ˇˆ˙ · 2019. 6. 12. · crossing and later came to Shamli station for further updates when he...

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In a deadly terror strike on apatrol party, two motorcycle-

borne terrorists shot five CRPFmen, including two officers, onthe busy Khannabal-Pahalgam(KP) road — Amarnath pil-grims travel via this road to thecave shrine — in SouthKashmir’s Anantnag districton Wednesday. Three otherCRPF jawans and two Jammu& Kashmir policemen receivedgrievous injuries.

Though Al-UmarMujahideen, a a Pakistan-based defunct terror group,has claimed responsibility forthe strike, officials, however,said that it was a handiwork ofJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

The terror strike took placedespite heightened level ofsecurity ahead of the beginningof annual Amarnath yatra fromJuly 1. This is the first majorterror attack on the CRPF afterthe “dastardly” Pulwama terrorattack in which 40 CRPF per-sonnel were martyred inFebruary this year.

As the terrorists attackedthe CRPF patrol party whichfought the ultras and lost its fivepersonnel, immediately addi-tional forces, led by StationHouse Officer of Saddar policestation in Anantnag ArshadAhmed, reached the encounterspot but had to face indis-criminate firing from the ter-rorists who also hurledgrenades at them. In the ensur-ing gunfight, one terrorist wasneutralised near Oxford school

in the heart of busy Anantnagtown, while the other managedto escape, officials said.

Jammu & Kashmir Policespokesman in Srinagar said, “Inthis terror incident, five CRPFpersonnel attained martyrdomwhile repulsing the terrorattack. Three security forcepersonnel, including AnantnagSHO Inspector Arshid Khan,sustained gunshot injuries. Inthe retaliatory action, a terror-ist was gunned down on the

spot. From the materials recov-ered, it is found that the deadterrorist was a foreigner.”

Despite suffering loss oflives, security forces tookutmost care to avoid any col-lateral damage in the busymarket area. All the shops inthe area immediately downedtheir shutters and people mov-ing in the area ran for safety asterrorists targeted the patrolparty by lobbing grenades andopening indiscriminate firing.

Due to the presence oftourists in Pahalgam, securityforces cordoned off all the linkroads connecting the famoustourist destination. Two ASIrank CRPF officers and threeconstables attained martyrdomin the terror attack, officialsources told The Pioneer.

Inspector Arshid Khanreceived bullet injuries on hischest and was rushed to mili-tary hospital for advance med-ical treatment. A young girl wasalso injured in the terror attack.

The martyred CRPF per-

sonnel have been identified asASI Ramesh Kumar of Jhajjar,Haryana; ASI Nirod Sarma ofNalbari, Assam; constableSatendra Kumar ofMuzaffarnagar, UP; constableMahesh Kushwaha of Gazipur,UP; constable Sandeep Yadavof Dewas, MP.

J&K Director General ofPolice Dilbagh Singh alongwith senior officers visitedcommand hospital andenquired about health of thepersonnel injured in theAnantnag terror attack.

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The newly-elected firstwoman Bar Council chair-

person of Uttar Pradesh,Darvesh Singh Yadav, wasgunned down in Agra onWednesday by a long-timeacquaintance who tried tocommit suicide and is battlingfor life with bullet injuries.

On Wednesday, Darveshattended a felicitation pro-gramme on the Civil Courtpremises in Agra and laterwent into the chamber oflawyer Arvind Kumar Mishra.

While Darvesh and Arvindwere chatting, another lawyerManish Sharma, long-timeacquaintance of Darvesh,entered the room and firedthree shots at Darvesh from hislicensed revolver. Manish thentried to end his life by shoot-ing himself. Darvesh was pro-nounced dead on beingbrought to hospital, whileMansih is in critical condition.

Additional DG Ajay Anandrushed to the spot. Initialenquiry revealed that the victimand the assailant had a heatedargument over some issue beforethe felicitation programme.

Last Sunday, Darvesh andHarishanker Singh of Varanasiwere jointly elected as chair-persons of UP Bar Council inPrayagraj as both poled 12votes each. As per an agree-ment, Darvesh was given thepost for the first six monthswhile Harishanker was to takeover for the next six months.

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The Union Cabinet onWednesday decided to re-

introduce the Triple Talaq Billin the forthcoming ParliamentSession and extend PresidentRule in Jammu & Kashmir by six months.

Addressing mediapersonsafter the Cabinet meeting,Information & BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid a fresh Bill to ban the prac-tice of instant triple talaq willbe introduced to replace theOrdinance issued in February.

The fresh Bill will be intro-duced in the Budget Session ofParliament, beginningMonday, he said. The new Bill

is having the same provisionsof the second amendment Billhaving provisions of reachingcompromise between the hus-band and wife to avoid furtherprosecution. Due to theprotests by Opposition parties,the previous Governmentcould not pass the Bill in theRajya Sabha.

Javadekar informed thatPresident Rule in Jammu &Kashmir will be extended by sixmore months beginning July 3.

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Aviral video has exposedthe brutal face of the

Government Railway Police(GRP) whose men mercilesslythrashed a news channelreporter and allegedly urinat-ed at him for doing a story onthe derailment of a good trainand illegal vendors at Shamlirailway station, Uttar Pradesh,on Tuesday evening. Two rail-way policemen have been sus-pended for allegedly thrashingthe journalist.

Amit Sharma, who workedfor a well-known Hindi chan-nel, had gone to cover an inci-dent of derailment of a freighttrain near Dheemanpur railwaycrossing and later came toShamli station for furtherupdates when he was grabbedby the GRP personnel. They punched and kicked himin front of the public anddetained him.

“It all began sometimeback when I blew the cover of

an illegal trade racket run byGRP personnel in the trains, Ireported the story and sincethen I have been on the targetof the GRP men. Last night,without any fault of mine, I wasbeaten and locked up. I was tor-tured while I was held captivelast night. I demand strictaction on the people involvedin beating me up,” he said.

After the video of SHO(GRP) Rakesh Kumar and con-stable Sunil Kumar thrashingthe journalist went viral, ahuge number of journaliststhronged the GRP stationprotesting the incident.

After much hullaballoo,police ordered a probe onWednesday morning.Preliminary investigationrevealed that the GRP person-nel were inebriated.

“They damaged my cam-era, hit and abused me. I waslocked up, stripped and theyurinated at me,” Sharmaalleged.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi’s aircraft will not fly

over Pakistan airspace on itsway to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstanfor the SCO summit startingThursday. The decision cameafter India first requestedPakistan to open its airspace forthe Indian PM and Islamabadagreed to do so.

“The Government of Indiahad explored two options forthe route to be taken by theVVIP aircraft to Bishkek. Adecision has now been takenthat the VVIP aircraft will flyvia Oman, Iran and CentralAsian countries on the way toBishkek,” a External AffairsMinistry spokesperson said.

Pakistan PM Imran Khantoo is attending the SCO meet.

Pakistan had closed its air-space on February 26 afterIAF planes bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp inPakistan’s Balakot.

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The Delhi Government’s freeride scheme for women

appears to have hit its firstroadblock as the Delhi MetroRail Corporation (DMRC) hastold the Government that thescheme will have to be firstplaced before the Fare FixationCommittee of Delhi Metro asper the Metro Act before itsimplementation.

However, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onWednesday said, “DMRCbelieves the approval of theFare Fixation Committee willbe needed for the rollout of thescheme. The Fare FixationCommittee should ordinarilynot be required in this casebecause this is not a matter offare fixation. However, if theDMRC thinks it is necessary,

we will go ahead with it,” saidKejriwal.

The Delhi Metro has sub-mitted its proposal on the freetravel for women in the Metro,a week after the DelhiGovernment gave the DelhiMetro and the Delhi TransportCorporation a plan to submitwithin a week to implement thescheme in next three months.

Kejriwal said concrete planhas come out and majorprogress has been made by theDMRC. The CM said theDMRC has come with twooptions to implement thescheme in the city for woman and girls. However,both the options will take timeto implement.

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In an apparent bid to bringpeace in a State burning

since the conclusion of gener-al elections, Bengal GovernorKN Tripathi on Wednesdaycalled an all-party meet at 4 pmon Thursday.

The Governor’s invite cameclose on the heels of a violentclash between BJP workersmarching towards the policeheadquarters at Lalbazar andthe Kolkata Police, which usedwater cannons, burst teargasshells, and lathi-charged thesaffron crowd led by seniorleaders like State BJP presidentDilip Ghosh, Mukul Roy, RahulSinha, Kailash Vijayvargiya,Locket Chatterjee and others.

In the melee, about 50people, including State party

general secretary RajuBanerjee, was injured and hadto be hospitalised with headinjuries, Ghosh said, adding“Mamata Banerjee and herTrinamool Congress are stok-ing violence by using a partic-ular community.”

The Governor is known tohave written to BJP, Trinamool,CPI(M) and Congress to attendthe meeting, sources said.

The BJP said it would sendits team headed by seniorleader JP Majumdar whileTMC MP Abhishek Banerjeesaid his party “has no problemin joining the meeting if it isabout restoration of peace,”adding senior Minister ParthoChatterjee could represent theparty in the meeting. CongressState president Somen Mitrasaid he would attend the meet-ing. CPI(M) said State partysecretary Suryakanto Mishrawould join the talks.

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New Delhi: The DelhiGovernment has finally notifiedthe much awaited new fare slabfixed for the auto-rickshaws onWednesday after almost a gap ofsix years. The new fare hike hasbeen approved and notified bythe Transport Minister KailashGahlot. The new fares will beissued to the public in two-threedays. As per the new scheme,the auto-rickshaw fare has beenhiked by 18.75 per cent.

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Bengaluru: India’s secondsojourn to the moon,Chandrayaan-2, would belaunched on July 15, IndianSpace Research Organisation(ISRO) announced onWednesday, as it is all set for themost complex mission everundertaken by it.

Under the nearly �1,000crore mission, the landing onthe moon near the South Polewould be on September 6 or 7on an uncharted territory,ISRO chairman K Sivan said.

The Lander, named afterthe father of the Indian spaceprogramme, Vikram Sarabhai,will touch down on a ruggedlunar surface in the finaldescent, which, would be the“most terrifying moment” ofthe mission. “This 15 minutesis going to be terrifying to allof us not only people fromISRO, but for entire India,because the space agency hasnever undertaken such type ofcomplex flight,” he said.

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Along with high speed con-nectivity, the National

Capital Region TransportCorporation (NCRTC) whichis implementing RRTS project,will develop 12 metro stationsbetween Meerut South toModipuram and areas betweenBegumpur and Modipuram,thus making travel easier forthe people in Delhi andMeerut, the plan is to provid-ing metro connectivity in theplaces that fall between thesestretches.

With metro stations bein-ng included, the total count ofstations will rise to 24.Moreover, this will be firsttime that Rapid Rail TransitSystem (RRTS) and Mass RapidTransit System (MRTS) ser-vices will be operated togeth-er at one time in same infra-structure.

Earlier, the proposal was toconstruct the metro stationparallel to the RRTS route, ofwhich the estimated cost wasabout �8500 crore approxi-mately. But with the metroalignment on the same rapidrail infrastructure, the cost hasbeen reduced and an approxi-mate amount of �6300 crorewill be saved.

“This optimization excel-lence is for first time in thecountry in which the govern-ment is saving billion dollarinvestment as well as will pro-vide seamless network and aconvenient travelling for thelakhs of commuters. Earlier,there was a metro plan on thesame alignment parallel to theRRTS route. But with the newplan will be ready with anapproximate amount of �2000crores by saving �6300 crores,”said Sudhir Sharma, a senior

NCRTC official. Besides, the estimated bud-

get of the 82 Km long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is�30274 crores (approx).

“Further, it will save timeand money. For example, a per-son boarded a train fromRethani and he wants to gotowards Modinagar or Delhi orMuradnagar, he has to onlycome to Meerut South on thesame platform he can de-boardand can interchange for Delhior Modipuram directly throughrapid rail,” added the official.

As per the official, therewill be total 24 stations in theDelhi Meerut Corridor, ofwhich two will be station cumdepot, 12 metro stations(including three RRTS station)and remaining are RRTS sta-tions.

There will be seven prior-ity sections from Sarai KaleKhan to Duhai via Saibabadand Ghaziabad. The metro sta-tion with interchange stationswill have four tracks and themetro station will have thecapacity of three coaches. The12 metro station are MeerutSouth (interchange to rapidrail), Partapur, Rithani,Shatabdi Nagar, Brahmpuri,Meereut Central, Bhaisali,Begumpul(interchange) , MEScolony, Daurli, Meerut Northand Modi Puram (inter-change). Out of these, eight willbe elevated and four will beunderground station.

The project was approvedby the Union Cabinet on 19thFebruary and the Uttar Pradesh(UP) government has sanc-tioned its approval on 3rdMarch this year. The PrimeMinister Narendra Modi laidfoundation stone for on 8thMarch. The pre-constructionon this corridor has started.

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Dust storm with thunder-storm activities brought

much needed respite forDelhiites, with this maximumtemperature brought down to41.6 degree Celsius atSafdarjung observatory onWednesday though air qualityrecorded poor due to localiseddust lifting. Flight operationsat Indira Gandhi InternationalAirport (IGIA) also interrupt-ed as nine domestic flightsdiverted till 18;30 hrs.

According to IndianMeteorological Department(IMD), a dust storm hit sever-al parts of the national capital.Importantly, from past fewdays, the national capital wasreeling under the severe tohigh severe heat wave. OnMonday, the maximum tem-perature broke all the historicrecords as maximum temper-ature was settled at 48 degreeCelsius.

Private weather forecasterSkymet Weather said parts ofDelhi and NCR could also seeheavy showers. The Palamobservatory recorded a high of43.4 degrees Celsius and a lowof 32.4 degrees.

With dust in Delhi air, theprimary pollutant ParticulateMatter (PM) 10 recorded 200Micro Cubic per gram. “Co-efficient and settling of coars-er dust particles as expected,SAFAR updated its report.

SAFAR mentioned aboutthe movement of dust storm.“Dust storm from Afghanistanand Pakistan is presently locat-ed in north west Arabian seaand Pakistan due to the devel-opment of severe cyclonicstorm Vayu which is pulling airmass from that region, the tra-jectory of dust plume is mod-

ified,” SAFAR explained withgraphical representation.

“Delhi is likely to be out ofheavy air quality episode butAQI will remain poor categor-ically for next two days.Western disturbances withthunderstorm is looming large.Gusty winds may further leadto local dust lifting if local heatwave condition continue toprevail resulting in increasinglevels of coarser particlesPM10,” SAFAR highlighted airquality forecast for Delhi.

Meanwhile, RegionalWeather Department (DelhiWing ) forecast weekly weath-er report . As per the update ,Delhi will witness rain on 16,17 and 18 June while thunder-storm and strong surface windactivities will occur on June 14and 15.

With these activities inDelhi , the maximum temper-ature may oscillate between 39degree Celsius and 43 degreeCelsius, the good news forDelhi people is days of heatwave over.

The minimum tempera-ture will fluctuate between 28degree Celsius and 31 degreeCelsius throughout the week!

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Delhi Police on Wednesdayclaimed to have arrested a

29 year-old man who hadallegedly slaughtered a cowand then thrown its parts withintention to provoke commu-nal riots in the NationalCapital’s Harsh Vihar area onthe day of ‘Holi festival’. Policesaid that the accused Imran wason the run after committing thecrime and he was randomlychanging his hideout in UttarPradesh (UP). Police had alsodeclared a reward of Rs 25thousand on information lead-ing to his arrest.

The accused Imran, a res-ident of Ghaziabad, in 2016 hadkilled a buffalo by injecting poi-son and was arrested by thesleuths of Loni police stationunder section of NDPS Act.

According to PramodSingh Kushwaha, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Special Cell, on March21, in the early morning, localresidents of Harsh Viharnoticed that some body parts ofa slaughtered cow and an ani-mal fetus were which werelying near the boundary wall ofArora Farms in Harsh Vihar.

“Gradually, people gath-ered there and they were high-ly provoked on seeing thescene. People of majority com-munity had gathered on theroads and had held demon-stration to protest cow slaugh-ter, but timely and swift action

by local police helped in easingthe situation,” said the DCPadding that a case under429/432/153-A of Indian PenalCode (IPC), 11L of Preventionof Cruelty to Animals Act andDelhi Agricultural CattlePreservation Act was regis-tered at Harsh Vihar police sta-tion and investigation wastaken up.

“During investigation,three associates of the accusedImran, identified as Parvez,Lukman and Insallaham werearrested but Imran went under-ground. On June 11 specificinputs were received that Imranwho has been hiding some-where in Uttrakhand wouldcome to meet his family mem-bers near Loni roundabout inthe early hours of Wednesdayfollowing which a trap was laidand the accused was arrested,”said the DCP.

“During interrogation, theaccused disclosed that he alongwith his associates had con-spired to flare up communaltension between two commu-nities (Hinud and Muslims) inthe area of Harsh Vihar on theday of Holi celebration. As perplan, they slaughtered a cowand mischievously spread bodyparts of cow to create commu-nal tension and a law andorder problem in the area,” saidthe DCP

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Peak Power demand in Delhihas shattered all the records,

touching to highest of the sea-son 6,904 MW on Wednesday.BRPL and BYPL successfullymet the peak power demand of2951 MW and 1580 MW intheir respective areas. Thispower demand may furtherincrease during the nighthours.

Delhi’s peak powerdemand during the summers of2019 may clock 7400 MW.Last summers, they breachedthe 7000 MW for the firsttime - peaking at 7016 MW.Peak power demand in BRPL’area of South and West Delhi,which had reached 3081 MWduring the summers of 2018, isexpected to touch around 3200MW this year. In BYPL’ area ofEast and Central Delhi, thepeak power demand whichhad reached 1561 MW last yearis expected to touch around1640 MW.

A senior BSES official saidthat cooling load is the mainreason factor behind theincrease in Delhi’s power load.In fact, according to estimates,almost around 50 per cent ofDelhi’s power demand in sum-mers is because of the coolingload (AC, coolers and fans).

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Delhi Congress presidentSheila Dikshit called on

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalon Wednesday and demandedsix-month waiver to powerconsumers in the city, sayingthat the customers have alreadybeen paid over �7,401 crore asincreased fixed charges andsurcharge for pension fund.

Delhi Chief Ministeragreed to order a probe intohow the discoms were allowedto collect �7401 crores on fixedcharges and pension accounts,the party said in a statement.

A party delegation led by

Dikshit asked Kejriwal toimmediately roll back the fixedcharges and pension funds,being illegally collected fromthe power consumers. A mem-orandum signed by Dikshitwas submitted to Kejriwal.“The Delhi Congress demandsthat the AAP governmentshould not bill the powerconsumers in Delhi for next sixmonths as the state govern-ment has illegally collected�7,401 crore from them in thename of fixed charges andpensions funds to favour(power) discoms,” it said. TheDelhi Congress has stepped upattack on the ruling AAP overissues related to power and water supply, which the ruling dispensation claims were its

biggest achievements, with theDelhi assembly polls due inearly 2020.

After meeting withKejriwal, Dikshit said that theCongress delegation met theChief Minister to tell himabout the problems being facedby the people of Delhi, partic-ularly the power outage and thesevere water shortage, andbecause of that, people arebeing put to endless woes inthese severe summer days.

Besides Dikshit, workingpresidents Haroon Yusuf,Rajesh Lilothia and DevenderYadav, former Delhi MinistersRamakant Goswami, Dr KiranWalia, spokespersons Jitender

Kumar Kochar (Jitu) andHarnam Singh were membersof the delegation who attend-ed the meeting.

Haroon Yusuf said thatthis was a blatant lie as theElection Code of Conduct hadcome into force only fromMarch, 2019 whereas the fixedcharges issue, which the DelhiCongress has been raising timeand again, had been hangingfire for the past one year.

Yusuf said that the AAPGovernment’s promise of pro-viding 24-hour uninterruptedpower supply has proved to bea hollow promise, as the peo-ple of Delhi have been goingthrough a harrowing time due

to the frequent power cuts inthe national Capital. “TheCongress privatised the powerdistribution in Delhi to ensureuninterrupted power supplyeven at the peak of summer.Before privatizations, the cityused to experience power cutsranging from 12 to 18 hours.

He said that the delegationalso demanded that the AAPGovernment should immedi-ately stop charging 3.8 percent pension fund in the powerbills as when the tripartiteagreement with the discomswas signed, it was agreed uponthat whatever gap there is in thepension funds would be filledby the discoms.

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Concerned over spurt incases of vector borne dis-

eases, South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) onMonday decided to educatepeople to purchase mosquitofree coolers developed by the‘Non-Communicable DiseasesControl Programme’(NCDCP) considering thatthere is no scope of mosquitobreeding in such coolers.

The South Corporationorganised a workshop for thecouncilors, Resident WelfareOffice bearers and members ofthe civic body to spread aware-ness against vector borne dis-eases.

Speaking on this occasionSDMC Mayor Sunita Kangrastated that Dengue,Chikungunia and Malaria eruptonly because of the accumula-tion of the clean water onwhich female mosquitos breed.

