www.thehindu.in ● Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 ● RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 7 ● No. 18 ● CITY EDITION ● 24 Pages ● Rs. 8.00

CMYK

Delhi

Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad, Malappuram and Mumbai

• •

saturday, january 21, 2017

METROPLUS MELANGE4 Pages

NEW DELHI: RBI officials told the

Parliamentary Committee on

Public Accounts here on Friday

that the central bank was

working on ways to cut costs of

online transactions. RBI

Governor Urjit Patel, Deputy

Governor R. Gandhi and other

senior officials of the bank

appeared before the committee.

Dr. Patel said demonetisation

would have a positive impact on

the economy in the long run and

the cash flow situation was

improving fast.

RBI works to cut onlinetransaction costs

� NEWS | PAGE 12

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court

on Friday refused to direct the

Centre to place before it the

minutes of the meeting of a

high-power committee,

comprising the Prime Minister,

the Chief Justice of India and the

Leader of the Opposition, which

has selected Delhi Police

Commissioner Alok Kumar

Verma as CBI Director.

CBI chief appointment:SC rejects plea

� NATION | PAGE 9

BRIEFLY

NEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt on Friday agreed tothe Centre's suggestion topause the delivery of its judg-ment on the validity of thegovernment’s January 7, 2016notification allowingjallikattu, for at least a week,till the Centre and the Tamil

Nadu government resumetalks to resolve the impasseamidst public volatility.

‘Passions are high’

Justice Dipak Misra, thelead judge on the Bench,which heard and reservedthe jallikattu case, agreed toAttorney-General Mukul Ro-hatgi’s plea to hold the deliv-

ery of the verdict for the timebeing. Mr. Rohatgi, in an ur-gent mentioning, said the“passions are high” and agit-ations were on in full swingand there would be an “im-mense problem” if theCentre and the Tamil Nadugovernment do not resolvethe issue quickly.

Mr. Rohatgi sought status

quo from the court for aweek so that the situationmay not change for theworse and light another fusein an already volatile situ-ation. Justice Misra merelysaid “Ok”.

SC agrees to put verdict on hold for a weekLEGAL CORRESPONDENT

� COURT BOWS TO CENTRE’SPLEA; LEGAL EXPERTS DIVIDED | PAGE 12

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Fri-day cleared the Tamil Nadugovernment’s proposal topromulgate an ordinance tohold jallikattu.

The State government hadproposed to issue an ordin-ance in a day or two to allowjallikattu, a bull tamingsport. Since the subject fallsin the Concurrent list of theConstitution, it was mandat-ory to get a nod from theCentre, a senior Home Min-istry oicial said on Friday.

The Home Ministry sentthe draft submitted by theState to the Environmentand Law Ministries for theirresponse. On Friday, the En-vironment Ministry sent itsreply, and the Home Min-istry gave its clearance.

“The ordinance has beencleared by the Home Min-istry and the State govern-ment can promulgate it byintroducing it either as a Billin the Assembly or the StateCabinet can clear it. Itdoesn’t have to go to thePresident of India for his as-sent since his powers arevested with the Home Min-istry,” said the oicial.

The Tamil Nadu Cabinetis expected to clear the or-dinance and recommend itto the Governor Ch. Vidyas-agar Rao for promulgation.

Mr. Rao is scheduled to ar-rive in Chennai from Mum-bai on Saturday evening.

Centre for solution

Earlier in the day, Environ-ment Minister Anil Davetold reporters that Centrewanted a “permanent” solu-tion to the jallikattu issueand a final decision would betaken within a “day or two.”

Also on Friday, 46 AI-ADMK parliamentariansmet Home Minister RajnathSingh and submitted amemorandum, stating thatthe ban on jallikattu wasagainst the fundamental, re-ligious and cultural rights ofthe people of Tamil Nadu, es-pecially when such bulls andcows are treated as a part ofthe farmers’ families. AI-ADMK MP M Thambiduraisaid Mr. Singh assured themthat the file would be pro-cessed as early as possible sothat ordinance could be pro-mulgated in the two or threedays.

“Today the Home Min-istry has received a proposalfrom the TN government.The entire proposal is underconsideration. I am surewithin the shortest time wewill be able to reach the finaldecision…,” Mr. Singh said.

Centre gives nod for draft of proposalsubmitted by State; ordinance likely to be promulgated soon

Ordinance to clear path for holding jallikattu

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BANNER OF PROTEST: Students and members of the public taking part in a demonstration on Marina Beach in Chennai on Friday,demanding the lifting of the ban on jallikattu and seeking to impose one on PETA. — PHOTO: V. GANESAN

� RAJNATH BLAMES UPA FORJALLIKATTU CRISIS | PAGE 12

WASHINGTON: Donald J. Trumptook oath as the 45th Presidentof the U.S. before lakhs of hissupporters here on Friday. Asthe clock struck noon on anextremely cold and rainy day,Mr. Trump took the reins ofthe world’s biggest militarypower, succeeding BarackObama.

“From this day forward, anew vision will govern ourland, from this day forward it’sgoing to be only ‘America first!America first!’” he said, tocheers that reverberatedthrough the National Mall.

The new President said hewas “issuing a new decree tobe heard in every foreign cap-ital” that every decision ontrade, immigration and for-eign policy would be judgedonly against his principle ofAmerica first.

A document uploaded onthe White House website mo-ments later said, “peacethrough strength will be at thecentre” of the new President’sforeign policy. “The worldmust know that we do not goabroad in search of enemies,that we are always happywhen old enemies becomefriends, and when old friends

become allies,” the documentsaid. Mr. Trump will rebuildthe American military capa-city, the document added.

The address that Mr. Trumpdrafted himself echoed thethemes of the campaign thatcatapulted him to oice,touching upon “nationalpride” and denouncing “alltalk, no action politicians”

who, he said, ruined the coun-try. “We are not merely trans-ferring power from one ad-ministration to another, orfrom one party to another —but we are transferring powerfrom Washington, D.C. andgiving it back to you, theAmerican People,” he said.

“Peace throughstrength” will be at the centre of his foreign policy

It’ll be America first, says Trump

VARGHESE K. GEORGE

NEW FACE OF AMERICA: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during his swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Friday. — PHOTO: AFP

� THE ERA OF DONALD TRUMPBEGINS | PAGE 14

LUCKNOW: A day after theRashtriya Lok Dal opted outof a prospective anti-BJPgrand alliance in U.P. , thetalks between the Congressand the Samajwadi Party hit aserious roadblock on Fridayon the issue of seat sharing.

The SP announced its listof candidates, even for seatswhere the Congress has sit-ting MLAs with just threedays left for filing nomina-tions for the first phase ofpolling for 73 seats.

While it seemed that thetwo parties were ready to of-ficially announce their alli-ance, SP chief Akhilesh Ya-dav’s missive on Fridaycaught the Congress by sur-prise, sending its leadershipinto a huddle. Mr. Yadav hadsent a list of 191 candidates,following it up with anotherlist of 18 candidates (from thefifth phase).

Akhilesh stakesclaim to Congressboroughs in U.P.

OMAR RASHID

� CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

NEW DELHI: The teenage girlsufering from life-threaten-ing Tuberculosis will finallyget access to the life-savingdrug Bedaquiline (BDQ).The Centre and the NGOrepresenting her arrived at aconsensus before the DelhiHigh Court on Friday.

The 18-year-old will nowbe administered Bedaquilineat the P.D. Hinduja NationalHospital and Medical Re-search Centre, Mahim,Mumbai.

On Friday, the team of law-yers from the NGO, LawyersCollective, representing thegirl’s father Kaushal KishoreTripathi, a government ser-vant, and the Centre's coun-sel arrived at a consensusthat the girl will be admin-istered the drug under thesupervision of her doctorand private practitioner Dr

Zarir F. Udwadia. The government will make

available a full course of BDQthrough KEM Hospital,Mumbai, which is one of thesix sites in India for drug ad-ministration. Following thedecision, Justice SanjeevSachdeva disposed of the pe-tition while accepting the or-der reached by the parties.

The Centre made it clearthat the drug would be ad-ministered under the super-vision of the girl's personalphysician who would bemonitoring her situation forany cardio-toxicity.

Administrative process

Despite the consensusreached, the patient and herdoctor will still need to gothrough administrative pro-cesses before the treatmentcan begin. As per the agree-ment , though the Centre hasagreed to provide a full

course of BDQ to the girl, herdoctor or the family will firstneed to make an applicationbefore the Drug ControllerGeneral of India to obtain/import BDQ from the U.S.firm under the Compassion-ate Use basis.

The Drug Controller willthen process the same, fol-lowing which the girl's doc-tor will make a request to theU.S. firm, Janssen Pharma-ceuticals, a unit of Johnson &Johnson, for importing BDQ ,Surabh Chauhan and VarunJain, Mr. Kaushal's counselsaid.

Once that is done, the per-mission granted by the DGCI

and the request sent to theU.S. pharma company willhave to be furnished beforethe Deputy Director General,Central TB Division, whowill then make the full courseof BDQ available throughKEM Hospital to DrUdwadia.

The parties agreed thatsince the drug is availablewith the government in a lim-ited quantity and given on acase-by-case basis, as andwhen BDQ is sent by JanssenPharmaceuticals to Dr. Ud-wadia, it will be handed overto KEM Hospital for replen-ishment of its stock.

Meanwhile, the NationalInstitute of TB and Respirat-ory Diseases (NITRD) clari-fied before the court thatdomicile or the residence ofthe patient was not and hasnever been a criterion forturning away a TB patient inneed of BDQ.

Dr. Udwadia had suggesteda regimen of BDQ , capreo-mycin, Moxiflocin, Clofazi-mine, Thioridazine,Linezolid and delamanid.The NITRD, however, saidthe regimen was notefective.

Initially the NITRD had re-fused to administer BDQwithout proper tests but thegirl's deteriorating conditiondidn't allow waiting for thetest results which would havetaken over a month.

Later, NITRD agreed ongiving the drug but by then,the girl had been shifted toMumbai.

The NGO Lawyers Col-lective also took the opinionof Dr. Jennifer Furin, a Lec-turer in Global Health, whosaid the girl satisfied the re-quirement for the adminis-tration of BDQ.

AKANKSHA JAIN Institute saysdomicile is not acriterion for turningaway a patient inneed of BDQ

Centre allows girl access to life-saving TB drug

� SEE ALSO PAGE 7

NEW DELHI: A JNU student wasallegedly raped by two men atthe residence of one of the ac-cused in Green Park lastweek, the police said onFriday.

Both the accused, Twaabalias Salim Ahmed, 27, andSulaiman Ahmadi, 31, arefrom Afghanistan and werearrested a day after it was re-ported to the police.

The 21-year-old victim is asecond year undergraduatestudent of JNU and she hadmet Salim at a pub where shehad gone with her friends.

According to the girl’s pur-ported statement to the po-lice, she had gone to HauzKhas village with her friendand it was there she metSalim. He invited the victimand her friend to his flat inGreen Park. At Salim’s housethey met three of his friendsSulaiman, Siddhant andPratyusha, the police said.

Later, the victim’s friendwas dropped of at JNU butshe returned to Salim’s house.

She claimed that a fewhours later when she wokeup, Sulaiman was sexually as-saulting her. She realised thatSalim and Sulaiman had as-saulted her when she wasunconscious.

The woman went back toher hostel and narrated theincident to her two friends,who took her to the policestation.

JNU studentraped in Green ParkSTAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: Engineering giantRolls-Royce engaged middle-men for swinging defence

contracts in India between2005 and 2009 violating In-dian laws, according to thejudgment of a British highcourt. The company also paid

bribes to an Income Tax oi-cial to remove a list of itsmiddlemen recovered duringa raid on its India oice

Rolls-Royce hired defence brokersJOSY JOSEPH

� DETAILS ON PAGE 12

2 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

CITYAir pollution action plan comes into force

Officials of Delhi, Haryana, U.P and Rajasthan have been issued directions as per plan Page 4

HC raps AAP for ‘surprise’ directive

High Court says notification has caused a lot of anxiety to parents searching for schools Page 5

Calling all readers to connect with us for all things Delhi at

twitter - @DelhiConnect www.facebook.com/NewDelhiConnect

DELHICONNECT

When it comes to disasterfilms, quite obviously Holly-wood rules the genre with itsbig budget blockbusters. Buthere we have a remake of Rus-sia’s very first disaster filmtitled Air Crew (1980).TheCrew or Ekipazh has alreadyracked up many achieve-ments. For instance, it’s thesecond Russian film to beshot in digital 3D IMAX afterStalingrad (2013). It’s also thefirst film to be released in Ja-pan after 2006. For a film ofthis genre, The Crew is doinga great job of opening up thecountry’s cinematic borders.But is the film worth watchingdespite its geographic hold?

To start with, Indian view-ers will be (ill)treated to adubbed version of the film,which often loses plenty ofnuance in translation. It’s aninevitable loss when dubbingan international film. Evenwith its shoddy translation,subtitles would be preferred.To take the discomfort up anotch, our censor board hasstepped in to work their ma-gic, frequently editing outscenes that eat into dialogue.In the end, The Crew turnsinto a jarring experiencewithout being entirely atfault.

Its shortcomings (albeitplenty) aside, the film has acocky military pilot Alex(Danila Kozlovsky) who likesto live by his own code of hon-our. This includes breakingrules and oloading a brandnew BMW car of a cargoplane mid-air to shed excessweight. In consequence,Alex’s forced to find employ-ment at a passenger airlinessecuring the position of atrainee under the veteran pi-lot, Leonard. During a routinecargo run, the two try to savestranded people on an islandwhere a volcano has erupted.

When the aftershocks causeanother eruption, the pilotshave to save the day.

For the first half of the film,the audience is forced to en-dure inane back stories of theprotagonists. There’severything from Alex’s loveinterest, a fellow pilot namedSandra (Agne Grudite) to Le-onard’s trouble with his sonStanley (Sergey Roman-ovich). It’s unnecessary andseems as if director Nikolai

Lebedev couldn’t stretch outthe disaster portion of thefilm. Instead, he decided togive his characters semb-lances of personalities withhalf-hearted arcs. There’ssome tension between Le-onard and his son. Alex hashis own battles (very subtlyhinted) with his father.There’s some side story abouta stewardess pining for pilotsand ignoring her colleague infavour of flirting with Alex.But that’s about it. The sup-porting actors don’t quite gettheir due. And sometimes, therubbish spewing out of thecharacters’ mouths (anotherdubbing damage?) will infuri-ate. There are lines like“You’re not a pilot, just a wo-man behind the controls”which doesn’t match its set-ting’s context. Then a charac-ter refers to flight attendantsas being the job of a woman. Atepid rebuttal hardly checks

the sexism of this nature.When we’re done scratch-

ing our heads (and drawingblood) at the ludicrousness ofthe first half, finally disasterstrikes. In his defence,Lebedev steps into his ownwhen he has to direct his act-ors during a catastrophe.

The cinematography is ef-ficacious, with believablemushrooms of smoke and fireengulfing the island. Theclawing lava inching towardsits potential victims is whatcinematic thrills are made of.The thought of people suc-cumbing to the disaster on-screen is at once exciting andterrifying. The stunts – as faraway from reality as theycould get – don’t elicit an eyeroll.

The Crew’s two halves areincongruous. Do as you likeduring the first half, but, donot move from that theatreseat after the interval.

FILM REVIEWS

Russian film, The Crew gets the catastrophe part bang on despite a lukewarm start

The Crew

Director: Nikolai LebedevStarring: VladimirMashkov, Danila Kozlovsky,Agne Grudyte and KaterinaShpitsaRuntime: 140 mins

THRILLING RIDE: The film comes into its own only in the second half after disaster strikes thecharacters. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANEGEMNT

DEBORAH CORNELIOUS

★★★★★

Disaster done right

Sunil “Gutthi” Grover is im-planted so strongly in themind as a funny mimic that it’simpossible to take him seri-ously as an actor. In his bigscreen outing as a hero (hehas done small roles in aclutch of films earlier) Groverends up doing some imitationyet again, but seriously so.

He plays a character calledArnab Ghosh and the nation iscertainly not so naïve as to notknow who he is standing infor. But, unlike, BiswapatiSarkar, he doesn’t consist-ently send the popular TVjournalist up, even when he isseeming to.

And that’s not his failing.Director Vishal Mishra isclueless about what he wantsto do when it comes to hand-ling the world of TV news.

At times, he’s trying outparody, at others, it’s satireand then even playing it verystraight. As a result, what youget is an irredeemable mess.One minute you have Groverridiculing a politician in thestudio, not allowing him aword sideways, the next yousee him wearing pyjamas thatsay “zindagi rude, hum dude”.

In yet another instance, youhave him staring at Haji Ali ingenuine anxiety, almost shed-ding tears as a qawwali playsin the background. All thisemotional overload becausehe has been yanked of primetime and made to host somecookery show.

There is more: an irritableand irritating pregnant wife athome (who was once a crimereporter but now watchesCrime Patrol to kill time), amake-up man-cum-chaiwalaand a cameraman-cum-cour-ier. These two also play fic-

tional characters in the sup-posed news reportsengineered by the channel.Confused? Well, so are we.Still. But then it only getsworse. There is a womanjournalist, portrayed byDipannita Sharma, whoshould be described as amisogynist’s dream.

A fashion journalist is a“chaddi-baniyan” reporterwho is prone to shedding herclothes easily but who is also“desh ki sabse badi news

writer” without showing anymodicum of intelligence.What kind of an imaginationdoes the filmmaker have? Ihaven’t squirmed more on myseat. Now this fashion journoalso goes with Arnab all theway to Karachi for an exclus-ive interview with the under-world Don D. But pray why?To let the goondas go all leeryat her and have some morelewd jokes pouring in.

In critiquing media — itsurgency to create news, to sellnews as entertainment — thefilm betrays an utter ignor-ance about the basics of a TVnewsroom.

When do journalists everbring in story ideas stacked inplastic files and folders? Whywould they tweet about a biginterview without it even get-ting fixed?

Then there is the otherworld: the D empire in Kara-chi. Here the filmmaker’s ap-proach is more singularlyspoofy but still not success-fully so. With two extremely

talented actors holdingcentre-stage — Zakir Hussainas the Don and Pankaj Tri-pathi as his sidekick Girdhari— you hope things will getbetter. Alas, their Herculeaneforts are wasted. All be-cause the script expects themto make the audience laugh atjokes like Instagram being re-ferred to as the gram pan-chayat. #HaHa!

It all ends up with a long in-terview for an overlong cli-max in which, supposedly,Arnab makes mincemeat of D.

Well, there is little evidenceof that but you have to believeit because the filmmaker saysso. Lastly, in the name of relev-ance you finally do get a scenewhere Arnab tries to buy gro-ceries from a store, but thecredit cards aren’t workingand there is no cash in the wal-let either. The only credit thatCofee With D then gets is thatof being the first Bollywoodfilm to portray demonetisa-tion. Beyond that what isthere to recall!

The nation does not want to knowSending the media up? Spoofing the underworld? Whatever it is that thefilmmaker wants to do, it just doesn’t spark off any interest in the viewer

Cofee With D

Director: Vishal MishraStarring: Sunil Grover,Zakir Hussain, PankajTripathi, Rajesh Sharma,Dipannita Sharma, AnjanaSukhaniRuntime: 123 mins

★★★★★

IRREDEEMABLE MESS: Director Vishal Mishra is clueless about what he wants to do when it comesto handling the world of TV news. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

NAMRATA JOSHI

NEW DELHI: The School of Plan-ning and Architecture (SPA)held its 34th convocationwhere 219 post-graduate and158 under-graduate studentsreceived their degrees onThursday.

Professor D.S. Meshram,president of the Institute ofTown Planners (India), wasthe chief guest on the occa-sion.

Dr. M. Ravi Kanth, IAS(retd.), who is chairman andMD, HUDCO, was the guestof honour.

SPA holds 34thconvocationSTAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: No Kashmiri child,neither Zaira Wasim or any-body else, should have to apo-logise for who they are, or formaking certain choices, saidformer vice-president of theJawaharlal Nehru UniversityStudents’ Union ShehlaRashid.

The student leader, who isfrom Kashmir and an activevoice against the humanrights situation in the State,came out in support of Ms.Wasim, a 16-year-old childactor from the film Dangalwho issued a public apologyafter she was trolled for meet-ing with J&K Chief Minister

Mehbooba Mufti.

‘Cut her some slack’

Ms. Rashid took to socialmedia to say “Kashmirisshould understand that ZairaWasim has not claimed to rep-resent Kashmiris and thenback-stabbed them, unlike all

our leaders. Kashmiris havebeen Home Ministers, PrimeMinisters, actors, business-men, journalists, etc. So, let’scut Zaria some slack.”

The youth leader said therewas a “jingoistic” habit of pit-ting Kashmiris against oneanother. “Dividing us intogood Kashmiris and badKashmiris is perhaps whatmade Zaira feel apologetic.IAS topper Shah Faesal had toput out a statement rejectinghis comparison to BurhanWani. I can see why theywould’ve felt uncomfortablebeing compared to ‘protest-ing’ Kashmiris — it is a ploy todivide Kashmiris, and wedon’t like that,” she wrote.

Ex-JNUSU leader speaks for Dangal star STAFF REPORTER

Shehla Rashid

CITY | 3THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

S LTD.,

D E L H I

Jan 21, Sat Jan 22, Sun Jan 23, Mon

RISE 07 14 SET 17 52 RISE 07 14 SET 17 52 RISE 07 13 SET 17 53

RISE 01 23 SET 12 52 RISE 02 14 SET 13 31 RISE 03 06 SET 14 11

Music: 37th Annual Series of Lec-ture - Performance on ClassicalDance and Music among young gen-eration in schools and colleges.Bharatanatyam by Shreyasi Gop-inath - Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya,Timarpur, 9 a.m.; Rajkiya PratibhaVikas Vidyalaya, Civil Lines, 11 a.m.

Exhibition: “Somewhere over therainbow”, an exhibition by KeertiRaj, at Open Palm Court Gallery, In-dia Habitat Centre (IHC), 11 a.m. – 8p.m.

Exhibition: “The past was yester-day”, a show by artist Akhilesh, atAakriti Art Gallery Pvt. Ltd, F-213/A,Old M .B Road, Lado Sarai, 11 a.m – 7p.m.

Exhibition: A show of paintings byShahanshah Mittal, at Triveni Kala

Sangam, 205, Tansen Marg, 11 a.m. –7 p.m.

Paintings: A show of paintings byGopi Gajwani, at Shridharani Gallery,Triveni Kala Sangam, 205, TansenMarg, Mandi House, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Screening: Of Japanese film “Zen”,with English subtitles, at The JapanFoundation, 5A Ring Road, LajpatNagar IV, 2 p.m.

Screening: Of “The Man WhoDwarfed the Mountains”, at C.D.Deshmukh Auditorium, Main Build-ing, India International Centre (IIC),6:30 p.m.

(Mail your listings for this columnat cityeditordelhi@thehindu.co.in)

DELHI TODAY

NEW DELHI: The Delhi govern-ment’s Public Works De-partment (PWD) was in forsevere criticism from theDelhi High Court on Fridayfor “treating its workersworse than animals”.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdevawas appalled when presen-ted with photographs ofworkers living over a nullah

in south Delhi’s GreaterKailash-I amid rubble andwaste.

“Are you treating yourworkers like this? They areworse than animals,” re-marked Justice Sachdeva.

“There has to be some de-cency. There is garbage,malba all around. Is theresome standard for yourworkers? What arrange-ments do you make forthem,” the judge asked.

The court was hearing apetition filed by advocateAshwini Kumar, highlight-ing how the workers, en-gaged by the PWD to coverthe drain, had started living

there.“The workers have been

living over the drain evenafter the work of covering ithas been complete. Theworkers have families thereand have even started deal-ing in scrap, etc. They haveestablished themselvesthere,” said Mr. Kumar.

Mounting problems

He further said that theworkers disrupted the DJBwater supply to nearbyareas since they lived over adrain with no water supplyor sewerage.

They also burn waste, hesaid, and presented photo-graphs in this regard.

“How do you treatpeople? You are the State,you cannot do this. Youmust ensure that theseworkers have a decent ac-commodation. It is pitiable,”the court said while lookingat the photographs.

Later, it issued notices toPWD and the South DelhiMunicipal Corporation inthe matter.

HC issues notices to PWD, civic body after petition highlights poor condition of labourers living over nullah in south Delhi

‘PWD treating workers worse than animals’AKANKSHA JAIN

IN STATE OF NEGLECT: The court was “appalled” when presented with photographs of the workers living amid rubble and waste.PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

NEW DELHI: Customs oicials atthe Indira Gandhi Interna-tional Airport here arrestedtwo passengers on Thursdaywho were allegedly trying tosmuggle in more than onekilogram of gold concealedin luggage trolleys.

“On January 19, two Indianpassengers were interceptedat Terminal 3 based on suspi-cion. Upon searching theirbaggage and trolleys, six cutpieces of gold bars weighing1,199 grams and valued at₨32,49,580 were seized fromthem,” a senior Customs oi-cial said.

The passengers had ar-rived from Dubai by an AirIndia Express flight (IX 142).

Duo held withgold in baggagetrolleys at IGIASTAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: A 35-year-old wo-man was allegedly mauled byan Intelligence Bureau (IB)oicial’s pet dog outside hisresidence in south Delhi’sR.K. Puram on Thursday.

The incident happenedwhen the victim, Meenakshi,had gone to drop her child toa school in the area.

Ms. Meenakshi said shehad just entered a colony,when the dog, a Rottweiler,pounced on her and startedbiting her.

When she started scream-ing, the dog’s owner, SanjeevJoshi, came to her rescue andpulled the animal away. Thedog, however, managed tofree itself and attacked heragain.

Case registered

On Friday, she filed a com-plaint with the police.

“A case under Section 289(negligent conduct with re-spect to animal) of the IPChas been registered,” saidChinmoy Biswal, AdditionalDeputy Commissioner of Po-lice -I (South).

Mr. Biswal added that thedog had inflicted several in-juries on the woman’s body.

The victim, a Munirka res-ident, said had her childrenbeen around, the dog couldhave mauled them to death.

Mr. Joshi’s family, mean-while, claimed that the doghad never attacked anyone inthe colony.

Woman mauled byIB oicial’s pet dogSTAFF REPORTER

Victim Meenakshi

NEW DELHI: As many as 150cartons of Indian-made For-eign Liquor, allegedly beingsmuggled to poll-bound Ut-tar Pradesh, were seized bythe Delhi Police onThursday.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Shahdara) NupurPrasad said the cartonswere seized from oneJaideep alias Monu, whowas carrying them in atempo. Monu has been ar-rested and booked underrelevant provisions of theDelhi Excise Act.

The alcohol, worth ₨15lakh, was allegedly meant toinfluence voters in theneighbouring State.

Ms. Prasad said Monuwas nabbed based on atip-of.

Cops on the trail

“A team comprising headconstables Ombir and Om-dutt and Assistant Sub-In-spector Prahlad Singh wasstationed at Seema Puricircle, where the accusedwas meant to go,” said Ms.Prasad.

“Around 5.25 p.m., aMahindra Maxximo tempocoming from Anand Vihar

side was intercepted. Uponchecking the vehicle, 150cartons of alcohol werefound,” said Ms. Prasad.

During interrogation,Jaideep purportedly told thepolice that he along withone Anil was involved in thebusiness of illegal sale of li-quor. “Eforts are beingmade to trace Anil,” said Ms.Prasad.

Liquor bound for UP seized; one heldSTAFF REPORTER

BREWING TROUBLE: The policesaid the alcohol would havebeen distributed to influencevoters in the upcoming polls;(right) the vehicle fromwhich the cartons wereseized. PHOTOS: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

NEW DELHI: The chairperson ofthe Delhi Commission forWomen (DCW), Swati Mali-wal, on Friday wrote to ChiefSecretary M.M. Kutti. Ms.Maliwal has sought actionagainst oicers of the Womenand Child Development(WCD) department for failingto draft a rehabilitation policyfor victims of human traick-ing who were forced intoprostitution in the Capital’sGB Road area.

The DCW has now reques-

ted Mr. Kutti to ensure thatthe policy is put in placewithin a month and that asecond meeting of the StateLevel Coordination Commit-tee on traicking and rehabil-itation is held.

Past order

“In 2015, I met the thenChief Secretary K.K. Sharma,who had directed the WCDdepartment to frame a rehab-ilitation policy for victims oftraicking and commercialsexual exploitation,” Ms.Maliwal said in her letter.

Maliwal seeks rehab policyfor traicked victims STAFF REPORTER

CMYK

ND-ND

CITY4 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: Delhi could seestrict air pollution-controlmeasures, including a hike inparking charges and diferen-tial fares to encourage use ofpublic transport in of-peakhours, as the graded re-sponse action plan notifiedby the Centre was rolled outon Friday.

The action plan, whichwas notified by the UnionEnvironment and ForestMinistry on January 12 andsubmitted by the Central Pol-lution Control Board to theSupreme Court in November2016, will cover the entireNational Capital Region - thefirst such initiative.

On Friday, the agencymeant to monitor the imple-mentation of the plan, the En-vironment Pollution (Pre-vention and Control)Authority (EPCA), held thefirst meeting since the planwas notified.

Directions issued

EPCA chairperson BhureLal told The Hindu that oi-cials of the Delhi, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthangovernments had been is-sued directions as per theplan. As per the air quality in-dex values observed in thepast 48 hours, he said moder-ate to poor conditions wereobserved in the NCR andvery poor in Delhi.

As per the action plan, themeasures for very poor airquality include stopping theuse of diesel generator sets,increasing parking fee by up

to four times, augmentingpublic transport and stop-ping the use of coal and fire-wood by hotels and eateries.

Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Sci-ence and Environment and amember of the EPCA, said

that while all the measureswould not be rolled out in-stantly, the plan had been putinto action.

Several measures

“I’m happy that the processhas started. We have recog-

nised the air shed of the NCRfor the first time. The Stategovernments have heldmeetings at the chief secret-ary-level,” said Ms. Narain.

She added that the EPCAdirected the Delhi PollutionControl Committee to carry

out a study of polluting indus-tries in unauthorised areas.

On the ban on diesel gener-ator sets, Ms. Narain said theDelhi government was asked todefine the “essential” purposesfor which DG sets would be al-lowed.

Ms. Narain said that theneed to prevent burning ofwaste was reiterated at themeeting. The representat-ives from Haryana wereasked to strengthen the Pol-lution Under Control (PUC)centres in that State, she said.

EPCA stops short of implementing tougher measures like hiking parking fee and blanket ban on diesel generator sets

Air pollution action plan comes into forceDAMININATH

PROACTIVE: Delhi could see strict air pollution-control measurescome into play soon. FILE PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

NEW DELHI: From perks forcouncillors to tax waivers forsome property owners, theNorth Delhi Municipal Cor-poration’s budget for the nextfinancial year is unlikely toinclude any big new projects.

With elections to the mu-nicipal corporations slatedfor April, the last budget to bepresented by the BJP-ledcivic body this term wouldfocus on improving servicesand social welfare schemes.

