˘ˇˆ˙˘˝˛˚˚˜ · Commissioner Garhwa, Harsh Mangla informed that a devel-opment fair has...

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East Singhbhum districtadministration has decided

to take extra fire safety mea-sures this Diwali at the crack-er shops in Jugsalai, the mainbusiness hub in the steel city.

An official said they havedecided to send fire safetyinspection team comprisingan executive magistrate and firesafety experts to carry survey.

" As per the plans the firesafety inspection team will visitall the licensed cracker shops atJugsalai and their godowns atBhilaipahadi along the NH-33where they would see if thesafety measures followed by themanagement of cracker shopowners were adequate enoughfor curbing any mishap," hesaid.

The administration teamwill visit those licensed whole-sellers' office-cum-godown andwill check whether they havethe fire-extinguishers, stock ofsand-bags, water storage at thepremises where they use to sellcrackers in Jugsalai. According

to information, the crackershops are found in the lanesand by-lanes and an uniqueexample is the Naya Bazaarlane and Goushala Road. Notanker can reach such con-gested lanes. The situation issimilar in several areas of

Parsudih, Burmamines, Sakchiand Mango.Another guidelinesays that there should be a min-imum distance of at least threemetres between two shops sell-ing fire crackers. Then there areminor precautions like keepinga fire extinguisher, sandbags,

enough water storage and notto extend the shop bound-aries. but all these were hardlyvisible. The shops are full withcrackers without any fire extin-guishers. According to districtadministration officials thepolice have been asked to keep

an eye in the Jugsalai area for,it is the most vulnerable zoneas far illegal transaction of firecrackers are concerned.“Jugsalai for years has been thecenter for dubious dealings offire crackers and by roughestimates transaction worthcrores of rupees takes placeevery year in the that particu-lar pocket,” informed a seniorvigilance official.

"The Supreme Court'sguidelines bar firecrackers thatare louder, but the rules willonce again be flouted this year.Firecrackers like sutli bombsand 'atom' bombs have decibellevels that are illegal,'' saidPrakash Sharma of theGulmohar Foundation, whichhas been campaigning for lessnoise pollution.

Crackers are an insepara-ble part of Diwali celebrations.But if used without caution,they can darken many livesduring the festival of lights.Blatant violation of safety reg-ulations by cracker vendors inthe city is a matter of concernsthese days.

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Rising up arms against theBokaro Steel Plant (BSL)

management for its indifferentattitude in providing jobs to thedisplaced people, a displacedgroup at Bokaro Steel Citythreatened to launch stir atGandhi Chowk on October15. nAlleging that the BSLmanagement has abolishedreservation of class IV posts forthe displaced people under aconspiracy, Md Abbas Ansari ,president of Visthapit SajhaManch said, “In support of ourdemand we have decided tolaunch stir on October 15."

The decision has beentaken in a meeting attended byhundreds of displaced youthincluding Shanti Bharat,Madan Mahato, Dinesh Besra,Shankar Gope, Raj KumarGorai, Mahabir Marandi,Sunder Goshwami, ArvindKumar.

Few weeks earlier overhundred of agitated displacedyouths organised a torch rallyunder the banner of BokaroVisthapit Raiyat Sangh, allegingapathetic attitude of plant man-agement towards the displaced.

Despite the order of HighCourt BSL management is noton the move the returned backthe vacant lands to us, saidChhotu Singh president of theSangh. He alleged that BSLManagement is adopting apa-thetic attitude in providingjobs and compensation to thedisplaced people. Accordingto displaced people, BSL man-

agement promised earlier tosolve their issues. There wereseveral round of ‘Talk’ betweenmanagement and group butthey failed to solve it, said a dis-trict administrative official.

"Demanding jobs we (dis-placed) launched several agi-tations earlier like ‘JalSatyagrah’, ‘BrikshawasSatyagraha’ and ‘AganiSatyagraha’ but all went invain," said Abhay Kumaranother youth of the organisa-tion.

Later the protestor includ-ing women launched one day‘Brikshawas Satyagraha’ (livingon tree) protesting the indif-ferent attitude of managementin providing the jobs.Protestors climbed-up on atree near Gandhi Chowk about100 mts from the BSL’sAdministrative Building todraw the attention of the man-agement towards their demand.Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjeealong with AJSU leader SureshKumar also joined hands withthem that time, but all went in-vain, he said.

Most of the displacedgroups are demanding BSL toprovide jobs in bulk while theBSL management has declaredthat it has already provided jobsto about 16,000 displaced peo-ple earlier.

Meanwhile the displacedclaimed that the company atthe time of acquiring theirlands to set up plant hadpromised to provide jobs to24,000 identified displacedpeople.

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Three new medical collegesone each at Palamu,

Hazaribag and Dumka willnow have 100 seat admissionin the first year course. Earlier,these three medical collegeshad only 85 seats out of theintake capacity of 100.

15 seats here were of theCentral quota in each of thesecolleges. Now, the Centralquota 15 seats have beenmerged with the State quotahere in Jharkhand.

State Health, Medical edu-cation & Family Welfare min-ister RamchandraChandravanshi said, “TheUnion Health Ministry waspetitioned by us to merge 15Central quota seats with Statequota in these three new med-ical colleges and the UnionGovernment merged theCentral quota with the statequota enabling these 3 newmedical colleges to take 100admissions in the first yearevery academic session.”

The enhancement of seatsfrom 85 to 100 now in thesethree new med colleges hasthe sanction of the MCI,Delhi. Jyoti Ranjan Prasadprincipal of the Palamu med-ical college located atPokhraha around 7 Kms awayfrom Daltonganj said themerger of 15 central quotaseats with state quota hashelped us to take admission (till date) of 93 eligible candi-dates.

Prasad said at the time of

induction on September 11there were just 70 admissionsbut after this grand merger 23new admissions took place.

Rooms for boys and girlsin their respective hostels forfirst 70 admitted ones havebeen allotted and inmateshave occupied their berths inthe rooms while for 23 newadmitted ones the college iswaiting for them to report forthe allotment of rooms in thehostels added Prasad.

Sources said teaching hasmade a limping start in thismedical college here. Teachingin bio chemistry subject con-tinues to be a non starter asthere is neither any tutor norany assistant professor in thissubject here. Principal con-firming this ‘zero’ teachingfaculty in bio chemistry saidefforts are on to rope in tutoror assistant professor in thissubject. Prasad said, “We havetwo teachers in physiology,one in preventive communi-ty medicine and one associateprofessor in M Nath isexpected to join anatomydepartment here, which isour teaching gallery.”

Asked about the atten-dance of students Prasad said,“It is most encouraging aswith the lot of 70 admitted wefound about half a dozenadmitted students absentingwho will be counseled not tokeep away from their class-es.”He said, “Let the 23 newones come and get rooms andsee what percentage of atten-dance is here.”

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Minister for ParliamentaryAffairs, Rural

Development Department andin-charge Minister of Garhwadistrict Neelkanth SinghMunda today inaugurated 21schemes constructed at esti-mated cost of �2,626.30 lakhand also laid foundation stoneof 34 schemes at estimated costof �55,711.74 lakh. TheMinister also distributed assetsworth of crores among benefi-ciaries.

Speaking on the occasion,the Minister said, “Five yearsago we came to you and askedyou for an opportunity to dodevelopment work. You gave usthe opportunity, for which weare grateful to you. It is a resultof the belief of the public thattoday the entire State ofJharkhand including Garhwadistrict is developing.

Every area of the district,whether it is a village or a city,every section of the district,whether it is rich, middle classor poor, is not untouched bythe Government's schemes.”

The minister informed thatthe Government has con-structed roads in remote areas

as well as connected 1 lakh 24thousand houses with elec-tricity. He accepted that thereis no electricity for 24 hours;the Government is also work-ing to solve this.

“The work of constructionof grade is going on in the dis-trict for the last 2 years, whichwill hopefully be ready by theend of this year, so that thepower cut problem will beovercome,” he said. The min-ister explained the role ofwomen in the development ofJharkhand and also highlight-ed various schemes being runby the Government with theaim of making women self-reliant. MLA Satyendra NathTiwari also apprised the pub-lic about various developmentactivities of Garhwa Assemblyconstituency. He said that thepeople are getting the benefitof various Governmentschemes, such remote areaswhere electricity had notreached for 70 years, they arealso shining now. TheGovernment is getting solarLED lights, water supplyschemes and other variousschemes for the society.

The Minister distributedfree gas stove sets to 100 ben-

eficiaries, cyclical fund of�15,000 each to 1559 SHGs, acollective investment fund of�50,000 each among. Welfaredepartment has disbursed thescholarship amount of �8, 55,29, 750 rupees among 80050students,etc.

On the occasion, DeputyCommissioner Garhwa, HarshMangla informed that a devel-

opment fair has been orga-nized in the Van Bhavan cam-pus with the aim of making thepeople aware of the variousschemes of the Government.

MLA DaltonganjAssembly Constituency AlokKumar Chaurasia, DeputyCommissioner Garhwa HarshMangla, Deputy DevelopmentCommissioner Garhwa

Naman Priyesh Lakra, DistrictCouncil President VikasKumar, District Council VicePresident Rekha Chaubey, CityCouncil President PinkyKesari, 20 point Vice PresidentSideshwar Lal Agarwal, variousdistrict officials and workers,including the beneficiaries ofvarious schemes, were alsopresent on the occasion.

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Outlawed JPC rebelsopened fire at Aamrapali

project on Saturday night nearthe border of Hazaribag dis-trict. The project is situated inTandwa block of Chatra, whichis on the border of Hazaribag.Police recovered 15 blank car-tridges from the spot. Theyhave left a hand written pam-phlet.

According to the projectsources a group of JPC rebelsreached outside the projectand opened the fire. Duringthe firing Kasiyadih residentLaldhari Mahto was injured.He was referred to Ranchi forbetter treatment.

All the members ran awayfrom there, before leaving thespot they have left a hand writ-ten pamphlet on spot, in whichthey have mentioned the nowork will be started in the pro-ject without the permission ofthe organisation.

The group was headed bythe sub zonal commanderRandhir. The responsibility offiring was taken by the organ-isation.In other incident inBarkagaon block the localpolice has arrested a memberof banned organisation PLFI,who was collecting the levyfrom the different brick kilnowners.

The name of the arrestedperson is Nand Kishore Mehtaresident of Aango village ofBarkagaon block.

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The hither-to somewhat drabelectioneering for the

October 21 MaharashtraAssembly polls picked up thepace on Sunday, as PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andCongress leader Rahul Gandhihit the campaign trail andexchanged barbs on the annul-ment of Articles 370 and 35Aon one hand and farmer-unemployment issues on theother, respectively.

Without naming Rahul,the Prime Minister dared theOpposition parties to declare intheir respective manifestos thatthey would restore Articles370 and 35A in theConstitution which gave specialstatus to Jammu & Kashmir.

On the other hand, Rahulhit out at Modi and BJP nation-al president Amit Shah fordiverting the attention of thepeople from the real issues likethe farmers’ distress and unem-ployment which had reachedhighest-ever level during the 40years. “What Modi and Shahare doing is to divert the atten-tion of the people from the realissues and focus on CorbettPark, Moon, China Pakistan,Japan, Korea and all otherplaces,” he said.

Addressing an electionrally at Jalgaon in northMaharashtra, Modi picked upfrom where he had left at apublic rally marking the con-clusion of Chief Minster

Devendra Fadnavis’ 4,000-kmslong ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’ thathe had addressed at Nashik onSeptember 19, to harp theissue of abrogation of Articles370 and 35A of theConstitution.

Invoking the legacies ofMaratha warrior ChhatrapatiShivaji, architect of theConstitution late BR Ambedkarand social reformer MahatmaJyotiba Phule, Modi said:“From the land of BabasahebAmbedkar, Mahatma JyotibaPhule and Chhatrapati Shivaji,I dare the Opposition partiesthat if they have the courage totake a clear stand (on theannulment of Article 370 and35A). Those Opposition parties

which are talking all kinds ofbad things about Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh shoulddeclare in their manifesto ofthis election as well as thenext elections that that theywould restore Article 370 and35A which the BJP-led NDAGovernment abrogated onAugust 5.”

Charging that theOpposition parties were mere-ly shedding “crocodile tears”and in the process makingfool of the people, Modi asked:“Do these people have courageto restore Articles 370 and35A? Will the people of thecountry allow them to restorethese Articles? Even if they tryto do, will they survive? Will

their political fate remainintact? Will the country acceptit? When they know that theycan not have their way, why arethe Opposition parties shed-ding crocodile tears?

Modi said the decision toabrogate Article 370 mirroredthe cultural of the BJP: “Ourdecision on Jammu & Kashmiris firm. The question of ourgoing back on our decisiondoes not arise”.

Modi — who along withShah have been meticulouslymaking the move to scrap thespecial status of Jammu &Kashmir under Article 370 ofthe Constitution and bifurcateit into two Union Territories asone of the key themes - chargedthat the Opposition werespeaking the same language asPakistan on the issue of Article370 abrogation.

“We have taken such a bigdecision. We will restore nor-malcy in Kashmir in the nextfour months,” the Prime

Minister said.Addressing an election

rally at Ausa in Latur district,Rahul said: “When the youthask for jobs, the Governmenttells them to watch the moon.The Government speaks about(scrapping special provisionsof) Article 370 and moon, butis silent on the problems plagu-ing the country.”

Rahul charged that unem-ployment was at its highestlevel in the last 40 years. “Autosector, textile sector, diamondindustry is finished but youdon’t see anything in media.Modi doesn’t speak about thisat all.

This is highest unemploy-ment in 40 years,” the former

Congress president said.“The Government is talk-

ing about ‘Make In India’, butonly Chinese industries haveswamped India, which is killingjobs in this country… Theworried youth have no hopes ofthe future,” Rahul said.

Alluding to Modi’s meetingwith Chinese President XiJinping, Rahul wanted to know:“When they were having teaand snacks the other day, didthe PM ask him about theaggression in Doklam? No…!”

Rahul said that the currenteconomic status of the nationis “just the beginning” andpredicted dire consequences inthe coming six-seven monthsfor the economy.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed two youths, including a

21-year-old and 22-year-old— for allegedly snatching thehandbag of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s nieceDamyanti Ben Modi.

Damayanti Ben’s bag, con-taining cash of �56,000 andtwo mobile phones, waswrenched from her grasp bytwo persons when she wasalighting from an auto-rick-shaw on Saturday morning.

Based on a complaint byher, police registered a case andlater identified the two snatch-ers, one of whom Gaurav aliasNonu was arrested fromSonipat where he was stayingat a relative’s house, policesaid. Gaurav is a resident ofSadar Bazar in Delhi but some-times stayed in Nabi Karimhere, they said.

“Badal (22) was arrestedfrom Sultanpuri here later inthe evening, DeputyCommissioner of Police(North) Monika Bhardwaj.said.

The two persons, who wereon a scooter, snatched her

purse, mobile phones, somedocuments and other valu-ables around 7 am when shegot down at the Gujrati SamajBhawan in North Delhi’s CivilLines area, a senior police offi-cer said.

The stolen items, includingthe Rs 56,000 and some of thedocuments, have been recov-ered, the officer said, addingthat the scooter was seizedfrom the house of Gaurav’saunt where he had gone afterthe incident.

The two men were iden-tified after examining CCTVcamera footage. They were not

wearing helmets.During interrogation,

Gaurav told police that he hadspotted Damayanti Ben in anauto-rickshaw, a kilometrebefore targeting her, the officersaid. Damayanti Ben is thedaughter of the PrimeMinister’s brother PrahladModi. Police said Gaurav waspreviously involved in a fightand it is being checked if he hasany other cases against him.

The incident occurred afew kilometres away from theresidence of LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal and Chiefminister Arvind Kejriwal.

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At a time when the RSS iswitnessing a 20 per cent

annual increase in its numberof regular shakhas, which atpresent stand at an impressive60,000 across the country,another similar story isunfolding in another area ofSangh activity. It’s the rapidincrease in the number ofInformation and TechnologyShakhas of the RSS.

These shakhas are popu-larly known as the IT Shakhasand are conducted weekly.Their numbers stand ataround 13,000 and many top-notch IT professionals areconnected with them, helpingthe Sangh to shed its “ortho-dox and conservative” image.

The RSS is looking at therapid urbanisation and growthof metropolises and the youngprofessionals working with it,particularly in the IT industry.The Sangh which has ‘openedup’ itself to the outer world

under its present head MohanBhagwat seeks to cultivate thenew-generation IT profes-sionals in an apparent bid toembrace the modern techno-logical changes which has notbeen the strongpoint of the 94-year-old organisation.

“There are around 13,000IT Shakhas in Pune, Bangaloreand Hyderabad where IT pro-fessionals attend the eveningshakhas and exchange views

on issues ranging from secu-rity to sanitation,” said RSSsources.

The sessions tagged as ‘ITmilans’ work out plans andprogrammes for the expansionof such shakhas in the villagesnearby the metropolises. Thefirst IT ‘shakhas’ were startedin 2006 in Pune and since thenthey are on the priority list ofthe organisation.

“Last year in Bangalore

several IT professionals tookeight-day holidays to be in thevillages and engaged in contactprogrammes, discussing solu-tions to the issues like waterconservation, environment andagriculture.

Environment and waterconservation are seemingly thefocus areas of RSS outfits asrecently spelled out by its chief.

“RSS is to soon open ‘AtiPrabhat’ Shakhas for the pro-fessionals first in Mumbai andthen in Telangana,” they said.

Claiming that the Nagpuroutfit aims to increase thenumber of its ‘shakhas’ up toone lakh with “high growthStates” like Kerala and WestBengal, RSS sources main-tained that in the comingyears the organisation woulddraw its substantial cadre fromthe large cities.

“There are number ofyoung working couples whohave joined urban eveningshakhas and working pro-actively during the week-ends”,they claimed.

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After cases of stubble burn-ing in neighbouring States

of Punjab and Haryana wit-nessed an upward trend, theoverall ‘Air Quality Index’(AQI) of the national Capital,deteriorated further andtouched the 268 mark onSunday, which falls in the ‘poorcategory’.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Allthe gains achieved so far onpollution front will be nullified.Whereas, we need to do a lot inDelhi and we are trying, how-ever, all Governments and allagencies need to work to stopcrop burning also (sic).”

On Saturday, Kejriwal hadsaid smoke from crop residueburning in neighbouring Stateshas started reaching Delhi andthe air quality has started dete-riorating.

“It has been widely report-ed that the smoke coming toDelhi is due to the burning ofstubble in Karnal, Haryana,” hehad said.

The Air Quality Index(AQI) in Anand Vihar,Wazirpur, Vivek Vihar,Mundka, Bawana, Jahangirpuriwas 327, 323, 317, 309, 302 and

300 was respectively, accordingto Central Pollution ControlBoard data.

The air quality in neib-houring Ghaziabad (320) andNoida (310) in Uttar Pradeshand Haryana’s Alipur Khalsa(351) and Panipat (339) alsoturned “very poor” by 4.30 pm.Faridabad, Greater Noida,Baghpat, Murthal recorded anAQI at 290, 233, 280, 259 and245 respectively.

An AQI between 0 and 50is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘mod-erate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401and 500 ‘severe’.

The Centre-run System ofAir Quality and WeatherForecasting and Research saidsmoke from stubble burningwill make up six per cent ofDelhi’s pollution by October 15,when GRAP comes into forcein the Delhi-NCR region.

