����/�������������������������������������������������

#����I��������������������������J����������������������������/�������11�/������/���������������������!������������ �����N����������<������O����� �����������������������������������������!��������,9C/����!/.������ /�#�������������������������"��� �����������

��#��������������#�;�

"�������<������������ �������������������������������������)�����������������������������������������������������P����������������������� ������������ ������������������������#�����������/�������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������+��������������������������������"������������!��������������������������!����������!����4���M����������!��������!�����������������'����� �

#����������������������������������������������)�������������������1�������������������������������������� ��!���������������������!���� ����������+������C�����������������������������<���������/������������������!���������������������������������������!������ ������/����������������������������������/�������"�������P������������+�������������������������������������!�������������������;����/��������������!����%�������������������������������+�����������+����!������� ���������������������������������� ��������������������!�����������!������������"�����/�5���4<"��1/4�����/�*����/�"�����/������������5!����� ��

��������������!����!���������'��!��/����������������������������������/������������������������������'�J�������!������������� ����:����������� ������������������ ���� �%��������8���#����$� ��

��-�� �!0���'�#�����&����������#����4�!������������������

������� �����!���������������Q#D<������������ ��!�����" ����������� �������!����������������������!�����������������;����������/�#������������������� ��!�������������"�����������������������������.�"��������#����������������������������������������������!����#��������!����������������� �����������

�������������������������%����������������/������������������������!/������!����������������������������������������������������������������# �����������/�������!����������!�!���������������%���������!�������/������������������������������ ����������!�

8������ ���������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������� /�#������������������������������������������������������� ����������!���������$����� /��������������������������%�������������������������������������������������!����������������������������;��������/���������!������/�#��������������������!����(�!�����������������������������������!�����������!�!�/�������������!!��������������������������������������� �%�������������

6C���� /�;����������!��%��'������������� �����������������/���������������������!���������!��%��'���������#�����������;�������������������������������%�������������������������%���������������� �����������!��;��������/�;��������������������(�!�������;�������������������������������!�������!�!���;�������������������������)���!��!�������!��������������������������������������P��� /7������ ��

#�������������� ����������!�����%����������������������!���������������������������������������!�������������!���!����������!����������������# ��������������-���������

����"������������-����� ������������������������������

$�����$�%��������&& ����������������������� ����J$������!�����������������������!������������������#��������������������!��������� �������������!����������������� �����������������

����������������������������#�� ����������'���� ����������

����������������� ����������!�����������!����������������������������������������������������������� ��������������!���!����������� ����������P���������������������������������������!���������������/������D��������9��'���������� ��!�������� ���P��������������������������!��������������������� ������������������������������������!������������������ ���������#�� �������!!��������!�����!���!�������������!������ ���$�������������������<�����������������������$���������������F�6;������������������������������!����������!�����/�8�����������������������P���� �������7

��������$���<������������������������������������9���������������������� ��������� ����!������������������!���������������� ���������������������������

���0� �� �������� �������������!�����������������������

������� �����!�������� /�9���.����������������������������������!��������� �����!�����������������������*��������� �*��������*��������Q#D<�������!� �����!�������������

���!���(((����� ����� �����������������������������-�����������!������������������������������������������������!������;�����:�����

#����� �������������9���.���/�"�' +��������������������������5'�"��!����������!������������������������������ �����������������������;���������/�"�' �������������������������������������������!����� �����!�����������#�����������������������������������������������!� �����!����'����� ��������%�-������������ ����!��������!������������������$����5�

"�����!�������������!�����������������/�"�' ����F�6;��P������)���������������������� �����!��������/�;�������������� ��!� �����!�������������������� �����������������!��������������������������<���9��<�������������������)�����!����������� ��������������������!�������������������������� ��!������������������0���������!���������������������������� ��� ���� �� ����������������/���!���� ������+���+��<������������������ �������������������������� ������ ��!�����������������������P������������!�������!�����������;������������������������!����������������.�������/�;��!�������� �����������������������������������������!������!��J�����������!����������� ��!��������������������������������;�����<��������������������������!�������������������������������!������������ ������������������������!���8������'������!����������!���������������������'���������������;���������������������� ���������� �����;���� ��������������������������������������������������������7

��������������������������������������$����"���/�$����-������������������������������������!�����������������������������������������4������!��������������������!����!���������!�������������������������$����"�����������5��/����������������������������� ���$����-���<�����!����

�����1���

$��� &����������'��(��������������������������������������&��&�� ��� !��� �� ������ ��%���#��!� ��&������ &�����������!��&��0

� )���� &���� &&��� �)������ ��&���� )������ �������!����� ����&�������������(�&���� �(�&� ������ ��������) ��(�&&��� ����(�����(���������0�1� �������������"�������������������&��� �����(��&&��� ����(����"���(�&���� �& '������� ��������������� �������� ���'��� �0

,��2(?� D(���*�!(�.-(�.(��5���/�-E/�������C��/��/�+���4��.�!/.������/�9���4����,�(���C�!���!��<(��$��������������������

8������������������������� ����������!������������� /5���/���������������;���������������������������

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

0������� �0����"�'��"���/�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������P�������������������������5���� ��4������������������������� ���������) ����������������������������/������Q���������������������������������������/���������������������������� � �������������������� ��������������(����������������������������0���<���������������*� ��������������

����!��������������!�������������������/����������������������������������!������������������������!�������������)�����������������!�����������������������������

#�����P���������������������/��������!������ ���������������������������������!������ �������������/���!�������������������"�!��������!����������������������/���������������������/���������������� ����� �����

����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0 �����������

�������������� 9(8�4($-;

Awoman, in her mid 20s, saton a pavement near

Parliament on Saturday morn-ing to mark her protest againstthe gangrape and murder of a27-year-old veterinarian onthe outskirts of Hyderabad.

The woman, identified asAnu Dubey, was holding aplacard with a slogan ‘why Ican’t feel safe in my own Bharat’while sitting on the pavementnear Parliament gate number 2-3. Meanwhile, Swati Maliwal,the chairperson of DelhiCommission for Women,alleged that the woman wasbeaten up by police. However,police denied the allegations.

According to Anil Mittal,Additional Public RelationOfficer (APRO), Delhi Police,Dubey was asked to go to JantarMantar to continue her protest,but when she refused, she wastaken to the Parliament StreetPolice Station in a police vehicle.

“After police officers heardher grievances, she was releasedfrom the police station. Police

have also received a complaintfrom the woman regardingcertain allegations which willbe investigated by seniorwoman police officer,” saidMittal.

While interacting withmedia, Dubey said she wantedto meet officials of theGovernment. Meanwhile,Maliwal also tweeted “Troubledby the traumatic rape incidentin Hyderabad, when a studentwanted to raise her voice, shewas detained and beaten up bythe Delhi Police. I met the girl

at the police station, she isscared. Will this be the fate ofthose who raise their voices?The DCW will issue a noticeover this shameful incident. AnFIR should be lodged againstthose involved.”

Dubey’s protest came aday after the charred body of a27-year-old veterinary doctorwas found on the outskirts ofHyderabad which sparked anational outrage. She was rapedand allegedly killed by fourmen who had earlier deflatedthe tyres of her two-wheeler.

�������������� 9(8�4($-;

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) will bring an

adjournment motion in thecoming Session of DelhiAssembly to discuss the issueof unauthorised colonies inthe national Capital, Leader ofOpposition Vijender Guptasaid on Saturday.

Gupta alleged that ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal hasbeen making ‘false’ statementsabout the BJP-led Centre’sintent to regularise unautho-rised colonies and trying to“mislead” people.

Kejriwal has doubted the

Central Government’s inten-tion to regularise unautho-rised colonies and asked resi-dents of the settlements to notbelieve announcements untiltheir properties are registered.

“BJP MLAs will come upwith an adjournment motion.We will challenge the DelhiGovernment to discuss anddebate the issue of ownershiprights being given to unautho-rised colony residents, and donot use marshals on the oppo-sition,” Gupta said at a pressconference.

He said the CentralGovernment will start the reg-istration process from

December 16. Gupta said noarrangement has been made tohandle the rush of propertyowners seeking registry of theirproperties at sub-registraroffices, and demanded thatthe Delhi Government openspecial counters for it.

The BJP has four MLAs inthe 70-member DelhiAssembly. The AAP domi-nates the House with 61 legis-lators. The AAP Governmenthas said it will bring two billsfor setting up skill and entre-preneurship, and sports uni-versity in Delhi, in the two-daysession beginning onDecember 2.

��) �����! ��&�������� ��� ��)���������� �����������������! ���������������!� ����� '������������!������������ ��) ���'������������*�������������)������ � �������� �$%

�������������� 9(8�4($-;

The Delhi’s Public WorkDepartment (PWD)

Minister Satyendar Jain has saidthat directions of the HighCourt and the ReligiousCommittee of the cityGovernment, regarding BhaiMati Das Chowk, should beimplemented and the historicstructure be made an “integrat-ed” part of Chandani Chowkroad redevelopment plan.

A complaint has been filed

by Preetpal Chawla, president ofBhai Mati Das Sewa SimranSociety, seeking permission forupkeep of the historic chowkthrough Delhi Government’spublic grievance managementsystem, said a Government offi-cial. Bhai Mati Das Chowk, justin front of Sisganj Gurudwara inChandni Chowk area, has amemorial of Bhai Mati Daswho was an aide of Guru TeghBahadur. He was executed alongwith his younger brother by theMughals in the medieval period.

�������������� 9(8�4($-;

Delhi Pradesh CongressCommittee (DPCC) presi-

dent Subhash Chopra, alongwith former Delhi UrbanDevelopment Minister ArvinderSingh Lovely and chiefspokesperson Mukesh Sharma,on Saturday, demanded to with-draw the Para 7A in Section 7 ofthe notification, issued on 19November, 2019, regarding theregularisation of unauthorisedcolonies by the Centre.

“Both Centre and theKejriwal Government in Delhi

are deliberately delaying theregularisation and registry ofunauthorised colonies, proffer-ing various excuses, which willaffect the lives of over 40 lakhpeople in Delhi,” said the con-gress leaders.

“Modi and KejriwalGovernments nullified the noti-fication issued by the CongressGovernment and came out witha new notification only to delayand prevent the regularisation ofunauthorised colonies,” saidDPCC president adding it wasfor the first time that UnionUrban Development Minister

Hardeep Puri has not tabled thelist of unauthorised colonies inParliament.

“Avoiding the list fromtabling in parliament clearlyshows that BJP was already feel-ing guilty that if the list is tabledin Parliament, the people ofDelhi will not allow them to sitidle. Congress party will notallow any other policy other thanthe one applied by the Congresswhen former prime ministerIndira Gandhi’s Governmentregularised unauthorisedcolonies in 1976-77,” Chopraadded.

�������������� 9(8�4($-;

The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) on Saturday blamed

an alleged nexus betweenBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and hoarders for the sharpincrease in onion prices andasked the Centre Governmentwhy it was not taking steps toreduce the inflation.

AAP leader and RajyaSabha MP Sanjay Singh alsoasked the Centre the reasonbehind selling onion to DelhiGovernment at a higher ratewhen NAFED has proposed a

subsidised price.“‘Delhi Government was

selling onion to the people ofDelhi at �23.90 per kg. But to

stop this, the CentralGovernment increased the rateof onion from �15 per kg to�60 per kg, while 32,000tonnes of onion rotted away inthe Government godowns.BJP-led Central Government isresponsible for the paucity ofonion that happens every year,”Singh said. Questioning theCentral Government, he askedwhy Delhi Government is sell-ing onion at �60 per kg whilethe onion stock is rotting awayin the godowns.

Stressing on this, Singhadded, ‘When a farmer goes to

sell his onion in the market, hegets the price �2 to �3 pe kg forhis produce. The hoardersand black marketeers buyonion at this price, hoard thestock and later sell it at a pre-mium price of �100 per kgwhen the onion stock goesdown in the market. This ispossible only because the blackmarketeers get support fromthe BJP-led CentralGovernment.’

“When there’s a need tostock up the extra onion avail-able in the market, the CentralGovernment prefers exporting

it. And when this leads toshortage of onion in thedomestic market, it directlybenefits the black marketeersand hoarders. This system isconveniently being run togeth-er by the Central Governmentand the black marketeers,” saidSingh. Struggling to coolprices amid a soaring demand,the AAP Govt has soughtCentre’s help to make onionsavailable at subsidised rates.The Delhi Government hasclaimed that NAFED has pro-posed to sell onions at �60 perkg in the city.

�������������� 9(8�4($-;

The Delhi Police arrested aman on Saturday for

allegedly strangulating a 55-year-old woman to death inNorth Delhi’s Gulabi Bagh area.Police said that it is suspectedthat the victim was first rapedand then killed by the man wholives in the same locality.

According to a senior policeofficial, on Saturday morning, aperson known to the womanwent to her shop and found herlying on the floor, followingwhich he raised an alarm.

“The woman was rushed to

a hospital where she wasdeclared brought dead. Thedeceased lived alone in a smallarea where she used to sell someitems of worship and tea.During investigation, policeanalysed the CCTV footageand noticed a person who wasseen going towards her shop lateat night,” said the senior policeofficial. “The suspect waspicked up from his house in thesame locality where he lives ina rented accommodation,” saidthe police official. Sources saidthe accused revealed that he firstforced himself on the womanand later strangled her.

2��� ��������� ������� �� �

�� ����!���!"#�"$��"�"#!��

!������ �������������� ��������++$'��$���

-���?�(� �������6��������,���������0������� �����&��������"����� '��� �������3���� �����

4� �!��&����"������� ��5������)���2�(�� ������6����

�����������'���7����)��(��� ��)������)���������7�������8��� �(�������9:��������& �������� � ��������)��&������ ����� ����������������������� � ���;<�&� �����#����' &�����=�������1���� �&����������������8 '������ �� ����!� �

>� &��������&�� ������������� &=���������

�# �����!!#�%%�&���'�&

�������(����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

� �� 5�90-;

Amid shadow of guns, votersof 13 naxal infested con-

stituencies of Jharkhand cameout in large numbers to exercisetheir right to vote in the firstphase of State Assembly elec-tions. Although outlawed rebelsof CPI (Maoist) tried to instillfear among voters by blowing upa small culvert in Gumla districtand materialising an IED blastin Lohardaga, the voters acrossthe constituencies remainedunfazed with the incidents.

According to the ElectionCommission of India’s provi-sional figures, 64.72 per centpolling was registered in the firstphase. The figure, officials said,is likely to be revised as pollingcontinued in some of the boothsat the time of compilation oftheir provisional data.

ECI statistics revealed thatthe highest polling percentageamong the 13 constituencies thatwent to poll in the first phasewas recorded in Lohardaga,where 71.47 per cent voters

exercised their right to franchise.The lowest voting percentagewas recorded in Chatra where56.59 per cent voters came outto vote. However, in terms oftotal percentage the ECI datarevealed that there was anincrease of 1.15 per cent pollingin the 13 constituencies as com-pared to the figures of 2014Assembly elections.

Notably, highly naxal infest-ed constituencies includingGumla, Bishunpur, Lohardaga,Latehar and Lohardaga regis-tered high voting percentage incomparison with 2014 Assemblypolls.

Chief Electoral Officer,Jharkhand, Vinay KumarChaubey said that despite thefact that all 13 constituencies fellin the most naxal affected dis-tricts the polling went off peace-fully with very enthusiastic par-ticipation of voters includingPwDs, senior citizens, youthand women. The CEO said thatDivyang voters had a strong par-ticipation in the first phase ofvoting. He said that 84.22 per

cent of divyang voters exercisedtheir franchise. The total num-ber of divyang voters in thisphase was 49,007. For theirconvenience, 2,669 volunteerswere deployed at various pollingstations to arrange and assist3152 wheel chairs. Apart from

this, 1,108 vehicles were used tobring and carry the disabled vot-ers from the house to the pollingstation.

The CEO said that concretearrangements were made toconduct the first phase of elec-tions in a fair, peaceful and trans-

parent manner. This phase wasbeing monitored continuouslyand intensively throughout theentire electoral process. Due tobeing mostly Naxalite affectedareas in this phase, elaboratesecurity arrangements weremade. Additional Chief Electoral

Officer Kripanand Jha andShailesh Kumar Chaurasia werealso present on the occasion.

In the first phase, pollingworkers were sent two daysbefore polling day to reach 1269polling stations. This 1269polling stations was located in1226 polling station buildings.At the same time, 448 pollingpersonnel were transportedthrough helidropping at 203polling stations located in inac-cessible areas in 6 districts. At thesame time, five helicopters willbe used to secure these pollingpersonnel on the second dayafter polling.

��������������� �����"������������ ���������������

= �������>������ �&����������' ���������! ���������� �����������������!����� ��2���"����������������&�� ������������ &"���� ��������������&�� � �������� �$%

= ���)��������>������ �&����������' �������� ��������&����7������ &"� ��������� �$%

� �� 5�90-;

Over 60 per cent votersturned out to cast their

votes in the bordering area ofGumla and Lohardaga — apart of Bishunpur Assemblysegment — where the out-lawed CPI (Maoist) blew up aculvert during the early hoursof polling on Saturday, electionofficials said. The high turnoutof voters, they added, was evi-dence to the decreasing fear of

insurgents among villagerswho believed in democracy.

Gumla DeputyCommissioner Shashi Ranjan said that there were nopolling booth around the spotand the rebels’ attempt to sab-otage elections did not haveany impact on polling. “Wehad 60 per cent polling in thearea where the incidentoccurred. It is a Maoist-affect-ed area, but there was noimpact of the incident on elec-

tions,” Ranjan said.The Deputy

Commissioner added that theblast, triggered by anImprovised Explosive Device (IED), was extremelylow in intensity. “It was a low intensity explosion. Maybe they (Maoist) onlywanted to make their presencefelt,” said Ranjan, adding thatthe area where the incidentoccurred was far away in thejungles.

+�8������'��������,�����!�� � �&��,����#��-����

From Page 1“Though the technology

keeps an eye on traffic violators,the police personnel too haveto have hawk eyes. The trafficpolice personnel conductpatrolling in the area whichleads to smooth traffic flow.There is also a decline in theillegal parking on the roadside.Earlier, it used to lead to traf-fic snarls. After awareness cam-paigns and fines, people nowdon’t park their vehicle onmain road. If anyone is foundparked, fine is imposed forimproper parking.

“Now the next move, forsmooth and safe traffic flow,police is planning to introducea technology to insure that thepeople drive their cars in theirrespective lanes,” Prasad added.

However, the TI alsopressed on the necessity ofpedestrianising for the safety ofcommuters, decongestion ofthe roads and reduction inaccident rates.

“Due to illegal encroach-ment, people walk on the roadwhich also leads to traffic con-gestion several times duringpeak hours. We always try tospecify the situation but thereis a need to construct a walk-way,” said Prasad.

From Page 1He said, “I have taken the

oath in the name ofChhatrapati. I will do it again.If it is a crime to take oath in thename of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Iwill take such an oath tentimes...”.

Behind Uddhav, his sonUddhav was sitting with anoth-er MLA, both wearing saffronturbans.

Going by the figuresthrown up by the floor test, itis now established that the BJPhas a combined strength of 115members - 105 members of itsown and 10 MLAs supportingit - in the 288-member House,as against a comfortable major-ity of 169 MLAs enjoyed by theMVA, a front comprising theShiv Sena (56 MLAs), NCP(54), Congress (44) and allies(15).

Earlier, as soon as the pro-ceedings began in the StateAssembly at 2 pm, the BJP’s leg-islature party leader and formerChief Minister DevendraFadnavis raised at least threepoints of procedure and saidthat the special session con-vened by the MVAGovernment was both “illegal”and “unconstitutional” as itwas being held in the absenceof a notification issued by theGovernor convening the specialsession.

“On November 27, when

Assembly session was held tofacilitate new MLAs take oathas members, it started with‘Vande Mataram’ and got con-cluded with National Anthem.It means that session isadjourned sine die,” Fadnavissaid.

“If Government wanted tocall a new session, the Hon’bleGovernor should have issued aformal notification and con-vened. We got the messageabout today’s session at 1 amtoday,” Fadnavis said, whilequestioning the very validity ofthe special session.

Fadnavis also questionedthe legality of appointment ofWalse-Patil as the ProtemSpeaker in place of the earlierappointed protem SpeakerKalidas Kolumbkar of the BJP.Once appointed ProtemSpeaker continues till the reg-ular Speaker gets elected. But,the MVA Government changedthe Protem Speaker. This hashappened for the first time inthe legislative history of India.At every step, the MVAGovernment is trampling uponthe Constitution”.

On the twin issues of theconvening of the special session,the ruling BJP members rushedto the well of the Houses byraising slogans like “Nahi chale-gi, nahi chalegi Dadagiri nahichalegi”. They tried to disruptChief Minister UddhavThackeray as he was introduc-ing six of his newly-sworn inMinisters — Eknath Shinde,

Subhash Desai (both from theShiv Sena), Jayant Patil,Chhagan Bhujbal (both fromthe NCP), Balasaheb Thoratand Nitin Raut (both from theCongress) -- to the House.

Fadnavis also questionedthe “unconstitutional” man-ner in which UddhavThackeray and six Ministers ofthe Shiv Sena, NCP andCongress prefaced the formatof the oath with references toMaratha warrior ChhatrapatiShivaji, their late Bal Thackeray,Sonia Gandhi and SharadPawar, at the swearing-in cer-emony held at the Shivaji Parkon Thursday evening. Hedemanded that the swearing-inceremony organised by theMVA Government be held“illegal” and a fresh oath betaken by the chief minister andsix ministers.