Though the budget is yet tobe finalised, chairperson ofthe Standing CommitteeParvesh Wahi said that thebudget he presented in theHouse on Friday was “not allelection-relatedannouncements”.

Insurance scheme

“The budget is aimed at thewelfare of citizens. For in-stance, we will start an insur-ance scheme for rickshaw-pullers,” said Mr. Wahi,adding that some of the an-nouncements would be putin force this financial year.

Mr. Wahi proposed a prop-erty tax waiver for ownerswho are 100 years or older aswell as owners of residentialproperties up to 20 square

metres in size. To improvesanitation, Mr. Wahi said thatall safai karamcharis wouldbe given mobile phones toimprove coordination.

Increasing revenue

To increase revenue for thecash-strapped corporation,Mr. Wahi proposed rentingout Ramlila Maidan for up tofour weddings at a time. Thiswould lead to ₨2 crore in rev-enue annually, Mr. Wahi said.Another means of revenuegeneration was allowing adson the corporation’s website,which Mr. Wahi said couldnet ₨10 crore a year.

Healthcare services wouldbe given a boost with the de-velopment of a ‘medicity’ at

the Rajan Babu Institute ofPulmonary Medicine andTuberculosis and out-sourcing sanitation servicesat corporation hospitals.

Chaufer for councillors

Another major category ofproposals in Mr. Wahi’sbudget was perks for council-lors. The chairperson pro-posed giving each councillora chaufeur, which he saidwould aid them in reachingout to the public.

He also proposed to givelife insurance to about 500former and current council-lors. The councillors’ devel-opment fund was proposedto be increased from ₨52crore to ₨104 crore.

Pre-poll budget has perks forcouncillors, sops for residentsSTAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: The Aam AadmiParty (AAP) government hasdecided to make a specialfinancial provision in its up-coming Budget for setting upsuicient numbers of ‘Ch-hath’ ghats across the Cap-ital. The move seems to beaimed at wooing Poorvan-chali voters ahead of the mu-nicipal elections slated forApril.

Delhi Irrigation and FloodControl Minister Gopal Rai

has called a meeting of allMLAs, along with oicersconcerned, on February 10on the setting up of new ‘Ch-hath’ ghats. “We have de-cided to make special provi-sion of separate funds in the2017-18 Budget,” Mr. Rai said.

The Minister added that amonitoring panel will be setup to look after the construc-tion work and ensure theircompletion by Octoberwhen ‘Chhath’ will take placethis year. Delhi has around40 lakh Poorvanchali voters

who play a key role in themunicipal elections.

The Irrigation and FloodControl Department hasbeen appointed as the nodalagency, which will buildthese ghats. Earlier, DelhiState Industrial and Infra-structure Development Cor-poration (DSIIDC) used tolook after such works.

There were around 300ghats at the time of ‘Chhath’festival last year. Some ofthem are permanent struc-tures.

Special provision in budgetfor new ‘Chhath’ ghats: govtSTAFF REPORTER

EYE ON POLLS: Move being seen as an attempt to woo Poorvanchali voters. FILE PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

NEW DELHI: Lieutenant-Gov-ernor Anil Baijal on Fridayinstructed the Delhi Police toconnect with the Capital’syouth and lay emphasis onlocal communities for efect-ive policing initiatives.

Mr. Baijal also identifiedsafety of women, senior cit-izens and those hailing fromthe north-eastern states astop priorities even as hestressed the need for theforce to keep pace with tech-nological up-gradation

The L-G visited the DelhiPolice headquarters early onFriday afternoon where hewas first given a ceremonialguard of honour followingwhich he took a round of theCentral Police CommandRoom – C4i and the PoliceControl Room.

Better policing

This was followed by de-tailed discussions and inter-actions with oicials fromthe Delhi Police top brass.

The L-G directed the of-ficers to engage with theyouth and the community ina big way to efectively com-municate and connect withthem. “The youth have to bepartners in our policing ap-proach,” Mr. Baijal said.

Full support

Mr. Baijal observed thatmodern day policing was achallenging and a complextask in a mega city like Delhiand, therefore, the policemust technologically up-grade itself as well as buildstrong relations with thecommunity.

The L-G assured his sup-port in all such initiativeswhere public interface andfacilitation was concerned.

Brave children

Meanwhile, Mr. Baijal feli-citated children who havebeen conferred the NationalBravery Award 2016 at a func-tion held at the Raj Niwas.

The ‘Bharat Award’ wasconferred posthumously toLate Tarh Peeju of Arunan-chal Pradesh who displayedheroic courage and sacri-ficed her life while savingtwo of her friends when theywere being swept away bythe strong undercurrent.

The ‘Geeta Chopra Award’was jointly conferred on Te-jasweeta Pradhan and Shiv-ani Gond of West Bengal,who helped the police in un-covering an international sexracket leading to the arrest ofthe mastermind.

The ‘Sanjay ChopraAward’ was given to SumitMamagain of Uttarakhandwho displayed outstandingbravery in saving his cousinwhen a leopard attacked.

Connect with youth,L-G tells Delhi Police STAFF REPORTER

Delhi Police CommissionerAlok Kumar Vermawelcomes L-G Anil Baijalduring his visit to the PoliceHQ on Friday. PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoingtussle between the Speakerand All India Radio (AIR)over the Delhi Assembly Sec-retary, the Delhi High Courton Friday said that the de-cision of former Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung to re-patriate the bureaucrat beplaced before his successorAnil Baijal, who may wish toreview the order.

“Let the L-G have a re-lookat Mr. Jung’s order, but not asa direction from this court.Place it before him. If he de-cides not to review it, then wewill take it up,” Justice San-jeev Sachdeva told the Delhigovernment’s standing coun-sel Rahul Mehra.

No common ground

While agreeing to place thematter before Mr. Baijal, Mr.Mehra said the decision toappoint the oicer, PrasannaKumar Suryadevara, and toextend his deputation, wastaken after a discussionbetween Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal and SpeakerRam Niwas Goel.

On last hearing, the courthad asked the parties in-

volved to resolve the issueamicably. On Friday, JusticeSachdeva was informed thatthe Director General of AIRhad met the Speaker on Janu-ary 13 over posting of Mr.Suryadevara, but failed to ar-rive at a common ground.

The DG of AIR said any de-cision on the bureaucrat shallbe taken after the inquiryagainst him is completed forremaining absent and forwriting an article in the printmedia.

Mr. Suryadevara, an oicerbelonging to the Newsreader-cum-Translator (Telugu)cadre, was deputed to theDelhi Assembly for a yearafter which Mr. Jung had re-lieved him. Mr. Goel, how-ever, had refused to relieveMr. Suryadevara, saying thatas the Speaker also holds aconstitutional oice, the L-Gcannot repatriate the As-sembly Secretary without hisconcurrence.

Baijal can review order torelieve Assembly secy: HCAKANKSHA JAIN Former L-G Najeeb

Jung had relieved the officer, but the Speaker hadopposed the move

NEW DELHI: Delhi Universitystudents gathered in front ofthe Arts Faculty building onFriday in protest against theban on jallikattu.

The demonstration wasorganised by the Delhi Uni-versity Tamil StudentsForum (DUTSF).

The demonstration wasstrictly limited to studentsand no participation of polit-ical parties or persons was al-lowed. The demonstrationbegan around 11.30 a.m. as thestudents shouted slogans de-manding the ban on jallikattube lifted. Over 150 studentswere at the event.

‘Not performing animals’

The DUTSF has also re-quested the centre to removebulls from the list of perform-ing animals. “I do not under-stand why bulls are on the listunder section 22. We seebulls daily on streets, they arenot performing animals forus,” said SubhashChandra,co-coordinator ofthe demonstration.

Calling it a direct attack onTamil culture, students re-

quested the Centre to protectand preserve the 2,000-year-old practice.

‘Ban PETA’

The DUTSF also deman-ded a ban on People for theEthical Treatment of Anim-als (PETA).

The ban on jallikattu wasimposed after PETA filed a

complaint against the prac-tice some years back.

“PETA is nothing but inter-national politics. They do notknow what Tamil culture isand, therefore, they shouldnot interfere in this,” said Mr.Chandra.

The DUTSF is planning arally at the Delhi Universitycampus soon.

DU students protest againstban on jallikattuDEEKSHA TERI

‘IT’S OUR CULTURE’: Delhi University Tamil Students Forum stagea protest in support of jallikattu on Friday. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Treat for the eyes

COLOURFUL: Artists Sandhya Wadhwani (extreme left), Kavita Sachdev (centre) and Shyama Nadimpalli with their paintings displayed at the India ArtFestival in New Delhi. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

CITY/STATE | 5THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt on Friday came downheavily on the AAP govern-ment for “surprising cit-izens” by bringing in a newnotification with regard tothe nursery admissions atthe eleventh hour.

‘Play role of facilitator’

“The State cannot surpriseits citizens. The State is sup-posed to play the role of a fa-cilitator and not an entitywhich causes confusion anddisruption,” Justice Manmo-han noted in his order whilegranting stay on the January7 notification so far as it con-cerned the private unaidedminority institutions.

On Thursday, the HighCourt had termed “unconsti-tutional” the AAP govern-ment’s guidelines to minor-ity unaided schools to grant

admission to minority com-munity students only fromthe neighbourhood or fromwithin a radius of 1kilometre.

“...it is directed that the re-spondent (Delhi govern-ment/ Directorate of Educa-tion) should endeavour toframe the admission policyat least six months in ad-vance, if not earlier,” JusticeManmohan ordered.

The court said it was “ap-palled” by the governmentbringing in the notificationat the last minute and thenexpecting a quick disposal ofthe court case that arose.

“If your Director can pon-

der for 11 months to pass anotification at the lastminute, why does he want anorder (from the court) in 11minutes. Whosoever is do-ing this must be living in afunny land. I am going tocensure him for this,” re-marked the court.

“There is nothing on re-cord to show why the notific-ation was issued at the elev-enth hour..It also causes lotof anxiety to parents whosewards have to be admitted inthe current session.

Stay on notification

Holding it to be interferingwith the special status of

minority institutions, theHigh Court stayed the Delhigovernment notification.

“The notification, byproviding that the admissionin private unaided minorityinstitutions be first ofered tostudents residing within onekilometre of the school, hasconverted the petitioners’school (Mount CarmelSchool, Somerville Schooland Ryan International) intoneighbourhood schools anddeprived it of its right to ad-minister educational institu-tion,” Justice Manmohannoted.

“Section 14 (c) of the noti-fication so far as it relates to

petitioners is stayed till fur-ther orders,” he ordered.

The court was of the viewthat “the State cannotabridge the rights of theminority institutions and thegovernment certainly cannotappropriate their adminis-tration till the time there isno maladministration”.

Schools had gone to court

The private unaidedminority schools had ap-proached the court sayingthat the government cannotcompel them to admit stu-dents who are not part of theminority by following theneighbourhood principle.

The Additional SolicitorGeneral had contended that“under the January 7 notific-ation, minority schools canadmit students from minor-ity community and, there-after, whatever seats are leftcan be filled by following theneighbourhood criterion.”

The ASG also submittedthat by the said notificationthe government was tryingto impose a contract that hadbeen executed in the form ofa lease deed in the allotmentletter.

The court, however, wasnot convinced and held it tobe against Article 13 of theConstitution.

AKANKSHA JAIN

HC raps AAP for ‘surprise’ directive

‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’: The guidelines to minority unaided schools asked them to grant admissionto minority community students only from the neighbourhood. FILE PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Court ‘appalled’ by government’s recent notification concerning private unaided minority institutions

There is nothing onrecord to show whythe notification wasissued at the eleventhhour... it also causesanxiety to parents

NEW DELHI: After failing toachieve anybreakthrough in tracingmissing JawaharlalNehru University NajeebAhmed, the police onFriday hiked the rewardto ₨10 lakh for anyonesharing information thatmight help them to findhim.

The police had initiallyannounced a reward of₨50,000, which was laterincreased to ₨1 lakh, thenagain doubled to ₨2 lakh.In November, theamount was hiked to₨5lakh.

Hoping for the best

A police oicer said itwas hoped that byincreasing the amount ofthe reward, people mightcome forward to help theinvestigators.

Twenty-seven-yearold Najeeb had left thecampus on October 15, aday after he had had ascule with members ofthe Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad.

There has been no

news on him ever since.The police had claimed

that the auto-rickshaw inwhich Najeeb had left thecampus had taken him toJamia Milia Islamia.There is, however,nothing on record tocorroborate this.

Search continues

Najeeb’s mother hadalso approached theDelhi High Court to seekits intervention in the

matter, following which amassive search on thecampus was launched.That, however, failed tobring about any progress.

To investigate the case,a Special InvestigationTeam from the southdistrict was formed.Later, the matter wastransferred to the CrimeBranch.

Both the units did notachieve anybreakthrough.

Police hike reward forinformation on NajeebSTAFF REPORTER

UNTRACED: The police had initially announced a reward of₨50,000, which has now been hiked to ₨10 lakh. FILE PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

NEW DELHI: A 22-year-old man,who was crippled in an acci-dent 11 years ago, has startedwalking again. GauravSharma had met with an ac-cident in 2005 when he wasgoing to attend a family func-tion in Uttar Pradesh.

Then an 11-year-old, hesaw his uncle and cousin diein front of him. Later, he losthis mother while he was inthe ICU.

Traumatised, he wentthrough eight surgeries ini-tially, which left him with acrutch, a fused hip and ashort left leg.

Multiple surgeries

A series of surgeries sug-gested by Dhananjay Gupta,director of orthopaedics,

spine, joint reconstructionand replacement surgeon atFortis Hospital here finallygot him back on his feet.

Gaurav underwent hisfirst surgery at the hospitalon May 5, 2016. On Septem-ber 9, after the last surgery,he was able to walk withoutsupport. He is now undergo-ing physiotherapy.

According to Dr. Gupta,“There were some chal-lenges. There was a nail inhis thigh bone that preventedthe placement of a hip pros-thesis. In the first stage, the

plan was to take out the nailand open the hip joint.Gaurav’s case was also com-plicated as he had alreadyundergone multiple surger-ies. After a month of success-ful hip-replacement surgery,he complained of fever and aslight limp. An ultrasoundsuggested a localised abscessin the muscular plane.”

Gaurav then underwentremoval of all implants be-cause of an infection. “Oncethe infection settled, the pa-tient was again taken for hiparthroplasty. This time, thesurgery was smoother as thehip joint was already openand there was time to planthe implants and their place-ment,” said Dr. Gupta.

Now, six months after thesurgery, Gaurav walks un-aided with a slight limp.

Youth crippled 12 years ago walks againSTAFF REPORTER Gaurav Sharma had

met with an accidentin 2005 when he wasgoing to attend afamily function

NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: The youthmay prove to be gamechangers in Ghaziabad andNoida when it comes to theUP Assembly elections onFebruary 11. The number ofvoters between 20 and 39years of age constitutearound 13.45 lakh voters outof a total of 25.92 lakh inGhaziabad. The numbersare similar in Noida.

After the youth, thosebetween 40 and 49 years ofage dorm a major share ofvoters in Ghaziabad.

The district also has25,605 new voters.

Voters between 20 and 29years of age and 30 and 39years account for 14.97 %

and 18%, respectively, ofthe 4,081,159 voters inGhaziabad. The district alsohas 2.5 lakh senior citizens.

“Schools have beendirected to remind studentsto ask their parents to vote.Also, an event involving10,000 to 15,000 studentshas been planned forJanuary 25. We are takingall measures to achieve thetarget of 75% polling thistime. Thankfully, theelections are scheduled forFebruary 11, which is aSaturday,” said RajeshYadav, Additional DistrictMagistrate (Ghaziabad).

Campaigns are also beingundertaken by residents’bodies to encourage voters.“We had students

Assembly seat. According to experts, the

GB Nagar seat was earlierdominated by the ruralpopulation with casteplaying a major role.

With the number ofyoung voters increasing,such factors may beignored. “The situation inNoida has become worse.But now young voters willdecide,” said Amit Gupta,an IT professional.

The younger generationin villages, too ,does notattach much importance tocaste. “Governments havefooled us in the name ofcaste. Farmers are likely tovote for development now,”said Udaiveer Bhati (36) ofAgahpur village in Noida.

the election process,” saidAnkit Jain, a student whowill vote for the first time.

Noida, too, has a largenumber of young votersthis time. Nearly six lakhvoters have been added tothe Gautam Budh Nagarconstituency that includesfive Assembly seats — oneof which is Noida wherenearly three lakh votershave been added. Theseinclude people who shiftedhere in the last few years.

Before the 2012 Assemblyelections, Noida was part ofthe Dadri Assembly wherethe rural population chosean MLA who representedNoida too. However, withthe delimitation exercise,Noida became a separate

conducting rallies toencourage voters in trans-Hindon areas. We areputting up banners andhoardings on high-rises. Acandlelight march will beheld in Indirapuram onJanuary 21, while a humanchain has been proposedfor January 28,” said asenior districtadministration oicial.

Parties careful too

With the focus on youthvoters, parties are beingcareful in their selection ofcandidates.

“We will choosecandidates without acriminal record, especiallythose who are educated. Iam excited to participate in

Youth votes likely to influence UP Assembly electionsPURUSHARTH ARADHAK

STATE6 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NOIDA: A day after 12 childrenand a bus driver were killedin an accident on Uttar Pra-desh’s Aliganj-Paliyali road,the Transport Departmentswung into action and issuednotices to schools, especially156 schools whose buses aredue for a fitness check.

Strict action

The department has alsowarned schools of strict ac-tion if they fail to ensure thesafety of students.

Further, a drive waslaunched against errantschool bus operators withvehicles being checked andunfit vehicles beingchallaned.

Oicials in the State trans-port department admittedthat there were school busesthat did not adhere to thenorms. “With an intention toensure safety of schoolkids,

we have issued notices to allschools, asking them to holdmeetings with their trans-port departments anddrivers to ensure proper im-

plementation of motorvehicle laws. We have alsoalerted them that an intens-ive drive will be kicked ofsoon against errant school

buses and drivers. If foundguilty, action will be initiatedagainst not just the bus own-ers and drivers, but alsoagainst the schools,” saidRachna Yaduvanshi, assist-ant regional transport oicer,Gautam Budh Nagar.

Fitness tests due

The Transport Depart-ment, meanwhile, has alsostarting scanning documentsto identify those schoolvehicles which are due for afitness test. “So far, we haveidentified 156 buses that are

due for a fitness test. Wehave also issued notices. Ifthese bus owners do not en-sure fitness, we will take ac-tion against them,” Ms.Yaduvanshi added.

The department has alsoissued a list of do’s and don’tsto schools.

“As per rules, school busdrivers should be experi-enced. They should have a li-cence that is at least fiveyears old. The school busesthemselves should not beover 15 year old. Thereshould be trained helpers ineach bus and the name andnumber of the school shouldbe visible,” she said.

The transport departmenthas also formed a team toconduct a drive in the dis-trict. “We are not going totake it easy. We have alreadyflagged school authorities.Such drives will be conduc-ted in the entire district,” of-ficers said.

PURUSHARTH ARADHAK

Notice to Noida schools over students’ safety

We have issuednotices to allschools, asking themto ensure properimplementation ofmotor vehicle laws

GURUGRAM: A week after aManipuri youth workingwith a BPO was brutallybeaten up, allegedly bythe company’s CEO andother staf on suspicion ofdata theft, the police onFriday arrested one of theaccused in the case.

Hunt on

“The accused, Niranjan,is an employee of thecompany. Raids are on toarrest the remaining sixaccused,” said DeputyCommissioner of Police(West) Sumit Kumar.

The incident hadhappened on January 13.The victim, RomenArambam (29), was calledto the cabin of his

manager, AbhimanyuMadan, and questionedabout the alleged datatheft in the presence ofbouncers.

Thereafter, he wasallegedly stripped naked,punched and beaten upwith a baseball bat by thecompany’s CEO, PuneetKumar, the staf and thebouncers.

Incident was recorded

He claimed that theypoured cold water overhis private parts and also

captured the entireincident on a mobilephone.

After he fellunconscious, the accusedtook him to a hospital,where they allegedly toldthe doctor that he hadfallen from stairs.

Victim under protection

Meanwhile, twopolicemen have beendeployed for the securityof Romen, who isundergoing treatment atCivil Hospital here.

Rebecca Rai, chiefco-ordinator, GorkhaHelpline, demanded thatthere be a special Act todeal with racialdiscrimination againstpeople from the North-East.

One arrested for assault on Manipuri youth ASHOK KUMAR The 29-year-old,

who works with a

BPO in Gurugram,

was beaten up

on January 13

NORTHERN REGION | 7THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

Forward march

Personnel of the Indian Army, the Himachal Pradesh police and the ITBP march during rehearsal for the upcoming Republic Day parade at the historicalRidge in Shimla on Friday. - PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: Vice-President M.Hamid Ansari on Friday saidthe media must stand up tofear, seek information andspeak out as it was the basicrequirement for the func-tioning of a healthydemocracy.

Addressing a gatheringafter giving away the C.H.Mohammed Koya NationalJournalism Awards 2016, Mr.Ansari observed that theFreedom House in its 2016press freedom report hadcategorised India as “par-tially free”, with an overallscore of 41 out of 100. “ThePress status report by the or-ganisation Reporters sansFrontiers was even more crit-ical, ranking India 133 out of180 countries in terms ofpress vitality and freedom,”he added.

The Vice-President saidthe essential roles of a freeand responsible media in a

democracy was to informpeople of the democraticchoices through the clarific-ation of complex issues, pro-voke public debates leadingto greater public participa-tion in decision making, un-cover abuses of power fortheir rectification, alert andmobilise public opinion toinstances of injustices and al-low space for political plural-ism by carrying diferentviews and opinions.

Public opinion

The media should alsokeep the leaders attuned topublic opinion while oferingthem a medium to explaintheir policies and decisionsto public opinion, he said.

“The media has an import-ant responsibility, particu-larly in a democratic polity,to tell the truth to the powersthat be, even if the powersthat be have a habit of not lik-ing this,” he said.

Describing Mahatma

Gandhi as one of the greatestjournalists of the nation, Mr.Ansari said he was associatedwith six journals and was theeditor of two very influentialweeklies.

“He published no advert-isement, at the same time hedid not want his newspapersto run at a loss…later ‘YoungIndia’ and ‘Harijan’ becamepowerful vehicles of hisviews on all subjects,” hesaid, asking how many of thejournals and newspaperstoday would pass Gandhiji’stest.

Quoting John Rawls’s book‘A Theory of Justice’, Mr. An-sari said a substantially equalaccess to the media was anessential requirement to pre-vent politics being capturedby concentrations of privateeconomic power, whichwould make it impossible forequally-able citizens to haveequal opportunities to influ-ence politics regardless oftheir class.

Media must stand up tofear, speak out: AnsariSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

IMPHAL: M. Manojkumar,judge of the District and Ses-sions Court, Imphal (west),on Friday sentenced N. Ajay,son of N. Biren, the BJPspokesperson in Manipur, tofive years rigorous imprison-ment and a fine of ₨10 lakh.He was found guilty of mur-dering Irom Roger.

Biren had been a CongressMinister for a long time. Hehad recently resigned andjoined the BJP.

On March 21, 2011, Ajayhad reportedly shot andkilled Irom Roger, a studentduring a road rage near Im-phal. Though the courtfound him guilty on January6 it had reserved the sen-tence hearing till Friday.

BJP leader’s songets 5-year-jailIBOYAIMA LAITHANGBAM

NEW DELHI: By allowing a pa-tient sufering from XDR TB(extremely drug resistanttuberculosis) access to lifesaving drug Bedaquiline, theDelhi High Court has openedthe door for others suferingfrom the same ailment.

Till now, the drug was ac-cessible only from six hospit-als in five cities – Delhi,Mumbai, Chennai,Ahmedabad, and Guwahati.

Addressing the media afterthe hearing, Anand Grover,advocate with the LawyersCollective -- a legal aid organ-isation that represented thepatient -- said that the domi-cile qualification would nolonger be applicable to DRTB patients seeking access tothe drug. “The question ofdomicile doesn't exist any-more. No more patients willhave to go to court for thisreason,” said Mr Grover.

The teenager was deniedtreatment with Bedaquiline, apowerful antibiotic and thelast line of treatment left forher, because she was a resid-ent of Patna and not did nothave domicile of Delhi whileshe was seeking to be treated

in Lala Ram Swarup Instituteof Tuberculosis and ResearchHospital in the nationalcapital.

The order comes at thetime when the Delhi Networkof Positive People (DNP+)has written to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi asking foreasier access to TB patientsin India who are currently,“struggling to access efectivetreatment regimen.” Askingfor swift action, the group hasexpressed their concern overthe “bureaucratic delay in theroll out of diagnostics andnew anti TB drugs to tacklethe growing burden of drugresistant (DR) TB.”

According to the latestGlobal TB Report by WorldHealth Organisation (WHO),there were an estimated 2.8million new TB cases in Indiain 2015. The activist com-munity has been demandingimmediate scale up of Beda-quiline, which has so farreached fewer than 200 pa-tients since its launch in Feb-ruary 2016. The report main-tains that the incidence of DRTB might be between 42,900-85,800 in the country – with amajority onot having accessto the drug.

HC order opens doorfor other TB patientsSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT SRINAGAR: On January 12, 16-

year-old ‘Dangal’ movieactor Zaira Wasim posted amessage on Facebook: “Ihave also cleared (Class 10exams). Don’t know how!”,only to be followed by a bar-rage of congratulatory mes-sages from locals, with notrolls around.

A week later, a pictureshot with Chief MinisterMebooba Mufti made a cel-ebrated ‘hero’ a villainovernight. Disenchantedand alienated population ofKashmir, besides prevalentpatriarchy and extremistsunderstanding of religion,saw Zaira as a medium to putacross their anger over theprolonged curfew and deathof over 90 civilians in thesummer of 2016. It was easyand a click away.

Ms. Wasim is not the firstto grapple with people’snasty behaviour, onlinebrickbats, and had to cutshort her celebratory spree.

From 27-year-old crick-eter Pervaiz Rasool, whoplayed for India, to IndianAdministrative Services(IAS) topper Shah Faesal toeight-year-old kickboxingwizard Tajamul Islam,

groomed by the Army, therewas an attempt by a sizablepopulation to use them as amedium to express their dis-enchantment with the Stateand score a political point.

Several people set on firethe calendar featuring Ms.Islam recently. Cricketer Mr.Rasool is often confrontedwith a barrage of questionson the nature of politics.

Mr. Faesal, whose houseresounded with crackersburst by locals to celebratehis feat of topping IAS examsin 2010, said, “My feat wascelebrated again and again.However, of late, people’sachievements get mixed upwith local politics. There is avocal minority that under-mines peoples’ achieve-ments and questionswhether to celebrate it ornot.”

Lampooned online oftenfor his political views, Mr.Faesal said, “I have thou-sands of followers on socialnetworking sites with whomI engage through my post-s…In Zaira’s case, manypeople rallied behind her in-

deed. So, it’s a new begin-ning where people have star-ted celebrating the success.Earlier, there was an overrid-ing thought of the Statesponsoring the talent. Theparadigm is shifting.”

Narratives

Gowhar Geelani, a colum-nist and political comment-ator, blames the narrativesemanating from mainlandIndia for how people behavehere. “We stood for ouryoung achievers in everyfield. We stood for pellet-hitInsha and others who died in2016…But we refuse to bepart of the crafty grand nar-ratives and hollow ‘surgicalstrikes’ of the Indian liberalclass that only wake up whenit suits them,” said Mr.Geelani.

Separatist leaders likeHurriyat chairman MirwaizUmar Farooq maintained adistance from the contro-versy saying, “We have noth-ing to do with it,” said theMirwaiz.

Hameeda Nayeem, a pro-fessor of English at Kashmir

University and also wife ofHurriyat leader NayeemKhan, sees no role of separ-atists in the Zaira contro-versy, where she posted apublic apology online, ap-parently after being trolled.

There are many who al-lege the State is appropriat-ing the successful in Kash-mir for political gains and“assimilation process” andshould be "left alone".

“The Zaira episode is sym-bolic of how the Indian ap-paratus sees every littleKashmiri endeavour be it ineducation, entertainment orsports as a tool to be used toshow how Kashmiris are"integrating".

“Zaira’s career is her per-sonal choice, so is her suc-cess. The tactic of the regimeowning personal eforts ofcommon Kashmiris andpackaging it reeks of incess-ant desperation that hasbeen operational at all levelssince decades,” said AtherZia, a faculty at the Anthro-pology and Gender Studiesat Northern Coloradovarsity, US.

Kashmir ‘heroes’ grapple conflict cobwebPEERZADA ASHIQ

MUMBAI: Welcoming the Pun-jab and Haryana High Courtorder to track the accused in-volved in the mass kidnap-ping and rape case during theJat agitation for reservationlast year, social activist AbhaSingh on Friday said it is im-portant to take action againstthe police oicers who triedto cover up the rape.

“It is necessary that theHaryana police oicers whotried to cover up the rapeshould be arrested immedi-ately under the India PenalCode. An independent SIT isa must to get justice to the wo-men who were raped in theMurthal gang-rape and alsothe role of the police and therapist in the Jat agitation needto be brought to book,” MsSingh said.

Echoing similar senti-ments, another women activ-ist Nirmala Samant also sup-ported the decision taken bythe courts.

SIT probe

On Thursday, the Punjaband Haryana High Courtsordered the Special Investiga-tion Team to probe the allega-tions and to track the accusedinvolved in this kidnappingand rape case reported duringthe Jat agitation.

At least 30 people werekilled and over 320 injured inthe nine-day-long Jat agita-tion for reservation in Febru-ary last year. There were re-ports that women had beendragged out to the fields andraped during the violence thatensued. - ANI

Activists welcome courtorder on Murthal rape

8 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

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SOUTH

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KeralaChief Minister Pinarayi Vi-jayan has said discretionshould be used in exercisingthe provisions of the Right toInformation Act, as certaininformation ought to remainconfidential.

Not all Cabinet decisions,for instance, can be disclosedto the public before their im-plementation.

If revealed beforehand,some measures might be-come inefective, Mr. Vijayansaid.

Caution against misuse

Mr. Vijayan was speakingafter inaugurating the StateInformation Commission’sone-day seminar on theRight to Information (RTI)Act of 2005.

He stressed the need toidentify persons who mis-

used legislation for their in-terests.

An eicient system for re-laying information to thepublic was important toachieve the goal of establish-ing a transparent and corrup-tion-free society, he said.

Through the RTI, citizens

could complement the gov-ernment’s eforts to clean upthe administration. There-fore, measures to strengthenthe reach of the Act amongthe public were being con-sidered, Mr. Vijayan said.

These included introdu-cing details about the Act inthe school curriculum andcreating software that linksother departments with theInformation Commission.

‘Vacancies will be filled’

The government wouldalso take steps to fill the va-cancy of five commissionersin the State InformationCommission, the Chief Min-ister said.