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During his whirlwind tourto different parts of

Kolhan, Chief MinisterRaghubar Das on Sundaypromised to makeChakardharpur a seprate dis-trict by February, 2020.Addressing the Kolhan leg ofJohar Jan Ashirwad Yatra atChakardharpur, Das said thatif voted to power the StateGovernment will carveCharkardharpur as the newdistrict.

Taking a dig at the region-al parties, Das said thatJharkhand could not become aseparate State in 1993 becauseof Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Itwas the then Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee, who keptthe promise made toJharkhand and gave a separatestatehood status.

“Keeping this in mind, Ipromise that if voted to powerChakardharpur will be made aseparate district by February2020,” said the Chief Minister

Targeting the Soren fami-ly, Das said that Guruji and hisson has served as Chief

Minister and Deputy ChiefMinister but they worked to sellKolhan's mineral wealth toother States and countries.They did nothing for the devel-opment of the State.

Addressing a public meet-ing at Goilkera, Raghubar Dassaid that JMM has forgotten themartyrs. BJP has worked tohonour the sons of the soil.

Das announced that onthe demand of youthsGoilkera-Gudri road will beconstructed. For 14 years,development was disrupted inthe State due to political insta-bility. But after 2014 there hasbeen a stable and strongGovernment.

Das said that hisGovernment has brought theState on the path of develop-ment during his five tenure ofChief Minister of Jharkhand.He went on to add that thepeople of Jharkhand will voteon the basis of his perfor-mance and he is confident towin in the elections.

The Chief Minister notedthat the party's vision is mak-ing Jharkhand a developedState. “We are promoting agri-culture and industry together.

We want to build basic infra-structure in the state apartfrom improved health-carefacilities,” said Das.

The Chief Minister saidthat the State was makingsteady progress in making itone of the vibrant States in thefield of industrial develop-ment. “Jharkhand Government

has framed policies to providetechnical education and skilldevelopment. We have to justensure that these policies areimplemented. The need is tobridge the skill gap between theindustry and the skill provider,”he said.

“We will ensure that min-eral-abundant Jharkhand

develops as number one Stateof the country," he said. Dassaid the Government is work-ing efficiently in bringingspeedy development, providingbasic amenities and improvingpolicing. He also said thatensuring corruption free gov-ernance has been his foremostpriority.

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In another brazen attack byPakistan violating ceasefire

on Indo-Pak border nearPakistan Occupied Kashmir,five Indian Army personnel,including Jharkhand’s SantoshGope, were martyred onSunday morning.

The information ofSantosh’s martyrdom was givento his family members bysenior army officials.

As soon as the news ofSantosh’s martyrdom reachedhis native village Mamarlaunder Basia Sub Division ofGumla district, an unusual

silence gripped the area.Relatives kept visiting hishouse, while the martyr’s par-ents said that they are proudthat their son could sacrifice hislife for the country. “We are for-tunate that our son gave thesupreme sacrifice for the coun-try, but he was the sole breadearner of the family. Our elderson does farming. Santoshwanted to build a house for usat Gumla, but he could notcomplete it,” said Santosh’smother Saro Devi. The martyr’sfather Jeetu Gope said that hisson had last visited them inMay this year.

“He was scheduled to visithome during Diwali again andwe wanted to marry him off,but he is no more with us. Now,we want the Government totake 10 heads in lieu of one,” hesaid. Santosh was recruited inthe Army in the year 2012. Hehad passed class X from

Nirmala High School near hisvillage and Intermediate fromSt Ignatius’ High SchoolGumla. Soon after completionof his education he had joinedthe Army and was recentlydeputed in Kashmir.

Chief Minister RaghubarDas paid tributes to the martyrand said that Jharkhand’s eachresident is with family ofSantosh Gope.

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Governor Droupadi Murmuon Sunday urged non-

governmental organisation(NGOs) working in rural hin-terland to reach out to peoplehighlighting the Centre andState’s Government schemes.

Murmu, who was the chiefguest at Bharat Vikas Parishad’s(BVP) function being held atDhurwa said that Centre andState runs various welfareschemes for people, if peopleget benefits of all such schemesmany of their problems will beshorted out.

Murmu, urging non-gov-ernment organisations(NGOs), like Bharat VikasParishad to reach out to mass-es at rural areas, informingthem about variousGovernment schemes said,“Various villages and tolas areadopted by NGOs where theycarry out various developmentworks.

These NGOs’ works shouldnot be limited to just adoptingvillages, but there effort shouldbe to highlight welfare schemesof Government.” The BharatVikas Parishad a unique organ-

isation for the enlightened eliteof the society in service of themotherland today organised apatriotic group song.

The Parishad, which car-ries out various philanthropicworks, has approximately 1400branches all over India with66,000 family members.Murmu appreciating the task of

Parishad said, “I am pleased toknow that this organisation isworking in the field of com-munal harmony and universalbrotherhood. The Governoralso hailed the work ofParishad in moral and spiritu-al uplift of masses.” Murmusaid, “I am happy to know thatthis organisation is working

group patriotic song competi-tion. Such type of competitionbrings a sense of discipline andunity among children. At thesame time such events developsa sense of nationalism feelingamong children.” She said Indiais land of diversity with differ-ent religion, languages, anddialect spoken, such type of

events creates a sense of feelingof nationalism among people.Students from 14 schools par-ticipated at the event.

The function was alsoattended by Seema Sharmaindependent director ofMahanadi Coalfields Limitedamong others. The Parishadwith its objectives Sanskar,Sewa and Sampark has takenup number of projects and pro-grammes. The Parishad is car-rying out services such asDivyang Sahayata andPurnavas, Vanvasi SahayataYojana among others.

The Parishad also carriesout relief works at naturalcalamities such as during2001earthquake in Gujarat,2004 Tsunami among others.In 2010, the Parishad renderedassistance to cloud burst affect-ed people in Leh by providingfinancial assistance and byconstructing a school building.

As permanent projects theBVP are running 1600 perma-nent projects all over Indiawhich include ambulance vans,mobile dispensaries, genericmedicine centers, vocationaltraining centres, libraries, pathlabs among others.

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Central Coalfields limited (CCL)took over Damodar Valley

Corporation (DVC)'s Bermo Mines sit-uated in Bokaro district in presence ofCMD CCL Gopal Singh and MemberSecretary, DVC, P K Mukhopadhyay.

The takeover has seen the light ofthe day after two years of persistentefforts of both CCL and DVC under theguidance of respective ministries. Themine has been defunct since 2017 dueto various technical reason and lack ofexpertise in mining, resources andclearances.

The mine has reserve of around 124MT of washery grade coal. CCL willalso acquire more than 400 acres of landwith the mine. The transfer of Bermomines will boost the coal productionand will leverage economies of scalewith CCL's mine around the DVC mine.The resumption of production will notonly generate employment but will lead

the optimum utilisation of resources.The mine has achieved maximum coal

production of 4 lakh tonne in recentyears. CCL has set the production tar-

get for the current fiscal year has beenkept at 26 lakh tonne i.e. 2.6 MT andwill benefit the DVC's employees withCCL's welfare and CSR schemes under"Kayakalp Yojana". Speaking on theoccasion CMD Gopal Singh expressedhis gratitude towards the Center, StateGovernment for making this initiativea reality. He ensured that the social secu-rity will be extended to the existingDVC employees and will add to the coalproduction of Bermo region ofJharkhand.

The first right on the fruits of devel-opment is of project affected families,who provide their land. CCL willensure that it reaches to their doorstep,he added. Also present on the occasionof Ex MP (Giridih) Ravinder Pandey,Director (Technical/Operation) V KSrivastava, GM (Operation) R V Singh,GM (B&K) M K Punjabi, GM (Dhori)Prashant Bajpayee, GM (Kahata) PChanda, Union representative and pub-lic representatives.

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Lambasting the CentralGovernment on Sunday

Communist Party of India(CPI) General Secretary D Rajasaid that due to poor policies ofthe Government country isfacing economiccrisis.Addressing a press con-ference at the party’s Stateoffice, Raja said that the coun-try is going through an eco-nomic crisis and facing reces-sion due to the poor policiesand hastily implementation ofthe policies of the UnionGovernment.

“Factories are closing in theentire Country now. The work-ers are being removed, but theModi Government is doingvote politics in the name ofHindutva based on the agendaof Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS). Mohan Bhagwat

rejects mob lynching and sec-ularism by terming it as foreignword, and on the other hand heis welcoming Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI). It is not inthe national interest to run theCountry at the behest of RSS.That is why, the member of theLeft Parties have prepared for

the agitation against the nation-wide economic crisis,” saidRaja.Addressing the media onthe occasion the State Secretaryof CPI, Bhubaneswar PrasadMehta, said that all secularparties should come on oneplatform to defeat the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) and itsalliance in the upcomingJharkhand Assembly elections.

“Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM), the largest oppositionparty in the State, should takethe initiative and defeat the sup-porters of the BJP by contest-ing the elections under arespectable settlement. CPI hasdemanded 6 seats from thealliance. If there is no agree-ment, CPI will contest 19 seatsin the State. The preparationsfor the Assembly electionswhich are already underway theparty has speeded up to iden-tify Assembly constituencies.

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In an attempt to encouragegirl students Governor,

Draupadi Murmu on Sundayhanded over ‘SaraswatiScholarship’ to 523 meritoriousgirls, who are daughters of theState Police Staff, for their out-standing performance in thefield of education. The pro-gramme was organised byIndian Police Service OfficersWives Association (IPSOWA)here on Sunday.

The scholarship was givento the daughters of police per-sonnel working with the StatePolice as grade three and gradefour staff in various districtsand in different departments.The girl students got �5,000 to�10,000 as scholarship. Thisyear IPSOWA added those stu-dents also who are preparingfor Engineering and Medicalentrance examinations.

Addressing the gatheringof police personnel, membersof the association and the stu-dents, who received the schol-arship, the Governor said thatthe work to encourage girls todo well in their career is com-mendable and such kinds ofprogramme will surely encour-age the girls to perform well intheir career. “Education forgirls is necessary for the inter-est of the nation because girlsare backbone of our society.Earlier people were only pro-moting boys for study but timeis changing since last few years.

There are so many talent-ed girls in our society but dueto lack of encouragement theydon’t get their due share forwhich they are eligible. We willhave to come forward to giveshape to such kinds of talents.

If girls will be educated thenour Country and the societywill be strengthened,” saidMurmu. The Governor laudedthe effort of IPSOWA withopen heart and said that thisstep to encourage girl studentsis highly commendable.Speaking on the occasionDirector General of Police(DGP) Kamal Nayan Choubeycongratulated the students whoreceived the scholarship andlauded the efforts of IPSOWAand said that these kinds ofprogrammes are very impor-tant for the students, especial-ly for the girls students. Theprogramme will pump newenergy among the studentsand they will be encouraged toperform better in future.

“Earlier members of welloff families were applying forrespectable posts in govern-ment jobs because they haveresources but now any personcan apply for the bigger postsirrespective of their familybackground,” said Chaubey.

Encouraging the girls stu-dents on the occasion the DGPsaid that they have immensetalent not only to performequal to boys but also to do bet-ter than them. There is need toencourage them and to providefacilities equal to boys, it is surethat girls will also performwell, he added. IPSOWA pres-ident Asha Shukla Choubeywelcomed guests on occasion.

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Ending the curiosity of peo-ple over the stick-like object

he was holding while ploggingon the Mamallapuram beach,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Sunday said it was an acu-pressure roller that he oftenuses. "Since yesterday, many ofyou have been asking - what isit that I was carrying in myhands when I went plogging ata beach in Mamallapuram. It isan acupressure roller that Ioften use. I have found it to bevery helpful," Modi tweeted.

He also posted pictures ofthe acupressure roller he was

holding at the beach.Modi was in the coastal

town for a two-day informalsummit with Chinese PresidentXi Jinping. On Saturday, the lastday of the summit, the primeminister was seen cleaning upa beach by picking up plasticlitter and other waste during hismorning walk.

Modi on Saturday hadreleased a three-minute videoof his plog on the beach wherehe was seen collecting wasteand urged the people to ensurethat public places are clean and tidy. Picking litter whilejogging is referred to as plogging.

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Netherlands King Willem-Alexander and Queen

Maxima will arrive here onSunday for a five-day visit dur-ing which they will hold meet-ings with the top Indian lead-ership to boost bilateral eco-nomic and political coopera-tion.

King Willem-Alexander'strip would be his first State visitto India, following his ascen-sion to the throne in 2013. KingWillem-Alexander and QueenMáxima will arrive here onSunday night for the visit at theinvitation of President RamNath Kovind, according to theMinistry of External Affairs.

The King and Queen willvisit New Delhi, Mumbai, andKerala during their visit. OnMonday, the Dutch royals willmeet President Kovind andPrime Minister NarendraModi, while External AffairsMinister S Jasihankar will callon them. The King and Queenwill be accompanied on theirvisit by a senior ministerial del-egation. After the official pro-gramme in Delhi, KingWillem-Alexander and QueenMáxima will also visit Mumbaifrom Wednesday and reachKerala on Thursday. The royalcouple will head home onFriday.

India and the Netherlandshave a bilateral trade turnoverof USD 12.87 billion (2018-2019). The Netherlands is thefifth largest investor in Indiawith a cumulative investmentof USD 23 billion for the peri-od 2000 to Dec 2017, the MEAsaid.

The Dutch Royal couplewill also attend the InauguralSession of 25th TechnologySummit in New Delhi onTuesday. The Netherlands is thepartner country for thisSummit.

The Royal couple would beaccompanied by about 140business houses for this tech-nology and innovation fair,representing various sectors,including agriculture, water,health-care and climatechange. The visit is expected toboost economic and political cooperation between India andthe Netherlands, the MEAsaid.

From Mumbai, on October17, they will visit Mattancherrypalace and Dutch companyNed Spice in Kochi in Kerala.Kerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan will host a dinner forthe royal couple.

On October 18, the Royalcouple will enjoy a boat ride atAlappuzha and address themedia before their return in theafternoon.

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With the change in organ-isational structure in

Uttar Pradesh, the Congress islooking forward to rope in‘fresh talents’ to revitalise theorganisation.

Based on the suggestionsby party general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi, who hadbeen travelling across theHindi heartland at regularintervals, the party will initiative talent hunt at blocklevel and give opportunity topeople who could not make itinto politics due to familybackground or financial constraints.

Congress appointed AjayKumar Lallu as its UttarPradesh president, replacingRaj Babbar, and revamped thestate unit, bringing in fourvice presidents, 12 general sec-retaries and 24 secretaries. Theparty has set up an advisorycouncil to the general secretarycomprising senior leaders suchas Mohsina Kidwai, P L Puniaand R P N Singh. It also namedan an eight-member workinggroup for strategy and planning.

Lallu on Sunday said he isbanking on 'Sampark' (con-tact), 'Samvaad' (dialogue) and'Sangharsh' (struggle) tostrengthen his party and exud-ed confidence that it will form

the government in the Stateafter linking more studentsand youth with itself.

"The biggest challenge is tomake the Congress the onlyalternative to the BJP. For this,we have to infuse enthusiasmand self-confidence among theparty workers, and work close-ly with them. For emerging asthe only alternative to the BJP,the path is struggle. If we standup to the expectations of thepeople and win their trust, wewill not only become the onlyalternative to the BJP, but alsoform the Government in thestate," Lallu stated.

Senior Congress leaderJitin Prasada said the roadahead for the Congress in UPwas very "long and tough", butthe party would remainunfazed by "short-term" set-backs as it was confident ofwinning back the people's con-

fidence eventually. Prasadahowever also mentioned therevamp of the State unit will bea "mix of the old and new".

Prasada, who was namedas a member of the workinggroup for strategy and plan-ning, said Priyanka Gandhi asGeneral Secretary is givingdirection to the party cadrewhich is determined to exposethe forces who have gainedpeople's support due to a falsenarrative.

"This has already begunand the Congress has goneahead with the change in itsUttar Pradesh president and anew team that has been put inplace," Prasad said. As part ofthe strategy under PriyankaGandhi, the grand old party'splatform will be for the peoplewho have not been given achance —be it in decision-mak-ing, politics and elections.

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The Tamil Nadu unit of theCongress on Sunday said it

would strongly oppose anymove to release any of theseven convicts, held guilty informer Prime Minister RajivGandhi's assassination case.

"There are so many pris-oners including convicts inprisons of Tamil Nadu. Why isthere a motivated demand forreleasing Rajiv's killers only?"Tamil Nadu CongressCommittee president K SAlagiri said. He said any deci-sion to release the convictswould set a "bad precedent"and "highly disturb the socialorder and peace in TamilNadu".

Alagiri was reacting to arecent meeting that NDA-allyPMK's founder president SRamadoss and his son andRajya Sabha member RAnbumani had with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi herefor his intervention for therelease of Rajiv Gandhi's killers.

Questioning the bids of"intervention in the justice sys-tem", Alagiri said the law of theland should be allowed take itsown course. It is for the courtto decide the matter, he added.

Rajiiv Gandhi was assassi-nated on May 21, 1991 duringan election meeting at

Sriperumbudur near Chennaiby a suicide bomber of thebanned LTTE. In a memoran-dum to Prime Minister Modi,Ramadoss had argued that theSupreme Court last year hadallowed the Tamil NaduGovernment to decide on therelease of seven convicts —Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan,Robert Payas, Ravichandran,Jayakumar and Nalini.

The Tamil NaduGovernment later onSeptember 9, 2018 had passeda Cabinet resolution recom-mending to GovernorBanwarilal Purohit for therelease of convicts, but hisoffice has been delaying thematter, he said.

"Tamils all over the worldexpected that the Governor

would take a decision shortly.But even after one year and onemonth after receiving the letter, the office of Tamil NaduGovernor has not taken anydecision and is procrastinatingthis matter. This has disap-pointed and distressed mil-lions of Tamils all over theworld," Ramadoss said.

"It is rather unfair," he said,adding the seven convicts werein prison for the last 28 yearsand keeping them in jail anyfurther without any strong rea-son would be a serious violation of the human rights.Rajiv Gandhi's widow Soniaand son Rahul have "categori-cally said they have no objections to the release ofseven Tamils," the PMK hadsaid.

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Union Home Minister AmitShah will on Monday

address top officials of theAnti Terrorism Squads (ATS)from various States. The con-ference, also to be addressed byNational Security Advisor(NSA) Ajit Doval, is expectedto formulate a comprehensivecounter-terrorism action planand how to enhance coopera-tion among ATS of differentStates.

"The Home Minister willdeliver the inaugural addresswhere he is likely to highlightthe central government's outlines for the emerging ter-ror threats," a Home Ministryofficial said. The top officials ofATS of the states will give pre-sentation on their own anti-ter-ror strategies and the actionplans put in place to deal withany kind of emergencies.

The conference isbeing organised by the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA).

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Facing flak after he cited�120 crore business done by

three movies on a single day torebut suggestions of an eco-nomic slump in the country,Union Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad on Sunday withdrew hiscomments.

Prasad's comments inMumbai on Saturday coupledwith his criticism of an NSSOreport on high unemploy-ment rate and IMF's report ofa slowdown in India hadattracted flak and the seniorBJP leader was also trolledonline.

In a statement issued onSunday, Prasad claimed thatone part of his statement hadbeen "completely twisted out ofcontext", and said "being asensitive person, I withdrawthis comment".