Protem Speaker Walse-Patilrejected the point of procedureraised by Fadnavis in the mat-ter relating to the convening ofthe Session, by saying that theState Government had powersto reconvene the Session with-in seven days after it wasadjourned sine die. “The mem-ber (Fadnavis) should note thatthe Governor had not pro-rogued the Session. Hence,based on the recommendationby the state government, theGovernor reconvened the spe-cial Session. There is nothingillegal or unconstitutional aboutthe convened Session,” theProtem Speaker said.

From Page 1Patole being in the fray is

another reason for the BJP toput up a fight in the Speaker’selection.

Patole, who had been elect-ed to Lok Sabha in the 2014polls from Bhandara-Gondiyaconstituency on a BJP ticket,now represents the Congressfrom Sakoli Assembly segmentin Vidarbha region.

It may be recalled thatPatole had created a major stirin the political circles in August2017 by saying that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi didnot like party men asking himquestions making no bones

about his unhappiness about thestate of affairs in the ruling BJP.

On August 31 Patole hadsaid, “Modi doesn’t like to takeany questions. He had got veryangry when I raised some issuesabout the OBC Ministry andfarmer suicides at a meeting ofBJP MPs. When Modi is askedquestions, he asks you if youhave read the party manifestoand are aware of variousGovernment schemes”.

Patole had unsuccessfullycontested the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls against senior BJP leaderfrom Nagpur Nitin Gadkari.While Gadkari had polled6.60,221 votes, Patole hadsecured 4,44,212.

A bitter critic of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, Patolehad resigned from the LokSabha and BJP. Subsequently, hejoined the Congress inDecember 2017

Relatively, Khatore is a lightweight politician. Kathore waselected as Thane Zilla Parishad

president in 2002. He becameMLA for the first time in 2004on NCP ticket from Ambernathin Thane district.

Kathore went on to win2009, 2014 and 2019 assemblyelections from Murbad. Hecontested the 2014 and 2019elections on BJP’s ticket.

�������???

���������� ������ ��������������,,,

� �����,,,

Lucknow: Days before theanniversary of the demolitionof the Babri Masjid onDecember 6, Hindu outfitshere on Saturday said theywould not observe the day as"Shaurya Diwas" this time inview of the Supreme Court ver-dicts in the Ayodhya case andurged people to maintain com-munal harmony.

After the demolition ofthe disputed structure onDecember 6, 1992, Hinduorganisations, including theVHP, had been observing"Shurya Diwas" (victory day)while Muslim outfits remem-bered the incident as the"yaum-e-gham" (day of mourn-ing).

Ram Janmabhoomi Nyaschief Mahant Nritya GopalDas said there was no rele-

vance left for it after the apexcourt verdict and urged peopleto light earthen lamps in theirhomes, temples besides recit-ing Lord Ram aarti to give amessage of communal har-mony.

VHP spokesman SharadSharma too said his organisa-tion would not observe the dayon December 6.

"After the Supreme Courtverdict clearing the way forthe construction of a Ramtemple in Ayodhya, there is norelevance left for observingeither shaurya or gham pro-grammes on December 6,"said Nritya Gopal Das, who isalso the head of the ManiramDasji Chavani temple, in arelease.

The mahant said just as thecountrymen presented an

example of peace and harmo-ny to the world after theSupreme Court verdict, "weneed not organise any publicprogramme on December 6and provide any opportunitythat could lead to tensions".The mahant said the carving ofstone slabs for the templewould speed up soon.

"As of now, we are con-centrating on the instructionsof the Supreme Court given tothe central government," hesaid.

Stressing that saints ofAyodhya had no dispute overthe SC directives of setting upa trust for the temple con-struction, he said they had fullfaith in the government. "Allsaints are united in the task ofinstalling Ram Lala in a grandtemple," he added. PTI

� ����� �����'����&�(�*���� ������ ��� � ����'��? ���������)��@ Berhampore (WB): At least

seven people were killed and 11others injured after a privatepassenger bus collided head-onwith an oil tanker on NationalHighway 34 in Murshidabaddistrict on Saturday, policesaid.

The accident occurred atKhoirakandi under the juris-diction of Farakka police sta-tion when the two vehicleswere moving on the same lanesince the other lane was underrepair.

None of the drivers prob-ably noticed the other vehiclecoming from the oppositedirection in the early morningfog, the police said adding thatboth were among the dead.

Other victims are passen-gers of the bus that was travel-ling from Siliguri toBehrampore, while the tankerwas going to Assam from

Kolkata.The injured were admitted

to government hospitals atBeniagram, Tarapur andFarakka, police said.

Traffic movement was dis-rupted for a long time after theaccident. Later, a crane and arecovery van were used to towthe vehicles to the Farakkapolice station.

The deceased were identi-fied as tanker driver SonuKumar (30), bus driver SukumarDas (40), Sushmita Modak (46),Arup Ghosh (28), AnisurRehman (26), Ajay Singh (43)and Rafikul Ansari. PTI

Agartala: The latest initiative tosend the Bru refugees living inrelief camps in north Tripuraback to Mizoram failed, as only171 families of the targeted4,447 returned to their home-land, officials said on Saturdaywhen the repatriation came toan end.

The fate of around 32,000inmates remaining in the campsnow hangs in balance.

The officials said free rationwas distributed to the inmates ofthe camps at Kanchanpur andPanisagar sub-divisions for the

last time on Saturday as, accord-ing to government instructions,it would be stopped fromSunday. Altogether 4,447 dis-placed Bru families were sched-uled to return to neighbouringMizoram from where they start-ed fleeing since 1997 followingethnic clashes.

However, only around 844members of 171 families movedback to Mizoram till November22 during the exercise, the offi-cials said adding that the figureis being updated.

"This ninth round of repa-

triation began on October 3 andended today. It has been con-sidered the last round. But, likethe previous rounds, this one toofailed to take the displaced peo-ple back to Mizoram," an officialsaid. "A pall of gloom hasdescended in the camps follow-ing the government's announce-ment that no ration would besupplied to the inmates fromtomorrow," Mizoram BruDisplaced People's Forum gen-eral secretary Bruno," BrunoMsha said.

"We have not received any

information from the Centre, orfrom the Governments ofTripura or Mizoram about whatwould happen to us," Mshatold reporters. He said theywould hold meetings to find outthe next course of action.

"CM Biplab Kumar Debhad written to the Centre sayingit could accommodate up to 500families in the state if adequatefunds were sanctioned for thecause. We have not received anyofficial information on whathad happened after that," Mshasaid. PTI

����� ���!�����������������(������ ��:A7�����������&�����

-��������������$ ����������������������

��� "����� �!� ���*@��� ���������� �������&&

������)*��+����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

� �� 9(8�4($-;

India and Japan on Saturday askedPakistan to take “resolute and irre-

versible” action against terror infra-structure operating from its soil andspecifically called upon Islamabad to“fully comply” with its internationalcommitments to deal with terrorismincluding the steps prescribed by theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF), theglobal anti-terror watchdog.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh andExternal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar ledthe Indian delegation while the Japaneseside was headed by Foreign MinisterToshimitsu Motegi and Minister ofDefence Taro Kono, officials said.

The talks under the new two-plus-two framework took place following adecision taken by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and his Japanese coun-terpart Shinzo Abe during the 13thIndia-Japan annual summit last year.

“The Ministers underlined theneed for all countries to ensure that allterritory under their control is not usedto launch terrorist attacks on othercountries in any manner,” an Indo-Japanjoint statement said.

“They noted in this context thethreat posed to regional security by ter-rorist networks operating out of Pakistanand called upon it to take resolute andirreversible action against them andfully comply with international com-mitments including to FATF,” it said.

India and Japan also called upon allcountries to take resolute action in root-ing out terrorist safe havens and infra-structure, disrupt terrorist networks,eliminate financing channels and haltcross-border movement of terrorists.

“The Ministers condemned in thestrongest terms the growing threat of terrorism and acknowledged that it constituted a major threat to peace and security in the region,” the jointstatement said.

A0�"��!��! �����!�������������� � ���� �� �!�� � !#&!�,-���#��"���.!���#

� �� 9(8�4($-;

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday described Japan as

a cornerstone of India’s Act EastPolicy and held that India’s rela-tionship with it as “a key componentof our vision for Indo-Pacific forpeace, stability and prosperity of theregion”.

Modi made the remarks at ameeting with Japanese ForeignMinister Toshimitsu Motegi andDefence Minister Taro Kono,according to the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA).

The two Japanese Ministers arehere to attend the first edition ofIndo-Japan defence and foreignministerial dialogue.

Both the countries are trying todevelop close strategic approach inview of China’s fast expanding mil-itary and economic influence in theIndo-Pacific region, triggering con-cern in various countries of theregion and beyond. Japan has beenin the priority list of Modi which hevisited first after becoming PrimeMinister in 2014

Defence Minister Rajnath Singhalso held talks with his Japanesecounterpart on a range of strategicissues including the evolving secu-rity scenario in the Indo-Pacificregion. The meeting took placeahead of the first edition of defenceand foreign ministerial talksbetween the two countries.

In his meeting with JapaneseMinisters Modi stressed the impor-tance of all-round development inIndia-Japan relations for the bene-fit of people of the two countries as

well as the region and the world, theMEA said.

Modi also conveyed to the twoJapanese Ministers that he waslooking forward to welcomingPrime Minister Shinzo Abe to Indiafor India-Japan annual summit nextmonth.

“The Prime Minister addedthat India’s relationship with Japanwas a key component of our visionfor Indo-Pacific for peace, stability

and prosperity of the region, as wellas a cornerstone of India’s Act EastPolicy,” the MEA said.

The Indo-Japan defence andforeign ministerial talks under thenew two-plus-two framework aretaking place following a decisiontaken by Modi and Abe during the13th India-Japan annual summit lastyear.

The two leaders decided toinstitute the new mechanism for fur-

ther deepening bilateral security anddefence cooperation and bringgreater depth to the special strate-gic and global partnership betweenthe two countries.

In his meeting with Motegi andKono, Modi also said that regularhigh-level exchanges between thetwo countries are a testimony to thedepth and strength of the relation-ship.

The Prime Minister said that the

two-plus-two dialogue will furtherdeepen bilateral strategic, securityand defence cooperation.

Rajnath and his Japanese coun-terpart, in their deliberations,according to officials, touched onkey facets of Indo-Japan defence andsecurity cooperation as well asreviewed the evolving security sce-nario in the Indo-Pacific region.

In the Singh-Kono meeting,both sides also decided to furtherramp up maritime security coop-eration, officials said.

India, Japan and the US havebeen part of the annual Malabarmaritime exercise which is aimed atachieving greater inter-operabilityamong the navies of the three coun-tries.

It is understood that the twosides have deliberated on the long-pending issue of supply of the US-2 amphibious aircraft by Japan toIndia.

The two Ministers discusseddeepening ties in development ofweapons and military hardwareunder the technology transferframework, according to officials.The two strategic partners havealready decided to go for jointdevelopment of military platforms.

China’s military moves in Indo-Pacific has in the recent past alsocaught attention of the US toowhich has advocated joint efforts tocounter Chinese influence in theregion.

Besides Japan, India has beenfactoring Vietnam in evolving acomprehensive approach to protectinterests of the countries around theIndo-pacific space.

����������������������� ��������������)����1 ��������������������� ��2�!��$ ���������� �������������������� ������&�� ��2�!��$�� 7 �����)������� � �������� �$%

� �� 9(8�4($-;�

Drawing attention to the low-ering GDP growth rate,

Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra onSaturday lashed out at the BJPfor making “false promises” and“ruining the country’s economy”.

India’s economic growthdipped further to hit an over-six-year low of 4.5 per cent in theJuly-September quarter, accord-ing to official data released onFriday.

“Promise after promise...2crore jobs every year, double theprice of crops, good days, Makein India, making the economyUSD 5 trillion... Will any promisebe accounted for? Today GDPgrowth is 4.5% which shows thatall promises are false,” she said ina tweet in Hindi.

“The BJP has ruined India,which is aspiring to grow, and itseconomy due to its failures,” shesaid using a picture with a cap-tion ‘lowest GDP in 26 quarters’.

Echoing Priynaka , SeniorCongress leader PChidambaram also said thelower GDP growth rate of 4.5per cent was as predicted but

warned that third quarter will beworse.

“As predicted widely, GDPgrowth in Q2 has come lower at4.5%. Yet the Government says‘All is well’. Q3 will not be morethan 4.5% and in all likelihoodwill be worse,” Chidambaramsaid in a tweet posted by his fam-ily on his behalf.

The former FinanceMinister, who is lodged in jail incases of corruption and moneylaundering, also urged the peo-ple of Jharkhand, where pollingis underway, to vote against theBJP to record their rejection ofits policies. “People of Jharkhandmust vote against the BJP andrecord their rejection of BJP’spolicies and model of gover-nance. They have the first oppor-tunity to do so,” he tweeted.

Chidambaram has been atrenchant critic of BJP’s eco-nomic policies and oftenaccused it with having no con-crete map for economic devel-opment of the country. He hadattacked demonetisation moveby the Modi-dispensation andalso hit-out at the sloppy imple-mentation of Goods andServices Tax in the country.

New Delhi: Despite protests onseveral issues by Oppositionmembers in Rajya Sabha, theUpper House of Parliament hasreported 89 per cent productiv-ity in the first half of the ongo-ing Winter Session.

Of the total available time ofmore than 55 hours, the Houseavailed more than 49 hours, theRajya Sabha secretariat said in astatement on Saturday.

While a little more than 8hours were lost on account ofdisruptions, members made upfor the lost time by sitting for twoand a half hours extra resulting

in a net total loss of 5 hours and51 minutes during the first halfof this session, it said.

Three Bills including theJalianwala Bagh NationalMemorial (Amendment) Billwere passed during the first halfof the winter session.

During the second week ofthe winter session, Rajya Sabhapassed two Bills, TheTransgender (Protection ofRights) Bill and The Chit Funds(Amendment) Bill. Discussionon the Bill seeking to replace theOrdinance banning e-cigarettesremained inconclusive, the sec-

retariat said.“At the end of the first half

of the ongoing winter session,Rajya Sabha has reported pro-ductivity of 89 per cent for thefirst two weeks combined,” itsaid.

The upper house is likely totake up next week the SpecialProtection Group(Amendment) Bill, the Dadraand Nagar Haveli and Damanand Diu Merger Bill and theNational Capital Territory ofDelhi (Recognition of PropertyRights of Residents inUnauthorised Colonies Bill. All

these bills have been passed bythe Lok Sabha.

Members of Rajya Sabhaalso made a record 51 zero hoursubmissions and 30 special men-tions on various issues of pub-lic importance.

All the admitted Zero Hourand Special Mentions weremade on the last working day ofthe week with the memberscomplimenting Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu for the same.

During the second week ofthe ongoing winter session, theRajya Sabha recorded produc-tivity of 84 per cent. PTI

� �� 9(8�4($-;

The Government is develop-ing a satellite-based mech-

anism to monitor areas undergreen cover and the growth ofsaplings planted there,Environment Minister PrakashJavadekar said on Saturday.

Pointing out that some Stateshave made big advance in nur-turing planted saplings to theirfull growth, Javadekar said, “ Weare also making an effort in thisdirection by developing a mech-anism for the minute detailing ofthe forestation at the (given) geo-coordinates and monitoring of

growth of the planted saplings,with the use of satellite.”

The Minister said 12 croresaplings were planted in last fiveyears. “Data on the growth ofthese saplings will be available inpublic domain. We are develop-ing a mechanism of their inspec-tion through satellite,” he said.

The CompensatoryAfforestation FundManagement and PlanningAuthority (CAMPA) funds tothe tune of �47,000 crore willbe utilised for greening India,he said after a meeting with theforest Ministers and officials ofvarious states.

The Minister said that themeeting discussed issues likethe use of CAMPA fund forforestation, water conserva-tion, fodder augmentation andmoisture management in theforests, besides the eradica-tion of Lantana weed.

“There were very positivediscussions on how to utiliseCAMPA fund more effective-ly and create more green coverwith water and fodder aug-mentation and moisture man-agement in forest areas so as toavoid human-animal conflictand improve the quality offorest,” he said.

In August this year, theEnvironment minister handedover �47,436 crore of CAMPAfunds to various States for thepromotion of afforestation andachieving green objective of thecountry.

In the wake of under-utili-sation of money for compen-satory afforestation, the SupremeCourt in 2001 had ordered forcoming up with CAMPA fund.

In 2009, the SupremeCourt permitted release of�1,000 crore every year to thestates and Union territoriesfor compensatory afforesta-tion and other activities.

� �� 9(8�4($-;�

Defence Minister RajnathSingh has written to the

State Governments urgingthem to issue suitable directivesto various departments undertheir commands to redress thegrievances of the defence andparamilitary forces’ personneland ex-servicemen swiftly.

Singh also urged the StateGovernments to issue neces-sary directives to variousdepartments to show affectionand respect to the forces’ per-sonnel when they or their fam-ily members visit their officesfor any Government-relatedissues so that they can dis-charge their duties with morezeal in difficult areas.

In his letter, Singh said thepersonnel of the armed forcesare always ready to serve thenation without even caring fortheir lives and he has himselfbeen witness to the difficultareas in which they render theservice. The personnel of thearmed forces are posted thou-sands of kilometers away fromtheir homes and are posted dif-ficult terrains and torturousweather conditions for cause ofthe nation. In this backdrop, itbecomes our duty to properly

take care of such personnel andtheir families. Such personnelare able to visit their home-towns for a very limited peri-od to attend to domestic issues.Many of them need to visitoffices of the State Governmentdepartment at various levels.

“Through this letter, Iexpect cooperation from youto issue necessary directionsall the related departmentsexpeditiously resolve thepending administrative issuesof the jawans with commit-ment and respect,” theMinister said in his recent let-ter to Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath.Similar letters have been sentto other States.

Singh further urged theState Governments that when-ever a armed forces’ personnelvisit Government offices, theofficers of the StateGovernment departmentsshould ensure that the jawansare accorded respect and affec-tion as also ensure resolution oftheir pleas at the earliest. Suchcourtesies will not only ensurethat they are free from theirdomestic issues and performtheir duties but they will be ableto perform with more zeal, headded.

� �� 9(8�4($-;

The Narcotics ControlBureau (NCB) has seized

over 256 kg narcotics andarrested a dozen persons inconnection with drug traffick-ing cases across the countryover the last fortnight.

The Central anti-narcoticsagency has stepped up actionagainst traffickers and drug car-tels leading to increasedseizures. As part of the anti-trafficking drives, the federalagency has also collaboratedwith other enforcement andsecurity agencies for conduct-ing operations to seize thecontraband items, officials said.

“During the last fortnight,the Narcotics Control Bureauseized a total of 248.03 kg ofganja, 5.93 kg of heroin, 2.20 kgof methamphetamine tabletsand 98 grams cocaine. Twelvepersons were arrested by theagency for their involvement indrug trafficking during thesame period,” an official said.

Besides the seizures, opiumpoppy and cannabis, whichwere being illicitly cultivated on5,049 acres of land in differentStates, were destroyed, headded.

� �� 9(8�4($-;�

Ahead of tabling the crucialCitizenship Amendment

Bill (CAB) in Parliament nextweek, Home Minister AmitShah on Saturday held discus-sions with leaders of politicalparties, students’ bodies andcivil society groups ofNortheastern States — Assam,Arunachal Pradesh andMeghalaya — on the contoursof the proposed legislation inorder to allay their apprehen-sions on the sensitive issue.Shah also listened to their viewsand changes are likely to beincorporated in the proposedlegislation to be tabled beforeParliament next week.

Chief Ministers of Assam,Arunachal Pradesh andMeghalaya SarbanandaSonowal, Pema Khandu andConrad Sangma respectively,Union Minister Kiren Rijiju andseveral MPs attended the meet-ings separately.

Sonowal said the consulta-tions carried out by Shah willallay all apprehensions on theCAB. The CAB was also anelection promise of the BJP inthe 2014 and the 2019Parliamentary polls.

This is a very honest anddemocratic approach of takingalong every section of people ofthe Northeast. I am sure thosewho have attended the meet-ings with the Home Ministerfelt assured of the CentralGovernment’s commitmentstowards the Northeast region,according to Sonowal.

Most regional parties andcivil society groups raised theissue of how CAB could affectthe tribals in their respectiveStates.

Shah is learnt to have indi-cated to the political leaders thatthe CAB may not affect the trib-al areas protected by the InnerLine Permit (ILP) regime andthose who are governed underthe Sixth Schedule of theConstitution, sources said.

Shah also conveyed to thedelegations that tribal areasmay be exempted from theambit of the proposed Bill, thesources further said.

Assam Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma said even thoughmost of the civil society groupshad opposed the earlier Bill, thenew redrafted Bill will ensurethat the interests of the InnerLine Permit areas and the SixthSchedule areas are protected

from the proposed law.Sarma also said a separate

legislation may be brought onthe recommendations of a com-mittee set up by the HomeMinistry to provide constitu-tional safeguards to the indige-nous people of Assam.

The Assam-based politicalparty AIUDF, headed byMaulana Badruddin Ajmal, hasopposed the Bill, which aims togive citizenship to non-Muslimrefugees from three neigh-bouring countries.