“It is easy to stop breedingof the mosquitoes by taking afew precautions such as clean-ing and drying up all thoseutensils, tyres, coolers, flowerpots and other articles prone toaccumulation of water andputting full sleeves clothes toavoid mosquito bites particu-larly in the case of kids andschool going children,” shesaid.

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With arrest of three crimi-nals, Delhi Police on

Wednesday claimed to havesolved several cases of murder,attempt to murder, robbery,snatching, extortion and ArmsAct registered across NationalCapital and its neighbouringstate Haryana. Police have alsorecovered three country-madepistols, six country-made kat-tas, and 19 cartridges from thepossession of the accused.

The accused identified asLakshay Parashar (23), NitinYadav (22) both residents ofDelhi’s Bawana and Jatin (19)a resident of Sampla in districtRohtak of Haryana, werenabbed by the sleuths of OuterNorth Delhi district while theywere coming to Bawana on astolen bike to commit a crime.

According to GauravSharma, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),Outer North district, on June 11,specific inputs were received thatsome wanted criminals wouldbe coming to area of Bawana.

“Acting on the informationa trap was laid on AuchandiBorder, near Police PostDariyapur. Police team tried tostop three persons, who werecoming on a Splendor bike buton seeing police they tried fleebut were nabbed after a briefchase,” said the DCP.

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The Delhi Government hasfinally notified the much

awaited new fare slab fixed forthe auto-rickshaws onWednesday, after almost a gapof six years. The new fare hikehas been approved and notifiedby the Transport ministerKailash Gahlot on Wednesday.The new fares will be issued tothe public in two-three days. Asper the new scheme, the auto-rickshaw fare has been hiked by18.75 percent.

The Delhi TransportDepartment has notified andsent the notification to theState Transport Authority(STA) to publish the newguidelines in ‘Gazette-Part-IV’of extra ordinary of TransportDepartment. “In suppression ofearlier notifications in thisbehalf and in exercise of thepowers conferred by clause (i)of sub section (1) of section 67of the Motor Vehicles (MV) act,1988 and having regard toclause (d) of the said sub-sec-tion following directions havebeen hereby by issued StateTransport Authority,” read thenotification a copy of which iswith The Pioneer.

“This scheme does notneed any approval from theLieutenant Governor (LG) asper the Motor Vehicle Act.Thus, the new fare for auto-

rickshaw has notified and hasbeen send to the STA whichwill conduct an official meet-ing and then will issue a pub-lic notice regarding the matter,”said a high ranking official.

The fares have been hikedby 18.75 percent and as per theofficial notification, for thefirst fall of 1.5 kilometre (upondowning the metre) Rs 25 willbe charged by an auto-rickshawin the day time and therafterRs. 9.50 per km for every addi-tional km. The fare alsoincludes Rs 0.50 charges, forhaving global positioning sys-tem (GPS), General packetradio Servcie, control room.

During the night hours, 25percent of the day time fareswill be charged between 11:00PM to 5:00 AM. Further, thewaiting charges will be chargedat the rate of Rs. 0.75 perminute and will be applicablefor every one minute (no limitof minimum 15 minutes as ear-lier when the vehicle is sta-tionery or stuck in traffic ormoving extremely slow (lessthan 1km covered in 10 min-utes.

Rs 7.50 shall be charged asextra for carrying luggage. “Rs7.50 will be charged as extraluggage charge wheras the driveor operator shall not charge anyextra amount for shopping bagor a small attaché/suitcase,”read the notifuication.

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The UK High Court onWednesday rejected Nirav

Modi’s bail application, hisfourth attempt as the diamondmerchant fights his extraditionfrom Britain to India in thenearly USD 2 billion PunjabNational Bank (PNB) fraudand money laundering case.

In her judgment handeddown at the Royal Courts ofJustice in London, JusticeIngrid Simler concluded thereare “substantial grounds” tobelieve that the 48-year-oldfugitive diamantaire would failto surrender as he does possessthe means to “abscond”.

Reiterating similar con-cerns as those raised by thelower court in the UK duringprevious bail hearings, JudgeSimler ruled that after consid-ering all the material “careful-ly”, she had found strong evi-dence to suggest there hadbeen interference with wit-nesses and destruction of evi-dence in the case and con-cluded it can still occur.

“The applicant has accessto considerable financialresources, supported by anincreased (bail bond security)offer of 2 million pounds,” the

Judge noted.“It is difficult, in my judge-

ment, to see how the UK is asafe haven as there is no case ofhim being tried here… Thereare still places in the world onecan escape to, which are aneven safer haven from the

Indian investigating authori-ties,” she said, counteringModi’s lawyers’ assertion thathe did not have any incentiveto flee the UK as he sees it as asafe haven of justice.

The judge stressed thatwhile it was not for her to take

a “definitive view” on the evi-dence, she had proceeded onthe basis that the governmentof India has acted in good faithin what is “undoubtedly” aserious case and a “sophisti-cated international conspiracy”to defraud together withmoney laundering.

Simler concluded that it is“difficult to predict” how Modiwould react to developments inthe extradition process, whichraises a “strong incentive” offailure to surrender before theUK courts to avoid returning toIndia. “All 12 witnesses makesimilar allegations – they werethreatened and kept in fear…in all these circumstances, thereis compelling evidence thatthe applicant (Modi) and thoseacting on his behalf havesought to interfere and destroyevidence,” the judge noted.

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The BJP Parliamentary PartyExecutive Committee was

constituted on Wednesday withPrime Minister NarendraModi as the leader of the party,Rajnath Singh as Deputy leaderof the party (Lok Sabha),Thawar Chand Gehlot as leaderof party in Rajya Sabha andPiyush Goyal as Deputy leaderof party in the upper house.

Ghelot, a Dalit leader, hasreplaced former FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley whilethe two-time Rajya Sabha MPGoyal will be succeeding UnionMinister Ravi Shankar Prasad,who has been elected to theLok Sabha. Jaitley had request-ed the leadership to relieve himfrom key positions in view ofhis health. Goyal had served asfinance minister for a briefperiod when Jaitley was notwell in the last dispensation ofModi-government.

Union Minister SmritiIrani’s induction in the BJP’sparliamentary party executivecommittee shows elevation inher stature within the partyafter she trounced Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi fromthe Amethi parliamentary con-stituency.

The newly constituted BJPparliamentary party executivecommittee marks generationalshift in the party as perhaps forthe first time L K Advani andMurli Manohar Joshi are notpart of it, as both are not MPs.Besides them, Jaitley andSushma Swaraj are also not itsmembers.

The BJP has also decided tomake Sanjay Jaiswal, the party’sLok Sabha MP from Bihar, itschief whip in the house. He willsucceed Anurag Thakur, who

has become a Minister in thenew Modi Government. It alsothe first time appointed threewomen MPs as its whips,specifically for women parlia-mentarians.

Besides these, three womenwhips and 15 other whips forLok Sabha have also beenappointed for parliamentariansfrom different states, where itsstrength has increased to 303.

Special invitees from LokSabha to the BJP’s parliamen-tary party executive are NitinGadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad,Arjun Munda, Narendra SinghTomar and Jual Oram.

In Rajya Sabha, specialinvitees are J P Nadda, OmPrakash Mathur, NirmalaSitharaman, DharmendraPradhan and PrakashJavadekar. BJP general secre-tary Kailash Vijayvargiya hasbeen reappointed as in-chargeof the party’s parliamentaryoffice and BalasubrahmanyamKumarsu as secretary.

The first meeting of theexecutive will be held on June16 at 3:30 pm, a day before thecommencement of the session.

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Pakistan-based terror groupJaish-e-Mohammad’s affil-

iate Al Umar Mujahideen onWednesday carried out a majorattack killing five CRPF per-sonnel and injuring four othersecurity men about a fortnightbefore the Amarnath Yatra inAnantnag district, also the basearea for the pilgrimage to thecave shrine.

Counter-terrorism expertDr Rituraj Mate said, “Throughthe attack, the terrorists have

sought to deliver a strong mes-sage that the Amarnath Yatrawould be target in the comingdays. The attack could also be asignal to Union Home MinisterAmit Shah that his strong lead-ership would not go unchal-lenged in so far as terror attacksin the Valley are concerned.”

The security forces shoulddeploy more pickets in the areato check terror hits from motor-cycle-borne terrorists as theterrain is suitable for the ter-rorists to use two-wheelers fortargeting the forces and flee

from the crime scene, Mate said,adding either the local militantsshould be weaned away fromthe terror fold or eliminated instrong security action.

The attack could also beaimed at testing the reactionfrom the security forces underShah’s leadership, he added.The location of the attack is thebase area for Amarnath Yatraand the major hit comes daysafter Union Home MinisterAmit Shah reviewed prepara-tions for the Amarnath Yatra thatis beginning on July 1.

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London: A UK High Courtjudge on Wednesday accepteda broad consistency of evidenceput forward by the CrownProsecution Service (CPS),arguing on behalf of the IndianGovernment, in the extraditioncase against fugitive diamondmerchant Nirav Modi.

Justice Ingrid Simler readout a detailed judgment at theRoyal Courts of Justice, inwhich she upheld a lower courtruling to withhold bail andalso summed up the case againstModi — wanted in India as the“principal beneficiary” of thefraudulent issuance of letters ofundertaking (LoUs) in the near-

ly USD 2 billion PunjabNational Bank (PNB) fraudand money laundering case.

“Taken overall, there is abroad consistency of evidence,”Judge Simler noted, as sheaccepted all the concerns raisedby the CPS. Modi’s legal teamhad rejected any of destructionof evidence by him and claimedthat any mobile phones dis-posed of were only to avoidtracking rather than to destroythe material held on them. Butthe judge dismissed this asser-tion, accepting the CPS asser-tion that they were destroyed toobstruct the CBI and ED inves-tigation. PTI

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After the Union Cabinet’s nod, President Ram Nath Kovindwill sign the proclamation for imposition of President’s Rule inthe State and it will come into effect on July 3, a Home Ministryofficial said. The State is under Central rule since June 20, 2018,after BJP withdrawn its support to Mehbooba Mufti Government.

The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister NarendraModi also decided to re-introduce Aadhaar Bill, and amendmentBills to Medical Council, Dentist Council and HomeopathyCouncil. The Cabinet also passed the introduction of New DelhiInternational Arbitration Centre Bill, 2019 to create an interna-tional arbitration in New Delhi. The meeting also approved theCentral Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’Cadre) Bill, 2019” which creates 7,000 existing vacancies to befilled up by direct recruitment in teachers’ cadre. The other Billswere to be introduced are amendment to Jammu & KashmirReservation Rules to implement economic reservation in the Stateand the Bill to speed up the eviction of illegal occupation in pub-lic property.

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From Page 1“The incident took place when the journalist had gone to cover the derail-

ment of a few bogies of a goods trains in Shamli. There was a heated exchangeof words among them and hurling of abuses,” said Ram Lakhan Mishra, the CircleOfficer, GRP, Saharanpur. A senior GRP official said the journalist was releasedaround 7 am on Wednesday.

The Uttar Pradesh Police tweeted, “We have come across a video where ajournalist has been beaten up & put up in a lock up. DGP UP OP Singh hasordered for immediate suspension of SHO GRP Shamli Rakesh Kumar & Const.Sanjay Pawar. Strict punishment shall be accorded to policemen misbehavingwith the citizens.”

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“We welcome the decision. Wehave received Tripathi’s letter. Wewould be attending tomorrow’s meet-ing. May be JP Majumdar will lead thedelegation and if need be more leaderscould be sent there,” he said.

Earlier, even as thousands of BJPworkers marched towards Lalbazarprotesting against rising violence andpolitical deaths in the State particular-ly in and around Basirhat, the policeintercepted them and fired teargasshells and water cannons.

“There was no need to lathi-chargeand fire teargas shells on the crowdbecause we were marching peacefully,”Ghosh later said adding the BJP pro-cession was stopped long before theycould reach the vicinity of Lalbazar.

Claiming that the “Chief Ministerand TMC are so afraid of a surging BJPthat they have started unleashing thepolice on us.” Curiously, even as thenews of violence spread around Kolkata

the administration locked the maingates of Nabanna some 15 km away inHowrah. “The police resorted to lath-charge only when stones and bottleswere pelted on them,” a senior officialsaid adding they had arrested 25 peo-ple for instigating violence. AbhishekBanerjee said the BJP had brought inpeople from districts and even neigh-bouring Bihar and Jharkhand to createtrouble in Kolkata.

Meanwhile, Union Minister BabulSuypriyo slammed TMC and Mamatafor bringing disrepute to Bengal byinstigating violence and attacking theBJP supporters. He said if this situationcontinued then the TMC Governmentwould not even last its full term till2021. Incidentally Mukul Roy alsowrote a letter to Union Home MinisterAmit Shah drawing his attention to thegrim situation in Bengal alleging therewas a “complete breakdown” of law andorder situation in the State. He said thatthe situation should be controlledimmediately failing which it could goout of control.

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The short-term plan willtake at least eight months andthe long-term plan will takemore than a year.

“I want to share some goodnews with the women of Delhi.The DMRC has submitted aconcrete proposal on ourscheme to make public trans-port free for women. Twooptions have been proposed bythem for implementation ofthis scheme. One is a longerterm plan that will take oneyear to implement and willinvolve changing of theDMRC’s software, tokens andcards. However, the secondoption is a short-term, stop gaparrangement,” said Kejriwal.

Under the short-term plan,the women shall be able to pur-chase tokens at ticket windowsand automatic ticket vending

machines (ATVMs) by simplysharing their destination.Separate gate will be there forwoman to enter with the tokenbut the exit gates will remaincommon. The DMRC will notneed to change their software.

“Although the DMRC saysthey need 8 months to roll outthis model, we believe we canwork with their officers andimplement the scheme in thenext 2-3 months. Only twosteps need to be taken by theDMRC - special tokens need tobe printed and in 170 stationswhere ticket windows have beenshut, they need to be reopened.We do not think these steps willtake more than 2-3 months,”said the Chief Minister.

He added that, “TheDMRC has said it expects a 50per cent increase in women rid-ership after the rollout of thisscheme, which means 45-50per cent of the ridership will be

women. This will mean a totalfinancial commitment of Rs1,566.64 crores. The DelhiGovernment has no objectionswith this. Operationally, theDelhi Government will paythe DMRC whatever is theactual cost it incurs. Whetherit is our projection or theDMRC’s, the payments will befinally based on the actualusage of the subsidy.”

Explaining on availability offunds, Kejriwal added that,“The people of Delhi have elect-ed an honest Government,which has increased revenuesand runs in surplus withoutincreasing a single tax in itsterm. We have saved that hardearned money of the people andwill use it to provide the maxi-mum benefit back to the peo-ple. The Government has madefinancial arrangement for theempowerment and security ofwomen. The Delhi Government

will give a commitment to theDMRC that the subsidy will beprovided by the Governmentsimilar to the subsidy paid bythe Government for electricityand water.

When asked about whetherthe policy was discriminatory,CM Kejriwal said, “To those whosay this policy is against genderequality, I ask - Do we have gen-der equality in this country tobegin with? We do not live in acountry that treats women at parwith men. Only 30 per cent ofthe Metro ridership is women.Women form only 11 per cent ofDelhi’s workforce, whereas thenational average is 24 per cent.This needs to change. The kindsof opportunities that will open up for women if their travel becomes free areenormous. It will boost their status as members of theworkforce and boost the economy.”

Washington: Secretary of StateMike Pompeo will discuss theTrump administration’s “ambi-tious agenda” for the US-Indiastrategic partnership when hemeets with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar thismonth in New Delhi, the statedepartment said. Pompeo willtravel to four countries — India,Sri Lanka, Japan and SouthKorea — from June 24 to 30.“Prime Minister Modi’s recentelection victory provides anexcellent opportunity for him toimplement his vision for a strongand prosperous India that playsa leading role on global stage,”state department spokespersonMorgan Ortagus said. PTI

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An innocuous but hilariouscartoon drawn by KK

Subhash, a young artist in Kerala,has earned the wrath of the pow-erful Kerala Catholic BishopCouncil (KCBC) which has lit-erally shown the “red card” to theLeft Democratic FrontGovernment asking the latter toreconsider its decision to selectthe cartoon for the State Award.

It was on Monday, theKerala Lalithkala Akademi , anorganisation under the KeralaGovernment for conservingand promoting visual artsannounced the names of artistswho have been selected for the2018-2019 awards. Subhash’s

cartoon featuring FrankoMulakkal, the tainted bishop ofPunjab who was accused ofmolesting nuns working withhim, was selected as the bestpolitical cartoon. The work,titled Viswasam Rakshathi(Malayalam for ‘Let the BeliefSave Us’) had the image ofMulakkal with the holy stickcarrying undergarments on it.

By Wednesday, the KCBCin a statement asked the KeralaGovernment to cancel theaward as th art work had ‘insult-ed priesthood’ in an obscenemanner. Varghese Vallikkattu,spokesman of KCBC said un astatement that the cartoon hashurt the religious sentiments ofthe Christians. “This action ofthe Kerala Government is a

deliberate move to insult theChurch as an act of vengeanceas the former suspects that theminorities did not vote for theLDF in the recently held LokSabha election,” said Vallikkattu.

But Ramachandran, artcritic and author s of the viewthat the Church was threaten-ing the CPM-led governmentby accusing it of offending thesentiments of the minorities.‘The Church, of late has beenpressurising the government totake action against its ownpeople who are not in thesame page with the former onvarious issues. The actionagainst Paul Thelekkatt, a wide-ly respected priest is a proof ofthis attitude of the Church,”said Ramachandran.

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New Delhi: As mercury touched all-time high in Delhi this summer, water crisis is galore in someparts of the national Capital. Adding to the water crisis woes is the ban on the private water tankersby Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who promised that only Delhi Jal Board water tankerswill be deployed for the purpose in area still awaiting water pipeline.

However, the non-implementation of the CM’s promise has left residents of South Delhi’s Deoliin the lurch. Residents of Yamuna Apartment, Deoli, with about 250 families, are rue, “In the lastfour years, we tried our best and approached all the Government authorities like DJB, local MLA,the CM Janata Adalat, but all in vain. We used to buy water from private tankers, but that is notavailable now after Kejriwal’s fiat. The Delhi Government has imposed a ban on private watertankers without even thinking of alternative solutions for water supplies to apartment.”

They added, “We went to meet the Delhi Jal Board Executive Engineer, but he too refused to helpus as they have only 50 water tankers available with them. As per them, they only provide free waterfacilities to independent houses and not to apartments.” Therefore, the residents of Yamuna Apartmentshave decided to sit on a peaceful protest at the residence of MLA Prakash Jhariwal soon. SR

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Veteran Chinese diplomatSun Weidong, an expert on

South Asia who worked close-ly with External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar during his tenure asAmbassador in Beijing, hasbeen appointed as the country’snew envoy to India.

Sun, who also served as theambassador to Pakistan, is cur-rently the Director General ofthe Policy and PlanningDepartment of the ForeignMinistry. He will succeed LuoZhaohui, who has beenappointed as Vice Minister ofForeign Affairs.

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The first team for search andrescue operation reached

the AN-32 transport aircraftcrash site in Arunachal Pradeshon Wednesday with the man-date to look for possible sur-vivors, remains and secure them besides locate theblack box which will enable theIAF to establish the cause ofmishap.

There were 13 passengerson board the ill-fated planewhich took off from Jorhat,Assam for Mechuka advancedlanding ground in ArunachalPradesh and went missing onJune 3. The wreckage was spot-ted on Tuesday.

Having reached the wreck-age site, the team will camp forthe night and begin the salvageoperation on Thursday as it could not get close to the site on Wednesday dueto inclement weather and terrain.

This unit is part of the 15-member group comprising IAF,Army and civilian moun-taineers. They were airdroppednear the crash site onWednesday morning at twodifferent locations. The debrisis lying on a steep ridge at aheight of 12,000 feet and is pos-

ing a challenge for the searchteams to even reach due todense forests and ruggedmountainous terrain.

While the first team ofexpert mountaineers have nowfashioned a makeshift dirttrack in the thick jungles byhacking foliage, the groundtroops including Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP)and the local police alreadypatrolling the area will comethrough the track laid down bythe mountaineers, sources saidhere on Wednesday.

They also said the unit atthe crash site is finding it dif-ficult to relay information to

the operations room due toerratic signal. However, thepersonnel manage to conveythey will camp there for thenight and resume their task onThursday.

The crash site is 16 kmsnorth of Lipo and north-east ofTato near Mechuka and thewreckage was located by MI-17helicopters on Tuesday aftereight days of relentless andmassive search and rescueoperation.

“A team comprising per-sonnel from IAF, Army andcivil mountaineers have beenairlifted to a location close tothe crash site,” a spokesperson

of the IAF said. It has ninemountaineers of IAF, four ofArmy and two civilian moun-taineers.

The base for the search-and-rescue operation is atKayiang in West Siang districtwith a doctor and other emer-gency services deployed there.The IAF base hospital at Jorhatis also ready to cater to medicalemergencies.

The air dropping of themountaineering team in a M1-17 and two advanced lighthelicopters began at 6.30 am,sources said adding localmountaineers who sighted thecrash site were also called tohelp by the Siang districtadministration. Mechukaadvanced landing ground is inSiang district and the airstrip is30 kms from Line of ActualControl(LAC) facing China asthe crow flies.