"My comments made yes-terday in Mumbai about threefilms making �120 crore in asingle day- the highest ever, wasa factually correct statement. Ihad stated this as I was inMumbai— the film capital ofIndia. We are very proud of our

film industry which providedemployment to lakhs of peopleand contributes significantly byway of taxes.

"I had also explained indetail about the various mea-sures the Government hastaken as pro-people move tostrengthen our economy.Government of PM NarendraModi always cares for the sensitivity of common people.Entire video of my mediainteraction is available on mysocial media. Yet I regret tonote that one part of my state-ment has been completelytwisted out of context. Being

a sensitive person, I with-draw this comment," Prasadsaid.

Prasad on Saturday saidthree Bollywood movies gen-erating business of �120 croreon the October 2 holiday sug-gested a "sound economy" evenas he dubbed "wrong" theNSSO report which had reportedly pegged unemploy-ment rate at 45-year high in2017.

Days after the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) saidthe economic slowdown ismore pronounced this year inIndia and Brazil, Prasad saidthe measurement was incom-plete.

Comment he alleged thatsome people were misleadingpeople over the unemploy-ment scenario. "I was also toldthat on October 2, which isobserved as one of the nation-al holidays, three Hindi moviesgarnered �120 crore business.Unless the economy is sound inthe country how can threemovies alone collect so muchbusiness in a single day?"Prasad asked, while speaking toreporters.

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New Delhi: Shiv Sena is freeto express its views and thedesire of having its own ChiefMinister but Maharashtra election is being fought underthe leadership of Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis and it hasbeen conveyed to the allies, BJPGeneral Secretary and in-charge for the Assemblypolls Bhupender Yadav said.

Responding to questionsabout Shiv Sena leaders'remarks that there will be aMaharashtra Chief Ministerfrom their party in the future,Yadav said political parties arefree to talk about their desires.

"Every party can talk aboutits future and express its desires.But this election is being fought

under the leadership ofMaharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadanavis. It hasbeen cleared to the entirealliance," Yadav told PTI.

On the issue of seat shar-ing, he said the BJP believes ina politics "where there is roleand space for its allies".And thisis visible in the Government atthe Centre where despite get-ting a thumping majority, theBJP has given representation toits allies, Yadav said underlin-ing that Shiv Sena is a very oldand natural ally of the party.

He expressed confidencethat the BJP-led alliance whichincludes Shiv Sena and somesmall parties will come back topower with a thumping

majority."The BJP-led alliance in

Maharashtra is in a very strongposition and will get three-fourths majority in the State

Assembly elections," he said.Talking about Maratha

reservation, Yadav said theparty believes in all rounddevelopment of the society,

unlike the opposition parties inthe State which aimed forgrowth of one specific segmentof society or region.

"The BJP has always sup-ported reservation under theambit of the Constitution. Thereservation was required asthere was inequality in theState, which happened as thestate was ruled by the Congressfor so many years," Yadav said.

On the question of leadersfrom other parties joining theBJP, Yadav said those whocome into the party withoutcompromising its ideology helpin "social and geographicalexpansion" of the organisa-tion.

He claimed that continuing

with the same chief minister forthe full term, which is rare incase of Maharashtra, is alsoworking in favour of the partyand there is a "wave" in favourof the BJP-led alliance.

Yadav, a key strategist ofthe party, has been its in-charge in various assemblyelections which the party wonincluding in Rajasthan in 2013and Gujarat and Jharkhand in2014.

He had also played a role inparty's massive victory in UttarPradesh Assembly polls.However, in Bihar the party lostthe 2015 Assembly elections tothe alliance of JD(U), RJD andthe Congress when he was thein-charge. PTI

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New Delhi: The protractedhearing in the politically sen-sitive Ram Janmbhoomi-BabriMasjid land dispute at Ayodhyawill enter into the crucial finalleg on Monday when theSupreme Court resumes pro-ceedings on the 38th day afterthe week-long Dussehra break.

A five-judge Constitutionbench headed by Chief Justiceof India Ranjan Gogoi, whichstarted the day-to-day pro-ceedings on August 6 aftermediation proceedings failed tofind an amicable solution to thevexatious dispute, has revisedthe deadline for wrapping upthe proceedings and has fixedit on October 17.

Fourteen appeals havebeen filed in the apex courtagainst the 2010 AllahabadHigh Court judgment, deliv-ered in four civil suits, that the2.77-acre land in Ayodhya bepartitioned equally among thethree parties—the Sunni WaqfBoard, the Nirmohi Akharaand Ram Lalla.

Initially, as many as fivelawsuits were filed in the lowercourt. The first one was filed byGopal Singh Visharad, a devo-tee of 'Ram Lalla', in 1950 toseek enforcement of the rightto worship of Hindus at the dis-puted site.

In the same year, theParamahansa RamachandraDas had also filed the lawsuitfor continuation of worship andkeeping the idols under thecentral dome of the now-demolished disputed structure.

The plea was later withdrawn.Later, the NirmohiAkahara also moved the trialcourt in 1959 seeking man-agement and 'shebaiti' (devo-tee) rights over the 2.77 acredisputed land.

Then came the lawsuit ofthe Uttar Pradesh SunniCentral Wakf Board whichmoved the court in 1961,claiming title right over the dis-puted property.

The deity, 'Ram LallaVirajman' through next friendand former Allahabad HighCourt judge Deoki NandanAgrawal, and theJanambhoomi (the birthplace)moved the lawsuit in 1989,

seeking title right over theentire disputed property on thekey ground that the land itselfhas the character of the deityand of a 'Juristic entity'.

Later, all the lawsuits weretransferred to the AllahabadHigh Court for adjudicationfollowing the demolition ofthe disputed RamJanambhoomi-Babri masjidstructure on December 6, 1992,sparking communal riots in thecountry.

Earlier, the bench, alsocomprising justices S A Bobde,D Y Chandrachud, AshokBhushan and S A Nazeer, hadsaid it would wrap up thehearing by October 17, a daysooner than the earlier schedule.

Fixing the schedule for thefinal leg of the lengthy arguments, it had said that theMuslim side would completethe arguments on October 14and thereafter, two days wouldbe granted to the Hindu partiesto sum up their rejoinders byOctober 16.

October 17 would be thelast day for wrapping up thehearing when the parties willhave to make the final arguments about the relief theyare seeking, the court had said.The bench had earlier fixed thedeadline of October 18 to con-clude the hearing.

The judgment in the matter is to be pronounced byNovember 17, the day theChief Justice of India will demitthe office.

The apex court had onAugust 6 commenced day-to-day proceedings in the case asthe mediation proceedings ini-tiated to find the amicable res-olution had failed.

It had taken note of thereport of the three-memberpanel, comprising Justice FMIKallifulla, spiritual guru andfounder of the Art of Livingfoundation Sri Sri Ravishankarand senior advocate andrenowned mediator SriramPanchu, that mediation pro-ceedings, which went on forabout four months, did notresult in any final settlementand it had to decide the mat-ter pending before it. PTI

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Further sharpening the BJP’snarrative for Maharashtra

Assembly polls on nationalism,BJP president Amit Shah onSunday praised the “man with56-inch chest” in PrimeMinister Narendra Modi fornullifying Article 370 and inte-grating Jammu & Kashmirwith the mainstream.

Addressing an electionrally in Maharashtra’s Kolhapurdistrict, he said the previousGovernments never had thecourage shown by Modi.

He appealed to people toask Congress and NCP leaders,when they come to seek votes,whether they support the NDAGovernment’s decision toabrogate the provisions thatgave special status to Jammu &Kashmir.

He targeted Congressleader Rahul Gandhi and NCPchief Sharad Pawar for ques-tioning the Government’s moveto abrogate Article 370.

“After people of the coun-try and Maharashtra voted

him for the second term,Modiji did something forwhich the entire country waswaiting for 70 years...He abro-gated Article 370 on August 5and joined Jammu & Kashmirwith the country’s mainstream,”Shah said.

Shah said since the days ofJan Sangh, they have beenhearing that there cannot betwo prime ministers, therecannot be two symbols andtwo constitutions, but “it wasthe Congress which, by impos-ing Article 370, stopped theprocess of integrating Jammu &Kashmir with India for sever-al years”.

“As a result, thousands ofour people lost their lives due

to terrorism, but stillthere was no intentionof any party to removeArticle 370,” he said.

“ S e v e r a lGovernments came andwent, several primeministers came andwent, no one had thecourage to abrogateArticle 370. But, the

man with the 56-inch chestscrapped it in one go,” Shahsaid.

He said during the UPArule, terrorists from Pakistanused to infiltrate and kill Indiansoldiers.

“They used to decapitateour soldiers, but the then PrimeMinister ‘Mouni baba’Manmohan Singh never usedto utter a single word. But afterthe Uri and Pulwama attacks,Modiji showed the courage ofkilling terrorists in their denthrough surgical strike and airstrikes,” he said.

He further hit out at theopposition over theGovernment’s decision to banthe practice of triple talaq.

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With the postpaid mobiletelephony set to be

restored in Kashmir fromMonday, Jammu & Kashmiradministration has expressedhope that it would help achievenormalisation in the Valley.

Normal day-to-day activi-ties has been disrupted acrossKashmir since August 5, theday the Centre revoked thestate’s special status after negat-ing the Article 370 of theConstitution and providing forreorganisation of the State intotwo Union territories of J&K and Ladakh from October31.

The State administrationannounced on Saturday thatabout 40 lakh postpaid mobilephones will become opera-tional from Monday noon.

Over 20 lakh prepaidmobile phones, besides themobile and other internet ser-vices, however, will remainsuspended for now.

“When the curbs on the

cell phones have been takenaway, we are expecting largenumber of tourists to comethere (Kashmir). We are alsoexpecting that people, if theyare somehow not able to donormal activities, have no moreexcuse not to do that,”Governor Satya Pal Malik’sadvisor Farooq Khan toldreporters on the sidelines of afunction here.

Asserting that radicalisa-tion does not have any place inJammu & Kashmir, he said theValley youths have given a go-by to the radicalisation despitethe best possible efforts byPakistan which has left nostone unturned to destroy thebeautiful State.

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Irked over the problems of waterlogging andaccumulation of trash in some areas of the city,

a group of people on Sunday gheraoed BiharDeputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi’s res-idence here.

The State capital was pounded by heavy rainlate last month leading to waterlogging in areassuch as Rajendra Nagar, Kankar Bagh andPataliputra Colony.

Even after a fortnight, water has not fullyreceded in some low-lying localities and garbagehas not been cleared in some pockets.

“Around 50-60 people took out a march toSushil Modi’s house (in Rajendra Nagar area) andreturned after some time,” City Superintendentof Police (Central) Vinay Tiwari told PTI.

On September 30, Modi and his familymembers were rescued by an SDRF team fromhis flooded residence in Rajendra Nagar.However, they returned later to the house.

The BJP leader, however, was not presentduring the protest, official sources said addingthat security has been beefed up at Modi’s res-idence.

Modi could not be contacted for his com-ment despite several attempts. Angry people, car-rying placards, shouted anti-Modi slogans anddemanded action against officials who failed toflush out water fully in Rajendra Nagar area,making their lives difficult.

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Initiatives of BJP-Shiv SenaGovernment in Maharashtra are

about people’swelfare while those of previousGovernments were about grabbingpublic money for the benefit of a few,Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said at a poll rally inMaharashtra’s Hingoli district onSunday.

Maharashtra Assembly polls areslated for October 21 and results willbe announced on October 24.

“Funds allocated for schemes andfarmers were grabbed. Deals were cutwhile providing jobs. Developmentwas limited to development of a fam-ily,” Adityanath said attacking theopposition.

Speaking on the revocation of pro-visions of Article 370 in Jammu andKashmir, he said the move by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi was a trib-ute to icons like Babasaheb Ambedkarand Chhatrapati Shivaji who foughtfor justice.

“The Congress included Article370 in the Constitution in 1952 despiteopposition from Dr Ambedkar. Itsabrogation is a tribute to BabasahebAmbedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji

Maharaj who always fought for justice,”he said.

Adityanath praised the DevendraFadnavis Government over the state’slaw and order situation and said it,along with the Centre, had takenstrong steps to curb terrorism.

The UP CM was campaigning forBJP’s Tanaji Mutkule who is seekingre-election from Hingoli Assemblyseat.

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NCP president Sharad Pawar onSunday asked why Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis were holding a large numberof rallies if they saw “no fight” from theOpposition in the Assembly poll.

Addressing a poll rally in Chalisgaon,Pawar said the BJP has lost sleep as theyoungsters were gearing up to defeat theruling party.

Pawar congratulated the BJP-ledCentral Government for abrogatingArticle 370, which gave special status toJammu & Kashmir, but also askedwhether it had the courage to scrapArticle 371 which gives special rightsto some north-eastern states.

“The Chief Minister said he couldnot see an opponent for the BJP’swrestler in this poll battle. I am the pres-ident of Maharashtra grapplers associ-ation. Our grappler fights with anothergrappler and not others,” Pawar said ata poll rally in Jamner.

“Why is the Prime Minister holding9 rallies, Union Home Minister 20 ral-lies and Chief Minister 50 rallies if theythink there is no fight? They have lostsleep as youngsters are up for defeatingthem. Hence, they are roaming inMaharashtra,” he asked.

On Shah asking him to list what he

has done for Maharashtra, Pawar said hestrived to make the State number one inall areas, and took steps for growth ofindustries and, thereby, employment.

“I was Chief Minister when theemployment guarantee scheme wasimplemented in Maharashtra in 1978,”Pawar said.

Among others, Pawar also said thewomen were given reservation in localgoverning bodies when he led the State.

Pawar reiterated he was named in amoney laundering case by theEnforcement Directorate in connectionwith the alleged Maharashtra StateCooperative Bank scam despite notbeing a member of the bank.

Pawar alleged that factories andbusiness have shut down on the BJP’swatch. The former Union agricultureminister claimed 16,000 farmers com-mitted suicide during the BJP-ShivSena’s rule.

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In an incident that is likely toembarrass the Devendra Fadnavis

Government, a farmer allegedlycommitted suicide on Sundaymorning in Maharashtra’s Buldhanadistrict while wearing a BJP pro-motional T-shirt.

Incidentally, Fadnavis is in theeast Maharashtra city where he isscheduled to address three ralliesduring the day for the October 21Assembly polls.

Police said 38-year-old farmer,Raju Talware, was found hanging at

around 11 am at his residence inKhatkhed in Shegaon taluka, part ofJalgaon (Jamod) Assembly seat.

“He was wearing a BJP T-shirtwith the caption ‘punha aaluya aaplesarkar’ (let’s bring our governmentto power again),” said an official.

Maharashtra labour ministerSanjay Kutte is the BJP candidateand sitting MLA from Jalgaon(Jamod) Assembly seat.

“It is believed that Talware hadrun up debts. The truth will be knownafter a detailed probe. We have reg-istered a case,” said an official fromShegaon rural police station.

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Senior Congress leaderSiddaramaiah on Sunday

hit out at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, alleging hehad time to campaign for USPresident Donald Trump, seek-ing a second term in the gen-eral elections there in 2020, butnot to visit flood-ravagedKarnataka.

Terming the BJP as “fascist”and “dictatorial,” the formerChief Minister accused the stategovernment of ‘colluding’ withthe Assembly Speaker in restrict-ing the media from covering theproceedings of the House.

“This time it was unprece-dented floods in the state alongwith drought in some parts.Central Government gave aidonly after 60 days that too�1,200 crore. According to medamage suffered is more than �1lakh crore,” Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking to reporters inChikkamagaluru, he said,“Modi did not visit Karnataka,he instead was touring foreign

countries and had gone tocampaign for US PresidentDonald Trump.”

“Narendra Modi tweets assoon as there were floods inBihar, expressing sympathy.

In Karnataka when therewere about 90 deaths and fourto five people are still missingdue to floods, he did notexpress sympathy,” he added.

As many as 2,798 villagesin 103 taluks of 22 districts inthe state were affected byfloods, in which around sevenlakh people were shifted to safeareas.

About 3400 cattles and 91people died during rains andfloods in August.

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Criticising BJP leaders for highlightingabrogation of Article 370 during their

campaigns for the upcoming Maharashtrapolls, MNS chief Raj Thackeray has questionedthe saffron party’s silence on issues like farmersuicides and bad condition of roads in the State.

Addressing election rallies on Saturdaynight in Thane district’s Bhiwandi and Kalyantowns for the MNS candidates, he saidleaders of the ruling BJP have been raising

issues that have no relevance to the State polls.

The BJP leaders, specially Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, repeatedly highlighted thescrapping of Article 370 in Jammu andKashmir, in their rallies in Maharashtra, he

noted. “When Maharashtra is facing problems

like farmer suicides and bad condition ofroads, they are highlighting issues that have norelevance to the state polls...They conveniently divert the attention of people,”Thackeray said.

He said this was the right time for votersto show such leaders their place and make non-performers sit at home.

Urging people to vote for a strong oppo-sition, he said, “There is no strong Oppositionin the State to challenge the BJP-ledGovernment, hence the MaharashtraNavnirman Sena (MNS) is the right choice forit.” Further criticising the DevendraFadnavis-led state Government, he sought toknow why the memorial of warrior kingChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, proposed at anisland in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast,

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Senior Congress leader and former LokSabha MP Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday

claimed people were able to vote and fightpolls because his party saved democracy.

Addressing a rally in Ausa in Latur, helashed out at the ruling BJP for questioningthe contribution of the Congress in the coun-try’s progress. “The BJP is asking what hasCongress done till now. We can answer it. Wesaved democracy. Hence people are contest-ing elections today. And we can see PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah campaigning in Maharashtra,” he

said.“We have saved the country and

Constitution. The BJP should tell the coun-try what it has done in the past five years andwe will tell them what we did in five decades,”he added.

Hitting out at the Maharashtra govern-ment, Kharge said it promised to waive off Rs35,000 crore loans of 90 lakh farmers but hadnot managed to reach even half the target. Hesaid the BJP was projecting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and asking votes in the nameof national issues as it had nothing

to show by way of performance inMaharashtra.

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In sync with its shifting tackon Gandhism and

apparently with a view toexpand base ahead of the nextyear’s civic elections the BengalBJP on Sunday announced a12-day yatra christened afterMahatma Gandhi even as theruling Trinamool Congresspooh-poohed the saffron out-fit for its “hypocritical” ways.

The march called “GandhiSankalp Yatra” is also project-ed as a protest against risingviolence in Bengal, State BJPpresident Dilip Ghosh said.

“Keeping in view the risingviolence and falling law andorder situation in the State wehave decided to conduct a 12-day Gandhi Sankalp Yatra so asto hammer home the basictenets of Gandhism that hingeson non-violence and not whatthe TMC does in Bengal,”Ghosh said.

“Given the present political

condition in Bengal Gandhi’snon-violence has become all themore relevant. Not only the peo-ple, but the State Governmentwill also get a message throughthe Yatra about its duties,” he said.

The Yatra will commenceon October 15 and continue tillOctober 26, he said adding, “wewill cover all the 42 Lok Sabhaconstituencies and almost allthe villages and blocks in all the12 days. Every day we willcover 15 km in each districtand every such daily yatra willculminate into a public meet-ing. In this way we will covermore than 7,000 km.”

The Yatra will be held alsoas a part of 150 anniversary cel-ebrations of Mahatma Gandhi,

he maintained.Pooh-poohing BJP’s Yatra

named after Mahatma Gandhisenior Trinamool leader andState Minister Tapas Roy said,“This Yatra or whatever they callit marks height of BJP’s hypocrisybecause it is the same saffronparty that worships Gandhi’skiller Nathuram Godse.”