The Bill seeks to amend theCitizenship Act, 1955, in orderto grant Indian nationality toHindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains,Parsis and Christians, whocome to India due to religiouspersecution in Bangladesh,Pakistan and Afghanistan evenif they don’t possess proper doc-uments.

Former Arunachal PradeshChief Minister Nabam Tukisaid he was opposed to the 2016Bill but if the new Bill excludesthe ILP-regime states, it can beconsidered.

President of the All BodoStudents Union Pramod Borosaid his organisation conveyedto Shah that the student bodyopposed the CAB as it does not

provide any safeguards to thetribal areas.

“We want constitutionalsafeguards to the indigenouspeople,” Bora said.

Shah will again hold themeetings on December 3 in thewake of strong protests in theNortheast against the CAB.OnFriday, Shah held meetingswith delegations from Tripuraand Mizoram.

The ILP regime is applica-ble in Arunachal Pradesh,Nagaland and Mizoram underthe Bengal Eastern FrontierRegulation, 1873. In terms ofSection 2 of the BEFR, citizensof other States require ILP tovisit these three States.

The main objective of theILP system is to prevent settle-ment of other Indian nationalsin the three states in order toprotect the indigenous popula-tion.

Under the Sixth Scheduleof the Constitution,autonomous councils and dis-tricts were created in certaintribal areas in Assam,Meghalaya and Tripura. Theautonomous councils and dis-tricts enjoy certain executiveand legislative powers.

A large section of people

and a few organisations in theNortheast have opposed theBill, saying it will nullify theprovisions of the Assam Accordof 1985, which fixed March 24,1971, as the cut-off date fordeportation of all illegal immi-grants irrespective of religion.

The Congress, TrinamoolCongress, Communist Partyof India (Marxist) and a fewother political parties have beensteadfastly opposing the Bill,claiming that citizenship can’tbe given on the basis of religion.

On Friday, 12 non-BJPMPs belonging to the Northeasthave also urged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to exclude theNortheastern States from thepurview of the proposed Bill,claiming if the legislation ispassed, the tribal populationof the region will be vulner-able to displacement.

The BJP-led NDAGovernment had introducedthe Bill in its previous tenureand got the Lok Sabha’sapproval. However, theGovernment did not intro-duce the Bill in Rajya Sabhaand it lapsed following thedissolution of the last LokSabha.

According to the previous

Bill, those who came to India onor before December 31, 2014,will benefit from the proposedlegislation after it becomes anAct of Parliament.

The cut-off date prescribedin the previous Bill may bechanged, sources said.

The Centre has listed theBill in its items of business forthe ongoing Winter Session ofParliament and is set to intro-duce in the ongoing session forits passage.

The BJP and its affiliateshave been pushing for inclusionof minorities from the threecountries under the ambit of thelaw to grant them citizenship.

��������������������"�>��� �������������������,

2�!����& ����� �� ��%���#���&��B����� ��&�6���

���'�����������.�" ����"�����������������

#�����������"���������������������������� �'��������#%� �

8 '��) �"��� �������������&�����6�2�'���"���"�/"#!�"��$"������!"#

� �!� ��&��'����CDE�������������� ��=����� ����

4'���A;F�"����������G��(�� G����������& �&������� ������6���

�������0����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

Jaipur: In an often-dividedworld, sport acts as glue.Understanding its uniquepower is the Keshav SuriFoundation and ScoutMe, anapp promoted by two youngboys Kush (19 years) and Arjun(16 years) to identify the sporttalent at the grassroots level.

In a never before move, theKeshav Suri Foundation (KSF),in association with ScoutMeand the Rajasthan FootballAssociation organised India'sfirst ever, all-gender inclusivefootball match, 'KickingGender Boundaries'. The his-toric tie was played at theJayshree Periwal InternationalSchool on November 30, 2019between 11:00am - 12:00 noonat Jaipur.

This exhibition match was

conceived to encourage theparticipation of trans individ-uals in the sports arena. Astrans players met with schoolstudents to battle it out on thefield, the hope was to see themrepresent the country one day.

Manvendra Singh,President of Rajasthan FootballAssociation, was enthusiasticabout this endeavour. He said,“Diversity is the source of allthe colours that make life morebeautiful, enjoyable and enrich-ing. This is the essence of foot-ball as well and as responsiblefootball administrators, guidedby the vision enunciated byFIFA, we at RFA encourageeveryone to enjoy the beautifulgame.”

Ayush Periwal, of JayshreePeriwal International School

was proud of hosting and par-ticipating in the historic match.“The youth are the change-makers of the future and whenI see students like ArjunPandey and initiatives likeScoutMe, and Keshav SuriFoundation, I know that theworld will be a more tolerantand inclusive place. We encour-age our students to actively cre-ate the change they want,” hesaid.

Arjun Pandey Co- founderof ScoutMe said, “As a pas-sionate footballer, I want every-one to have a safe space toenjoy and experience the magicof sport. I want this event to bea stepping stone towards uni-form inclusion of everyone innot only sports but in allspheres of everyday life.” PNS

.1*�2�23��3)�4�����)3 5��6�3����1���3�����-�7�)

��� � .,.%�;

The NCP is yet to decidewho from the party will be

the Deputy Chief Minister ofMaharashtra, its State unitpresident Jayant Patil said onSaturday.

The Deputy ChiefMinister's post has come theNCP's way as per the power-sharing formula in the UddhavThackeray-led Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Government, whilethe Congress has got theAssembly Speaker's post.

Patil's remark comes inthe wake of the Congress alsopitching for an additionalDeputy Chief Minister's postfor itself even if that meant let-ting go the Assembly Speaker'spost to the NCP.

However, sources in theCongress said the party willhave to remain content with theSpeaker's post as there will nowbe only one Deputy ChiefMinister in the ThackerayGovernment,

“The Deputy ChiefMinister will be from the NCP.But Pawar Saheb will decide

who will be hold that post. Thatdecision is yet to be taken. Whyare you in a hurry?” Patil toldreporters.

Senior NCP leader AjitPawar seconded Patil.

“I will take whatever

responsibility the party willgive to me,” Ajit said whenasked if he would like to be thenext Deputy Chief Minister.Meanwhile, party sources saidthe Deputy Chief Minister'spost could go to Ajit Pawar.

������������� <��������3���<���6���<��������&

Mumbai: Maharashtra BJPchief Chandrakant Patil onSaturday said the swearing-inof the Uddhav Thackerayministry is illegal as it wentbeyond prescribed format.Ministers while taking oathincluded names of their lead-ers and other figures which isnot as per protocol, Patil toldreporters at Vidhan Bhawan.

NCP spokesperson

Nawab Malik rubbished Patil'sclaims saying many BJP MPshad done the same thing. “IfPatil's yardstick is used, halfthe Lok Sabha will be empty,”he added.

“People had voted forBJP-Shiv Sena alliance whichgot 161 MLAs, but Shiv Senabetrayed the mandate. Sincethe first press conference theyhad started talking aboutalternatives,” Patil said. PTI

!.<3��� %�*�������4�������&���������"���� ���'�������������������������90*�������4�����8����*�������������J���"������������.������������� �#���"���������� �����������!���������������"���� �������������,�����#����� J����!�����������������������������������������������-������������/�&���������!������������� �������������������!���������������������������6#��������� �����������������!������������0�����������������/7�������#���������!J����������.����������������,�����#����� J���:�����������������������������������0�����������������/������!���� ���

'-� /����1�38���3�)�2,���32��5����9��������7)���1���

/�����������������.���������@� ����������� ������� ����

Jammu: The Pakistan Armyon Saturday targeted forwardposts and villages along theLine of Control in Jammu &Kashmir's Poonch district, vio-lating the ceasefire for the sec-ond consecutive day, a defencespokesperson said.

“The Indian Army is retal-iating befittingly to silencePakistani guns,” he said, addingthe cross-border firing betweenthe two sides was on when thereports came in last.

“Pakistan initiated theunprovoked ceasefire violationwith small arms firing andmortar shelling at about 3.30pm along the LoC in Shahpurand Kirni sectors of Poonch,”the spokesperson said.

He said there was no reportof any casualty in the firing andshelling by Pakistan.

Pakistan resorted to smallarms firing and mortar shellingon Friday too on forward areasalong the LoC . PTI

��� � ��..,

Arecruitment drive by theJammu and Kashmir

police to fill about 5,200 postsof Special Police Officers(SPOs) has evoked a hugeresponse as over 77,000 candi-dates applied, a policespokesman said on Saturday.

While 51,047 youthsapplied for the SPO recruit-ment in the Jammu region, the

number stands at 26,594 in dif-ferent districts of Kashmir valley, the spokesmansaid.

“The recruitment drive hasevoked a tremendous responsefrom aspiring youths. A total of77,641 candidates applied forthese (5,199) posts,” he said,adding the physical tests ofthese candidates have beenconducted across the valleyand the recruitment process is

underway.In Kashmir zone, 26,594

youths — 15,264 from northKashmir districts of Kupwara,Baramulla and Bandipora for873 posts, 6,013 from centralKashmir districts of Srinagar,Budgam and Ganderbal for813 posts and 5,317 from southKashmir districts of Pulwama,Kulgam, Shopian andAnantnag for 1,243 posts —have applied, he said.

���"��� ����������������/��������� �"���'����������

��+������������������������� �������-AB �����CCB�� ��

Mangaluru: Senior Congress leader and formerChief Minister Siddaramaiah is 'daydreaming' ofheading the next Government after the December5 by-polls, BJP State president Nalin KumarKateel said here on Saturday.

He said Siddaramaiah had claimed during thelast election that he would be the next chief Ministerand he was just repeating it.

“Can the Congress and JD(S) come togetheragain to form a coalition government after the by-elections”? he asked.

Kateel expressed the hope that BJP wouldsecure 15 seats in the by-polls and the Yediyurappagovernment will be safe.

He was speaking to reporters at his newly ren-ovated office. BJP general secretary B L Santhoshinaugurated the new office of the MP.

District in-charge minister Kota SrinivasPoojary, Mangaluru south MLA VedavyasaKamath, North MLA Bharath Y Shetty, Sullia MLAS Angara, Puttur MLA Sanjeev Matandoor,Bantwal MLA Rajesh Naik and others were pre-sent. PTI

Bengaluru: CLP leader Siddaramaiah onSaturday claimed that his party will win atleast 12 seats, if not all the 15, in theDecember 5 bypolls and a political change inthe state will then be inevitable.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP)leader also accused the B S Yediyurappa-ledBJP Government in the State of doing noth-ing for the flood victims. “We (Congress) aregoing to win at least 12 seats. No wonder ifwe win 15 seats. If we win 12 seats, how canthe BJP Government survive? Yediyurappahas to resign. Then, political change will beinevitable,” Siddaramaiah told reporters atKokatanur in Athani Assembly constituen-cy in Belagavi district. The Former ChiefMinister claimed there was a strong under-current in the State in favour of the Congressas the people have made up their mind toteach the defectors a lesson. PTI

0��!�����������������������/���������������F�"������

Shahjahanpur: Former UnionMinister SwamiChinmayanand, accused of sex-ually exploiting a student of alaw college run by his trust, tolda UP court on Saturday the casediary provided to him wasincomplete, prompting thecourt to order that a completediary be made available to him.

Chinmayanand was pro-duced before Chief JudicialMagistrate Omvir amid tightsecurity. His counsel Om Singhsaid the case diary made avail-able to him by the SIT wasincomplete and the court hasdirected for providing a com-plete case diary. The CJM courtfixed Dec 16 as the next date forhearing, prosecution counselLal Saheb said. PTI

���������&0���

������������?����������@� ���& �����������6�2�

���������!� ��&�����+�& ���H��5�������� ���&������9F

��)����:����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

(� �� � �%�&&��� ��8����6���"����

����� $�-C5(

The opening of the historicKartarpur corridor was the

brainchild of Army ChiefGeneral Qamar Javed Bajwaand it will hurt India for ever,a top Pakistani Ministerclaimed on Saturday, contra-dicted his Government's asser-tion that the idea behind theinitiative was of Prime MinisterImran Khan.

On November 9, PrimeMinister Khan inaugurated theKartarpur corridor to facilitatethe visa-free entry of IndianSikh pilgrims to celebrate the550th birth anniversary offounder of Sikhism GuruNanak Dev.

While inaugurating thecorridor, Khan had told a gath-ering of over 12,000 devotees,including former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhand cricketer-turned-politicianNavjot Singh Sidhu: "I had noidea of the importance thisplace holds. I found out a yearago. I am happy we could dothis for you".

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Government has claimedthat the Kartarpur corridor

was the initiative of PrimeMinister Khan.

However, Pakistan'sRailways Minister SheikhRashid, a known motormouthconsidered to be a close aide ofPrime Minister Khan, contra-dicted the Government's claimon Saturday when he toldreporters here that the openingof the corridor was the brain-child of Army Chief GeneralBajwa and asserted that it willhurt India for ever. "India willremember for ever the kind ofwound inflicted on it by GenBajwa by opening Kartarpurcorridor," he said.

"Gen Bajwa strongly hitIndia by opening the corridor.Through this project, Pakistanhas created a new environmentof peace and won itself love ofthe Sikh community, " he said.

Rashid claimed that theIndian media "played up" theissue of General Bajwa's exten-

sion."The Imran Khan

Government has three moreyears and Bajwa has got threeyears in extension and not sixmonths. So our Governmentwill complete its tenure," hesaid, indirectly referring thatGeneral Bajwa is here to backprime minister Khan'sGovernment.

General Bajwa did notattend the Kartarpur Corridor'sopening ceremony apparentlyto avoid any controversy.

In the ground breakingceremony on November 28 lastyear, the hug of Congress leaderSidhu with General Bajwa hadsparked a controversy. Theinauguration of the corridorcame in the midst of frayed tiesbetween India and Pakistanfollowing New Delhi's August5 decision to withdraw J&K'sspecial status and bifurcate theState into two Union Territories.

��4�������-��1�"���������������������������������!���!������4������������� $�-C5(

Mumbai terror attack mas-termind and chief of the

banned JuD Hafiz Saeed willbe prosecuted for terrorfinancing charges by an anti-terrorism court here nextmonth, an official said onSaturday.

An Anti-Terrorism Court(ATC) in Lahore held a hear-ing against Saeed and hisaccomplices on terror financ-ing on Saturday and fixedDecember 7 as the date forindictment of the Jamat-udDawa (JuD) chief and othersin the case.

"ATC judge ArshadHussain Bhutta fixedDecember 7 for indictment ofSaeed and others after hearingthe arguments of prosecu-tion and defence lawyers," acourt official told PTI after thehearing.

He said prosecutorAbdur Rauf Bhatti requestedthe court to hold day to dayhearing to conclude the trial at the earliest which was opposed by Saeed's coun-sel.

"The judge said he has to

conclude the trial on evi-dence and merit," the officialsaid, adding that the courtadjourned the proceedingstill December 7. Saeed wasbrought to the ATC amidsttight security from the Kot

Lakhpat jail. The journal-ists were not allowed to enterthe court to cover the pro-ceedings due to security mea-sures adopted by the PunjabPolice.

The Counter TerrorismDepartment (CTD) of thePunjab Police had registered23 FIRs against Saeed and hisaccomplices on the chargesof "terror financing" in dif-ferent cities of the Punjabprovince and arrested theJuD chief on July 17. He isdetained at the Kot Lakhpatjail in Lahore.

The cases have been reg-istered in Lahore, Gujranwalaand Multan for collection offunds for terror financingthrough assets/propertiesmade and held in the namesof Trusts/ Non ProfitOrganisations (NPO) includ-ing Al-Anfaal Trust, DawatulIrshad Trust and Muaz BinJabal Trust.

0�������'�� ���"��� ������������$�������'�����

�'��'����� �

���� -C9:�+C9:

Hundreds of silver-hairedactivists joined young

Hong Kong protesters for aunity rally Saturday, vowingthat their monthslong move-ment will not fade away untilthere is greater democracy inthe Chinese territory.

The rally at a park down-town was among several peace-ful gatherings by protestersthis week to keep up pressureon the Government amid a lullin violence following a localelection victory by the pro-democracy bloc and the gain-ing of US support for theircause.

A local boys' band beltedout songs to tell protesters that“the whole Hong Kong is sup-porting you.” Speakers remind-ed the crowd that it wasn't timeto celebrate and that the fightfor real autonomy must persist.

The protesters are angryover creeping Chinese inter-ference in Hong Kong thatthey say is eroding their rightspromised when the formerBritish colony returned toChinese rule in 1997.

“The Government wantsus to desert the front-liners andyoung protesters, but we willstick with them,” rally organis-er Tam Kwok-sun, 64, said toloud cheers from the crowd.

“Sometimes their actionsare violent and aggressive, butwe are more unhappy with theGovernment's behaviour.”

Since the unrest broke outin June, protesters have dis-rupted traffic, smashed publicfacilities and pro-China shops,and hurled gasoline bombs inpitched battles with riot policewho have responded with vol-leys of tear gas and water can-nons.

The occupation of severaluniversities by protesters earli-er this month after fiery clash-es with police capped one of the

most violent chapters in theturmoil, which has contributedto the city's first recession in adecade.

Hong Kong's leader, CarrieLam, has appealed for the cur-rent calm to continue but hasrefused to bow to protesters'demands, which include freeelections for her post and thelegislature as well as an inde-pendent probe into allegedpolice brutality.

“It's still a very early stageof the revolution,” a maskedactivist, who gave her name asMai, 26, said Saturday.

4���&��) �"�������!� ���� &��&��!� ��������� ����!������������� ���!�������������'���������)������� ������8 '���������!� ������& ��������������������&� ��* ��7 �� �=�������0������ ���������* ��7 ���� !����=������������)��"� ��! ��&�������� ������������'�������&��!����!!������� ����)����� )(�&� ���� �� ������� ���'� ����&��!������������ �����������8 '������!� ������������������������� ��� �$%

#�������������������������� ��������������������!����� 8�"-;9:#C9

The chairman of the HouseJudiciary Committee asked

President Donald Trump onFriday to say whether he'llsend his attorneys to participatein impeachment proceedingsbefore the panel.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler also isasking Republicans on his com-mittee which witnesses theyplan to ask permission to sub-poena. The letters from theNew York Democrat came asthe House impeachment probeenters a new phase with ahearing next week on whetherTrump's actions might consti-tute impeachable offenses.

Two weeks of IntelligenceCommittee hearings produceda mountain of testimony butdidn't seem to move the nee-dle on Capitol Hill, where nota single House Republicansupported establishing thechamber's impeachmentprocess.

Nadler instructed Trumpand top panel Republican DougCollins of Georgia to respondby the end of next week.

The Judiciary Committeemeets on Wednesday in aninformational hearing to exam-ine the "constitutional groundsfor presidential impeachment"and could move some timeafter that to hearings where

witnesses testify about Trump'sactions with Ukraine. Trumphas labelled the proceeding byHouse Democrats a sham, inpart because he could not havehis lawyers cross-examine intel-ligence committee witnessesduring hearings and deposi-tions.

The intelligence panel isslated to issue a report of itsfindings next week that areintended to form the basis ofhearings at the JudiciaryCommittee, which would beresponsible for drafting anyarticles of impeachment for avote by the full House. Thepanel can also seek further tes-timony.

� � �����������&"���)�����"����� ��&��!�& '�&������ $C94C9

Aconvicted Islamist terrorist,who spent part of his teens

in Pakistan and released lastyear from a UK prison, is sus-pected to be the man whostabbed two people to death ina terror attack on LondonBridge, police said on Saturday.

Police have identified thesuspect as 28-year-old UsmanKhan, inspired by the ideolo-gy of al-Qaeda terror group,was previously sentenced to 16years in prison term for his rolein the London Stock Exchangebombing in 1990.

According to TheTelegraph, at the time of hissentencing in 2012, the judgewarned that he was a "seriousjihadist" who should not bereleased while he remained a

threat to the public.Khan left school with no

qualifications after spendingpart of his late teens inPakistan, where he lived withhis mother when she becameill, it said.

The BBC reported thatKhan was out on licence fromprison when he killed twopeople and injured three oth-ers in the stabbing attack onFriday, before he was shot deadby the Scotland Yard. Khan wasliving in Stafford since beingreleased from prison onDecember last, it said.

In February 2012, Khanwas sentenced to eight years inprison. In 2013, the Court ofAppeal sentenced him to a 16-year jail term.

Two people were killedand several others injured in

the London Bridge attack onFriday. The Scotland Yard con-firmed that a male suspect, lateridentified as Khan, wearing ahoax bomb vest was shot deadat the scene.

Scotland Yard's Head ofCounter Terrorism Policing,Assistant Commissioner NeilBasu, said in a statement atNew Scotland Yard headquar-ters in London that a "number"of people had been injured,some of whom are said to becritical.

The senior Indian-origintop police officer said Khan hadattended an event on Fridayafternoon at the Fishmonger'sHall, a historic building nearthe London Bridge.

London Bridge was one ofthe areas targeted by an ISIS-claimed terrorist attack in June

2017, when 11 people died asterrorists went on a stabbingspree after ramming a van intopedestrians.

UK had just earlier this

month downgraded its terrorthreat level from "severe" to"substantial", which means a ter-rorist threat is likely rather thanhighly likely in the country.

�1������� �����2�����3��)�����������4��������� ����������2����� "(C,$

North Korea on Saturdaywarned Japanese Prime

Minister Shinzo Abe that hecould soon see a "real ballisticmissile" while excoriating himas the "most stupid man everknown in history".