Chief Information Com-missioner (CIC) Vinson M.Paul; V.S. Sivakumar, MLA;Sheela Thomas, Secretary,General Administration; andformer CIC M.N. Gunavard-hanan spoke on the occasion.

‘Not all information can bedisclosed under RTI Act’ STAFF REPORTER

Pinarayi Vijayan

BENGALURU: The KarnatakaHigh Court on Friday direc-ted liquor baron Vijay Mallyato appear before it in personon January 27 for framing ofcharges against him in a con-tempt of court case. The is-sue pertains to alleged viola-tion of an “oral undertaking”he had given before theBengaluru Bench of the DebtRecovery Tribunal in 2013 onnot transferring, alienatingor otherwise dealing with hisassets.

A Division Bench com-prising Justice Jayant M Pateland Justice Aravind Kumarfixed the new date for Mr.Mallya’s appearance as theBench could not take up thecase on January 19, on whichday he was asked to appear inperson, due to non-availabil-ity of one of the judges on theBench.

Mallya directed to appear before HC on Jan. 27SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: Indians are beingofered the opportunity toleave their name on themoon, for a price.

Space start-upTeamIndus will get thenames of public ‘donors’micro-engraved on a small-sized aluminium object,which will be placed on thelunar surface when itslander descends on themoon. The bill: ₨500 pername.

The mission, planned forDecember 28 this year onthe PSLV rocket, will travelthe 3.84 lakh kilometresfrom earth to make a softlanding on the moon onJanuary 26, 2018. Its roboticrover will send back photosand videos.

The name plaque plan ispart of a crowd-fundingefort, says Sheelika

Ravishankar, Jedi Master -Marketing and Outreach,of the Bengaluru-basedstart-up.

On lunar belly

The lunarcraft will landin a large dusty plain on thesun-lit lunar belly, theMare Imbrium (Latin for

Sea of Showers.) “In thefuture, when people starttravelling to the moon, whoknows, they may find thisbox and spot the names oftheir ancestors,” Ms.Ravishankar told TheHindu. Some 10,000 peoplehave sent in their names.

Future mooncombers

may find other artefactstoo: U.S., Soviet, Europeanand Japanese spacecraftdebris; rovers that died,such as the latest, China’sChang’e-3. In 1971,astronauts of Apollo-15 leftan unauthorised statuetteof the ‘fallen astronaut’.Apollo-14’s moonwalkerAlan Shepard teed of a fewgolf balls.

Financial support

On November 14, 2008,ISRO’s orbitingChandrayaan-1 sent down a35-kg Moon Impact Probe,bearing the tricolour,national emblem and thewords satyameva jayate.

Ms. Ravishankar saidpublic funding would bethe third pillar of financialsupport for the $65 millionmission. It is being called‘har indian ka moonshot’(every Indian’s moonshot.)

Your name plate on the moon, for a priceA Bengaluru start-up says donors to its moon lander project will be immortalised

CREATING HISTORY: The name plaque plan is part of a crowd-funding effort by TeamIndus. — FILE PHOTO: SUDHAKARA JAIN

MADHUMATHI D.S.

KANNUR: More than one lakhpeople watched school stu-dents perform a wide varietyof art forms at diferent ven-ues here on Friday.

If the audience numbersfor the State School ArtsFestival were staggering, thenumber of performers wasalso breathtaking.

About 14,000 students areparticipating in this week-long festival in 232 events.Nearly 1,400 journalists arecovering it. About 20,000people are served a freelunch every day. More than5,000 teachers are involvedin the organisation of thefestival conducted by theKerala government.

Prominent winners

The festival turned 60 thisyear. Past winners who wenton to acquire fame includeplayback singers Yesudas,Chithra, P. Jayachandran, Su-jatha, Minmini and Srinivas,actors Manju Warrier, Vin-

eeth and VineethSreenivasan and composersM. Jayachandran, SreevalsanJ. Menon and dancer NeenaPrasad. An Education Minis-ter and a Chief Secretarywon elocution contests intheir youth.

In the second edition ofthe festival held atThiruvananthapuram in1958, Yesudas had come first

and Jayachandran second.The festival was not of such abig scale in those days.

In the inaugural edition,held at Kochi in 1957, therewere just 400 students in 18events. Now you can see justabout every art form at thefestival: classical dances likeBharatanatyam, Kuchipudi,Kathakali and Mohiniattam,classical, light and instru-

mental music, drama as wellas literary events like versi-fication, short-story writingand elocution, and that too indiferent languages.

The quality at the Statefestival is usually high, be-cause the students havecome through after compet-ing at the school, sub-districtand district levels. And theremay not be another festivalin which one gets to watch somany diferent art forms.

Global visitors

Some 20,000 people watchBharatanatyam perform-ances here for hours. “It isamazing; I don’t think thereis a festival like this any-where else in the world,” saidDebora Stenta, a dancer fromItaly, who came to Kerala towatch the festival, along withher musician husband IgorNiego and their two daugh-ters. “When we learnt aboutit last year from a friend, wedecided to come.” The Ker-ala government is spending₨2.10 crore on the festival.

Big is beautiful at Kerala student arts festivalP.K. AJITH KUMAR

WIDE VARIETY: Students perform at the State School ArtsFestival in Kannur on Thursday. — PHOTO: S.K. MOHAN

VIJAYAWADA: The budget ses-sion of the Andhra PradeshAssembly is likely to beginon February 1 after missingthe January 15 and 22 dead-lines due to unfinished workon the Assembly building atVelagapudi.

As per the initial plan, thebudget session was expectedto begin from January 15. Butit did not happen as thebuilding had not been fur-nished fully, a senior oicialof the finance departmentsaid.

“The deadline was thenshifted to January 22. Thework is on. Even if the build-ing is fully furnished, the oi-cials concerned want to take

another 10 days to completethe security check and othermandatory drills beforestarting the budget session,”the oicial said.

Oicials are busy with pre-budget meetings. Printing of

papers will also take sometime.

The oicial said the finalcall on the commencementof the session would be takenby Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu.

The budget is expected tothrow up some challenges,going by the estimatesworked out by the financedepartment.

Revenue deficit

According to the initial es-timates, the revenue deficitis likely to shoot up to₨14,000 crore as against₨4,000 crore estimated a yearago. The fiscal deficit too isexpected to be in the tune of₨25,000 crore compared tothe ₨20,000 crore estimatedlast year.

“Initial hiccups of theState, shifting of the capital,global slowdown and de-monetisation blues could besome of the influencingfactors,” the oicial said.

It has missed two deadlines, thanks to unfinished work on new Assembly building

Andhra Pradesh budget sessionexpected to begin on February 1APPAJI REDDEM

FINISHING TOUCHES: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly buildingunder construction at Velagapudi. — PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

CMYK

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PATNA: The Bihar Chief Sec-retary (CS) and the Director-General of Police (DGP) onFriday assured the PatnaHigh Court that participa-tion of school students in theproposed human chain onSaturday will not be mandat-ory.

Traic on the highwaysduring the event would beregulated, with all emer-gency services positioned atstrategic places.

Creating awareness

The Bihar government isto organise the human chain,billed as the world’s longest,from 12.15 p.m. to 1 p.m. onSaturday to create awarenesson prohibition.

Appearing before a Divi-sion Bench of the Patna High

Court, comprising ActingChief Justice Hemant Guptaand Justice Sudhir Singh, CSAnjani Kumar Singh andDGP P.K. Thakur said parti-

cipation of school studentsor anyone else in the humanchain would be voluntary.No action would be takenagainst any student or

teacher for not being part ofit. The court fixed January 28as the next date of hearing.

On Thursday, expressingdispleasure, the court had is-sued summons to the top of-ficials to make the govern-ment’s stand clear, amidreports that students andteachers were being pres-sured to ensure participationin the human chain.

A forum for Public In-terest Litigation filed the pe-tition before the court.Counsel for the petitioner,Shashi Bhushan Kumar, hadeven referred to a newspaperreport, which said that a co-ercive order had been issuedby an education oicer thatstudents not participating inthe human chain would bedeprived of benefitsprovided by the Stategovernment.

Participation in human chainnot mandatory, Patna HC told

FOR A CAUSE: School children rehearsing a formation on Fridayto promote prohibition of liquor in Patna. — PHOTO: PTI

AMARNATH TEWARY

Flying high

GETTING READY: Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighters fly past Raisina Hill during aRepublic Day parade rehearsal, in New Delhi on Friday. — PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

JAIPUR: The 10th Jaipur Liter-ature Festival (JLF) com-pleted its second day on Fri-day, with writers, artists andfilm-makers regaling theaudience with discussions,anecdotes and extendedquestion-answer sessions.

In the morning, AnneWaldman and Kunga TenzinDorji were in conversationwith journalist PragyaTiwari about Ms. Waldman’scollaborations with AllenGinsberg and the Beat poets.She compared the activistconcerns of the Beats to theStanding Rock protests. “Wehave so many issues and solittle time,” Ms. Waldmansaid.

Veteran actor Rishi Ka-poor was a big hit with theaudience on the front lawn ofthe Diggi Palace, where hewas in conversation withRachel Dwyer.

“It is very rare that a fatherand a son are active andworking in the same era [inthe film industry]. But I amreally enjoying this newphase of my life,” Mr. Kapoorsaid.

He spoke about his re-cently released memoir,which was “more about myflaws than my accomplish-ments.” Punctuating his talkwith the choicest anecdotesabout 1970s and 1980s Bolly-wood, Mr. Kapoor frequentlyhad the audience in splits.

Novelists Manu Josephand Karan Mahajan spokeabout writing novels that are

rooted in reality — but theconversation soon branchedof into topics as miscel-laneous as Donald Trump,the unrealistic niceness ofIndian men in literary fictionand the problem of a malenovelist trying to conjure be-lievable female characters.

Trump presidency

Commenting on theTrump presidency, Mr. Ma-hajan, who has lived in theU.S. for the last 10 years, said:“What I think is funny aboutTrump is that he’s like a nov-elist, in a way. Recently, whenhe was talking about his in-auguration, he spoke aboutall these funny little thingslike might it rain during theceremony and so on. He keptranting about the rain forquite a while. He has the pet-tiness that a novelist requires

in order to talk about allthese little things.”

Mr. Joseph and Mr. Ma-hajan agreed that novelistswere not the best analysts ofthe present, as opposed tothe past, on which they couldthrow light in a way that his-torians could not.

The festival’s cashlesstransaction drive, however,met a premature end on thesecond day.

The QR code-driven sys-tem did not work because ofthe sheer footfall. As a result,the festival book store — aswell as other stalls at thevenue — were not acceptingcashless transactions. Anemployee at the book storeeven said: “People who hadrecharged their e-walletsthrough cards are facingproblems in reimbursingtheir payments.”

Rishi Kapoor makes asplash at JLF on Day Two ADITYAMANI JHA

AUDIENCE’S DELIGHT: Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor and RachelDwyer during the Jaipur Literature Festival at Diggi Palace inJaipur on Friday. — PHOTO: ROHIT JAIN PARAS

p.m. He died at 3.40 p.m.,”said Sagar Bhagade of theShrikrishna Heartcare hos-pital, Nagpur.

Thirty-eight people werearrested for the murder of theBhotmange family members.

NAGPUR: Bhaiyyalal Bhot-mange, lone survivor of the2006 massacre in which fourmembers of a Dalit familywere brutally murdered by a

mob in the Khairlanji villageof Maharashtra, died after aheart attack on Friday.

Mr. Bhotmange’s wifeSurekha, daughter Priyankaand two sons — Sudhir andRoshan — were brutally

murdered by a mob belong-ing to the Kunbi caste. Themob was angered over a testi-mony given by Surekha andPriyanka against some villa-gers, which led to their arrestin a case connected to an as-

sault on a Dalit from theneighbouring village. Bhot-mange (62) was an eyewit-ness to the massacre.

“He sufered a heart attackin the afternoon and wasbrought to our hospital at 3.10

A fast track court convictedeight of them for the crime in2008. Six were awarded thedeath penalty. The NagpurBench of the Bombay HighCourt in 2010 commuted thedeath penalty.

Lone survivor of Khairlanji massacre dies after heart attack in NagpurPAVANDAHAT

NEW DELHI: The Indian Navyexpects to induct twoScorpene diesel-electricsubmarines into service thisyear and launch a third sub-marine into water even as of-ficials acknowledged thegrowing Chinese maritimepresence in the Indian OceanRegion (IOR).

The first of the Scorpenes,Kalvari, is expected to finishsea trials by May and is ontrack to be inducted beforethe monsoon. The secondsubmarine Khanderi waslaunched into sea in Mumbailast week.

“Khanderi will begin sea

trials in March and the targetis to complete them byDecember. The aim is tocommission the second sub-marine this year,” Rear Ad-miral (RAdm) Mohit Gupta,Assistant chief of Naval Staf- Submarines said on Friday.

Monsoon gap

The commissioning of theKhanderi would be depend-ent on the monsoon as trialscannot be conducted duringthe three to five monthperiod. In addition, RAdmGupta said the thirdScorpene submarine ‘Vela’will be launched into waterthis year after the monsoons.He said the Vela has already

been ‘booted up’, whichmeans all the sections havebeen assembled.

India has contracted sixScorpene submarines fromDCNS of France to be builtlocally with technologytransfer. The Navy intends toinduct all six by 2020.

Separately oicials saidthe P-8I long range maritimepatrol aircraft, procuredfrom the U.S., has been a ma-jor force multiplier and theNavy has been keeping trackof Chinese “sub-surfacemovement”, which has in-creased in the name of anti-piracy operations in the Gulfof Aden.

“At least one Chinese sub-

marine has been continu-ously deployed in the IndianOcean while others are inmovement to replace it,” de-fence sources said. Howeversources said there has beenno confrontation of any sort.

“They just pass throughand it is meant as a statementof their capability and reach.Each one is accessing theother’s strengths as of now,”sources added.

Early this week AdmiralHarry Harris, Chief of U.S.Pacific Command said therehas been “sharing of inform-ation regarding Chinesemaritime movement in theIOR” between India and theU.S.

India steps up submarine induction asChinese presence grows in regionDINAKAR PERI

NEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt on Friday declined tofurther direct the Centre toplace before it the minutes ofthe meeting of a high-powered committee, com-prising the Prime Minister,the Chief Justice of India andthe Leader of the Opposition,selecting Delhi Police Com-missioner Alok KumarVerma as the new CBIDirector.

“It [direction to call forminutes of the meeting] isnot within the ambit of thiswrit petition. As far as thiswrit petition is concerned, itis over now,” a Bench ofJustices Kurian Joseph andA.M. Khanwilkar said.

The court was informedby Attorney General MukulRohatgi and Additional Soli-citor General Tushar Mehtaabout the appointment ofMr. Verma.

The Centre ruled out thedemand by the NGO, Com-mon Cause, seeking a direc-tion to it to place before theBench the minutes of themeeting of the high-levelpanel on the matter.

“Where is the question ofplacing the minutes of meet-ing now? A decision has beentaken and order has been is-sued,” Mr. Rohatgisubmitted.

SC rejects pleafor details on CBIchief ’s selectionLEGAL CORRESPONDENT

JAIPUR: The RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)on Friday called for creatingmore opportunities for Dal-its, tribals and underpriv-ileged sections in order tobring them to the main-stream of development. Butit favoured the continuationof reservation “as long as dis-crimination [against them]continues.”

Addressing a session titled‘Of Safron and Sangh’ at theJaipur Literature Festival,RSS ideologue ManmohanVaidya said quota in jobs andeducation had been given tothe Scheduled Castes andthe Scheduled Tribes in a“certain historical context.”But its provision for peopleprofessing faiths other thanHinduism was not justified.

Ideal situation

“The ideal position is: giveequal opportunities to all.Dalits and tribals were keptout of education and pro-gress for a long time. Thoughreservation has providedsupport to them, its perman-ent provision may not proveto be good for society,” saidMr. Vaidya. Even Dr. B.R.Ambedkar had favouredquota for a limited period oftime, he said.

RSS Akhil Bhartiya Prac-har Pramukh Mr. Vaidya andSah-Sarakaryavah Mr. Dat-tatreya Hosabale were inconversation with journalistPragya Tiwari at the session.

Create moreopportunitieswhile continuingwith quota: RSS

MOHAMMED IQBAL

NEW DELHI: Is it justified for asecular government to partwith acres of public land forconstruction of religiousplaces of worship?

This is the question ChiefJustice of India J.S. Kheharon Friday agreed to addresswhen he directed the Su-preme Court Registry toplace all pending cases in thecourt regarding grant of pub-lic lands for the constructionof religious places of wor-

ship, be it temples, mosques,churches, gurudwaras, syn-agogues, etc.

“We do not want to hearthis issue piecemeal, let allthe petitions pending in thecourt be tagged together andwe will hear them all. Likethat, everybody will be satis-fied and that will be the bet-ter way,” Chief JusticeKhehar said. The SupremeCourt Registry has time tillMarch 20 to identify all suchcases, group them togetherand present them for hearing

before the Chief Justice’sBench.

Chennai case

The direction came on apetition filed by the Federa-tion of Chennai Suburban(South) Welfare Associationagainst the Muslim CulturalAssociation in 2008. Thecase refers to a governmentorder of September 24, 1986,provisionally transferring agovernment pond in favourof the Muslim Associationfor constructing a mosque.

The Federation contendedthat the government orderviolated the basic feature ofthe Constitution, namely —secularism. The Federation,represented by senior advoc-ate R. Basant and advocate G.Balaji, invoked the 1994 S.R.Bommai case in which theSupreme Court had held thatthe “Constitution preventsthe State from either identi-fying itself with or favouringany particular religion or re-ligious sect ordenomination”.

Why public land for places of worship, asks SCKRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL

NEW DELHI: A new SupremeCourt Bench led by JusticeDipak Misra on Friday camein for a surprise when Attor-ney General Mukul Rohatgiappeared for the first time inthe BCCI-Lodha Committeespat, seeking a complete re-call of the Supreme Court’sJuly 18 judgment upholdingthe Lodha reforms.

Mr. Rohatgi said he rep-resented Railways, thearmed forces and the associ-ation of Indian universities.All three of his clients werefull members of the BCCIand ‘great contributors’ toIndian cricket and crick-eters, until the SupremeCourt upheld the Lodha re-forms in its July 18, 2016 ver-dict which changed themembership pattern on geo-graphical basis of ‘One StateOne Vote.’

Downgraded members

The July 18 judgmentdowngraded the three fromfull members to ‘associated

bated. We want a recall ofthe orders,” Mr. Rohatgisubmitted.

Senior advocate KapilSibal, counsel for severalState cricket associationslike Maharashtra who aremembers of the BCCI, inter-jected to say it was “abouttime you [Mr. Rohatgi] madean appearance in this case.”

“I am asking for a recall ofyour orders. The LodhaCommittee was appointedby this court to punish thosefound guilty in the IPLmatch-fixing. Then you toldthem to reform cricket...since when has the court be-come a reformist body?” Mr.Rohatgi asked the Bench,which also comprisedJustices A.M. Khanwilkarand D.Y. Chandrachud.

Mr. Sibal said the entireJuly 18 judgment and theJanuary 2, 2017 order cat-egorising disqualificationsfor cricket administratorsshould be “reopened.”

Mr. Rohatgi questionedthe logic behind disqualific-ation of ministers and gov-ernment servants from be-coming oice-bearers of theBCCI.

was a private body, and whatthe Lodha Committee haddone was to intervene in the“internal afairs of a privatesociety.”

‘No jurisdiction’

“The BCCI remains aprivate society even thoughits functions resemble thatof a national character.Where is your jurisdiction?Take the case of Delhi Dis-trict Cricket Association. Itis a ‘company’ under Section25 of the Companies Act.How can you decide the eli-gibility of the president, sec-retary and other oice-bear-ers of a private company...these aspects have to be de-

members’ and stripped themof their voting power.

“Our full membershipswere taken from us by thecourt without even issuing anotice to us... Tell us whatwas our fault? We promoteteams, we have been pro-moting cricket for years, wegive players jobs and theyrise,” Mr. Rohatgi said.

He said he had “no lovelost” for the BCCI butbothered about his clients.The comment wascountered by opposing law-yers, saying this late inter-vention by the AG only re-vealed “a love afair” withthe BCCI.

Mr. Rohatgi said the BCCI

Since when has the SC become a reformist body, asks Rohatgi

KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL

AG seeks recall of verdictbacking Lodha report

� SUPREME COURT READY FOR DEBATE | PAGE 17

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S A T U R D A Y , J A N U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 1 7

EDITORIAL

CARTOONSCAPE

The world has turned the page on 2016 withthe worrying revelation that it was thewarmest year on the instrumental recordsince the late 19th century, and the hottest

of three record-breaking years in a row. While therise in global average surface temperature by about1.1o C last year over the pre-industrial era was ag-gravated by the El Nino phenomenon of 2015-16, thetrend is a warning to all countries that they cannotaford to rely on carbon-intensive growth anylonger. Explaining the scientific view, NASA’s God-dard Institute for Space Studies points to the rise intemperature as being driven “largely by increasedcarbon dioxide and other human-made emissionsinto the atmosphere.” The warming pattern mustbe seen in the context of declining sea ice cover inthe Arctic, compounding the loss of ice sheets inGreenland and the Antarctic. In the Arctic, which iswitnessing a decline in the extent of sea ice in thelowest month at the rate of about 13% every decade,melting creates a vicious circle of more exposure of‘dark areas’ to sunlight, higher melting and moredark surface absorbing heat. Such phenomena ac-celerate the rate of global warming, with con-sequences through climate change for coastalareas, access to water, farming and human health.

A warming globe with changes to the climate inthe form of altered rainfall, drought, floods, lostbiodiversity and reduced crop yields would partic-ularly afect millions in China and India. It is heart-ening that Chinese President Xi Jinping assertedthe importance of the Paris Agreement on climatechange at the Davos meeting of the World Eco-nomic Forum, and virtually cautioned incomingU.S. President Donald Trump against reneging onit. India’s own commitment to the climate accordmust be strengthened with clear and unambiguousactions. This should lead to a scaling up of renew-able energy and measurable decline in use of fossilfuels. Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal haspromised a steady increase in solar power capacity,going beyond the target of 100 gigawatts by 2022,but such goals become more credible when there isaction in individual States to make the average cit-izen a partner in the efort. States should be rankedon their policies that help unlock investment in thesector, including domestic rooftop installations,and the weak service infrastructure for solarshould be upgraded without delay. India’s waterstress is heightened by extreme weather episodes,and this requires an enhanced policy response toprotect farmers, livestock and vulnerable com-munities.

Living in a hotter world

Chelsea Manning, the American whistle-blower slapped with a 35-year sentencefor leaking classified State Departmentdocuments to the anti-secrecy group

WikiLeaks, has had her sentence commuted by theoutgoing President, Barack Obama. Earlier knownas Bradley, she has gender dysphoria, is undergoinghormone therapy for gender reassignment, and hastwice attempted suicide while being held at a men’sprison. She has served more than six years of hersentence and, assuming Mr. Obama’s commutationis implemented, could hope to be freed by May 2017.Even as White House oicials underscored that the44th President had commuted the sentence, notpardoned her, and thus had not removed a federalcrime from her record, Mr. Obama insisted that“justice has been served”. Central to his argumentwas the fact that she had served time in jail afterpleading guilty to 10 of the 22 charges, relating to es-pionage, fraud and theft, for releasing 2,50,000 dip-lomatic cables, 5,00,000 military reports, militaryvideos from Iraq and Afghanistan, and dossiers onprisoners held in Guantanamo Bay. When thecables and reports were blasted across the Internetand select media outlets by WikiLeaks in 2010, Mr.Obama had to send the then U.S. Secretary of State,Hillary Clinton, to various world capitals and as-suage America’s allies in the face of uncompliment-ary private comments by U.S. diplomats.

Mr. Obama’s decision to commute the sentencecould not have come at a more fraught juncture inU.S. politics. WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange,holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London,had promised to allow himself to be extradited tothe U.S. if Mr. Obama freed Ms. Manning. Now hesays he will abide by that promise. However,WikiLeaks also put itself at the centre of what hasbeen a diicult American election resulting in thevictory of Donald Trump, when it published emailsof the Democratic National Committee allegedlystolen by hackers with links to Russia. Those leaks,along with other cyber-malfeasance associatedwith the highest levels of government in Moscow,are considered by many angry Democrats to havederailed Ms. Clinton’s run at the White House. HasMr. Obama done a good turn to a group that playeda role in the Democratic Party’s debacle in Novem-ber last year? Has he opened up his party to attacksby Republicans for sending a “troubling message”to future leakers with information that could playinto the hands of America’s enemies? Maybe. Yetwhat he has done for sure is to mitigate, in smallmeasure, the U.S.’s reputation as a superpower thatpreaches about democratic values such as the rightto dissent and freedom of speech, yet at home hascome down with an iron fist on whistle-blowers.

A deservedcommutation

The Tamil word for ox and cattle, ‘maadu’,also means wealth. As the great book of wis-dom, the Tirukkural, emphatically asserts,education is the real ‘maadu’. As the unpre-cedented mass uprising in Tamil Nadu un-folds, jallikattu, the sport of taming the bull,has now become a symbol of Tamil pride andidentity. How did a sport with origins in apastoral world capture the imagination of avast and diferentiated linguistic communityand become its symbol?

Since Sangam literature

In the extraordinary body of poetry,termed as Sangam literature, is a text calledKalithokai. In five long poems, totalling over300 breath-taking lines, it provides the firstelaborate description of this ancient sport.

Though there is evidence in ancient rockart of forms of this sport, it is only in modernTamil literary prose writing that we find ex-tended descriptions of jallikattu.

The pioneer was B.R. Rajam Aiyar, thegreat vedantin and disciple of SwamiVivekananda. His Tamil novel, KamalambalCharithiram (English translation: The FatalRumour, Oxford University Press), writtenin 1893, depicts the celebration accompany-ing the sport with men and women turningup in huge numbers. Rajam Aiyar also re-cords technical terms associated with thissport.

Kothamangalam Subbu (‘Kalaimani’) isnow largely known for his novel ThillanaMohanambal, later made into the eponym-ous film starring Sivaji Ganesan and Pad-mini. Few know that his first foray into fic-

tion, in the 1930s, was with a short story,‘Manji Virattu’ (another form of jallikattu).Not satisfied with writing a short story onthis theme, Subbu serialised a sprawlingnovel, Rao Bahadur Singaram, in the popu-lar weekly, Ananda Vikatan. This story,centred on the romance between a younggirl who raises a bull and a youth who setsout to tame it, was filmed (Vilaiyattu Pillai,1970) by the same team that produced Thil-lana Mohanambal.

But the locus classicus of jallikattu re-mains Ci.Su. Chellappa’s Vaadi Vaasal(English translation: The Arena, OxfordUniversity Press). Conceiving it as a shortstory, Chellappa later expanded it into anovella. Out of print for a quarter of a cen-tury after its first publication in 1959, VaadiVaasal has over the last twenty years beenreprinted more than a dozen times byKalachuvadu Pathippagam — an indicationof not only its literary merit but also the cul-tural importance accorded to it.

Many of these books, in their later impres-sions, were embellished with sketches andpaintings by outstanding artistes such asK.M. Adhimoolam and Trotsky Marudhu.Meanwhile, articles by Panditamani M.Kathiresan Chettiar and other scholarsprovided an intellectual framework for thecelebration of jallikattu as a Tamil sport.

This history of the literary representationof jallikattu is testimony to its enduring al-lure. A close look at the content of these liter-ary texts provides insights into the changestaking place within the sport and its dynamicinteraction with society.

The Kalithokai poems depicted the moodof riotous carnival where young men deckedin colourful flowers ‘embraced the bull’ (‘eruthazhuvuthal’) and tamed it. Young womenwho watched this swore that they would notmarry even in their next life a man whofeared the bulls’ sharp horns. The focus ofthe poems is on the valour and the gore thataccompanies this heroic feat.

In A.K. Ramanujan’s inspired translation,a passage reads, “Look, the bull,/ raisedhorns and skin tawny/ as certain silkmoths,/he skewers to death/ the cowherd whosprang/ heedless of the look in the animal’seyes,/ carries the carcass high and shakes it/on his horns.” According to poetic conven-tion the young men and women of

Kalithokai belonged to the community ofshepherds now identified with idaiyar,konar and yadavar.

Reflecting the power structure

By the time of B.R. Rajam Aiyar, the de-scription of the festival becomes natural-istic, written with the eye of an ethno-grapher. Unlike the Kalithokai poems set ina stylised pastoral zone, the geographicallocation is now specified as (the erstwhilecomposite districts of) Madurai andTirunelveli. The sport itself is imbricated inthe dynamics of rural power structure.

By the time of Kothamangalam Subbu, thefaultlines become clearer. ‘Manji Virattu’ isset in late 1920s Ramanathapuram district.The mood cannot be more festive, andSubbu records the practice of giving endear-ing names to the bulls. The crux of the storyis the conflict between the always warringAgamudaiyar and Maravar castes, ending inviolence and the suspension of the festivaluntil it is restored by the advent of theGandhian movement. For the first time wesee the sport being celebrated as the valor-ous sport of Tamils.

In Ci.Su. Chellappa’s hands the sport ex-pands into an exploration of the conflictsbetween man and man, and man and animal,and their interweaving provides subtle in-sights into the human predicament.

Interestingly, all the authors mentionedabove were Brahmins, giving the lie to the ar-gument that the sport is the preserve of a fewdominant castes. As a non-corporatisedcommunitarian sport, though undoubtedlyreflective of social inequities, especiallycaste, jallikattu incorporates the entiregamut of the social order.

Paralleling the literary depiction ofjallikattu was its filmic representation. Fromthe 1960s the taming of the bull by the ruralhero became a recurring trope. The conven-tion reached its apogee in Rajinikanth’sMur-attu Kaalai (1980). State patronage fuelledit, and Alanganallur, a fixture in the touristmap, became a metaphor for the sport.

Transformed by opposition

By this time, at least in the popular imagin-ary, jallikattu transcended its regional andcaste definition, and became emblematic ofTamil culture. But the credit for unambigu-ously and unequivocally turning jallikattuinto a symbol of all that is Tamil must go toits adversaries, both perceived and real — ofanimal lovers, of ‘north India’, of an insensit-ive Central government, of Hindutva and ofthe impersonal forces of globalisation.Thanks to them, jallikattu now stands en-shrined as the symbol of Tamil culturalpride.

Irrespective of the legislative, judicial orpolitical outcome, there is no doubt that theprotestors have won the day. But this tri-umphal moment also calls for introspection.Jallikattu enthusiasts should ensure that thesport is regulated and animals are protectedfrom harm. In a welcome sign, environ-mental groups, keen on preserving nativebreeds of bulls, are already in the fray. Hope-fully they will take the lead in this matter.More importantly, the democratic charactermanifest in the upsurge should be reflectedin jallikattu itself by making it more inclusivewith the participation of the high and thelow, the dominant and the oppressed.

A.R. Venkatachalapathy is a historian and Tamil writer.