On the one hand “theyworship Godse and on theother they worshipGandhi ...who are they trying to makefool of ... the people ofBengalare politically consciousenough to read through their-political cunning andhypocrisy,” Roy said asking theBJP to “first condemn Godse and then adoptGandhism.”

Reminding how “theirsenior leader and HomeMinister had oncecalledGandhiji a cunning busi-nessman,” Roy said “the peopleof Bengal will never accepttheir political duplicity.”

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The Bengal police is workingon the “personal grudge”

angle behind the brutal murderof Bandhu Paul and his fami-ly members even as the StateBJP on Sunday demandedinvestigation by a centralagency to crack themurdercase in which they find a polit-ical angle.

The killers of the allegedRSS worker and his familymembers were still at largewhile the police were questioning one of his closeassociates on suspicion “somekind financial transaction asthe mainreason behind themurder.”

A 35-year-old schoolteacher Bondhu Paul, his wifeBeauty and an eight-year-oldson Arya were found dead onVijaya Dushmi Day inside-their house at Jiaganj inMurshidabad some 250 km

north of Kolkata. Soon theRSS claimed that Paul was oneof their workers who hadjoined the organisation abouta year ago. All the three victimswere repeatedly stabbed,sources said.

Once again demandingprobe by some central agencyState BJP president DilipGhosh on Sunday said “it is notthe question whether it is apo-litical or non-political murder.It is the question of three per-sons of a family including asmall child getting brutallykilled by some assassins. TheState police already has provedits worthlessness. So now wewant the Government to getthe probe be conducted bysome central agency.”

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Looking to consolidate thegains made in West Bengal

in the Lok Sabha polls earlierthis year, the BJP’s State unit iscreating a “talent pool” to iden-tify candidates from among itscadre for the crucial 2021Assembly polls.

According to party sources,the exercise is aimed at grooming BJP cadre as strongground-level leaders and isexpected to be completed byyear end or early 2020.

The saffron party won 18of the 42 Lok Sabha seats inWest Bengal in the April-Mayparliamentary polls, only fourless than the MamataBanerjee-led TrinamoolCongress’s (TMC) 22.

This was a significant

improvement for the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) comparedto just two seats that it baggedin the state in the 2014 LokSabha polls.

“We have started theprocess of identifying fourmembers of our party fromeach constituency for the talentpool. The chosen partymenwill be groomed as futureorganisational leaders andprobable candidates for the2021 Assembly polls,” WestBengal BJP president DilipGhosh told PTI.

The exercise is aimed atgrooming party cadre as bothorganisational and mass lead-ers and making them theparty’s face in their respectiveareas, said a senior party leaderwho did not wish to be named.

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Security was beefed up in sev-eral areas of Srinagar - the

summer capital of Jammu andKashmir - on Sunday follow-ing a grenade attack by sus-pected militants in a city mar-ket that left seven peopleinjured, police said.

More security personnel,along with the flying squad,were deployed in Lal Chowk,Jehangir Chowk, Hari SinghHigh Street, Regal Chowk,TRC Chowk, Polo View andthe areas around the city cen-tre, a police official said.

He said random checkingof vehicles and frisking of peo-ple was being done as part ofthe security drill.

The deployment of moresecurity personnel was done inthe wake of a grenade attack inHari Singh High Street market– a few hundred metres fromthe city centre - on Saturday inwhich seven people wereinjured, the official said.

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Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok

Gehlot on Sunday saidpeople were too sensi-ble to fall for the “mes-sage politics” of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whom he accused of“trampling democracy”, a day after his partyclaimed AICC employees were targeted inIncome Tax raids.

Gehlot also reacted to PM Modi ploggingat a beach in Tamil Nadu’s Mamallapuram.

He said there is no problem if Modi wantsto give a message through plogging.“Everybody is inspired if someone does a goodjob. But under the garb of all this, if you tram-ple democracy through ‘message politics’, thenthe people of the country are sensible enough.”Gehlot told reporters in Jodhpur.

Plogging means picking up trash such asused plastic bottles while jogging or running.Modi had released a video in which he was seencollecting the waste at the beach as he walkedbarefoot on the sand, and urged the people toensure that public places are clean and tidy.

The Congress leader said “such kind of pol-itics” does not last for long. He alleged thatAICC employees were being targeted throughIT raids and government agencies are underpressure today.

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The DMK on Sunday alleged30 Electronic Voting

Machines (EVMs) meant forthe October 21 NanguneriAssembly bypoll in Tamil Naduhave been “suddenly shifted”for “unknown reasons.”

DMK OrganisationSecretary and party’s RajyaSabha member RS Bharathiwrote to Chief ElectionCommissioner Sunil Arora andTamil Nadu Chief ElectoralOfficer Satyabrata Sahoo seek-ing an enquiry into the matter.

He urged the EC that theEVMs be restored back to theiroriginal place and be keptunder adequate protectionwithout giving room “for anysuspicious activities.

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The demand for makingsenior BJP leader and

Karnataka Minister BSriramulu a Deputy ChiefMinister has resurfaced withkey Ballari MLA SomashekarReddy on Sunday saying a del-egation of party legislatorsfrom the mine-rich districtwould take up the matterwith Chief Minister BSYedyiyurappa.

Currently a HealthMinister in the state cabinet,Sriramulu too expressed hopethat the party leadership would“recognise” him in the days tocome.

Reddy is the brother ofmining baron and former stateminister G Janardhan Reddy,who once had “complete hold”on Ballari district’s politics,while Sriramulu is his closeconfidant.

(BJP President) Amit Shahhad announced (ahead ofassembly elections) thatSriramulu will be made DeputyChief Minister once the partycame to power, dont knowwhy he did not become(DyCM). We are all painedSriramulu did not becomeDeputy Chief Minister,Somashekar Reddy said inBallari.

Speaking to reporters, hesaid all BJP MLAs from the dis-trict planned to meet the Chief

Minister and take up theirplea for making Sriramulu theDyCM and also the district in-charge Minister of Ballari.

Some Valmiki (a ScheduledTribe) community leaders andvarious seers had also voicedsupport for Sriramulu, whohails from the community.

Sriramulu, who was alsopresent, said various seers,including the Valmiki com-munity pontiff wanted him tobe made deputy chief minister.

“People and MLAs alsohave this feeling that I shouldget... In the days to come ourgovernment and leaders willrecognise me, he said.

Sriramulu was seen as apossible DyCM candidate dur-ing the 2018 assembly pollcampaign itself and the hopeswere revived when the BJPcame to power in July this yearafter the collapse of the JDS-Congress coalition govern-ment.

However, he was not cho-sen for the post though he hadbeen inducted into the cabinet.

To Sriramulus disappoint-ment, he also did not get thedistrict in-charge of Ballari,which had been given toLaxman Savadi.

The Yediyurappa Ministrycurrently has three DeputyChief Ministers Govind Karjol(SC), Ashwath Narayan(Vokkaliga) and LaxmanSavadi (Lingayat).

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The Ghaziabad administra-tion has appointed a separate

Magistrate to ensure the cleaningof the Hindon river and super-vise the ongoing renovation andbeautification work of its banks,an official said on Sunday.

Additional City MagistrateSatyendra Kumar Singh has beendesignated as ‘HindonMagistrate’ to ensure quick clean-ing of water hyacinth from theriver and renovation of its "dilap-idated banks" before ChhathPuja, said Ghaziabad DistrictMagistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey.

He said Singh will monitorthe work of irrigation depart-

ment, municipal corporation andthe recently constituted Hindonsanitation force. A stretch of theHindon river between railwayover-bridge and NH-58 has beenclogged by water hyacinths andits banks, which had been reno-vated earlier, are in a dilapidatedcondition, the DM had said. The400 km-long Hindon, a tributaryof Yamuna, originates inSaharanpur and passes throughsix districts in western UttarPradesh.

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A55-year-old debt-ridden farmer alleged-ly committed suicide in Uttar Pradesh’s

Mahoba district after his crops were dam-aged due to excessive rains, an official saidon Sunday.

Sureshchandra Tiwari consumed apoisonous substance in his agricultural fieldin Kulpahar area on Saturday, TehsildarSubodhmani Sharma said.

Tiwari was rushed to a primary healthcentre, where he was declared dead, theofficial said.

The farmer’s family told officials thatTiwari took the extreme step as he couldnot repay the loans after his crops suffereddamage due to excess rains, Sharma said.

The body has been sent for post-mortem, the official added.

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The strategic Jammu-Srinagar national highway

reopened for traffic on Sundayafter remaining closed for thepast two days due to a massivelandslide in Ramban district,traffic department officialssaid.

Light motor vehicles(LMVs) were allowed to ply onthe highway from both Jammuand Srinagar around 9.30 amafter getting clearance from theagencies responsible for itsmaintenance, they said.

The 270-km highway, theonly all-weather road linkingKashmir with the rest of thecountry, was closed late on

Thursday following the land-slide, which was triggered dur-ing widening of the road atNihard — two kms fromRamban towardsJammu.

Thousands of vehicles wereleft stranded on either side ofthe highway due to the block-ade. No passenger vehicle fromJammu or Srinagar was allowedon the highway on Friday and Saturday as thefocus was on clearing thestranded vehicles, mostlytrucks, the officials said.

Clearing the trucks tooktime due to continuous land-slides and shooting stones fromhills overlooking the highway,they said.

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Karnataka Home MinisterBasavaraj Bommai on

Sunday said the alleged suicideof senior Congress leader GParameshwara’s personal assis-tant should not be "politicised"and investigation is on into thecase.

He also said a case of"unnatural death" has beenregistered based on phone callsand post mortem of Ramesh,the assistant, who was foundhanging from a tree here onSaturday, days after Income-Tax sleuths conducted raidsagainst Parameshwara.

" The DCP there will take

necessary action... It should notbe politicised, because every-thing has come in media.Parmeshwara also has saideverything.. There is no politicsin it.," Bommai told reportersin Hubballi.

The Congress in Karnatakahas described Ramesh’s suicideas an outcome of "targetedharassment" of their rank andcadre to keep them away fromthe party. The I-T sleuths, whoraided the residence, officeand Siddharth Group of insti-tutions belonging toParameshwara three days ago,had questioned Ramesh too,party sources have claimed.

An alleged suicide note

found from the spot whereRamesh’s body was foundhanging, read, "I am rattledwith the I-T raids in my houseand have decided to commitsuicide to protect honour.

Anguished with the culturethat the poor should remainpoor forever, I arrived at thisdecision." Police had said thenote appealed to I-T officialsnot to trouble his wife and chil-dren. Speaking to reporters inChikkamagaluru, former ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah said,the suicide must be investigat-ed and those who harassedhim, as claimed in the deathnote should be brought to jus-tice.

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Over 2,050 candidates,including five in their 80s,

on Sunday appeared for theAksharashree literacy examconducted here, the State liter-acy mission authority said.

Sumathi Ammal andDharani, both aged 85, were thesenior-most candidates in theexam, conducted as part of the‘Aksharashree’ project which isenvisaged to find illiterates inthe capital city and make thempart of the Mission’s continu-ing education programme orequivalency courses.

Five people above the ageof 80 appeared for the exami-nation for the Aksharasree lit-eracy programme, being imple-mented by the Kerala StateLiteracy Mission Authority andthe city Corporation.

Besides Sumathi Ammalfrom Punchakkari andDharani, from Kulathur,Kamalamma from Thiruvallamand Subhdramma ofThrikkanapuram, both aged83, and Sarada (82) ofAarannoor participated in theexam, the Literacy Mission Authority said in arelease.

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A55-year-old TSRTC driverdied on Sunday, a day after

he set himself ablaze, even asthe strike by the transportemployees in Telanganaentered the ninth day.

D Srinivas Reddy, who waspart of the group of employeeson a state-wide strike for thelast nine days, died of burninjuries, hospital sources heretold PTI.

The driver had dousedhimself with kerosene and sethimself ablaze near his housein Khammam, about 190 kmfrom here, reportedly inprotest against the governmentnot acceding to the demands ofstriking employees.

As news about Reddy’sdeath spread, a large number ofstriking employees of TSRTC

gathered near the hospital, butpolice at the spot whiskedthem away in police vehicles.

Protests also broke out indifferent parts of the city andother places, with employeesraising slogans and holdingthe state government respon-sible for Reddy’s death.

Meanwhile, anotherTSRTC driver doused himselfwith petrol at Narsampet depotin Warangal district on Sunday,however, police foiled hisalleged self-immolationbid.

The employees, who havebeen on strike since October 5,demanding merger of RTCwith the government amongothers also organised ‘VantaVarpu’ (mass cooking) besidesforming human chains as partof the stir at many places in thestate.

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Twenty-year-old Amartya Roy can’t wait to fly toSwitzerland, where he is all set to enrol in a hospi-

tality course before trying his luck in the hotel indus-try.

A student of a hotel management institute here, Roynurtures a dream to own a restaurant chain some day.

Priyangi Ghosh, who is in her early 20s, is equallydetermined to make it in the baking industry, with out-lets of her own venture spread across the globe.

The Sreerampore resident is keen on taking up acourse at an institute of international repute, which wouldprepare her for the “business of baking industry”.

Coming to the aid of such young aspirants strivingto make a mark in the sector, a Mumbai-based educa-tion consultant recently organised a global hospitalityeducation expo in the city, which brought together tophotel management schools and industry leaders.

Students keen to explore world-class hospitality edu-cation need quality, first-hand information and thoseundecided require the right exposure, said MitaliRawool, Assistant Director, Zista Education, the expoorganisers.

“The hospitality industry has evolved over the years,giving rise to a wide spectrum of career options. If wecan showcase the opportunities that are available in thebroader hospitality domain, more students will be attract-ed to join our dynamic industry,” she said.

Bela Brahmbhatt, the area manager of BlueMountains International Hotel Management School inAustralia, feels that acceptability of hospitality andtourism management as a career option has increasedamong parents in India. “Students not just get to learnabout the culinary industry, its nitty-gritty, they also getto know about menu engineering, something thatwould help them turn their ventures profitable.

“Parents have also warmed up to the idea of send-ing their children to hotel management schools. I thinkcounselling sessions and education expos play an impor-tant role in clearing misconceptions,” she said.

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West Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar on Sunday said it is not

essential that one should always agree tothe point of view of another and thatdoes not turn them into adversaries ofeach other.

The Governor’s statement camethree days after his comment that a triplemurder in Murshidabad district reflectsthe ‘worrisome’ law and order situationof the state had not gone down well withthe ruling Trinamool Congress. “It is notessential that I should agree to your viewsand that does not turn me as your adver-sary, your opponent,” Dhankhar said ata function held in Howrah district.

Two individuals have the right tohave different viewpoints on an issue, hesaid without naming anyone.

“I am entitled to my judgement, youare entitled to yours. But we can copewith such differences of opinions,” thegovernor said. A primary school teacher,his wife and 8-year-old son were hackedto death by unidentified miscreantsinside their residence at Jiaganj inMurshidabad district on Tuesday. TheRSS claimed that the teacher was its sup-porter. “The incident is a reflection ofintolerance and worrisome law andorder situation,” a Raj Bhavan statementhad said on Thursday. Reacting to thestatement, Trinamool Congress SecretaryGeneral and minister Partha Chatterjeehad accused the governor of “makingpolitical statements every day” andreminded him of his “constitutionallimits”.

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Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterK Palaniswami on Sunday

accused the DMK of bankingon false promises for its sur-vival and remembering aboutpeople’s problems only at thetime of elections.

Addressing a campaignmeeting at nearby Reddiarpattivillage in Nanguneri Assemblyconstituency which goes tobyelection on October 21, healso attacked DMK’s allyCongress and said its leaders letdown people for their "selfishends".

Palainiswami, who is theruling AIADMK’s joint coor-dinator, alleged the DMKalways banked on false promis-es for its political survival.

In the last parliamentaryelections, DMK president MK

Stalin falsely assured the peo-ple that all jewellery loans willbe written off once their partywon the mandate. But it wasnot fulfilled as their alliance lostto BJP at the Centre.

Now in the by-electioncampaign also, Stalin is cheat-ing the voters by holding ‘thin-nai’ (porch) meetings in everyvillage and receiving petitions.Only when polls come, Stalinremembers ‘thinnai" he said.

Stalin should handover the

petitions to the Governmentfor redressal, but he wouldnot do so and instead "dumpthem in garbage bin", the chiefminister alleged.

Targeting the Congress, hesaid the bypoll was thrust onthe people by its "power hun-gry" H N Vasanthkumar, elect-ed from the segment in 2016but resigned after becoming aLok Sabha member fromKanyakumari.

"Vasanthakumar wanted tobecome an MP because he ispower hungry. Congressmennever bother about people. Fortheir selfish ends, they let downthe people who elected them,"he charged. Listing out thewelfare measures implementedby the AIADMK government,he asked the people to vote forthe party nominee VNarayanan in the byelection.

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The expulsion of six students of aWardha-based university for organ-

ising a function without permission oncampus and writing to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over contentious issueslike mob-lynching and rape casesagainst political leaders was revoked onSunday. The students, from MahatmaGandhi Antarrashtriya HindiVishwavidyalaya (MGAHV), wereexpelled on October 9 after varsity offi-cials accused them of violating the codeof conduct in force statewide for theOctober 21 Assembly polls.

The students had planned a gath-ering at Gandhi Hill in the university

campus on October 9 to mark BSPfounder Kanshi Ram’s death anniver-sary.

However, they went head with theprogramme despite being denied per-mission by university officials andwere later that night given expulsionorders after being accused of violatingthe poll code, one of the six studentssaid. In its order on Sunday, MGAHVActing Registrar Kadar Nawaz Khansaid the expulsion was cancelled due to"technical anomalies" and in the viewof natural justice to students.

On October 10, a day after theywere expelled, the six posted a letter toPM Modi, one of the students said.

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Police have arrested 10 peo-ple for alleged cow slaugh-

ter in Uttar Pradesh’s Gondadistrict and seized around 50 kgmeat from their possession,an official said on Sunday.

The accused were nabbedfrom agricultural fields in SisaiJoga village under Katra Bazarpolice station limits on Saturdaynight, said Superintendent ofPolice Raj Karan Nayyar.

Acting on a tip-off, policereached the spot and arrestedHamid, Abdul Wajid, Abdul

Kahlique, Abdul Majeed, AbdulShahid, Raheen Ahmed, Qadir,Shabir Khan, Bihari Lal andLallan Pandey, the SPsaid.

Around 50 kg meat, a knife,a weighing balance and mea-suring weights were also recov-ered from them, he said.

Police suspect the seizedmeat includes beef.

A case has been registeredagainst the 10 accused underthe UP Prevention of CowSlaughter Act and an investi-gation is underway, the SPsaid.

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It wasn’t surprising that the just-conclud-ed informal summit between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and ChinesePresident Xi Jinping was high on opticsand low on concrete deliverables, which

is why it holds the potential to remarkablytransform the bilateral relationship betweenboth nations. Given the choice of the localein the picturesque, the ancient heritage andcoastal city of Mamallapuram, India’s histor-ical connect with China, together with theUNESCO recognition to the southern city,provided a fitting landscape for overwhelm-ing optics. On the other hand, the meetingwas expectedly low on deliverables, owing tothe fraught nature of bilateral issues like trade,border dispute and now China’s open supportto Pakistan on the internal reorganisation ofthe former State of Jammu & Kashmir — allof which require more than a quick-pacedinformal meeting to be resolved.