The IAF spokesperson saidEastern Command chief AirMarshal R D Mathur compli-mented the search team fortheir relentless effort spanningeight days.

Mathur also thankedArunachal Chief MinisterPema Khandu and ChiefSecretary Satya Gopa forextending unflinching supportto the IAF towards locating themissing An-32.

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As cyclonic storm ‘Vayu’turned ‘severe’ and is

expected to make a landfall inGujarat on Thursday morning,over 1.60 lakh people wereshifted from low-lying areas ofSaurashtra and Kutch regionsto safer places or cyclone shel-ter centres.

While an alert has beensounded in 10 districts ofKutch, Devbhoomi Dwarka,Porbandar, Rajkot, Junagarh,Diu, Gir Somnath, Amreli andBhavnagar of Gujarat, the StateGovernment suspended operations at all ports and air-ports in the coastline areas asa precautionary measure forThursday. For its part, theWestern Railway cancelled 15 trains and short terminated16 others.

The Army, Navy and AirForce the Army, the Air Force,and the NDRF teams aredeployed and put on standbyfor rescue and relief operationsalong the coastal districts.

Prime Minister NarendraModi also urged people to fol-low real-time informationbeing provided by the govern-ment and local agencies tostay safe. “Praying for the safe-ty and wellbeing of all thoseaffected by Cyclone Vayu. Thegovernment and local agenciesare providing real-time infor-mation, which I urge those inaffected areas to closely follow,”

Modi said in a tweet. Also, ear-lier on day, Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi appealed toparty workers to be prepared tohelp out people who are beingaffected by “Vayu”.

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on Tuesdaysaid Vayu has intensified intoa severe cyclonic storm and itwould cause gusty winds toblow at a speed of 145 kmph to170 kmph by Thursday morn-ing. “Vayu, has changed itscourse slightly and would nowhit Gujarat coast anywherebetween Veraval in the southand Dwarka in the west in theafternoon Thursday”, officialssaid.

“The cyclone is now situat-ed around 280 km south of andis very likely to move nearlynorthwards and cross Gujaratcoast between Dwarka andVeraval as a “very severecyclonic storm” with windspeeds of 155-165 kmph gusting to 180 kmph aroundafternoon of Thursday, the IMD

said. After making the landfall,the cyclone is likely to movealong and parallel to Saurashtraand Kutch coast, it said.

The Gujarat and Diuadministration are shifting about 3 lakh peoplefrom the identified vulnerableareas and they are being shift-ed to around 700 cyclone andrelief shelters.

According to officials, flightoperations from Ahmedabad’sSardar Vallabhbhai PatelInternational Airport toPorbandar, Diu, Kandla,Mundra and Bhavnagar inSaurashtra have been cancelledfor Thursday, while all educa-tional institutions have beenshut and tourists on the Gujaratcoast asked to steer out at theearliest.

Two special evacuationtrains have been pressed intoservice with one starting fromOkha in Saurashtra for Rajkotat 5.45 p.m. on Wednesday, andanother at 8.05 p.m. forAhmedabad with 21 coaches.

The Western Railway has alsoannounced that all trains pass-ing through the coastal areashave either been short- termi-nated or cancelled for twodays, from 6 pm onWednesday.

Union Home SecretaryRajiv Gauba Wednesdaychaired a meeting of theNational Crisis ManagementCommittee (NCMC) wherepreparation for relief and res-cue operations were discussedthreadbare.

The NCMC meeting tookstock of the precautionary mea-sures taken by the Gujaratgovernment and Diu UTadministration with a view toensure that no human life islost, damage to vital infra-structure is minimised and toensure early recovery of allessential services post-cyclonelandfall. Odisha, which facedcyclone Fani and earned UN’spraise for its success in mini-mizing loss of lives, has offeredall help to Gujarat.

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Congress president RahulGandhi, who has resigned

as party chief post the LokSabha poll debacle, was con-spicuous by his absence fromthe crucial Congress core com-mittee meeting to discuss theprobable names to lead thegrand old party as an “interimpresident”. So were UPAChairperson Sonia Gandhi andCongress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi, who chose toproceed for their “scheduled”visit to Rae Bareilly which hasbeen the Lok Sabha constituency of the Congress’first family for decades.

While Congress chiefspokesman Randeep Surjewalainsisted after the meeting that“Rahul Gandhi was, is andwill remain the Congress president”, the name of formerUnion Minister A K Antonywas discussed as the probableinterim president until a finalcall for the organisationalrestructuring is done.

“Rahulji was, is and willremain the Congress presi-dent. We have no doubt aboutit,” Surjewala told reporters,when asked about the situationarising out of Rahul’s offer toresign. Senior Congress leadersAhmed Patel, MallikarjunKharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, PChidambaram, KC Venugopal,Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharmaand Surjewala were present inthe meeting chaired by Antony.All the leaders present at the

meeting were members of theparty’s core group, which wasformed for the Lok Sabha polls.

The leaders also discussedthe party’s strategy and prepa-rations for the Assembly elec-tions in Haryana, Jammu andKashmir, Jharkhand andMaharashtra later this year.

Party sources said formerthe likely move of HaryanaChief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda, who could floathis own new political outfit,was also pondered over givenmuch importance. Like otherstate units, Haryana Congresstoo has been a victim of inter-nal squabbles between theHooda, Haryana Congresschief Ashok Tanwar andSurjewala factions. The JindAssembly bye election was thelitmus test for the party inwhich Surjewala lost withoutdirect support from Hoodaand Tanwar.

Rahul had offered to quit asthe party chief during a May 25meeting of the CongressWorking Committee (CWC),which was called to analyse theparty’s poor performance in theLok Sabha polls in which itmanaged to win just 52 seats.The CWC had unanimouslyrejected his offer to quit butRahul was apparently firm onhis stand.

When questioned aboutRahul’s absence, Surjewala clar-ified that contrary to the spec-ulation in the media, there wasno core group in the party nowas all election-related commit-tees had ceased to exist.Surjewala said Venugopal, theAll India Congress Committee(AICC) general secretary,organisation, had said a meet-ing of the party’s general sec-retaries would be called to takestock of the situation arising outof the Lok Sabha polls and onthe upcoming state elections.

New Delhi: The NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA) onWednesday arrested accusedMohammad ArifGhulambashir Dharampuriafrom Gujarat from the IGI Airport here in connectionwith the Falah-i-InsaniyatFoundation (FIF) terror fund-ing case.

The NIA arrestedDharampuria (44), resident ofMota Parasiwad, Valsad,Gujarat who was evading hisexamination and arrest by hid-ing himself in Dubai, UAE forlong. Accordingly, a Look OutCircular (LOC) was issued byNIA and he was detained atIndira Gandhi InternationalAirport, New Delhi on hisarrival from Dubai onWednesday, the NIA said.

This is the fifth arrest in thiscase which is related to receiv-ing of terror funds being sent byFIF operators to their associatesthrough Hawala operators tofurther their nefarious activitiesto create unrest in India. PNS

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The Supreme Court onWednesday refused to

entertain a plea of sackedGujarat-cadre IPS officer SanjivBhatt seeking to examine 11additional witnesses in a 30-year-old custodial death case.

A vacation bench of jus-tices Indira Banerjee and AjayRastogi said that a three-judge bench had already passedan order on May 24 on a sim-ilar plea and therefore it cannotentertain the petition.

Senior advocate ManinderSingh, appearing for theGujarat Government, said thatfinal argument is over in the1989 custodial death case andthe trial court has reserved itsverdict for June 20.

Bhatt is an accused in thecase. He was posted as the addi-tional superintendent of police in Gujarat’s Jamnagar atthat time.

According to the prosecu-tion, Bhatt had detained morethan hundred persons duringa communal riot there and oneof the detainees had died inhospital after he was released.

He was suspended in 2011on charges of remaining absent from duty without per-mission and misuse of officialvehicles, and later sacked inAugust 2015.

Bhatt on Tuesday movedthe apex court, challenging aGujarat High Court orderwhich had denied his requestto summon additional wit-nesses for examination duringthe trial. The GujaratGovernment termed the moveby Bhatt as a tactic to delay the trial.

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The National InvestigatingAgency (NIA) on

Wednesday carried out searches at various places inCoimbatore in connection withthe April 21 serial suicidebombings in Colombo that ledto the killing of over 250 people.

One of the accused,Mohammed Azarudeen,booked recently in the Kerala-Tamil Nadu ISIS module case,was a Facebook friend of SriLankan suicide bomber ZahranHashim and other members ofthe module have also beensharing radical contents attrib-uted to Zahran Hashim, overthe social media.

Sources said the raids wereconducted following suspicionthat explosives were procuredby the Sri Lankan terrorists from Tamil Naduand Kerala. The searches wereconducted in connection withISIS Kerala-Tamil NaduModule Case registered by the NIA on May30 this year.

The named accused in thecase include MohammedAzarudeen (32), AkramSindhaa (26), Y ShiekHidayathullah (38), AbubackerM (29), Sadham Hussain A(26) and Ibrahim alias ShahinShah (28) and others based oninformation received that theaccused persons and their associates were propagatingthe ideology of proscribed ter-rorist organisation ISIS/ Daishon social media with the intention of recruiting vulner-able youth into the ISIS/ Daish

for carrying out terrorist attacks in South Indiaespecially in Kerala and TamilNadu.

The prime accusedMohammed Azarudeen hasbeen the leader of the moduleand has been maintaining theFacebook page named“KhilafahGFX”, through whichhe had been propagating theideology of ISIS/ Daish.

“ Accused MohammedAzarudeen has been a facebookfriend of Sri Lankan suicidebomber Zahran Hashim andother members of the modulehave also been sharing radicalcontents attributed to ZahranHashim, over the social media.Accused Ibrahim alias ShahinShah has been a close associateof arrested accused Riyas Abubacker ISISKasaragod Case registered in2016, who had planned to con-duct terrorist attacks in Kerala,on behalf of the ISIS/ Daish, theNIA said in a statement.

During the searches digitaldevices including 14 mobilephones, 29 SIM cards, 10 pendrives, three laptops, six mem-ory cards, four hard disc drives,one internet dongle and 13CDs/ DVDs besides one dag-ger, one electric baton, 300 air-gun pellets and a large numberof incriminating documentsand few PFI/SDMIpamphlets have been seizedfrom the houses and workplaces of accused persons, theNIA said.

The NIA spokespersonsaid accused persons are beingquestioned regarding theincriminating materials seizedduring the searches.

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A day after announcingscholarship for 5 crore

minority students, UnionMinister for Minority affairsMukhtar Abbas Naqvi onWednesday announced that allwaqf properties across Indiawould be geo-tagged and digi-tised and that the Governmentwill provide 100 per cent fund-ing to develop educationalinstitutions and hospitals onsuch properties for the welfareof society.

Naqvi, while chairing the80th meeting of the CentralWaqf Council here, said thereare around 5.77 lakh registeredwaqf properties across thecountry and their geo-taggingand digitalisation will ensure transparency and safe-ty of records.

The Centre has decided tostart a programme on a warfooting to utilise waqf proper-ties across the country for edu-cational empowerment andemployment-oriented skilldevelopment of the needy,especially economically back-ward girls in those areas which

were deprived of these facilitiessince Independence, theminority affairs minister said.

Prime Minister NarendraModi-led Government hasdecided to provide 100 per centfunding to develop schools, col-leges, ITIs, polytechnics, hos-pitals, multi-purpose commu-nity halls “Sadbhav Mandap”on waqf land underPradhanmantri Jan VikasKarykram (PMJVK), he said.

A programme has beenlaunched for 100 per cent geo-tagging and digitalisation ofwaqf properties across thecountry to ensure these prop-

erties can be utilised for thewelfare of society, Naqvi said.

Naqvi said that while only90 districts of the country hadbeen identified for minoritycommunities’ developmentduring the earlier Government,the Modi Government hasexpanded development pro-grammes for minorities in 308districts of the country.

A report of a five-membercommittee, constituted toreview waqf properties leaserule, headed by Justice (Retd)Zakiullah Khan, has been sub-mitted, Naqvi told reporters.

The recommendations of

the committee will ensure thatwaqf rules are made easy andeffective for better utilisation ofwaqf properties and to freethese properties, several ofwhich are entangled in disputesfor several decades, from dis-putes, he said.

The Central Governmentis taking necessary action onthe recommendations of thecommittee.

The Central Waqf Councilis providing financial help tostate waqf boards for digitali-sation of waqf records so thatstate waqf boards can completedigitalisation work within thedecided time frame.

“GIS/GPS mapping of thewaqf properties has been initi-ated with the help of IIT Roorkiand Aligarh Muslim University.The Central Waqf Council hasprovided video conferencingfacilities to 20 State waqf boardsand it would be provided in theremaining State waqf boards bythe end of this year,” he said.

Naqvi’s announcement ofgeo-tagging of waqf propertiescomes a day after he spelt outthe Government’s plan toempower the minorities.

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Romance and nostalgia surround-ing the grandeur of the Britishempire in the 19th and 20th cen-tury is predicated on “the empireon which the sun never sets.”

This pomposity was extended to includeemerging America in the mid-19th centu-ry to posit the Anglophone domain, asnoted by Alexander Campbell in 1852, “ToBritain and America, god has granted thepossession of the new world; and becausethe sun never sets upon our religion, ourlanguage and our arts…” Subsequently, thetwo world wars of the 20th centurychanged the global narrative and thechurn of history left the British empire tohold on and cast its equation with the USin a Churchellian expression, “specialrelationship.” Befittingly, British PrimeMinister Theresa May sought “a new spe-cial relationship”, while not one to be leftout, US President Donald Trump added hisown to the lexicon by claiming the bilat-eral relationship to be, “the highest level ofspecial!” However, the stark reality of thetwo nations clutching the straws of histo-ry was inevitable as Trump made his statevisit to the UK as May was in the last weekof her notice period.

The usual blusters, clichés and gaffesnotwithstanding, the visit nailed the opticsof an empire that was wilting under theweight of an “unequal” relationship thatbesets any relationship with the USPresident Donald Trump. The quintessen-tial English “correctness” of May helped hermumble over the contentious issuesbetween the two nations, namely, on howto handle Iran, China or even Brexit. Eventhe ostensibly “nasty” past of the once-American and now the Duchess of Sussex,Meghan Markle, was providentially avoid-ed as she was on maternity leave. Yet, thecracks in the sovereign outlook and intru-sions into the domestic affairs of the UKby Trump, had all the hallmarks of a very“Un-English” inelegance and mannerism.From opining on members of the royalfamily, the mayor of London, Oppositionleaders, Brexit negotiations, to even his ownpreferences for the next incumbent of the10 Downing Street — Great Britain wasmade to look rather pedestrian and behold-en to its “special” ally.

Undercurrents of suspicion across theAtlantic have simmered for long and eventhe victory in World War II was marredwith private concerns in the UK, over theruthless negotiations done by the US, toextend crucial support during the war toits “special” ally. Beyond the exactingcommercial terms enforced on the post-war UK, the US denied support to its “spe-cial” ally on Suez Canal, leading to itshumiliating retreat. In 1983, the US invad-ed Grenada in the Caribbean, then suppos-edly a member of the BritishCommonwealth. Even the reciprocal dis-interest in both the Vietnam war and later,

the Falklands, owing to theirindividual compulsions militat-ed against the publically pos-tured alliance. The USSecretary of State during theVietnam War, Dean Rusk, hadfamously told a British journal-ist on the cold feet developedby the British Government incontributing military where-withal: “When the Russiansinvade Sussex, don’t expect usto come and help you.” Deep inthe psyche of the Trans-Atlantic world, only the fear ofthe “others” in the Cold Warera kept the portents of “specialrelationship” going — but thewriting was always on the wall,and with the advent of the busi-nessman-turned-President,the worms came out of thewoodwork.

Serendipitously, a 2003British comedy film, LoveActually, has a role played byHugh Grant as the PrimeMinister of Great Britain, whostands up to the roughshodantics of the visiting USPresident. In it, the BritishPrime Minister calls the bluffon the “special relationship”by saying on the podium withthe US President by his side,“I love that word relationship.Covers all manners of sins,doesn’t it? I fear that this hasbecome a bad relationship.

One that is based on thePresident taking exactly whathe wants and casually ignor-ing all those things that real-ly matter to Britain. We maybe a small country, but we’rea great one too” and then addsfor good measure, “A friendwho bullies us is no longer afriend. And since bullies onlyrespond to strength, fromnow onward, I will be pre-pared to be much stronger.And the President should beprepared for that.”

Unfortunately, in 2019,none of that happened andMay stood meekly by the sideof the US President as he railedagainst the Mayor of London,Sadiq Khan, by calling him a“not good mayor who haddone a poor job.” He thenadded, condescendingly andlordly, that the mayor had crit-icised the “representative of theUS that can do so much goodfor the UK.” Further, with theBritish Prime Minister acqui-escing, Trump went on to callthe head of the Oppositionparty, Jeremy Corbyn, a “neg-ative force.” Completing thepicture of servility was thefinal comments by May,addressed to both the Mayor ofLondon and Corbyn, aboutthe “greatest alliance” that“ensures our safety and securi-

ty and the safety and securityof others around the world,too.” That May was no WinstonChurchill or even MargaretThatcher was all too clear andvisible.

Trump merrily waded intothe bitterly divided waters ofBrexit with his own opinionson its (mis)handling, whilemaking the protocol exceptionto meet the divisive figure ofNigel Farage at the USAmbassador’s residence. Hereiterated Brexit “will happenand it probably should happen”.A hapless empire was left witha visiting US President tellingthem about his personal pref-erences for the next PrimeMinister in Boris Johnson orJeremy Hunt.

Clearly, the days when ablunt Margaret Thatcher couldstand up to the YankeeRepublican President, likeRonald Reagan, who whileurging her to go slow onFalklands, was told off chilling-ly by the ‘Iron Lady’: “I didn’tlose some of my best ships andsome of my finest lives to leavequietly.” Since then, the sun hasindeed firmly set on theempire’s “greatest alliance.”

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Hong Kong wrong” (June12). It is strange that muchapprehension has been raised inIndia about the proposed extra-dition Bill in Hong Kong thatwill allow fugitives to be extra-dited to China. Ironically, India,the world’s largest democracy,has a written Constitution. YetState Governments brazenlyarrest citizens who exercise theirguaranteed right to freedom ofspeech. Despite the SupremeCourt having given clear verdictson this issue, the inalienableright of the citizens is alwaysunder the scanner.

In the latest case, the UttarPradesh government had arrest-ed a freelance journalist forallegedly sharing an objection-able post against Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath on social media.Ultimately, the court had tointervene and pull up the func-tionaries. This was completelyan avoidable situation. Unless afew heads roll at each suchinstance, Governments will con-tinue to transgress .

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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Sir — A perennial rebel, a liber-al to the core and Jnanpithaward-winning playwright, actorand film-maker Girish Karnad’sdeath brings down the curtainson a life that was dedicated to artand literature in every possiblesense of the word. The successof his play Yayati initiated a jour-

ney that saw him pen criticallyacclaimed plays, includingHayvadan, that is often count-ed among the most importantplays of independent India. Healso wrote screenplays forKannada films like Samskaraand Vamsha Vriksha, co-direct-ed by BV Karanth, that usheredin the new wave of Kannada cin-ema. But then, the later gener-ation of film audiences, especial-

ly Hindi cinema, might remem-ber Karnad more for his actingroles than his expansive body ofwork. His persona went beyondthe world of showbiz — a ver-satile career spanning variousmediums and genres.

In a way, he was a rebel bothin cinema and life. By the earlypart of the new millennium,Karnad became one of the mostprominent social voices and there

was rarely a social cause or aburning issue of the day that hehad not commented on. At times,he even incurred the wrath of fel-low artists. Once, Karnadfamously disparaged VS Naipauland Rabindranath Tagore, whichprompted MS Sathyu, the film-maker who made the seminalclassic Garam Hawa, to callKarnad’s comments “stupid.”

JS Acharya Hyderabad

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Sir — In the passing away ofGirish Karnad, the country haslost an extraordinary playwrightwho never shied away fromembracing progressive ideasbesides speaking boldly againstthe pernicious trend of stiflingdissent and the climate of intol-erance. He always took care toensure that Indian theatreorganically linked itself to itsperformative traditions. An eraof ethical and intellectual inspi-ration has ended.

Ravi KanthuriaVia email

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As early as December 2018, it waspredicted that the summer of2019 would deliver punishing

heat wave conditions and going by thespiralling temperatures currently beingexperienced across the country, theprophecy seems to be coming true. Thenational capital Delhi was left scaldedas it experienced temperatures touch-ing 48 degree centigrade as recently asJune 10 — the hottest June day for thecapital ever. Dholpur in nearbyRajasthan was worse at 51°C. It was thefourth time that the temperaturecrossed 50°C in June in the State,according to Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD).

A combined effect of climatechange and an evolving El-Nino is

transforming this year to be the hottestever and the trend is not gladdening.Four of the warmest years ever record-ed were the last four years. The year2018 started off with a moderate La-Nina phenomenon, which generally hasa cooling effect on global climate, butis going to end up being the fourthwarmest year after 2015, 2016 and 2017.