Catching a sport by its hornsIrrespective of the legislative, judicial or political outcome, there is no doubt that pro-jallikattu protestershave won the day. But this triumphal moment also calls for introspection

Paralleling the literary depiction of

jallikattu was its filmic

representation. From the 1960s

the taming of the bull by the rural

hero became a recurring trope

A.R.

VENKATACHALAPATHY

Sentiments and arguments

Right from the freedom struggle tothe anti-Hindi agitation and evenhighlighting the problems of Tamilsin Sri Lanka, students have alwaysled from the front and even courtedarrest. But as far as jallikattu isconcerned, it should be borne inmind that the matter is sub-judice.Why hasn’t the student communitynot fought so vehemently and voicedits grievances in critical matterssuch as when the Karnatakagovernment failed to release waterto Tamil Nadu even when theSupreme Court ordered it? In bothcases it was the Supreme Courtwhich issued the orders. Finally, Ihave this to say to certain partiesnow demanding the ordinance routefor a reintroduction of jallikattu.How much time will it take for theSupreme Court to stay theordinance? No one should playpolitics in this matter and leadstudents astray hoping to reappolitical dividends.

A. Michael Dhanaraj,Coimbatore

Marina beach seems to be themeeting point of minds. They allseem to concur on one thing — thatthe Tamil identity is under threat.But why are even the law abidingwading into something which isessentially sub-judice? FromViswanathan Anand to A.R. Rahmanto R. Ashwin, even those who appearrational have expressed solidaritywith the protesters. I hope theprotesting youngsters and theirbackers in the shadows are awarethat the Supreme Court’s ire is notexclusively against jallikattu. Thetop court has banned similar eventsin Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnatakaand Goa.

J. Akshay,Bengaluru

The youth who have taken to the

streets to demand the lifting of theban on jallikattu must be lauded forupholding the tradition of non-violent protest that started with theanti-colonial struggle. At the sametime, one is disappointed to see thatthe air is thick with intolerance. Theright to protest comes with aconcomitant responsibility torespect other points of view. Thesilencing of anti-jallikattu voicesthrough threats and intimidation is ablot on democracy. The social mediazeitgeist of trolling cannot bereplicated in the public squarewhich has to be shared with fellowcitizens even if some of themexpress diferent views and espousediferent causes that may not be tothe liking of the majority. Nothingendangers democracy more than thetyranny of the majority.

V.N. Mukundarajan,Thiruvananthapuram

The role of the media leaves a lot tobe desired when it comes tocoverage of and reportage on theunfolding agitation and protests inTamil Nadu. Is the Fourth Estatebeing truthful and is justice beingdone to cover other events ofimportance? Is jallikattu the onlynews of importance? Whys is thereno coverage of the drought-likesituation looming large in TamilNadu?

A.V. Narayanan,Tiruchi

The event has been magnifiedbeyond proportion. The holding ofjallikattu is a day’s event and for justone day in a year, especially in thePillanallur and Alanganallur areas ofTamil Nadu. Past statistics were notso alarming as to impose a ban. In2003, when the Madras High Courtpermitted jallikattu withprecautions, the then Collector ofMadurai ensured that it went ofwithout a hitch. Had the governmentbeen asked to continue following

this procedure, these protests couldhave been avoided.

R.V.S. Mani,Chennai

The growing clamour for jallikattu ismisplaced. The opposition to thesport by animal rights activists hasbeen on grounds of cruelty toanimals. On the other hand, it is agory activity exposing young men toserious injury and worse. It is acontinuation of a feudalistictradition. The sport is largelyorganised in four southern districtsonly and not across the State. Thebulls are owned by landlords whoorganise the sport for pride andprestige. Invariably, young men fromthe poorer sections are the victims.There is a need for progressivethought on the issue instead of anemotive response, parochialism,chauvinism and politicalopportunism.

V.S. Prasad,Hyderabad

Like most schoolchildren, I had justa faint idea about the jallikattu issueand PETA group. I began reading upmaterial after schools were closedand the electronic media began toshow visuals of groups of people,including children and old women,protesting. It is moving to see thekind of support and dedication theyhave for their culture. But whatconcerns me is the tremendousamount of “youth energy” that isbeing wasted. People leading theprotests and most of theirsupporters appear to have very littleknowledge about the issue. When areporter poses the question aboutwhat the main motive is, thestandard reply is: “We wantjallikattu” or “Ban PETA”. Theenergy of the young is a powerfulasset but is it being put to good usehere? Where were all thesesupporters when we really neededthem? Why are issues such as

women’s rights, rape andmolestation the last on their list ofconcerns?

Kavya Venkatesh,Coimbatore

One is surprised by the magnitudeand intensity of the protests. All thisfor a rural sport? Last year, when aDalit youth was hacked to death indaylight for the “crime” of daring tomarry an upper caste girl I thoughtthat there would be protests acrossTamil Nadu. Instead, only a few Dalitparties protested. There wasabsolutely no uprising like now. Tradition can be a double-edgedsword. There are numerousexamples of atrocities against Dalitsin the name of tradition. We havecast of many of them and are nonethe worse for it. Why hang on tojallikattu alone?For those who wish to demonstratetheir valour, why not join the armedforces? Despite all the denials, mostbulls are tortured in various ways tomake them run more wildly. It isvery diicult to regulate or preventthis as the police cannot beeverywhere. It is also dicey to askthe Centre to override the SupremeCourt order through the ordinanceroute. It also shows a lack of respectfor the law of the land. PETA and theAWBI are bound to file suits. Thenwe’ll start going round the mulberrybush once again.

Vathsala Vijayakumar,Chennai

Whether jallikattu should be bannedon the basis of animal cruelty orother special interests related to it isdebatable. It would be imbalanced tolook at it only from the angle ofanimal cruelty. Variousorganisations and governments thatargue for the prevention of crueltyagainst animals should consider theaspects of vitality, strength, healthand vigour in this sport. The“sufering” of the bull during the

taming lasts only for a few minutes.On the other hand, caged zooanimals, stray dogs and evenabandoned pet animals sufer painfor a longer period to which animalrights organisations turn a blind eyeto. Rationally, jallikattu can beallowed to continue with properimplementation of a jallikattu act.

Meera Mary Joseph,Pathanamthitta, Kerala

Obama’s imprint

As Barack Obama walks into history,it’s time to introspect (“Autumn andits discontents”, Jan.20). He was theperfect ambassador for theAmerican ideals of freedom andliberalism. He was also steadfast inhis support for family values andlove and compassion for fellowcitizens. Finally, he must be givencredit for “smokin’ out” Osama binLaden. The world needs moreleaders like Barack Obama. Hischarm, honesty, warmth andpatriotism are an inspiration for anentire generation.

Gulbahar S. Sidhu,Jalandhar, Punjab

Bleak future

Though Kailash Satyarthi’soptimistic approach to Indianlegislation in connection with savingchildren from exploitation at variouslevels is welcome, the reality isdepressing (“Safe childhoods for asafe India”, Jan.20). One seeschildren from North Indian Statesworking in the south as childlabourers with business andindustrial communities from thenorth. It is common knowledge thatchildren from Gujarat, Rajasthan,Bihar and even the eastern States areworking here. Though thesechildren are visible, no action istaken.

C. Jaya Sankar Babu,Puducherry

LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

CMYK

ND-ND

GROUND ZERO | 11THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

Siwan’s claim to fame so far has beenthree-dimensional: it is India’s firstPresident Rajendra Prasad’s birthplace;it is the constituency of the jailedRashtriya Janata Dal leader Mohd.Shahabuddin; and the district boasts ofmaximum remittances from abroad toBihar — roughly 40 per cent of the₨1,800 crore that flowed into the State in2014-15. But slowly and steadily, Siwan isadding a fourth dimension — or a thirdclaim to fame if you will. A group ofyoung girls of Mairwa block is overturn-ing the all-too-familiar story of beingpushed into child labour and/or earlymarriage at the expense of education.The story is unfolding almost Dangal-like, as it plays out in the boondocks ofBihar. And like Aamir Khan in the Bolly-wood blockbuster, it has at its centreone man: Sanjay Pathak, 43, whodoubles up as the young girls’ coach,guardian, teacher and lifeline; in short,he is their life around which their livesrevolve, drawing sustenance and en-couragement. This, then, is the story of70 girls in sports jerseys who sprint, loband block — striving for perfection un-der their mentor’s eagle eye.

Every day, the girls set out on their bi-cycles furiously pedalling away thestretch of 15 km that takes them to Lak-shmipur village for their daily practiceon the one-acre farmland of Pathak.This is their sports complex, nestledbetween green paddy and yellow mus-tard plants, where they practise foot-ball, hockey, handball and athletics andhave been winning medals at national-and international-level meets. “At least30 of my girls have played in national/international-level games and havebrought medals and laurels for thecountry and the State… but look at theirshoes and the facilities here,” Pathakpoints out. All that is here is courtesythe monthly salary of ₨43,000 that he re-ceives as a government school teacher,but Pathak wouldn’t talk about his sacri-fices. “When I see these girls kick theball between goalposts and run like a hy-ena on this uneven mud ground, all myworries vanish… what more could I askfrom my life?” he asks, his eyes glisten-ing with just a hint of a tear drop.

In Siwan, power flows from the barrelof the gun. And it’s always a man wield-ing it; women have little identity here.The child sex ratio of the district isskewed at 940 girls for every 1,000 boys.The prosperity that remittances havebrought to the villages of Siwan haslittle bearing on the young girls fromhere.

A man and his mission

It was sometime in 2009 that Pathakclaims he received a ‘divine message’nudging him to do something for thepoor schoolgirls of his native place. Heidentified a vacant stretch of land tokick-start his sporting mission. “Begin-ning with just two, footballers Putul Ku-mari and Tara Khatun, the numberssteadily rose to 30 in just a few months. Iwas very happy that the girls had evenstarted winning medals at the district-level games and were aiming high,” saysPathak, who literally lives in his track-suit. But alongside the achievementscame taunts, ridicule, and threats atboth the coach and his wards. “The row-dies taunted us saying ‘this land is notanyone’s baap ki zameen (father’sland)… it’s government land’. We ig-nored them but when things got out ofcontrol and they began harassing thegirls by playing lewd songs on their mo-bile phones, plying their motorbikes onthe field when the girls would practiseand throwing shards of glass pieces inthe arena, I complained to the local po-lice station. It continued,” he says,adding, “but one day, I decided enoughis enough.” That was in March 2015.

Pathak decided to drive his tractor allthrough his one-acre agricultural fieldand level it. Soon, it began to take shapeof a training ground. This was literallyhis “baap ki zameen”. It took another 10days for the ground to be readied. Henamed the sports complex “HimeshwarKhel Vikas Kendra” and the girls’ groupas “Rani Lakshmibai Club”. There is nosignboard of the centre or the club,though — a few yards away from theLakshmipur village, the playgroundsuddenly appears amid the green paddyand yellow mustard fields, open from allsides.

Over time, Pathak firmed up the lay-out. Three goalposts serve as a marker:one part where the girls play hockey; theother where they practise badmintonand tennis. The athletes run on thefringes of the ground. At one end is anewly constructed, unpainted changingroom, a 28x18 feet hall and a 22x18 feetroom meant for administrative work.The hall and admin room are locked.“They have not been inaugurated yet…we’ll do it soon,” says Pathak. A handpump is pitched near the changingroom where the girls drenched in sweatcome to quench their thirst after prac-tice. “Now, no one dares come here andtease or threaten us... my girls are safehere,” says Pathak, breaking into a smileacross his chubby face.

A father of two growing daughters,Pathak lives in a joint family of ninemembers.

“He deserves the President’s awardfor what he has been doing for the girlsof the area… but even the district admin-istration is oblivious to this,” ruesyounger brother Basant, a railwayemployee.

It’s 5.30 on a wintry January morningand Antima Kumari, a gold medal-win-ner in 100 metres in the under-14 Stateand national championships, is tyingher shoelaces in her ramshackle rooftoproom of her home in Bilaspur village.Stepping out on her bicycle, she soonmerges into a file of pedallists on a nar-row serpentine path. As they reach theoutskirts of Lakshmipur village, anotherbunch of girls joins in, hockey sticksclutched tight in hand, footballs neatlystrapped on the rear carrier of the cycle.Some of them like Anisha Kumari havecome from as far as Gaderia village,some 16 km away. At the HimeshwarKhel Vikas Kendra, the cycles are hur-riedly parked in a corner as the girls getready to go through their paces.

Practice makes perfect

The morning sun is not yet out andthe wind is chilly. “It’s very cold sir…e-ven the morning dew has settled on theleaves,” complains Priyanka Kumari,one of the girls. But Pathak is rubbinghis palms in the field to keep warm andwould hear none of it. After a short peptalk, it’s time for the warm-up session.

Soon another batch of girls arrives,picks its hockey sticks and start playingon the adjacent ground. Three little girlsin running shoes take to the track. In a

few minutes, the playground is buzzingwith frenetic physical activity and thecacophony of girls cheering and en-couraging each other.

On paper, coach Pathak has nothingto recommend him — neither a sports-man in his time nor someone who hastrained for the job. But years of takingthese village girls under his wing andmentoring them have honed his ownskills besides that of his pupils: otherthan Putul, Tara and Antima, his stablehas also produced national-level play-ers such as Amrita Kumari, Nisha Ku-mari, Tara’s sister Salma Khatun (foot-ball), Sindhu Kumari and KhusbooKumari (hockey) and Mamata Kumariand Neelu Kumari (handball). “Thereare about 30 players of this ground whohave played national and internationalmatches [at various age divisions],”boasts the coach, in between shoutingout instructions as some dribble withtheir sticks, others feint and dodge pastopponents with the ball, and still otherszip past on the running track ringing thefield.

It’s 8.30 a.m., pack-up time. “The girlsshould be in their schools by 10 a.m.,”says Pathak. The playground gets deser-ted as bicycles once again zoom pastnarrow dirt paths taking the girls home.

Daring to dream big

Pathak’s unswerving devotion to hiscause has ofered a lifeline to girls whocouldn’t have dreamt of a future beyondLakshmipur village, let alone Mairwablock or Siwan. Tara and Salma Kha-tun’s father Sudhan Ansari runs a road-side vehicle puncture shop to supporttheir family of 15, which lives in a half-constructed roadside hall with parti-tions made of thin curtains in Mudyarivillage. Tara had gone to France to playin the school football world cup in 2014.Salma is a national-level footballer too,and sisters Sarla and Sabra have taken tothe game as well. “Initially it was toughfor us to allow our girls to play football…the relatives and the villagers tauntedand ridiculed us. But now, after theyhave won laurels and their photos ap-peared in newspapers, we’re happy withwhatever they are doing,” says RasullaBegum, their mother.

Similar stories abound. Nisha, who

has been to Kathmandu and Tajikstan in2016 to participate in under-16 footballcompetitions, is the daughter of electri-cian Ranjit Yadav. Amrita, who hasplayed in Sri Lanka in 2013 and cap-tained the Indian girls’ under-16 footballteam in Bangladesh in 2015, is thedaughter of Shambhu Prasad, a veget-able vendor in Gurugram, Haryana.Putul, whose father Ravindra Prasadsells sweets at a roadside shop near thetemple in Mairwa Dham village,couldn’t make it to the Indian under-16

skills,” gushes Nisha. For Amrita andPutul, Messi is the best of them all. “Noplayer has control on the ball like him…he is a true magician,” says Amrita. ForTara and her sisters, it’s David Beckhamand Zinedine Zidane. “For their simpleskills,” they say.

No television, but have they seen themuch-talked-about Dangal? No, noteven the coach. “We’ve heard that themovie is inspirational for players likeus… its story is like ours but we can’t af-ford to go to the theatre and watch it…let its HD version come and we’ll down-load it on someone’s mobile phone,”giggles Amrita.

The only regret these girls have is thatthey’re not getting any government sup-port for their endeavour. “Whatever wehave is provided by our coach Sanjaysir… the playing field, boots, jerseys, T-shirts, footballs, hockey sticks, he givesus money for our travel expenses to playmatches outside the district… he is oureverything,” they echo in unison. “Ispend ₨12,000 of my salary every monthand get some donations from closefriends and kind villagers for the girls toplay the sport… the changing room forthe girls has been constructed with adonation of ₨3 lakh from some goodSamaritans,” says the coach, hoping thatthe State administration in Patna wakesup to their plight.

It’s 3.30 p.m. and the girls are back ontheir bicycles heading for the play-ground. The sun is slowly turning ashade crimson and the swirling foggradually enveloping the village fieldsin a cold embrace as they furiouslypedal to reach the Kendra by 4 p.m. Themorning routine repeats itself untilaround 6 p.m., when it’s time to call it aday. The girls are homeward-bound, butthe saga of hope, courage and promisewill unfold again in the morrow.

women’s football contingent that wentto Jordan for the Asian football champi-onship because her passport was notready in time. “It was bad luck but oneday she too will go to a foreign land tounfurl the Tricolour,” says her proudfather. Putul is fifth among seven sistersand a brother. Three sisters are alreadymarried and one is set to marry in Aprilthis year. “But I’ll let Putul continuewith her game and let her marrywhenever she wishes,” says Ravindra,glancing at his 17-year-old daughter.

“This is just the beginning. Theyounger lot like Kajal Kumari and ShrutiKumar are the real players to watch outfor, and they would certainly play forthe senior Indian women’s footballteam provided politics does not play apart in player selection,” asserts Pathak.Ten-year-old Kajal, whose father Nav-rangi Bansfore rears pigs, comes from aMahadalit family. “She is an all-rounder... plays football and hockeywith equal ease, but she excels as asprinter,” says Pathak. His pupil, sport-ing running shoes that are beginning togive away, smiles from a distance. “I likerunning the most.”

Promises to keep

Back home, space is always at apremium. Some of the girls have stackedtheir medals in large trunks, gunny bagsand on the cemented racks below theroof in the room. The room of theircoach too is crammed with medals,trophies and shields won the girls andawards for him. None of the girls havetelevisions in their households, exceptAntima who has a black and white “Hy-bon” brand TV set in her tiny room onthe roof. But they all have their idols toswear by. “[Lionel] Messi and Ronaldoare my favourite players for their drib-bling, running and precision-passing

The ground beneath their featOne man in the district otherwise infamous for Mohammad Shahabuddin is scripting a story of hope and success for village girls.Amarnath Tewary visits Sanjay Pathak’s sports nursery in Lakshmipur that is already churning out champions across disciplines

WHERE DREAMS TAKE SHAPE: “Every day, the girls set out on their bicycles furiously pedalling away the stretch of 15 km that takesthem to Lakshmipur village for their daily practice on the one-acre farmland of Pathak. This is their sports complex, nestledbetween green paddy and yellow mustard plants.” — PHOTOS: RANJEET KUMAR

HOPE, COURAGE, PROMISE: (Left to right) Tara Khatun, Putul Kumari, Nisha Kumari and Amrita Kumari.

When I see these girlskick the ball between

goalposts and run like ahyena on this uneven mudground, all my worriesvanish… what more couldI ask from my life?” Sanjay Pathak

CMYK

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FROM PAGE ONE

The SP list included 10seats currently held by theCongress, with some con-sidered its strongholds.These include Syana andKhurja in Bulandshahr, Ma-thura and Bilsapur in Ram-pur, Gangoh and Deobandin Saharanpur (a belt wherethe Congress leader ImranMasood has substantialclout), the reserved seatHapur, Shamli, Prayagpurin Bahraich and KidwaiNagar in Kanpur.

If snubbing the Congresson key seats was an indica-tion that Akhilesh Yadavwas not willing to give theCongress an inch, the asser-tion was underlined whenhis deputy and SamajwadiParty vice-president Kiran-moy Nanda announced thatthe Congress deserved nomore than 54 seats.

The Congress is de-

manding at least 100 seatsin the 403-member As-sembly.

The Samajwadi Party isnot even willing to concedeto the Congress its seats inthe Nehru-Gandhi pocketboroughs Amethi and RaeBareli.

“The SP will contest onall seats in Amethi (five)and four out of five in RaeBareli... They should fightwhere they can win. To de-feat BJP is SP’s number onetarget,” Mr Nanda said. .

Stunned by the turn ofevents, the Congress de-scribed the events as “un-fortunate” as it was forcedto go back to the drawingboard.

“Any agreement shouldbe honoured. We will callhim [Akhilesh] again,”Congress spokespersonAjay Maken said.

Akhilesh stakes claimto Cong. boroughs

NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of In-dia oicials told the Parlia-mentary Public AccountsCommittee here on Fridaythat the central bank wasworking on ways to reducethe cost of onlinetransactions.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel,Deputy Governor R. Gandhiand other senior oicials ofthe central bank appearedbefore the parliamentarycommittee for well over

three hours for oral evidenceon ‘Review of MonetaryPolicy’.

Sources said that Mr. Pateltold the members that de-monetisation would have apositive impact on the eco-nomy in the long run. He toldthe members that adverseimpacts on the economy andpeople were just ‘short-term’phenomena and thingswould get better, said a mem-ber of the panel.

He reportedly told mem-bers that the cash flow situ-

ation was improving fast,that people could withdrawup to ₨96,000 a month —substantially “above” what

they usually withdrew —and that they could anywaymake cheque payments forlarge amounts.

The RBI Governor faced anumber of questions, ran-ging from who took the de-cision to demonetise to howmuch of the ₨15.44-lakh crorewithdrawn from the systemhad returned to banks, some-

thing he had been asked evenby the Parliamentary Stand-ing Committee on Financeand to which he had said thatcalculations were still on.

Sources said that onemember actually producedbefore Mr. Patel what heclaimed was a fake, new cur-rency note, surprising mem-bers but evoking no reactionfrom the RBI Governor.

BJP member NishikantDubey — sources said —tried to turn the discussionaway from demonetisationby saying that the meetingwas about review of monet-ary policy.

Claiming that this was not

identical with a meet on de-monetisation, Mr. Dubeysaid demonetisation was asmall aspect of monetarypolicy.

“Many written questionswere also handed over to Mr.Patel, which he had the op-tion to reply to in writing,”said a member.

PTI reported PAC Chair-man K.V. Thomas as sayingthat the committee wouldmeet again on February 10 todiscuss issues with FinanceMinistry oicials. He addedthat the RBI Governor couldbe called again after Febru-ary 10, if required, the agencyreported.

RBI working on ways to reduce costof online transactions, he tells PAC

Cash flow situation improving fast: PatelVIKAS PATHAK

Urjit Patel

Patel said that

demonetisation will

have a positive

impact on economy

in the long run

NEW DELHI: Days after losingtwo relatives in the Kanda-har Governor’s house bombblast, former Afghan Presid-ent Hamid Karzai said the in-coming U.S. President mustkeep the promises on endingterror camps in Pakistan thatPresident Obama failed to.

Mr. Karzai confirmedclaims made by his formeraide Aimal Faizi, who wrotein The Hindu this weekabout letters PresidentObama had written to then-President Karzai in 2012,

where he had expresslypromised to “degrade safehavens” in Pakistan, particu-larly for the Haqqani groupand groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba that carried out at-tacks in Afghanistan.

“He [Mr. Obama] gavemany such promises to me,and my disappointment withhim was the reason for thediiculties in our [U.S.-Afgh-anistan] relationship,” Mr.Karzai said in an interviewon Friday.

“If they were targeting ex-tremism, not Afghans, theyknew where it was coming

from. It was coming frombeyond our borders, [fromPakistan]. That’s where they

should have gone, that’swhere President Trumpshould go. I don’t mean war, Imean political action theremust get it right, in Pakistan,”he added.

The former Afghan Pres-ident had been in India for aconference, but had alsobeen attending to his cousin,businessman Hashim Karzai,who had been flown to Indiafor treatment after he wasgrievously wounded in abomb blast on January 10 atthe Governor’s guest housein Kandahar.

Mr. Hashim Karzai suc-

blaming the Haqqani groupand Pakistan for the blast, acharge India concurred within its condemnation of theblast.

The Taliban, however,denied any involvement itthe attack. Speculation hasgrown that the UAE diplo-mats were targeted as a‘warning’ over India andUAE coming closer, withCrown Prince and deputysupreme commander Mo-hammed Bin Zayed AlNahyan expected in Indianext week as the RepublicDay Chief Guest.

cumbed to his injuries onMonday, and another relat-ive of former President Kar-zai: Afghan diplomat YamaQuraishi had died on thespot, along with five UAEdiplomats who were presentwhen a powerful blast be-lieved to have been hidden inthe furniture ripped throughtheir meeting room. Thegovernor of Kandahar andthe UAE envoy to Kabulwere also injured in theattack.

The Kandahar blast has setof a massive blame-game inthe region, with Afghanistan

Trump should go after terrorism in Pakistan: Karzai

Hamid Karzai

SUHASINIHAIDAR

SRINAGAR: In a bout of ideolo-gical wrestling, 16-year-oldactor Zaira Wasim on Fridaywas seen defending the hijab(veil) on Twitter, while tak-ing on the Union Minister forSports and Youth Afairs Vi-jay Goel, for his remarkscomparing the veil withZaira’s recent online mediastruggle.

The Twitter storm wastriggered by Mr. Goel’s tweet,which referred to a paintingdepicting two women, one inthe veil and another cagednaked and cowering. “Thispainting tells a story similar

to that of Zaira Wasim,” Mr.Goel said, tagging theDangal actor, who played therole of the younger GeetaPhogat.

Ms. Wasim, who recentlyposted an apology on Face-book after being trolled formeeting J&K’s CM Me-hbooba Mufti, retorted to Mr.Goel, “Sir, with all respect toyou, I feel I must disagree. Irequest you not to connectme to such a discourteousdepiction. Women in hijabare beautiful and free.Moreover, the story depictedthrough this painting is noteven remotely relevant tomine,” she said.

Dangal star defendshijab after Goel’s tweet PEERZADA ASHIQNEW DELHI: Prime Minister

Narendra Modi said on Fri-day that India’s culture, tra-ditions and social fabricwould never allow the nefar-ious designs of terrorists andtheir sponsors to succeedand the Indian youth hadsuccessfully resistedradicalisation.

At a meeting with a deleg-ation of Ulemas, intellectu-als and academics, whothanked him for his eforts toincrease the number of Hajpilgrims from India, Mr.Modi said there was a posit-ive image of Indian Muslimsabroad. He said several partsof the world were afected by

radicalisation, but attemptsto radicalise the Indian youthhad failed because of thelong and shared heritage ofthe people.

“It is now our collective re-

sponsibility to take this her-itage forward.” He stressedthe importance of educationand skills development thathe said were key to gainfulemployment and poverty re-

duction. “The team congrat-ulated the PM on the stepstaken for inclusive growth,socio-economic and educa-tional empowerment of allsections,” the statement said.

Bid to radicalise Indian youth failed: PMSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

PM Narendra Modi at a meeting with Muslim intellectuals and academicians in New Delhi onFriday. Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and M.J. Akbar are also seen. — PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt, on Friday agreedto the Centre’s plea to de-fer its judgment on theCentre’s January 7 noti-fication re-introducingbulls as ‘performing an-imals’, even though justlast week it had refused aplea by several lawyers topronounce the jallikattuverdict before the start ofPongal.

On January 19, the courthad refused to interveneon a plea that the policewere harassing the pro-testers, and in some cases,even denying them accessto drinking water.

The court had termed itan issue of “police excess”and asked the applicant togo to the Madras HighCourt.

Friday’s mentioningcame in the midst ofheightened demands tolift the Supreme Court’sban on jallikattu since2014.

The Court had bannedthe event , declaring it an“inherent act of cruelty”against bulls.

A review petition filedby the Tamil Nadu gov-ernment against the 2014judgment was also dis-missed by the SupremeCourt in November 2016.

Petitions challengingthe Centre’s January 7,2016 notification re-intro-ducing bulls as ‘perform-ing animals’ were re-served for judgment bythe Supreme Court.

The court had alsostayed the notification onpleas made by animalactivists.

The Tamil Nadu gov-ernment had vehementlyargued in favour of thenotification, saying that ithad introduced stringentcontrols over the conductof jallikattu.

SC bows toCentre’s plea on verdictLEGAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Ra-jnath Singh on Friday at-tacked the former UPA gov-ernment for including bullsin the list of animals prohib-ited from being exhibited ortrained as performing anim-als in 2011 and blamed the de-cision for the currentprotests over jallikattu.

“Nothing would havehappened if in 2011 somebodyhad not put the name of bullsin the list of performing an-imals. We would not havebeen sitting here. It all startedin 2011. That created thewhole problem. Those whoare asking xyz questions,they should know where theywere at diferent moments,”he said. He also said that thePrime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday had ap-preciated the sentiments andvalues of diferent culturalsports, particularly jallikattu.

Rajnathblames UPA SPECIAL CORESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Ex-ternal Afairs on Friday ad-vised the Indian communityin Oman to stop protestsagainst the ban on jallikattu inTamil Nadu. Oicial sourcessaid that protests by the siz-able Tamil community inOman prompted the Indianembassy to issue an advisoryon social media.

Not allowed“Protest is not allowed in

Oman and Indians should up-hold the rules of the Omanigovernment as they are livingthere. Therefore, we have ad-vised them to obey local rulesto avoid any unfortunate situ-ation,” an oicial said.

The advisory flashed onthe Indian Embassy’s socialmedia accounts urged the In-dian community to maintain

order in Omani capitalMuscat.

‘Adhere to Omani laws’“The government of Tamil

Nadu and the Central govern-ment are engaged in resolv-ing the issue. Demonstrationsin Oman will not serve anypurpose. Appeal Tamil com-munity not to engage indemonstration in violation ofOmani laws,” the Indian em-bassy announced on its oi-cial Twitter handle.

Jallikattu protests whichbegan soon after Pongal cel-ebrations in Tamil Nadu ledto a social media campaignamong the diaspora Tamilswho have been urging the In-dian government to allow thebull taming sport.

“Daily reports of protestsare having an impact on theTamils in Oman,” the oicialsaid.

Stop protests, MEA tells Tamils in OmanKALLOL BHATTACHERJEE

NEW DELHI: Opinions are di-vided on the Supreme Courtagreeing to stay the deliveryof its jallikattu judgment for aweek on the Centre’ssuggestion.

Some legal experts call itan “unprecedented and unof-ficial stay of the delivery ofjudgment”, while retiredjudges term it a mere “prac-ticality” in the light of talksthat an ordinance may be is-sued, taking into considera-tion the wide public opinionin favour of bringingjallikattu back.

Some point out that thenew ordinance, apparently tore-introduce jallikattu,would again be an executivemeasure to circumvent theSC ban on jallikattu, con-demned as an “inherent act ofcruelty” by a detailed judg-ment in 2014.

A plea for the review of the2014 judgment was again dis-missed by the Supreme

Court in 2016, a full two yearsafter the original verdict.

Legal experts ask whetherthe SC has stalled its judicialprocess for a week, thus giv-ing leeway for the executiveto notify an ordinance, whichwould probably defeat itsown jallikattu ban of 2014.