The colourful condemna-tion comes two days after theisolated state tested what itcalled a "super-large multiplelaunch rocket system", withSouth Korea reporting thattwo projectiles came down inthe Sea of Japan, also known asthe East Sea.

In the wake of the launch,which was supervised by NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Un,Abe termed the fired weapons"ballistic missiles" that violatedUN resolutions.

"It can be said that Abe isthe only one idiot in the worldand the most stupid man everknown in history as he fails todistinguish a missile from mul-tiple launch rocket systemwhile seeing the photo-accom-panied report," a ForeignMinistry official said in a state-ment carried by State newsagency KCNA.

"Abe may see what a realballistic missile is in the not dis-tant future and under his nose...Abe is none other than a per-

fect imbecile," it added.It was best for the North to

avoid dealing with Abe, theofficial went on, adding thatdoing so with a "politicaldwarf " would bring "disgrace".The Saturday criticism of theJapanese leader is the second ofits kind by Pyongyang thismonth.

The North had slammedhim as an "idiot and villain" andwarned he will never set foot inPyongyang after he con-demned the North's weaponstest days earlier.

Pyongyang is under mul-tiple sets of international sanc-tions over its nuclear weaponand ballistic missile pro-grammes, which it says it needsto defend against a possible USinvasion.

Nuclear negotiationsbetween the US and the Northhave been at a standstill sincethe Hanoi summit betweenPresident Donald Trump andleader Kim Jong Un broke upin February, and Pyongyanghas since demandedWashington change itsapproach by the end of theyear.

North Korea has issued aseries of increasingly assertivecomments in recent weeks astime runs down on its end-of-year deadline.

%��>������ ��������������������� ������ ���'� ��&����� %�:-4�4

Three anti-Government pro-testers were shot dead and

at least 58 wounded in Baghdadand southern Iraq on Saturday,security and medical officialssaid, as Prime Minister AdelAbdul-Mahdi formally sub-mitted his resignation to par-liament.

Lawmakers were expect-ed to either vote or accept out-right Abdul-Mahdi's resigna-tion letter in a parliamentarysession Sunday, two membersof parliament said.

The Prime Ministerannounced Thursday he wouldhand parliament his resigna-tion on Friday amid mountingpressure from mass anti-Government protests, a dayafter more than 40 demon-strators were killed by securi-ty forces in Baghdad and south-ern Iraq.

The announcement alsocame after Iraq's top Shiitecleric withdrew his supportfor the Government in a week-ly sermon. The formal resig-nation came after an emer-gency Cabinet session earlier inwhich ministers approved thedocument and the resignationof key staffers, includingAbdul-Mahdi's chief of staff.

4���������������������������������������#���-!������� #-(�-�:,(

Dutch police kept up a hugemanhunt on Saturday for

an assailant who stabbed threeyouths in The Hague's mainshopping area.

Officials said they werekeeping an open mind aboutthe motive for the attack, whichcame as shoppers hunted bar-gains on Black Friday.

The incident caused panicin The Hague as it happenedjust hours after two people werestabbed to death in Londonallegedly by an ex-prisonerconvicted of terrorism offences.

The male attacker ran offafter the stabbings at a depart-ment store in the city centre'sGrote Marktstraat, The Hague'smain shopping area.

"We haven't arrested a sus-pect yet. So we are currentlyvery busy trying the find thesuspect," police spokeswomanMarije Kuiper told AFP.

"It's a little too early tospeculate about that kind ofthing," she said when askedabout a possible terroristmotive, adding that investiga-tors were still looking at sever-al possible scenarios.

Police forensics officerswere seen examining a knifefound at the scene overnight.

�����������8������I�����2�'�����)�

*�������� ��0���������������������� �0����

���3���;����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

�� �� 9(8�4($-;

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said on

Saturday that several significantsteps in structural reforms havebeen taken in the past fewmonths and responses/inter-ventions addressing the needsof the economy will continue,indicating more relief mea-sures could be on the anvil, ifso needed.

The FM’s statement came aday after it was announced thatthe GDP growth rate of thecountry went down to 4.5 percent, slowest in over six years.

“Today, we mark the com-pletion of six months of the sec-ond term of @PMOIndia@narendramodi. Several sig-nificant steps in structuralreforms have been taken inthese months. Responses/inter-ventions addressing the needsof the economy will continue”,the FM tweeted in response toa tweet by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi Awhich shealso retweeted.

“It is 6 months of 2ndterm of PM Modi. These#6MonthsOfIndiaFirst havegiven India a phenomenalreform momentum” was thetweet from the Prime Minister.

Interestingly, the PM hasalso listed most economic stepsof the government saying India

is on track of becoming a 5 tril-lion dollar economy by 2014.

The target of 5 trillion dol-lar has come under heavyscrutiny after the dismalgrowth in the last two quartermarking the six months of thecurrent government thoughpart of the April-June quarterfell into the last governmentduration which was also theNDA government.

Former RBI Governor andnoted economist C Rangarajanhas said the 5-trillion dollar tar-get simply out of question by2025 at the current growth rate.

While the first quartergrowth slipped to a six-year lowof 5 per cent, the second quar-ter growth has now furtherslipped to 4.5 per cent now.Even RBI has lowered its

growth full year forecast in twomonths to 6.1 per cent in itsOctober policy review.

As on steps, Sitharamanslashed the corporate tax rateto 22 per cent from 30 per centfor existing companies, and to15 per cent from 25 per cent fornew manufacturing compa-nies. Including a surchargeand cess, the effective tax ratefor existing companies wouldnow come down to 25.17 percent from 35 per cent whichinvolved an outgo of �1.45lakh crore. Companies can optfor the higher tax rates or thenew ones.

The government alsobrought changes in IBC wherenow NBFCs With �500 CroreAssets Can Go For InsolvencyResolution bringing the finance

companies under the ambit ofinsolvency. Its already notifiedand DHFL is already in NCLT.This came against the backdropof the ongoing liquidity crisisin the NBFCs that has alsosparked concerns about theoverall stability of the financialsector.

Under the NBFC liquidityinjection response of the gov-ernment , there have beensteps. Public sector banks havebeen sanctioned to purchase�21,580 crores of pooled assetsas on October 16. Moreover,the National Housing Bankhas also extended �30,000 crworth of credit lines to NBFCs.

Housing sector receivedmaximum attention likeNBFCs during these sixmonths. The Centre hadannounced a �25,000 crorestimulus package for the ailingreal estate sector earlier thismonth.

Sitharaman hadannounced that the govern-ment plans to give impetus tothe housing market to reviveover 1,600 stalled housing pro-jects covering 4.58 lakh unitsand now this window will beoperational in two months,DEA secretary AtanuChakraborty has said.

The decision will also gen-erate considerable employ-ment, revive demand of

cement, iron and steel indus-tries and relieve stress in othermajor sectors of the economy,according to the Government.

On the mega merger of 10PSU banks which was also amarquee announcement inthese six months, the mergershave been moving on withvarious approvals to start newstructures as on April 1, 2020.

The PSU Banks have alsobeen capitalised with �55,250crore bonds. However, Creditgrowth to the industry decel-erated marginally to 3.4 percent in October 2019, from 3.7per cent in October 2018,according to the Reserve Bankof India’s (RBI’s) sectoraldeployment of credit data.

The Government has alsogone some steps towards meet-ing the huge disinvestmenttarget where it took decisionson privatising BPCL,Concorand SCI along with the decisionto pare stakes below 51 per centwithout losing PSU character-istics. Advisors has beenappointed for BPCL and on AirIndia privatisation, roadshowshave been held.

The success of both thesedivestment exercises are crucialto the meeting of target andalso providing revenues to theGovernment which is likely toface shortfall on account of taxrevenues.

��83�>/+207 ���>'

5������������ ������ �������� �� �� .,.%�;

There may not be much theGovernment can do to

fightback the severe slowdownfacing the economy because thefiscal space to do so is limitedafter the corporate tax rate cutand GST shortfall, Kotak saidin a report on Saturday.

National Statistical Office(NSO) data showed that India’sGDP growth slipped to a six-year low of 4.5 per cent in Q2owing to sharp decline in man-ufacturing activity, which con-tracted by 1 per cent.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman tweeted onSaturday that the interventionsaddressing the needs of theeconomy will continue.

While favourable baseeffects, increased pace of gov-ernment spending, lower short-term rates due to lower policyrates and easier liquidity con-ditions could provide somesupport to growth in 2HFY20,we see limited room for ameaningful revival in activity inthe months ahead, the reportsaid.

“The Government’s fiscal

space to support economicactivity is limited after the cor-porate tax rate cuts and GSTshortfall,” the report said.

Kotak said that high fre-quency data for October andNovember suggested that eco-nomic activity weakened fur-ther despite festive seasondemand, revising down itsFY2020 GDP estimate by 30bps to 4.7 per cent.

“On the policy front, weexpect the MPC to lookthrough the impact of higherfood prices after a dismal1HFY20 growth and take cuesfrom the moderating core infla-tion. The MPC will have torevise down the FY2020 GDPestimate from 6.1 per centwhile revising higher the near-term CPI inflation trajectory,”Kotak said.

.�" �������������� �������� ���������� �"� '����� ��5�1� �

����� %(;�;9:

China’s November factoryactivity rebounded for the

first time in seven months, datashowed Saturday, despite thelooming threat of fresh US tar-iffs within weeks if Beijingand Washington fail to sign apartial trade deal.

The closely watchedPurchasing Managers’ Index(PMI), a key gauge of activityin the country’s factories, roseto 50.2 in November, up from49.3 last month, the NationalBureau of Statistics said.

The reading is slightly abovethe 50-point mark that separates

growth and contraction everymonth. A sub-index of newexport orders climbed to a 7-month high at 48.8, but was stillin contraction as demand wanesfor China’s exports abroad.

The optimistic readingcomes as Beijing andWashington edge towards apartial deal to a trade war, thathas dragged on for nearly 20months.

Top US and Chinese nego-tiators held phone talks onTuesday and agreed to keep intouch over “remaining issues”for a “phase one” trade dealbetween the two countries,Chinese state media said.

New York: US stocks closedlower, wrapping up the holiday-shortened week on a negativenote, as investors observed themarket on Black Friday, thebeginning of the latest US hol-iday shopping season.

The Dow Jones IndustrialAverage fell 112.59 points, or0.40 per cent, to 28,051.41 onFriday. The S&P 500 was down12.65 points, or 0.40 per cent,to 3,140.98. The NasdaqComposite Index decreased39.70 points, or 0.46 per cent,to 8,665.47, Xinhua reported.

All of the 11 primary S&P500 sectors traded on a down-beat note, with energy falling1.01 per cent around marketclose, leading the losers.IANS

����� .,.%�;

Insolvency and BankruptcyBoard of India chairman M

S Sahoo on Saturday said workis on to amend the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code 2016that will address cross-borderinsolvency.

On Thursday, Sahoo hadsaid the government is keen tointroduce a globally acceptedand well-recognised cross-bor-der insolvency framework,which will make India anattractive investment destina-tion, given the increased pre-dictability and certainty of theinsolvency process.

“There is proposal to amendthe IBC to provide for such caseslike cross border insolvency andto address some of the problemsthat have come up, but I will notbe able to say which are these,”Sahoo told reporters here on thesidelines of ‘Roadshow onCompetition Law and Practice’organised by CII here.

The government had onNovember 15, notified Section227 of IBC to deal with sys-

temically important financialservice providers with over Rs500 crore assets, excludingbanks for bankruptcy andempowered the RBI to do so.

Meanwhile, talking aboutchallenges expected in DHFLbeing sent to the NationalCompany Law Tribunal by theRBI, Sahoo said: “We shouldnot be afraid of any chal-lenges.... What is required isthat willingness to absorb thechallenges and address them asquickly as you can....New prob-lems can come up but as whenthese problems come up it willbe addressed at the earliest”.

When IBC came in 2016,everything was new, and therewas no insolvency profession-al, IBBI or all members of theNCLT, everything was createdafresh, but it worked, he added.

The Reserve Bank of Indiaon Friday had sent the troubledmortgage lender DewanHousing Finance (DHFL) forbankruptcy proceedings, mak-ing it the first financial servicesplayer to go to the NCLT fordebt resolution.

����� 9(8�4($-;

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India

on Saturday said it has crossedmilestone of 20 million pas-senger vehicle cumulative salesin the Indian market.

The company accom-plished this landmark numberin less than 37 years of sellingits first car on December14,1983, when it first rolled out

the iconic Maruti 800, MarutiSuzuki India (MSI) said in astatement.

The company said while itcrossed 10 million vehicle salesin nearly 29 years, the next 10million passenger vehicles weresold in a record time of 8 years.

Commenting on the mile-stone, MSI Managing Director& CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said,“We are overwhelmed withthis new record.

����� 9(8�4($-;

Fertiliser industry body FAI hasexpressed concern over delay

in payment of subsidy arrear thathas reached �33,691 crore and isestimated to reach �60,000 croreby the end of this fiscal.

The Fertiliser Associationof India (FAI) Director GeneralSatish Chander demanded thatthe government should clearsubsidy arrears at the earliest asdelay in payments is hurtingliquidity of manufacturers.

The Government fixes themaximum retail price of ureaand it reimburses manufactur-ers the differences betweenthe MRP and production cost.The Centre also provides nutri-ent based subsidy (NBS) onnon-urea fertilizers.

As per the information pro-vided by 25 fertilizer companies,FAI said, a total of �33,691 croredues are pending as on

November 1, 2019. Out of this,�20,853 crore is under DBT(Direct Benefit Transfer) and bal-ance �12,838 crore is other thanDBT. It also pointed out that�20,434 crore dues are pendingfor which bills have been gener-ated but not paid and the balance�13,257 crore are pending forwhich fertilizer companies arenot able to generate bills.

“Fertiliser subsidy arrear islikely to touch �60,000 crore byMarch, if additional fund is notprovided to the ministrythrough supplementary grant,”Chander said.

The outstanding was�39,000 crore at the beginningof 2019-20 financial year, headded. FAI said that imple-mentation of DBT assuredweekly payment of subsidy.

“However, this assurance isnot kept due to persistent bud-get constraints,” it said in astatement.

����� ";9:�*C5(

Facebook published a cor-rection on a user’s post

Saturday following a demandfrom Singapore, the first timea tech giant has complied withthe city-state’s law against mis-information. Authorities hadordered the social media giantto correct a post promoting anarticle on a fringe news site con-taining “scurrilous accusations”of election rigging, ramping uptheir use of a controversial lawagainst misinformation.

The law gives ministerspowers to tell platforms to putwarnings next to posts theydeem false, but that activistsfear could be used to curb freespeech. A post by Alex Tan —who runs anti-governmentwebsite the States TimesReview — had a correctionnotice placed below it after agovernment request, Facebookconfirmed. On Thursdayauthorities had ordered Tan toput up a correction next to hisNovember 23 post on elections.

�� �� 9(8�4($-;

Onions have left customersteary-eyed as prices of the

staple continue to soar in thenational Capital.

The onion prices regis-tered yet another hike onFriday. The prices of the staplewere four times higher as com-pared to last year. On Nov 29,2018, the wholesale prices ofonion in Delhi’s AzadpurMandi were between Rs 2.5/kg-16/kg. Whereas, it tradedbetween Rs 20-62.5 per kg onFriday.

Traders said that onionprices are rising due to higherconsumption and shorter sup-ply.

“The arrival of onions inAzadpur Mandi was 1,045.6

tonnes on Friday, while thedaily consumption of onions inDelhi is around 2,000 tonnes,”said traders.

The central governmenthas decided to import 1.2 lakhtonnes of onions to improve thedomestic supply and controlprices.

Rajendra Sharma,President, Onion MerchantAssociation and a trader atAzadpur Mandi said that theaverage daily consumption ofonions across the country isaround 50,000-60,000. So, theimport of 1.2 lakh tonnes ofonions is equivalent to a two-day consumption.

“The increase in the onionprices is natural as there isinsufficient supply in Delhi,” headded.

Agriculture expert VijaySardana said that due toimproper onion storage in thecountry, the stock of the pre-vious season was wasted. Whilethe new crop has beendestroyed due to the weather.

“At present, there is a needto import about 10 lakh tonnesof onions. However, it’s imprac-tical as onions in such a largequantity will not be availableabroad,” Sardana said.

The government is tryingto procure onions from Egypt,Turkey, Holland and othercountries.

State-owned MMTC hasalso signed contracts withEgypt for onion imports and anonion consignment of 6,090tonnes will be available in thecountry next month.

6����������������� ����������� ����� �'��

2� "���������������8�������� ��! �B�� �� ���&���!<=��<�'�����'���!"����

%��"������������������

������� ��'�� �"� '�7���������"�� ����7$��� ���������� ���

8�� �������������'����� ��99�:;<��� ��'� �����:=1�����'�!���5�8)>

5�!����"�!� �!�������� �'����� ������� �������&�%�

�� ����'�C�"��8�����! ���#1������ �����!&���&���� "

731����<�����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

Born in a small town of Rupnagarin Punjab, Manav Chhabranever knew that his videoswould take him to heights. It wascuriosity that made the 23-year-

old make videos on TikTok, then calledMusically. Four years down the line andthere’s no looking back.

“I am a law student and becoming asocial media star was never what I everdreamt of. I never thought that my videoscould create such a buzz,” Chhabra sayswho has over one million followers onInstagram.

If you have not been followingChhabra before and now are ready to findthe charming prince on social media, itwon’t be too easy for you. The reason beingthat Chhabra goes by the name of MrMNV on his social media handles.

“There are no secrets behind thisname. When I was in Class X, I random-ly made my Instagram account with thisname and fortunately some of my videoswent viral back then. Then, when I start-ed using TikTok, I decided to go with thesame name. After sometime, I asked myteam if I can change it and they suggest-ed to go with this one only as people res-onate with it and it has already become abrand. That’s how it all started,” he tells you.

The quantity of followers is not whatChhabra is after, instead it is the love andaffection that he seeks from them. “We allknow that criticism and trolling is a partand parcel of social media, but I have beenfortunate enough to have got supportivefollowers, who appreciate my work. I havereceived very few criticism in all theseyears,” Chhabra tells you who started mak-ing videos in 2015.

The app not only gained Chhabra theoverwhelming fame, but also gave a plat-form to stand on his feet. “I have completedmy graduation and just shifted to Mumbaia couple of months before. Now, I don’thave to ask for money from my parents anymore. I can stand on my feet and earnthrough showcasing my talent. And not

just me there are many others who havegot a platform through these apps and areusing it for all the right purposes. It wasthe need of the hour for the youth,” he says.

But not all that glitters is gold. Thereare some cons of being in the limelight too.“Sometimes you receive a lot of hatred andcriticism too, but as I mentioned earlier Ihave been fortunate enough to havereceived less amount of criticism,” he tellsyou.

But with increased opportunites comegreat competition. There are million oth-ers who are making one or the other videoson social media but one have to have some-thing different to shine among all.

“I don’t consider any particular creatoras a competition for me. Yes, the compe-tition is high, but I don’t focus on it much.All I do is to make sure that what I am cre-ating is original and is as per the audience’s

choice. Because at the end audience is theking,” he opines.

Making videos is not as easy at it seemsto be. It requires proper ideation and tech-nique.

“There is a long process behind thesevideos. All people get to see is the end-product but there’s much more that goesbehind in it’s making. First, I come up withideas. There are two types of videos thatwork on the social media — humorous oremotional. Either of the element should bethere in the video otherwise the video willnot work well. Also I try to give a twist oradd a punch at the end of the video to givea ‘wow’ element in it and to make it standout of the clutter. Second, I decide the placeto shoot. Third, after shooting it goes intothe post-production stage where we editthe video,” Chhabra tells you who prefersshooting videos on his mobile.

He believes that in order to producegood work, the environment has to be verylight. “I prefer working in an environmentwhere you don’t have to only work-work.We laugh and have so much fun behindthe scenes that it doesn’t feel like workingat all, instead it is more of a recreationalactivity for us. But that doesn’t mean thatwe don’t concentrate on it, we work withfull focus,” he says.

No doubt that Chhabra has mostlywomen fans, not only because of his looksbut also because his charming voice. “Yes,I had many female followers, but it is nowchanging,” he says with a blush.

A piece of advice for those who havejust started making videos and or the oneswho are willing to give it a try.

“Always be your own critic. Compareall your videos and see what worked foryou and what not. Change and modify thecontent accordingly. Try to make qualityvideos, don’t run after quantity. For those,who are new in the field, they have to beprepared for putting in some extra effortsas there is a whole lot of people makingvideos and you have to have some extraspark,” he tells you.

At a young age of 17, when mostof the teenagers are busy dream-ing of doing something bigwhen they grow up, a sweet andbubbly Bangalore-based TikTok

creator Salonee Singh was already makingthose dreams come true.

Singh always wanted to become anactor, but since she was good in studies, likeevery parent, they too wanted her to takethe conventional career route, which obvi-ously didn’t sit too well with her.

It was in February this year when Singhtook to TikTok to do a reality check. “I usedto make videos to analyse my expressionsand skills and always kept them in privatemode. One fine day, I showed them to myfriends who suggested that I should post

them on the app, this way I’ll get a better ideaof my skills. I started posting videos and allof a sudden my video where I am lip sync-ing Zakir Khan’s dialogues got viral. It earned10,000 views in very less time and I was oncloud nine,” she tells you.