This clearly shows a warmingtrend. In fact, the 20 warmest years onrecord have occurred in the last 22years. This trend also sits in perfectlywith the emission rates of GreenHouse Gases (GHGs) which were at arecord high by end of 2018, accordingto the World MeteorologicalOrganisation. Scientists at PennsylvaniaState University in the US have alsoconfirmed that a combination ofhuman-caused warming and a natur-al upswing in temperatures increase theodds that any new El-Nino year wouldturn out to be the warmest ever.

Additionally, many weather fore-casters around the world, includingthe IMD, had predicted that thedevelopment of an El-Nino phe-nomenon by the end of 2018 wouldmake things unbearably hot in 2019.

This pattern has already taken over.It is evident in the form of abnormal-ly hot winter seasons for the past threeto four years in a row. Continuing atthis rate, the next year will be evenworse and the threat to health andwell-being, especially of the young andthe elderly, will be devastating.

The development of these eventshas been evident since the later half ofthe last year. On November 22, 2018,the IMD observed that moderate El-Nino Southern Oscillation conditionswere prevalent in the equatorial PacificOcean region and the El-Nino is like-ly to develop in the next two months.

El Nino, which is the unusual

warming of the equatorial PacificOcean, further adds to the alreadywarming temperatures. Following onthis, on December 3, 2018, the IMDagain stated that equatorial Sea SurfaceTemperatures (SSTs) were above aver-age across most of the Pacific Ocean.

The climate prediction centre at theNational Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration (NOAA) says thatthere is an 80 per cent chance that a full-fledged El-Nino has already begun andwill last till the end of February 2019.The impact of El-Nino on globalweather has also got more intense onthe past few occasions as a result of cli-mate change, according to a research

paper published in the journalGeophysical Research Letters. Anothermajor indicator of the warming trenddue to climate change is Ocean HeatContent (OHC). The year 2018 record-ed a new high in terms of OHC sinceobservations began in 1940.

There is more heat stored in theEarth’s oceans today than at any timein the last 78 years. When GHGs trapheat in the atmosphere, some of it getsconverted into surface temperature but90 per cent of it gets assimilated intothe oceans. Therefore, OHC is a muchbetter indicator of climate change thansurface temperatures. The last El-Ninoevent that ended in 2016 had lasted fortwo years and caused heat waves allaround the world, including India. Theheat waves in 2015 and 2016 killedmore than 2,500 people in India andhave been attributed to climate change,which suggests that El-Nino was inten-sified by global warming.

Heat waves are not uncommonbut increasingly, these extremeweather conditions are being attrib-uted to global warming and climatechange. The heat waves of 2015 and2016 especially have been attributed

to global warming, particularly con-sidering a combination of tempera-ture and humidity. The severe El-Nino conditions are also causingmassive coral bleaching in the GreatBarrier Reef and droughts in parts ofAfrica, South East Asia and SouthAmerica. Australia, too, is witness-ing its worst drought in living mem-ory. In regions like the New SouthWales, the drought is the worst in 400years. One of the impacts of warmersurface temperatures and more oceanheat will be greater occurrence ofextreme weather events such astropical cyclones, heat waves, floodsand droughts. In 2018, there were 70tropical cyclones all over the world,while the long-term average was 53.

The world lost more than five lakhpeople to such events in the last 20 yearsalong with an economic loss of $3.47trillion, according to the latest Globalclimate risk index 2019 report. The year2019 seems to be having more than itsshare of extreme weather events in thefirst three months. One can only hopefor the best for the rest of the year.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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Just about a month ago, an Indian AirForce (IAF) AN-32 military transport air-craft had overshot the runway at the

Mumbai international airport and come toa halt perilously close to the boundary wallalong the Western Express highway.Reportedly, over 50 flights were affected dueto this incident. More recently, another AN-32 aircraft carrying 13 people on board wentmissing in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siangdistrict. The wreckage of the aircraft wasfound eight days later after intense searchoperations.

It is understood that the EmergencyLocator Transmitter (ELT), which sends adistress signal in case of a 20G (20-timesgravitational force) impact, was non-func-tional. Well, what else did not work? Withover 16 IAF aircraft lost during the last oneyear, one needs to ask some tough questions.

It is quite a paradoxical situation that ourscientists are now world leaders in satellitetechnology and have established many arecord but are unable to rectify some of theglitches which tend to recur in our IAF air-craft. One important aspect appears to beoverlooked, that of safety of ageing fleet. Lastyear, in a written reply to a question (March2018), former Minister of State for Defence,Subhash Bhamre, had informed the LokSabha that 31 aircraft of the IAF had beeninvolved in accidents during the last fouryears. It was said that 10 accidents had takenplace in 2014-15, six in 2015-16 and 10 in2016-17, while five were reported in 2017-18. These accounted for almost twosquadrons of aircraft.

Since this reply in the Parliament,another 18 aircraft have been lost. Theseaccount for almost two squadrons. In orderto get the full impact of these figures, oneshould read this together with the statementmade by Air Chief Marshal Birender SinghDhanoa a few months ago, where he said thatthe depleted Air Force had only 31squadrons as against a sanction of 42squadrons (16-18 planes each) and that Indiafaced a grave threat. Even if the Air Forcegets the sanctioned 42 squadrons, India’sstrength would be “less than the combinedstrength of our two adversaries — China andPakistan”, he said.

In case one takes into account the IAFlosses during the last 10 years, almost foursquadrons or even more may have been lostwhich is not a small number. In a way, hadwe cut down such losses, the country wouldhave been in a much better position to face any threats. As the IAF had the highest num-ber of peace-time crashes in the world quitesome time ago, a committee chaired by for-mer IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal DenisAnthony Lafontaine, a fighter pilot whoplayed a key role in 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakwars, had gone into various aspects and hadcome to the conclusion that among the mainfactors for crashes were pilot error (42 percent), bird hits (seven per cent) and main-tenance and technical issues (44 per cent).

A very high rate of pilot error was

blamed on the absence of an Advanced JetTrainer (AJT). It was said that pilots, for wantof an AJT, were trained on slower aircraftand got suddenly exposed to a Mach-2 sit-uation, leading to accidents. In any case, AN-32 is a much slower transport aircraft.

Losses have continued even after theinduction of the AJT. During the last fouryears, that is after the induction of AJT,almost two squadrons may have been lost.As the number of crashes has not comedown significantly, there must be some othercontributing factors that need to beaddressed.

Earlier, in the late 1990s, the situationwas even more serious as the frequency ofcrashes had assumed alarming propor-tions. Eighty one aircraft, all MIGs and itsvariants, had crashed during a five-year peri-od, killing 34 pilots. Admittedly, there wasa spare parts crunch at that time as some ofthese had been procured from the CentralAsian and East European countries, whichwere not in a position to maintain that levelof forces and were reducing their invento-ry. These spare parts were not of the samequality as originals.

So also was the case with lubricants andgreases, whose shelf-life had expired. On theother hand, one of the former Air Chiefs wason record, having stated that there was a seri-ous design flaw. While this debate was heat-ing up, the Russian manufacturers blamedus for poor maintenance of the aircraft andmaking changes in the original designs.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that

we have lost a few hundred aircraft and val-ued pilots due to peace-time crashes, seri-ously depleting our resources and imping-ing on our fighting capability. Unfortunately,the same trend continues. Losing seven ofour best possessions, including Su-30MKI,which is a fourth generation aircraft beingmanufactured at Nasik, does not augur well.Most of these crashes of the �400 croreplanes were attributed to technical snagsconnected with the wire-guided system.

It has been often observed that in ourcountry, items in which foreign manufactur-ers of defence equipment are interested hap-pen to be the slowest to develop. None per-haps would be interested to sell us satellitesor their launchers, and look at the phenom-enal progress made by us in the expertise inrocket and missile technology.

On the other hand, the development ofbattle tanks and aircraft has taken a very longtime. Considering that even in the indigenous-ly manufactured aircraft, a significant propor-tion in critical areas still gets imported, theirvulnerability to cyber attacks would also needto be taken into account with appropriatecounter measures in place. Now that we arein the process of acquiring state-of-the-art andlatest aircraft, it is up to our technicians, main-tenance crews and pilot trainers to ensure thatwe have an accident-free record. After all,every accident prevented only adds to thesquadron strength of our Air Force.

(The writer is a retired Delhi PoliceCommissioner and former UttarakhandGovernor)

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India’s indus-trial output

grew to a six-month high of3.4 per cent inApril mainlyon account ofimprovementin mining andpower genera-tion, accordingto Governmentdata releasedWednesday.

The Indexof IndustrialP r o d u c t i o n(IIP) had expanded by 4.5 percent in April 2018. The previ-ous high in IIP growth wasrecorded at 8.4 per cent inOctober 2018.

The expansion in the min-ing sector was 5.1 per centcompared to 3.8 per cent in theyear-ago month.

Similarly, the growth in thepower sector was 6 per cent inApril as against 2.1 per cent inthe corresponding month ofthe last fiscal. However, therewas a slowdown in the manu-facturing sector.

As per Central StatisticsOffice (CSO) data, manufac-turing growth slipped to 2.8 percent in April from 4.9 per centin the corresponding period

last year.Giving further details, the

CSO data revealed that thegrowth in capital goods seg-ment, barometer of investmentactivities, slowed sharply to2.5 per cent from a high of 9.8per cent in April 2018.

Similarly, slower growthwas recorded in infrastruc-ture/construction goods, con-sumer durables and consumernon-durables, segments inApril 2019 on annual basis.

However, the production ofprimary goods increased by 5.2per cent in April this year asagainst 2.7 per cent year-on-year.

In terms of industries, 14out of 23 industry groups in the

manufacturing sector showedpositive growth during April2019 as compared to the cor-responding month of the pre-vious year.

The industry group ‘man-ufacture of wearing apparel’ hasshown the highest positivegrowth of 33.6 per cent fol-lowed by 22.6 per cent in‘Manufacture of wood andproducts of wood and cork,except furniture

On the other hand, theindustry group ‘manufacture ofpaper and paper products’showed the highest negativegrowth of (-) 12.3 per cent fol-lowed by (-) 9.6 per cent in‘manufacture of fabricatedmetal products.

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The deal street saw a sharp54 percent decline Merger

and Acquitions (M&A) in Mayat $2.8 billion due to fewer largedeals, according a report.

However, rainmakers arehopeful that formation of astrong Government can helpthe scenario.

There were 82 deals involv-ing investments of $2.8 billionin May, which is a 54 percentdecline year-on-year, EY Indiasaid Wednesday and attrib-uted the fall to fewer largedeals, as there were only fivedeals of over $100 million dur-ing the month.

The dip comes amid datarelease of sagging GDP growthfuelled largely by a fall in con-sumption which has been theone of the favourite forinvestors as well.

EY partner Vivek Soni,

however, exuded confidence indeal making picking up in thecoming months on the back ofthe “decisive electoral mandate”and a “strong deal pipeline”.

Within the $2.8-billionfund inflows, buyouts was thelargest category accounting for$1.4 billion.

From a sectoral perspectiveinfrastructure was the top pickwitnessing $900 million ininvestments, largely due to the$500-million deal involvingGIC and Essel Infraprojectsand also the $400-millionGIC/KKR deal with India GridTrust, it said.

Investments by sovereignwealth funds and pensionfunds accounted for over 40percent of the total deals in themonth, it said.

There was a sharp fall inexits as well, down 55 percentin May at $739 million fromthe year-ago period.

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At the launch of India’s firstscooter that meets Bharat

Stage 6 emission norms, HondaMotorcycle and Scooter India(HMSI) Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Minoru Kato men-tioned that the Japanese com-pany, India’s largest scootermanufacturer was ‘putting onhold any further investmentdecisions until they got someclarity on the government’sproposals around electrifica-tion of sub-150cc two-wheel-ers.’ This is in light of a recentproposal in a report released bythe Niti Ayog that has proposedthat all sub-1500 two-wheelersin India get run on electricityby 2023. Kato made it clear thatwhile electrification was thefuture, to moveto electric sosoon after implementing newBharat Stage 6 emission normswas not a wise move, “We andmany of our suppliers havemade very heavy investmentsin moving to BS6.”

In doing so, Kato echoedthe sentiments expressed byPawan Munjal, CEO, HeroMotocorp and Rajiv Bajaj,Managing Director, Bajaj Auto.India has moved from nation-wide Bharat Stage 4 (BS4)emission norms to BS6 emis-sion norms in just three years.Europe moved from the rough-ly comparable Euro 3 to Euro5 in thirteen years. two -wheel-er manufacturers in India have

privately stat-ed that thisrapid move hasled to themdiverting hugeamounts ofengineer ingresources intoBS6 enginedevelopment.The strictere m i s s i o nnorms willmean that most, if not all two-wheelers will have to use fuel-injection systems. This coupledwith new insurance rules andsafety norms, are increasingprices by 10-15 per cent.

This might have led to asales slowdown, which Katosaid was anticipated, but whatwas not anticipated was thedramatic decline in sales aheadof the elections. Sales for sev-eral two-wheeler (and passen-ger car makers) manufacturershave declined by 15-25 percent. While sales are expectedto pick up, thanks to the baseeffect, from Septemberonwards, the industry has beenreeling. Some dealers are alsofinding themselves financiallystressed, with banks also mak-ing working capital require-ments difficult, holding ontotheir pursestrings very tight.

Kato said that the industryand its lobby body, the Societyof Indian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM) shouldwork closely with the govern-

ment to discuss and implementa ‘reasonable’ roadmap for elec-trification.

According to several man-ufacturers there is still a majorinfrastructure gap for electrifi-cation, and range is still a con-cern. Honda produces an elec-tric scooter, the PCX which issold in Japan, Indonesia,Thailand and Vietnam but it isan expensive scooter and has arange of under 50km. “MostIndian two-wheeler ownerstend to ride longer distances,this will be a difficult issue tosolve.” And while India pro-duces enough electricity,according to energy experts,the back-end grid will need tobe beefed up across the coun-try to deal with huge chargingload.

The industry and the gov-ernment are clearly not on thesame page over here, withinvestments on hold and someeven speaking about jobs beingat risk with potential produc-tion cutbacks.

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Joining the debate on overestimation of theGDP, industry chamber CII Wednesday said

growth estimates shown by former CEA ArvindSubramanian have omitted productivity andquality and are based on only volume.

In a research paper, Subramanian, whostepped down last year, has said India’s economicgrowth rate has been overestimated by around2.5 percentage points between 2011-12 and 2016-17 due to a change in methodology for calcu-lating GDP.

Subramanian’s paper titled ‘India’s GDPMis-estimation: Likelihood, Magnitudes,Mechanisms, and Implications’, published atHarvard University, also comes at a time whenconcerns have been raised in various quartersabout the official economic growth numbers.

Commenting on the paper, CII DirectorGeneral Chandrajit Banerjee said the Indianeconomy is a complex one and cannot be cap-tured by just a few indicators.

“The growth estimates shown by former CEAomits productivity and quality and takes only vol-ume into account. GDP data has to take a morerobust and comprehensive approach where allgrowth drivers are included,” Banerjee said.

For instance, agriculture, which is one-sixthof the Indian economy, has not been includedin the study. Moreover, the service sector, whichaccounts for more than 50 per cent of GDP, hasbeen inadequately represented.

Specifically, IT and telecom sectors whichhave been the most dynamic parts of the econ-omy in the recent years have been missed outwhile many infrastructure sectors like ruralroads that have posted double-digit growth forseveral years are missing in the report,Banerjee said.

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Atop economic advisory panel tothe Prime Minister on

Wednesday rejected ArvindSubramanian’s claims of overesti-mation of GDP, saying a point-to-point rebuttal will be issued in duecourse and that the former CEA byhis own admission is “still unsure”about calculation of growth numbers.

The Economic Advisory Council-PM (EAC-PM) also asserted that anyattempt to sensationalise what shouldbe a proper academic debate aboutGDP numbers is “not desirable” fromthe point of view of preserving theindependence and quality of India’sstatistical systems, all of which the for-mer chief economic adviser (CEA) isfamiliar with.

In a research paper,Subramanian, who stepped downlast year, has said India’s economicgrowth rate has been overestimatedby around 2.5 percentage pointsbetween 2011-12 and 2016-17 dueto a change in methodology for cal-culating GDP.

Subramanian’s paper titled ‘India’sGDP Mis-estimation: Likelihood,Magnitudes, Mechanisms, andImplications’, published at Harvard

University, also comes at a timewhen concerns have been raised invarious quarters about the official eco-nomic growth numbers.

In its statement, the EAC-PMsaid the Base Year of India’s incomecalculations was shifted to 2011-12on the basis of recommendations ofseveral committees with experts innational income accounting.

It was on the basis of these rec-ommendations, started in 2008, thatthe government implemented thechange from January 2015.

“Therefore, it is wrong to suggestthat the views of experts have notbeen taken into account whilechanging the Base Year or weights orswitching from Annual Survey ofIndustries (ASI) to Ministry ofCorporate Affairs (MCA) 21,” it said.

It further said Subramanian hasused cross-country regressions toestimate what India’s GDP should be,which is a “most unusual exercise”,as is the suggestion that any coun-try’s GDP that is off the regressionline must be questioned.

The proxy indicators that heused can also be questioned, it said,adding that nor does this exerciseallow for GDP increases on the basisof productivity gains.

“A country’s GDP is in nominalterms and any exercise should be onthe basis of nominal figures, not realgrowth rates.

“The Economic AdvisoryCouncil will examine in detail theestimates made in Dr. ArvindSubramanian’s paper and come outwith a point-to-point rebuttal in duecourse,” the statement said.

The EAC-PM further said that atthe moment, it is felt that any attemptto sensationalise what should be aproper academic debate is not desir-able from the point of view of pre-serving the independence and quali-ty of India’s statistical systems, all ofwhich the former CEA is familiar with.

“These are certainly issues thatDr. Subramanian must certainlyhave raised while he was working asCEA, though by his own admission,he has taken time to understandIndia’s growth numbers and is stillunsure,” it said.

On Tuesday, the Ministry ofStatistics and ProgrammeImplementation (MoSPI) had said itfollows accepted procedures andmethodologies for arriving at pro-jections of national income, whilerejecting the contention of the for-mer CEA.

New Delhi: Zoylo, an online healthcare platform on Wednesdaylaunched ‘Zoycare’, to bring preventive healthcare services to thepeople of Delhi on the move. Zoylo Digihealth Pvt. Ltd. in asso-ciation with the Delhi Metro has launched “health kiosks” at twokey metro stations — IIT and INA metro stations with proposedexpansion plans to cover more stations soon. The health kioskswould give metro passengers quick access to diagnostic services,vital health check-ups and other preventive healthcare services.This launch brings Zoylo a step closer to its mission of makinghealthcare accessible to all. PNS

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The Bimal Jalan committee,which is looking into the

size of capital reserves that theRBI should hold, will have onemore meeting before finalisingits report to be submitted to theapex bank by month-end.

The six-member panelunder former RBI governorJalan was appointed onDecember 26, 2018, to reviewthe Economic CapitalFramework (ECF) for theReserve Bank after the FinanceMinistry wanted the RBI to fol-low global best practices and

transfer more surplus to theGovernment.

The RBI has over �9.6 lakhcrore surplus capital with it.

“The ECF panel will meetone more time and will submitthe report by month-end,” anofficial told reporters here afterthe meeting.

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With the 737 Max jet stillgrounded after two dead-

ly crashes, deliveries of newBoeing jets are falling farbehind last year’s pace.

Boeing said Tuesday that itdelivered 30 commercial air-liners during May, down 56%from the 68 it made in May2018.

Deliveries of 737s plum-meted from 47 a year ago tojust eight last month. All eightwere an older model of 737, callthe NG.

Boeing is still building Maxjets in Washington state, butthey are being parked for now.

The Chicago-based com-pany has 4,550 unfilled ordersfor the Max but stopped deliv-eries after regulators around theworld grounded the plane fol-lowing crashes in Indonesiaand Ethiopia that killed 346people. It’s working on changesto flight-control software impli-

cated in the crashes.Boeing reported a can-

celled order for 71 Max planesthat were to be leased to JetAirways until the financiallystruggling Indian carrier sus-pended all flights in April.Boeing has not reported otherlarge cancellations despite theMax’s grounding.

Orders for all Boeing air-lines were “anemic” in May butshould be better at next week’sParis air show, said CowenResearch aerospace analyst Caivon Rumohr.

Shares of Boeing fell $4.47,or 1.3 per cent, to close at$349.33 on Tuesday.

They have dropped 21 percent since early March, short-ly before the second Max crash.

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In a freak but a shockingmishap, a senior citizen was

killed and two others sustainedminor injuries when an alu-minium cladding panel of ahuge mural of MahatmaGandhi installed at theChurchgate railway terminus insouth Mumbai collapsed onhim.

On a day when theimpending cyclone Vayu beganinfluence the weather condi-tions in the country’s com-mercial capital, an acrylichoarding blew off a skywalkand crashed on three pedestri-ans in Bandra (west) in north-west Mumbai. Three women –Tejal Kadam (27) MalisaNazareth (30) and SulakshanaVaze (41) -- were injured in themishap.