A judgment, probably in-validating the January 7, 2016notification of the Centre,may whip up public passions,but would also be a confirma-tion of the 2014 ban. “Courtsmust also be aware of thepracticalities of the matter. Ifthe parties involved — theCentre is a party and so isTamil Nadu — want to talkand arrive at a compromise,the court can consider thepracticality involved and de-fer the judgement for a defin-ite period. There’s nothingwrong in it. The independ-ence of the judiciary is notthreatened. The parties willhave to wait a little more,that’s all,” former Delhi HCChief Justice Rajinder Sachar

said.Justice Sachar said that if

an ordinance comes out inthe meanwhile, it would beplaced before the court for itsperusal. Former SC judge,Justice K.T. Thomas, saidpublic opinion leads to legis-lation like an ordinance, andthere is nothing wrong in thegoverning arms listening tooverwhelming publicopinion.

Making a distinction

“The government cancome to court to say that thejudgement should be de-ferred as talks are on for acompromise and a legisla-tion is in sight. But the gov-ernment cannot come tocourt saying that your judge-ment may create a law and or-der situation, so defer it forlater,” Justice Thomas

distinguished.

‘Highly improper’

Former Additional Soli-citor General and senior ad-vocate Indira Jaising said therequest made by the govern-ment to the SC to defer itsjudgement, no matter whatthe reason was, is “highlyimproper”.

“We can make an urgentmention in court to fast-trackthe delivery of the judge-ment. But you cannot go tocourt and ask it to delay thejudgment. This is unpreced-ented,” Ms. Jaising said.

Ms. Jaising further askedwhether any prior notice wasissued about the mentioningfor deferment of the judg-ment to the opposite partiesin the litigation, mostly com-prising animal rights activ-ists and organisations. “Whywere they not heard beforethe judgment was delayed?This is nothing but an unoi-cial stay of the judgment,” shesaid.

Legal experts divided on SC holding orderKRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL

IN SOLIDARITY: Delhi University Tamil Students Forum stages aprotest in support of jallikattu, in New Delhi on Friday — PHOTO:

SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

CHENNAI: Hopeful of conduct-ing jallikattu in Tamil Naduthrough promulgation of anordinance to amend the Pre-vention of Cruelty to Anim-als Act, 1960, Chief MinisterO. Panneerselvam on Fridayasserted that the bull-tamingsport will happen for sure,possibly within a day or two.

“Jallikattu will happen forsure. I’m happy to say thatjallikattu bulls will jump outof the vaadivasal (the entrypoint to the sporting arena),as hoped for by students andyouth,” he said at the airporthere on his return fromDelhi.

Appeal to call of stir

He also appealed to thepublic, students and activistsfrom various organisationsto withdraw their agitationat once. In a quick turn of

events on Friday, the ChiefMinister, who extended hisstay in the national capital,decided to go for the ordin-ance route. A draft ordin-ance to amend the Act wassent to the Centre forapproval.

He added, “Whatever bethe obstacles, Tamil Nadugovernment is determinedto remove all of themthrough legal channels.”

Meanwhile, a delegationof AIADMK MPs led byDeputy Lok Sabha SpeakerM. Thambi Durai handedover a memorandum toUnion Home Minister Ra-jnath Singh in Delhi urginghim to intervene in the mat-ter and facilitate the promul-gation of an ordinance.

Governor Ch. VidyasagarRao, who was in Mumbai onFriday, is scheduled to arrivein Chennai on Saturdayevening.

Sport will be held in a day

or two: PanneerselvamSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Engineering giantRolls-Royce engagedmiddlemen for swinging de-fence contracts in Indiabetween 2005 and 2009 viol-ating Indian laws, accordingto the judgment of a Britishhigh court. The companyalso paid bribes to an IncomeTax oicial to remove a list ofits middlemen recoveredduring a raid on its India of-fice. At least two major de-fence deals — Advanced JetTrainer Hawk aircraft for theIndian Air Force and Pegasusengines for the Navy’s SeaHarrier aircraft — involvedillegal kickbacks, accordingto the judgment.

These are among the de-tails contained in the filingsin a London court earlier thisweek where Rolls-Royceagreed to pay a fine of $809million for its corrupt prac-tices in India, China, Indone-sia, Brazil, Thailand, Russia,Nigeria and Malaysia.

The terms of the agree-ment between the SeriousFraud Oice and Rolls-Royce— called the Deferred Pro-secution Agreement (DPA)— approved by Sir BrianLeveson QC, the president ofthe Queen’s bench divisionof the high court, details theillegal payments in India tosecure lucrative defence con-tracts and to scuttleinvestigations.

There was no oicial re-sponse from the governmentuntil Friday evening.

“I turn to counts 5 (con-cerning the false accountingin India) and 6 (the conspir-acy to corrupt in relation tothe adviser list acquired bythe tax authorities). For both,it is submitted (and not chal-lenged) that the culpabilityshould be assessed at thehighest level,” the judgmentsaid.

‘Illegal from the start’

According to it, illegal pay-ments to procure Indian con-tracts “was an organised andconsidered scheme, unlaw-ful from the start, in whichRolls-Royce played a leadingrole, involving the creation ofnumerous intentionally mis-leading agreements and wascommitted over a sustainedperiod of time.”

As it progressed, “it in-creased in sophistication, be-ing designed deliberately tocontravene the Indian Gov-ernment’s defence procure-ment rules and allowingRolls-Royce to retain IndianGovernment contractswhich it knew had been ob-tained in breach of thoserules and in breach of signedcontractual declarations ofcompliance.”

The judgment said thefalse accounting was carriedon between 24 March 2005and 30 September 2009, dur-ing which the company wonthe contract to supply en-gines to the Hawk advancedjet trainers and Pegasus en-gines.

The court said despite In-dian government banningmiddlemen and Rolls-Roycesigning an integrity pact withNew Delhi, “RR [RollsRoyce] continued to use oneof its key intermediaries[“Intermediary 4”] in rela-tion to relevant defence con-tracts.” The intermediary isnot named in the oicialfilings.

The company created con-tractual documents record-ing the kickbacks as payment

for general consultancy ser-vices to the intermediary,“rather than as commissionsdue in respect of those relev-ant defence contracts”.

And this contractual docu-ments “therefore did not cor-rectly record the real reasonsfor these payments to Inter-mediary 4,” the judgmentsaid.

It pointed out that from2003 Rolls-Royce changed itscontract with the middlemanfor India by “contractingwith a variety of diferentcommonly owned interme-diary companies or individu-als; and arranging commer-cial consultancy agreementswhich purported to pay fixedfees for the provision of gen-eral consultancy servicesacross a number of territor-ies (Asia, Middle East, Rus-sia, Ukraine, Mexico andChina).”

On 26 March 2004 a li-cence agreement was signedbetween Hindustan Aero-nautics Ltd (HAL) and a jointventure (Rolls-Royce and aFrench company) givingHAL licence to manufacture,assemble and repair jointventure engines for a fee of£7.5 million.

This was a precondition toa larger contract, by whichRolls-Royce supplied Adourengines for Hawk aircraft.This contract was signed (byBAE Systems) in 2004, with avalue to Rolls-Royce of £122million.

According to the judg-ment, “In or around April2005, a senior Rolls-Royceemployee was told that fourcommercial consultancyagreements were to be usedto pay the intermediary £1million in respect of the li-cence agreement. Anothersenior employee had, by 24March 2005, already signed‘Proposed Appointment’forms authorising theagreements.”

“The nature of the assist-ance provided by the inter-mediary, the extent to whichthe maximum licence fee ini-tially considered by the In-dian government had beenincreased and the verbalagreements to pay the £1 mil-lion to the intermediary wereidentified,” the judgmentsaid.

“From July 2005 onwards,all four of the new con-sultancy agreements weresigned by Rolls-Royce,” theorder said, pointing out howpayments were made to themfor Indian deals.

“On or around 1 September2005, £1 million was paid tothe intermediary’s four com-panies. Within Rolls-Royce’saccounting system, none ofthe payments were categor-ised as ‘Adviser Remunera-tion’, or settled to a specificproject,” the judgment said.

When a contract wassigned for Pegasus engineson February 19, 2007, it wasvalued at £43 million.

“A Rolls-Royce employeesigned the Integrity Pact andthe contract containing sim-ilar terms to clause 6.5 of theIntegrity Pact,” the judgmentpointed out. The ‘BusinessEvaluation Form’ of June2006 recorded commissionas 0%, but also recorded a fig-ure of 13% under ‘Other’ salesrelated costs, it said.

For the kickbacks to bepaid for the deal, Rolls-Royceon paper established a ware-housing and distribution fa-cility in the United ArabEmirates for certain defenceproducts traded in India.

Rolls-Royce hireddefence brokers JOSY JOSEPH

CMYK

ND-ND

ELECTIONWATCHUTTAR PRADESH, UTTARAKHAND, PUNJAB, MANIPUR, GOA

| 13THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

POLLDIARY

BJP goes after Akhilesh’s stepbrother

LUCKNOW: Last week, while Akhilesh Yadav wasbattling his father Mulayam Singh for the “cycle,”the Chief Minister’s stepbrother Prateek Yadavmade heads turn when he zoomed past his officialresidence here in a cool blue Lamborghini. Thepictures of the car were widely shared on socialmedia. And now the BJP has taken note andreleased a video on Facebook targeting Mr. Prateekfor his alleged lavish lifestyle. The clip takes a digat the apparent disparity between the SP’s claimsof being a socialist party and Mr. Prateek’sexpensive car. The video starts off by showing Mr.Prateek driving in the streets of Lucknow at night,before moving on to bash hisclaims of beingapolitical. It pointsout that he ensuredan election ticketfrom the SP for hiswife Aparna Yadav. —Special Correspondent

FIR filed against BJP’s candidate in Dadri

MEERUT: The Gautam Budh Nagar police on Thursdayregistered an FIR against BJP candidate fromDadri, Tejpal Nagar, for allegedly holding apanchayat in Bishara, the communally sensitivevillage where Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched lastyear over rumours of eating beef. Mr. Nagarorganised the panchayat at the same temple fromwhere the announcement for alleged cowslaughter was made. The announcement

followed the brutal lynchingof Akhlaq. According to SubDivisional Magistrate ofDadri, Amit Kumar, the BJP

candidate did not obtainpermission from the localadministration before

holding the meeting. —Special Correspondent

Punjab clamps down on sale of liquor

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government has issueddirections to ensure strict compliance with theElection Commission’s guidelines on sale ofliquor ahead of February 4, when the State goesto the polls. An official governmentspokesperson here on Friday said that as per thepoll panel’s guidelines, prohibition on the sale ofliquor would begin on February 2 and end at 5p.m. on February 4, when polling concludes.“Similarly, the prohibition of sale of liquor in 3 kmof adjoining areas of neighbouring States willalso be ensured throughconcerned departments ofthose States. These stepsare aimed to stop anyclandestine movement ofliquor from those areas,”added the spokesperson. — Special Correspondent

POLLSTAT

TONGUE IN CHEEKSurendra

What? You are offering us 25 seats?! Let me goand celebrate with my partymen before sittingfor further rounds of hard bargaining!

PANAJI: A major complaint ofenvironmental groups andactivists in Goa in recentyears has been how, duringelections, mainstream polit-ical parties avoid the com-plex issues linked to land useand environment, and in-stead focus on development.With the addition of newerparties in the electoral fray,these issues seem to be fi-nally getting their place ofpride among pollissues.

Environmentalactivist Claude Al-vares, who for thepast many years hasbeen involved inlegal battles againstillegal mining toldThe Hindu thatpolitical parties “donot care, but we must and wedo continue pushing the is-sues of environment in everyelection.”

He pointed out the Justice(retd.) M.B. Shah report onillegal mining — which ac-cused private mining groupsand State authorities of hav-ing deprived the exchequerof around ₨35,000 crorethrough iron ore expert overthe years — helped activistsforce the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party to take up “stop-ping of mining loot and en-vironmental destruction” asa major issue in the 2012election.

After coming to power, theBJP acted upon a Supreme

Court direction based on apublic interest litigation pleaand banned mining in theState for two plus years, butno action was taken againstthose accused of illegal min-ing, the activists allege. Theyare nevertheless happy thatsuch mining is yet to pick uppace in the State and mostparties this time around arepromising to allow only“legal mining.”

The Goenchi Mati Move-ment (GMM), which has

promoted the con-servation of theState’s natural re-sources saying thatthe “minerals be-long to the people…children and futuregenerations of Goa,”has come up with amanifesto that callsfor regulation of

mining and allowing onlyminor mining leases.

Mr. Alvares, who is part ofthe GMM, says that only twopolitical parties have en-dorsed their manifesto — thefledgling Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) and the regional GoSu-Raj Party (GSRP).

“It is a significant step thattwo political parties in thefray in the February 4 elec-tion have written to theGMM accepting the GoenchiMati proposals for mining.This is a change in the waypoliticians are now seeingmineral resources,” said Mr.Alvares.

“I hope other parties andcandidates also agree not to

consume or fritter awaywhat is rightfully our chil-dren’s inheritance,” saidRahul Basu of the GMM.

The GMM is a single issuemovement which is notaligned with politicalparties. Apart from the il-legal mining, other issues

that concern environmental-ists are: degradation of thecoast, industrial projectspushed through a ambiguousmechanism called the GoaState Investment PromotionBoard skirting all land userules and regulations, the

treatment of wild animals asvermin on the pretext ofdamage to agriculture, ear-marking and preservingprivate forests.

Important poll issue

The activists are happythat the withdrawal of pro-tection for the coconut treeby a recent amendment toForest Protection Act by theBJP government has caughtthe attention of the Opposi-tion and is a poll issue.

The government justifiesthe amendment saying it wascarried out to help horticul-turists rejuvenate their oldpalm cultivations.

All the Opposition parties,

including the Goa Forward,the Congress and the AAPhave promised to undo theamendment if they came topower. They claim that theamendment provides power-ful real estate and construc-tion firms a free run overcoconut palm trees.

Mr. Alvares and SabinaMartins of the Goa BachavAbhiyan are are also pushingfor the Regional Plan on landuse, which has not been im-plemented by successivegovernments.

Other environmental is-sues such as Out Line Devel-opment plans for urban areasbeing pushed by buildershave also become poll issues.

Environment high on Goan agendaAAP’s endorsement of a manifesto by an anti-mining group has encouraged environmentalists in the coastal State

PRAKASH KAMAT

DAMNING ALLEGATIONS: The Justice M.B. Shah report in 2012 accused private mining groups andState authorities of depriving the exchequer of around ₨35,000 crore. — FILE PHOTO

INFOCUS

MEERUT: BJP workers areprotesting against HukumSingh, the party’s MP fromShamli, for attempting toproject his daughterMriganka as the party’s can-didate from Kairana.

The party did not an-nounce the name of its can-didate from Kairana when itreleased the list of 149 con-testants for the first andsecond phase of the UttarPradesh Assembly polls onMonday. Kairana goes to thepolls on February 11.

Many local BJP leaders ac-cused Mr. Singh of promot-ing dynastic politics when hetried to promote his daugh-ter during a panchayat meet-ing of local BJP leaders onThursday. Many of themthen supported AnilChauhan, who was the BJP’scandidate in the 2014 bypolls,which the party lost.

Mr. Singh, who earlierused to represent Kairana,defended his daughter’s can-didature, saying every per-son has the right to enterpolitics. Several of Mr.Chauhan’s supporters, how-ever, accused Mr. Singh ofengineering his defeat in2014. Mr. Chauhan told The

Hindu that Ms. Mrigankalives in Ghaziabad and ispolitically inexperienced.

Outcry as BJP MP lobbiesfor daughter

STAFF REPORTER

Hukum Singh

DEHRADUN: In a State with largepart of its workforce contrib-uting to the armed forces,both the Congress and theBJP have been using the OneRank One Pension (OROP)scheme to garner votes inpoll-bound Uttarakhand.

However, neither theModi government’s de-cisions on OROP nor theCongress’s inaction on theissue in the past has beenable to divert ex-service-men’s votes in favour of thetwo parties.

Addressing a rally here inDecember 2016, Prime Min-ister Modi said that of the₨10,000 crore needed for theOROP scheme, ₨6,600 crorehad already been released bythe Centre and that the re-maining would be releasedsoon.

BJP leader Maj. Gen.(retd.) B.C. Khanduri, who isthe Chairman of the Parlia-

mentary Standing Commit-tee on Defence, told The

Hindu: “Almost 90% of theissues around OROP havebeen resolved by us [theModi government]. It willdefinitely attract votes forthe BJP.”

However, Lt. Gen. (retd.)Gambhir Singh Negi, who isassociated with the Con-gress, said: “In 2014, the ex-servicemen votes largelywent for the BJP since Mr.Modi had said that he wouldcater to their demands onOROP. But, people [the ex-servicemen] have begun torealise that he [Mr. Modi]has not delivered on thepromise...In Uttarakhand,the inclination of the ex-ser-vicemen is slightly towardsthe Congress now.”

Lt. Gen. Negi said that firstthe Congress and now theBJP had been making falsepromises to ex-servicemenover OROP. “The Congressdid not set aside funds for

OROP until 2014 and now theBJP says it has fulfilled 90%of our demands. They [theBJP] must consider theOROP demands in totality,”he said.

Lt. Gen. (retd.) TejpalSingh Rawat, a former Con-gress MLA, who was associ-ated with the BJP for a briefperiod, said: “The ex-ser-

vicemen votes are divided.By not agreeing to all de-mands under the OROPscheme, which it had prom-ised, the BJP has earned theire of the ex-servicemen.”

Also, there is delay inbuilding a war memorial inthe State. Neither the Centrenor the Congress-led Stategovernment is willing to

start the work on it, Brig.(retd). K.G. Behl of the Ut-tarakhand Ex-ServicesLeague said. Both the partieshad taken the ex-servicemenvotes for granted, he added.

The Army chief factor

Another factor that islikely to afect the votingamong the two-lakh ex-ser-vicemen in Uttarakhand,along with 60,000 peoplecurrently serving in thearmed forces, is the Centre’schoice of General BipinRawat as the Chief of theArmy Staf.

General Rawat, who isfrom Uttarakhand’s PauriGarhwal region, is the firstArmy oicer from the Stateto have risen to the rank of anArmy General.

“The Army General beingfrom Uttarakhand is a matterof pride and it adds to theState’s prestige. It will defin-itely attract votes for theBJP,” Brig. Behl said.

OROP efect: Veterans split over who to vote forKAVITAUPADHYAY

UNWAVERING COMMITMENT: Veterans staging a protest outsideFinance Minister Arun Jaitley’s house over the One Rank-OnePension issue, in New Delhi last Tuesday. — PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

MYSURU: It’s oicial. TheElection Commission willnot use marker pens tomark the fingers of votersin the forthcomingAssembly elections in fiveStates.

H.A. Venkatesh, thechairman of Mysore Paintsand Varnish Limited(MPVL), the sole supplierof indelible ink forelections, told The Hindu

that the company receivedan order worth ₨7.50 crorefor supplying 4,18,300 vialsof ink to the five States. Thestaf worked overtime andhave already supplied halfof the order.

“The EC asked for inkand not pens. If it had askedfor pens, we would havesupplied them in time likeink vials,” he added.

This time, however, it

was expected that theelections would finally seethe ‘dawn’ of marker pens.MPVL had recentlyproduced prototypes andwas even ready to take up

bulk production. Theseprototypes were developedafter one year of research.The MVPL was assisted bythe National PhysicalLaboratory, the NationalResearch DevelopmentCorporation and theNational ChemicalLaboratory.

Many benefits

The marker pens, claimthe company’s authorities,have many benefits,besides being cost-efective.

“About 50% of cost willbe saved if ink was replacedby marker pens since eachpen can apply mark on1,000 voters. Moreover,

application andtransportation of pens wasalso handy,” Mr. Venkateshsaid.

Recent use of markers

Recently, they weresupplied to Kerala for civicelections and for thecouncil polls inMaharashtra.

Reckoned to be one of itskind among the PSUs in thecountry, MPVL wasfounded by Sri NalwadiKrishnaraja Wadiyar, theformer Maharaja ofMysuru, in 1937. Thecompany has beensupplying ink for LokSabha, Assembly and localbody elections since 1962.

Election Commission refuses to scrub of indelible ink Panel decides against using marker pens which, experts say, are more cost-effective

Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. has been supplying ink forLok Sabha, Assembly and civic polls since 1962. — FILE PHOTO

SHANKAR BENNUR

CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Partynational convener and DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal on Friday said PunjabChief Minister ParkashSingh Badal, anticipating hisdefeat, had asked his friendCaptain Amarinder Singh tohelp him by dividing anti-in-cumbency votes in Lambiconstituency in the State’sMuktsar district.

“Captain Amarinder’s solemotive to contest fromLambi is to help Mr. Badal,”he alleged while on the cam-paign trail for AAP candidateJarnail Singh in villages in

the constituency.Addressing the Sarawa

Bodla village, Mr. Kejriwalsaid that Deputy Chief Min-ister Sukhbir Badal will losehis deposit from Jalalabadthis time. “People must beaware of Congress-SAD’snegative propaganda.”

Mr. Kejriwal said it did notmatter who would becomethe chief minister, but itwould be his responsibilityto fulfill the promises madeby the party. Mr. Kejriwal ad-dressed rallies in villagessuch as Sarawa Bodla, BurjSidhwan, Lambi, Killianwali,Fullu Khera, where the SADis dominant

A fixed match betweenAmarinder, Badal: KejriwalSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH: A day after Punj-abis abroad reached the Stateto boost the campaign of theAam Aadmi Party for the As-sembly elections, more than400 NRIs from the UnitedKingdom and Canada are allset to canvass for the Con-gress in the next few days.

The first ‘jatha’ (group) ofNRIs is likely to be flaggedof to Punjab by Congressvice-president Rahul Gandhifrom New Delhi over theweekend.

While around 250 NRIsunder the banner of the In-dian Overseas Congress,U.K., are arriving over thenext two days, more than 150NRIs will be coming fromCanada to be part of the Con-gress’s campaign.

Taking agenda forward

Amarpreet Aulakh, pres-ident, Indian Overseas Con-gress (Canada), who hasalready reached India, saidthe NRIs would take theparty agenda forward acrossthe State. “The NRIs willvisit constituencies in ahired bus to spread the mes-sage of the Congress,” saidDaljit Singh Sahota, IndianOverseas Congress (U.K.)president. He said they hadrequested Mr. Gandhi to flagof the bus from Delhi onJanuary 23 or 24.

The Punjab Pradesh Con-gress Committee has wel-comed the support extendedby the NRIs, terming it animportant contribution tothe party’s campaign.

Congress alsoflies in its NRIteam to PunjabSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Metro train finds space in BJP manifesto

PANAJI: The BJP’s manifesto for the upcoming GoaAssembly polls will focus on a comprehensivemobility plan for the State, including Metro trainfacility, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar hassaid. “The manifesto will speak aboutcomprehensive mobility plan for the State. How

you will travel across Goa.This will include electricbuses, inter-city buses andeven Metro [train] facility,”Mr. Parrikar told reporters.He said it would be unveiledon January 25-26. If votedto power, the BJP will assureto link the social welfareand educational schemes toinflation, he said. — PTI

ILLUSTRATIONS: SREEJITH R. KUMAR

CMYK

ND-ND

WORLD14 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW YORK: Joaquin ‘El Chapo’Guzman, one of the world’smost notorious drug king-pins, is finally headed for acourt date the United Statessought for two decades whilehe made brazen prison es-capes and spent years on therun in Mexico.

Extradited on Thursday toface U.S. drug-traicking andother charges, Mexico’s mostwanted man was expected toappear in a federal court inNew York on Friday, thesame day Donald Trump wasinaugurated as President.

The Drug EnforcementAdministration flew Mr.Guzman to New York fromCiudad Juarez late on

Thursday, according to fed-eral oicials.

The U.S. has been trying toget Mr. Guzman in a U.S.court since he was first in-dicted in Southern Califor-nia in the early 1990s. Now inhis late 50s, he faces the pos-

sibility of life in a U.S. prisonunder indictments in six jur-isdictions around the UnitedStates, including New York,San Diego, Chicago andMiami.

Recaptured a year ago

Mr. Guzman, the cartel’sconvicted boss, had beenheld most recently at aprison near Ciudad Juarez, aborder town across from ElPaso, Texas. He was recap-tured a year ago after escap-ing from a maximum-secur-ity prison for a second time,an episode that was highlyembarrassing for PresidentEnrique Pena Nieto’s gov-ernment. — AP

Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman

Mexican drug kingpin toappear in U.S. courtroom DAMASCUS: The Islamic State

group has demolished moretreasured monuments inSyria’s ancient Palmyra, amonth after recapturing itfrom government forces, thecountry’s antiquities chiefsaid on Friday.

The news is a fresh blowfor the UNESCO World Her-itage site, which had alreadybeen ravaged by the jihadistgroup during the ninemonths it held the site beforebeing expelled in March lastyear.

“Local sources told us that10 days ago, Daesh destroyedthe tetrapylon,” a 16-columned structure thatmarked one end of the an-cient city’s colonnade,Maamoun Abdulkarim said,using an Arabic acronym for

the terror outfit. “Yesterday[Thursday], we receivedsatellite photographs fromour colleagues at BostonUniversity showing damageto the façade of the Romanamphitheatre,” he added.

Before being forced out ofPalmyra in a Russian-backed

ofensive in March, the ISrazed world-famous templesand tower tombs at the site.

The tetrapylon, built dur-ing the rule of the RomanEmperor Diocletian in the 3rd

Century AD, consisted offour sets of four pillars eachsupporting massive stone

cornices. The monumenthad sufered considerabledamage over the centuriesand only one of the 16 pillarswas still standing in its ori-ginal Egyptian pink granite.The rest were cement rep-licas erected by the antiquit-ies department in 1963.

Used for public executions

The Roman amphitheatredates to the 1st Century ADand was used by the IS forpublic executions during itsoccupation of the citybetween May 2015 andMarch last year.

The IS recaptured Palmyralate last year as Syria’s gov-ernment waged a fiercebattle to take back all of thenorthern city of Aleppo fromrebel forces. — AFP

IS wreaks havoc again in Syria’s Palmyra

IN RUINS: A combination of handout pictures shows satelliteimages of the damaged Roman amphitheatre (left) in Palmyraon Friday, and of the same monument in December. — PHOTO: AFP

BANJUL (GAMBIA): The leaders ofGuinea and Mauritania ar-rived in Gambia’s capital onFriday in a last-ditch diplo-matic efort to get defeatedPresident Yahya Jammeh tocede power, while a regionalmilitary force was awaitingorders to act.

The head of the regionalforce said the troops wouldforce Mr. Jammeh out if hedid not step aside. A noondeadline set by the regionalbody passed. On Thursday,Adama Barrow was inaugur-ated as the new president,and the U.N. Security Coun-cil voted to approve militaryintervention. — AP

Ultimatum to

defeated Gambian

President

ND-ND

BUSINESSSENSEX

20-01-2017 27,034

19-01-2017 27,308274points

GOLD

20-01-2017 29,630

19-01-2017 29,70070

₨/10gms

RUPEE

20-01-2017 68.18

19-01-2017 68.130.05₨/$

BRENT OIL

20-01-2017 55.47

19-01-2017 54.570.90$/bbl

Exchange RatesIndicative direct rates in rupees a unitexcept yen at 4 p.m on January 20

TT TT

Currencies Buying Selling

U.S. Dollar 67.99 68.31

Euro 72.30 72.66

Pound Sterling 83.40 83.81

Jap Yen (100 Units) 58.97 59.24

Chinese Yuan 9.89 9.94

Swiss Franc 67.41 67.73

Singapore Dollar 47.52 47.75

Australian Dollar 51.14 51.38

Canadian Dollar 50.82 51.08

Swedish Kroner 7.61 7.65

Danish Kroner 9.72 9.77

New Zealand Dollar 48.50 48.74

Hongkong Dollar 8.76 8.81

Malaysian Ringgit 15.29 15.36

Kuwaiti Dinar 221.39 223.89

UAE Dirham 18.51 18.60

Bahraini Dinar 180.30 181.24

Qatari Riyal 18.72 18.73

Saudi Riyal 18.18 18.19

Omani Riyal 176.60 177.52

Source:Indian Bank

BullionRatesJanuary 20 rates in rupees with previousrates in brackets

Delhi

Silver 41,600 (41,550)

Standard Gold 29,630 (29,700)

Sovereign 24,300 (24,300)

MUMBAI: Fairfax FinancialHoldings is in early talks tosell 25% of India's largestprivate general insurer ICICILombard in a deal that couldfetch up to $1 billion, as theCanadian firm looks to cashout and start a new insurancejoint venture, sources familiarwith the matter said.

ICICI Lombard is a jointventure formed in 2001between ICICI Bank, India'ssecond largest bank, and Fair-fax, which is led by Canadianbillionaire Prem Watsa.

Fairfax, which owns a 35%stake in the venture, has seenthe value of its investmentsurge over the past five years,as India’s general insurancemarket and ICICI Lombardhave grown at a compoundedannual rate of over 16%.Vehicle ownership in thecountry has surged and themarket remainsunder-penetrated.

Reducing its stake to 10%will allow the Canadian firmto start a new general insur-ance joint venture in India,which it aims to do, one of thesources said, adding foreigninvestors cannot own morethan 10% of two insurancecompanies, as per Indianregulations.

Private equity firms, in-cluding Blackstone Groupand KKR & Co, as well assome Canadian pensionfunds have expressed interestin Fairfax's stake, the sourcessaid.

Deal details

ICICI may also look to sell a10% stake in the unit at thesame time, one source said.

Buyers are likely to pay alarger premium for a stake inICICI Lombard if they areable to get as much as a third

of the company, the sourcessaid.

Two sources said a deal islikely to be finalized in thenext two months.

Fairfax may redeploy someof the proceeds to fund its$4.9 billion takeover of Swissinsurer Allied World, a sourcesaid.

ICICI, Fairfax, Blackstoneand KKR did not respond to

requests for comment.The sources, who declined

to be named as they are notauthorised to publicly discussthe matter, said discussionsare in the early stages and itwas not yet clear what any fi-nal deal would look like.

Fairfax has not yet chosen abank to run a sale process,they said.

ICICI Lombard, with an8.8% market share, is a majorplayer in the vehicle, home,health and travel insurancespace with gross writtenpremiums of $1.2 billion infiscal 2016.

Fifteen months ago, ICICILombard was worth $2.5 bil-lion, based on the value of astake ICICI sold to Fairfax atthe time.

Now, two of the sourcespegged its value at about $4billion, while a third saidICICI Lombard is worthabout $3.2 billion.

The range puts the value ofa 25% interest in the insurer atbetween $800 million and $1billion.

New venture

Fairfax has already submit-ted an initial proposal to In-dia’s insurance industry regu-

lator, IRDAI, for a newgeneral insurance joint ven-ture and met with the regu-lator this week, three sourcessaid.

The Canadian firm wouldbe more inclined to proceedwith the ICICI Lombard par-tial stake sale if it gets a nodfrom IRDAI to move forwardon the venture, the sourcessaid. Fairfax plans to keep a45% stake in the new venture,which will initially focus onthe travel insurance market,one of the sources said.