Singh’s talent went unnoticed by her par-ents who had no clue of what she was upto. “One of my relative showed my videosto my father and it was only then that hecame to know that I have been making thesevideos for quite some time now. He was leftspellbound and was convinced that I ammade for acting and asked me to continuedoing this and that I have his support in this.His words motivated me and I decided tomake full use of the talent that I have in me,”Singh tells you.

Getting famous on social media andearning is not a piece of cake. It comes withits share of challenges. “It’s not as if one canget famous and start earning instantly. Ittakes time. I started earning after I crosseda million followers on the app while mybrother started earning with not even 100kfollowers in his kitty. So it all depends onthe quality of videos that you are making andthen accordingly you get offers for collab-orations and ads to work in. But with all thiscomes a lot of pressure that you can’t get ridof anytime soon,” she says and tells you thatshe is in Class XII and have her Boards duenext year but she hasn’t gotdown to study-ing yet.

“I have been travelling a lot these daysto shoot my videos. I have just returned from

Chandigarh after spending almost a weekthere, I also went to Bihar last month for thesame. This leaves no time to study but sincethis is what I love doing I have to manageit all,” she says with confidence.

With a smile worth dying for, Singh’svideos are a perfect blend of humour andcuteness. And that’s what has been help-ful in making her famous in less than ayear. “I don’t do any preparations for myvideos. Whatever I am doing in thevideos, is just real me. Those who knowme, they are well aware that this is how Iam in real life too,” she says and tells youthat she sees no one as a competition onthe app.

“I believe in making videos that havegood content, that’s it,” she says.

One may be familiarwith the adage:Teen tigada kaambigada. But, thelovable trio of

TikTok — Sameeksha Sud,Vishal Pandey and BhavinBhanushali, known by thename of Teen Tigada on social-media, have definitely madetheir mind up to prove theproverb wrong by hook or bycrook.

Always dressed in vibrantcolours, the cute and bubblySud charms everyone with herelegant smile while the hand-some boys impress everyonewith their classy dance moves.Often the trio is seen lip sync-ing songs and grooving ontunes in their videos that earnthem millions of views and notto mention the collosal amountof fame with it.

Sud is not only a TikTokstar, but an actor too. Sheplayed Asha Singh in Zee TV’sDoli Armaanon Ki, and alsoappeared in Gumrah Season 3and Fear Factor: Darr Ki SacchiTasvirein. And it goes unsaidthat she is a master of emotions.Be it doing comedy or merelygiving random expressions,she can do it all. However, likemany others Sud too didn’tthink of making it big on theapp and taking it as a full timeprofession initially.

“It has been more thanthree years now since I amusing TikTok. It all startedwith me making videos in myfree time during the shoots. Iused to have a lot of free timeand thought of utilising it cre-atively and TikTok was intrend, that’s how I came across

the app. After sometime, theshow that I was shooting for gotover and I realised that peoplewere loving my videos. So Ithought of taking it up full-time. Now we have a YouTubechannel too where we post ourvideos regularly,” she tells you.

The idea of coming upwith a group came as an inspi-ration to Sud by watchingAwez Darbar and team on thesame app. “We took inspirationfrom Awez and his team forthis idea. Also, team work iswhat that works well on theapp. So the three of us decid-ed to make a team as we all liveclose to each other’s houses.That’s how the Teen Tigadagroup came into being.

Gradually people started likingseeing the three of us together.The videos earned us muchlove and appreciation. Sincethen there’s no looking back,”she tells you.

Now that the trio is mak-ing a statement on socialmedia, all of them make surethat they make videos togeth-er. “We make sure that we aremaking at least some of ourvideos together if not allbecause this has become ourUSP and we have to make timefor this,” she says and gives ahint that there is much more instore for the group as they willbe coming up with differentprojects soon.

Sud has a success mantra to

share. “When you start makingthe type of videos which are intrend but with a twist or a dif-ferent element in it, that’s howthe videos get viral. You haveto follow the trend but at thesame time stand out of the clut-ter,” she tells you.

She tells you that she don’thave any favourite video of herbecause all the videos requiresame amount of effort and itbecomes hard to do the differ-entiation and pick one. “Inevery video, my team and Ihave put in the same amount ofeffort. We work hard to get thedesired results and this makesit difficult for me to name oneas favourite,” Sud says.

The dark side of being asocial media influencer is thatyou have to be responsible ofthe stuff that you are upload-ing on social media. There is noroom for mistakes. “Beforeuploading any video, I thor-oughly check my videos for atleast 15-16 times so that noth-ing that I am putting forth hurtthe sentiments of others. I alsoask my mother to go throughall my videos before I uploadthem in case if I have missed onsomething. One has to have abird’s eye view on all the con-tent. More so, if you are a girl,”she says.

What Sud is looking at infuture, only time will tell. Butkeeping in mind the trio’schemistry, watching them onthe small screen or for thatmatter on some digital platformwill definitely make for aninteresting watch. The growingrise of social media only addsto the possibility of for the teentigada.

:������������ ������������������������������������������� ��9��/����������������������� !����!� ���!�����������������������������������������������������!����������� ��.,"%��-�"-.;������������ ���!����������������#��#�����������������������!������!

� . > > $ � D + # " 8 � � " 0 � 6 � � � > " ( " 8

A8���� ����!�����!��������� #����#�!�������

$�������������6�����'��������� -������������(���'��������������� ����"���� ��

�� �� ���

5�������

0�"�0�"5�������

0�"�0�"

����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

����� .�45;4

Sergio Ramos scored a goal and conceded apenalty as Real Madrid battled past Alaves

on Saturday to go top of La Liga beforeSunday’s game between Barcelona and AtleticoMadrid.

Barca and Atletico face off at the WandaMetropolitano and Madrid did all they could totake advantage, with Dani Carvajal the unlike-ly matchwinner in a gritty 2-1 victory overAlaves.

Ramos had headed Madrid in front short-ly after half-time only to concede a needlesspenalty for throwing his arm across Joselu,which Lucas Perez converted before Carvajalpoked in.

Madrid pull three points clear of Barcelonaand six ahead of Atletico, who have played agame more than the top two. Sevilla, in third,host Leganes on Sunday. Alaves stay 13th.

A 1-0 defeat at Mendizorrotza 13 monthsago came three weeks before Julen Lopeteguiwas sacked as coach but this time Madridshowed the kind of steel that was so painfullylacking last season.

On a wet and windy afternoon in the Basquecountry, Zinedine Zidane’s side never showedthe verve and creativity that was so impressivein the draw against Paris Saint-Germain onWednesday.

But this was a gutsy performance that meansthey have now won six and drawn two of theirlast eight matches in all competitions, with theClasico against Barcelona next month fastapproaching.

Gareth Bale made his first Madrid start sinceOctober 5 after recovering from a calf injury andhis first too since his controversial celebration

with Wales earlier this month, which sparkedanger among his club’s supporters.

Bale hit the post in the first half but fadedand was replaced by Rodrygo after Alavesequaliser.

With Eden Hazard out injured, Isco alsokept his place while Alphonse Areola was givena rare outing in goal ahead of the rested ThibautCourtois.

Madrid were lucky not to concede anotherpenalty early on as Aleix Vidal slalomed insideRamos and then Eder Militao, whose danglingleg caught Vidal’s foot. Referee GuillermoCuadra felt the fall was exaggerated.

At the other end, Bale hit the post with aheader and Karim Benzema latched onto a quickthrow but instead of shooting, hooked the ballback for Isco whose effort was saved.

Alaves grew in confidence as the rain grewheavier yet Madrid regrouped at half-time andtook the lead soon after as Ramos was given afree header to glance in Toni Kroos crossed free-kick.

But after scoring his sixth goal of the season,Ramos gifted Alaves an equaliser in the 66thminute by outmuscling Joselu in the penalty area,only to throw an arm across the forward’s chest.Perez made no mistake.

Bale went off for Rodrygo and Alaves mighthave been able to build on their momentum if theyhad consolidated.

Instead, parity lasted three minutes as Isco metLuka Modric’s cross at the back post and whilePacheco did brilliantly to save, Carvajal reactedfaster than Victor Laguardia to the rebound.

Perez almost drove in a late equaliser butMarcelo made a diving block and Ximo Navarro’sheader had to be clawed away by Areola asMadrid held on.

����� 9(80�"#$(

Liverpool extended theirlead at the top of the

Premier League to 11 pointswith a nervy 2-1 win overBrighton as Manchester Cityslipped up once more in adraw at Newcastle on Saturday.

Chelsea missed the chanceto go level on points with sec-ond-placed City as FrankLampard's men suffered ashock 1-0 home defeat byWest Ham, while Tottenham’swinning run under JoseMourinho continued as DeleAlli scored twice in a 3-2 winover Bournemouth.

Virgil van Dijk is hoping tobeat Lionel Messi to the Ballond’Or on Monday and showedhe can score goals as well asstop them with two toweringheaders from Trent Alexander-Arnold set-piece deliveries toput Liverpool 2-0 up inside 25minutes.

However, goalkeeperAlisson Becker was sent off 14minutes from time for han-dling outside his area andBrighton reduced the deficitfrom the resulting free-kickthrough captain Lewis Dunk.

But the 10 men held outfor another vital three pointsto edge closer to a first leaguetitle in 30 years.

While Liverpool have

made a habit of winning gameswhen not at their best, not forthe first time this season, Citylet points slip away to furtherdent their title chances after a2-2 draw.

#��0��,�#��&�,������Twice Pep Guardiola’s men

led at St James Park throughRaheem Sterling and a brilliantKevin De Bruyne strike eightminutes from time.

But Newcastle respondedquickly on both occasions asJetro Willems cancelled outSterling’s strike before JonjoShelvey swept home a well-worked free-kick two min-utes from time.

“We do the same work wehave done over the last fewseasons. We tried to scoremore goals but it did not hap-pen,” said Guardiola, whoseside failed to capitalise onnearly 80 percent of posses-sion.

City’s slip-up gave Chelseathe chance to go level onpoints with the championsand Leicester, who hostEverton on Sunday.

However, the Blues failedto replicate their fine form overthe past two months as WestHam won for the first time innine games to ease the pressureon Manuel Pellegrini.

Aaron Cresswell scored

the only goal three minutesinto the second half with a tidyfinish as he cut inside onto hisweaker right foot.

But it was the Hammerswho were the more likely toadd to the scoring as the sec-ond period wore on with KepaArrizabalaga keeping them atbay with a string of saves,while Michail Antonio had agoal ruled out after a VARreview for handball.

Tottenham are up to fifthand within six points ofChelsea in the battle for a top-four finish as the in-form Allipreserved Jose Mourinho'sperfect start.

The scoreline should havebeen far more convincing forMourinho’s men, who led 3-0with 17 minutes left as Alli’sfine form continued with agoal either side of half-timebefore Moussa Sissoko scoredfor the first time in over twoyears.

But Tottenham have con-ceded twice in all three ofMourinho’s matches in chargeand were left hanging on asHarry Wilson scored a doublefor the visitors.

Crystal Palace securedtheir first win in six games tomove into the top half asWilfried Zaha and JeffreySchlupp were on target in a 2-0 win at Burnley.

<<� ���������D��4�'�<�����������������!�����%��!����������$�������������������������0�� ���*��<���������������J��������"�����<�*��

���������������&��� !� ������

$�������5������� ��������-������-�����"���������'��! ��&�������&"��& ���� !������ ����������&"@�������"�&"� ���������� �������

�������'������& ������������������& ��� �������������'���������������������� ��������� �������

7�)��=�

����� 9,5J",$#�9

Veteran Leander Paes bet-tered his own Davis Cup

record by winning his 44thdoubles match, this time part-nering debutant JeevanNedunchezhiyan, as Indiablanked Pakistan 4-0 onSaturday to earn a spot in the2020 Qualifiers.

Pakistani teenagersMohammed Shoaib andHufaiza Abdul Rehman wereno match for the Indian com-bination of the battle-hard-ened Paes and Jeevan, whoneeded just 53 minutes to win6-1, 6-3.

Last year, Paes becamethe most successful doublesplayer in the history of DavisCup when he won his 43rdmatch, surpassing Italiangreat Nicola Pietrangeli dur-ing the tie against China.

The 46-year-old hadtaken 56 ties for his 43rd winwhile Pietrangeli competed in66 ties for his 42 victories.

His record of 44 wins in57 ties is unlikely to be bro-ken anytime soon as excepthim, none of the active dou-bles players feature in the top-10 list. Belarusian MaxMirnyi, at number three, has36 wins but has not played onTour since 2018.

While Paes is at top of theheap in the doubles, the leg-endary Indian stands fifth in

the list of players for totalnumber of wins with 92-35win-loss record.

He now has 92 total wins,including 48 in singles. Onemore win will take him tofourth spot, ahead of Spain’sManuel Santana, who has 92-28 win-loss record.

In the reverse singles,Sumit Nagal trounced YousafKhalil 6-1, 6-0 for his secondstraight win. Both the sidesopted not to play the deadfifth rubber. The fourth rub-ber is played even if the out-

come of the tie is decidedafter the first three matchesbut the rules permit teams toskip playing the dead fifthrubber.

Saturday’s result meansIndia have won all the match-es in a tie for the first timesince February 2014 whenthey had blanked ChineseTaipei 5-0 in Indore.

India will now face worldnumber two Croatia for theQualifiers in an away tie, to beheld on March 6-7. Twenty-four nations will go head-to-head in a bid to win one of 12qualifying spots for the DavisCup Finals.

The 12 losing nations willcompete in World Group Ities in September 2020 whilethe winning nations will jointhe six nations who havealready qualified for theFinals - the 2019 semi-final-ists, Canada, Great Britain,Russia and Spain, and the2020 wild cards, France andSerbia.

In the third rubber,

Hufaiza and Shoaib beganby holding serve in the open-ing game of the match, but theIndians broke the teenagers inthe third game before holdingtheir own for a 3-1 lead.

Paes and Jeevan took con-trol of the match with anoth-er break of serve in the fifthgame. Jeevan served a doublefault at 30-15, but thePakistanis could not put pres-sure on their rivals, as Indiazoomed to a 5-1 lead.

Serving to stay in the set,Shoaib was down 0-40, givingIndia three chances to closethe opening set. Paes andJeevan grabbed the second.

The Indians had a fewchances to break their rivalsearly in the second set but thePakistani duo held its nervesto save them. There was somefight in the second set, whichwas locked 3-3.

Paes and Jeevan got abreak in the eighth game totake a 5-3 lead and the formerserved out the match in thenext.

����������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0 7�)��==

������4($�;4(

An irre-press-i b l e

David Warnersmashed an

unbeaten 335 onSaturday while Steve

Smith became the fastest manto 7,000 Test runs as Australia

took control of the day-night sec-ond Test against Pakistan.

Skipper Tim Paine waved hisplayers back into the pavilion at 589for three ahead of the second day’sdinner break with Warner on the10th highest Test score ever, also apersonal best.

The decision to declaredeprived him of a crack at BrianLara’s all-time high 400 not out, butit proved to be the right one with theAustralian bowlers quickly tearingthrough Pakistan’s hapless top orderunder the Adelaide Oval lights.

They finished in deep trouble at96 for six with Mitchell Starc grab-bing four of them.

Babar Azam was not out 43 andYasir Shah was on four.

The visitors, who have lost 13consecutive Tests in Australia,

enjoyed little success in along day in the field as theylook to avoid a 2-0 seriesdefeat.

But they did removeMarnus Labuschagne for162 in the opening ses-sion and also baggedSmith, caught behind byMohammad Rizwan offShaheen Afridi for 36.

The home teamresumed the day at302 for one withWarner on 166 andLabuschagne 126,with the pairputting on another67 runs before

Pakistan

finally got a breakthrough.Skipper Azhar Ali took the

new ball and Afridi clean-bowledLabuschagne as he attempted adrive, just as he and Warnerappeared set for another long day atthe crease.

The 25-year-old, who has comeof age during the series, trudgedback to the pavilion to a standingovation after a classy 162, his sec-ond century in a row.

Their marathon 361-run part-nership was a record second-wick-et stand for Australia againstPakistan and the highest ever in apink-ball Test.

Just minutes later, the explosiveWarner completed only the secondTest double century of his career.Playing in his 81st Test, he reached200 with a single from Afridi, hav-ing clattered 23 fours along the way.

Pakistan thought they finallyhad him out on 226 when he wascaught in the gully off debutantMusa, only for their heads to dropwhen it was called a no-ball.

Warner made them pay, passinghis previous highest Test score of253, set in Perth in 2015, beforereaching a triple century off 389balls to join an elite club.

He raced to 335, one more thanformer captain Mark Taylor’s epic334 against Pakistan in 1998 andDonald Bradman’s 334 againstEngland in 1930, before Painedecided to unleash his bowlers, con-scious that periodic rain is forecastfor the next two days.

Exhausted, Warner was given astanding ovation with his knock thesecond best score ever by anAustralian after Matthew Hayden’s380 against Zimbabwe in 2003.Matthew Wade remained unbeatenon 38.

Facing a tough last sessionunder lights, Pakistan’s batsmenquickly caved in. Starc removedImam-ul-Haq, who got a thickedge to Warner on two, before PatCummins had Azhar caught fornine.

Josh Hazlewood accounted forShan Masood before Starc nabbedAsad Shafiq, Iftikhar Ahmed andRizwan cheaply.

����� -�.;$#C9�29(8R(�$�943

England rejected talk theirNew Zealand series was

over when they ended day twoon Sunday at 39 for two, butaccepted it would need a specialperformance to turn their for-tunes around in Hamilton.

New Zealand, meanwhile,ruled out thoughts of playing fora draw as they targeted a cleansweep in the two Test series aftera comprehensive innings victo-ry in the first match.

With BJ Watling, the archi-tect of the first Test win, againholding the innings togetherNew Zealand recovered from191 for five to reach 375 in theirfirst innings in Hamilton withWatling and debutant DarylMitchell featuring in a 124-runstand for the sixth wicket.

England, in 18 overs beforestumps, lost Dom Sibley and JoeDenly cheaply while RoryBurns was dropped twice to benot out 24 with Joe Root on six.

Stuart Broad, England’schief wicket taker with four for73, said there was little in thepitch to assist the bowlers andtwo good centuries should beenough to set them up for aseries-levelling win.

“The opportunity is there togo and bat big once,” he said.

“There’s not a huge amountof pressure, not a lot happeningwith the pitch, not a big score-board pressure, there’s a chancefor a couple of people to go andget hundreds ... And leave our-selves a day to bowl them out.

England made a confidentstart today when they removedboth overnight batsmen earlybut then lost the initiative asWatling and Mitchell staged

their repair mission beforeBroad removed both batsmeneither side of the tea break.

Watling was out for 55 onthe last ball before the intervalwhile Mitchell departed in thefourth over after play resumed.

New Zealand’s last fourwickets added a further 60runs, with Broad finishing withfigures of four for 73 and ChrisWoakes three for 83.

All-rounder Mitchell, theson of former All Blacks coachand now England assistantrugby coach John Mitchell, wasunruffled in his maiden Testperformance.

He brought up his 50pulling Ben Stokes throughmid-wicket for four in a 159-ball innings which includedeight boundaries and one six.

An even more cautiousWatling, who reached his 18thhalf century with an elegant cutto the cover boundary off SamCurran, faced 192 deliveries forhis 55.

It was slow going by thepair, but from New Zealand’sviewpoint their innings lastedalmost two days which leftEngland with only a remotechance of winning the Test tosquare the series.

England had their tails upat the start of the day whenovernight centurion TomLatham added only one bound-ary to his total before he mis-judged a Broad delivery seam-ing back at him and was bowledfor 105.

Broad stayed in the actionto catch Henry Nicholls for 16off Sam Curran, which broughtthe untested Mitchell to themiddle to join Watling and batNew Zealand to a position ofstrength.

��'�� �������������������� ��������������

'�� �'����� �"������������ �� ��� �������-�===�?�� ���������� �4($�;4(

Steve Smith on Saturday became the fastest man toscore 7,000 Test runs, shattering a record that had

stood since 1946, while moving past Donald Bradmanto become Australia’s 11th highest scorer.

The 30-year-old took a single off Muhammad Musaduring the second Test against Pakistan in Adelaide toreach the milestone and take possession of a record heldfor 73 years by English great Wally Hammond.

Hammond reached the mark in 131 innings, whileSmith, who played his first Test nine years ago, madethe grade in his 126th. India’s Virender Sehwag is thethird fastest in 134 innings.

“The fastest to 7K - you’re a star Steve Smith!,” tweet-ed Cricket Australia.

Smith also passed the legendary Bradman’s 6,996Test runs. It took Smith 70 Tests to do so, while Bradmanneeded only 52.

The 30-year-old’s heroics at the Ashes in Englandthis year saw him widely labelled the best sinceBradman, considered Test cricket’s greatest ever, whenhe scored a mammoth 774 runs in just seven innings.

He had the opportunity to pass both Bradman andHammond in the first Test against Pakistan inBrisbane, but fell for just four in a rare failure.

In an insight into Smith’s determination to be thebest, he said after missing out in Brisbane that he pun-ishes himself when the runs do not flow.

“I always punish myself when I get no runs, justlike I reward myself when I score runs with a choco-late bar at the end of the night if I get a hundred,” hesaid.