As such, the Mamallapuram summitbuilds on the tradition of informal engage-ments between the two countries after theWuhan summit in 2018 and can be seen asan overarching framework to furtherConfidence-Building Measures (CBMs). Theeased setting of such summits has the poten-tial to create grounds for discussions on issuesthat could otherwise irk the other nation. Thedecision to issue separate statements on thesummit defends its “informal” nature and,therefore, calls for both nations to not makeevery minute details of the meet public.

Even though the Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA), India, described the visit ofthe Chinese President as “highly productive”,doubts remain regarding countable deliver-ables specific to this visit. In his brief to themedia, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale saidthat from the Wuhan summit in 2018 to theMamallapuram summit in 2019, India andChina have made “visible progress.” If onewere to deconstruct the ambiguous referenceto “progress”, the only visible stride appearsin the area of trade through a “mechanism”proposed by President Xi. Joint assurances tofighting terrorism and radicalism, which werepart of the discussion, have been referred toin the past, too, through forums such asBRICS and the Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO). Therefore, they do notnecessarily qualify as “progress.”

India’s need for greater market accessfrom China and lowering its trade deficitfound traction in this summit mainly becausethe Middle Kingdom is already under pres-sure on the trade front, owing to its ongoingtrade dispute with the US. The Trumpadministration in no mood to step back. Assuch, granting larger market access to Indiacould be the prominent and possibly the onlycountable deliverable in the near term fromthis summit. Progress on issues such as Indiajoining the Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP), 5G technol-ogy involving Huawei and Kashmir, even ifdiscussed, is hard to imagine.

During the Wuhan summit, both nations

agreed to jointly cooperate onprojects in third countries.Although cooperation betweenthe two sides in Afghanistan hasshown potential, little progresshas been made. The lack of sub-stantial progress in Afghanistanfrom the last agreement musthave prevented any further dis-cussion on this issue.

Resolution of disputes andbig-ticket outcomes were notexpected in this summit as inmatters concerning bilateralissues of Indian concern, Chinais either at an advantageous posi-tion vis-a-vis India or has aclearly different position than us.In trade, too, numbers are high-ly favourable to China, leavingIndia to seek balance. On theissue of border dispute, Beijinghas little appetite for resolution,which was very much evident bythe progress made in the talksheld by the SpecialRepresentatives of both nations.

The lack of any joint com-munique also signals a con-scious projection of optics oversubstance. It is evident thatChina’s projected intentions inMamallapuram can be seen asdistinct from an otherwise differ-ent Chinese State behaviour.This was on display hours evenbefore the Modi-Xi meeting tookplace, especially apropos China’sstand and steps on the Kashmirissue. This strand in the Chinesebehaviour is also evident in the

nuanced dichotomy between itsstated positions and actions onground vis-a-vis India. Forinstance, there is a clear disjunc-ture in its projections at the bor-der — in subtle ways through cer-tain elements of the Chinese mil-itary — which is in variance withBeijing’s stated position. Thisallows China to either deny ordistance itself from the activitiesof such actors, with the State itselfhaving tacitly approved suchbehaviour.

While the Mamallapuramsummit gracefully displayedIndia’s cultural diplomacy gird-ed up by elements of Atithi DevoBhava (the guest is equivalent togod), it tacitly legitimised theacceptance of China’s flip-flop-ping positions on issues sensitiveto India, especially Kashmir.This is important both in the con-text of China’s recent steps andrhetoric on Kashmir as well asfrom the point of view of currentgeopolitics, where diplomacy, toa great extent, is also about sym-bolism, optics and messaging.China’s growing relations withPakistan are increasingly drag-ging India in bilateral dynamics.The summit could have beenused to send a subtle message toChina vis-a-vis the latter’s rela-tions with Pakistan.

As such, when dealing withChina, India should continue toassert the principles that it standsfor and unflinchingly project its

standard positions on issues thatare of global concern. To be sure,for China, Pakistan is a strategicleverage point, bound as they areby economics and not an iron-clad alliance. That China had tofinally relent on its move toblock the listing for MasoodAzhar as a terrorist at the UN,shows that the China-Pakistanrelationship has scope for tweakswhen there is enough interna-tional pressure and criticism.

The short history of China’srelations with Pakistan has shownthat when India puts its footdown on an issue, China is like-ly liberal in its relations withPakistan, to the disadvantage ofIslamabad. This is exactly howmost relations of dependencebetween affluent and manipula-tive major powers and develop-ing economies have shapedthemselves through history.

The pros and cons of suchrelationships get affected by theextent of separation betweenmajor powers’ affluence andtheir manipulative intentionsand the state of economic, polit-ical and military clout of thedependent State. China’s invest-ments in the China–PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC) andtheir consequences have blurredthe line that separates strategicintentions and economic goalsfor China in Pakistan. For the lat-ter, the state of its economy, whichlies in an uncertain zone —

between that of a LeastDeveloped Economy and a devel-oping economy — has made theterms of engagement with Chinamore unfavourable for itself.

Despite informal summitslike Mamallapuram, both Indiaand China will have to live withcertain realities, which are seem-ingly irrevocable, even thoughthey breed mistrust. Just as India’sdecision to internally reorganisethe former State of Jammu &Kashmir has become China’sconcern but cannot be rescind-ed, so have China’s investmentsin the CPEC for India, parts ofwhich pass through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) region.India’s relations with China willhave to factor in a continued ten-uous relationship on the onehand and sustained bilateraltrade on the other. These dynam-ics will continue to have substan-tive scope of scepticism fromeither side.

What has also come to thefore is the need for an uplift inIndia’s international diplomacywith regards to China. WhileBeijing has upped the ante againstus and has taken unprecedentedsteps, India remains painstaking-ly accommodating of such crit-icism. It is time India’s regionaland global aspirations and rolematch its pitch in internationaldiplomacy.

(The writer is Research Fellow,Indian Council of World Affairs)

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Sir — That the State Bank of India(SBI) has written off bad loansamounting to �76,600 crore is notso welcoming for the simple rea-son that a sizeable amount of tax-payers’ money has been pocket-ed by 220 defaulters. Likewise,there may be many other banks,which have their share of badloans to write off.

Political meddling in thelending policy is one of the maincauses of bad loans. How comebanks lend money without ade-quate collateral security? A star-tling revelation is that 980 bor-rowers have been listed by theReserve Bank of India, whosedebts of more than �100 croreeach have to be written off. Ofthese, 220 accounts — more thanone-fifth of the total number —belonged to the SBI.

Taxpayers would feel cheatedif the Government uses the taxcollected for loan waivers and badloan write-offs at a later date. TheGovernment should use the tax-payers’ money to create infrastructure and strengthennational security.

KV Seetharamaiah Hassan

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Sir — The atmosphere for theModi-Xi informal meet inMamallapuram was far fromideal. China’s support for Pakistanon the Kashmir issue has put a bigstrain on New Delhi-Beijing ties.The long shadow of Pakistancontinues to disrupt India-Chinaties. Despite going ahead with the

second informal summit,Pakistan will be the elephant inthe room.

China and Pakistan havebeen close strategic allies sinceindependence. Now, with theconstruction of theChina–Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC), the centre-piece of Xi’s ambitious Belt andRoad Initiative, and China’s com-ments on Jammu & Kashmir, the

relationship has grown evenstronger.

Unlike in Wuhan where theModi-Xi meeting led to de-esca-lation in Doklam, this time noth-ing dramatic happened. At best,both Prime Minister Modi andChinese Premier Xi Jinpingremained focussed on improvingties in areas such as trade.

K S Jayatheertha Hassan

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Sir — President Ram NathKovind was right when he saidthat elderly citizens symbolise ourlegacy. Speaking at an eventmarking the International Day ofOlder Persons, Kovind said thatonly by respecting senior citizenscan the younger generation andthe nation progress.

The President’s words providea valuable lesson. Whatever weare today is because of the love,care and sacrifices of our elders.It is, therefore, our duty to makesure that they are cared for.

It is unfortunate that nowa-days many old people have tofind a place in old age homesowing to the nuclear family sys-tem and the lack of time amongyoungsters, who are busy chas-ing greener pastures. Let the oldIndian tradition of respectingthe elderly not die out. Let usmake them feel that their con-tributions to the family, thesociety and the nation haveindeed been very useful.

M PradyuKannur

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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day tripto Nepal, coming on the heels of the infor-mal summit with Prime Minister

Narendra Modi in India, reflects the priorityBeijing accords to the little Himalayan kingdom.The visit, which was closely watched by NewDelhi, too, was the first by a Chinese Presidentin 23 years since Jiang Zemin landed inKathmandu in 1996.

Nestled between India and China, Nepal isa strategically critical neighbour for the two bignations and in the last 60 years, New Delhi andBeijing have interacted with it differently.

Geographically, Nepal has worked as asafeguard for India from any aggression thatcould possibly come from the north. During thebrutal expedition launched by China in Tibet in1950, there were fears that Chinese aggressionmight reach Nepal, too. However, India assert-ed that any offensive against the Himalayanneighbour would be treated as an aggressionagainst it. With Tibet falling into Chineseclutches, Nepal had approached India for helpin training the Royal Nepal Army as well as forarms and ammunition. Though the two nationsdid not forge a formal defence relationship, aninformal security umbrella from India to Nepalwas agreed upon with the signing of the Treatyof Peace and Friendship in 1950.

Prior to the Tibet saga, the two century-longreign of the ruling Shah family was threatenedby the control of the Rana Prime Minister. Asa result, King Prithvi Narayan Shah had escapedto India and sought help. With India’s assistance,a new political order was established in theHimalayan country. Though India was at theforefront of re-establishing the Shah dynasty, ithad ensured respect for the sovereignty of Nepal,leading to the “special relationship” between thetwo nations.

On the other hand, China from day one ofits arrival in Tibet, has been attempting to gainpolitical and strategic clout in Nepal. WhilePrithvi Shah was wary of Chinese intentions, hissuccessor King Mahendra began to change thecourse of Nepal’s diplomatic ties and formalisedrelations with China in 1955. After the demiseof King Mahendra, his son Birendra, too, hadtried to alter Nepal’s equation with India.

Advised by China to review the Treaty ofPeace and Friendship with India, Birendra hadinvited global leaders to recognise Nepal as a“Zone of Peace” (ZoP). Despite it being endorsedby more than 50 countries, India had declinedto accept the ZoP citing the 1950 treaty becausean endorsement of the ZoP would have threat-ened India’s security, especially from the north.

Having battled for more than 15 years tobring India on board, Birendra had to shelve theplan. Again in 1988, China supplied arms toNepal in complete violation of India’s securityconcerns that had been accommodated in the1950 treaty. During this time India-Nepaldiplomatic ties touched a low and from 1955 to1990, Chinese leaders intensified efforts to mar-ginalise New Delhi’s “special relations” withKathmandu.

In the post-Cold War era, significant eco-nomic reforms were carried out in India and abroader regional economic integration alsotook place. After the South Asian Association

for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)was established in 1985, India reiter-ated its responsibilities towards theregion. This was reflected in the“Gujral Doctrine” based on the prin-ciples of unconditional cooperation toneighbours without expecting reciproc-ity. The doctrine considerably is one ofthe most significant milestones inIndia’s approach towards its neigh-bours, which is being continued by thepresent Government in its“Neighbourhood First Policy.” Thedeep India-Nepal relations have beenbased on close cultural, religious, peo-ple-to-people ties and respect fordemocratic values and non-aggressiontowards each other.

But over the last 30 years, politicaldevelopments in Nepal have beenmarred by instability in governance.The introduction of the first democra-tic system in Nepal in the 1990s hadopened the gateway for greater publicparticipation. However, Maoist insur-gency from 1994 to 2006 led thecountry into more profound politicalinstability. In 2008, Nepal emerged asa democratic country, marking a com-plete end of the monarchical systemand India was one of the few countriesto have played a crucial role in support-ing this transition.

However, a chain of events in thelast five years damaged India’s image inthe Himalayan kingdom. While Indiawas the first country to have providedhelp during the 2015 earthquake inNepal, it was in the same year that ablockade at the Indo-Nepal border hadaffected emergency supplies, leading toan anti-India movement on socialmedia like #GoBackIndia.

Kathmandu had also accused Indiaof causing delay in the implementation

of a new Constitution. As soon as thedraft of the Constitution was tabled inthe Constituent Assembly, peoplebelonging to Nepal’s southern belt, theMadhesis, had led a violent movementagainst the Government on grounds ofpoor representation and alleged humanrights violations. Fearing an exodus toBihar and Uttar Pradesh, due to theMadhesi movement, India had sent thethen Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar toraise India’s security concerns inKathmandu. However, this did not godown well with the people of Nepal.Ever since then, Kathmandu has beenattempting to shift from its “specialrelations” with India to “new relations”with China. The Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) and joint militaryexercises between Chinese and theNepal Army are the latest examples ofthis shift.

Though the recent bonhomiebetween Nepal and China may seemminimal compared to India’s age-oldties, the message to the global commu-nity is not in our favour and New Delhineeds to be cautious in this regard. Onthe other hand, the Chinese approachin Nepal has been based on gainingstrategic depth by opening up its deeppockets and also subverting India’s rela-tions with Kathmandu. Clearly, theseacts by China are intended to ensureits strong position in Nepal, preciselyto keep a close vigil on South Asiancountries, including India.

To do so, it has exploited every lowphase in India-Nepal relations, includ-ing by supplying arms to Nepal in 1987and providing $1 million militaryassistance along with truckloads ofweapons to King Gyanendra in 2005for suppressing people’s demand tointroduce full democracy.

At present, amid global criticism ofits alleged neo-colonist $60 billion BRI,China is leaving no stone unturned toensure its success globally and in theregion. Other than India and Bhutan,every South Asian country has joinedthe BRI. In fact, India has made itamply clear that the China-PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC) is in com-plete violation of its sovereignty as itpasses through disputed areas withPakistan; hence, it cannot be part of anysuch initiatives.

In Nepal, the proposal to constructthe trans-Himalayan corridor, connect-ing Kathmandu with Tibet has been indiscussion for the last two years.However, considering the high terrainof the two countries, implementationof the project will be a litmus test forthe economy of Nepal.

The leadership in Nepal needs tocarefully look at the Chinese masterplan on its soil and consider the via-bility and mood of the people asChinese assistance is a debt-trap ratherthan being a grant-in-aid.

A key example of this strategy is theHambantota Port that was built withChinese assistance in Sri Lanka. Theport is now under Chinese control afterSri Lanka failed to pay off loans thatwere taken from Beijing for building it.

Xi’s recent visit to Nepal came at acritical hour to ensure the success of theBRI and its other strategic intereststhere. Hence, Nepal needs to put theaspirations and well-being of its peo-ple at the forefront instead of going byinterests of individuals and politicalparties. It also has a responsibility toensure regional balance and harmony.

(The writer is doctoral candidate,Centre for South Asian Studies,Jawaharlal Nehru University)

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Many moons ago, when I wasa kid living with my parentsand grandparents in a

house in Karachi’s Bath Island area,we had a neighbour who everyonecalled “Kachra chacha” (Garbageuncle). Of course, no one called himthat to his face but I am sure heknew. This middle-aged man hadthis curious habit of scolding every-one he would come across about themanner in which they disposedtheir garbage. It was actually anadmirable trait but strangelyenough, in his own house, he wasnot practising what he preached.

I remember when my cousinsand I would visit his house to playwith his nephews, there would be lit-

ter strewn all over his garden andpiles of trash in the large round bal-cony which stood just above thegarage. I have no idea why this wasso but the memory of this gentlemancame to mind immediately afterwatching Prime Minister ImranKhan’s impassioned speech at theUnited Nations General Assembly(UNGA) on September 27. I mustadmit, I was impressed by the waythe Prime Minister addressed theissue of State repression being facedby Muslims living in Kashmir. ButI’m afraid, a lot else about the samespeech triggered that obscure mem-ory of “Kachra Chacha.”

It is rather easy to negate andcontradict much of what Khan saidin his speech and in the interviewshe gave to the media in the US. Hiscritics have already done that, ques-tioning the current state of repres-sion being faced by the Pakistanimedia and against Khan’s politicalopponents in the country.

They have also called him outfor doing precious little to addressthe harassment and violence that the

country’s various minority commu-nities continue to face at the handsof radicalised elements within thecountry’s majority religious commu-nity.

Therefore, his detractors believethat Khan’s pleas against hate speech,racial and religious bigotry andespecially, Islamophobia in Westernsocieties ring hollow.

They fear that such views willnever be able to find any worthwhiletraction in the West or from outsidehis excitable constituencies inPakistan. How can one point atgarbage outside his home when hecannot (or refuses to) do muchabout the garbage piled up inside hisown house?

Nevertheless, as I mentionedabove, the way the Prime Ministersweepingly condemns issues such asIslamophobia in the West andrepression on the basis of ideologyand faith against Muslims outsidePakistan, it is rather easy to countersuch condemnations by simplyputting forth the many episodes ofviolence against members of minor-

ity groups in Pakistan and alsobetween Muslim sects that havebeen reported for decades now.

It is a fact that even when aPakistani Prime Minister orPresident was willing to actually dosomething about this, he or shecould not (and cannot), because thenature of certain laws and clauseswithin the country’s constitution —mostly penned in the documentbetween 1974 and 1986 — is suchthat initiating effective reform in thiscontext is next to impossible.

This is why, even while one canargue that certain Western countries,infested with problems such asIslamophobia and racial bigotry, donot have the right to point fingersat Muslim countries such as Pakistanfor failing to curb religious violenceand harassment against minorities,one can always stress the fact that,unlike Pakistan, their constitutionsdo not have laws that can encour-age and even shield acts and actorshell bent on inflicting violence in thename of faith.

Khan has been diluting his oth-

erwise impactful narrative onKashmir and the Narendra Modiregime’s “fascism” by coupling itwith rhetorical spiels aboutIslamophobia. Apart from being rid-dled by the inherent contradictionsdiscussed above, this is largelywoven from a hodgepodge under-standing of Edward Said’s idea ofpost-colonialism, which is nowstruggling to stay relevant in arapidly changing world.

More disconcerting is the pos-sibility that the narrative beingerected by Khan may as well be theresult of either the complete failureand discarding of a narrative whichthe State and Government was try-ing to build (to counter radicalisa-tion and the spread of extremism)through the National Action Plan(NAP); or Khan was never really onboard when the plan was authoredand approved by the military andpolitical parties in January 2015.

Indeed, it is clear that the Modiregime’s arrogance towards Pakistanhas generated the need within theState and Government of Pakistan

to intensify their rhetoric on theissues of Kashmir and Hindunationalism. But this can only beeffective if it is balanced by initia-tives which would show Pakistan asdoing more to curb extremism in itsown backyard compared to India,where Hindu extremism has beenallowed to infiltrate mainstreampolitics and society.

Otherwise, it will only end upbeing nothing more than a banter-ing game between two countriesinfested by extremism, with onelabelling the other “a terrorist State,”and the other responding by callingit “fascist.”

It is surprising that, despite thefact that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dedicated a lot of spaceto the NAP in its manifesto for the2018 election, Khan has frequentlynegated the nature of reforms sug-gested in that document. First, bycontinuously claiming that the warwhich the Pakistan military foughtagainst religious extremist groupswas “not our war,” Khan is under-mining the chaos and destruction

created by the extremists. This sentiment is also dismissive

of the manner in which the extrem-ists were tackled by the military.