In the far-off western sub-urb of Bordi Road, four work-ers were injured when fivegirders of a railway bridge gaveway, when some work wasgoing on there. The authoritiesattributed the incident to strongwinds blowing in the area.Following the incident, thetraffic on this stretch ofWestern Railway was affected.

A pedestrian identified as

one Madhukar Appa Narvekar(62) was severely injured, whenthe cladding from a 81 ft x 54ft mural of Mahatma Gandhi,installed in November 2017 fellon him at 12.45 pm.

Narvekar was rushed to thenearby G.T. Hospital, where hesuccumbed to injuries after anhour while undergoing treat-ment.

Two more pedestrians wereinjured in the mishap that sawan aluminium cladding panelon the second and third floorof the eastern side facade ofChurchgate terminus buildinggave way and crashed on them.However, the injured personsleft the spot before they wereeven provided first aid.

All through Wednesday,the metropolis reeled underpre-monsoon showers, result-ing in disruption of flight oper-ations, rail and road traffic.

While an Air India flightAI-678 from Delhi to Mumbaiwas diverted to Ahmedabad onWednesday afternoon becauseof inclement weather condi-tions, the arrival and departuresof some flights were delayed by15 to 20 minutes because of tostrong winds at the ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj InternationalAirport.

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The CPI(M) Wednesdaylauded the DMK for form-

ing a successful alliance for theLok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadubut lamented such an under-standing did not developamong the secular democraticforces in many other states.

The party would spearheadthe fight against the challengesposed by the BJP rule in thecoming days, CPI-M generalsecretary Sitaram Yechury said.

"I would like to congratulate

the DMK and M K Stalin (DMKpresident), not only for the vic-tory, but also for the efforts madeto bring together all seculardemocratic forces into a com-mon understanding and contestthe elections," he said.

Such an understanding,unfortunately, did not developin many other states, Yechuryadded.

While the BJP alone won awhopping 303 seats across thecountry in the recently con-cluded Lok Sabha election, theparty was decimated in Tamil

Nadu.The DMK-led alliance,

which included the Congress,CPI, CPI(M), won 37 of the 38seats that went to the polls.

Sharing his assessment onthe poll outcome, Yechury saidsuccessful shifting of electoralnarrative from livelihood issuesto Hindutva nationalism, com-munal polarisation, larger-than-life persona of Prime

Minister Narendra Modibacked by staggering amountof money contributed to theBJP's success.

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United Progressive Alliancechairperson Sonia Gandhi,

along with daughter andCongress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra, visit-ed Rae Bareli on Wednesday tothank the voters for their sup-port in winning the parlia-mentary seat for the fifth time.

While Sonia Gandhi held asmall meeting to thank her vot-ers for giving her a resoundingvictory by over 1.65 lakhs votesfor the fifth time from RaeBareli, Priyanka commencedher meeting with the losing LokSabha candidates and the dis-trict presidents of 41 Lok Sabhaconstituencies of UP east underher charge.

Attacking Prime MinisterNarendra Modi without takinghis name, Sonia Gandhi saidthat power had gone in the

“wrong hands”. She asked the party work-

ers and leaders to raise theissues of the people with fullstrength.

Priyanka, in her briefaddress, asked the party work-ers to introspect what theyhad done and where they wentwrong as only self-assessmentwould bring a change in theparty.

Referring to the people ofher constituency, Sonia Gandhisaid she had always tried tolook after this extended fami-ly. “Like every Lok Sabha elec-tion, this time also you havereposed your faith in me. I amthankful to each and everyCongress worker and friendsfrom the Samajwadi Party,Bahujan Samaj Party andSwabhiman Dal for the hardwork they put in for my victo-ry,” the UPA chief said.

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With the potential threat ofcyclone Vayu looming

large over Gujarat, the WesternRailway has either cancelled,short-terminated or partiallycancelled as many as 37 trainsbound for various destinationsin the neighbouring State as aprecautionary measure.

In addition to the 15 trainscancelled earlier, the authoritieson Wednesday evening can-celled 25 more mainline trains,while in addition to the earli-er 16 trains, 12 other mainlinetrains will be short terminatedwith partial cancellation as aprecautionary measure in thecyclone prone areas in theWestern Railways.

“Accordingly, total 68 trainsof Western Railways have beenaffected in view of the precau-tionary measures taken by us tosafeguard the interests of the

passengers,” a Western Railwayspokesperson added.

The Mumbai-headquar-tered Western Railway gearedup to tackle the impending sit-uation, amid reports that partsof Gujarat would be hit by theimpact from strengtheningCyclone Vayu, which is expect-ed to hit the Gujarat coast any-where between Veraval in thesouth and Dwarka in the weston Thursday afternoon.

All the passenger andMail/Express trains to thesestations are being short termi-nated or cancelled after 1800hrs Wednesday to morning ofJune 14.

"The coaching stock cur-rently available at depots andstation yards at coastal areas arebeing shifted to safe places.Special trains with six to tencoaches each will be formed, tobe kept in ready condition atnearest safe location to bemoved in emergency condi-tions," a WR spokesperson said.

The Western Railway hasmade arrangements for round-the-clock monitoring of the sit-uation at the emergency con-trol room at its headquarters

HQ and also at its Divisionaloffices by Officers of con-cerned departments for imme-diate relief arrangement.

“Considering the alertnessfor Vayu cyclone over Gujarat,Western Railway has decided torun relief special trains. Twosuch evacuation special trainsare scheduled to be run inRajkot Division and one inBhavnagar division to clearpassengers of coastal areaaffected by the Cyclone,” a WRspokesperson said.

The first special train isscheduled to run from Okha at18.00 hrs on Thursday forRajkot with 11 coaches, whilethe 2nd special train is sched-uled to run from Okha at20.05 on Thursday forAhmedabad with 20 coaches.The 3rd special train will runfrom Veraval at 20.00 hours onThursday for Ahmedabad with11 coaches.

In addition to this, theauthorities are taking varioussafety and security precautionsfor train passengers of theseprone areas under the juris-diction of the W4esternRailways.

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Samajwadi Party leaderMohammad Azam Khan

has stirred a new controversyby saying that madarsas do notproduce people like NathuramGodse or Pragya Singh Thakur,referring to Mahatma Gandhi’sassassin and the BharatiyaJanata Party lawmaker in thesame breath.

Khan, known for makingcontentious comments, wasasked to respond to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s newplan of connecting madarsaswith mainstream educationand providing scholarship toone crore Muslim studentsevery year.

“Madarsas don’t breed

those of Nathuram Godse’snature or with a personality likePragya Thakur. First announcethat those propagatingthoughts of Godse will bedeclared enemies of democra-cy, those convicted for terroractivities won’t be rewarded,”Khan said in Rampur onWednesday.

Pragya Thakur, an accusedin the 2008 Malegaon blastscase and out on bail, won therecent Lok Sabha electionfrom Bhopal as a BJP candi-date. She remained in newsthroughout her election cam-paign for her provocativestatements, including one onGodse, that the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi was a patriot.

Khan said that if the Uniongovernment wanted to helpmadarsas, then it should bringabout improvements.

“Religious teaching isimparted at madarsas andEnglish, Hindi and Maths arealso taught. This has alwaysbeen the case. If you want tohelp, improve standards, pro-vide them funds for con-structing/renovating theirbuildings and also furnitureand mid-day meals,” the SPMember of Parliament fromRampur said.

Though Khan appearedcritical of Centre’s schemeannounced on Tuesday byUnion minister Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi, many Muslim clericshave welcomed it.

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The Bombay High Court onWednesday said it will have

to hear environmental expertsbefore deciding on a plea seek-ing hacking of mangroves topave way for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

A division bench of ChiefJustice Pradeep Nandrajog andJustice NM Jamdar was hear-ing an application filed by theNational High Speed RailCorporation Ltd (NHSRCL),seeking permission to cutmangroves spread over 13hectares of area.

In March this year, theMaharashtra Coastal ZoneManagement Authority hadtold the court that it had givenits nod for cutting over 53,000mangrove trees for the project.

In April this year, theNHSRCL informed the courtthat it had received theapproval of the expert appraisalcommittee of the UnionMinistry of Environment andForests for removal of man-groves in Thane, Navi Mumbaiand Palghar districts.

�� 6/+5�56

Jammu & Kashmir GovernorSatya Pal Malik on

Wednesday asked militants togive up arms and invited themto hold talks, saying dialogue isthe only way through whichthey can get what they wantwithin the ambit of theConstitution.

He said India cannot bemade to bow through vio-lence.

"Take everything from us,we will give our life, butthrough love and dialogue. Forthat (PM) Narendra Modi isready, we are ready. Come to thedialogue table and take it for-ward," Malik said at a marathonpress briefing on the achieve-ments of his administration.

"Whatever you want can beachieved through talks anddialogue. You have your ownconstitution, you have a sepa-rate flag. Whatever more youwant, you will get it through thedemocratic process and with-in the ambit of the IndianConstitution," he said.

The governor said the mil-itants may not realise it now,but 10 years down the line theywill repent that they chose thewrong path.

"You cannot make India tobow through violence," he said.

Malik said the problem ofmilitancy exists in Kashmirnot only due to unemploymentamong youth, but also becausepoliticians have been mislead-ing the people for the past sev-eral decades.

"There is unemploymentacross the country but unem-ployed people (elsewhere) inthe country do not pick up

weapons against the govern-ment. There is something morehere. The basic thing here isthat the leaders have not toldpeople the truth. People havebeen misled and shown falsedreams, which will never befulfilled," he said.

Malik said the people havebeen shown the dream of'azadi' (independence) andsometimes that of autonomy.

"When these things didnot work, they were shown thedreams of paradise throughradicalisation. I want to tell theyouth that they have two par-adises -- one is Kashmir and if

they become good Muslims,they will get the other one also,"he said.

Speaking about the pres-ence of the Islamic State inKashmir, the governor said,"These are ways of destructionof Kashmir."

Malik exhorted the youthto give up arms.

"I want to tell the youth ofKashmir, drop your guns andcome to Raj Bhawan to havelunch with me. Then explain tome what good Kashmir will getfrom the path you have cho-sen," he said.

Malik called on the politi-cal leaders to help bring backthe youth to the mainstreamsociety.

"They have to muster thecourage and tell them. I requestthe mainstream leaders,preachers and intelligentsia tobring back these youth (to themainstream) and whatever isneeded for their rehabilitation,we will do it," he said.

"In every insurgency, therecomes a time when fatigue setsin. That time has come inKashmir," he added.

Asked about Pakistan's rolein the situation in Kashmir,Malik said the neighbouringcountry is in trouble.

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Sleuths of Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) raided

22 places in Uttar Pradesh andDelhi, including three resi-dences of former UP ministerGayatri Prasad Prajapati inAmethi, on Wednesday in con-nection with a mining scamduring the Samajwadi Partyregime.

The case pertains to viola-tion of norms in awardingmining leases in various UPdistricts between 2012 and2016.

Along with Prajapati, whois lodged in Lucknow jail inconnection with a rape case,the CBI also raided the resi-dences and other establish-ments of MLC RameshChandra Mishra in Hamirpur.

A report from Amethi saidthat CBI sleuths from Lucknowreached the Awas Vikas resi-dence of Prajapati onWednesday morning and alsorecorded the statement of peo-ple inside the house.

Prajapati has been underthe scanner as he held theMining portfolio in the SPgovernment when the scamwas unearthed. The centralagency is also examining therole of former Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav in the case.

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Two minor sisters were raped by four men at gunpoint inKaserwa village of Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday evening. The sisters, aged 13 and 15 years, had gone looking for their

mother near a cane field, when the four persons dragged theminto the thickets and after threatening to shoot them if they raisedan alarm, they raped the two girls.

The four were booked in a case and efforts were underwayto nab them.

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While the role of a mother iscelebrated and feted inpopular culture, that of the

father often does not often inspirepoetry or prose. However, researchdoes not concur with the idea. Astudy published in the Journal ofFamily Psychology, New York,reveals that both types of involve-ment — caregiving versus play andthe timing, workday versus non-workday can have an impact on thequality of the early father-childrelationship.

Father’s day is the right time totry and get a deeper insight into therelationship between a parent and achild and how it is likely to impactthe duo. “There is no other impor-tant influence than a parent for agrowing child. It’s the comfort,security, affection, attention that youget from your parents that shapesyour personality,” says Dr SamirParikh, director, department ofMental Health and BehaviouralSciences, Fortis Healthcare. He fur-ther adds that the paternal relation-ship governs how you feel aboutyourself, your confidence and self-image. The relationship a child’s par-ents share between them is alsoexceptionally important. The core toa child’s personality is reciprocal rela-tionship with his/her parents. Onlong-term relationship with a child,he says, “It brings positivity and sta-bility in your life. The healthier it is,the better you live.”

Dr Anuneet Sabharwal, a psy-chiatrist, who runs The Happy Tree,says, “The most important thing ina father-child relationship is theestablishment of boundaries and asense of security in the mindset ofthe child to differentiate betweenwhat is family and what is not.” Helays emphasis on distinctionbetween acceptable and unaccept-able behaviour. With respect to

physical growth and personality ofthe child, he says, a lot of times whenparents are not around, childrenoften indulge in substance abuse,which leads to personality disordersincluding violence against peersand others. “Males often emulatetheir fathers as role models. Withwomen, I think it’s different, theyend up looking for their father fig-ure in the partners they choose. Ittranslates into what you desire in arelationship. It does affect your per-ception of what do you want as apartner in a relationship.”

According to Dr DeepakRaheja, psychiatrist, Hope Care,says, “Father is representative of theauthority parental figure as he playsa huge role in shaping up the per-sonality of the children. The timespent with the children results inmore resilient bond, which lays thefoundation of a person who can dealwith conflicts later in life with ade-quate preparedness.” At a time whenmental health issues are at theirpeak, he feels, when children arefaced with interpersonal conflict asadults, depending on the foundationthat is encrypted in their mind, theyfind a more resilient, conflict bust-ing mechanism which enables themto lead a more meaningful life.

Laying emphasis on the cycle oflife he says, “There is a stage wherethe child wants to reach out to youand you are not available. And as the

Fathers are amazing, for all their badjokes, sports training and life advice.

They have given us a lot of love and sup-port because of which, we’re who we aretoday. Just like that, television also hassome amazing fathers who we love towatch onscreen and can pretty much relateto all their goofiness and sometimes theircomic timing that can be pretty off, butadorable.

�Phil Dunphy in Modern FamilyThe self-proclaimed cool dad, he is

one of the funniest characters on ModernFamily. The father of three children is asoptimistic as a kid himself and lovesadventure. Believer of Peer-renting, he isa devoted father putting efforts to makebetter bonds with the kids by his fun tricksand talks. Always ready to go miles for hisfriends and family, happy-go-lucky and anavid follower of sci-fi and fantasy, he isclearly one of the most loving dads on tele-vision. The show airs on Star World.

�Jack Geller in F.R.I.E.N.D.SFrom praising his kids for their

achievement to being upright with hiscomments, he tries his best to be a gooddad and does a brilliant job indeed.Talking to them after their break-ups andfailures, consoling them, preserving theirchildhood memories to giving them a

Porsche, he comes with a lot of surpris-es. A progressive and open-minded fatherwho lets his children fight their own bat-tles while constantly being a strong pil-lar of support. The show is available onNetflix.

�Walter White in Breaking BadWho would have thought a chemistry

teacher going through a mid-life crisis andfighting deadly cancer would turn into acomplete badass? Finding it difficult tomake ends meet, he decides to sell drugsonly to provide for his family. From buy-ing a brand new sports car to destroyingand burning it, he has always been full ofsurprises and who doesn't like surprises,right? The show is currently streaming onNetflix.

�Brad Wolgast in The PassageThe federal agent, Brad Wolgast is not

the biological father of Amy but when hefinds out that the girl’s life is in danger, he

decides to protect her. His fights againstall the odds to save the orphan girl froma deadly experiment conducted by thesecret medical facility of the US govern-ment. Even though, Amy is not his realdaughter, he never treats her any differ-ent. Now who wouldn't want a man likethat to be their father. The show airs on

Star World.

�Logan Roy in SuccessionWhat makes Logan a really interest-

ing character is his mysterious persona.He gives his kids a hard time but that isbecause he believes they need to gothrough it. He makes sure his kids never

take for granted what they’ve inheritedand not earned. He walks with a certainpride and thinks that he’s the last of theleaders until he realises the potential of hisdaughter. It will premiere on Star Worldon June 17.

�David Budd in BodyguardA war veteran suffering from PTSD

and working in the police protection forceas a bodyguard, has his own affairs andis not the most likeable person around.But he can go beyond imagination to pro-tect his children. The heroic personalityand the spirit to fight against anyone forthe protection of his kids is what makeshim a great dad. The show is currentlystreaming on Netflix.

�John Winchester in SupernaturalJohn was blinded by revenge and

spent most of his time drinking. He hasdone some terrible things that will makeone think he hasn’t been the best fatherbut he has always protected his kids. Theupbringing seems hard on the kids butthat made Sam and Dean one of the finesthunters in the world. He seems a toughand less expressive father because of whathe has been through. But after reunitingwith them, he expresses the happiness thathis sons saved the world. The series canbe streamed on Amazon Prime.

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cycle of life goes on, there is astage where you want to reachout to the child and s/he isunavailable. The cycle continuesto be dysfunctional.” The timespent with children nurtures andcements the relationship in amanner that the child has trustand ability to rely on the father.

Dr Raheja feels that at a sen-sitive stage, where the smallnuances of life like watchingfilms and taking for meals bol-ster the confidence and self-esteem of children in a mannerthat they are able to becomemore responsible and confi-dent humans later in life. “If theold adage of life is being able tohave a positive self image thennothing does it better than thequality and quantity of timespent by the parents with thechildren, primarily, the father

figure.”Dr. Jitender Nagpal, consul-

tant and head of Pediatrics,Sitaram Bhartia Institute ofScience & Research, says, “Inmodern times, the relationshipof the father with the child iscontinuously evolving and hasemerged as a mutually fulfillingrelationship.” He stresses onhow the father too grows as aperson while interacting andlearning with the child.Regarding the long-term bene-fits, the child looks up to thefather in terms of defining theideal behaviour. When the childis passing through various stagesof life, s/he looks up to his fatherfor guidance and setting bench-marks.

So, don’t confine the hugs tothis Sunday. Extend the love andtime beyond it.

Actor Rani Mukerji recent-ly wrapped up the sched-

ule of Mardaani 2, her nextfilm. On the last day of theRajasthan shoot, she receiveda gift that overwhelmed her.

“An art director of the filmwho is also a painter based inJaipur, Babu Saini, is an oldacquaintance and a colleagueof Rani. The duo had workedtogether in Kuch Kuch HotaHain, which is one of Rani’sinitial films. They go back along way as colleagues andhave fond memories of work-ing together. He is also ahuge fan of her work and heshowed his huge apprecia-tion for Rani by gifting a spe-cial portrait of her,” says asource.

Saini’s portrait depictsRani in her Mardaani 2 look,a film that she is very proud

of. “She was overwhelmedand informed him that shewill display this in her house.It also shows the kind ofaffection and appreciationand respect that techniciansand crew members have forRani as a person and herbody of work.”

A final schedule inMumbai will complete theshooting for the YRF crimedrama. Rani reprises the roleof the fearless and committedsuperintendent of police,Shivani Shivaji Roy inMardaani 2. In the film, shetook on the kingpin of a childtrafficking racket. Producedby Aditya Chopra, this will beRani’s next release after theHichki. Mardaani 2 marks thedirectorial debut of GopiPuthran, the writer of thefirst Mardaani film.

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Namaste Thailand OnlineQuiz 2019 concluded on

June 8 with the award cere-mony at the Royal ThaiEmbassy, New Delhi.

Aiming to foster closerties between Thailand andIndia, the quiz had questionscovering various aspectsfrom cuisine, culture, way oflife, history, geography, tomodern politics. The quiz,which is the first among itskind, started in 2015 usingFacebook platform and hasbeen continued annually,now reached its 5th anniver-sary with 1,36,000 fans fromover 150 cities and townsacross India. NamasteThailand Online Quiz is thelongest running and mostsuccessful social media cam-paign by an embassy in India.After its success, seven otherembassies in New Delhi havefollowed suit and organisedsimilar projects.

This year, the contest ranfor two months from April toMay with nearly six lakhpage visit, 1,36,042 pagelikes, 1,69,805 post likes, and21,964 comments . Thistheme was “Thailand andthe World” which highlight-ed the country’s role on theinternational stage, todayand in the past. Thailand isthe current ASEAN Chair,and the Coordinator ofASEAN-India DialogueRelations.

The Award Ceremonywas attended by esteemeddignitaries including H EChutintorn Gongsakdi,

Ambassador of Thailand toIndia , ThirapathMongkolnavin, Minister,Royal Thai Embassy,Thamanoon Kuprasert, gen-eral manager, Thai AirwaysInternational, India, AsoLori, marketing off icer,Tourism Authority ofThailand, New Delhi Office,embassy diplomats, quizcraftteam and the contest’s grandprize winner, participantsalong with their families.