“So yeah, if I get no runs I always like to have a runor go to the gym or do something just to give myselfa bit of a punishment.” Smith still has 10 other Australianplayers above him in total Test runs scored.

Greg Chappell (7,110) is his next target, but he hasa mountain to climb to reach Ricky Ponting, whoamassed 13,378 runs in his 168 Tests.

8������������E/�"���������������������*������������

������������� �&0��� �������&�� !������ �

������������� ��'�� ������ ������� �

�� �� ���� 888��� ����� �

"���� %��� C������� D���� "�����H> .������- ���� R����� *���� �>>�J> ��EA 4����8���� *����� ������� �>�BJ�>�� A .���# ��� *����� *����� �BBHJBB�� 4���%��� (�!��� $���� �B�>��BA .������0���� ;��� " ��� �>��J����� %��� ��"����� (�!��� .�������� �B� �>� 5������0����� (�!��� .�������� �B�EJ���> 4���%��� (�!��� $���� �B�

"���� %��� D���� "������EA :��� �"������28����;�����3 +��!���� �BE�JEH��EA 4����8�����2�������3 ������� �>�BJ�>�� A .���# ����2�������3 *����� �BBHJBB�>B D��������"���!�2;���3 .���� �>>�J>

%��� . ; #��"������"����2�������3 �> ��� B� ����Q�� >�� �8�� �-����2(�!���3 H> ��� �H� ����Q����H�� �D��������"���!�2;���3 �B �� H� ����Q����H�� �"�����#��������2;���3 HE ��� �� ����Q���E��� �:�� �"������28����;�����3 �B ��H ��� ����Q��EB�� �+���"�!����2"���$��3 H� ��H B� ����Q���� �D����+�����2;���3 H� ��H H� ����Q������ �+���"�!����2"���$��3 H� ��H B� ����Q���� �

&�;"($�&(�#,5("

?#>�@0�?#0)?

���&����� ���&�&��������������)�&"��� ��� ���������G)����������& ����������&�� ��

$��� ���������& ��������������������������������"�������)�&"��� ��� �� �������

8� ����������&�� �������%$$1�=�� �������"E��������������� ������FCG

%����!�������! ���� ���� �!�!� � ������������������"���������'�����!��������

����� $,0+9C8

Agritty SourabhVerma entered the

men’s singles final aftera hard-fought three-game win over Korea’sHeo Kwang Hee in thesemifinals of the SyedModi International hereon Saturday.

The 26-year-oldIndian, who won twoBWF Super 100 titles inHyderabad and Vietnamthis year, displayed anever-say-die attitudeduring his thrilling 21-

17, 16-21, 21-18 winover Heo, ranked 44th inthe world.

Sourabh thus set upa final clash with eighthseeded Taiwanese WangTzu Wei, who thrashedformer world number 1Korean Son Wan Ho21-9, 21-7 in the othersemifinal of the Super300 event.

Earlier, formernational champion

Rituparna Das playedher heart out beforegoing down toThailand’s PhittayapornChaiwan to bow out ofthe women’s singlescompetition.

The 23-year-oldIndian, who had claimedthe Polish Open title in2016 and 2018, wentdown fighting 22-24 15-21 to Chaiwan in a 39-minute women’s singles

semifinal match.World No. 36

Sourabh made a goodstart to the semifinal,opening up a 6-2 leadbefore grabbing a 11-7advantage at the break.

The MadhyaPradesh shuttler keptmoving ahead despite aspirited fight from Heoand eventually pocketedthe opening game.

Stung by the rever-

sal, Heo dished out abetter performance inthe second game as heled 11-8 at the breather.

After the break, theKorean furtherincreased the gap in thescore line with fourstraight points. Heo kepthis nose ahead and wonthe second game to roarback into the contest.

The decider turnedout be a roller-coaster

ride with the two play-ers fighting tooth andnail. At the interval,Sourabh managed tohold a one-point advan-tage but Heo quicklyerased it and moved toa 18-15 lead at onestage.

Sourabh then reeledoff six straight points toshut the door on hisopponent and enter thefinals.

>��������*����������� ��� ���$=���� ������� �

��3 �3>�3�� �&�� ���7�)31�)�

����� 0-(9:4,�20-;9�3

GSathiyan’s dream run atthe International Table

Tennis Federation (ITTF)Men’s World Cup came to anend after the Indian wentdown to former world num-ber one Timo Boll here onSaturday.

The world number 30Sathiyan, making his WorldCup debut, went down 1-4(11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 9-11, 8-11)

to the German in the pre-quarters.

Sathiyan started on abright note, taking a 1-0 lead,but the experienced Bollreplied quickly to level thematch.

The two-time World Cupchampion then dominatedthe tie, winning the next threegames without much trouble.

On Friday, Sathiyan haddefeated higher rankedFrenchman Simon Gauzy 11-

13, 9-11, 11-8, 14-12, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8 before beating worldnumber 24 Groth Jonathan ofDenmark 11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-2, to top his group andreach the round of 16.

“The moment I realisedhow good I have played in mydebut ITTF World Cup iswhen the entire Chinesecrowd gave me a loudapplause on leaving the matchhall !! Put up a great fight butlost out to the legendary Timo

Boll 1-4 in Last 16 !!” Sathiyanlater wrote on his twitter han-dle.

“It was a great learningexperience & definitely one ofthe best performances in mycareer so far with two goodback to back wins againsthigher ranked players! Moreto come Thanks to my per-sonal coach Raman sir & alsomasseur Amarjit Singh forhelping me to bring out mybest.”

��������������������($$/�.�

����������������� �� ����� ����#���!

4�1*7�1*�=������������*������ *�����+����,-�./,0

� How did you become a musician?After completing my Class XII, I joined engineering. But I quit.

I had been wrting since I was in Class X. I learnt how to play theguitar. I started uploading my music that is how it began. my par-ents were not very happy when I quit. � Why did you join engineering and then quit?

It was a decision that I took on my own. Once I had decided,I stuck to it. I had decided to make music my profession. I slowlystarted putting my music; people started contacting me. I startedmaking contacts. I made covers. People liked my work. labels con-tacted me. From there, I launched my original songs. � What is your track Tu Mera Kyu Nahi about?

It is a sad song. I like songs that are slow with a melody. I don’tlike songs that are too urban or have a hip-hop tone to it. I wrote,composed and sung it. I uploaded the song on KundraEntertainment. Back then I had only uploaded the audio. Then Iwas approached by a label. From there, the video will happen inthe next couple of months.� Are you a poet, lyricist, composer or a singer?

I call myself a complete package. I am an artist. I want peopleto know me as a prson who plays, composes, writes and even sings.� You have composed a song for another singer. Is it tough?

It is easy when I compose music for my songs. I know what Iam looking at. But when one is making a composition for anoth-er, one has to keep his guidelines and demand in mind. One hasto strcuture one works keeps those in mind. While it may some-time be tough, it is a challlenge that I love to take up.� Does this hamper your creativity?

I have just started my professional career in this field. I am look-ing at as many opportunities that I can get. I want to prove my tal-ent. It is good t o get different kind of work. Sometimes, it feels Icould have done it differently but then, working for someone elseand work on different genres gives an exposure. It is a chllange.My work is to give my best. The rest is up to the audience.� Was it tough to get a break?

Yes. I didn’t know anybody. But Istarted uploading music onYouTube. I got in touch with Kundra Entertainment. Made cov-ers for them. That is how it all began.� Can the industry do something to give a break to artists likeyourself?

Yes and no. But the digital platform like YouTube has givenopportunities to artists to upload their music and get noticed.� What does success mean to you?

Making money is important. I want to keep my family happy.I want people to like the kind of work that I am doing and when-he is on stage, for the audience to sing with him.� What next?

I am all set to release my single for T-Series. I have not doneany song for Bollywood. There is a difference for working forBollywood and doing indie space. In Bollywood, one has to deliv-er according to the director’s vision. In indie space one can do whatone likes.

"��!��J� ������J�������5�-,$�*5���*�#;/������������#��.���+ ��9��/�����������"-�$;9; "�+"(9����������'����� �������������'����

H���������������������� �����)

� Why did you chooseGaana Originals to releasethe song?

I chose Gaana as a platformbecause their reach is enor-mousacross the country withusers varying across all marketsincluding Tier II and Tier IIImarkets. Majority of the usersacross the country stream music

on this app due to their exten-sive library, which is why Ithink it, was the right decisionthus ensuring my music reachedto a maximum number of peo-ple. � What is the song about?

Ishq Saaf, a Gaana OriginalLove Edition Season 3 song is aromantic melody with contem-porary arrangement and a dashof elements from the moderntimes. The lyrics have beenwell-written by Shabir. Of courseit has melody and lights up theromance between couples. Thestory that the song tells is beau-tiful and nice. � You have been a playbackfor decades. Advantages ofindie space?

Yes, definitely there is anadvantage. I have sung over20,000 songs in my career andthe indie space is definitelygood for the artists and the lis-teners alike. The space is goodfor our followers and fans.� Do you think that youhave outgrown playback and

want to do your own musicnow?

No, I don’t want to make mymusic. I was never a musicdirector though I do it composemusic for myself. Playback hasgiven me a lot, I have learntmany things, that is enough forme. I have done a movie as wellbut all this has been recreation-al and for fun rather than pro-fessionally. My genre is singingand I want to do as much ofplayback as I can for my fans andlisteners.� You have been doing con-certs for sometime. The bestthing about them?

I have been doing concerts allover the world. The best thingabout the concert is the applausethat comes with it which isimmediate. This tells us howmuch people have loved thesong and whether the concert hasbeen a hit or not. The applauseacts like a vitamin for us. If I singa song and when people in theconcert clap at the end of it, it issuch a high. I love doing concerts.

� Is there something thathas worked against you?

There have been many chal-lenges as a artiste that come ourway but there is no point in talk-ing about it now. Jo hain naamwala, wohi badnaam hai is a say-ing and I think that if peoplehave rebelled against me, I havetaken it positively and ensuredthat it has worked in my favour.I believe that I should continuepleasing my fans though mywork and let people judge me formy good work.� Where is music headingtoday?

Melodious songs were beingmade then and the fact standstrue even today. I have heardMeet Bros, many of their songsare melodious and exciting.Back then movies had 10 songsand seven-eight songs hadmelody. Today, there is probablyone song in the film that hasmelody. We are following theWest. But being an Indian, wewill come back to our roots as faras music is concerned. Let peo-

ple take music where they wantto. But they will come back toour kind of music. � People listen to yoursongs. What are you listeningto yourself?

I am sure my fans would beeager to know what I listen to butbelieve it or not I don’t listen totoo many songs. The only songsthat I listen to are those sung bymy daughter. I am amazed howwell she sings given that she isonly 17. � Upcoming projects?

There are many projectsand exciting tracks coming in forthe upcoming year and alsomany films under big bannerwhich have my songs. I usuallyrelease a new song on YouTubeevery other day and I amextremely proud and delightedthat I am still progessing, afterbeing in the industry for rough-ly about 31-32 years. A lot mysongs have already been releasedand in January2020 there is agood track in the pipeline thatpeople will get to hear from me.

H��������������������������)

������������ ������Think of choral singing and one

would imagine a church. Butone couldn’t be more wrong.

The Capital City Minstrels (CCM)which is celebrating its silver jubileein the Capital is a case in point thatchoir singing is not just restricted tochurches anymore. The journey ofhow CCM from 10 members standsat 60 singers, is an interesting one.

Back in 1994, when the Women’sInternational Choir (WIC) per-formed their last concert, most peo-ple thought it was the end of the choirscene in Delhi. But some of thesingers decided to band together andmeet once a week for rehearsal to fillthe gap left by the WIC. Led by ZohraShaw, a pianist, the small group of 10people met over tea and snacks andpracticed a Christmas repertoire, inthe hope that they would get thechance to perform at one of the manyChristmas functions in the city. Notlong after they received their firstinvitation to sing, performing inDelhi on December 14, 1994.

News spread and new singersjoined and The Capital City Minstrelswas born. Shaw, founded and con-ducted the group until 2000, afterwhich the choir has been led by var-ious conductors from across theworld each leaving their mark on thisdiverse group. It has been 25 yearsand the group has grown from 10members to 60 choristers, ranging inage, profession and nationality.

Over the years, there have been12 conductors who have led thegroup The best part of this silverjubilee celebration is that the choirwill see the return of some of them.From America: Alex Heetland andDiane Pritchett; from Great Britain:Fiona Hedger-Gourlay ; fromHungary: Gabriella Boda-Rechner;from Germany Carolin Remy andfrom Russia: Nadya Balyan. They willbe conducting some of their popularwork. Besides this, several singersfrom across the world also returnedto join the present choir in concert.

Sharmila B Livingston, who is onher third stint as a conductor for theCCM tells you that she joined thegroup 22 years back as a singer.

“Shaw started the choir. She is anaccomplished musician. She wanted

to start a choir of her own. It all beganwith performing at small gatherings.Interest grew and attracted peoplefrom all walks of life from doctors tolawyers to engineers to students todiplomats. Also, over the years, thechoir has been conducted by con-ductors from Korea, France,Hungary, Germany, Great Britain andeven the US. During Zohra’s the usedto sing sacred classical music. Overthe years, it has expanded to all kindsof choral singing,” Livingston says.She tells you that she started withShaw as part of the choir and asoloist. Then came a time when thegroup needed a conductor andLivingston stepped in. “I did a sea-son and then I left since I didn’t wantto conduct back then. Recently, thegroup called me back and has donethree seasons which spans one-and-a-half years. The group has a summerand a Christmas concert,” Livingstonsays and tells you that this time thetheme is Joy: A Season to Celebrate.

There are a few reasons whyCCM has survived for so long is fora couple of reasons. First, it is secu-lar in nature and other styles ofmusic. Second, people who enjoymusic are looking for opportunitiesto have an outlet and exposure tolearn and experience music. Thereare very limited opportunities wherepeople can sing if they are not a

soloist. The beauty of a choir is thatone doesn’t have to be a soloist tosing. You just need to have joy andlove for music and contribute to theoverall sound. This is a freeingaspect of choral singing.

Livingston tells you that over theyears, the audiences have changed butpeople have not. “Audiences havechanged since people today travel allover and have been exposed to all

kinds of singing and enjoy a widerspectrum of music. What has notchanged is people who had limitedchoices before, will come in to expecta certain kind of singing and be dis-appointed if they don’t hear what isfamiliar to them. There are some whocome in and want to hear newsounds. We have to cater to bothersides,” she says.

Annie Sinha, a choral singer,

tells you that after her retirement, sheis now devoted to the choir. I joinedthe group 11 years back. I havealways been interested in music butwas waiting for my daughter to com-plete her Class XII. Though I have nothad a formal training in music, I doknow how to read the music notes. Itwas not very difficult for me to getinto the group but had to give anaudition,” Sinha says.

Some of the changes that havetaken place are: The soul of thechoir has grown. “The activities havebecome streamlined. There is anexecutive committee that meets toorganise the concerts. I was the pres-ident of the choir for four years till Ivacated the seat last December,” shesays.

According to Sinha, the growingpopularity of choir singing is thegenre of music they present. “It is notonly classical or just pop. There ismixed fare which appeals to all kindsof people. We sing with a lot energyand are able to connect the audiences.The fact that a choir won India’s GotTalent Khoj 2 meant that people arefamiliar with choral singing. Word ofmouth and social media has alsohelped,” Sinha tells you.

Abhishek Gogna, is a pianoteacher with Theme Music,Gurugram. “I was studying Physicswhen a junior, who was part of thechoir, introduced me to CCM in 2016.But due to academic reasons I had todefer it to 2017,” Gogna says.

While the sheer numbers of thechoir can be daunting, the goodpart, Gogna tells you is that everyonelooks out for the other instilling asense of the community. Gogna whojoined the choir as a singer, butstepped up when the choir needed apianist. “Beginning of this season,they needed an accompanist full-time.However, I will also be a part of thechoral singing,” Gogna tells you.

He has been part of this style ofsinging since his school days. “I havenever been a soloist. Even dueing myschool, I was part of a choir. So I havehad a fair bit of experience of choralsinging,” Gogna says.

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

�����)���*���,

!�E�����-��, ����&�� �� ����!

$���������������� �)�������� �������*����)�������

���������� ���� ������������������ ����!�����+��������������������,����������������������������-������������������������,������ �����./�.01/�

#���������������)��������������������(����������������!����-������� �*��2���!���)�3�����4����!����-��������+�������3���$���������+����4� ��5��6���������� �������$������*��!����2��������

#�����������������������������������������,��������������������������� ������ ����"���������4�� ������������������������� ������� ��������(�����

#����# ��������� ���������� ������!�#�

�����������7��8���������2���4������������� ��������������������������

������2����������2����9����������� ��� ������������������������.:�114�������������������������������������������������������������

������� ������ 4����������������������$������+����,������

#���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

!����������������������7���� �;<#������������������ ������������������������ ������� �����#���� ����������������������"������������������ ��������������������� �� ����������������#�������������������������������������� �������������������� �����,�� �����,������������ ����������������������.:�11������������������������������ �����������������������������������������������������������������������,������������������� ����������#��������������������������������������� ����������=

#���0�����0�� �.���������������������!������E����������� ��"-�$;9;�"�+"(9���������������!������������������������������!�����!��������� �������������!��!

"-�8�"#�5#(4�#-(0-C;5��;#��$$�%(:�98;#-�*(5&C5.;9:��#".�$$�:�#-(5;9:"�;9#(5("#�:5(8��94�##5�0#(4�*(C*$(&5C.��$$�8�$+"�C&$;&(�&5C.�4C0#C5"

#C�$�8?(5"�#C(9:;9((5"�#C"#,4(9#"�#C4;*$C.�#"

�What is keeping you busy these days?A bit of commentary and helping young cricket

enthusiasts around is what that is keeping me busy atpresent.�How has your journey been thus far?

It has been a learning curve for me. Not only crick-et but I have tried my hands on different things as well.I did Khatron Ke Khiladi 4 (KKK 4) which was excit-ing and a different experience altogether. It was some-thing that one doesn’t get to encounter with in dailylife.�A lesson that you took back home from the show?

One of the most important things that I learnt in the show was howto fight your fear.�Any advice for the aspiring cricketers?

If you like the sport then you should play it with passion. �A success mantra?

Just a simple one: Follow your passion.�Was there a moment when you feel like giving up in life?

Yes, there have been instances when I felt like quitting. I don’t want togive the background of it. Sometimes a lot of questions do come up in yourmind like what is the future and the present status. But at the end of the dayyou have decide that is it worth giving the attention or not. I always ask myselfbefore quitting anything: Why did I start it? And the moment I get the answerwhich is more important than the reason of quitting I always hold on.

A���-�07,�'�+/02807���''8+�

0����������9�,.�0-C*5�������������.,"%��-�"-.;������������������!�������� �������� �/�'����� �����)����������������!�+++�

�����������'����

;�4C9<#�$;"#(9#C�#CC�.�9?

"C9:"��#-(�C9$?"C9:"�#-�#�;$;"#(9�#C��5(#-C"(�",9:�%?.?�4�,:-#(5��;�.��.�R(4�-C88($$�"-(�";9:":;D(9�#-�#�"-(

;"�C9$?���

� � � � � � � � �

TalktimeKUMAR SANU

The versatile singer released his recent trackon Gaana Originals titled Isha Saaf, a 90s

feel song. Shalini Saksena speaks withhim about the advantages of being on

indie space, his favourite songand future plans

���������I���

"���0���� �0�������< �:;<=

�8������� ��!� ��<�!���!�& �� ���&��<����!�������

The revelation that Delhi tap water isthe most unsafe to drink came aboutafter the release of the findings of astudy by the Department ofConsumer Affairs (through the

Bureau of India Standards) recently. The studylists the quality of piped drinking water beingsupplied in the country and ranks the states,Smart Cities and even districts based on thequality of tap water.

These tests were conducted on various para-metres such as Organoleptic and Physical Tests,Chemical test, Toxic substances andBacteriological tests in the first stage. In Delhi,all of the 11 samples drawn from various placesdid not comply with the requirements of theIndian Standard and failed on several parametres,the report said. Mumbai set an example for cleandrinking water. The study found that all the 10samples drawn from the city complied with therequirements.

The cities of Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar,Ranchi, Raipur, Amravati and Shimla, failed tocomply in case of a sample (or two) and none ofthe samples drawn from 13 of the state capitals,that is Chandigarh,Thiruvananthapuram, Patna,Bhopal, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhinagar,Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai andKolkata complied with the requirements of theIndian Standard.

���������� ���������������� ������Water pollution in India is a serious issue. Almost80% of India’s surface water is polluted, and analarming percentage of groundwater reserves arecontaminated by various organic and inorganicpollutants. Many of these sources have been ren-dered unsafe for various activities such as agri-cultural, industrial, and for domestic use.Furthermore, degraded water quality can add towater scarcity as it limits its accessibility for bothhuman use and for the ecosystem.

Untreated wastewater discharge from indus-tries is a major cause of water pollution. Effluentsfrom various pharmaceutical and drug industriesare discharged into rivers and other water bod-ies without being treated. It is estimated thataround 27,000 million litres per day (MLD) ofwastewater is generated in the country, out ofwhich only 26% is treated. Untreated water accu-mulates in surface water bodies and eventuallyfilters into underground water aquifers.