There is absolutely nothing newor insightful about lecturing the USabout how it had helped Pakistancreate Islamic militants in the 1980s(before dumping them). The USGovernment itself has repeatedlyadmitted this ever since former USSecretary of State Hillary Clintonvisited Pakistan in 2011.

Most of Khan’s ideas are stillcemented in the many apologia thatemerged from a muddled potpour-ri of anti-West narratives developedduring the last three decades. Thesewere narratives that aided those whowere unwilling to recognise theirown incompetence, complacenciesand mistakes, by putting the blameon others regarding extremism.This can be a popular way ofexplaining things on Twitter, but itcan certainly not — and should not— become part of the State andGovernment policy.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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After a broad-based decel-eration in the initial quar-

ters of this fiscal year, India’sgrowth rate is projected to fallto 6 per cent, the World Banksaid on Sunday.

In 2018-19, the growthrate of the country stood at 6.9per cent.

However, the bank in itslatest edition of the South AsiaEconomic Focus said the coun-try was expected to graduallyrecover to 6.9 per cent in 2021and 7.2 per cent in 2022 as itassumed that the monetarystance would remain accom-modative, given benign pricedynamics.

The report, which has beenreleased ahead of the annualmeeting of the World Bankwith the InternationalMonetary Fund, noted India’seconomic growth deceleratedfor the second consecutiveyear.

In 2018-19, it stood at 6.8per cent, down from 7.2 percent in the 2017-18 financialyear.

While industrial outputgrowth increased to 6.9 percent due to a pick-up in man-ufacturing and constructionactivities, the growth in agri-culture and the services sectormoderated to 2.9 and 7.5 percent, respectively.

In the first quarter of 2019-20, the economy experienced asignificant and broad-basedgrowth deceleration with asharp decline in private con-sumption on the demand side

and the weakening of growth inboth industry and services onthe supply side, the reportsaid.

Reflecting on the below-trend economic momentumand persistently low foodprices, the headline inflationaveraged 3.4 per cent in 2018-19 and remained well below theRBI’s mid-range target of 4 percent in the first half of 2019-2020. This allowed the RBI toease monetary policy via acumulative 135 basis point cutin the repo rate since January2019 and shift the policy stancefrom “neutral” to “accom-modative”, it said.

The World Bank reportalso noted that the currentaccount deficit had widened to2.1 per cent of the GDP in2018-19 from 1.8 per cent ayear before, mostly reflecting adeteriorating trade balance.

On the financing side, sig-nificant capital outflows in thefirst half of the current yearwere followed by a sharp rever-sal from October 2018 onwardsand a build-up of internation-al reserves to USD 411.9 billionat the end of the fiscal year.

Likewise, while the rupeeinitially lost ground againstthe USD (12.1 per cent depre-ciation between March andOctober 2018), it appreciatedby about seven per cent up toMarch 2019, the report said.

“The general Governmentdeficit is estimated to havewidened by 0.2 percentagepoints to 5.9 per cent of theGDP in 2018-19. This is despitethe Central Government

improving its balance by 0.2percentage points over the pre-vious year. The general gov-ernment debt remained stableand sustainable — being large-ly domestic and long term-ataround 67 per cent of GDP,” thereport said.

According to the WorldBank, poverty has continued todecline, albeit possibly at aslower pace than earlier.Between 2011-12 and 2015-16,the poverty rate declined from21.6 to 13.4 per cent ($1.90PPP/day).

The report, however, saiddisruptions brought about bythe introduction of the GSTand demonetisation, combinedwith the stress in the ruraleconomy and a high youthunemployment rate in urbanareas may have heightened therisks for the poorest house-holds.

The significant slowdownin the first quarter of the fiscalyear and high frequency indi-cators, thereafter, suggestedthat the output growth wouldnot exceed 6 per cent for thefull fiscal year, the bank said.

The report said the con-sumption was likely to remaindepressed due to slow growthin rural income, domesticdemand (as reflected in a sharpdrop in sales of automobiles)and credit from non-bankingfinancial companies (NBFCs).

However, the investmentwould benefit from the recentcut in effective corporate taxrate for domestic companies inthe medium term, but also willcontinue to reflect financialsector weaknesses, the reportsaid.

“Growth is expected togradually recover to 6.9 percent in 2020-21 and 7.2 per

cent in 2021-22 as the cyclebottoms-out, rural demandbenefits from effects of incomesupport schemes, investmentresponds to tax incentives andcredit growth resumes.However, exports growth isexpected to remain modest, astrade wars and slow globalgrowth depresses externaldemand,” the report said.

The main policy challengefor India is to address thesources of softening privateconsumption and the structuralfactors behind weak invest-ment, the bank said.

“This will require restoringthe health of the financial sec-tor through reforms of publicsector banks’ governance and agradual strengthening of theregulatory framework forNBFCs, while ensuring thatsolvent NBFCs retain access toadequate liquidity.

“It will also require effortsto contain fiscal slippages, ashigher-than-expected publicborrowings could put upwardpressure on interest rates andpotentially crowd-out the pri-vate sector,” it said.

According to the bank, themain sources of risk includedexternal shocks that result intighter global financing condi-tions, and new NBFC defaultstriggering a fresh round offinancial sector stress.

To mitigate these risks, theauthorities would need toensure that there was adequateliquidity in the financial systemwhile strengthening the regu-latory framework for theNBFCs, the bank added.

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Bangladesh and Nepal areestimated to grow faster

than India in 2019, accordingto the World Bank, which saidthat overall growth in SouthAsia is projected to slow downthis fiscal in line with a glob-al downward trend.

Pakistan’s growth rate isprojected to deteriorate furtherto a mere 2.4 per cent this fis-cal year, as monetary policyremains tight, and the plannedfiscal consolidation will com-press domestic demand, itsaid.

Growth in South Asia isprojected to fall to 5.9 per centin 2019, down 1.1 percentagepoints from April 2019 esti-mates, casting uncertaintyabout a rebound in the shortterm, the World Bank said inits latest report.

The latest edition of theSouth Asia Economic Focus,Making (De)centralizationWork, finds that strong domes-tic demand, which proppedhigh growth in the past, hasweakened, driving a slowdownacross the region.

Imports have declinedseverely across South Asia,contracting between 15 and 20per cent in Pakistan and SriLanka.

In India, domestic demandhas slipped, with private con-sumption growing 3.1 per centin the last quarter from 7.3 percent a year ago, while manu-facturing growth plummetedto below 1 per cent in the sec-ond quarter of 2019 com-pared to over 10 per cent ayear ago.

“Declining industrial pro-duction and imports, as well astensions in the financial mar-kets reveal a sharp economicslowdown in South Asia,” saidHartwig Schafer, World BankVice President for the SouthAsia Region.

“As global and domesticuncertainties cloud the region’seconomic outlook, SouthAsian countries should pursuestimulating economic policiesto boost private consumption

and beef up investments,” hesaid.

The report noted thatSouth Asia’s current econom-ic slowdown echoes the decel-erating growth and tradeslumps of 2008 and 2012.

With that context in mind,the report remains cautiouslyoptimistic that a slight reboundin investment and private con-sumption could jumpstartSouth Asia’s growth up to 6.3per cent in 2020, slightly aboveEast Asia and the Pacific and6.7 per cent in 2021.

In a focus section, thereport highlights how, as theireconomies become moresophisticated, South Asiancountries have made decen-tralisation a priority toimprove the delivery of publicservices.

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India has been relatively hithard by the recent global

slowdown resulting in its pro-jected growth dropping to 6.0per cent in 2019, but it’s still afast-growing economy with a lotof potential, a top World Bankeconomist said on Sunday.

“It’s still a fast-growingeconomy. So even with therecent slowdown, it has growthnumbers that are higher thanin most countries of the world.It’s still a fast-growing econo-my with a lot of potential,”World Bank’s Chief Economistfor South Asia Hans Timmertold PTI.

In its latest edition of theSouth Asia Economic Focus,the World Bank said that India’sgrowth rate is projected to fallto 6 per cent this fiscal.However, it said the countrywas expected to graduallyrecover to 6.9 per cent in 2021and 7.2 per cent in 2022.

“It has been hit relativelyhard by the recent global slow-down in their investments indurable consumption. And sothat means that they have todeal with severe problems,”Timmer said in response to aquestion on India’s economy,whose growth rate in 2016was 8.2 per cent and in the nexttwo years it dropped by 2.2 per-centage points.

“No, it’s not the biggest(drop), but it is comparable towhat we saw in 2012 wherethere was also a slowdown. It’ssomewhat less than what wesaw in 2009. But it’s a seriousslowdown. That is true,”Timmer said.

There are many signs of asharp slowing of the Indianeconomy, recently, he noted.“We saw that with the lastnumbers on quarterly GDP, butit’s even stronger when youlook at the components ofGDP. If you look at the invest-ment then the annual growth

now is 9 per cent below whatit was a year ago. There was asharp decline in consumption.And so that’s mainly durableconsumption,” he said.

“If you look at the growthof domestic demands that’sslowing much faster than thegrowth of GDP because importsare slowing fast also. It’s a typi-cal case where investors both incompanies and in householdsare cautious to invest.

“In our view, that is verymuch in line with what is hap-pening in the world, becauseeverywhere in the world yousee that investments veryquickly are coming down anddebt is driven by a sentimentthat spreads across the worlddriven by uncertainty in glob-al markets,” he said.

Timmer said that, theWorld Bank in its estimates, hasfound that “80 per cent of theslowdown” in India could becoming from the internation-al causes.

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The International MonetaryFund looks at India as a

country that recognizes theneed for an environmentallysustainable development strat-egy as the global communitygears up for a decisive fightagainst climate change.

“If you look at India in thelast generation…India has beenundergoing development. Indiahas been undergoing a trans-formation. India has become amajor player in the world econ-omy. India is a great power andwe look at India as a countrythat recognizes the need for anenvironmentally sustainabledevelopment strategy,” VitorGaspar, Director of the IMF’s Fiscal AffairsDepartment told PTI in aninterview.

Noting that India is par-ticularly concerned aboutprospects for the poorest seg-

ments of its population in thecontext of this process of devel-opment, he explained howdoes climate change fit into theframework.

“I would say that there aretwo perspectives that one canlook at. One, given its status asa major economy in the world,India has a critical role to playat the global level. In this con-text it’s important to recognizethat India is especially vulner-able to climate change. So,India does have a strong inter-est in advocating for a globalaction,” Gasper said.

From this viewpoint, Indiais fully committed to the Parisagreement. It has made itsnationally determined contri-bution pledges, and that impliesreducing emissions of CO2 bya third below 2005 levels thatis relative to the energy inten-sity of GDP and India seems tobe on track to deliver on itspledges, he added.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will hold a

review meeting with CEOs ofpublic sector banks (PSBs) onMonday to discuss variousissues, including progress oncredit offtake, as part of effortsto prop up the economy.

The meeting is expected toreview fund flow to stressedNBFC and MSME (micro,small and medium enterprises)sectors, sources said.

Banks are expected to pre-sent report card on partialcredit guarantee scheme andfund raising from market toenhance their capital base.

The Centre in Augustissued guidelines on opera-tionalising Rs 1 lakh crore par-tial guarantee scheme underwhich PSBs can purchase high-rated pooled assets of finan-cially sound non-bankingfinance companies (NBFCs).

NBFCs, including hous-ing finance companies (HFCs),came under stress following aseries of defaults by the groupcompanies of IL&FS inSeptember last year.

Besides, the meeting willalso assess the progress of firstphase of outreach programmeheld across 226 districts acrossthe country.

This will be the secondmeeting of Sitharaman withCEOs of PSU banks in less thana month.

The first phase of ‘LoanMela’ for providing credit toagriculture, vehicle, home,MSME, education and per-sonal categories ended onOctober 7.

During the annual perfor-mance review earlier this

month, PSBs decided to under-take outreach exercise in 400identified districts. Later, theprivate sector too expressedwillingness to join the initiative.

The second phase will beheld in 209 districts betweenOctober 21 and October 25,just before Diwali.

Additionally, the Centrewill also review loan deliverythrough ‘psbloansin59minutes’portal.

The platform has helpedreduce turnaround time forloan processes in such a waythat MSMEs can get an eligi-bility letter and in-principleapproval in 59 minutes and canchoose the bank of their choice.

After the approval letter isreceived, the loan is expected tobe disbursed in 7-8 workingdays.

Touted as the country’slargest online lending plat-form, the portal was launchedby Prime Minister NarendraModi in November 2018 withan aim to make credit accessand banking for MSMEs trans-parent and hassle-free.

The portal sanctionedloans worth over Rs 35,000crore in less than four monthsfrom its launch.

As on March 31, 2019,more than 50,706 proposalshad got in-principle approvaland 27,893 proposals had beensanctioned.

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Leaders of cooperative sectorshould think of a self regu-

latory mechanism to strength-en it and prevent recurrence ofscams like Punjab andMaharashtra Cooperative Bankcase, Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal said onSunday.

He said that whistleblow-ers should come forward wher-ever such things are happening,as several people must havebeen involved in such a scam.

“I do not think that such ascam can happen withoutinvolvement of hundreds of peo-ple. Several accounts must havebeen opened, funds must havebeen diverted. Branches andsome employees must have beeninvolved in this,” Goyal said.

It would not be possible forthe government to look atevery institution and issues, theminister said here at IndiaInternational CooperativeTrade Fair.

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California walnut growersare hopeful that the US and

India will soon strike a tradedeal that will reduce the retal-iatory tariffs imposed by NewDelhi on American walnuts, atop industry official said.

India imposed retaliatorytariffs on 28 US products,including walnuts, almondsand apples from June 5, afterthe Trump administrationrevoked its preferential tradeprivileges.

California WalnutCommission’s (CWC) SeniorMarketing Director,International, Pamela Gravietsaid that tariff change definitelymade a difference and it’s very

expensive for the importer.“Twenty per cent retaliatorytariff is an issue,” she said.

“We are hopeful that thetwo countries will come tosome kind of a trade agreementand the 20 per cent retaliatorytariffs then goes away. Tradenegotiations are still on,” shetold PTI here.

“We are looking for fairtrade and are not expecting allcountries to drop their tariffrate to zero,” she added.

The US terminated India’sdesignation as beneficiarydeveloping country underGeneralised System ofPreferences (GSP) programme.

India has been the singlebiggest beneficiary of the GSPprogramme, allowing the coun-

try to export $5.7 billion worthof duty-free goods in 2017,according to figures from USCongress.

The US walnuts enteredIndian market nearly four yearsago and the industry in Indiahas grown ever since to meetthe growing demand. Withthis current tariff, it’s chal-lenging to meet the demand,she said.

The retaliatory tariffsimposed by India are causingdeep concern among the nutgrowers in California, whichproduces 99 per cent of thecrop.

“Trade negotiations arecomplex process... We werehopeful of an announcementwhen Prime Minister Narendra

Modi was here (in the US inSeptember) but they have notreached any agreement that isbest for both the parties. So, weknow they are still into dis-cussions that is very positive forboth the countries,” Graviet

said.“There will be eventually

some kind of agreement, it’sjust a matter of when andwhat that trade agreement willlook like,” she added.

The US is the second

largest producer of walnuts inthe world.

India ranked 10th as anexport destination in 2016-17.However, it fell to 11th positionin 2017-18 crop year when thetariff rate was increased to 100per cent, she said.

But, during last crop year(2018-2019) India dropped to

16th position due to retaliato-ry tariffs, she added.

Given the size of the pop-ulation, and the love of nutsand dried fruit in India, theCalifornia walnut growersanticipate that over the next fewyears, India would climb upand regain it’s position.

The overall demand forwalnuts in India is growingsteadily. The CWC has export-ed 10468.43 tonne in 2017-18.The top export markets for theCWC are Germany, Turkey,Spain, China and the UK, shesaid.

The California walnutindustry, California WalnutCommission (CWC), is madeup of over 4,800 walnut grow-ers and 88 walnut handlers

processors.The walnut crop year is

from September-August. Indiaproduces around 30,000-35,000tonnes of walnuts in Jammuand Kashmir, according to offi-cial data.

For India, which has veryhigh proportion of vegetarianpeople, walnut is a good nutri-tional choice and also it helpsin managing health issues likediabetes, hypertension, obesi-ty among others, Graviet said.

Indian importers preferin-shell walnuts. They hirepeople within India to removethe shells, which in a way cre-ates jobs…So when importsdrop, those people doing theirjobs will also loose their sourceof income, she added.

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Tehran: Iran has discovered agas field near the Gulf withenough reserves to supply thecapital for 16 years, state mediareported on Sunday. The Eramfield contained 19 trillion cubicfeet (538 billion cubic metres)of natural gas, the NationalIranian Oil Company said, citedby official news agency IRNA.

The oil ministry’s Shanawebsite said the field was locat-ed in Fars province, about 200kilometres south of Shiraz.

“Given the volume of 19trillion cubic feet reserves of in-situ gas and 385 million barrelsof gas condensate in Eram field,the revenue from this field willbe $40 billion,” IRNA quoted anNIOC official as saying. AFP

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India is investing over $60 bil-lion in developing natural

supply and distribution infra-structure as it chases the targetof more than doubling theshare of natural gas in its ener-gy base to 15 per cent by 2030,Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan said on Sunday.

Natural gas currently con-stitutes 6.2 per cent of all ener-gy consumption in the country.Stating that the government haslaid emphasis on developing agas-based economy, he saidnatural gas is gradually becom-ing a bridging fuel for low car-bon economy in India.

The Government is givingspecial impetus to develop gas

infrastructure across the lengthand breadth of the country con-necting north to south and eastto west parts of India, he said.

“I am happy to inform youthat as we speak, an estimatedinvestment of 60 billion USdollars is underway in buildinggas pipeline and terminal infra-structure that are nearing or inadvanced stages of comple-tion,” he said in his openingremarks at the thirdInternational Think TankMeeting (ITT) here.

City gas distribution net-work will soon cover 70 percent of India’s population, hesaid. “Our Government isexploring strategic partner-ships for overall developmentof oil & gas sector.

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Facebook-owned instantmessaging giant WhatsApp

will be compliant with datalocalisation norms over thenext two months, post which itcan roll out its much-delayedpayments service here, saysthe National PaymentsCorporation.

Even after the launch ofWhatsApp’s payments service,it will take at least two years toreduce the cash dominance inthe economy as the user baseof digital payments must atleast treble to 300 million tohave any tangible impact onparing cash usage, the RBI-cre-ated NPCI’s chief executive

Dilip Asbe told PTI in aninterview.

WhatsApp has been run-ning a beta version of its pay-ments service since last year inthe country, and its officiallaunch is being keenly watchedby stakeholders, including itsover 300 million users. Manythink WhatsApp can help Indiaemulate China’s WeChat story,and help achieve the cashlesspayments objectives.

“There are still a couple ofintermediaries where work is inprogress. One is Google, sec-ond is WhatsApp. We believeWhatsApp will be fully com-pliant in the next two months’time,” Asbe said.

WhatsApp has capped the

number of payment serviceusers at 1 million now as it isyet to fully meet RBI’s datalocalisation norms whichrequire foreign companies tostore transaction and user datawithin the country and deletethe same from foreign serverswithin 24 hours.

According to Asbe, a third-party audit by a firm empaneledby the RBI is currently under-way to ascertain WhatsApp’scompliance. “Once the auditorscomplete their probe, we willreview the same and will seehow to go ahead,” he said.