Kamesh Goyal, a formersenior executive at Allianz,would spearhead the newventure and own a 15% stakein it with other investors buy-ing up the rest, the sourcesaid.The overall initial invest-ment in the venture is likely tobe $50 million, the sourcesaid.Indian regulations allowforeign investors to own up to49% in Indian insurance com-panies. — Reuters

A deal to sell theICICI Lombardstake can fetch up to $1 billion

Fairfax to sell 25% in ICICI arm

BILLIONAIRE’S DREAMS: Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. owns 35% stake in the venturewhose valuation surged over the past five years. — FILE PHOTO:REUTERS

Fairfax may redeploysome of the proceedsto fund its $4.9 bn.takeover of Swissinsurer Allied World

NEW DELHI: The Steel Ministryhas proposed setting upgreenfield steel plants alongIndia’s coastline to tap cheapimported raw materials suchas coking coal and export theoutput in a more cost-efect-ive manner, as part of thenew draft National SteelPolicy of 2017.

The policy, which envis-ages to more than double In-dia’s domestic steel produc-tion capacity to 300 milliontonnes by 2030-31, anticip-ates a requirement of ₨10lakh crore of fresh invest-ments to meet that goal andexpects at least 11 lakh newjobs being created in the pro-cess.

The steel sector presentlyemploys about 25 lakhpeople and has a capacity oflittle over 120 million tonnes.

However, some elementsof the policy, on which com-ments have been sought tillJanuary 23, are still work inprogress, such as its visionstatement, for instance.

The draft policy lays out

two alternatives of its vision— “to create a globally com-petitive steel industry thatpromotes inter-sectoralgrowth” or “to create a self-suicient steel industry thatis technologically advanced,globally competitive andpromotes inclusive growth.”

While it focuses on imped-iments like high input costs,availability of raw materials,import dependency and fin-ancial stress plaguing thesector, projections made un-der the policy for a couple offactors are all still under dis-cussion, such as the demandand production of sponge

iron. To cut down reliance on

expensive imports of cokingcoal, the policy has mootedgas-based steel plants andtechnologies such as electricfurnaces to bring down theuse of coking coal in blastfurnaces.

PSU units

Public sector firms in thesteel sector should aim foreconomies of scale and willbe encouraged to divest theirnon-core assets throughmergers and restructuring,according to the policy.

“Establishment of steelplants along the coast underthe aegis of Sagarmala pro-ject will be undertaken.

Such plants would bebased on the idea of import-ing scarce raw materials andexporting steel products,”the policy stated, adding thata cluster-based approachwill be pursued, especiallyfor micro, small and mediumenterprises to ensure op-timum land use, easy availab-ility of raw materials andeconomies of scale.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Draft steel policy to enable₨10 lakh crore investments

KOLKATA: President PranabMukherjee made a strongpitch for West Bengal as an at-tractive investment destina-tion, and said that the statenow had an appropriate in-vestment climate.

“Bengal has truly emergedas an investment-destination,”he said at the inauguration ofthe Bengal Global BusinessSummit 2017.

“The required industrial in-frastructure is now in placeand since 2011, Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has held twosuccessful business summits.”

Inflation under control

Mr. Mukherjee, who was theMinister of Finance from 2009to 2012, said that the macro-economic parameters of thecountry were strong and infla-tion was well under control.However there was a need for“stable, lower and acceptable”interest rates which he feltwould further attractinvestments.

The country’s current ac-count deficit has shaped up be-cause of “prudent” fiscal man-agement and the economy hasbeen growing in the past dec-ade despite the 2008 globalfinancial crisis, the Presidentsaid.

India’s economy has shownresilience in the past 10 years,he said adding that the eco-nomy had grown consistently.

Although the traditionalmarkets (North America andEurope) had shrunk new ex-port markets have opened upamong the ‘Asian Tigers’ and“we have been able to manageour external sector,” he said.

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee said that the state’sstrategic location made it anideal investment destinationfor tapping the markets inNorth East India and SouthEast Asia.

Industrialist Sanjiv Goenka,Kishore Biyani, Rakesh BhartiMittal and Pankaj Munjal ofHero Motors promised to in-vest more than ₨15,000 croreby 2020 in the state.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Bengal an investmentdestination, says Pranab

NEW DELHI: In keeping with itsongoing eforts to streamlinethe disinvestment process,the government transferredthe role of advising the gov-ernment on how to utilisethe proceeds from disinvest-ment from the Departmentof Investment and Public As-set Management (DIPAM) tothe Department of EconomicAfairs.

This comes days after theUnion Cabinet approved analternative mechanism todecide the modalities to dowith stake sales in publicsector undertakings (PSUs),so as to speed up the process.

According to a notifica-tion issued by the CabinetSecretariat changing the Al-location of Business rules,the Department of EconomicAfairs in the Finance Min-istry will now be in charge of“financial policy in regard tothe utilisation of the pro-ceeds of disinvestment chan-

nelised into the National In-vestment Fund.”

“This is not an unusual de-cision, since it keeps the rolewithin the same Ministry,” aformer Finance Secretarytold The Hindu on conditionof anonymity.

“It would have been un-usual if the role had beenshifted to another Ministryaltogether. But as it is, itseems to be streamlining theprocess because the Depart-ment of Economic Afairs isin charge of budget-making,which includes deciding

what to do with the proceedsfrom disinvestment.”

During his Budget speech2016-17, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley had announcedrenaming the previouslyknown Department of In-vestment as DIPAM.

The Centre had created aNational Investment Fund in2005 in which the proceedsfrom the disinvestment ofCentral Public Sector Enter-prises (CPSEs) were to bechannelised.

“The Cabinet Committeeon Economic Afairs, chairedby the Prime Minister ShriNarendra Modi has given itsapproval to AlternativeMechanism, who would de-cide on the quantum of disin-vestment in a particularCentral Public Sector Un-dertaking (CPSE) on a case-by-case basis subject to Gov-ernment retaining 51 percentequity and management con-trol,” according to a state-ment issued after the de-cision was taken.

Centre shifts disinvestmentadvice to new departmentSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Mahindra &Mahindra Ltd announced theacquisition of a 75% stake inHisarlar Makina Sanayi veTicaret Anonim Sirketi (His-arlar), a tractor manufactur-ing company in Turkey for$19 million.

As per the transaction,which is expected to close byApril 2017, Mahindra will ac-quire a 75.1% equity stake inHisarlar. The associationwill help in growing the farmequipment business in Tur-key and Europe.

The funds from M&M willbe invested as fresh equityinfusion into the companyand the Indian company willhave majority in the boardincluding management con-trol. The balance sharehold-ing will be with EuropeanBank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (EBRD),18.7%; and the foundingTurker family, 6.2%. Further,as part of the transaction,Darby Converging Europe

Fund III will exit.Dr. Pawan Goenka, Man-

aging Director, Mahindra &Mahindra Ltd. said:“Mahindra is the world’s No 1tractor company by volume,with an on ground presencein India, U.S., China and Ja-pan, besides many other ex-port markets. Our strategygoing forward is to globaliseaggressively and also expandour portfolio to include vari-ous new categories of farmmachinery. This acquisitionis an important milestone inour globalisation journey.”

Rajesh Jejurikar, Presidentand Chief Executive, FarmEquipment & Two Wheeler,M&M in a statement said,“Hisarlar is a market leaderwith 45% market share in soilpreparation equipment inTurkey. The acquisition ofHisarlar will enableMahindra to expand its foot-print in Turkey and Europe,making this entity a globalmanufacturing base for vari-ous farm implements andtractor cabins.”

Mahindra buys Turkishfarm equipment firmSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The government hasasked Aircel to help its 2G mo-bile customers port their num-bers to other telephone operat-ors in case the Supreme Courtwas to pass an adverse order.

The Supreme Court hadearlier this month stated that itwould cancel the company’sspectrum licence if executivesfrom Malaysia’s Maxis Berhad,which owns 74% of Aircel’sequity, do not appear in a lowercourt in the case against formertelecom minister DayanidhiMaran.

The court’s directive appliesonly for 2G administered spec-trum in 14 circles as 3G and otherradiowaves that the companybrought through an auction arenot to be impacted.

The Department of Telecom-munications (DoT) on January18 wrote to Aircel saying theavailable facility of MobileNumber Portability (MNP) canbe exercised by the telecomfirm’s subscribers provisionally.— PTI

‘Aircel should port2G customers if SC order is adverse’

PALO ALTO: With monetarypolicy still modestly accom-modative, the U.S. centralbank should continue toraise interest rates slowly orrisk harm to the recovery theFed has sought to nurture,Federal Reserve Chair JanetYellen said.

“I think that allowing theeconomy to run markedlyand persistently ‘hot’ wouldbe risky and unwise,” Ms.Yellen said at the StanfordInstitute for EconomicPolicy Research.

While there are no signs asyet that the Fed is behind thecurve or the economy is indanger of a sudden surge ininflation, she said, “I con-sider it prudent to adjust thestance of monetary policygradually over time.”

The downward pressurethat the Fed’s $4.5 trillionbalance sheet has been exert-ing on rates for the last sev-eral years is declining, shesaid, making it all the moreimportant to raise rates onlygradually.

The Fed last month raised

its short-term interest-ratetarget for only the secondtime in a decade, butsignaled it would likelyspeed up the pace of ratehikes this year. Rates are cur-rently targeted at between0.5% and 0.75%.

Unemployment, inflation

With unemployment, at4.7%, near what many eco-nomists including Ms. Yellensee as its long-run sustain-able level, and inflation clos-ing in on the Fed’s 2% goal,

most Fed oicials expect tolift rates three times over thecourse of the next 12 months.

Some left-leaning eco-nomists and activists haveurged the Fed to keep rateslow to provide more oppor-tunities for the jobless and topush up on wages, whosegrowth has been tepid.

Meanwhile RepublicanDonald Trump, who is set tobecome the next U.S. Presid-ent on Friday, has promised aset of economic policies in-cluding tax and regulatoryreform aimed at boostingeconomic growth.

Ms. Yellen for the secondtime in two days warned thata delay in tightening monet-ary policy could drive up in-flation and force the Fed tojack up rates in response,sending the economy into atailspin that might have beenavoided if the rate hikes hadbeen more gradual.

‘Not be easy’

It “will not be easy” to finda path of rate hikes that canfoster strong jobs growth

and 2% inflation, given theuncertainties of globalgrowth, slow domestic pro-ductivity growth, and achange in fiscal policies,among others.

The path of rate hikescould difer from current ex-pectations depending onhow those uncertainties un-fold, she said.

Range of rules

The Fed consults a rangeof policy rules, including onedeveloped by Stanford Pro-fessor John Taylor, to guideits decisions on rates, Ms.Yellen said.

But those rules cannot bemechanically implementedbecause they do not take intoaccount the lack of flexibilitythe Fed has in dealing withshocks when rates are low,nor many other importantfactors, she said.

The threat of an auditshould the Fed deviate fromit would subject the centralbank to short-term politicalpressures, Ms. Yellen reiter-ated. — Reuters

Janet Yellen

‘U.S. should continue to raise rates’

NEW DELHI: The RailwayBudget’s merger with theUnion Budget will lead to anincreased outlay for the rail-way sector giving significantopportunities for construc-tion sector, rating agencyICRA said on Friday.

“The merger of the Rail-way budget with the centralbudget will provide an addi-tional leeway for an in-creased outlay,” said K.Ravichandran, Senior Vice-President and Group-Head,Corporate Ratings at ICRA.“While a major part of theoutlay is expected to be to-wards the ongoing projects,sizeable newer projects arealso expected to be awarded,providing construction op-portunities, particularly forlarge players.”

Indian Railways plans tospend ₨8.56 lakh crore overfive years for infrastructurecreation.

‘Higher outlay forrailways can spurconstruction’SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India’s biggest autocomponents manufacturerMotherson Sumi System Ltd.has ofered to buy Finnishtruck wire harness makerPKC Group for 571 millioneuros (₨4,146 crore) to ex-pand global presence.

Motherson has ofered23.55 euros per PKC share,representing 51% premiumto the closing price onThursday, in a public tender.The acquisition is expectedto be completed by the end ofMarch, Motherson said in astatement.

PKC in a separate state-ment said its board is back-

ing the ofer. “Combining thecompanies will create a lead-ing supplier of wiring sys-tems and components for theworldwide transportationindustry.”

Market access

While Motherson willgain access to PKC’s pres-ence in the U.S. andEuropean commercialvehicle markets, the mergerwill help the Finnish com-pany expand in the Asia Pa-cific region.

At a meeting of its board ofdirectors on January 19,Motherson had approved a

proposal to begin a volun-tary, recommended publictender ofer for the acquisi-tion of the outstanding sharecapital and voting rights ofPKC Group Plc, Finland.

“PKC shareholders are be-ing ofered a cash considera-tion of euro 23.55 for eachshare/options in PKC repres-enting an aggregate equitypurchase price of approxim-ately euro 571 million in anopen tender ofer,” the In-dian company said in thestatement.

Shares of PKC are now lis-ted on the Nasdaq Helsinkistock exchange. — PTI

Motherson to buy PKC for €571 mn.

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| 15THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

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16 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

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BUSINESS

SNIPPETS

MUMBAI: Indiabulls Housing Finance reported 24.7% growth in its net

profit to ₨751 crore for the quarter ended December 31, aided by 30%

growth in net interest income. The company’s net interest income for

the quarter was ₨1,261 crore as compared to ₨971 crore reported during

the same period of the previous year. Bad loans remained stable with

gross non-performing assets ratio at 0.85% as compared to 0.83%, a

year earlier. As on December 31, the balance sheet size of the home

financier was ₨1.02 lakh crore. — Special Correspondent

Indiabulls Housing Q3 net profit climbs 24.7%

CHENNAI: Aspire Home Finance Corp. Ltd., (AHFCL) opened 32 branches

in six States to disburse low-cost housing finance to lower and middle-

income groups, an official said. A subsidiary of Motilal Oswal Securities

Ltd., AHFCL offers home loans, plot loans, composite loans, home

improvement loans, home extension loans and Mahila Awas loans for

periods ranging from 5 to 20 years. “Over 95% housing shortage in India

is due to demand-supply mismatch in low-cost and affordable housing,”

said Anil Sachidanand, AHFCL Managing Director and CEO. “It is here we

come in to aggressively meet the housing finance needs of lower and

middle income groups. Our interest rates will be slightly higher than

nationalised banks, but lower than private firms.” Categorised as a

Primary Lending Institution under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana,

AHFCL over the last 32 months has serviced more than 36,000 families

spread across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Telangana. A

decision on entering Kerala will be taken next fiscal.— N. Anand

Aspire to offer loans to home buyers in 6 States

MUMBAI: Reliance Mutual Fund CPSE ETF has received a positive

response from investors with bids totalling about ₨12,000 crore from

over two lakh investors across 300 cities in India. The fund has already

received bids worth ₨6,000 crore from anchor investors including

Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Kotak MF, SBI and LIC among others. The

non-anchor portion was largely subscribed by retail investors and

pension funds, both domestic and foreign. While retail investors will get

first preference during allocation, investors across all categories will get

an upfront discount of 5%. — Special Correspondent

Reliance MF CPSE ETF gets bids worth ₨12,000 cr.

MUMBAI: BSE has allotted a total of 46.28 lakh equity shares at ₨806 per

share totalling ₨373 crore to a host of domestic and foreign institutional

investors as part of the anchor allocation. Some of the notable entities

who are part of the anchor allocation are Massachussets Institute of

Technology, Capital World, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, The

Washington University, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, Kuwait

Investment Authority Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, DSP Blackrock

Alternative Investment Fund and Kotak Mutual Fund, among others.

— Special Correspondent

BSE IPO anchor portion raises ₨373 crore

NEW DELHI: Multiplex chain op-erator PVR unveiled itstheatre-on-demand service‘Vkaao’ and plans to add 100screens by the end of nextfiscal across the country.

“We plan to add 30 morescreens by end of this finan-cial year and another 70-80screens in the next fiscal.Half of these new screenswill come in the existing cit-ies where we operate andhalf will be in new cities,”PVR joint managing directorSanjeev Kumar Bijli told PTI.

PVR operates 562 screensin 122 properties in 48 citiesin India. “Vkaao is an onlineplatform that enables con-

sumers to watch any movieof their choice at a theatre oftheir choice. Vkaao is verydisruptive and gives controlto customers to choose whatthey want to watch, whenand where,” PVR PicturesCEO Kamal Gianchandanisaid.

500 titles

Mr. Gianchandani saidthat Vkaao, a part of PVRPictures, will initially beginservice with 500 film titlesacross diferent languagesand genres.

Minimum requirement fora show to be confirmedwould be 50 seats.

“We are looking at takingVkaao oferings to 1,000titles in 3 months and look-ing at increasing it to 2,500film titles by end of this cal-ender year,” he added.

Recently, private equityplayer Warburg Pincus ac-quired about 14% stake inPVR for about ₨820 crore.

Warburg Pincus acquired9% stake ailiates of privateequity firm Multiples and 5%from promoters of PVR.

Asked if the company hasfresh plans for fund raising tosupport its expansion plans,Mr. Bijli said: “No, we willfund expansion from in-ternal accruals.” — PTI

PVR Pictures introducestheatre-on-demand service

BEIJING: China’s economy grewa faster-than-expected 6.8%in the fourth quarter, boostedby higher government spend-ing and record bank lending,giving it a tailwind headinginto what is expected to be aturbulent year.

But Beijing’s decision toprioritize its oicial growthtarget could exact a highprice, as policymakersgrapple with financial riskscreated by an explosivegrowth in debt.

Rising debt-to-GDP ratio

China’s debt-to-GDP ratiorose to 277% at the end of2016 from 254% the previousyear, with an increasing shareof new credit being used topay debt servicing costs, UBSanalysts said in a note. Thefourth quarter was the firsttime in two years that theworld’s second-largest eco-nomy has shown an uptick ineconomic growth, but thisyear it faces further pressureto cool its housing market,the impact of government ef-forts at structural reforms,and a potentially testy rela-tionship with a new U.S.administration.

“We do not expect this [Q4GDP] rebound to extend farinto 2017, when a slowdown inthe property market andsteps to address supply short-ages in the commodity sectorought to drag again on de-mand and output,” said TomRaferty, regional China man-ager for the Economist Intel-ligence Unit.

The economy expanded6.7% in 2016, the National

Bureau of Statistics said onFriday, near the middle of thegovernment’s 6.5-7% growthtarget but still the slowestpace in 26 years.

Economists polled by Reu-ters had expected 6.7%growth for both the fourthquarter and the full year.

Housing helped prop upgrowth again in the fourthquarter, with property invest-ment rising a surprisinglystrong 11.1% in Decemberfrom 5.7% in November, evenas house prices showed signsof cooling in some major cit-ies.

Consumer spending wasalso strong, with retail salesin December rising at theirfastest pace in a year on

stronger sales of cars andcosmetics.

Fixed asset investmentgrew 8.1%, the slowest pacesince 1999, as investment byprivate firms slowed again inDecember on a monthlybasis. Private sector fixed as-set investment fell to 4.07%from 4.93% in November, ac-cording to Reuters calcula-tions based on statistics bur-eau data.

Consumption contributedthe bulk of growth last year,but income growth didn’tpick up, and a measure of Chi-na’s income inequality roseslightly last year, the statisticsbureau said. Amid signs ofstabilization, policy sourcestold Reuters that China’s

leaders will lower their eco-nomic growth target toaround 6.5% this year, givingthem more room to push re-forms to contain debt risks.

They will not want to letgrowth fall too sharply, how-ever, ahead of a key partymeeting in the autumn whena new generation of leaderswill be picked.

“Economic stability is al-ways important but will be aneven higher priority ahead ofthe 19th Party Congress,” saidTim Condon, Singapore-based economist at ING.

In a sign of the tasks ahead,the People’s Bank of Chinaunexpectedly cut the amountbanks must keep in reserveon Friday, a measure aimed ateasing tight liquidity ahead ofthe upcoming Lunar NewYear holiday.

“Today’s move seems tosuggest that liquidity condi-tions are tighter than author-ities’ expectations, as capitaloutflows remain strong,” saidZhou Hou, senior emergingmarkets economist at Com-merzbank in Singapore. Cap-ital outflows have been put-ting strong downwardpressure on the yuan, whichlost nearly 7 % last year, mak-ing it the worst performingmajor Asian currency.

Risks increase

Rapid monetary expansionand expectations of slowereconomic growth at home,along with a rising U.S. dollar,also hit the yuan.

“The key risk to theChinese economy in 2017 and2018 is the possibility that

faster-than-expected U.S. in-terest rate increases could in-tensify Chinese capital out-flows and increase stresseson China’s financial system,”said Bill Adams, senior eco-nomist at U.S.-based PNCFinancial Services Group.

China’s sluggish exportscould also come under freshpressure if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump followsthrough on pledges to imposetough protectionistmeasures.

‘The biggest unknown’

“Relations with a Trumpadministration is the biggestknown unknown. Trump ad-visers and cabinet-nomineeshave identified the U.S.-China relationship as in needof adjustment to support thepresident-elect’s objective ofa manufacturing renais-sance,” said Condon. China’scentral bank could slightlytighten credit conditions thisyear to encourage debt-ladencompanies to deleverage, butit’s unlikely to rush to raise in-terest rates despite an expec-ted pick-up in inflation,policy insiders said.

“Looking at the economicforces out there both globallyand domestically, I think thatChina will face a few head-winds. Externally, mainlyfrom a change in the climatein the U.S. with regards toChina’s exports...(and)within China I think we willsee a bit of impact from theslowdown in property invest-ment,” said Louis Kuijs, headof Asia Economics at OxfordEconomics. — Reuters

Economy expands 6.8% in Q4, but risks loom from mounting debt as bank loans climb to a record

China’s GDP growth beats expectations

REALTY BOOM: Property investment rose 11.1% in December from5.7% in November, girding growth. — PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW DELHI: The governmentannounced that cooperativebanks will not be authorisedto accept deposits under thePradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Deposit Scheme.

“Application for the de-posit in the form of BondsLedger Account shall be re-ceived by any banking com-pany, other than co-operat-ive Banks, to which theBanking Regulation Act, 1949(10 of 1949) applies,” the oi-cial notification states.

This follows reports of ir-regularities in book-keepingat cooperative banks.

Cooperative banks

cannot accept

PMGKY depositsSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Digital imaging solu-tions provider Canon is tar-geting an annual growth of10% to achieve ₨3,500 crorerevenue in the Indian marketin the next three years as itlooks to expand its footprintbeyond the metros.

The company’s revenuesstood at ₨2,348.6 crore in 2016,a growth of 9% from the previ-ous year, Canon India Presid-ent & CEO Kazutada Kobay-ashi said. “2016 marks yetanother successful year forour journey in India, as we re-gister a growth of 9%, with ourrevenue aggregating to

₨2,348.6 crore. For 2017, theaim is to increase revenues toabout ₨2,500 crore,” he said.

Mr. Kobayashi added thatthe company will focus on ex-panding retail footprint, par-ticularly in tier II and tier III

cities. “By 2020, we envisionto reach revenues of ₨3,500crore. We need to grow atleastat 10% every year to achievethis growth,” he said. Canon,which is celebrating 20 yearsof operations in India, will beopening 200 more retail out-lets under franchisee model inthe next three years, of which90% will be in smaller towns.

Noriko Gunji, President &CEO, Canon Singapore (re-gional headquarters of Southand Southeast Asia) said: “In-dia is a key market in Canon’sglobal development. I’m con-fident that India, as a market,will be a vital contributor tothis future success.”

Canon eyes ₨3,500 crore revenue from India by 2020SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Kazutada Kobayashi

CMYK

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SPORT | 17THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

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�

A win is a win

It doesn’t matter the way you’re playing, especially the beginning of a Grand Slam. Thegoal is to win those matches. I don’t really care if I play really well, well, or okay. Iwant to go as far as possible. That’s what matters at the end of the day.— Stan Wawrinka refusing to fuss over the nature of his win on Friday.

Telecast schedule

Irani Cup: STAR Sports 4 & HD 4, 9.30 a.m; Australian Open: Sony Six & Sony Six HD, 1. 30 p.m. & 5.30 a.m. (Sunday); HIL:STAR Sports 2, 3 & HD 2, 3, 7 p.m.; I- League: TEN 2, 4.30 p.m. & 7 p.m.; EPL: SS Select HD 1 & 2, 6.50 p.m., 8.20 p.m. & 10.50p.m.; La Liga: Sony Six & Sony Six HD, 8. 30 p.m., 11 p.m. & 1.30 a.m. (Sunday); Serie A: Sony ESPN & Sony ESPN HD, 10.30p.m. & 1.30 a.m. (Sunday); Bundesliga: SS Select HD 2, 10.45 p.m.; NBA: Sony ESPN & Sony ESPN HD, 4.30 a.m. (Sunday).

KOLKATA: England opening batsmanAlex Hales has been ruled out of the re-mainder of Indian tour, according to arelease from the visitor’s camp.

The right-handed batsman wasruled out after scans revealed that hehad fractured his right hand during thesecond one-dayer against India in Cut-tack on Thursday. Hales sustained theinjury attempting a catch in the out-field and jarred his hand on the groundin the process.

England will announce Hales’s re-placement in the T20 squad, for thethree-match series starting on Janu-ary 26, in due course. — SpecialCorrespondent

Fined for slow over-rate

PTI reports

Meanwhile, England’s players wereon Friday fined 10% of their match feeswhile captain Eoin Morgan wasdocked 20% of his earnings for slowover-rate in the second ODI.

Match referee Andy Pycroft im-posed the fine after Morgan’s side wasruled to be one over short of its targetwhen time allowances were taken intoconsideration. Morgan pleaded guiltyto the offence and accepted the pro-posed sanction, so there was no needfor a formal hearing.

Hales ruled outwith fracturedhand

CUTTACK: M.S. Dhoni may feelthat the two-captain policydoes not work in India, but theteam seems to be benefitingfrom two leaders in limited-over cricket.

Even as Virat Kohli led theIndian side to a 15-run winover England in the secondOne-Day International at theBarabati Stadium here onThursday, Dhoni, who quitcaptaincy just before theseries, played the role of a vir-tual skipper.

When Dhoni went out to batin the fifth over, he was re-quired to shoulder the re-sponsibility of reviving the In-dian innings from trouble at 25for three.

He forged a record-break-ing fourth-wicket stand of 256runs with Yuvraj Singh to helpthe host put up a massive 381for six.

In football, a prolific scorerwith the capability to assistfellow forwards remains themost sought after player. Incricket, a batsman who excels

on his own and lets his partnerbloom commands respect.

Dhoni’s level-headed ap-proach and the skills to handlecritical situations again cameto the fore when he rotated thestrike and let the explosiveYuvraj express himself freely.

That’s the way Dhoni hasbeen guiding others, allowingthem to flourish and shine.

Dhoni prompting Yuvraj togo for a referral after thesouthpaw was adjudgedcaught behind was anotherexample of his cricketingawareness and commitmenttowards his fellow batsman.

When he got out in his at-tempt to score some quickruns after staying in themiddle for about 43 overs andscoring a magnificent hun-dred, he was unhappy.

He wanted to be there tillthe end to maximise the total.

While India was on thefield, it was pleasing to seeDhoni complementing Kohliin decision-making.

It was a happy situation forKohli, for whom Dhoni wouldalways be captain. With two

brains working in tandem, itwas a boon for India.

Inputs in crunch situations

With Dhoni efecting cru-cial field changes, sharing hisinputs in crunch situationsand ’keeping with one glovewhen England breathed downIndia’s neck in the closingstages, one wonderedwhether the two-time WorldCup champion captain hadreally relinquished his post.

But that’s what Dhoni inten-ded when he decided to stepdown from the most sought-after job.

The 35-year-old wantedKohli to ease into the captain’srole and mature as a leader infront of his experienced eyes.

In modern-day Indiancricket, Sourav Ganguly hadrewritten the fundamentals ofleadership instilling courageand confidence in his boys.

Dhoni has elevated it to adiferent level, grooming andseasoning his brigade to set upa new world order.

Brains in tandemCRICKET / Dhoni has complemented Kohli expertly

COOL HEAD: M.S. Dhoni’s ability to handle critical situationscame to the fore when he let Yuvraj Singh express himselffreely in the second ODI against England. — PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

Y.B. SARANGI

NEW DELHI: Attorney GeneralMukul Rohatgi, who appearedfor the first time in the BCCI-Lodha Committee spat, askedthe Supreme Court on Friday,“Why can’t the Railway Minis-ter become an oice-bearer?”

He was representing IndianRailways, the Armed Forcesand the Association of IndianUniversities before a Bench ledby Justice Dipak Misra.

“We are not shying awayfrom the legal issues. They areinteresting. We will have a de-bate,” Justice Misra said.

The efort to wind the clockback on the litigation cameeven as amicus curiae andsenior advocate Gopal Sub-ramanium and senior advocateAnil Divan gave a list of nine‘suitable persons’ who can beappointed to the Committee ofAdministrators to run the BCCIon a daily basis.

Justice Misra indicated thatthe committee should be smal-ler. The court said it would con-sult the list and get back onJanuary 24, the next date of thehearing.

“On February 2 and 3, ICC isgoing to meet. BCCI contrib-utes 70 percent of ICC revenue.There will be negotiationsworth ₨8000 crore annually...Now who is going to negotiatefor BCCI? Some people havebeen disqualified for ‘cooling-of periods’, some have beenthrown out for being 70 yearsold...” senior advocate KapilSibal, counsel for several Stateassociations, submitted.

Mr. Subramanium counteredthat the State associations hadbeen given ample opportunit-ies to air their grievances.

The Supreme Court hadalready dismissed the reviewpetitions and curative petitionsof the BCCI. It has now to com-ply with the SC directions.

“My friend [pointing to Mr.Sibal] had previously on three

occasions given this court hisassurance that he would imple-ment the orders of the SupremeCourt. Why had he changed hisversion now?” Mr. Sub-ramanium asked.

“I had only said I would tryand persuade the members toaccept the Lodha reforms. You[Mr. Subramanium] know theEnglish language better thanme,” Mr. Sibal retorted.

Asking the senior lawyers tohold their peace, Justice Misrasaid the names for the commit-tee would be thoroughly dis-cussed, and only then appoint-ments made.

“This committee is clearly adhoc. Eventually an election hasto be held in the BCCI,” JusticeMisra remarked.

“There is no reference to anyelection in the orders. Anyway,what election will that be whenthe members of the electoralcollege have been changed?”Mr. Sibal asked the court.

KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL

CHENNAI: Australian pace le-gend Glenn McGrath felt thepitches were too batsmen-friendly these days. “This isone of the main reasons teamsstruggle abroad. They areplaying on similar wickets,” hesaid.

McGrath, Director ofCoaching, MRF Pace Founda-tion, was in conversation withN. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi &Sons Limited. The event wasorganised by the Chennai In-ternational Centre at theMadras School of Economicscampus here on Friday.