Polluted water has a multiplier effect. Everylitre of released wastewater further pollutes 5-8litres of water. This mismanagement in cities

results in degradation of water quality.Release of pesticides and fertilisers from agri-

culture fields, animal husbandry and disposal ofdomestic sewage are the major causes of conta-mination. Various religious practices such asimmersion of idols in surface water bodies con-tribute to deteriorating water quality. In fact, waterbodies have been considered as dumping groundsfor various offerings, which has degraded theportability of surface water.

Water supply channels in cities are worn-outand remain unmanaged. At many places, theypass through drains. These worn out channelsconveying consumable water have developedmicro cracks. Therefore, the risk of waste andsewage water entering from drains into thepotable water cannot be ruled out. In that sense,contamination occurs either at the source or dur-ing its delivery from point of source to the pointof consumption. Diffuse pollution is far more dif-ficult to identify and control than point-sourcepollution.

Irrigating crops with contaminated waterresults in vegetables and fruits that are unfit forconsumption due to dangerous microbes, heavymetals, pollutants that are carcinogenic (maycause cancer) and highly toxic chemicals. Peoplehave no option but to eat these contaminated veg-etables and fruits. There are plenty of researchstudies on contaminants found in fishes, watercrops like Trapa (water chestnut), and other leafycrops. However, common man has no options tocheck, monitor and avoid these contaminatedfood sources.

���������� ������������Coastal area, especially wetlands and estuaries,coral reefs, and mangrove swamps that areimportant ecosystem, bear the brunt of our enor-mous inputs of pollutants and waste in to theocean. This is not surprising because about 40%of the world’s population (53% in the UnitedStates) lives on or near the coast, because 14 ofthe world’s 15 largest metropolitan areas (eachwith 10 million people or more) are near coastalwaters, and because many of these areas receivehordes of vacationers.

In most coastal developing countries andin some coastal developed, countries,municipal sewage and industrial wastesare dumped into the sea without treat-ment. For example, 85% of the sewagefrom large cities along theMediterranean Sea (with a coastalpopulation of 200 million peopleduring tourist season) is discharged

into the sea untreated. This causes widespreadbeach pollution and shellfish contamination.

Recent studies of coastal waters have foundvast colonies of viruses thriving in raw sewage,effluents from sewage treatment plants (which donot remove viruses), and leaking septic tanks.According to one study, one-fourth of the peo-ple using coastal beaches in the develop ear infec-tions, sore throats, eye irritations, respiratory dis-ease, or gastrointestinal disease.

Runoffs of sewage and agricultural wastes intocoastal waters introduce large quantities ofnitrate (NO3-) and phosphate (PO4 -) plantnutrients, which can cause explosive growth ofharmful algae. These harmful algal blooms(HABs) are called red, brown or green toxic tides.They can release waterborne and airborne tox-ins that damage fisheries, kill some fish-eatingbirds, reduce tourism, and poison seafood.

����!����! �������� ����������������The problem is very acute in crops grownaround contaminated rivers. Case studies of riversYamuna and Ganges flowing through the citieshave provided glaring evidences of contamina-tions. There are very few attempts of abatementof these pollutants at sources; or education to han-dlers of supply chain as well as end users. Thereis rampant use of pesticides and inorganic fertilis-ers. A large number of chemicals used in fertilis-ers and pesticides are environmentally stable,prone to bioaccumulation and toxic — becausepesticides can persist in the environment for years,they remains in the environment for longer dura-tion. A large quantity of pesticides of the sprayremain in the air, soil or water which have high-ly deleterious effect on human health and on otherorganisms. Indirect impact of pesticides onhuman include consumption of food, as well asfrom contact of pesticides in the air, water soilsediments and food materials etc.

���������� !����������The drinking water for about half of the popu-lation and 95% of those in rural area comes fromground water. According to scientists, groundwa-ter pollution is a serious threat to human health.

Common pollutants such as fertilisers, pes-ticides gasoline, and organic solvents can seep intogroundwater from numerous sources. People whodump or spill gasoline, oil and paint thinners andother organic solvents onto the ground also con-taminate groundwater.

Once a pollutant from a leaking undergroundstorage tank or other source contaminates

groundwater, it fills the aquifer’s porous layers ofsands, gravel or bedrock like water saturates asponge. This makes removal of the contaminantdifficult and costly. According to WHO, 112 mil-lion people are drinking water with arsenic level5-100 times. The 10 ppb standard is found in WestBengal and adjacent water.

���������� ����������Water, although an absolute necessity for life, canbe a carrier of many diseases. Most of thepathogens involved are derived from human fae-ces, and the diseases transmitted by consumptionof fiscally contaminated water are called “faecal-oral” diseases. The incidence, prevalence andseverity of water hygiene diseases can be reducedby the observance of high levels of personal,domestic and community hygiene.

Some of the common diseases transmitted tohuman through contaminated drinking water areBacteria (cause Typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery),Virus (cause Type B hepatitis), Parasitic proto-zoa (cause amoebic dysentery) and Parasiticworms (cause schistosomiasis).

So, what can be done? Water monitoring tech-nologies should be adapted and applied as perquality norms of type of water usage. Apart fromcentral monitoring, community monitoring isessential to maintain water quality. It is essentialto monitor waste water, develop natural treatmenttechnologies for wastewater; and avoid contam-ination through diffusion. (In developed coun-tries, there are strict codes for sewer lines andwater lines so as to avoid contamination throughdiffusion.

Good quality of water is essential for well-being of human population as well as our envi-ronment. Improving water quality, implement-ing integrated water resources management, andprotecting and restoring water-related ecosystemsare a few of the targets for the UN SustainableDevelopment Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation.

One can sustain without a particular food butnot without clean water. It is crucial that this issueis addressed by way of management, periodicaltesting, development of proper quality parame-tres, education of managers of related depart-ments, building confidence in public, and severepunishments through legal framework thatshould function as a deterrent for evaders andslack managers.

The writer is a retired IFS officer, formerPrincipal Chief Conservator of Forests (UP)

and former National Coordinator, Task Forceon Interlinking of Rivers, Ministry of Water

Resources, New Delhi

��?<(?��.$2?�*�����!����=��33�22���$$2?��@*=�$.DD�?2(��������$�3���B�?��

D(?<��(�2�$(�2����2�(��� (�.?�2=�#�.���*

$ � " / � % � ! # � ! & �

(������4���������!��������������/������������������������ ����������/���� ����������������������������=�4��������������������������������������������������� ��*5C&�%+*�";9-��������������������)������������������������

�*�5#�&5C.�0(9#5�$.C9;#C5;9:/0C..,9;#?

.C9;#C5;9:�;"(""(9#;�$�#C

.�;9#�;9�8�#(5S,�$;#?��;#�;"(""(9#;�$�#C

.C9;#C5�8�"#(8�#(5/�4(D($C*

9�#,5�$�#5(�#.(9##(0-9C$C:;("�&C58�"#(8�#(5T��94

�DC;40C9#�.;9�#;C9

#-5C,:-�4;&&,";C9

6?�)

A6#?& B#>1>.B#6�

6?�)

A6#?& B#>1>.B#6�

� %��&�-��� �)%(+���)��#% �-

��))��2���%�����-��3'�)4��&�4���%(&�%&

�5 �%(&��2��67�1�(��� %86�(

��(�D?(<�$(�B�?���<D�2�3�*�2=�����<�??��@(��$�$(2�3=�2�(����(?(�2���3�2$����2(��(���($��B�2�(�2)��D(�D*(

This is your third visit to India since thefirst time you came here in the 1980s.What changes have you witnessed in thecountry? And what’s the agenda behindthe visit?

I have had two visits as a politician. Back in 1981,I had spent three months in India travelling aroundmost of the country. I came away from India thenwith a strong sense of its strength and vast poten-tial. Ever since I have believed that the rise of Indiawas on the horizon and when that would happen,it would be good not just for the Indians but the entireworld. As the Prime Minister, I was keen to swiftlydeepen and strengthen the relationship between thetwo great nations. I put in place the nuclear under-standing as a result of which we are now exportinguranium to India. I also did my best to revive thequadrilateral security dialogue between India,United States, Japan and Australia. My one disap-pointment is that as Prime Minister, I was not ableto finalise the free trade deal that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and I had committed to doing. I amsure that Scott Morrison, the current AustralianPrime Minister, will put this deal back on track whenhe visits India in February next year.

You have a great personal rapport with PrimeMinister Modi. How do you see him as a personand a global leader?I think Narendra Modi has been the most signif-icant Indian Prime Minister in many years.Obviously, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehruwas a giant of history. Even Mrs Indira Gandhiwas a significant Prime Minister, even if there weresome flaws in her overall record. Modi becamePrime Minister with a wonderful sense of voca-tion and commitment. He is one of those primeministers who has been tirelessly working for hispeople. Under his regime, there is no sense ofIndia underperforming and underselling itself.India has always been a colossus of a subconti-nent, but it hasn’t always been active globally. WithModi as Prime Minister, it has found its voiceagain. I think that’s going to be good for India andthe world.

You have always pushed for free trade dealbetween the two nations. Why?Prime Minister Modi has created a lot of goodwillfor India in Australia, and vice versa. The impor-tant thing is to turn this goodwill into practicalactions and concrete outcomes. This is where thefree trade deal comes into place. Australian coal,for instance, pays 5 per cent tariff when it comesto India, while Indonesian coal doesn’t pay any tar-iff. Australia is a reliable supplier of high quality coaland that tariff on its coal is in reality a tax on Indianconsumers. It’s a tax on Indian environment, too.Australian coal, after all, is cleaner than Indonesiancoal. The free trade deal would mean cheaper andcleaner power for Indians.

What are the common challenges and opportu-nities?Both countries want a stable, peaceful and freerworld. Both have a strong and demonstrable com-mitment towards democracy, rule of law and inter-national system that respects the rights of all nations.I think the sheer commitment for democracy andrule of law makes us natural partners.

Despite shared values, interests and aspirations,the Indo-Australian relationship couldn’t justi-fy its full potential. Where do you think thingshave wrong?I don’t think things have gone wrong. For me, theyhaven’t gone sufficiently right. After all, the rela-tionship between the two nations has never beenbad. But I concede that the relations have been abit underdeveloped. Prime Minister Morrison hassaid recently that as far as he is concerned, Indiais placed in the first tier of Australia’s friends. Theimportant thing is to transform this friendship intopractical cooperation. This is where the free tradedeal comes in. This is where the quadrilateral secu-rity dialogue becomes relevant. This arrangementis not against anyone. It’s an arrangement for democ-racy, peace and rule of law.

There are some concerns about slowdown inIndian economy. How do you see it?It’s normal that market economies periodically gothrough rough patches. But India’s growth has beenconsistent over the last few decades. Over the lastfive years, India has been the fastest growing largeeconomy in the world. I am, therefore, confidentthat whatever seasonal interruptions there mightbe, India will overcome it.

So, you think it’s a seasonal interruption...Yes, it’s seasonal and not a structural problem.

Modi became Prime Minister with a lot ofexpectation to further rejuvenate Indian econo-my. But the ongoing economic crisis is dampen-

ing the overall mood. How do you see it?The job of the government is not to pump the econ-omy one day and slow the economy down the nextday. It’s the job of the business. The job of the gov-ernment is to get the fundamentals right. Thatmeans low and simple taxes, honest and transpar-ent administration, clear and fair laws, a constanteffort to produce good education and infrastruc-ture system. In all this, the Modi government hasbeen doing a good job.

Why do you think the quadrilateral coalitionbetween India, the United States, Japan andAustralia is important?Because these four countries are the most signifi-cant and strong democracies in the world. India isthe world’s largest democracy and one of the mostresilient ones as well. The United States is still thecountry towards which the world looks at first andforemost for help. Japan has been an exemplaryinternational citizen. And Australia is one of theworld’s oldest democracies, if universal and femalesuffrage is to be taken into account. The more thesecountries work together, the more this world wouldbe free and peaceful.

Many see it as an anti-China coalition. ButAustralia has close ties with China. How do youexplain this supposed contradiction?Of course, we have a strong economic relationshipwith China, which is our single biggest trading part-ner. But it makes sense to have a strong economicrelationship with China, and vibrant security tieswith the United States and stronger partnership withIndia and Japan.

There are fears that once the US forces leaveAfghanistan, the Taliban might make a comeback.Do these apprehensions bother you as well?I think these fears are quite justified. That’s why theUS forces must not leave Afghanistan. PresidentDonald Trump is very keen to end America’s wars,which is understandable. America has paid a veryhigh price to be the global guarantor of peace andsecurity in the last seven decades. I think it’s timefor other countries to do more. America can’t beexpected to bear all the burdens of this vital task.At the same time, Afghanistan can’t be allowed toonce again become the haven of terrorism. I believethe Afghanistan government will need internation-al support and that’s why the US forces shouldremain in Afghanistan.

India has taken a strong position against Pakistanon the issue of terrorism. How do you see this?When I was the Prime Minister of Australia, I hadinteractions with the then Pakistani Prime Minister,Nawaz Sharif. I have no doubt that Sharif was justas concerned to stamp out terrorism as the rest ofus. But the problem is there are elements in thePakistani security apparatus that appear to thinkthat there are good Taliban and bad Taliban, andthat some Islamist extremists could be tolerated. Ithink it’s very difficult to make this kind of distinc-tion. If you try to ride a tiger, you could end up get-ting mauled. I think the main challenge is to be bringthe Pakistani Army under an appropriate civiliancontrol. But it should be done wisely so that it does-n’t create any repercussion.

When you were the Prime Minister of Australia,you signed a nuclear deal with India. What wasthe idea behind that?It was the Howard government, before 2007,which had first agreed for an arrangement withIndia on the issue, but it was abrogated by the nextgovernment in 2009, which was a big mistake.Despite that setback, Australia’s relationship withIndia remained cordial, but Indians were rightly dis-appointed with the abrupt scrapping of the arrange-ment. I always believed that India was the rightcountry to get uranium from Australia. Why shouldIndia be barred when less benevolent nations weregiven that opportunity? I am happy that we are nowexporting uranium to India.

Do you think energy is the big thing that wouldbind the economies of India and Australia?Absolutely. It’s impossible to bring people from theThird World into the middle class without a mas-sive increase in the per capita energy. As you movefrom relative poverty to relative prosperity, your percapita energy improves and increases. This is whereAustralia can be helpful. We have the largest read-ily available reserve of coal, gas and uranium. I wantAustralia to be the source of energy security to India.I think that is an integral part of India moving itsmillions of relatively poor people into the middleclass and take its rightful place in the comity of greatnations.

There are many roadblocks in India’s endeavourto be a permanent member of the UN SecurityCouncil. What’s your stand?It’s always difficult to change a stand. The system

in place we have today is the immediate byprod-uct of World War II. In those days the global posi-tion of India was different. Today, if there’s one coun-try on the earth which by virtue of its size, strengthand potential has a claim over a position in theSecurity it would be India. Personally, I would bevery supportive of India entering the UNSC.India would be another democratic superpower inthe Security Council. The world would be a betterplace if there are two democratic superpowers, notjust one.

What’s the message you have for those who wantto invest in Australia?I would say that they shouldn’t look at the contro-versy surrounding Adani to make any negativeassessment about investing in Australia. The peo-ple of Australia have very strong and natural affin-ity for the people of India. India has one millionambassadors in Australia in the shape of Indiandiaspora, which growing by the day. So, there isenough goodwill for India and Indians in Australia.Which makes Indian investment in Australia eas-ier and profitable. This is where I get back to thefree trade deal which I and PM Modi in 2014 hadcommitted to implementing within 12 months.Unfortunately it got derailed but let’s hope it comesback on the agenda when Morrison visits India earlynext year.

How do you see the India-Australia relationshipshaping up in future?The relationship needs to be much more than justabout cricket. Australia is one of those countrieswhich makes a very good partner. We are bigenough to be useful but not big enough to be over-bearing and intimidating. We don’t bring the samehistorical baggage that other countries bring.That’s why I think India can look towards Australiaas an uncomplicated and trustworthy partner andfriend.

What are the sectors that the two nations can worktogether?Education is a field where the two countries can col-laborate closely. Tens and thousands of Indian stu-dents are studying in Australia every year. It’s impor-tant that it continues. Also, there is lot more thatcan be done in the field of defence and security. Ialso think that as a part of the quadrilateral dialoguewe could see a lot more cooperation across the boardin intelligence sharing.

���������I���

���������"���0���� �0�������< �:;<=

4;*$C.�0?�0�9��94�8;$$.�##(5T�$;##$(�;"�;9(D;#�%$(;9�;9#(59�#;C9�$�5($�#;C9"

=�5;0-�54�9�-��""

("0(��0>�>9%>�$+�,>�("��>�#9($D��+#"�(7?�$+"D��,,+$$&��������������*����.��������#�� ����������������!� �����������;���<������������������������������,������9������"������ �0������/�� ��!���������������������������*����.��������9������.���/����������� �������������6�����������!�����������������!7��������!�������!���6;��������� ��������������������������������/�����������<���� �������������!����� ��8����.������*����.�������/�����������������������!����;����������<��!���!�������!�������;����������������/7�� ����������#���!������!�����������/��������������������*����.������������/�6#�� /����������������������� ������������������� �����������������1�/������!���������������������������������������������"������ /�������������;�����*������� /�;������������� ���������������;����������!�����,9"0��;�����������������������������������������������"������ �0��������#������������������������������������������������������������������/�����'��������7�;�������J�������!�����������������"�9��9��.C-�9 �����!���������������������9���4����/������������������������������������������������*.�.���/���������������������������;����������������������J������������������������������/��� �����,"�������������������!�������������� /���������������������������������!��������������;�������������������������������������������������(�������)������������������������F

;94;��-�"�C9(.;$$;C9

�.%�""�4C5"�;9�,"#5�$;��;9�#-("-�*(�C&�;94;�94;�"*C5�/�8-;0-

:5C8;9:�%?�#-(�4�?�"C/�#-(5(�;"�(9C,:-:CC48;$$�&C5�;94;�

;9��,"#5�$;�

���������I���

������� "���0���� �0�������< �:;<=

�����&���������** ��77 ��**�������������������� &��&����&�(�������� ����$$���!������������� ���������� )������))������������������!!� ����� &��&���� ����� ��� �� ** �� 77 �(� ���� !!��� ��5���� !!�������� � ������ �� � �������� ����� ������99DD3� !!� ����� �� ���� ��� �� �� ����� ����� 0� ** )�'��(�����** �" �������������������������������&��!!���������������++ ��� ������&&�#��&&����������!! ����&��������������������� '������������� ��� ���������� !��#�����!����& �������0������ ���� �������������"������!!�������&���!!� �&�(�����!!����&���(�����!�&��������!!�����'��������??4���� ����(�$$) � ������#��� ��** ��77 �

�'�&�%�!�� ����� ��������! �!<����7����(���

Hong Kong witnessed anunprecedented democra-

tic exercise last week. Theresults of the just concludedelections for 18 DistrictCouncils in the city can at bestbe termed as an affront toChina. The Opposition won392 of the 452 elected seats inall the District Councils. Thepro-Beijing parties could bagonly 60 seats. And this hap-pened to the Government alliesdespite having strong backingfrom the city administrationand from the CentralGovernment in the mainlandChina. Thus the election out-comes manifest a clear man-date for the pro-democracygroups and parties for a force-ful say in the political-eco-nomic set-up in Hong Kong.

The results were recordedas a historic low for the pro-Government political parties asthey fell from 300 seats to justdouble digits. It must be notedhere that the pro-democracygroups have unbelievably roseover three-fold from 124 seatsearlier. Moreover, the voterturnout in the District Councilelections this year soared to71.2 per cent, a whopping 47per cent spike in comparison tothe 2015 polls.

First of all, the electionresults will definitely add pres-sure on the embattled citychief Carry Lam. She hasalready admitted that publicdissatisfaction with her admin-istration virtually led theOpposition to win the major-ity of the seats in the local elec-tions. But in order to justify heractions against the protesters,she claims that a silent major-ity is still supporting herGovernment.

Second, the results of thelocal elections do not mattermuch for both the cityGovernment of Hong Kongand the Central Government inBeijing. It is so because thesecouncils look after only localaffairs, such as maintenance ofpublic places, waste manage-ment, etc. But the way Lam isreacting to the results showsthat she is nervous about thepro-democracy camp’s suc-cessful electoral march. Thiscan be gauged from her state-ments released immediatelyafter the declaration of thepoll results. She said, “There arevarious analyses and interpre-tations of the results and quitea few are of the view that theresults reflect people’s dissatis-faction with the current situa-tion and the deep-seated prob-lems in society.”

Further, without recognis-ing the demands of the pro-testers, she simply said that theGovernment respected theresults and wished the peace-ful, safe and orderly situationto continue. And, she alsoaired her views: “TheGovernment will humbly listen

humbly to citizens’ opinionsand reflect on them seriously.”But, it seems the Hongkongersare not going to believe herword. There is no iota of doubtamong Hongkongers that Lamwill always toe the Beijing line.

Third, it needs to beassessed why the local electionresults are seen as a referendumon the political life of Lam. Itis so because these are the onlypolitical offices wherein themainland and the Hong Konglaws allow a full universal suf-frage to decide the fate of thecandidates. When it comes tothe highest political office inHong Kong i.e. the ChiefExecutive, he/she is elected bya privileged committee, con-sisting of 1,194 memberswherein 70 members comefrom Hong Kong LegislativeCouncil (Legco) and the restbelong to a mix of business-man, professionals and tradeelites. This committee is sup-posedly broadly representa-tive as per the statutes of theexisting Hong Kong Law, but

critics view it as being unfair-ly lopsided towards represen-tatives from business and trade.The critical point in these rep-resentatives is that they gener-ally vote in favour of the dik-tats of the Beijing power elite.Thus, the demand for a full-fledged universal adult fran-chise continues in Hong Kongfor the election of the ChiefExecutive.