Abse also clarified that hedid not meet the WhatsAppleadership team when theyvisited the city recently.

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Berlin: German ChancellorAngela Merkel on Sunday urgedTurkish President Recep TayyipErdogan to halt Turkey’s offen-sive in northern Syria immedi-ately, warning it could spark fur-ther destabilisation of the regionand a resurgence of the ISjihadist group.

In a phone call withErdogan, Merkel “spoke infavour for an immediate end tothe military operation”, thechancellor’s office said in astatement.

The operation threatens todrive large parts of the popula-tion from their homes, she said,noting that it would also risk“destabilisation of the regionand lead to a resurgence of theISIS”.

Germany and France onSaturday said they were sus-pending arms exports to Turkeyover its offensive in Syria againstthe Kurdish People’s ProtectionUnits (YPG).

Turkey sees the YPG as aterrorist off-shoot of Kurdishrebels in its own territory, butWestern powers used the Kurdsas the main ground force againstthe ISIS group in Syria. AFP

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Istanbul: President RecepTayyip Erdogan said Sundaythat threats of sanctions andarms embargoes by Westernpowers would not stop Turkey’smilitary offensive againstKurdish militants in Syria.

“After we launched ouroperation, we have facedthreats like economic sanc-tions and embargoes onweapons sales. Those whothink they can make Turkeyturn back with these threats aregravely mistaken,” Erdogansaid in a televised speech.

France and Germany saidSaturday that they were sus-pending arms exports toTurkey over its offensive inSyria against the KurdishPeople’s Protection Units(YPG).

Turkey sees the YPG as a

terrorist off-shoot of Kurdishrebels in its own territory, butWestern powers used theKurdish forces as the mainground force against theIslamic State group.

Erdogan said the Turkishmilitary and its Syrian proxiesnow controlled the bordertown of Ras al-Ain while TalAbyad was being besieged fromtwo directions. AFP

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Qamishli (Syria): Turkishforces and their proxies pusheddeep into Syria on Sunday,moving closer to completingtheir assault’s initial phase, whileWashington announced it waspulling out 1,000 troops fromthe country’s north.

The Kurdish administrationin northern Syria said thatTurkish bombardment near acamp for the displaced led tonearly 800 relatives of IS mem-bers fleeing.

Fighting raged but Turkish-backed forces made significantprogress along the border on thefifth day of an offensive that hasprovoked an international out-cry and left dozens of civiliansand fighters dead.

Kurdish authorities and for-eign powers have warnedrepeatedly that the hostilitiescould undermine the fightagainst the Islamic State group(IS) and allow jihadists to breakout of captivity.

Fighting has engulfed thearea since Wednesday whenAnkara launched a long-threat-ened offensive against theKurdish-led Syrian DemocraticForces (SDF), who it considers“terrorists” linked to insurgentsinside Turkey.

US Defence Secretary MarkEsper said Sunday thatPresident Donald Trump hadordered the withdrawal of up to1,000 troops from northernSyria.

“I can’t give a timelinebecause it changes hourly. Wewant to make sure that we do soin a very safe, deliberate man-ner,” he told the CBS network.

Trump has been accused ofabandoning a loyal ally in thefight against IS after orderingAmerican troops to pull backfrom the border, which Ankaratook as a green light to move in.

The Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights war monitor

reported on Sunday that 19more civilians had been killedin fighting.

More than 50 civilians havenow died on the Syrian side,with Turkish reports putting thenumber of civilians dead fromKurdish shelling inside Turkeyat 18.

The Observatory said pro-Ankara fighters “executed” atleast nine civilians on Saturdaynear the Syrian town of TalAbyad. The Kurds said a femaleKurdish party official and herdriver were among those killed.

Aid groups have warned ofanother humanitarian disasterin Syria’s eight-year-old war ifthe offensive is not halted.

The UN humanitarianagency OCHA said the exodussparked by the fighting hadgrown to 1,30,000 people and itwas preparing for that figure tomore than triple.

“We have moved into aplanning scenario where up to

4,00,000 people could be dis-placed within and across theaffected areas,” spokesman JensLaerke told AFP.

Some 12,000 IS fighters —Syrians, Iraqis as well as for-eigners from 54 countries — aredetained in Kurdish prisons,according to official Kurdishstatistics.

Displacement camps mean-while host some 12,000 for-eigners — 8,000 children and4,000 women.

“The brutal military assaultled by Turkey and its merce-naries is now taking place neara camp in Ain Issa, where thereare thousands (of people) fromfamilies of IS,” a Kurdish admin-istration statement said.

“Some were able to escapeafter bombardments that tar-geted” the camp.

It said the Ain Issa campwas “now without guards” and785 relatives of IS jihadists hadfled.

The SDF, a coalition ofKurdish and Arab fighters, wasthe main partner on the groundin the US-led campaign againstIS. According to theObservatory, at least 104 of itsfighters have been killed sincethe start of the Turkish offensive.

According to Turkishmedia, Ankara aims to take con-trol of a territory 120 kilometres(75 miles) long and 30 kilome-tres into Syria, up to the townsof Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain.

Turkish forces and theirproxies captured Tal Abyad onFriday afternoon, which leftRas al-Ain, further east, as thelast major target in the offensive.

The fighting was intense inand around the town and theObservatory reported that aconvoy, which included jour-nalists and civilians, was hit byartillery.

Nine people were killed, fiveof them civilians, the monitor-ing organisation said.

Turkey announced it hadseized the key M4 highway,which looks like it might markthe southern limit of its advancein this initial phase of the inva-sion.It lies 30 to 35 kilometresdeep in Syrian territory.

SDF fighters have takenmounting losses against thevastly superior military fire-power of Turkey, which hasdefied mounting internationalprotests and the threat of USsanctions in pressing on with itsoffensive. AFP

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Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump on Saturdayreleased $50 million in stabil-isation assistance for Syria toprotect persecuted ethnic andreligious minorities andadvance human rights, theWhite House said.

This funding will provideemergency financial assistanceto Syrian human rightsdefenders, civil society organ-isations and reconciliationefforts directly supporting eth-

nic and religious minority vic-tims of the conflict, WhiteHouse Press SecretaryStephanie Grisham said.

It will also go towardsincreasing accountability,removal of explosive remnantsof war, community security,documenting human rightsabuses and internationalhumanitarian law violationsand support for survivors ofgender-based violence andtorture, she said. PTI

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Washington: President DonaldTrump on Saturday stoodbehind personal attorney RudyGiuliani, one of his highest-pro-file and most vocal defenders,amid reports that federal pros-ecutors in the city Giuliani ledas mayor are eyeing him for pos-sible lobbying violations.

Behind the scenes, howev-er, many of Trump’s closestaides and advisers, inside andoutside the White House, quietlywish the president would cut tieswith Giuliani, whose leader-ship of New York after theSeptember 11, 2001, terroristattacks earned him worldwideadmiration and the moniker of“America’s mayor.”

Giuliani was a force inTrump’s defense during thelengthy Russia investigation bythe special counsel.

Yet the effort to underminespecial counsel Robert Muellerled Giuliani to Ukraine, whichnow entangles the former federalprosecutor and mayor in legaljeopardy and is central to thedanger threatening the presi-dency he labored to protect.

The New York Timesreported Friday, citing a pair ofanonymous sources familiarwith the matter, that the inves-tigation is linked to Giuliani’sefforts to undermine MarieYovanovitch, formerly the USambassador to Ukraine.

The US attorney’s office inManhattan has declined to com-ment on the Times report.

Two Florida businessmenwith ties to Giuliani werecharged Thursday with federalcampaign finance violations.

Both played key roles in

Giuliani’s efforts to get Ukraineto launch a corruption investi-gation into Democratic presi-dential contender Joe Bidenand his son Hunter, who sat onthe board of a gas companythere.

On Saturday, Trumpdeployed in Giuliani’s defensethe same two-word phrase —“Witch Hunt!” — he repeated-ly used to attack the legitimacyof the special counsel investiga-tion into Russian interference inthe 2016 presidential electionand now the House impeach-ment inquiry against him. “Sonow they are after the legendary‘crime buster’ and greatestMayor in the history of NYC,Rudy Giuliani,” Trump tweetedwhile on the way to his north-ern Virginia golf club.

“He may seem a little rougharound the edges sometimes, buthe is also a great guy and won-derful lawyer.” Later Saturday, hetold Jeanine Pirro during a tele-phone interview broadcast onher Fox News Channel programthat Giuliani continues as hislawyer.

“He’s a great gentleman. Hewas a great mayor, one of thegreatest, maybe the greatestmayor in the history of New

York,” the president said.“He was a fantastic prose-

cutor. I know nothing about himbeing under investigation ... Ican’t imagine it.”

“He’s a man that looks forcorruption and whatever hedoes I really believe he’s a total-ly, I mean, I know he’s an hon-orable man,” Trump added.

A whistleblower complaintabout Trump’s dealings withUkraine led Democratic HouseSpeaker Nancy Pelosi to open animpeachment inquiry into thepresident.

Three House committeestaking depositions in theimpeachment probe heardFriday from Yovanovitch.

The former ambassador hassaid she was fired from her postin May after insisting thatGiuliani’s requests to Ukrainianofficials for investigations berelayed through official chan-nels, according to a formerdiplomat who has spoken withher. The former diplomat spokeon condition of anonymity todiscuss the private conversation.Trump seemed to try to createspace between himself andGiuliani on Friday whenreporters asked if Giuliani wasstill representing him.

“Well, I don’t know. I haven’tspoken to Rudy,” Trump said ashe left the White House for a tripto Louisiana, adding that the twospoke briefly on Thursday.

“He’s a very good attorney,and he has been my attorney.Yeah, sure.” Asked if he stillrepresented Trump, Giulianireplied to The AssociatedPress with a one-word textmessage: “Yes.” AP

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Tokyo: Helicopters, boats andthousands of troops weredeployed across Japan to res-cue people stranded in flood-ed homes Sunday, as the deathtoll from a ferocious typhoonclimbed to as high as 33.

One woman fell to herdeath as she was being placedinside a rescue helicopter.

Typhoon Hagibis madelandfall south of Tokyo onSaturday evening and batteredcentral and northern Japanwith torrents of rain and pow-erful gusts of wind. The

typhoon was downgraded to atropical storm on Sunday.

Public broadcaster NHKsaid 14 rivers across the nationhad flooded, some spilling outin more than one spot.

The Tokyo FireDepartment said a woman inher 70s was accidentallydropped 40 meters (131 feet)to the ground while beingtransported into a rescue heli-copter in Iwaki city inFukushima prefecture, a north-ern area devastated by thetyphoon. AFP

London (United Kingdom):Prime Minister Boris Johnsonwas to brief his Ministers onSunday on progress in Britain’slast-ditch efforts to strike a newBrexit agreement with the EU.

Negotiators went behindclosed doors for intensive talksin Brussels after Johnson out-lined a new set of divorceterms to Irish Prime MinisterLeo Varadkar on Thursday.

But they have very littletime to left succeed.

EU leaders will meet inBrussels on Thursday andFriday for a summit held underthe pressures of the October 31Brexit deadline just two weeks

away.They would ideally like to

have a full proposal to vote onby then.

But the sides are trying toachieve in a few days what theyhad failed to in the more thanthree years since Britons firstvoted to leave the EuropeanUnion after nearly 50 years.

German ChancellorAngela Merkel will discuss theavailable options with FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macronlate Sunday and Johnson is tobrief his cabinet at lunchtime.

European officials said thebloc’s Brexit negotiator MichelBarnier will also brief EU

ambassadors on the state ofplay on Sunday evening.

The few details that haveleaked out suggest a compro-mise around the contentiousIrish border issue that keepsBritain’s Northern Ireland par-tially aligned with EU customsrules.

Whether such a fudge suitsboth Brussels and the moreardent Brexit backers in par-liament who must still approvea deal should become clearer inthe coming days.

Johnson rose to power inJuly on a promise not to extendBrexit for a third time — evenfor a few weeks. AFP

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Kathmandu: President XiJinping warned on Sunday thatanyone attempting to “split”China will be “crushed” as heheld wide-ranging talks withNepal’s top leadership here andthe two countries elevated theirbilateral ties to strategic part-nership and signed a slew ofagreements, including a plan tobuild a trans-Himalayan railwayline.

During his meeting withNepalese counterpart BidyaDevi Bhandari on Saturday,President Xi announced a sup-port of 3.5 billion RMB equiv-alent to Nepalese Rs 56 billionto Nepal over the next two yearsto help the development pro-

grammes, officials said.Xi, the first Chinese presi-

dent to visit Nepal in 23 years,also pledged to upgrade theArniko Highway linkingKathmandu with Tatopani tran-sit point - which was shut downfollowing the devastating earth-quake of 2015 - and open morecustoms points facilitating con-nectivity.

He said a feasibility study oftrans-Himalayan railway willsoon start and China will alsosupport construction of theKerung-Kathmandu tunnelroad.

During his meeting withNepal Prime Minister KPSharma Oli on Sunday, Xi said

that “anyone attempting to splitChina will be crushed and anyexternal force backing suchattempts will be deemed by theChinese people as pipe-dream-ing,” China’s official Xinhuanews agency reported.

Xi’s comments came as

Beijing is putting pressure onKathmandu to rein-in pro-Dalai Lama Tibetans in Nepal.

Nepal shares a long borderwith Tibet and is home toaround 20,000 Tibetan exiles.Every year some 2,500 Tibetansillegally enter Nepal crossingTibetan border on their way toDharamshala to meet the 84-year-old Dalai Lama.

Beijing views the India-based Dalai Lama, the spiritu-al leader of the Tibetan people,as a separatist trying to split theHimalayan region from China.

Oli said Nepal firmly sup-ports China in safeguarding itssovereignty and territorialintegrity and stands firm in

upholding the one-China poli-cy. Nepal, added Oli, will neverallow any force to use its terri-tory for separatist activitiesagainst China, the Xinhuareport said. Xi stressed that hiscountry appreciates Nepal for itsfirm adherence to the one-China policy and its staunchsupport for China on issues con-cerning China’s core interests.

Calling Nepal and Chinatrue friends and partners, Olisaid the two countries havealways respected each other,supported each other and neverinterfered in the internal affairsof the other, adding that theirtraditional friendship isunbreakable. PTI

Hong Kong: Riot police clashed withanti-government protesters acrossHong Kong Sunday as maskedactivists vandalised businessesdeemed sympathetic to Beijing inanother weekend of chaos in thefinancial hub.

Rallies erupted in multiple neigh-bourhoods, with some protestersblocking roads, sabotaging traintracks, and trashing pro-China busi-nesses.

Police said an officer was taken tohospital after his neck was slashed.Local television networks also broad-cast footage of a man beaten bloodyby protesters after they found a batonin his bag and suspected him of beingan undercover officer.

Police have increasingly posed asprotesters, scoring some tactical suc-

cesses and sparking widespread para-noia among frontline demonstra-tors.

During cat-and-mouse encoun-ters on Sunday officers made dozensof arrests, but there were fewer pro-testers than have taken to the streetsmore recently during the four-monthlong protest movement.

In Mongkok, a bustling shoppingdistrict on the Kowloon peninsula,officers burst from an unmarkedvan over a blockade of bamboo scaf-folding and quickly chased down mul-tiple protesters.

Later, an AFP reporter in theneighbourhood saw protesters beat awoman earlier accused of helpingpolice clear barricades.

The woman was struck with fistsand umbrellas, and also had her face

smeared with mud.Protesters have increasingly

turned on their ideological opponentsin recent weeks, while Beijing loyal-ists have attacked democracy activiststhroughout the summer.

Online forums used to organisethe largely leaderless movementadvertised Sunday as a “blossomeverywhere” day, encouraging activiststo gather in malls across the city.

Protests and clashes were report-ed in half a dozen neighbourhoods,with police saying they fired tear gasduring two incidents.

While the crowds were thinner,the flashmob tactics stretched policeresources and still brought chaos toparts of the city for a 19th consecutiveweekend. Throughout the day, policefound themselves berated and heck-

led by bystanders as they madearrests, highlighting how the forcehas become loathed and pilloried bylarge parts of the population. “I’mfurious,” a female protester, whogave her surname as Chan, toldAFP. “I want the government to dis-band the entire police force.”

Hong Kong has been shaken byfour months of massive democra-cy protests which have seen increas-ingly violent clashes between hard-core demonstrators and police, aswell as regular transport disruptions.

The protests were sparked byopposition to a now-scrappedproposal to allow extraditions tomainland China, but have sincemorphed into a larger movementfor democracy and policeaccountability. AFP

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.(0(,$��<(�9��1*=%�&.8��Burned out on life, Miles undergoes a strange

procedure at a strip mall spa and wakes to find he'sbeen replaced by a better version of himself. Created byTimothy Greenberg and starring Paul Rudd, AislingBea and Desmin Borges, the series will release onOctober 18 on Netflix.

>=��'��)'$(�When Kelly and her two best friends stumble upon a

mysterious cookbook, they discover that the book’srecipes are far from ordinary — magical. Starring OliviaSanabia, Abby Donnelly, the series releases on October 25on Amazon Prime Video.

)*�&%,��.*0&An unlikely friendship. A lost love resurfaced. A mar-

riage at its turning point. An uncertain date. An unconven-tional new family. These are unique stories about joys andtribulations of love, each inspired by a real-life personal essayfrom the beloved New York Times column. Starring AnneHathaway, the series releases on October 18 on AmazonPrime Video.

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She is naked and intoxicated — dark anddishevelled yet terrifyingly beautiful —wearing nothing but a garland and a

waistband of demon heads and a girdle ofhuman hands, holding several weapons.With her tongue rolled out, she stomps on theprostrate body of Shiva, who is also her hus-band. She is the redeemer of both natureand humankind. And amid all this, eventhough goddess Kali’s image, withskulls and corpses, represents all sym-bols of death and destruction, her fem-ininity is incomparable. She presents ananswer to the question — what happenswhen a woman says enough to all the injus-tice around her?

When UK-based storyteller EmilyHennessey single-handedly began narratingKali’s story and her victory against demonRaktabija on the stage at the KathakarStorytelling Festival, there was a surge of elec-tric energy around, swaying across the SunderNursery. It touched each one present in theaudience and had them in awe of the goddess’grotesque yet subdued aura. It looked asthough she was very much present. She madesure all the eyes were glued to her bewitch-ing narration till she was done. And when Itell Emily that the performance was electri-fying, she exclaimed, “Well, it’s Kali! Isn’t it?”

She began her act by questioning —How is it possible for a mother to bothcreate and destroy? When she watchesyoung Kartikeya fighting alone in thebattlefield against Raktabija, who does-n’t seem to be getting easily defeatedas his name translates to ‘blood-seed’,she questions the gods above —Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and Shiva.And they all seem to have been “toobusy” in their respective chores asEmily passes a contemporary joke atthe right moment. Her story, thoughdrawn from the colourful andancient Hindu mythology, presenteda melange of modern humour andtook digs at the contemporary lifestyle.

She also showcased the demon ask-ing the gods to make him more pow-erful by saying, “The world needsdemons just like feast needs hunger.” Andhence, a new demon emerges with everydrop of blood that falls off Raktabija’sbody after Kartikeya finally slits histhroat. At last, when nobody comes to

his rescue, Parvati steps up and enters the battle-field. With the right mix of both reverence and mis-chief, she says, “I only have to go and kill the demonnow.” Emily said, “Kali is quite a well-known god-dess for her vehement strength. But I was very muchinterested to explore her softer side. I have heardof many different manifestations of the goddess likeParvati, Sati, Uma, who showcase their journey tra-versing from creation to destruction. I wanted toshow how out of a motherly concern, she steps inthe battlefield in the avatar of the powerful god-dess, and at the same time, how a woman candestroy the world and its cruelty when the timecomes.”