The former pace ace facedsome incisive questions fromRam capably and there was ap-plause for the engaging ses-sion from an appreciativeaudience at the end of it all.

Assessing the surfaces inAustralia, McGrath said, “Inmy days, the tracks in Mel-bourne, Sydney, Perth, Bris-bane and Adelaide — theywere all diferent. There waspace and bounce at Perth andBrisbane, while the spinnerswould come into play more atMelbourne and Sydney. Now,all that has changed. All thesurfaces favour the batsmen,are similar in nature.”

McGrath said drop-inpitches did not help matters

either. “A normal wicket de-teriorates gradually and wecan see cracks develop on thefourth or fifth day. But withdrop-in pitches, the surface onthe final day behaves like [itdoes] on day two or three.”

The Aussie paceman be-lieved that contemporarybatsmen — T20 cricket being areason — lacked the patienceto build an innings in demand-ing conditions. “The batsmenare not prepared to batthrough the tough periods ofplay, not prepared to do thediicult job of grinding it out.They are trying to play toomany shots, their defensiveplay is not good enough.”

He added, “They are notprepared to adapt. They arefar too aggressive.”

When Ram asked him toname the cricketer whose‘cricketing intelligence’ im-pressed him the most, Mc-Grath replied, “It would beShane Warne, the best Testcaptain Australia never had.Warnie read the game verywell, was a showman andloved the big moments.”

Border, the best skipper

On the best captain heplayed under, McGrath said,“Allan Border built the team invery tough times, MarkTaylor, very shrewd, wantedto win from the first ball, SteveWaugh wanted to crush op-ponents from the first deliverywhile Ricky Ponting, who hada hard act to follow, still did avery good job winning two

World Cups. But the captain ofmy all-time best Australian XIwould be Border.”

Sharing his thoughts on twoillustrious batsmen from histime, Sachin Tendulkar andBrian Lara, McGrath said,“You could tie down Sachin,contain him with good deliver-ies. It was hard to do that withLara, very diicult to containhim.”

McGrath, who at one pointin his career played 53 Tests

without a break, said he wouldnot have been happy with thepresent-day rotation policyfor pacemen. “I would havewanted to play every match,”he said.

He complimented CourtneyWalsh, Curtly Ambrose andKapil Dev for their long andenduring careers, and said ef-fective and injury-free pacebowling was about the “rightbody type combined with theright action.”

He stressed the importanceof technical skills, mentalstrength and thought pro-cesses. Talking about the MRFPace Foundation, McGrathhighlighted the contributionof head coach M. Senthil-nathan, and was pleased withthe progress of young pace-men Aswin Crist and K. Vign-esh this season.

Rahul Mammen of MRF in-troduced McGrath and Ram tothe audience.

Modern batsmen not prepared to grind it out, says McGrath

TALKING CRICKET: Glenn McGrath in conversation with N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi & Sons, at theMadras School of Economics on Friday. — PHOTO: R. RAGU

S. DINAKAR

MELBOURNE: Andy Murray andRoger Federer put on a master-class on Friday as they sweptinto the last 16 of the AustralianOpen, hoping to take advant-age of Novak Djokovic’s shockexit.

Murray swamped SamQuerrey 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 and Fe-derer humbled TomasBerdych 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in just 90minutes, maintaining his 100%record over his old rival at Mel-bourne Park.

Women’s World No.1 An-gelique Kerber also hit form asshe dropped only four gamesagainst Kristyna Pliskova torace into a fourth-round meet-ing with America’s CocoVandeweghe.

Querrey had upset Djokovicat Wimbledon last year butMurray never looked like slip-ping on any banana skins inround three.

No discomfort

He put Querrey away in justunder two hours, winning 77%of points on his first serve andfacing only three break pointsin a clinical display.

The Scottish World No.1also showed no signs of dis-

comfort in his right ankle, afterhe rolled it painfully during hissecond-round win over An-drey Rublev.

“I felt better and better as thematch went on in terms of mymovement,” he said. “Theankle was a little sore and I wasa little tentative at the start butit got better and better throughthe match.”

Federer, 35 and returning

from an injury lay-of, said heeven surprised himself with animperious win over Berdychthat left the Czech shaking hishead as he departed.

“In practice things were go-ing well, but I’ve never been thepractice king. I was winningtons of sets,” Federer said,adding: “It’s been unbeliev-able. I did surprise myself.”

Murray and 17th-seeded Fe-derer are on course to meet inthe quarterfinals, with the Scotnext facing Mischa Zverev andthe Swiss veteran up againstKei Nishikori.

Japan’s Nishikori shouldprovide a stern test for Federerand the fifth seed underlinedhis confident form by seeingof Slovakian qualifier LukasLacko 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Tough for WawrinkaStan Wawrinka, the 2014

champion, survived a four-settussle with Viktor Troicki 3-6,6-2, 6-2, 7-6(7) and now facesItaly’s Andreas Seppi, whoousted Steve Darcis ofBelgium.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also

came through in four setsagainst American Jack Sockand will play Briton Dan Evans,who beat Australia’s BernardTomic 7-5, 7-6(2), 7-6(3).

In the women’s draw, Ker-ber finally got into her stridewith a 6-0, 6-4 destruction ofKristyna Pliskova, the 58th-ranked twin sister of Czechfifth seed Karolina.

The German defendingchampion was an early loser atboth of her warm-up tourna-ments and was taken to threesets in unconvincing wins inround one and two.

But Kerber clicked into gearagainst Pliskova, winning injust 55 minutes to set up alast-16 clash with America’sCoco Vandeweghe, who ous-ted Canadian starlet EugenieBouchard.

“I’m looking forward to thenext one. Yeah, I think that Ifind my rhythm to the tourna-ment now,” Kerber said.

Svetlana Kuznetsova outlas-ted fellow thirty-somethingJelena Jankovic 6-4, 5-7, 9-7 andwill next play fellow RussianAnastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Venus Williams beat DuanYingying 6-1, 6-0 to endChinese interest, earning amatch with German qualifierMona Barthel who overcameAustralia’s Ashleigh Barty inthree sets.

French Open champion Gar-bine Muguruza was a 6-4, 6-2winner against AnastasijaSevastova, setting up an en-counter with Romania’s Sor-ana Cirstea.

The results: Men’s singles:Third round: 1-Andy Murray (GBR) bt31-Sam Querrey (USA) 6-4, 6-2, 6-4;Mischa Zverev (Ger) bt Malek Jaziri(Tun) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0; 4-StanWawrinka (Sui) bt 29-Viktor Troicki(Srb) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(7); AndreasSeppi (Ita) bt Steve Darcis (Bel) 4-6,6-4, 7-6(1), 7-6(2).

12-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt 23-Jack Sock (USA) 7-6(4), 7-5, 6-7(8),6-3; Dan Evans (GBR) bt 27-BernardTomic (Aus) 7-5, 7-6(2), 7-6(3); 17-Roger Federer (Sui) bt 10-Tomas

Berdych (Cze) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; 5-KeiNishikori (Jpn) bt Lukas Lacko (Svk)6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Doubles: Second round: AlexBolt & Bradley Mousley (Aus) bt 15-Rohan Bopanna (Ind) & Pablo Cuevas(Uru) 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.

Women’s singles: Third round:

1-Angelique Kerber (Ger) bt KristynaPliskova (Cze) 6-0, 6-4; CocoVandeweghe (USA) bt EugenieBouchard (Can) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5; 24-Ana-stasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) bt 11-Elina Svitolina (Ukr) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3; 8-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt JelenaJankovic (Srb) 6-4, 5-7, 9-7; SoranaCirstea (Rom) bt Alison Riske (USA)6-2, 7-6(2); 13-Venus Williams (USA)bt Duan Yingying (Chn) 6-1, 6-0; 7-Garbine Muguruza (Esp) bt 32-Ana-stasija Sevastova (Lat) 6-4, 6-2;Mona Barthel (Ger) bt Ashleigh Barty(Aus) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Doubles: Second round: 4-SaniaMirza (Ind) & Barbora Strycova (Cze)bt Samantha Stosur (Aus) & ShuaiZhang (Chn) 6-1, 6-4. — AFP

ON A ROLL: Fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori, who has been in good form, took out Slovakian qualifierLukas Lacko in straight sets to set up a fourth round match-up against former champion Roger Federer. — PHOTO: AFP

Murray and Federer waltz into the round of 16

CHENNAI: “I have been sledged bySachin Tendulkar,” revealed Glenn Mc-Grath while speaking on the issue ofAustralia’s on-field behaviour.

He said, “Every team in the worldsledges. But when the Aussies do it, itmakes news. When the other teamssledge against us, we keep quiet. Themoment the Australians are at it, theothers are quick to complain.”

McGrath said, “The Australian way isvery upfront. We play our cricket with a

lot of passion. We say a few things onthe field but all is forgotten as we walkoff it. It’s a part of Australian culture.”

The Aussie pace legend said SteveWaugh, during his time, had devised anew term for sledging. “He called itgamesmanship.”

Asked who the biggest sledger in theAustralian team was, McGrath said,“Matthew Hayden was probably theworst. But he was nicely hidden fieldingat gully.” — Special Correspondent

‘I’ve been sledged by Tendulkar’

MELBOURNE: It was a mixed dayin the oice for Indian tennisplayers in the Australian Openwith Sania Mirza sailing intothe third round of the women’sdoubles even as RohanBopanna crashed out of themen’s doubles.

Sania and her Czechpartner Barbora Stry-cova eased past Sam-antha Stosur and ShuaiZhang 6-1, 6-4.

However, it was cur-tains for Bopanna as he andPablo Cuevas of Uruguaywere knocked out, 2-6, 7-6(2),6-4, by the unseeded pair ofAlex Bolt and Bradley Mous-ley in the second round.

Bopanna later blamed a“horrendous call” at a crucialjuncture for his early ouster.

The contentious call wasmade on Cuevas’s serve,which was broken in the sev-enth game of the final set. Onbreak-point, a volley from Boltsailed wide, but the chair um-pire ruled that the ball had

brushed Bopanna’sracquet.

“I can’t believe youmade that call. That’sa horrendous call. Noone heard (the deflec-tion) and only you

heard it,” said a furiousBopanna while arguing withthe chair umpire.

He later tweeted: “Veryhard to digest a loss in a matchwhen the REF decides the out-come. Reactions of opponentssays it all. @AustralianOpen#MostShockingCall.” — PTI

Sania advances,Bopanna exits

EASY OUTING: Sania Mirza and her Czech partner BarboraStrycova entered the third round. — PHOTO: AFP

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court shed aray of hope for some disqualified ad-ministrators by modifying its January 3,2017 order that debarred a person whoenjoyed a cumulative tenure of nineyears in any State cricket association orBCCI from holding any position in theapex cricket body.

The apex court, headed by thenChief Justice T.S. Thakur, on January 3had said that a person was disqualifiedfrom holding any post if he “has been anoffice bearer of BCCI or a State Associ-ation for a cumulative period of nineyears.”

Modifying the order, the new Benchled by Justice Dipak Misra said the nine-year tenure of an office bearer in a State

association or in the BCCI would not beconsidered cumulatively, but separ-ately.

This means that a person who hasspent four years in a State associationand then was elected to the BCCI foranother five years would not be dis-qualified from holding any cricket ad-ministrator post in the future.

In short, for a person to be actuallydebarred, he should have spent nineyears in any State cricket associationand another nine years in the BCCI. Thatmeans a total of 18 years in office.

The court made the modification,saying the January 3 order had givenrise to “ambiguity.” — LegalCorrespondent

Now, nine years at State

and nine at BCCI

SHIMLA: The HimachalPradesh CricketAssociation on Fridayconstituted a three-member ad-hoccommittee to overseeand manage its afairs.

The late eveningmeeting was held in theabsence of former BCCIchief and HPCApresident AnuragThakur.

The committeeincludes Arun Dhumal,younger brother ofThakur, YudhishterKatoch and R.P. Singh.No major decisions weretaken on Friday, said aspokesman. — StafCorrespondent

HPCA’s ad-hoc

committee

SC ready for debate

CMYK

ND-ND

SPORT18 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

2 Dish one's dipping into is morefresh (7)

3 Former official, a judge seenround private clubs (4,5)

4 Say-so showing constant bias (4)

5 Hunters before throwing dartsgathered round (9)

6 Cement mixture (5)

7 Spiritual leader is cautiousentering support group for

worker having nothing on (9)

17 Envelope set aside, containingold money (7)

19 One needs to get a feel for thislanguage (7)

21 Charming selfie, one off-limits(5)

23 Old and every so often unsteady(4)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9

10

11 12

13 14 15

16 17 18 19

20 21 22

23

24

25 26

drunks (7)

8 More helpful drawing-ininformation for a children's class(12)

10 Going around Med/Corsica overa float (3-5,4)

14 Engagement that is trouble forboth later (9)

15 Unprepared for one-time casual

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11910 (set by Buzzer)

F ACROSS

GDOWN

Sage Yajnavalkya had two wives — Maitreyi and Katyayani.When Yajnavalkya wanted to renounce the world, he saidto Maitreyi: “I shall divide my property between you andKatyayani.” Maitreyi then asked him: “Will I becomeimmortal if you place all the wealth of the world at mydisposal?” Yajnavalkya clarified that immortality could notbe had through wealth, said M.K. Srinivasan in a discourse.Maitreyi told her husband that she did not want anythingthat would not confer immortality. Instead she wanted toknow the means to immortality.

Yajnavalkya was pleased with Maitreyi’s response andbegan to tell her about Paramatma: “It is not because of thehusband’s will that he becomes dear to his wife. It is notbecause of the wife’s will that she becomes dear to herhusband. Children do not become dear to their parentsthrough their will. All of this happens because of theParamatma. So to gain the afection of any person,Paramatma’s grace is necessary. The Paramatma alone is tobe meditated upon and it is through such meditation thatall of this will be understood.” So the sage taught Maitreyithe means to liberation.

The Paramatma dwells in all entities. It has all entities asits body. So when Paramatma is known, everything thatconstitutes Paramatma’s body also is known.

To understand Paramatma, we have to control the senseorgans. But when sense organs come into contact withsense objects, how can we prevent the experience of theobjects? The best thing to do is to take away the objects.

To keep a man from blowing a conch, it is best to take itaway from him.

Likewise to control the sense organs, it is best to keepsense objects away.

Maitreyi’s quest

FAITH

Sudoku is a mind game and a

puzzle that you solve with

reasoning and logic.

Fill in the grid with digits in such a

manner that every row, every

column and every 3x3 box

accommodates the digits 1 to 9,

without repeating any.

TODAY’S SOLUTIONS

ASITISPEPTALK

AOKRACI

AUFWIEDERSEHEN

ICNWDTAD

CLINCHCAREFREE

EERTYR

CIRRIBOOMERANG

REERXA

EUPHRATESTABOR

AERERT

MASHEDONIMPALE

SELTUPIN

OUTOFTHISWORLD

DAIAERL

ARSENALDIESEL

VARIETY

SU | DO | KU

1 In the existing circumstanceswhat's rest? (2,2,2)

5 It gives encouragement whentraining after training has walkbeginning to falter (3,4)

9 Perhaps fresh-new adieu headingout of Essen (3,11)

11 Close call, extremely on edge (6)

20 Master's degree womanprofessor is in love with (6,2)

22 Pierce is one man portraying spyessentially (6)

24 Dead are so cool (3,2,4,5)

25 Arabic ways, right to left in amagazine (7)

26 Sort of engine on elevatedrailway conks out (6)

12 Happy about umpire out in themiddle (8)

13 Cold water in half formed clouds(5)

14 Swell time no good to return toinitial position (9)

16 He tears up, crying a river (9)

18 Exhaust a bore filling drum (5)

SARAWAK (MALAYSIA): Saina Ne-hwal advanced to the semi-finals of the $120,000 MalaysiaMasters Grand Prix Gold bad-minton tournament here onFriday beating eighth-seededIndonesian Fitriani Fitriani 21-15, 21-14.

The top-seeded Indian willface Hong Kong’s Yip Pui Yinin the semifinals. In men’ssingles, World No. 19 Ajay Ja-yaram lost 21-13, 21-8 to In-donesia’s Anthony SinisukaGinting. This was Jayaram’sthird defeat to the Indonesian,having lost at Hyderabad AsiaTeam Championship and theFrench Open as well.

Saina took her own time toget her bearing against Fitri-ani, who quickly opened up a4-0 lead and consolidated herposition to reach 11-6 lead atthe interval.

However, the Indian soonstarted gathering points afterthe break and caught up withFitriani at 12-12. Saina soonjumped to a 16-14 lead and thenreeled of five straight pointsto pocket the opening game.

In the second game, Sainacontinued with her dominat-ing show as she opened a 4-2lead and then jumped to a 9-5advantage before entering thebreather at 11-6. Yin gave afightback after the interval andnarrowed down the gap to 12-13 before Saina took controland sealed the match. — PTI

Saina in semifinals BADMINTON / Ajay Jayaram loses in straight games

MOVING AHEAD: Saina Nehwal got past Indonesia’s FitrianiFitriani to make the last four at the Malaysia Masters onFriday. — PHOTO: AP

BENGALURU: Integrated, who wontwo races in a facile manner, maycomplete a hat-trick in the KarnatakaPolice Trophy (1,200m), the featureevent of the races to be held here onSaturday (Jan. 21).

False rails (width about 7.5m from1,600m to the winning post) will be inposition.

1 CHARMUDI PLATE(1,400m), rated 00 to 20, 5-y-o &over, 1-45 pm: 1. Dancing Princess(8) P. Trevor 60, 2. Resemblance(10) Rayan Ahmed 59, 3. Pure Es-teem (2) M. Prabhakaran 58.5, 4.Fioroloco (12) Srinath 57.5, 5. TheDark Knight (11) Sahanawaz 57, 6.Jeyem’s Spirit (6) Cedric Segeon56.5, 7. Kiraathaka (9) P.P. Dhebe56.5, 8. Sonic Star (7) T.S. Jodha 56.5,9. Zala Princess (3) Mukesh Kumar55, 10. Flying Prince (4) Nitin Singh54, 11. Oriental Belle (1) I. Chisty 52and 12. Sea Dove (5) Vinod Shinde51.1. Oriental Belle, 2. FlyingPrince, 3. Fioroloco

2 DASHMESH STUD PLATE(Div. II), (1,200m), rated 45 to 65,5-y-o & over, 2-15: 1. Majestic Style(10) R. Manjunath 60, 2. NobleFlaire (12) S. John 60, 3. Sun Glow(2) Suraj Narredu 60, 4. Wise Guy(7) Chetan Gowda 60, 5. Akha Teej(6) P. Trevor 59.5, 6. Amazing Redd(8) Rayan Ahmed 59.5, 7. Rakshitha(11) M. Naveen 59, 8. Bazinga (3) Ir-van Singh 58.5, 9. Mariko (9) Dar-shan 58.5, 10. One Big Gang (4) D.Patel 58.5, 11. I Smile (1) Ramesh Ku-mar 57.5 and 12. Youre Ash-washakthi (5) S. Shiva Kumar 55.5.1. Mariko, 2. Noble Flaire, 3.Akha Teej

3 VIRAJPET PLATE (1,100m),maiden 3-y-o only, (Terms), 2-45: 1.Agnar (8) Cedric Segeon 55, 2.Dunamis (2) S. John 55, 3. Dynam-ism (1) Irvan Singh 55, 4. LoftyThoughts (12) Srinath 55, 5. SilkenStriker (3) Raja Rao 55, 6. Smart Em-pire (7) Sahanawaz 55, 7. Star Lord(5) M. Prabhakaran 55, 8. Bora Bora(4) P. Trevor 53.5, 9. Indian Rocket(6) P.P. Dhebe 53.5, 10. Lady Bar-rington (9) David Allan 53.5, 11.Queen Latifa (11) Suraj Narredu 53.5

and 12. Regal Realm (10) NeerajRawal 53.5.1. Bora Bora, 2. Queen Latifa, 3.Lady Barrington

4 K.S. PREMCHAND ME-MORIAL TROPHY (Div. I),(1,200m), rated 30 to 50, 3-15: 1.Papadokia (11) Chetan Gowda 60,2. Omber Glaze (3) Ashok Kumar59, 3. Zafran (6) P. Trevor 59, 4. TaxFree (1) Janardhan Paswan 58, 5.Tarini (7) M. Prabhakaran 57.5, 6.Dont Trust Any One (5) S. ShivaKumar 57, 7. Gypsy (12) SurajNarredu 57, 8. Natanza (2) NazerulAlam 57, 9. Flotus (9) P.P. Dhebe56.5, 10. Storm (4) T.S. Jodha 56.5,11. Reczai (8) Ramesh Kumar 54and 12. Country’s Bloom (10) I.Chisty 53.5.1. Gypsy, 2. Flotus, 3. Zafran

5 DR. C. VITTAL MEMORIALCUP (1,400m), rated 30 to 50, 5-y-o& over, 3-45: 1. Golden Diamond(3) S. Shiva Kumar 60, 2. Frenemee(9) Rajesh Babu 59.5, 3. Desert Gilt(2) A. Imran Khan 58.5, 4. First Step(8) P.P. Dhebe 58.5, 5. Adriphos(10) Sunil Samson 56.5, 6. Youreso-handsome (4) Nazerul Alam 56, 7.Able Master (11) Cedric Segeon 55,8. Why Should I (6) Md. Hesnain54.5, 9. Freestyle (1) P. Trevor 54,10. Ravelnation (-) (-) 54, 11. TeaWid Me (7) Irvan Singh 54 and 12.Rapid Advance (5) P. Surya 53.5.1. Freestyle, 2. First Step, 3.Desert Gilt

6 KARNATAKA POLICETROPHY (1,200m), rated 75 &above, 4-15: 1. Smile Stone (12) M.Naveen 68.5, 2. Shivalik Star (10) S.John 58.5, 3. Sea Lord (8) P. Trevor56, 4. Coldstream (3) David Allan55, 5. New Crown (9) SurajNarredu 55, 6. Integrated (4) IrvanSingh 53, 7. Topspot (1) PraveenShinde 53, 8. Life Awaits (6) Neeraj52.5, 9. Pearl Reward (5) A. Ramu51.5, 10. Sir Majestic (7) P.P. Dhebe51, 11. Light Of Magic (11) I. Chisty50.5 and 12. Referent (2) VinodShinde 50.1. Integrated, 2. New Crown, 3.Life Awaits

7 CORDEN BLEU PLATE

(1,600m), rated 15 to 35, 5-y-o &over, 4-45: 1. Artorius (6) Raja Rao60, 2. Little Love (10) RayanAhmed 59, 3. Proudprince (3) SaiVamshi 59, 4. Active Grey (2) IrvanSingh 57.5, 5. Cannes (7) R. Manish57.5, 6. Ocean Park (5) Srinath 57.5,7. Safron Intense (12) T.M. Prash-anth 57, 8. As Good As It Gets (8)Nitin Singh 55.5, 9. Elegant Star (9)T.S. Jodha 55.5, 10. Emancipation(4) Md. Hesnain 55, 11. Only Prince(1) Suraj Narredu 54.5 and 12. Ex-tremelydangerous (11) Darshan53.5.1. Only Prince, 2. Ocean Park, 3.Proudprince

8 K.S. PREMCHAND ME-MORIAL TROPHY (Div. II),(1,200m), rated 30 to 50, 5-15: 1.Diva (9) S. Shareef 60, 2. Kapalua(5) S. John 57.5, 3. Arizona (11) IrvanSingh 57, 4. Romantic Helen (6)Rayan Ahmed 57, 5. Tamara (7)Nazerul Alam 56.5, 6. Leon (12) R.Pradeep 56, 7. Wrekin (2) PraveenShinde 55.5, 8. Areca Cruise (4) P.Trevor 54.5, 9. Erstklassig (10) I.Chisty 54.5, 10. Red Galileo (8) A.Imran Khan 54.5, 11. Paradiso (1)Neeraj 53 and 12. Shivalik Girl (3)Ramesh Kumar 53.1. Erstklassig, 2. Areca Cruise,3. Red Galileo

9 DASHMESH STUD PLATE(Div. I), (1,200m), rated 45 to 65,5-y-o & over, 5-45: 1. Eragon (5)David Allan 60, 2. Royal Defence(9) Rayan Ahmed 60, 3. Virat (2)Irvan Singh 60, 4. Millrose (11)Antony Raj 59.5, 5. Tronada (7) T.S.Jodha 59.5, 6. Fourth Dimension (1)Srinath 59, 7. Babushka (6) Selva-raj 58.5, 8. Ambleside (3) NazerulAlam 57.5, 9. Rich Revival (10) A.Imran Khan 57, 10. Colour Of Gold(8) M. Kumar 56.5, 11. Country’sCrown (4) M. Prabhakaran 56.5and 12. Hidden Soldier (12) S. ShivaKumar 55.1. Eragon, 2. Rich Revival, 3.Fourth DimensionDay’s best: GypsyDouble: Bora Bora — OnlyPrinceJkt: 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9; Tr (i): 1, 2 and 3;(ii): 4, 5 and 6; (iii): 7, 8 and 9.

Integrated primed for a hat-trick NEW DELHI: Bengal chose asteady approach to Delhi’sfirst innings 314 by reaching 83for two in 40 overs at stumpson the second day of theirCooch Behar (under-19)cricket final here on Friday.

Earlier, Delhi resumed itsinnings at 246 for six and ad-ded 68 runs, including 37 runsfor the last wicket.

Most successful

Akash Pandey was the mostsuccessful bowler with fourwickets.

Bengal lost opener SudipKumar of the second deliveryof the innings and his partnerAnkur Paul at 45.

Thereafter, Saurabh andKazi Saifi (batting 17) preven-ted further damage.

The scores: Delhi 314 in 137.1 overs (Anuj

Rawat 77, Manjot Kalra 53, AnkurKaushik 46, Sumit Mathur 33, Lak-shay Thareja 32, Akash Pandey fourfor 92, Rajarshi Mitra three for 65) vsBengal 83 for two in 40 overs (Saur-abh Singh 43 batting).

Bengal 83 for two

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHRISTCHURCH: Tim Southee cap-tured his sixth five-wicket haulin Test cricket as New Zealandbowled Bangladesh out for 289in the final five minutes of thefirst day of the second match atHagley Oval in Christchurch onFriday.

Southee had Kamrul Islamtrapped in front for two in the85th over, shortly after the game

had been delayed for about 10minutes when Rubel Hossainreceived medical treatmentafter being hit on the elbow byTrent Boult.

Southee finished with figuresof five for 94, while Boultbacked up his new ball partnerwith four for 87.

Soumya Sarkar, promoted toopen in a patchwork

Bangladesh side which wasmissing batsmen Imrul Kayesand Mominul Haque and cap-tain Mushfiqur Rahim due to in-jury, top scored with 86 after thevisitors had been asked to bat byKane Williamson. — Reuters

CHIEF TORMENTOR: Tim Southee, who ripped throughBangladesh with a five-for, celebrates after dismissing Tamim Iqbal. — PHOTO: AFP

Southee, Boult restrict Bangladesh CRICKET

Bangladesh — 1st innings:Tamim Iqbal c Watling b Southee 5,Soumya Sarkar c de Grandhomme bBoult 86, Mahmudullah c Watling bBoult 19, Shakib Al Hasan c Watling bSouthee 59, Sabbir Rahman cSouthee b Boult 7, Nazmul Hossain cRaval b Southee 18, Nurul Hasan cWatling b Boult 47, Mehedi Hasan bWagner 10, Taskin Ahmed c William-son b Southee 8, Kamrul Islam lbw bSouthee 2, Rubel Hossain (not out)16; Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-5, nb-1): 12;Total (in 84.3 overs): 289.

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-38, 3-165,4-177, 5-179, 6-232, 7-248, 8-257, 9-273.

New Zealand bowling: Boult 24-4-87-4, Southee 28.3-7-94-5, deGrandhomme 14-4-58-0, Wagner18-1-44-1.

Toss: New Zealand.

SCOREBOARD

CHENNAI: Top seed AlbertoDavid of Italy kept a cleanslate, notching up his third winin as many rounds in the ninthChennai Open Grandmasterchess tournament, for the N.Mahalingam Trophy, here onThursday. The fourth roundscheduled on Friday could notbe held due to prevailing localissues.

Shared lead

David (three points) nowshares the lead with manyplayers, including GMs R.R.Laxman, Adam Tukhaev(Ukraine), Vadim Malakhatko(Belgium), Adam Horvath andAttila Czebe (both Hungary)among others.

David overcame a stif chal-lenge from S. Jayakumaar inthe top board.

Employing the Sicilian Ros-solimo defence, David moved

into a winning bishop andpawn ending, sewing up thegame in 42 moves.

Among the Indians, Laxmandefeated compatriot VikramjitSingh, maintain an unbeatenrecord.

Tamil Nadu junior star K.Senthil Maran defeated GMNguyen Huynh Minh Huy ofVietnam.

The results (third round):Alberto David (Ita, 3) 3 bt S. Jayak-

umaar (2), Patil Pratik (2) lost toAdam Tukhaev (Ukr, 3), VadimMalakhatko (Bel, 3) bt B. Vignesh (2),Adam Horvath (Hun, 3) bt PuneetJaiswal (2).

Aronyak Ghosh (2) lost to AttilaCzebe (Hun, 3), Jacek Stopa (Pol, 2.5)drew with Arjun Tiwari (2.5), V.Pranavananda (2.5) drew withValeriy Neverov (Ukr, 2.5).

Sahaj Grover (2.5) drew with S.Ajay Krishna (2.5), K. Senthil Maran(3) bt Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy (Vie,2), P. Shyaamnikhil (3) bt G.B. Joshi(2).

CHESS

Alberto David notches up third winSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Former World ju-nior champion Mandeep Kaurof Punjab progressed to thesemifinals of the Youth wo-men’s National boxing cham-pionship with a dominatingwin over Akhila Shine of Ker-ala in the feather weight divi-sion (54-57kg), here on Friday.

Important results: Women: Featherweight (54-

57kg): Mandeep Kaur (Pun) btAkhila Shine.

Light-fly (45-48kg): TanviKaushal (Del) bt Tanushree S. Bengle(Mah) 5-0; Jyothi (Har) bt Zothanpuli(Miz) RSC; Babita Rani (Pun) bt Prag-ati (UP) 4-1; Anjali Sharma (MP) bt G.Joythi (AP) 4-1.

Fly-weight (48-51kg): Akta(Har) bt Ananya S. Das (Ker) 5-0;Maya Kumari (HP) bt Kashmira Katun(Ben) 5-0; Mani Singh Gaur (MP) btKamaljeet Kaur (Pun) 5-0; Joy KumariLama bt G. Ramya (AP) 3-2.

Bantam-weight (51-54kg): Pal-ian Lalnunfeli bt V. Gnameswari.