The award ceremonycommenced with a presenta-tion of report of the NamasteThailand Online Quiz 2019fol lowed by ChutintornGongsakdi, Ambassador ofThailand congratulating thewinners. He talked about thesocial media, being a power-ful medium, helps promotecloser ties between the peo-ples. He hoped that the par-ticipants have learned moreabout Thailand and under-stood the similarities andlinkages between the twocountries.

The winners and partic-ipants were felicitated withcertificates along with giftsfrom the Royal Thai Embassy,Tourism Authority ofThailand, and Thai Airways.Sai Sandeep Ponnaganti, anengineering student fromKurnool, Andhra Pradesh,who stayed persistently ontop of the leader board withthe maximum number ofpoints, is the Grand PrizeWinner. He won a returnticket and holiday package for2 to Thailand.

Who says that the residents ofDelhi NCR have to travel all the

way to Dehradun’s Jim Corbett NationalPark to experience life in a forest? Allyou need to do is wait a while, asGhaziabad Nagar Nigam is planning todevelop around 175 acres of land whichis a part of the City Forest, on the samescale where there are entertainmentoptions for children, youngsters as wellas the elderly. It would be possible to goon an enjoyable day-long tour with yourfamily at this tourist destination.

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There are several options for thetourists including horse riding andboating. These can be availed at nom-inal charges of �50, to ensure that it doesnot hurt the public pocket.

�GA�+-�%4��3+-4�%��3�+-��@�%21+�7�There is arrangement for travelling

in an open gypsy on the lines of theAfrican Safari, which has been preparedin accordance with the G Forest stan-dards. The fee is only �100. Not onlythis, children can enjoy themselves inadventure zones, kids zone, duck zoneand rabbit zones . There are birds of dif-ferent and rare species such as sparrow,peacock, pheasants, cuckoo andcoloured parrots which are the centreof attraction.

��+��%-��,�7-C�2-%C7�Leopard, deer, blue bull (neelgai) are

an attraction for children. During thesafari in the thick forests these rare wildanimals can be sighted. These have notbeen introduced here by the GDA butsince the forest is dense, they often make

their way to this area.

�%F$6�2��2��A�+�21+��$3��-,,�72�2-$%Since the time of Mahabharata,

there is a mountain-like dune spreadover 25 acres. It is decorated with solarlamps and when the LED lights are lit,it will certainly remind one of the moun-tains. The riverfront of the historicHernandi too has been developed

�2+-42�7�41+-26�Security arrangements are strict. To

keep an eye on the safety of the tourists,there are a dozen watch towers, wheresecurity personnel are posted and keepan eye. According to GDA’s senior gar-den inspector Govind Singh, “The cityforest is open for the tourists from 7 amto 7 pm.”

#$+��%-2-�7�>-,,��A+$@-��GDA secretary, Santosh Kumar

Rai, says, “For the people living in theNCR region, Delhi is a better optionfor tourists for the city forest tourists.Many more amenities will be providedhere. Projects like Open Theater, ToyRail, Night House, Guest House, arealso being developed. A library whichhas books on nature as well as severalrestaurants have been developed.”

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In order to encourage students to workharder and behave diligently in future,

Ryan International School, Rohinifelicitated meritorious students. Theseinclude bestowing accolades on themevery year. There were many unique daysto celebrate the achievements of thestudents. At the Accolade Ceremony, theRyan family greeted special guests MohanGupta and Dr Ashutosh Ojha who visited

the school to make the day more special.The day began in the name of AlmightyGod through Bible reading proceeded byspecial prayer. The students clapped tocongratulate the winners. After thefelicitation, the guests gave an awe-inspiring speech to all the minors. At theconclusion, the guests were thanked fortheir presence.

��#��Education means preparation of the stu-

dents for future. This preparation includestraining them for to be prospective leaders.To help the students inculcate a sense ofresponsibility and in keeping with the tra-dition of the institution, new members ofthe students’ council were elected in RyanInternational School, Rohini for the session2019-20.

The Investiture Ceremony was presidedover by Dr Ruchi Srivastava. It signifies thereliance and confidence that the school hasin the new office bearers. While donning themantle of accountability, they also pledge todo their best.

The selected leaders were conferredwith badges by the chief guest. The students'council took the pledge to hold the schoolmotto of loyalty, truth and honour in highesteem. She congratulated them and advisedthem to be impartial and honest in discharg-ing their duties. She also exhorted them touphold the values and reminded them thatwith position comes responsibility towardsthemselves, their school and peers and

struggles help one to achieve heights. Geetika Narang, head mistress, admin-

istered the oath of office to the councilappointees. In her address, she reminiscedof her school days and advised the studentsto follow the path of honesty and kindness.She advised them to be role models andextended a supporting hand to the students’council for the smooth running of theschool. The function concluded with theNational Anthem.

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International travel can entailsome amount of anticipationbut agencies have sprung up in

different cities to smoothen theprocess, says Vinay Malhotra.

International travel often caus-es high levels of excitement andanticipation, even for frequent trav-ellers. For travel agents, it meansdealing with a large volume of visaapplications and ensuring that theircustomers have a seamless experi-ence.

To meet the growth in foreigntravel, visa application centres haveintroduced services that are not onlytailor-made to suit the changingrequirements of applicants, but alsosimplify the application process,making it more convenient, exclu-sive, personalised, time saving andhassle-free.

It is here that companies likeVFS Global have stepped in tomake the process of applying for avisa simple and hassle-free. The ser-vices that they offer ensure that mostapplicants, irrespective of theirschedules or location, have fullaccess to a smooth and streamlinedvisa application services despitetheir round-the-clock commitments,or minimal access to metro cities, orwishing for additional support andpaperless experience.

Vinay Malhotra., RegionalGroup COO, South Asia, MiddleEast and China, VFS Global, says,“The trust and reliability of a cus-tomer-focussed specialised travelagent still holds a very high premi-um, especially in countries likeIndia. Due to this, travel agents arebest placed to gauge and understand

their customer’s unique require-ments and can advise them appro-priately on visas services that are bestsuited to their schedules and prefer-ences.”

VFS Global offers travel agentsa wide range of innovative andextremely useful services thatsmoothen the visa applicationprocess. Nevertheless, such servicescontinue to be highly popular amongapplicants who are short on time andthus find the convenience of theseservices invaluable.

Popular among families travel-ling with children, corporates, andfrequent fliers, VFS Global hasinvested in Premium Loungesdesigned exclusively for applicantsseeking a comfortable visa applica-tion process delivered with a person-alised touch.

The service includes one-to-oneattention with a dedicated staffmember, who will guide the appli-cants through the entire applicationprocedure. The personalised servicesare offered for select countries atmost VFS Global Visa ApplicationCentres across India. Visa companieslike VFS Global, visit the applicant’spreferred location to accept the visaapplication and enroll biometrics sothat applicants do not have to visitthe Visa Application Centre and cancomplete the process at home.

The service is quite popularbecause of the flexibility it offers toapplicants and is most often used byleisure travel groups and by appli-cants from Tier-2 cities not coveredunder the VFS Global’ s network of17 cities, who find it difficult to trav-el to another city just for complet-

ing their visa application process.Other groups who find this servicebeneficial are film personalities andcrew, large corporate groups, andhigh net-worth individuals, whomay find it inconvenient to visit thevisa centres because of their busyschedules. These services are nowavailable outside normal workinghours for time poor applicants.Regional Group COO VFS Global.

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India has been designated as the guest of honour at the 33rd FeriaInternacional del Libro de Guadalajara (Guadalajara International Book

Fair) which will be held in Mexico November 30 to December 8, the largestbook fair in the Spanish speaking world.

At a conference on June 6 at Embassy of India at Mexico City, ProfGovind Prasad Sharma, chairman, National Book Trust, Muktesh KPardeshi, Ambassador of India in Mexico and Kumar Vikram, editor &project in-charge announced India's broad outline of programmes forFIL 2019. Marisol Schulz Manaut, director general, FIL also addressedthe press conference from the book fair organiser’s side.

The National Book Trust, India (under the Ministry of HRD, Govt.of India) is the nodal agency coordinating the guest country presenta-tion at the event where it will display a wide array of its rich and com-posite literary and cultural heritage at this edition of Feria Internacionaldel Libro de Guadalajara (FIL) with over 35 authors /artists /scientists/sci-ence communicators/children’s writers; 15 publishing houses; literary andacademic activities comprising conferences, publishers' round table, dis-cussions and presentations on science and other genres; three large exhi-bitions consisting of ancient and rare manuscripts, photo books, wall hang-ings on handicrafts and paintings; modern art by 40 renowned womenartists of India; a Festival of India consisting of extensive cultural pro-gramme that will include 10 concerts — folk, classical and contempo-rary and an artistic tribute to Indian literature, among many other activ-ities. An expected sale and exhibition of more than 2,000 Indian titleswill take place at the event, which will also include translation agreementsand copyright exchanges. India's participation at FIL will also include afilm festival, comprising Indian feature films' and those based on puresciences; a food festival; street shows at various venues across Guadalajaraand at Casa de la India — a cultural hub of Indian food, handicrafts andartefacts, for sale and display.

PFC, a Governmentowned NBFC has suc-

cessfully tapped internation-al market and raised USD 1billion through Reg-S bondsin one go. This was thePFC's first issuance in theinternational market aftersuccessful acquisition ofGovernment of India hold-ing in REC.

The issuance attracted astrong and diversified orderbook indicating investor'sconfidence towards PFC'sdifferentiated credit despitevolatile market conditionsand concerns oveR IndiANNBFI sector.

The USD 1 billion Reg-S transaction was executedthrough two tranches. Thefive-year tranche for USD400 million at 3.87 per centat a reoffer spread of 195 bpsover five year UST and 10year tranche for USD 600million at 4.577 per cent at are-offer spread of 242.5 bpsover 10 yearUST.Commenting on theoccasion, chairman andmanaging director of PFCRajeev Sharma stated that thetransaction establishes PFCstatus as leading NBFI inIndia having priced its firstdual and largest USD bondstransaction for Government-owned Indian NBFC. This isalso PFC's first USD issuancein the five-year tenure. Thesuccessful completion of thedeal underscores investor'scontinued confidence in PFCpost acquisition of REC.

Keeping pace with advancements andneeds of the Indian consumers,

ARL Tyres has presented the Jeeto ShaanSe contest to its Indian customers. Thecontest was launched by Bollywood andTollywood actress, Nidhi Agrewal.

Customers who buy ARL productsnot only get true value, safety and com-fort in their road journeys but also get towin from over a 1,000 prizes that rangefrom a grand car, to bikes, mobilephones to cameras, washing machines torefrigerators, gold coins and a lot more.

ARL Tyres hold good both for sum-mer and winter season. The global stan-dards and technology upgradation plusinnovation in design and with over a1,000 prizes be won now make ARL thefavourite products for the price pur-chased.

Incorporated in 1983, AgarwalRubber Ltd, is an ISO 9001: 2015 certi-fied company, a pioneer in manufactur-ing high quality automobile tyres, butyltubes, flaps, curing bags, envelopes andbladder and under the brand nameARL Tyres.

In it’s ultra modern TubeManufacturing Unit, approximately50,000 high grade Butyl Rubber automo-tive tubes are produced every day. Therange starts from two-wheeler sizes andgoes up to high precision OTR andAviation Tubes.

The production at the BIAS TyreManufacturing Unit consists of durable,strong and stylish, two wheeler tyres formotorcycles, scooters, cycles and mope-ds three-wheeler tyres for auto rickshawsultra-light truck tyres for pickups, passen-ger vehicles tyres, light commercial vehi-cle tyres for light trucks, agricultural tyresfor tractor front, rear and trailors andimplements and forklift tyres. The com-pany is very pro-active in updating itsproduct profile and adding new new sizesand patterns as per global demand.

These products are marketed under

our robust brands like, ARL & Maruti andare a testimony to the inherent spirit ofthe Company, i.e. “Keep Going”.

In just a short span of time, the brandhas succeeded in establishing a strongfoothold in the available product seg-ments and has also been able to build astrong distribution network, backed by145 exclusive distributors in India (whofurther retail through 5,500 retail outlets)and exports to more than 45 countriesworldwide.

Adding to this, Komal Agarwal,director marketing at ARL Tyres men-tioned that work has already started fornew ultra-modern manufacturing facil-ity at Sadashivpet (RR Dist) and shall beready in another 12-15 months time. Thisnew facility will provide a quantum leapinto company’s total manufacturingcapacity of tyres to approx. 150 MT perday from present capacity of 70 MT perday, and will greatly enhance their pres-ence in global tyre and tube market.

In this new facility, the companyplans to roll out niche sizes of tyres forOTRs, agriculture, implements, and highend radial tyres for motorcycles, whichcould cater to OEMs in India andabroad.

Highly qualified and experiencedteam of rubber technologists, design engi-neers and able workmen, combinedwith stringent quality control across theprocess, has enabled the product toacquire prestigious certifications forinternational standards such asDOT,“E”Mark, SASO, SONCAP, GSO etc, and ISIfrom Bureau of Indian Standards.

The Company has a state of the art,fully modernised and well-equipped,research and designing laboratory for itstyre and tube testing, which stands at parwith the best of international standards.These labs are equipped with the latestmachines required for endurance testing(5 stations), plunger testing and variouskinds of polymer tests.

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Violent clashes broke out inHong Kong on Wednesday

as police tried to stop protest-ers storming the city’s parlia-ment, while tens of thousandsof people blocked key arteriesin a show of strength againstgovernment plans to allowextraditions to China.

Police used tear gas, rubberbullets and batons to dispersecrowds of black-clad demon-strators — most of them youngpeople and students — callingfor authorities to scrap theBeijing-backed law.

Clashes broke out shortlyafter 3:00 pm — the deadlineprotesters had given for the gov-ernment to abandon the con-troversial bill — and continuedthroughout the afternoon in theworst political violence the cityhas seen in years.

Rows of riot police battledprotesters — many wearingface masks, helmets or gogglesand using umbrellas as shields— who had gathered in thecentre of the city ahead of ascheduled debate in the city’slegislature.

That debate had to berescheduled “to a later date”after huge crowds seized majorroads outside the parliament.The scenes echoed the pro-democracy “UmbrellaMovement” of 2014 where pro-testers calling for greater demo-cratic rights shut down swathesof the city for two months andbattled police but won no con-cessions from Beijing.

In a repeat of four years agopeople flooded major roads

and junctions on Wednesday,dragging barricades onto high-ways and tying them together.Others plucked loose bricksfrom pavements.

After the deadline expired,

protesters broke into the fore-court of the legislature in a bidto breach the building anddemonstrators were seenthrowing missiles includingmetal bars at riot police.

An injured policeman wascarried away unconscious.Police beat back demonstratorsfirst with batons and pepperspray, then firing rubber bulletsand bean bag rounds — small

fabric bags filled with lead pel-lets — and dozens of rounds oftear gas as they cleared one sideof the surrounded parliamentbuilding.

Hong Kong’s police chiefStephen Lo defended his offi-cers, saying they had shownrestraint until “mobsters” triedto storm parliament. “Theseviolent protesters kept chargingat our line of defence, and usedvery dangerous weapons,including... Throwing metalbarricades at us and throwingbricks,” he said.

Many Hong Kongers areincensed that the Governmentignored a massive march onSunday calling for the bill to be scrapped.

“It’s the Government whohas forced people to escalatetheir actions, so I think it’sinevitable for the fight thistime to get heated,” said 21-year-old protester Lau Ka-chun.Organisers said more than amillion people turned out onSunday to oppose the pro-posed law, which would allowHong Kong to send suspects toother jurisdictions around theworld — including China.

But the record numbersfailed to sway Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam, whohas rejected calls to withdrawthe bill. Matthew Cheung, thecity’s chief secretary, onWednesday called on demon-strators to withdraw.

“I also urge citizens whohave gathered to show restraintas much as possible, dispersepeacefully and do not defy the law,” he said in a videomessage.

)� � ��2��9��:�� London: Britain urged theHong Kong Government to“pause and reflect” on an extra-dition bill that has sparkedwidespread protests, and saidthe former British colony musttake steps to protect its rights,freedoms and high degree ofautonomy.

Hong Kong police fired

rubber bullets and tear gas atdemonstrators who threw plas-tic bottles on Wednesday overan extradition bill that wouldallow people to be sent tomainland China for trial.

“I urge the Hong Kong gov-ernment to listen to the concernsof its people and its friends in theinternational community and to

pause and reflect on these con-troversial measures,” ForeignSecretary Jeremy Hunt said. “Itis essential that the authoritiesengage in meaningful dialogueand take steps to preserve HongKong’s rights and freedoms andhigh degree of autonomy, whichunderpin its international rep-utation.” Agencies

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The European Commissionwarned on Wednesday that

Britain will have to pay its out-standing share of the existingEU budget even if it leaves theunion without a withdrawalagreement. In a statement onpreparations for Britain’s depar-ture, Brussels said it would notenter talks on future trade untilLondon honours “the financialobligations the UK has made asa member state”.

Under the Brexit with-drawal agreement agreed lastyear between outgoing BritishPrime Minister Theresa Mayand her fellow EU leaders,Britain would owe the unionapproximately 39 billionpounds. This sum would coverbudget commitments upthrough a transition period atthe end of next year, but theBritish parliament has refusedto ratify the treaty and Brexit hasbeen delayed until October 31.

May is due to step downand some of the challengers toreplace her, including fron-trunner former foreign minis-ter Boris Johnson, have saidthey are ready to leave Europewithout an agreement on thatdate. This would mean, the EUstatement said, there would beno transition period next year— which officials estimatewould save Britain around 12billion euros on the bill — butthe balance would be out-standing.

Johnson has suggested that

withholding the funds couldgive Britain leverage in thedivorce talks, but Wednesday’s

EU statement said no suchnegotiations would begin ifthe bill is not honoured.

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US President Donald Trumpaccidentally revealed on

Tuesday that Mexico agreed totake stronger legal action to haltCentral American migrants ifits initial efforts to stem theflow don’t show results in 45days. In bright sunshine outsidethe White House, Trumpwaved what he said was the textof an agreement Mexican andUS officials signed Friday toavert the application of tariffson their exports to the US.

Photographs of the docu-ment revealed that Mexicoappeared to pledge to enact orenforce certain domestic lawsif Washington is not satisfiedwith the results of its firstpromised efforts — deploying6,000 National Guardsmen toreinforce its southern borderand expanding its policy of tak-ing back asylum-seekers as theUS processes their claims.

If, after 45 days, the USgovernment “determines at itsdiscretion” that the results

aren’t enough, the documentsays, “the Government ofMexico will take all necessarysteps under domestic law tobring the agreement into force.”

The document gives theMexican government another45 days to achieve that. It wasnot clear what specific mea-sures the Mexican governmentwould have to take.

Washington said last weekit wanted Mexico to agree to a“safe third country” policy, inwhich migrants enteringMexican territory must applyfor asylum there rather than inthe US.

Trump waved the ostensi-ble agreement in front ofreporters amid questions aboutwhether his administrationreally did reach a substantialagreement last week to stem theflow of hundreds of thousandsof migrants who pass through Mexico to enter theUnited States.

The initial deal appeared torepeat previous undertakingsthe Mexicans have made.

Riyadh: An Indian woman was among the 26 people injured ina missile attack by Yemen’s rebel Houthi militia on Saudi Arabia’sAbha International Airport on Wednesday, a spokesperson of theSaudi-led Arab coalition involved in the war in Yemen said.

The attack took place in the morning, state-run Saudi PressAgency reported, citing a statement given by Col Turki Al-Maliki.

A projectile fired by the Houthi militia hit the arrival hallat Abha International Airport in southwestern Asir province, hesaid, adding that 26 passengers of different nationalities wereinjured by the projectile, including three women (from India,Yemen and Saudi Arabia) and two Saudi children.

Eight of the moderately injured were transferred to a hos-pital for treatment, while 18 were treated at the site for minorinjuries. There was also some physical damage to the airportlounge, the report said. IANS

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Syrian air defence shot downIsraeli missiles targeting the

south of the country onWednesday, state media said, asa monitor reported positions ofthe regime’s Lebanese allyHezbollah had been hit. Theattack was launched in theearly hours of the morningagainst the Tall al-Hara sectornear the Golan Heights,according to official newsagency SANA, which said therehad been no casualties.

It did not specify what hadbeen targeted. SANA alsoaccused Israel of conducting an“electronic war” and “jamming”Syrian radar. The SyrianObservatory for Human Rights,a Britain-based war monitor,said the strikes had targetedpositions of the Hezbollah Shiitemovement in two locations, butwithout causing any casualties.

“All the positions hit had

the Lebanese Hezbollah there,”Observatory head Rami AbdelRahman said. The missiles tar-geted Tall al-Hara, a hill in thesouthern province of Daraawhere Hezbollah has radarsand the regime has air defencebatteries, said the Observatory,which relies on sources insideSyria for its information.

It also targeted barracks forthe Lebanese fighters in theabandoned town of Quneitraon the Syrian-controlled side ofa demilitarised zone betweenboth countries in the Golan.