Fourth, what do the pollresults point to? This onceagain repeats the sheer rebufffrom the Hong Kong protest-ers to both the establishmentsin Hong Kong and Beijing.This is not the first time theHongkongers are stagingprotests against the city and themainland administrations. Fiveyears back in 2014, thousandshad stormed the streets ofHong Kong.

Fifth, what kinds of reac-tions are pouring in from theXi regime to this pointedrebuke in the form of embold-ening democratic aspirations inHong Kong? For now, the

socialist establishment inBeijing is simply downplayingthe poll outcomes. The Chinesestate media has completelydownplayed the local elections.The Communist Governmentdid not comment directly onthe election results, butPresident Xi Jinping’s office hasblamed external interference inits domestic affairs. GengShuang, a Foreign Ministryspokesperson, said: “The mostpressing task for Hong Kong atthe moment is to stop violenceand restore order. As HongKong is part of China, itsaffairs are purely domesticaffairs. China is determined insafeguarding national sover-eignty, security and develop-ment interests.”

And it has been highlight-ed once again that Beijing isdetermined to maintain thehistoric “one country, two sys-tems” model in regard to thegovernance of Hong Kong.Besides, the ChineseCommunist Party’s People’sDaily, without mentioning the

results, reported that themonth’s long social unrest inHong Kong has severely dis-rupted the election processand that the patriotic candi-dates were harassed on the dayof the election by those seek-ing chaos. The official newsagency Xinhua blamed for-eign forces and said the elec-tions had fallen victim to thesocial unrest. What has beennoted is that the major news-papers and party mouthpiecesin the mainland China square-ly accused the Hong Kongactivists, particularly the youngagitators, of sabotaging theentire election process andcampaign activities of the pro-establishment candidates, andfinally, prevening them fromvoting. This makes it amplyclear how the opinions andnarratives are divided on bothsides of the territory.

For the mainland Chinese,Hong Kong is a mere piece ofan area of the People’s Republicof China, like any other, and itshould be governed according

to the existing laws and regu-lations of the country. Maybemany of them would prefer tostress on maintenance of sta-bility rather than chaos whatHong Kong has been experi-encing for quite some time.Also, the rebuttal of the pro-paganda based solely on thenationalistic perspectives ofthe Xi regime and stern laws bythe Hongkongers are not beingtaken lightly by the mainlan-ders. With continued machi-nations of the CommunistParty and its various organs,both in public and in private,residents of the mainland mayhave developed a sense ofalienation and apprehensionabout the very intentions of theHongkongers.

Last but not the least, whatis aggravating situation inHong Kong is the new lawpassed by the US Congress andsigned by President DonaldTrump this week in regard toHong Kong. The new lawknown as Hong Kong HumanRights and Democracy Act

(HKHRDA) professes full sup-port to the pro-democracydemonstrators in Hong Kong.This law aims to back HongKongers in defence of theirautonomy promised by Chinaway back in July 1997 when theterritory was handed over byBritain to China under theSino-British Joint Declaration.Also under the HKHRDA, thestatus of Hong Kong will bereviewed by the US StateDepartment annually to justi-fy continuation of favourabletrading terms. The law threat-ens sanctions for human rightsviolations by the officials of theHong Kong Government. Infact, with respect to US policygoals towards Hong Kong, it isbelieved that there is wide-spread agreement on the needfor Beijing to abide by the 1984Sino-British Joint Declarationand the “One Country, TwoSystems” formula while resolv-ing differences among variousgroups and political partiespeacefully, and finally, respect-ing human rights. But China

has warned the US for sidingwith the pro-democracy pro-testers. It has denounced thecontroversial US Act as grossviolation of international lawand a direct meddling in itsdomestic affairs. A ForeignMinistry statement directlycautioned that the Trumpadministration would shoulderthe consequences of China’scountermeasures if it continuedto act arbitrarily in regard toHong Kong. This latest roundof conflicts would fuel the ani-mosity between Washingtonand Beijing, even as trade ColdWar is going on.

The pro-democracyactivists and their leaders seemto be gathering more confi-dence over massive publicmandate showered on them inthe District Council elections.Anchored in this conviction,the pro-democracy leaders andsupporters may draw theirfuture plans. But bringing theChinese state under completepressure is unimaginable forany foreign nation, includingthe superpower America.

However, crushing ademocratic uprising in HongKong would be hard nut tocrack for the Communists inBeijing. But then dragging it toan uncontrollable point like thecurrent one could systemati-cally erode the economic foun-dation of Hong Kong. Also, theseries of protests have made itclear that the unrest may con-tinue even on the face ofextreme level of brutality eitherby the Chinese People’sLiberation Army or by thePublic Armed Police (PAP).

The way forward is to sitand talk. And more impor-tantly there is an urgent needto shun violence by both theprotesters and the city admin-istration. The Hongkongersmust realise that an Act passedby the US Congress can in noway bring democracy to them,neither today nor in the nearfuture. A real solution lieswithin, not outside the sover-eign territory of the People’sRepublic of China. The roadahead lies in perfecting,respecting and preserving the“One Country, Two Systems”for peace in Hong Kong as wellas in the mainland.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

Hundreds of Hong Kongpro-democracy activists

rallied on November 29 outsidethe British Consulate, urgingthe city’s former colonial rulerto emulate the US and takeconcrete actions to supporttheir cause, as police ended ablockade of a university cam-pus after 12 days.

Waving British flags, theactivists urged Britain to ensurethat Hong Kong political dis-sidents do not suffer the samefate as Simon Cheng, a formerBritish Consulate employee inthe city who says he wasdetained and tortured byChinese secret police.

The rally came a day afterUS President Donald Trumpsigned into law two Bills to sup-port democracy and humanrights in the semi-autonomousChinese territory.

“The UK should enforcesimilar laws and should havedone even more” to support theprotest movement, said amasked rally organiser whoidentified herself only as Dawn.Activists handed a petition toa British Consulate officialbefore leaving.

Beijing denies torturingCheng and says he was held forsoliciting prostitution during abusiness trip to mainlandChina in August. Cheng sayshe agreed to confess to avoidharsher charges. He says he washooded, beaten and chained toa metal frame as Chinese secretpolice sought information onactivists involved in the protestsand on Britain’s purported role.

Cheng has left the con-sulate and is in hiding.

Violence in Asia’s topfinancial hub has abated since

a stunning victory by the pro-democracy camp in November24 local elections, seen as asharp rebuke to the city’sembattled leader, Carrie Lam.

Protesters are planningmore rallies this weekend tokeep up their pressure on Lam,who has refused to offer anynew concessions to theirdemands, including greaterdemocracy and an indepen-dent probe into alleged policebrutality.

At a lunchtime rally onNovember 29, hundreds ofpeople chanted slogans andcarried posters telling Lamthat “it’s time to step down.”Protesters disrupted traffic inat least two places but dispersedafter police issued warnings.

On November 28 night,thousands joined a large rallyto thank America, on its

Thanksgiving Day holiday, andto call on other countries tojoin the US in supporting theprotest movement, now in itssixth month.

One of the new US lawsprescribes sanctions on officialsfound guilty of human rightsabuses and requires an annualreview of a special trade statusfor Hong Kong. The otherbans the export of certain non-lethal munitions to Hong Kongpolice. China has warned ofstrong countermeasures andHong Kong’s Government hasslammed the US move asunwarranted meddling in itsaffairs.

During an official visit toThailand, Carrie Lam saidHong Kong’s fundamentals,including its “one country, twosystems” framework, remainstrong despite the unrest.

“I and my Governmentare listening to our peoplewith a view to resolving somedeep-seated problems in HongKong through dialogue,” shesaid, adding that “Hong Kongcan bounce back.”

Earlier on November 29,police lifted their siege ofPolytechnic University, a keyearlier battleground withpitched battles between pro-testers and riot officers.

Police said they seized3,989 gasoline bombs, 1,339explosive items, 601 bottles ofcorrosive liquids and 573weapons over two days ofsearching. No protesters werefound inside. Some 1,100 peo-ple have already left or havebeen arrested by police.

A university official esti-mated it would take five to sixmonths to repair the extensive

damage to the campus.Separately, police said two

high school students weredetained on Wednesday forpossessing TATP, or tri-acetonetriperoxide powder, a powerfulexplosive that has been used inbomb attacks worldwide. Policesaid it was alarming that suchdangerous explosives werefound with young students.

The unrest in the islandcity began in June with a hugemarch against an extraditionBill, seen as an erosion of free-doms promised when HongKong returned to Chinese con-trol in 1997 from the UnitedKingdom. The pro-democracymovement has since expandedinto a protest against growingChinese interference in thecity. Police say 5,890 peoplehave been arrested since theunrest started. AP

&1���� �� ����������������������������C1 ������ ��C�

��7*��� �%7%�

��!� �������)�'����������&���������������������� ��� ��������������!� ���� &��&����� ����� �����* ��7 �� �� '������:<0�*������� �����'�����������&��'������ ����� ���!� ��������� ��������������������* ��7 ��!��"(�' )�������������� ����� ��� '�����)���� ��������)���������������������������� &��&��������������������� ��� ��

�� ��������)�������"�� �� �� �����(���* ��7 ���������� ���������!� ���)� �)�����������������(����������������� ���������� ������������������� ��������* ��7 �� �� '������AD� ��

#��������� ������������������!�����;���������������������!���������������������������������������� �������������� ������������������������������?��������������������������������������������������������������� ����������!��������������������!���������� �����������������?�����������!�������������������������������-������/� ��� ����������������������!��#���������������!�����������/�����������������������)����������������!�� ����������#��������/�������!�����������������������������?������������������ ���� �����������������������������!����������� �����)������ ��������������������������� ������������#����������������������������������������������������

�.�C=��.<3(?��H�.�C=���*�.? "� �%����.�C=���= "����

�/8,' +% )��.,9�' ���,0

?�������������������������������������������-������/������������������������ ������� ��)���������� �!����������;� ����������� ���������/�����������������?�������������������������������������!������������!������������������;����������!����������!������������ ������������������������!����8���J����/����������/� ����������������������������������������������������&�����������������������!�����?��������������������������!�*������� /� ��������������������������!��!��������������������������������#���������������������������������������������������� ������������������������ ���������������!���?��������!������ �������������������������!����������������� �������������������!����������$��������� ����������������

�.�C=��.<3(? ���.�C=���*�.?�.�����.�C=���=�8������

0��/�'��' ���./9+%&�./

?����������������!���������������?��������������� ���������������������������������;�<������������� ������������ ������������������������������������!����� ����C�����������������/� ������������������� �������4���������������������� ������������)����� ����������� ������������������!�����&���J����� ���!������������������������������! ��������������!�����#��������!������������������� ��������������������������� ��������!���!�����������������������?����������� ������������������������������������������������������ /������������������������������5��������������!������������#���������!������������� �������������������������)���������"��!��� ����������������������������

�.�C=��.<3(? �E�.�C=���*�.? %�����.�C=���= "���

>,�8�8�+%&�.,9"�(�./

#�������� ��������!���������������������������� �����������������#�������������!��P������������!��������������������������� ����#���������������������������������������������������������!�()�������������������������� �����!���������������������������������������� ����;�����!��������������� ��������!���������#�������������/����������!���������������� ��!��������)���:�����������������������������������������������������������!���������#�����������!������������������������������������������������?����������������������������������������������������?�������������������J� ���������������� �������������������� ��������������!��

�.�C=��.<3(? ���.�C=���*�.? *����.�C=���= 8������

����,/�"�(�.,9"��&�..

?������������������������������� �����������#������� �������!����������������������������������!��������/������!�������!����������������C�����������������/� ������������������������������ ��������� ��������1���������������!�����?�������)������)�����!����������������!�������������������������������������������������������!������������������"������ ������)���������������������������������.������������ �����������������#� ������������������� ����������������� �������� �����������#��������!�������������������������?��� ���������'� �������!���!����������/�������������)��������������������9��������������������������!����������������� ���!���

�.�C=��.<3(? ���.�C=���*�.? "������.�C=���= .���

;8/>+���:�.;9�'�..

#������������!�������������/�����������������������������)�������!�������'�� ��������������C�����������������/ �������������� ���������������� ���������!�������������������� ������ ��#���������������������������������������������C�����������/� ����������� �����������������������������4���������������������������������/�����������������!� �������� �������������������������4���������������������������������������������������;�� �������������/����������������������/����� ����������������#��������!�������������)�����������������������������?���������!������������������������� �����������#��������!���������������!�������� ��������������� �����������!�����������������������

�.�C=��.<3(? �B�.�C=���*�.? *������.�C=���= #����

�8�/���'�.;9�)6�..

#��������� ������������������������������4������� ������������������/� ��������������������������)�����������������#�������������!�������������������������� ���������� ����������� ��C����������������/� ������������������������������������������ ������������� ���0������������� �������������� ���������������!��������&�������������/����������������� �����������*������ �����!���������� �����������������"�����������)��������!������/��������� ���������������������������������/����������������������C������������������/����������!��������������)���������������������� ���������������?���������!������������� �����������������������������������"������ ��� ����������� �����������������)�������������

�.�C=��.<3(? �H�.�C=���*�.? %����.�C=���= "����

'�+/�8+��)6�.;9��5�.,

%�������������� ������ ����������������#�������������!�������������������������������������+���������������������������!��������������� ���� ����;�����������������/� ������������������� ���������� ��������������!������������ ������������������������������������?���������������������������� ��������� �����������9��������������������������������&������ ������������������������'���������������!������������������ ����#�����������!������������� �!���!����������;������!��������������������!���������������������������� ����������?����������� �������������������������������������� ������������#��������������� ��������������������������������������������

�.�C=��.<3(? �>�.�C=���*�.? 8�����.�C=���= &���

�D��/8�' "%(�./9���,<

#��������� ���������������������� ��#����������!������������������/�������������������������������������������������;!�����!� ���������������������������������������#�������� ��������������������������������/� �� ���������������������������;��������� ���������������!�����!���� �����������#������������������������������ /��������������!�������!����������������#��������������������������������� �����������������!����������������������!�������������;��������������/ �������������� ��������������������������� �����������.���������� ��������������������������)����� ������������������������ ������������"� ��������������������������������������� ������������%�����!�������� ����������������

�.�C=��.<3(?��E�.�C=���*�.?�:�� �.�C=���=�#����

�8'�,'����,09+% )��./

?������������������!���������������0�������� ��������������� �!������������������������ ����������������������������� ����������������#�������� �������!�����������������������������������������!��������� �������������������������?��������� ���P������������!�����������������������������������������!�����������������������������9��������!����������������!������������������� ������!��������������� ��?������������������������������! ���������������������������������� ��������������������������������������#�������������������� ���������/���/����<����� ����������!��������?������������������������������������� ���� ��� ��)����������)�����!�������#� �������!�����P���� ���������� ������� �

�.�C=��.<3(? ���.�C=���*�.? ?������.�C=���= #�����

���/8�+/���)�..9"%(�,0

?��������������������!������������� ������������������������������#��������/������������������� ������������ �����������������!�@�������0��������� ��������!������������!���������������� ������������� �����������������������������;�� ��������������������/� ���������� ������������ ����!�������������� �������������������������������������!������������������������������������ �������������������������������!����������%�������������!�������!�������������������/�������� ��������!J����������������������������5���������������/���������������� �����������������������������������;�������!�� ������������������������������������������� ������������"��!��� ���'� ����������������������� ���������

�.�C=��.<3(?��>�.�C=���*�.? .������.�C=���= #����

�,+ "��&�.;9��:�..�

#�������� ��������������������������!�����/� �������������������� �������� ��?������������������������������������������������! ������������������!������#���!����������!�!������� ������������������������������$�������������� ������������� �������������������������� ������!�������������8������� ������� ����������������������������!������������������������*��������������������������� ��������������������8�����������������!������/� �������������������������������������������� ��������������������������!�������������������� ����������������������?��������������������������������)�������������������������������������?��� ������ ������������!���������� ���������������������������������

�.�C=��.<3(?��>�.�C=���*�.? *����.�C=���= "����

'�>800�/8�'���5�..9�)�.,

�"��?��.�%��&

.�4-,�+C#;?�

���������I���

������&C5�.(/�0C.*�#;%;$;#?�;"��"(9"(�C&�-,.C,5/�%(;9:�%$(�#C�$�,:-�#C:(#-(5T#-�#�;"�D(5?�;.*C5#�9#

=�&($;0;#?�+(94�$ "���0���� �0�������< �:;<=

Parents of a young girl, keen to gether married soon, after lot of searchpinned down on a guy, the type

they were looking for. Preliminary astro-logical match was found good. For finalcheck, they went to their familyastrologer, who rejected the choice out-right. When asked for the reasons, theastrologer put a question mark on theirmarital stability based on some astrologi-cal pointers. In desperation, they consult-ed many other astrologers. All of themapproved the match. But they could notignore their family astrologer, whomthey trusted the most. In a state of utterconfusion, they sought my opinion.

When I agreed with his familyastrologer, giving details of the astrologi-cal pointers on which, he had rejectedthe choice, they asked: “Is your opinionbased on the same factors? And howcomes other astrologers gave their con-sent? My other worry is that my daugh-ter’s marriage is getting delayed. Whendo you think is it likely to happen?Kindly suggest some remedial measureto expedite the marriage.”

Other astrologers just looked at thetraditional matching score, which beinggood, they agreed. But let me make it

clear that traditional matching countmethod just offers a prima-facie view,which is based on the law of averageapplied on placement of Moon in thetwo charts. It is my personal experiencethat despite scoring even 34 counts outof a total of 36, lot of marriages havefailed. So traditional matching by itselfdoesn’t offer a true picture. For, it doesn’toffer any light on personality traits of thetwo prospective partners, which we can’tafford to ignore.

Your family astrologer got into finerdetails of the two charts before he offeredhis opinion, and so his viewpoint seemsbetter reasoned. In so far as my opinionis concerned, it is not based just on theastrological pointers your familyastrologers looked at. I count more onpersonality matching of the prospectivepartners. Remember, what is moreimportant in marital relationship is howthe two would engage with each other,the premise for which is set by the inher-ent habits and tendencies of the two.Once the partners settle down in mar-riage, the two begin taking each other forgranted, when their inherent trendscome out in open, and with obvious con-sequences.

It is not worth looking for a remedialmeasure to expedite the marriage. Ifthere are indications for delayed mar-riage in someone’s horoscope, it is pur-poseful. It offers time and space to workupon one’s habits and attitudes, but forwhich it will be difficult to make themarriage work with ease. Timely mar-riage is desirable. But more important isharmony and stability. But rest assured,she may get married in a year’s time.

Look at the astrological pointers toyour daughter’s personality trends. She isborn in a fiery and movable sign Aries.That makes her headstrong, impulsive,aggressive, irritable, impatient and intol-erant. She is domineering, who wouldlike to be at the head of things and detestplaying second fiddle to any. Lagna lordMars is placed adverse to Uranus andNeptune. This, in the first place, makesher temperamental and erratic. Second,when faced with unpleasant situation,she may develop inferiority complex.More so, because the Sun is locked inadverse formation to its planet of neme-sis Saturn. It implies that she has a nega-tive mindset having a nagging tendency.She carries an indwelling sense of fearand insecurity, which makes her habitu-ally suspicious of others. Given a difficultsituation, self-pitying and pessimism

may overtake her mind’s drive. Now coming to the prospective part-

ner, Taurus lagna, read together with itslord Venus as well as mind signifyingMoon, both in fixed signs make him astubborn guy. Moon placed adverse toMars makes him temperamental, moody,and irritable. Moon, ill-disposed off toMercury makes him indecisive, resentfulof others, may lack focus, and carriesworrying tendency. Jupiter placedadverse to Mercury accounts for hisinsensible reasoning and judgment.Jupiter placed adverse to Mars speaks ofa swaggering ego, stuck to his precon-ceived beliefs and perceptions, not opento look beyond for a reality check. It willbe difficult for him to digest if eversomeone differs with his viewpoint. Ontop of that Mars is ill-disposed off toSaturn, which gives him bad temper, andbrings in revengeful tendency. If everprovoked he may go wild, when he maylose sense of reasons and order. You canyourself make out whether the two canstand each other for long.

$���))������������������ � ���(�''�����&& ������������!��������&& ����� �0�==������� ���������

8�99<A(�������������(����)�11�������� � �(���)��������999<�<<A;

$��6�DD9�999�JJDCJCJ3;KDC9C<:3A3:�B����6��������������!������ L�����0& �

����"���%-�5�#�%-,"-�9�*�4.�4(C

������7 ������������� ��&����������(��!��������������(����1 ����(�� ��G����%�������� ��$�� �������'���� 0�� ��&���������6������L������� �0& �(�)))0������� �0& �(��6�DC3:AC:::9

�������� '�� ������� �����'

���!��'��� �� ��U�9�D9((# .(94;5�##�/�0C9",$#;9:�(4;#C5�V ★ ��0�������� �' U "�#;"-�0-�945����+-.C$�/�"(9;C5�(4;#C5�205(�#;D(3

"����������������������������� ������ �����J�����!���