Men: Light flyweight (46-49kg): Ansul Punia (Chd) bt PankajKumar (Cht) 5-0, B. Ramakrishnan(TN) bt Shubham (Pun) 5-0; BarunSingh (SSCB) bt Suraj Singh Mazila(Utk) 5-0; Shahil Shah (HP) bt M.D.Ikramul Mansuri (Ben) 3-2.

Fly-weight (52kg): Sudeep K.Yadav (UP) bt Alok Singh (MP) 5-0;Gurpreet Singh (Pun) bt Ashish Ku-mar (HP) 4-1, C.H. Wilson Singh(SSCB) bt Shiv Dayal (Raj) 4-1, Moir-angthem R. Singh (Man) bt Pur-shotam (Har) 3-2.

Bantam-weight (56kg):Laldingliana (Miz) bt Anil Kumar(J&K) RSC; Etash Khan (SSCB) btRahul Shrestha (Ben). — PTI

Mandeep in last four

CHITRADURGA: Karnatakaclaimed the sub-junior Na-tional volleyball title after agap of eight years, defeatingTamil Nadu 26-24, 25-23, 25-23, in the boys’ final onThursday. — Sports Bureau

Karnataka boysregain title

CHENNAI: On the eve of histeam’s fourth I-League game,against Chennai City FC hereon Saturday, Mohun Bagancoach Sanjoy Sen dismissedany talk of complacency — histeam has won all its gameswithout conceding a singlegoal as opposed to the hostthat has only conceded goalsso far!

“Every match is important.We’re not thinking about whathappened in the last threegames.

“We’re looking to win thematch, and there’s no doubtit’ll not be an easy match,” hesaid.

Two-way title race?

From the evidence of theresults so far, he was asked ifthe season’s headed for a two-way title race between histeam and Bengaluru FC.

He said it’s premature tothink about it now.

“I don’t think so. There arestill a lot of matches to come.This season’s new teams areyet to get settled. If you look at

Chennai City FC andChurchill Brothers, one cansay they’ve improved withevery match, and I can say thatthey’ll keep getting better.”

Edathodika injured

Defender Anas Edathodika,who strained his left knee inthe last match against Min-erva Punjab FC, seemed to bein discomfort during practiceon Friday and was pulled outmidway through it.

“I don’t want him to godown just before the match.So I asked him to stop prac-

tising. We’ll assess his situ-ation and take a call,” thecoach said.

Chennai City coach RobinCharles Raja said they’ve al-most acquired a new striker inTamil Nadu’s Raegan.

“If the paperwork’s done, hemight play tomorrow,” hesaid.

Time to settle down

He pointed out the strikersin the squad had arrived onlythree days before the firstmatch of the season, and thushad to take extra time than the

others to settle into the team. He acknowledged that

there’s a communication gapbetween his foreign strikersand Indian midfielders, andadded that it’s been lookedinto.

“I think it’s the languageproblem between strikers andmidfielders. We’ve worked onit.”

He confirmed the injuredgoalkeeper Karanjit Singh isfit and ready to play, while theteam physio has to check onAfghan midfielder Zohid Is-lam Amiri’s injury status.

FOOTBALL

Undefeated Bagan coach shrugs of talk of complacencyS. PRASANNA VENKATESAN

KOLKATA: Third-seeded DhruvSunish of India defeatedsecond-seeded Hazem Naowof Syria in the semifinals tomove into the boys’ final of theDKS ITF junior tennis here onFriday. Sunish will take onfifth-seeded Dostanbek Tash-bulatov of Kazakhstan in thefinal on Saturday.

In the girls’ singles, Akank-sha Bhan moved into the titleround downing compatriotLasya Patnaik. Bhan will takeon top-seeded Axana Mareenof Belgium, who beat Shivani

Amineni of India.Sunish, the only Indian in

the boys’ singles semifinal,showed the right game on clayto win the opening set 6-2.

Trying to get back into thegame, Naow showed greaterresistance in the second setwhich went with serve till the10th game.

But Sunish fine-tuned his re-turns in the right time and wonthe next two games to wrap upthe set 7-5 and the match topower his way into the final.

The results: Boys: Semifinals:

Dostanbek Tashbulatov (Kaz) bt YuHua-Chen (Tpe) 6-0, 6-2; DhruvSunish bt Hazem Naow (Syr) 6-2,7-5.

Doubles: Final: Naow & Yu Hua-Chen bt Roko Savin (Cro) & Dostan-bek Tashbulatov 6-3, 6-4 (Kaz).

Girls: Semifinals: Axana Mareen(Bel) bt Shivani Amineni 6-2, 6-0;Akanksha Bhan bt Lasya Patnaik 6-3,5-7, 6-2.

Doubles: Final: Yi Lee Kuan (Tpe)& Mananchaya Sawangkaew (Tha)bt Victoria Kalaitzis (Bel) & AxanaMareen 7-6(3), 7-6(2). — SpecialCorrespondent

TENNIS

Sunish to take on Tashbulatov in final

GWALIOR: Former Nationalchampion Vinod Sridharblanked Himanshu Shankar inthe semifinals of the over-35age group in the ITF grade-4senior tennis tournament hereon Friday.

In fact, top seed Vinod Srid-har has not dropped a game inthree rounds after a bye in thefirst round.

In the final, Vinod will be

challenged by Aditya Khanna,who outplayed second seedNishant Goel.

The results: Over-35 (semi-finals): Vinod Sridhar bt HimanshuShankar 6-0, 6-0; Aditya Khanna btNishant Goel 6-1, 6-1.

Doubles (final): Nagaraj Re-vanasiddaiah & Jagdish Tanwer btAvinash Kunwar & Vinod Sridhar 4-6,7-5, [13-11].

Over-45 (semifinals): Revanas-

iddaiah bt Chandra Bhushan 6-1, 6-1;Tanwer bt Alok Bhatnagar 6-2, 6-0.

Doubles (final): Rohit Rawat &Tanwer bt Bal Kishan Bhatia &Gurdarshan Singh Ramana 6-3, 6-2.

Over-55 (semifinals): AjeetBhardwaj bt Sharad Tak 5-7, 6-3, 6-3;Mani Mohan Nehru bt Puneet KumarGupta 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles (final): Pawan Jain &Tak bt Bhardwaj & Rakesh Kohli 6-3,6-3. — Sports Bureau

Vinod Sridhar enters title round

NEW DELHI: Haryana boys andgirls dominated the show win-ning three of the four goldmedals, on the opening day ofthe Khelo India wrestlingcompetition organised by theSports Authority of India(SAI) at the KD Jadhav wrest-ling arena in the Indira GandhiStadium Complex here on Fri-day. Neelam and Nishu wonthe gold in the girls’ 40 and46kg categories respectivelyfor Haryana, while Roht wonthe boys’ 58kg.

Sandeep won gold in the56kg category for Delhi.

The two-day competition,organised in an attempt to taptalent from across the country,was inaugurated in the pres-ence of many wrestling stal-warts, the president of theWrestling Federation of India,and government oicials.

The results: Boys: 56kg: 1.Sandeep, 2. Parmod, 3. Kumar Yadav& Udit Patel. 58kg: 1. Rohit, 2. JaatSudhir, 3. Kartik & Vishnu Char.

Girls: 40kg: 1. Neelam, 2. SatveenKaur, 3. Ranjan Lata & Roshni.

46kg: 1. Nishu, 2. Seema Phogat,3. Jyotii Gaudi & Radhika Dadh. —Special Correspondent

WRESTLING

Haryana dominates SYDNEY: Cricket Australia wasinvestigating on Friday on-aircomments by a televisioncommentator after he ap-peared to pass on tactical ad-vice to a player during aTwenty20 Big Bash Leaguematch.

Network Ten commentatorMark Howard told AdelaideStrikers captain Brad Hodgeduring Wednesday’s gamethat bowler Ben Laughlin hadpreviously been successfulagainst Sydney Thunderbatsman Shane Watson. —AFP

CA probes air‘tactical advice’

SPORT | 19THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

Akhil Herwadkar’s part-timeof-spin in the last over beforetea, Gandhi changed gearswithout any fuss in the lastsession.

Of the 109 runs Gujaratscored in the last session, 73came of Gandhi’s willow. Hewas especially severe on thespin duo of Shahbaz Nadeemand Kuldeep Yadav, hammer-ing 92 of their bowling.

Kaul, meanwhile, continuedto make inroads. Despite hav-ing injured the ring finger ofhis bowling hand, he claimedtwo more wickets.

Pankaj then trappedChintan Gaja with the new ballbefore Gandhi saw the day outwith tailender Hardik Patel.

With Gujarat being withoutthe left-arm seam duo of RushKalaria and R.P. Singh — bothsidelined due to niggles —

MUMBAI: Besides being FirstClass cricketers, one wouldhave struggled to find anothercommon thread connectingPankaj Singh, Siddharth Kauland Chirag Gandhi.

While the burly Pankaj hasbeen a workhorse for over adecade leading Rajasthan,Kaul has been enhancing hisreputation as pace bowler onthe domestic scene while ply-ing his trade for Punjab.

Gandhi, on the other hand,has been trying hard to estab-lish himself in Gujarat’smiddle-order for the last fouryears.

On Friday, however, the tri-umvirate from varied back-grounds hogged the limelight,shining brighter than some ofIndian cricket’s establishednames on the opening day ofthe Irani Cup match at the Bra-bourne Stadium.

The Rest of India new-ballduo of Pankaj and Kaul sharedseven wickets but Gandhi’smaiden First Class centurysalvaged the day for Gujarat asthe Ranji champion ended at arespectable 300 for eight.

Gandhi’s unbeaten 136 (159b,18x4, 1x6) may have given Gu-jarat reason to smile after skip-per Parthiv Patel elected tobat.

But the day didn’t start on apromising note.

Pankaj trapped Samit Gohilin front in the first over beforeKaul put RoI in command in along second spell.

Kaul first forced run-ma-chine Priyank Panchal to edgeone to Karun Nair at first slipbefore causing Parthiv to playone onto the stumps just be-fore lunch.

Pankaj struck again in thefirst over of the afternoon ses-sion, with Dhruv Raval nickingto ’keeper Wriddhiman Saha.

At 82 for four, Gujarat was indanger of letting the matchslip, but Gandhi had otherplans.

The right-hander first stead-ied the ship with Manprit Jun-eja. After Juneja threw away asolid start, succumbing to

Gandhi knows his work will befar from over on the secondmorning.

The scores:Gujarat — 1st innings: Samit

Gohil lbw b Pankaj 0, Priyank Panchalc Karun b Pankaj 30, Dhruv Raval cSaha b Kaul 39, Parthiv Patel b Kaul11, Manprit Juneja c Pujara b Her-wadkar 47, Chirag Gandhi (batting)136, Karan Patel c Saha b Kaul 13,Mohit Thadani c Tiwary b Kaul 4,Chintan Gaja lbw b Pankaj 8, HardikPatel (batting) 9; Extras (lb-1, w-2):3; Total (for eight wkts, in 88 overs):300.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-55, 3-81, 4-82, 5-191, 6-231, 7-237, 8-261.

Rest of India bowling: PankajSingh 17-4-77-3, Siddharth Kaul 21-3-73-4, Mohammed Siraj 15-5-44-0,Kuldeep Yadav 15-3-51-0, ShahbazNadeem 17-2-41-0, Akhil Herwadkar3-0-13-1.

Toss: Gujarat.

Gandhi ton salvagesday for Gujarat IRANI CUP / Pankaj and Kaul share seven wickets

IN FINE NICK: Chirag Gandhi steadied the Gujarat innings with animpeccable century against Rest of India on Friday. — PHOTO: PTI

AMOL KARHADKAR

LOS ANGELES: Kawhi Leonardscored 34 points and DejounteMurray added 24 as San Anto-nio Spurs defeated DenverNuggets 118-104 in the NBA onThursday.

The results: Minnesota Timber-wolves 104 bt Los Angeles Clippers101; San Antonio Spurs 118 bt DenverNuggets 104; Washington Wizards113 bt New York Knicks 110; MiamiHeat 99 bt Dallas Mavericks 95;Cleveland Cavaliers 118 bt PhoenixSuns 103. — Agencies

Spurs have it easy

MANACOR (SPAIN): Adil Kalyan-pur lost 6-0, 7-6(7) to eighthseed Omar Giacalone in thesecond round of the $15,000ITF Futures tennis tourna-ment here on Friday.

Other results: $25,000 ITF wo-men, Orlando, USA: First round:Jesika Maleckova (Cze) & JessicaWacnik (USA) bt Lisa Ponomar (Ger)& Dhruthi Venugopal 4-6, 6-4, 11-9.

$15,000 ITF women, Cairo:Quarterfinals: Fatma Al Nabhani(Oma) & Sandra Samir (Egy) bt NidhiChilumula & Natasha Palha 6-1, 6-4.

Adil bows out

MUMBAI: Not often do cricketteams change hotels midwaythrough a match. Thanks tologistical issues, the Rest ofIndia players had to switch toanother hotel after the openingday’s play of the Irani Cup tieagainst Gujarat.

The Hindu understands thatthe BCCI’s logistical team couldnot accommodate the RoI squadin a five-star hotel, as is thenorm for most domestic teams,due to non- availability ofrooms. As a result, the squad,which includes Test stars likeCheteshwar Pujara and KarunNair, was booked at anexecutive hotel in Marine Lines,at a walking distance from thestadium.

According to a BCCI insider,the Board considered “proximityto the stadium” while bookingthe hotel.

However, a player revealedthat “most players found thehotel inconvenient” thusprompting them to seek a“better hotel”.

Perhaps, the fact that Gujarathas been put up at a five-starhotel in Parel, about an hour’sdrive from Brabourne, didn’t godown well with the RoI players.

The BCCI had no issues inacceding to the request. Butscarcity of rooms in five-starhotels in south Mumbai meantthe players have been shifted toa five-star property in suburbanBandra. It will result in theplayers spending at least anhour on one way commute.

“The players wanted comfortof the rooms instead of avoidingthe commute. And the Boardhas no problem with it,” thesource concluded.

AMOL KARHADKAR

Preferringcomfort overproximity

PUNE: Defending championSourav Kothari and last year’srunner-up Siddharth Parikhgot of to impressive starts,winning their opening leaguematches 3-0 in the ManishaNational billiards and snookerchampionship at the PYCGymkhana here on Friday.

Also notching up wins wereB. Bhaskar, Pankaj Advani, Dh-waj Haria, Dhruv Sitwala, AlokKumar, Brijesh Damani andShyam Jagtiani.

Veteran Alok Kumardropped a frame but beat AmitSharma.

“My record must beunique,” the 48-year-old saidafter victory. “I played my firstNationals in 1987 and I havenot missed a single Nationalssince then. First I took part inthe junior Nationals, and from1988 onwards, I have beenplaying the seniors.

“I think in one particularyear, there were two Nation-als, and so this has to be my32nd nationals in a row.”

“I think I was also respons-ible for the introduction of anationals for the sub-juniors;they had no competition andthen we also needed players tocompete with Pankaj(Advani).”

Ashutosh Padhy wins

Odisha’s Ashutosh Padhywon the junior boys’ snookertitle here on Friday toppingthe semifinal league.

The other three semifinal-ists were Madhya Pradesh’sHritik Jain, Mohd. HussainKhan and Maharashtra’sSparsh Pherwani.

Important results: Group A:Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt SonamGurung (Meg) 3-0 [101 (61)-13, 100(94) - 17, 100 (68) - 0]; Group B:Siddharth Parikh (Rlys) bt Ajinkya Ag-nihotri (Har) 3-0 [101-15, 101-07, 102-

34]. Group C: B. Bhaskar (Kar) btKetan Chawla (MP) 3-0 [100-64, 100-21, 101-52]; Group E: Pankaj Advani(PSPB) bt Anupam Jha (Bih) 3-0 [100-39, 101-3, 101-0]. Group H: Dhruv Sit-wala (PSPB) bt Mumtaz Ali (Jhar) 3-0100-60, 100-0, 100-0); Group J: AlokKumar (PSPB) bt Amit Sharma (Delhi)3-1 [100-41, 68-100, 100-14, 100-43];S. Shrikrishna (TN) bt Nikhil Ghadge(Rlys) 3-0 [100-0, 100 (52) - 64 (54),102 (68)-45]; Group K: Brijiesh Dam-ani (PSBP) bt Siddharth Patni (MP)3-0 [101-55, 102-19, 100-38]; GroupL: S Simhachalan (Rlys) bt HemantKumar (Rlys) 3-0 [100-82, 100-75,100-77]; Group M: Rohan Jam-busaria (Mah) bt Aditya Agarwal(Rlys) 3-2 [100-93, 8-100, 100-67, 91-101, 101-66]; K Venkatesham (Rlys)bt Tushar Shresta (Bih) 3-0 [100-16,102-42, 101-33]; Group N: D Raj Ku-mar (Kar) bt Shahbaaz Adil Khan(PSPB) 3-0 [101-86, 100-88, 100-18];Group P: Rishabh Thakkar (Mah) btV. Subramanian (Mah) 3-2 [88 (55) -100, 56 (45) -101 (70*); 100 (40*)-57, 102-67, 100-61].

CUESPORTS

Parikh, Kothari post wins G. VISWANATH

MUMBAI: This year’s Hockey In-dia League promises to be dif-ferent from similar franchise-based leagues where Indiansare viewed as support cast toforeigners in team line-ups.

Coming after the high of2016’s junior World Cup tri-umph, members of the juniorsquad will be under the spot-light as much as the foreignfaces.

India senior coach RoelantOltmans is on record that am-bitious juniors from the WorldCup, looking to break into thesenior probables list, will beexpected to make their pres-ence count in HIL 2017.

Ranchi Rays head coachHarender Singh agreed withOltmans. On the eve of thisseason’s opener at theMahindra Stadium where histeam takes on Dabang Mum-bai, Harender said: “With Olt-mans saying that HIL perform-ances will count, the juniorsneed to deliver. At the junior

World Cup, they were boys.Now they are men, playingagainst the world’s best.”

With 33 junior World Cup-pers distributed among difer-ent teams and leading prosfrom major hockey nations,Harinder said, each of the sixsides were title contenders.

Mumbai coach Jay Stacysaid his team’s focus was ondeveloping young talent. “Lastseason we took a consciousdecision to give the juniors achance, with a view to givethem exposure,” he said.

Harender promised an opengame in Saturday’s opener.

“Ranchi Rays is never de-fensive,” he said.

Ashley Jackson, Ranchi cap-tain last season, spoke of thehow the League has helped theIndian youngsters.

“Last year they wereyounger by one year,” he said.“After a year of exposure to in-ternational level, they willhave developed.”

“I always say the HIL is thereason for India winning thejunior World Cup.”

HOCKEY INDIA LEAGUE

Chance for aspirants tocrack the big league NANDAKUMAR MARAR

Harender Singh. — FILE PHOTO Jay Stacy.— FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI : The Board of Con-trol for Cricket in India(BCCI) has announced theteam for the upcoming under19 one-day series against Eng-land under-19 to be held inIndia.

The five-match ODI serieswill begin on January 30 at theWankhede Stadium in Mum-bai and will end on February 8at the same ground.

The squad: Heramb Parab, HetPatel, Himanshu Rana, Ayush Jam-wal, Vivekanand Tiwary, PrithviShaw, Abhishek Sharma, ShubmanGill, Harvik Desai, Rahul DesrajChahar, Kamlesh Singh Nagarkoti,Salman Khan, Priyam Garg, ShivaSingh, Yash Thakur, Mayank Rawat,Rohan Kunnumal, Ishan Porel. —ANI

India U-19 teamfor ODI seriesagainst England

WIJK AAN ZEE: B. Adhiban heldleader Wesley So to a 39-movedraw in the sixth round of TataSteel Masters chess tourna-ment here on Friday.

Playing white, Adhibanproved equal to the in-fromSo. The draw was agreed uponwhen the players were leftwith a rook, a bishop and twopawns each.

The result kept So in thelead with 4.5 points.

The results: Sixth round: B. Ad-hiban (2.5) drew with Wesley So(USA, 4.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5)drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 4);Anish Giri (Ned, 3.5) bt Ian Nepomni-achtchi (Rus, 2); Richard Rapport(Hun, 1.5) lost to Wei Yi (Chn, 3.5);Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 4) drew withSergey Karjakin (Rus, 3). — SportsBureau

Adhiban holdsWesley So

CMYK

LIFE20 |THE HINDU SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

Kareena to be showstopper for Anita Dongre

After flaunting her baby bump at Lakme Fashion Week lastyear, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan is once again set to walkthe runway at the grand finale of its upcoming Summer/

Resort 2017 edition for ace designer AnitaDongre. The 36-year-old actor will take

the ramp for the first time since thebirth of her son, Taimur. The newmother will don Dongre’s creation,inspired by argan oil, the main

component of the new range oflipsticks by Lakme Absolute.Dongre, who will bring the

curtains down at LFW, hasalso used handembroidery inher collection, a portion ofwhich has been made inJaipur. It also features hersignature gota-patti work.The fashion show will takeplace from February 1 to 5 inMumbai. — PTI

Miguel Ferrer passes away at 61

Actor Miguel Ferrer best known forhis role in NCIS: Los Angeles andIron Man 3 has died at 61. He had

throat cancer. Ferrer started his career as a studiomusician. He often went on tours with hismother, singer Rosemary Clooney, andsinger-actor Bing Crosby, before makinghis foray into television and films. Ferrer also appeared on the original TV series Twin Peaks as FBIpathologist Albert Rosenfield. The director of the show, Mark Frost,mourned the loss of his dear friend in a series of tweets. — PTI

STAR TREK

William to take on royal duties full-time

Britain’s Prince William is to give up his job as an airambulance helicopter pilot to focus on carrying outofficial duties full-time on behalf of Queen Elizabeth.

WWII bomb removed from London

Britain's Royal Navy has removed a suspectedWorld War II bomb discovered in London’sRiver Thames, close to the Parliament.

20% of adults access partners’ FB accounts

One in five adults have used the computers orphones of their romantic partners to snoop into theirFacebook accounts, a Canadian study has found.

NEW YORK: In an attempt tosearch for life outside Earth,an astronomer has studiedan exoplanet called Wolf1061c and found that the ce-lestial body could behabitable.

Astronomer Stephen Kanefrom San Francisco StateUniversity focused on find-ing “habitable zones” wherewater could exist in a liquidstate on a planet’s surface.

Examining a habitablezone on a planetary system14 light years away, Mr. Kanefound that unlike Earth,which experiences climaticchanges such as an ice agebecause of slow variations inits orbit around the sun, Wolf1061c’s orbit changes at afaster rate, which may meanits climate could be quitechaotic. — IANS

Astronomerstudies ‘habitable’exoplanet

PARIS: Up to now he has al-ways been the simple-minded second fiddle to As-terix. But Obelix, the Gallichero’s sturdy sidekick, is fi-nally to get a starring role inthe French comic bookseries.

The menhir delivery manwho gained his superhumanstrength by falling into a ma-gic potion when he was ababy, takes the lead in thenext story, its publishersconfirmed on Friday.

Few details of the adven-ture — which will hit theshelves in October — havebeen released other than thatthe story will take place out-side France.

Naturally, it will have to beset in a country with ahealthy wild boar popula-tion, if Obelix isn’t to starve.

“After having stayed inGaul for Asterix and theMissing Scroll (2015), ourheroes go beyond its fronti-ers to make some gastro-nomic discoveries and meetthe local celebrities,” its au-thors, writer Jean-Yves Ferriand cartoonist Didier Con-rad said.

Legendary creators

The pair have written thelast two Asterix books, in-cluding the Scottish caperAsterix and the Picts, aftertaking over from the comic’s

legendary creators AlbertUderzo and the late ReneGoscinny. Dropping a heavyhint that Obelix would out-shine his cunning partner

this time, publishers Dar-gaud said the hero of thepiece “was not necessarilythe person that you wouldthink”.

The story will be the 37th inthe series that began in theFranco-Belgian comic Pilotein 1959. Asterix has sincebeen translated into morethan 100 languages and soldaround 400 million copiesaround the world. — AFP

COMPELLING TALE: Writer Jean-Yves Ferri next to a cardboardcut-out of Obelix and Asterix. — PHOTO: REUTERS

The adventure, whichis to hit the shelvesin October, will takethe protagonistsoutside France

In new Asterix adventure,sidekick Obelix turns hero

Six scientists haveentered a domeperched atop a re-mote volcano in

Hawaii where they willspend the next eight monthsin isolation to simulate lifefor astronauts travelling toMars, the University ofHawaii has said.

The study is designed tohelp NASA understand hu-man behaviour and perform-ance during long space mis-sions as the U.S. spaceagency explores plans for amanned mission to the redplanet.

“I’m proud of the part weplay in helping reduce thebarriers to a human journeyto Mars,” said the mission’sprincipal investigator KimBinsted. The crew will per-form geological fieldwork

and basic daily tasks in the1,200-sq.ft. dome, located inan abandoned quarry 8,200feet above sea level on the

Mauna Loa volcano onHawaii’s Big Island.

There is little vegetationand the scientists will have

no contact with the outsideworld, said the university,which operates the dome.

Communications with amission control team will betime-delayed to match the20-minute travel time of ra-dio waves passing betweenthe Earth and the Mars.

“Daily routines includefood preparation from onlyshelf-stable ingredients, ex-ercise, research and field-work aligned with NASA’splanetary exploration ex-pectations,” the universitysaid.

The NASA-funded mis-sion, known as the HawaiiSpace Exploration Analogand Simulation (Hi-SEAS), isthe fifth of its kind intendedto create guidelines for jour-neys to Mars, 56 million kmfrom Earth. — Reuters

Scientists simulate Mars missionAn isolated dome in Hawaii will be their home for the next eight months

FUTURISTIC OUTLOOK: The isolated dome in Hawaii is located8,200 feet above sea level. — UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII/AP

KOLKATA: The rare sighting of atiger in upper Neora ValleyNational Park in WestBengal’s Darjeeling districthas brought cheers to con-servationists and wildlifeenthusiasts.

Anmol Chhetri was driv-ing downhill on Thursdaywhen he spotted a RoyalBengal tiger between Pe-dong and Lava. He quicklytook a photograph of the elu-sive predator.

“It is not just the photo-graphs. Range oicer SujataGurung reached the spotwhere the tiger was spottedand found pugmarks. A half-eaten carcass of a cattlealong with tiger scat wasfound at the spot,” PradeepVyas, Principal Chief Con-

servator of Forests and ChiefWildlife Warden, WestBengal, told The Hindu.

Mr Vyas said evidences ofthe presence of tigers innorth Bengal, in areas suchas the Buxa Reserve, have

been found in the past butthere was no photographicproof for the past four dec-ades. According to forest of-ficials, the tiger was sightedat height of 7,000- 8000 feetabove sea level.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

ELUSIVE PREDATOR: The tiger sighted in the Neora Valley NationalPark in West Bengal. — PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Blink and miss: Tiger sightedafter 40 years in north Bengal

Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam to get spin-off

Dwayne Johnson is set to star asantagonist Black Adam in Shazamand now DC Entertainment has

decided to make a spin-off based on hischaracter. The DC comics characterShazam, aka Captain Marvel, is the alterego of a boy named Billy Batson.Batson can transform into a superhero bysaying the word “Shazam”. Black Adamis Shazam’s arch nemesis, reportedVariety. While Darren Lemke isset to pen the script of thesuperhero film, New Line Cinemahas not yet named a writer ordirector for the spin-off. — PTI

Swirls of colour

A Buddhist monk from Bhutan performs the Black Hat mask dance at the Royal Bhutan temple in Bodhgaya, Bihar, onFriday. The dance is an annual ritual believed to remove obstacles in the path of a goal. — PHOTO: AFP

BERLIN: An Israeli satirist inGermany has launched awebsite using savage hu-mour and shocking imagesto publicly shame visitors toBerlin’s Holocaust memorialwho post light-heartedselfies on social media.

The website by Berlin-based artist and activistShahak Shapira, 28, is calledYolocaust, combining thewords Holocaust and Yolo —hashtag shorthand for “youonly live once”, and went livethis week. It features a taste-less collection of photos Mr.Shapira says he found postedon social networks such asFacebook, Instagram andTwitter and also dating siteslike Tinder and Grindr. Thesubjects are dancing, smil-ing, juggling and even doingyoga at the sprawling maze-like memorial.

Mr. Shapira says the pro-vocative project is intendedas a wake-up call for socialmedia enthusiasts who maybe unaware that they are onwhat many see as sacredground. It is also timed tomark International Holo-

caust Remembrance Day onJanuary 27.

Answering a list of “fre-quently asked questions”,Mr. Shapira addresses issuessuch as what kind of beha-viour is “allowed” at the Ber-lin site, whose full title is theMemorial to the MurderedJews of Europe and which hesays draws an average 10,000visitors per day.

He also pre-empts poten-tial criticism of his use of thedistressing images with a bitof gallows humour. “’Isn’tthis disrespectful towardsthe victims of the Holo-caust?’ Yes, some people’sbehaviour at the memorialsite is indeed disrespectful,”he writes. “But the victimsare dead, so they’re probablybusy doing dead people’sstuf rather than caring aboutthat.” — AFP

The satirical projectwants visitors tothink about respectfulbehaviour at the memorial

Israeli artist skewersHolocaust selfie trend

ROME: It was a passion forfootball that madeCameroonian Yvan Sagnetwant to pursue his studies inTurin, home to Italy’s mostfamous club, Juventus.

But once settled in thenorthern city, the telecommgraduate found himselfdriven by another cause: pro-tecting migrant workersfrom ruthless exploitation inthe farm fields of the coun-try’s south, often at the handsof organised crime.

Now 31, Mr. Sagnet is soonto be named a Knight of Ita-ly’s Order of Merit in recog-

nition of his work in expos-ing what many havedescribed as a modern formof slavery. “People talk aboutpoverty and misery in Africabut, here, in southern Italy, inthe heart of Europe, I have

seen human beings strippedof every last scrap of dignity,”the activist and writer said.

Mr. Sagnet first arrived inTurin a decade ago. It wasonly by chance that, in 2011,he discovered “caporalato”, anotoriously exploitative sys-tem under which farm own-ers recruit fruit pickers andother seasonal workersthrough an intermediary.

A failed exam meant thestudent was no longer en-titled to a maintenance grant.

ments, now outlawed but stillwidespread, the employers,who are the real beneficiar-ies of workers’ labour, avoidboth payroll taxes and re-sponsibility for the workersbeing paid illegally lowwages. Mr. Sagnet becamethe spokesman of the mini-revolt, for a strike that was tolast a month and end with theworkers winning improvedpay and convictions for sev-eral intermediaries and em-ployers. — AFP

“I had to make somemoney and so, on the adviceof a friend, I went of to picksome tomatoes,” he recalled.

His trip saw him end up inNardo, on the heel of theItalian boot, where he hadheard a farm was looking forday workers.

“At the place there was atented village with 800 work-ers living with only fiveshowers and unimaginablehygiene conditions,” he said.

Under caporalato arrange-

A Cameroonian who shed light on Italy’s ‘modern slavery’

Yvan Sagnet

He fought to protectmigrant workers fromruthless exploitationas labourers in farmsand fields