The town has been largelyin ruins for over four decadessince it was razed by Israeliforces before they withdrewunder a 1974 United Nationsagreement. Israel has carriedout hundreds of air strikes inSyria since the beginning of theconflict in 2011, targetingforces loyal to President Basharal-Assad and the regime’s alliesIran and Hezbollah.

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After facing flak for usingunethical and discreet ways

of collecting user-information,Facebook has decided to payAndroid users in India and theUS just to monitor how theyuse their phones.

To fulfil this purpose, thesocial networking giant haslaunched a new app calledStudy which is available fordownload on Google’sPlaystore for Android usersaged 18 and above.

The app would not onlymonitor installed apps on aperson’s phone but also observethe amount of time spent onthose apps along with detailslike the users’ location andadditional app data whichcould reveal other specific fea-tures being used, The Vergereported on Tuesday.

“When analysing data fromthis app, we reference otherinformation Facebook hasabout you, such as your age,gender and you use FacebookCompany Products. Thisallows us to learn more abouthow participants use differentservices,” the Study appdescription on GooglePlaystore reads.

The company says it wouldnot see any specific content,including messages, passwords,and websites the users visit, thereport said.

Earlier this year, it wasrevealed that the social mediagiant was secretly paying peo-ple to install a “FacebookResearch” Virtual PrivateNetwork (VPN) that was lettingthe company access user’s data.

It was also highlighted that,since 2016, Facebook was pay-ing users aged 13 to 35 up to$20 per month, plus referralfees, to sell their privacy byinstalling the iOS or Android“Facebook Research” app.

Moreover, media reportsalso claimed that Facebook evenasked users to screenshot theirAmazon order history pages.

However, the launch ofStudy shows that Facebookclearly feels that it still needsthis data on how people areusing their phones, and that thecompany has learnt a thing ortwo from the last controversy,the report added.

The company has so far notdisclosed the amount of moneyit is planning to offer the par-ticipants, who are required tohave a PayPal account forreceiving payments.

Dubai: Yemen’s Houthis havefired a missile at Saudi Arabia’sAbha airport, wounding 26 civil-ians in the building’s arrivals hall,according to the Saudi-UAE-ledcoalition fighting the rebels. In astatement on Wednesday, thecoalition said a projectile hit thearrivals hall at Abha airport,causing material damage. Threewomen and two children wereamong the wounded, who wereof Saudi, Yemeni and Indiannationalities, it said.

Eight people were taken tohospital while most were treat-ed on site. The attack couldamount to a war crime andproved that the Houthis haveacquired “advanced weaponsfrom Iran”, the coalition said,vowing to take “urgent andtimely” measures in response.

There was no immediateresponse from Iran. Houthi-affiliated al-Masirah TV report-ed Houthi forces launched acruise missile attack on Abhaairport, which is about 200kmnorth of the border with Yemenand serves domestic andregional routes. Agencies

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Former British ForeignSecretary Boris Johnson on

Wednesday said the UK mustleave the European Union onOctober 31 as he launched hisbid to replace outgoing PrimeMinister Theresa May asleader of the Conservatives.

“After three years and twomissed deadlines, we mustleave the EU on October 31,”Johnson told a crowded roomin the London borough ofWestminster.

The leadership contendersaid he would not be aimingto pull the UK out of the blocwithout a deal, thoughacknowledged that such ascenario could not be ruledout, Efe news reported.

Johnson, the formerMayor of London who wenton to serve as ForeignSecretary in May’s Cabinetand subsequently resignedfrom that role, said the pop-ulation felt “disillusion oreven despair” when it came to

the government’s ability to getthe UK out of Europe.

He said that the publicwould be relieved after Brexitas it would allow the countryto focus on other pressingissues. Johnson said the gov-ernment was stuck at a cross-roads, warning there was arisk that the population wouldlose confidence in politiciansif the situation carried on asit was. For Johnson, a new set-back for Brexit would be theopposition Labour Party ofJeremy Corbyn getting intoGovernment.

The former LondonMayor drew on his experiencein that post, saying he had gotthe capital through riots,strikes as well as overseeing theOlympics in 2012. He nowseeks to replicate what he didfor London across the wholecountry, he said. According toJohnson, the country needs tobe united and it needs betterinfrastructure, including fasterbroadband and more metronetworks.

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The supreme factor inthis Match No 3 forIndia is not Boult'smagnum opus or the

fiery Shikhar Dhawan’s injurylay over. It is weather and fore-cast is that there will be rain atleast till the noon after whichconditions will start dryingup.

The met office here beingaccurate 99 times out of 100,most probably it will be a trun-cated match, possibly beingreduced to 30 or so overs aninnings which, in turn, needsdifferent strategies, changedmindsets and a game plan thatcan stand the fast and furiousformat this 50-over match mayturn into.

The rain has been sointense and unreasonable inthese past couple of days thatthe Notts feel Moses is on hisway which means a biblical per-formance in the middle too if,at all, there is a rain halt and theoutfield responds to the super-soppers as never before. Thatsaid, the Trent Bridge cricketground is known for its excel-lent drainage system and hassoaked in more than othergrounds have the bargain for.

But all this changes noth-ing for Team India which prac-tised at the cricket ground onmatch eve, Dhawan being partof the spectators. Fieldingqueries around Dhawan’sabsence and the weather con-ditions, team coach SanjayBangar said, “every match ischallenging. All teams are wellprepared and know each other'sstrengths and weaknesses, sonothing changes for us. Ourpreparation and approach takeeach team in view.”

India infamously lost theirpractice match to New Zealandthe other day at The Oval withBoult and Jimmy Neeshamtearing into the Indian defencewith alacrity, ease and sevenwickets. But practice is differ-ent from real time where Indiawill be in the middle after twobig wins, one against the SouthAfricans on a difficult pitch andthe other against none short ofthe defending championsAustralia. Both were wellfought and strategized victories

where the bowlers did as wellas the batsmen.

Though Australia wastaken largely on the blade ofShikhar Dhawan, not to men-tion the seasoned arm depart-ment, the opener who will besorely missed for the next threeor four matches as he sits outto mend his left-hand fracture,is second only to a good back-up plan. “KL (Rahul) moves upto the top of the order withVijay Shankar and otheroptions in place for the No 4slot,” Bangar told journalists onmatch eve.

The rejig at the top has talkof an unsettled Rohit Sharmabut KL Rahul has been in thegood books of fearless perfor-mances as an opener and himdebuting in this World Cupwould give some seriousthinking power to his bat.Add to that the fact that “fromour batting point of view allthe six batsmen have gone outin the middle, except Kedar.Hardik and Mahi have also gotgame time,” and you have arelief in sight.

Bangar’s optimism is wellfounded. It should be takeninto account that India per-formed equally well againstSouth Africa when Dhawandid not fire into the scoreboardat all.

Also, as Bangar says, shift-ing up and down the order hasits positives. “The advantage ofplaying in various spots isthat you understand the gamemuch better. If a player is ableto do that, like Rahul Draviddid, it always helps the teambig time as also the player him-self. It is a mental adjustmentfor which the player requiresa lot of skill,” he said, leavingit unsaid that KL is the manwith that asset.

New Zealand though is atricky opponent, trickier thanthe rest India has faced so far.The Black Caps have won alltheir three matches so far,limiting Sri Lanka, Bangladeshand Afghanistan to a less than250 total.

Add to that paceman TimSouthee and batter HenryNicholls returning to opti-mum fitness and skipperKohli, otherwise sorted him-self in all departments, willhave a tough opening to close.

India have the wherewithal,the intent and the expertise totide over multifarious oppo-nents. But do they have theweather on their side?

Hope Moses comes andgoes on match eve and leavesThursday for sunshine andsome good winning strokes byIndia — before it is over toManchester, Pakistan and ablockbuster everyone is wait-ing for.

�E� �India: Virat Kohli (c), JaspritBumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal,MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra

Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav,Dinesh Karthik,Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul,Mohammed Shami, VijayShankar, Rohit Sharma,Kuldeep YadavNew Zealand: KaneWilliamson (c), Ross Taylor,Tom Latham (wk), TomBlundell, Mitchell Santner,Colin de Grandhomme,Lockie Ferguson, TimSouthee, Trent Boult, ColinMunro, Ish Sodhi, HenryNicholls, Martin Guptill,Matt Henr y, JimmyNeesham

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SKETCHERS FROM US

Chirag and gang are here allthe way from the US. The

motely group of youngsters,otherwise data analysts andwhat not of the cyber world,are here on a one-match holi-day mostly from New Jersey.What makes them stand out isthe artist among them –Chirag from New York – whohas made picture perfect,

more real than original,sketches of Team India big-gies. These include one eachof Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma,Hardik Pandya, ShikharDhawan, Ravindra Jadeja andtwo of MS Dhoni. “I am atotal Dhoni fan,” he saysunabashedly, holding thephoto frame close to his heart.Braving the Nottinghamweather, the group stood atthe Trent Bridge stadium gatesfor over three hours to get an

acknowledgment of their artfrom the players. Chirag saideach portrait took 13 to 14hours to sketch as accuracywas his main stress point.Coming out to hop into theteam bus after a practice ses-sion, Hardik Pandya obligedthe group, which has two girlsin Ragini and Hiral amongthem, with autographs eventhough the others wentstraight past them into thebus.

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Nottingham is much morethan the lovely long and

green woods it spreads over fromits most northernly perch of EastMidlands territory. It is purebread, from the heart, heroicallyRobin Hood country and itsmost sought-after trail is theRobin Hood trail by one veryinteresting walker-guide-humourist-historian Ezekial Bonewho lives the character to thehilt. His trails happen only onweekends and are booked well in

advance. Beyond Robin Hoodthere more. Nottingham is alsothe place where the famous Bootspharmacy started off in 1849, asa herbal story if you please! Thenthere is no less a writer than DHLawrence, the author of LadyChatterley’s Lover who was bornin 10 km north-west ofNottingham. A coal mining cityin the yore of English industry,the city is also known for its 19thcentury lace industry and theLace Market is beeping light onthe Nottingham tourist map. TheLace Market is close to Old

Market Square where you willfind a statue of another man whosome might describe as a heroicoutlaw. Brian Clough, the out-spoken football manager, ledunheralded Nottingham Forestfrom the second tier of theEnglish game to successiveEuropean Cup triumphs in thelate 1970s. Forest’s ground on thebanks of the River Trent is locat-ed close to Trent Bridge cricketground and forms, along withthe home of Notts County, theoldest professional footballleague club in the world.(J�� )��1� �� 2��1� ��

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INN NOT OUT

The Trent Bridge Inn overlooking the cricketground from one corner in the behind,

looks much lived in, heavy with history and alandmark the Notts are proud off. It is one ofthe oldest living buildings of the city and wasthere much before the cricket ground wasmade. The long-standing local landmark wasnot always known as the Trent Bridge Inn. An1838 map shows it up as the “Three HorsesShoes and Crown” which got demolished in1890 after which the present structure wasbuilt, to be last refurbished for 3 millionpounds in 2011 by the Weatherspoon family.Back in the 19th century, this inn was used as aresting place for travellers before they couldenter the city next morning. The inn wasinstrumental in creating the cricket groundwhich was set up in competition to the oneowned by the town council. The first cricketmatch here was created by William Clarke in1838 who was the captain of theNottinghamshire cricket team. He had marriedMary Chapman, the landlady of the TrentBridge Inn and they had arranged for the landbehind the inn to be made into a cricketground.

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The nation may need toknow right away but

Team India assistant coachSanjay Bangar says a final callon opening batsman ShikharDhawan, who fractured hisleft hand in the game againstAustralia, will be taken onlyafter 10 to 12 days. “He is tooprecious to be ruled out justyet,” he added at the pre-match Press conference.

Clearing the confusionover the replacement, heannounced that Rishabh Pantwould be flying in as stand-by and joining the teampractice sessions fromManchester onwards.

An injured Dhawan, whobatted for 20 long overs andmade a century after beinghit on his hand, will miss at

least three or four games tillwhen, Bangar suggested, thereplacement will come fromwithin the team 15.

“It will, however, be goodfor Pant to practice with theteam and be match ready ifat all Dhawan is ruled out of

the tournament,” he said.“Since Dhawan's assess-

ment will take 10-12 days,till that point of time, wewanted to make sure if andwhen the replacement isrequired and I am saying ifand when, then it is alwaysgood to have a replacementplayer coming in and prac-tising with the team as astand-by,” Bangar added.

“As far as Shikhar is con-cerned, we are observinghim and it will take sometime, around 10 or 12 daysto figure out where hestands. We will be in a bet-ter position to take a callthen because we don't wantto rule out a precious play-er like Shikhar, straight at thetime of the injury," Bangarsaid.

Dhawan is slated to beout of the games at leastagainst New Zealand,Pakistan and Afghanistan,and maybe West Indies onJune 27.

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Former Indian skipper Kapil Devbelieves team India should not

think much about fitness issuesrelated to star opener ShikharDhawan, who suffered thumb injuryduring India's clash against Australiaon 9th June at London and shouldfocus entirely on the next gameagainst New Zealand at Nottinghamtoday.

The star opener during his 117-run innings was hit by Pat Cummins'delivery which injured his thumbbecause of which he wasn't able tocome and field during Australia'sinnings. On Tuesday, he wasdeclared unfit to participate in theteam's next three games at least.

Speaking at the launch of fanta-sy sports platform – Apne11, 1983World Cup winning skipper said:"We should remain positive. Thereis a possibility that the replacementmay turn out to be better than him(Dhawan)."

"It's unfortunate to miss such anexperienced campaigner at the startbut I just hope whosoever is the nextone in line is better equipped thanhim," he said.

It is believed that in absence ofShikhar, KL Rahul will be asked toopen the innings with Rohit Sharmaand there is a fair share of opinionabout who will bat at No 4 position.

The former captain said that hedidn't want to comment on the sameand create confusion. "The decisionto replace is something that the teammanagement has to take and thesame goes with the batting order. Iwould not like to comment and cre-ate confusion talking about thereplacement because this decisionwill be made by the selectors and theskipper. Batting order would also bedecided by the captain. We can justexpect whosoever comes in, is onebetter than the previous."

India has so far dominated thetournament with two dominatingwins in as many games againststrong opponents like South Africaand Australia and Kapil is happy bythe show so far and expects team tocontinue perform the same way.

"I am very happy with the waythe side has performed and expectthem to play like this only through-out the tournament. Both were big

matches and I hope they would carrythe same spirit throughout the tour-nament," Kapil said.

He also applauded HardikPandya's performance againstAustralia where the Baroda all-rounder was promoted up the orderto bat at No 4 after Dhawan's depar-ture and he smashed 27-ball 48which consists of three sixes andfour boundaries.

However he still considers himas a batting all-rounder and expectshim to make bit more contributionswith the bowl. "For me he is a bat-ting all-rounder but I would suggesthim to keep improving his bowlingas well. And if he can do that, he willturn into a great team man which ismore important," he said.

"As for Yuvraj's (Singh), he wasone of best player team India everhad and deserves a farewell.Retirement of such player like thiswas not expected. He was elegantand I wish our youngsters play likehim."

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New Zealand batsman RossTaylor's considerableknowledge about the Trent

Bridge ground tells him that theshorter boundaries here may playon the mind of India's wrist spinduo during their World Cupencounter Thursday.

Taylor, who has been a success-ful pro for the Nottinghamshirecounty side, is confident that NewZealand can effectively tackle thewrist spin duo of YuzvendraChahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

"We've faced India a lot inrecent times and had some successagainst them. Obviously, they aretwo world class spinners but I thinkwe've had success at differentstages. The shorter boundariessometimes can play on the mindsof the spinner," Taylor said at thepre-match press conference.

Asked about Dhawan'sabsence, Taylor said: "ObviouslyShikhar is a big loss to India. Thepresence, he plays very well at ICCtournaments and has a very goodrecord over here.

"He and Rohit Sharma have avery good partnership, and I thinkthey complement each other wellbecause they're right and left-handed."

With Dhawan missing inaction, India will have a lot of right-handers in the batting line-up andTaylor feels it will make it difficultfor their opponent to exploit theshorter boundaries here.

"A lot of these grounds in theUK have a short boundary to oneside, and if you've got two righthanders or two left handers, youcan't exploit it as much," Taylorsaid.

"As we see, it's traditionally ashort boundary here. If that is thecase, then hopefully we can exploitit with the right, left-handers, as Iam sure India and other teams thatare playing here will try and do."

Taylor had a good season withthe Notts and he loves everythingabout the Trent Bridge ground.

"No, it's a great place to play

cricket. Traditionally, it can favorthe batters at times, but I am surethat bowlers will be — going tohave a little bit there.

"It's been out in the kettles fortwo or three days and hasn't seenthe sun. I'm sure — we'll have to

wait and see what happens," hesaid.

Just like Aaron Finch, Taylorhas accepted the fact that Indiansupporters will outnumber theirfans.

"First and foremost, it's a great

place to play cricket, and I'm sureany time we play India in a neutralvenue is always going to be moreIndian supporters than NewZealand. I'm sure that's some-thing we're looking forward to aswell."

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� �8' )5,� 8+

Trevor Bayliss insists Englandhave the capacity to thrive –

not just survive – against WestIndies’ rapid fast bowlers when thetwo lock horns on Friday.

Pace is the talk of the townahead of the meeting at theHampshire Bowl, with theCaribbean side boasting four play-ers who can top 90mph.

Oshane Thomas and SheldonCottrell are in particularly goodform, the former terrorisingPakistan in their opening ICCMen’s Cricket World Cup game,with the latter bamboozling SouthAfrica in the washed-out conteston Monday.

England have a pair of in-form quicks of their own in JofraArcher and Mark Wood and thetwo sides could not be split in theirrecent ODI series — drawing 2-2in the Caribbean.

“We can handle anything thatis thrown at us,” he said.

“I have not seen too manywith express pace here just yet butwe have a couple of good ones tooso I expect it to be tit for tat,” headcoach Bayliss said.

“We will have to play at ourbest to come away with a win. Inthe Caribbean, we were a little bitup and down. They bowled fast

but then Mark Wood made a fewof their guys jump up and down.

“The wicket here is reasonablyflat and it has been in the past.There have been a few morewickets in the World Cup thenthere has been in the last few yearsso I expect the fast bowlers arerubbing their hands together.”

Bayliss has a few selectionheadaches, despite being opti-mistic about Jos Buttler’s fitness.

The vice-captain hurt his hipwhile batting against Bangladeshbut appears to have overcome thecomplaint — even if Bayliss isunsure if he will keep wicket.

“I haven’t really thought aboutit. We'll make that decision in thenext day or so," he said.

“It was a little bit precaution-ary the other day. He said he couldhave kept, but he wasn't really sureif he would be able to run after ahigh catch.”

All-rounder Moeen Ali is alsopushing for a recall and Bayliss hasoften deployed two spinners at the

Hampshire Bowl in the past,increasing the prospect that theoff-spinner will come in and joinAdil Rashid.

Spin has accounted for just sixof the 28 wickets England havetaken so far, with Moeen left outagainst Bangladesh and Rashidsuffering a shoulder injury in thebuild-up to the tournament, butBayliss is not yet concerned.

“Early in the tournament, orprior to it, he [Rashid] had a nig-gle in the shoulder but he has gotover that and in the last couple ofweeks he has not had a problem,”he added.

“What he needs is more bowl-ing, whether that is in the nets orin the games. I don’t think thewickets have necessarily been anadvantage for the spinners yet.

“As we go through the tourna-ment, when it might be drier anddrier wickets I expect he will comeinto his own.”

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�� 8' )5,� 8+

England fast bowler Mark Wood says his sidewill "fight fire with fire" when they face the

formidable West Indies pace attack.Friday's World Cup clash in Southampton

is likely to be a bouncer barrage, with bothteams boasting aggressive bowling line-ups.

The West Indies dismissed Pakistan for 105at Trent Bridge, the lowest total of the tourna-ment, by unleashing an array of bouncers fromOshane Thomas, Andre Russell and SheldonCottrell.

With Wood partnered by Barbados-bornpaceman Jofra Archer, and both having hit95mph in the victory over Bangladesh, Englandare not likely to shrink from the battle.

" T h eWindies in thisWorld Cup havecome with aclear game planand that is a lotof short stuff,"Wood said.

"We got ataste of that inthe Windies onthe recent tour.But I canremember get-ting DarrenBravo andHetmyer out toshort balls so itis a good thingwe can fight fire with fire.

"It could be like that, just landing blow afterblow, back and forth, back and forth. The oppo-sition batsmen don't get a break if there is pacefrom both ends and it'd be nice if we can con-tinue that trend.

"When real pace bowling is on show it def-initely ruffles a few feathers and changes themomentum of the game."

Speaking at the weekend Archer nominat-ed himself as the quickest bowler in theEngland ranks and expressed surprise whentold Wood had crept ahead of him with a deliv-ery of 95.6mph — the fastest ball of the tour-nament.That head-to-head will continuethroughout the competition, with the Durhamman not minded to back down.

"It is a good competition between us, afriendly one," he said.

"To have us both bowling at 94 and 95mphand have two guys from the England team atthe top of that list is pretty good.

"It pushes us for sure. You're pushing eachother to be the best you can be and to be asquick as you can be. You have banter about itfor sure, but you're helping each other.

"I'm trying to bowl 0.1 mph quicker thanJofra and he's trying to bowl 0.1 faster than me."

� �8' )5,�8+

Few things in sport are as exciting aswatching a 90mph bowler and CoreyCollymore insists his four West

Indian speedsters can overwhelmEngland’s two on Friday.

The Caribbean side have long beenrenowned for producing destructivequicks — think Michael Holding, CurtlyAmbrose and Courtney Walsh — but thewell began to noticeably dry following theturn of the century.

However, in Oshane Thomas,Shannon Gabriel, Sheldon Cottrell andthe recalled Andre Russell, they have fourpaceman all capable of topping the mag-ical 90mph barrier.

England boast two of their own inJofra Archer and Mark Wood, makingFriday's contest in Southampton one ofthe most eagerly-anticipated games of thetournament.

“We have quick bowlers too so itshould be a lively game," said bowlingcoach Collymore — who also used tobowl around the 90mph mark in his earlycareer.

“We have shown what we can do withour fast bowlers, we are good enough totake wickets with the new ball and thengo from there.

“I don't think many people like theshort stuff, whether it is England or theWest Indies. If you find a batsman thathas a weakness to it, then you go after

that.“The West Indies have always pro-

duced fast bowlers. The two nations thathas always had talented fast bowlers for

me are the West Indies and Pakistan.“From years gone by, that was some-

thing we prided ourselves on and now yousee we have some more coming through.”

All eyes will be on Archer as he pre-

pares to face the West Indies for the firsttime. The 24-year-old bowled the fastestspell ever seen by an Englishman in ODIcricket against Bangladesh last week andhe has six wickets in the tournament sofar.

However, when he opens at theHampshire Bowl he will be confronted bythe unique challenge of taking on ChrisGayle.

While Archer has intimidated bats-man in his young international career, 39-year-old Gayle has a strong recent recordagainst England — belting 39 sixesagainst them in the five-match ODI seriesearlier this year — and Collymore doesnot expect him to be so nervy.

“Chris thrives on that. I have knownhim since he was 16 and he has alwaysloved a challenge. He has always enjoyedthe challenge of fast bowling so I expecthim to relish that,” he added.

“I have known Archer for a while andI saw Wood in the Caribbean last year.They are both very impressive, as we haveseen throughout this tournament.

“I did work with him [Archer] whenhe was a lot younger in Barbados. He wasvery impressive, the skills he shows noware ones we always had so are expectingmore of the same from him.”

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Mohammed Amir had confessedto spot-fixing only after then

ODI skipper Shahid Afridi slappedthe fast bowler while Salman Buttwas involved in corruption muchbefore Pakistan's ill-fated tour ofEngland in 2010, claimed former all-rounder Abdul Razzaq.

Spilling the beans on the scan-dal which tarnished the image ofPakistan cricket, Razzaq narrated theAamir incident while speaking to theGNN news channel.

"He (Afridi) told me to leave theroom but after a while I heard thesound of a slap and then Aamir toldthe whole truth," Razzaq said.

The all-rounder also blamed thethen PCB set-up for bringing badname to Pakistan cricket.

"I thought instead of going to theICC to prove its efficiency, the PCBshould have instead directly takenthe three players to task despite theirdenials and sent them back home onsome pretext. They should havebanned them for a year or so. In theend by not doing this, the PCB spoiltthe image of Pakistan cricket world-wide."

Razzaq, 39, also claimed thatButt was deliberately getting out andplaying dot balls much before thescandal broke out in England.

"I shared my concerns withAfridi but he said it is just myWaham (misconception) and noth-ing is wrong. But when I was battingwith Salman Butt during a match ofthe World T20 in West Indies, I was

convinced he was letting down theteam."

Razzaq recalled he told Butt totake a single and give him thestrike but he did not pay heed to hisadvise.

"I was surprised when herefused this strategy. When Irealised what he was up to (some-

thing) I told him strictly to give methe strike. Yet every over he delib-erately played two or three balls andthen gave me strike. I got upset andfelt the pressure and got out."

Butt, Aamir and MohammadAsif were the three players eventu-ally banned for a minimum of fiveyears in early 2011 by the ICC's anti-

corruption tribunal after they werefirst suspended in September 2010.

All three have now returned toplaying cricket after completingtheir five-year bans. But only Aamirhas been considered and picked forthe Pakistan national team and ispresently competing in the WorldCup.

�� 5'+ 8+

David Warner was not his usualdestructive self but effective never-theless, his first international cen-

tury since completing the ball-tamperingban setting up Australia's 41-run winover Pakistan in the World Cup here onWednesday.

Australia looked set for a total in excessof 350 while Warner and captain AaronFinch (82) were at the crease, butMohammad Amir (5/30) staged a grandcomeback with his best ODI bowling fig-ures to bowl their opponents out for 307.

Pakistan's innings ended at 266 in 45.4overs overs but not before the duo ofSarfaraz Ahmed and Wahab Riaz gave theAustralians a scare with a rearguard actionthat revived their hopes for a while.

Pakistan were at one stage tottering at160 for six in the 30th over.

Riaz smashed 45 off 39 balls with twofours and three sixes, while Sarfaraz made40 off 48. The side's top-scorer though wasopener Imam-ul-Haq (53), MohammadHafeez contributed 46 while Hasan Aliblazed away to 32 off only 15 balls beforeMitchell Starc closed out the game at thedeath.

“When I got out we had 70 balls to go,as the ‘in’ batter you want to bat 50 overs.We should have been around 340-50,credit to Pakistan, their second spellswere fantastic and made it hard for us tohit down the ground,” Warner said at thepost-match presentation ceremony.

The dashing left-handed opener struck107 off 111 balls, with 11 fours and a six.

Earlier, sent into bat after the coin land-ed in Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed'sfavour, Australia were off to a steady startwith Warner and Finch helping them to 50in 10 overs.

Amir started with a maiden and goingwith only four mainline bowlers, Australiaknew they needed to score big to putPakistan under pressure.

The Aussies broke free against ShaheenAfridi, with Finch hitting him over the deepsquare leg fence for a six and Warneremploying the pull shot to get a four. AsAustralia looked for quick runs, Amirshowed his class by bowling another maid-en over.

Apart from the singles and twos, bothmanaged to find the ropes occasionally,before Finch carted Mohammad Hafeez for16 runs with the help of a six and twoboundaries.

After a stand that yielded 146 runs in22.1 overs, Amir provided Pakistan themuch-needed breakthrough when he hadFinch hitting one high up in the airtowards extra cover.

Warner hit Hasan Ali for two consec-utive fours, and then, there was a classy

cover drive by SteveSmith. A couple of quietovers was followed by aproductive one fromAustralia's point of view,with Warner smashingShoaib Malik for a sixover long-on and a four topick 15 runs.

Sitting pretty at 189for two in the 29th over,Smith tried to up the antebut in doing so, ended upgiving a catch to Asif Ali,who had dropped a sitterin the slips earlier at TheCooper AssociatesCounty Ground.

Glenn Maxwellstruck 20 in 10 balls evenas Warner reached thethree-figure mark whenan edge flew between thekeeper and the wide slip

for a four. He got outshortly after celebratinghis century with gusto.

The show, then,belonged to Amir.

However, Amir'seffort was not not enoughas Pakistan suffered theirsecond defeat of theshowpiece.

Opener Imam-ul-Haq made 53 off 75 ballsand steadied the inningswith a 54-run second-wicket with Babar Azam(28) after the early dis-missal of Fakhar Zaman.

For Australia, PatCummins was the mostsuccessful bowler withfigures of 3/33 while theretwo wickets apiece forMitchell Starc and KaneRichardson.

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Australian pace spearheadJosh Hazlewood admits

he is barely watching the WorldCup as his disappointment atnot being selected continues tocause him pain.

The 27-year-old was over-looked after being out of actionsince January with a backinjury, as selectors preferredhim to focus on getting readyfor the Ashes Test series inEngland, which begins inAugust.

Hazlewood is currently incamp at Brisbane with theAustralia A squads — alongwith the likes of PeterHandscomb, Travis Head andMarcus Harris — ahead oftheir departure for England onFriday for a seven-week tour.

Now fully fit, he said hehad was trying to avoid theWorld Cup and directhis energies elsewhere.

"I'm trying to focuson what I'm doing uphere," he toldcricket.Com.Au onWednesday.

"I'll sit down atnight and watch acouple of overs butI'm trying to steerclear of it a little bit.

"The more youwatch something, themore you probablymiss it. So I'm justtrying to pre-tend it 'snot on,to a

degree." Instead his focus is onthe Ashes, and he warned thathe would be fresh and raringto go against the English bats-men.

"I know I can do a great jobwhen I'm physically prettyfresh and that's how I'm goingto enter this Ashes, so I'mlooking forward to it," he said.

Hazlewood is set to makehis return in the one-day for-mat for Australia A from June20, before three red-ball fix-tures starting on July 7.

Those matches culminatein an 'Australia v Australia A'four-day fixture in Hampshire,which will serve as a finalselection trial for the Ashessquad.

"I've done as much as I canin the nets," he said. "It takesthat time out in the middle now

to get that extracouple of per-

cent up toone hun-

dred."

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Andy Murray hopes to beback on the singles court

later this year, but the British for-mer world number one is settingno time limits on his return.

Murray will step up hiscomeback bid from the hipsurgery he underwent in Januarywhen he competes in the doubleswith Feliciano Lopez at Queen'sClub next week.

The 32-year-old then plansto play doubles at Wimbledon,where he has won two of histhree singles Grand Slam titles.

However, Murray stillexpects to take his time beforereturning to singles action,which probably rules out com-peting at the US Open at the endof August.

"It's baby steps just now," saidthe Scot. "I'm feeling good, pret-ty much pain-free and enjoyingkind of just training, practising,improving all the time just now.

"I don't think whenWimbledon finishes that I willjust step onto the singles courtthe following week and every-thing's good. I still have quite alot of work to do before I'm at alevel where I feel like I'll be ableto be competitive."

Murray, who last played sin-gles at the Australian Open inJanuary, said he had been mak-ing consistent progress but hewould probably plateau at somestage.

"I hope at some stage thisyear I would be able to get backto playing singles again," saidMurray.

"When that is, I'm not real-ly interested in putting a timelimit on because I'm quite happyjust now so I don't need to playsingles after Wimbledon or at the

US Open."If I can, that would be bril-

liant, but I don't think that'sgoing to be the case. I think it'sgoing to take a bit longer."

Murray has been trainingwith American Frances Tiafoebut has still not fully tested hisrecovery with any singles prac-tice matches.

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Italy needed a late winner fromMarco Verratti to defeat a deter-

mined Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-1 inEuro 2020 qualifying on Tuesday,while Germany and France piledup the goals in lopsided victories.

Edin Dzeko fired Bosnia infront in Turin, but Lorenzo Insigneequalised shortly after half-timeand Verratti curled home on 86minutes to earn a fourth win in asmany attempts for RobertoMancini's side in Group J.

"I expected the difficulties, butwe showed the strength and theconviction to overturn it," saidMancini.

"The important thing is that weare first in the group." Worldchampions France rebounded fromlast weekend's defeat in Turkeywith a trouble-free 4-0 win away tominnows Andorra.

"We reacted well after notplaying to our usual level onSaturday against a good Turkeyteam. It looked easy today and theintensity wasn't the same but weplayed really well," said Francecoach Didier Deschamps.

He retained just four of thosewho began Saturday's 2-0 loss in

Konya, handing first inter-national starts to KurtZouma, Clement Lengletand Leo Dubois.

Kylian Mbappe openedthe scoring with a chippedfinish on 11 minutes, withWissam Ben Yedder andFlorian Thauvin addingto their lead in the first half.

Zouma bundled home a fourthon the hour as France reclaimedtop spot in Group H after Iceland

beat Turkey 2-1 in Reykjavikto further sour the mood inthe visiting camp.

�#��#��Germany made light

work of Estonia as SergeGnabry and Marco Reusfired them to a thunder-

ing 8-0 victory in Mainz.Gnabry and Reus scored two

goals each, with Leon Goretzka,Ilkay Gundogan, Timo Werner

and Leroy Sane also on target, asGermany ran riot to seal a thirdwin from three games in Group C.

Underdogs Estonia were help-less against a bright youngGermany side who now appear tohave left last year's World Cup woesfar behind them.

"Opponents like this are notthe benchmark for us," warnedReus. "It was important for us to getinto a rhythm and get to know eachother better on the pitch, but wehave to stay realistic."

Joachim Loew's team are stillplaying catch-up to NorthernIreland after Paddy McNair struckfour minutes from the end in a 1-0 victory in Belarus.

Belgium extended their perfectstart to Group I with a 3-0 defeatof Scotland in Brussels.

Romelu Lukaku headed in anEden Hazard cross on the stroke ofhalf-time and bagged a secondearly in the second half, withKevin De Bruyne thumping homeanother at the death.

"This is a good victory and itis nice to be able to score," saidLukaku. "The team is getting bet-ter every time."

Russia followed up their 9-0trouncing of San Marino with amuch nervier win over Cyprus thatcame courtesy of a single goal byAleksei Ionov.

Ryan Giggs's Wales sufferedback-to-back losses as Mate Patkaistruck 10 minutes from time toearn Hungary a 1-0 victory inBudapest.

The Hungarians, the only sideto have played four games inGroup E, are top on nine points,three clear of Slovakia, who were5-1 winners in Azerbaijan whereMarek Hamsik scored twice.

�� 56/�

The United States began their tro-phy defence in scintillating

style with 13-0 Women’s World Cupthrashing of Thailand in a ruthlessdemonstration of strength to poten-tial quarter-final opponents andhosts France, who return to actionon Wednesday against Norway.

Three-time champions USAscored 10 goals in the second halfin Reims on Tuesday as theyeclipsed Germany's 11-0 win overArgentina in 2007 and shatteredtheir own previous tournamentbest of 7-0.

Alex Morgan starred with fivegoals, Rose Lavelle and SamanthaMewis netted twice each andLindsey Horan, Megan Rapinoe,Mallory Pugh and Carli Lloyd alsogot on the scoresheet in an embar-rassingly one-sided Group Fencounter watched by more than18,000.

The Americans hit back after atsuggestions they could have easedup and saved 34th-ranked Thailandfrom complete humiliation.

“This is a world championshipso every team that is here has beenfantastic to get to this point. To berespectful to opponents is to playhard against opponents,” said USAcoach Jill Ellis.

J(�I��IMorgan, who now has 106

goals for her country, matched arecord set by her compatriotMichelle Akers by scoring fivetimes in a World Cup game.

“We always want to have anyworld record and anything we canget over the Germans, we'll take it,”joked Rapinoe.

If USA top the group, theycould be on a collision course to

play Corinne Diacre's France in thequarter-finals in Paris.

The hosts cruised to a 4-0 winover South Korea in their first out-ing last Friday and are hoping tobuild on that when they take onNorway in Nice in Group A onWednesday evening.

Norway’s Scandinavian neigh-bours Sweden kicked off theirWorld Cup campaign with a 2-0

win over Chile in Rennes onTuesday, but only after a hold-upbecause of a violent storm.

Sweden face Thailand next inGroup F, while Chile tackle theUSA in Paris on Sunday.

European champions theNetherlands beat New Zealand 1-0 in Le Havre in Group E thanksto a Jill Roord goal in stoppagetime.

� �8' )5,�8+

With five matches leftto play at the CricketWorld Cup, South

Africa aim to be more flexiblein their approach as theysearch for their first win.

Given the format of thetournament, in which eachteam plays the other nine once,batting coach DaleBenkenstein believes the abil-ity to strategise more sponta-neously could be the key tosuccess.

And with a clash withAfghanistan in Cardiff up next,the Proteas coach know it isnow or never for his side.

"The difference in tourna-ments to international cricketis that in regular series you playthe same opposition four orfive times so you have anopportunity to start slow, tosum them up and then you can

take them down," he said. "Here, you are playing one-

off games. You are playing ondifferent wickets and againstdifferent teams in everymatch."

South Africa have neverplayed an ODI againstAfghanistan before, and mustclaim victory in the Welshcapital on Saturday to keeptheir hopes of qualifying forthe semi-finals alive.

And Benkenstein wants tosee the batting line-up scoremore runs and spend moretime at the crease in thatmatch especially as no SouthAfrican batsmen has scored a

century in the tournament sofar and they have not had anycentury stands.

He added: "The message isthat the batters have got to stepup and we haven't.

"I feel like we are battingwell but we just haven't doneit long enough. Everyone hasgot in. We've had opportunitiesto have hundred partnershipsand win matches but wehaven't done it.

"We try and play quite anaggressive form of cricket.Scores are much higher thanthey used to be. Teams arescoring big totals so when youare in and you are dominating,

you've got to try and make themost of it.

"Sometimes we don't getthat balance right. We try andaccelerate maybe a bit too fastrather than getting our headsdown and ticking it over andthe batters getting us more tothe end of the game."

Benkenstein also assuredsupporters that South Africahave left no stone unturned asthey bid to turn their formaround, both in the nets andwith their mental conditioning.

"We are practicing as hardas we can and trying to give thebatters as much confidence aswe can. "We're making them

remember when they playedwell and that you can't justbecome bad players in a week.

And, like so many in theSouth African camp,Benkenstein believes a changein fortunes is not far away.

"I really feel we are onegame away from getting allthose things right. If we getthat right, the confidence lev-els will be up there and then wemay peak at the right time," headded.

"At previous World Cups,we have done very well andthen when it came to the endof the tournaments, we've beenfeeling the pressure therewhereas now, we've been feel-ing it from the start, fromeverybody. Maybe the storyhas just got a bit of a differentscript."

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Luka Jovic has pledged tofight for his place at Real

Madrid after the Serbia strik-er was unveiled to his newfans at the SantiagoBernabeu on Wednesday.

Jovic kissed the badgeand applauded around4,500 supporters thatturned out to welcome himafter Madrid had confirmedthe signing of the playerfrom Eintracht Frankfurt onTuesday for around 65 mil-lion euros ($73.5 million).

"I am the happiest kidin the world," Jovic said ina press conference. "I amvery happy to belong to thebiggest club in the worldand I hope to fulfil every-thing that is expected ofme."

Jovic's arrival on a six-year contract means Madridhave added three playersthis summer, with EderMilitao and Eden Hazardalso joining from Benficaand Chelsea respectively.

Hazard will be present-ed at the Bernabeu onThursday night, when theclub hopes the attendancecould even exceed the70,000 that greetedCristiano Ronaldo in 2009.

The Belgian is likely tobe a guaranteed starter nextseason but Jovic's placelooks less secure given thatKarim Benzema andVinicius Junior werearguably Madrid's two bestplayers last season.

As it stands, Gareth

Bale, Marco Asensio,Brahim Diaz, Isco, MarianoDiaz and Lucas Vazquezalso remain at the club,completing a lengthy list ofattacking options.

"The competition isfierce but if I work hard, Iwill get my chance. Then ifI don't take it, it's my fault,"said Jovic. "I have not talkedto Zidane yet but I've playedas a second striker atEintracht and I can also playon my own."

He added: "I think I canbe do well with Benzemabut it is up to the coach todecide."

Jovic joined Eintrachton loan from Benfica in2017 and after making themove permanent, enjoyed asuperb second season withthe German club, scoring 17goals in 32 league appear-ances.

He will be expected toprovide more incision upfront for Madrid, wholacked goals last season,struggling to fill the void leftby Ronaldo's departure toJuventus.

Club presidentFlorentino Perez claimedJovic chose Madrid ahead ofother interested clubs. "Weknow very well that otherswanted to have you but youhave fought to be here,"Perez said.

"We have to start win-ning again and today is aday to welcome a playerwho has to help us completethis mission."

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Manchester United have tied up the sign-ing of Daniel James from Swansea, both

clubs announced on Wednesday, with the 21-year-old Wales winger becoming manager OleGunnar Solskjaer's first signing at OldTrafford. James has signed a five-year contract,with the option to extend for a further year.Reports said the initial fee was about £15 mil-lion ($19 million).

James, a graduate of the Swansea acade-my, scored five goals in 38 appearances dur-ing an impressive 2018-19 campaign with theChampionship side. Solskjaer told United's

website: "Daniel is an exciting young wingerwith lots of skills, vision, exceptional pace anda good work ethic. He had a great season withSwansea City and has all the attributes need-ed to become a Manchester United player.

"We are delighted he has signed with ourclub and we are all looking forward to work-ing with him. This is the perfect environmentfor Daniel to continue his development."

The transfer comes less than a month afterthe death of James's father.

James said: "This is one of the best daysof my life and a challenge I am really look-ing forward to. The Premier League is the bestleague in the world and Manchester Unitedis the perfect place for me to continue to devel-op as a player.

"This is an incredibly proud moment forme and my family. However, it is tinged withsadness that my father isn't able to share thisexperience with us. I am looking forward toworking with Ole, meeting the team and get-ting started."

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ˇˆ˙ · 2019. 6. 12. · crossing and later came to Shamli station for further updates when he...

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