Emily’s understanding of Kali itself made it evi-dent of how overwhelmed she is of her style. So howdid she begin telling the ancient Indian tales and

how did she get fascinat-ed by them? Well, she

was 18 whenshe went toNepal for a

few monthsto work as a

volunteer. “I soldthe images of all the

gods and goddesses forthe first time then. And

somehow, these stayed withme. I was curious to know

what are their stories,” she saidand added that it grew further

when she started working with sto-ryteller Dr Vayu Naidu, who narrated

stories from Indian epics. She said, “I sawher tell the Ramayana, the birth of Ganesh, and

a lot of epics and stories about different Indian godsand goddesses. And that really fed my fascination.Then there were a lot of trips to India too.”

She said that her fascination with Indianmythology also grew when she looked at the num-ber of gods and goddesses present. “There are overa million of them. It’s extraordinary! And they allhave different manifestations of each other. Theyare very three-dimensional and human becauseeven we have all these different energies with-

in us. I found these stories so colourful, brightand cosmic and yet full of universal truths.

Some of these are even love stories, whichare so beautiful. These stories are very close

to my heart because they are full of loveand colour,” said she.

Even as though Kali triumphsover Raktabija, the gods and Shiva

ponder that Parvati has drank ademon’s blood, which is making

her energy omnipresent andshe trembles with outrage.

Shiva, after a number oftricks to bring back her

warmth, finally liesbeneath her feet to

reduce her angst.

Seeing her consort beneath her foot, Kali realisesthat she had gone too far. To showcase this, Emily,hitting the right note, uttered, “Oh! What happenedto you husband? Why are you lying there?” andacted like nothing had happened. She also ques-tioned the destruction around and when she askedShiva, he said, “Oh honey! It’s a long story.”

So how is it that she brings such intricate emo-tions so deeply and aptly? Emily said, “Before theperformance, giving space for the story to be aliveis very important. By not learning the script, thestory would come out differently every time. Forme, it just has to be alive within me. Hence, I needsome time and space before bubbling over. Then,the story takes over and I don’t know what’s hap-pening. It is the story that’s in charge.”

The storyteller said that she reads as many ver-sions of the same folktale as possible to gain a broad-er perspective. She said, “Apart from reading var-ious versions, I also ask from people on my visitsto India, especially in the temples of Kolkata. I goaround asking people to tell me their versions ofthe same stories and then, piece together the bitsof stories that I like the most to make my own ver-sion.”

Emily recalled the Kathakar festival in 2016,when she saw a performance based on Kali for thefirst time, which immensely inspired her. “I gotinstantly interested in the performer’s amazingenergy. When the goddess Kali came to life onstage, she was absolutely present! There was a hugeand powerful fire that they lit up. The performerhad seemed to completely go into a trance. Hiseyes were shaking as though he was completelypossessed with the goddess. It was so powerful.I wanted to know what is this power that she has?”she told us.

As her narration ended, after Kali goes backto being Parvati again, Emily questioned, “AndKali? What happened to her? Where is she?” Later,she answered, “Kali is omnipresent. Time andagain, she will come when the moment is rightand fight off a thousand Raktabija-like demonsin the world.”

There are various versions of the same epicsbut they have all been told through a general per-spective or mostly by the men in it. However,recently, there have been authors who havepenned the Mahabharata and the Ramayanathrough the perspectives of Draupadi and Kunti,and Sita. However, Kali seems new. She has oftenbeen misunderstood and not been exploredmuch. Emily said, “It is always important to tellthe story of a woman and be aware of the genderinequality that we have had for centuries. Tellingthe story through a woman’s perspective also fightsthis very patriarchal way of collecting, writing ortelling stories. So this is a challenge. I just openmy heart and do it. I just let them speak for them-selves as humans and as women.”

Well, Emily’s performance certainly seemedlike a joyfully told tale of a woman and her jour-ney of transformation, transcendence and rebirth.

They are young yet old in theexperiences that they shoulder.

They are technologically savvyyet emotionally distant. Their gad-gets often last longer than theirrelationships. Whatever you sayabout the millennials, the oppositeis also equally true. And it is thisband of people and their spirit ofachieving a sense of balance intheir lives that formed the inspira-tion for FDCI’s India FashionWeek 2019 day 4. ‘Young Guns’ aninitiative to encourage youngdesigners gave them a free run ofthe ramp.

Designer Niharika Gupta oftenraided her brother’s wardrobe as achild, drawn to the comfortablefabrics and functionality ofmenswear silhouettes. Herlabel, Notebook, gave con-temporary update by re-engineering shirting fabricsand tailoring techniquesinto a line of pol-ished urban uni-forms. Her workwearand casuals wereinspired by Indianand Middle-East.The collection wasa balance of sophis-ticated formal cutsand utilitariandetails with popsof colour and com-fort.

Whereas fash-ion designer SameerMadan’s collectionencapsulated or ratherentraped a periodictransition. He said, “Thisspring/summer, we makethe old meet the new,concocting a melange ofrenaissance with the cos-mopolitan. An emotion astimeless as each individualdesign. The renegade offusion folklore as we embarkupon this reminiscent jour-ney and contribute our a lit-

tle token to the time capsule.” Hiscollection aimed to metamorpho-sise basic into boisterous, simpleinto sophisticated. Madan’s agen-da was to transform beauty intosimplicity by engulfing complexi-ty in a way which looks subtle.

From using handwoven fabricsto natural dyes, right down to cir-cular textiles derived from recycledPET bottles, designer Aman Singhfused Indian craft techniques withsustainable materials to createmodern wardrobe mainstays.Singh’s Bareek amalgamated twodistinct craft elements, namelyJamdhani from West Bengal andIkat from Telangana. The zany yetsharp collection propelled itself

straight out of a self-writtengraphic sci-fi novel titledIntergalactic Luum. Inspired bythe motifs reminiscent of old-school arcade games, the collec-

tion featured distant starclusters, exacting aerialbattles, mysterious neb-ulas and a certain loneranger named LUUM,all of which find place inthis space saga. He said,“Intergalactic Luum willbe a prêt-à-porter linethat is a distinct sub-labeland will be placed in asegment above the label’s‘Bareek Essentials’ linethat focusses onmenswear quality basics,made of natural fabricsranging from Khadi to

GOTSTM certifiedorganic cotton.”

His team works with under-utilised craft clusters, value-adding to their dead stock andalso joins hands with

societies/groups that are knownfor mastering a particular craft.

Another collection, Beyondthe Clouds by Countrymade drewinspiration from nature in the

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In spirituality, rememberance is said to be the higheststate of connection, wherein an individual recollects

their divine self which is the supreme soul. This releas-es a transformative energy, thereby, empowering the indi-vidual for a spiritual consciousness. Most of the peoplerecognise this need when they want to be more peace-ful, respectful and happier in life. However, the humanconsciousness is so overloaded with negative energies suchas anger, fear, arrogance, possessiveness that from timeto time this negativity explodes in emotional, verbal andphysical violence.

We are so used tothe violence in theworld nowadays, thatwe have accepted it asa norm of life. But,there is also an instinctfor harmony andpeace, deep within thehuman spirit. That’sthe reason many peo-ple consistently strivefor peace and mutualrespect.

However, fears andgrievances hijack a per-son into a state of tur-moil and stress even ifthey don’t want to.Under such a scenario,meditation works as a healing process that helps the per-son reconnect with his original self through understand-ing and remembrance. Through the remembrance of theSupreme soul, the human spirit can heal, purify and lib-erate itself from the treacherous habits that constantly sab-otage its life. It is the basis of relationship of souls withtheir master — the Supreme soul. The steps for suchremembrance are understanding, connection, concentra-tion and absorption. When one absorbs themselves in thepure being of God, the divine energy is transferred intoone’s body which purifies and empowers the self. Thisabsorption helps the self to re-emerge its original qual-ities.

To remember the one who is eternally loving, truth-ful and peaceful, is called the art of Rajyoga. Traditionally,it has been said that Rajyoga is the most difficult yogabut it is probably the easiest wherein the self, soul andGod are understood as a form of light. Though they haveseparate forms but are united through thought and feel-ing.

This connection with God is based on subtle love andnot on anything visual or physical. There is no discrim-ination on the basis of nationality, culture and religionbecause it is a connection of pure feeling. For inner lib-eration, such kind of remembrance is paramount. It isregarded as the truest form of spirituality for cleaning andfulfilling the soul. One should not forget that God is avail-able and accessible to all. You don’t need any position,role or nationality to connect with him instead the onlything that matters is a clean motive.

Yoga has become a very common word today.However, the word remembrance pinpoints the relation-ship with the Divine. A relationship that includes the feel-ing of a companion. After the soul connects with God,one is able to concentrate on the eternal friend’s divinequalities and absorb them within themselves. So, beyondmeditation and yoga is such remembrance where the soulis able to relate to God silently, personally and constant-ly, beyond any physical or subtle image, and feels fullyconnected and empowered.

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Bamboo huts with thatched roofs,open areas with cots and trees infront, a vegetable garden in the

backyard, walls covered with a mixtureof cow dung, dirt and grass, rangolis atthe entrance, hospitable people with ashine and curiosity in their eyes... all this,and more are noticeable in the sweep ofan eye when one enters Mirzapur,recently made famous by a web series.

But while that is the reel, there arestories of hope, development andprogress, which form the warp and weftof the real in the area, which remainsignored as it is imagined, falsely, ofcourse, that the rural sector lacks inentrepreneurship because the majorityof the populace is illiterate. However,delving deeper reveals that there are anumber of innovative minds who can dowonders when provided the right guid-ance. And specially given the fact thatthere is an increase in the number ofunemployed youth each year and if thereis an emphasis on changing the outlookfrom a job-seeker to a creator, it cantransform the area. DevelopmentAlternatives, a social enterprise, is work-ing towards the same goal through itsWork 4 Progress programme, which is aplatform for encouraging entrepreneur-ship.

The programme commenced in2017 and since then, it has impacted sev-eral lives. We were here to witness thatchange and ensure that other peoplecould see the transformation inMirzapur, which is far-removed from thegun and mafia culture perpetuated bythe eponymous series.

The journey began from a school inKantit Gramin village. From afar, wecould hear girls laughing, giggling andclapping among themselves. When we

entered, they were so excited to take thisforward that they all shouted, “Sister, wewill first sing a song.” This was followedby details of how the programme hadempowered them. Mamta Yadav, an 18-year-old, said, “We now understand therole education plays in shaping a child’sfuture. Not only this, we are also awareabout child marriage and child rights.”She recalled an incident where she, alongwith a group of girls, stood for the rightsof an underage girl from a nearby vil-lage, who was being forced to get mar-ried. As she shared this, the classroomechoed with claps from every corner.Another girl, Kavita Patel, a student ofBA first year, said, “The programme hasempowered us and we feel more confi-dent now. Earlier, we fumbled for wordseven when we discussed our basic

needs.” However, when asked about theirparents’ reaction to all this, a girl fromthe corner of the class promptlyanswered, “Mere papa ab mere dost bangaye hai (My father is my friend now).”She explained that earlier their parentsdidn’t allow them to study and wantedthem to invest their time in householdchores.

To solve this issue, an inclusive pro-gramme was conducted for father-daughter and mother-daughter separate-ly to make the parents understand theimportance of education. Though ini-tially rigid for about six months to a year,they finally understood the need to adaptto the changing times. The transitionfrom the programme was such that thegirls who could barely speak for them-selves began fighting for the rights of

others. The ones who had been confinedwithin the four walls were now sayingout loud that they wanted to become anIAS officer, a teacher, a doctor or a singer.

We then headed towards a closedroom in the narrow lanes of the villagefilled with mud and cow dung. It wasTara Mani and his wife, Malti Devi’shome, which was more like a home-cum-shop, as it had a bed on one sideand machines on the other. They had asmall business where they sold vermil-ion. Tara said, “Earlier, I only made sin-door boxes but the programme has madeus aware about the Startup VillageEnterprise Programme (SVEP), whichprovides loan to the rural women tomotivate them for small-scale business-es.” So Malti took a loan and set up amachine to make vermilion too. She

added, “Our vermilion and its box hasa special shine. People from far awaycome to buy it.” As she said this, her headbecame a tad more alert, her shouldersstraightened up and there was no mis-taking the hint of pride in her statement.

Another entrepreneur was AshaDevi, a strong-headed middle-agedwoman, whose success clearly reflectedin her personality. Her idea had cometo fruitation, which also added revenueto her family earnings. In March 2018,she decided to set up a vermicompostenterprise, which now runs successful-ly and was supported by the pro-gramme during ideation. Today, sheeven makes profit out of her businessand runs it without debts. She said, “Alot of effort has gone into bringing thisbusiness to the level where it is today,”and made sure that we were made awareabout her online presence before we tookher leave.

While the assistance from the pro-gramme helped, the people themselveswere not lacking in enterprise. The wayto Mamta Devi’s ice-cream manufactur-ing unit of Dhannipatti village might nothave a proper road as there were was asmattering of bricks on the wet mud toensure that people did not soil theirfootwear or their feet but the petitewoman had expanded her business toemploy seven people. “I am not stoppinghere. I also want to set-up a chips pack-aging machine,” she said as we alllooked at her in wonder.

The day also saw a village entrepre-neurship fair — Taragram Mela in theNational Convent Public School —where people from all walks of life whohad started something of their own werepresent. Clearly, there is no stopping ofideas.

Why train your dog withfood rewards? A growing

body of research says it’s theeasiest and most effective wayto train.

“Using treats during train-ing is the best way to guaran-tee that your dog will repeat thebehavior you want,” says theAmerican Kennel Club.

Other methods don’t workas well, experts say, and caneven harm your dog and thepet-owner relationship.

Erica Feuerbacher, an assis-tant professor in theDepartment of Animal andPoultry Science at VirginiaTech, did a study that compareda food reward to the reward ofpetting and praise. Dogs wereclear about what they pre-ferred: “They’ll work harderand respond faster for foodthan for social interaction,” shesays.

Dogs do love to be with us,but our monkey chatter does-n’t mean that much to them:Feuerbacher has found thatdogs will stay near a personwho’s praising them for thesame amount of time as ifthey’re being ignored.

And if you want your dogto obey just because they loveyou, get real.

“If only it was like that!”says Zazie Todd, author of theforthcoming Wag: The Scienceof Making Your Dog Happy(Greystone Books, 2020). “If

your boss stopped paying you,you’d probably stop going towork pretty quickly. You needto motivate your dog too.”

Dog trainers also talk aboutlife rewards like getting to playor go for a walk. These can beuseful, especially to maintain

behaviours you’ve alreadytrained, but are more compli-cated and take longer.

“For most everyday behav-

iours that ordinary people wantto teach, food is quicker andeasier,” says Todd.

“You want to find a train-er who’s using modern reward-based methods, and that meansthey’ll be using food to train adog,” she says.

Consider the alternativesthat don’t involve rewards.Punishment also works tochange behaviour. After all, innature, animals that don’t avoidpainful experiences aren’t goingto live long.

However, research hasshown that using punishmentin dog training has seriousside effects. “The risks includefear, anxiety and stress,” saysTodd, “and they include anincreased risk of aggression,because the dog may reactbadly to punishment or thethreat of punishment.”

It also affects the human-animal bond. One study foundthat dogs trained with aversivemethods looked at their own-ers less frequently than dogstrained with positive reinforce-ment. That’s the opposite ofwhat you want when you’retraining. “They associate youwith bad things, and becomefearful of you,” saysFeuerbacher.

Although some trainers uselanguage that obscures this,Feuerbacher says that if youlook closely, you’ll see thatwhat’s actually getting their

results is something aversive,like a leash jerk. “Often their‘energy’ is a looming physicalthreat that bad things will hap-pen if you don’t comply,” shesays.

By contrast, giving a dogfood has good side effects.

“If you have a fearful dog,using food is especially impor-tant because it builds a positiveassociation through Pavlovianconditioning with the personproviding it,” Feuerbacher says.Translation: The way to a dog’sheart really is through its stom-ach.

Some pet owners say theirdog won’t work for food;Feuerbacher says those dogsmight be overfed. Food used fortraining should be part of theirration of calories, not an addi-tion. So feed a little less to makesure your dog isn’t too stuffed towant more.

While some dogs will workfor just a portion of their kibble,for most, you have to offersomething better. Feuerbachersays, “Break out the spray cheeseor liverwurst — people may needto be creative.” Research hasshown that even dogs get tiredof the same flavour all the time.

Also, it’s possible for a dogto be too frightened to eat, so ifyou have a fearful dog, avoidtraining in a situation where he’soverwhelmed by unfamiliarsights and sounds.

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The experience of playingwith Haryana Steelers in

Pro Kabaddi League seasonseven has been simply incred-ible and we are very excited toplay against U Mumba in theplayoffs in Ahmedabad today.The team has gelled very wellthroughout the season and ourhard work has paid rich divi-dends. We have gone throughups and downs, but the impor-tant thing is that all playershave always believed in theirability.

We had hopes of finishingin the first two spots when theteam had a long winning streakduring the league, but unfortu-nately, we couldn’t achievedirect qualification for thesemi-finals. However, it does-n’t make a big difference for usas we can win the quarter-finalsand reach the last four stage. Allteams are equal in this compe-tition, so it doesn’t matterwhich opponent we face atwhichever stage of the tourna-ment. We will try to do our bestin every match we play.

There is certainly a differ-ent feel to a playoff match. Wehave to be mentally ready forthe fact that we can be out ofthe tournament after a singleloss. We cannot afford to maketoo many mistakes in theknockouts. These are crucialmatches. So, we have to be verycareful with the way weapproach each and every moveduring the matches. We willwork out our strategies and fol-low them properly.

There will be a slightchange in our training regimefor the playoff matches. Wehave played exceedingly wellduring the tournament, so wedon’t need to change much inour game. We will just focus onwhat we have been doing rightthroughout this edition and weare confident that we will pullthrough in all tough situa-tions.

Our captain DharmarajCheralathan keeps talking andmotivating us during tight

matches. The players of theteam have also gained experi-ence as the season has pro-gressed, so all of them have alsobecome equipped to thrive inpressure situations.

Our offense and defensehas been terrific throughoutthe season. We will rectify ourmistakes after every match.However, if I have to point outone aspect which should workon is coordination betweenthe players. I feel coordinationon the mat will be the key inthe playoffs. The team whichcoordinates well with eachother has been triumphantmost times in PKL-7. So, wewill focus on talking to eachother during the playoff match-es.

I was in the Haryana teamin the fifth season. I have playedwith Vikash Kandola andDharmaraj Cheralathan for afew years, so I have a greatunderstanding with them on themat. All of us complement eachother very well. We will try ourbest to reach the final. Afterworking so hard throughout thetournament, we shouldn’t stum-ble in the last stage. The teamhas made multiple comebacksin this edition and therefore weare aware that a match is neverover until the final whistle.

(The writer representsHaryana Steelers in Pro

Kabaddi League season 7)

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Valtteri Bottas jumped from thirdto first with an electric start to

win the Japanese Grand Prix onSunday ahead of Ferrari’s SebastianVettel and Mercedes teammateLewis Hamilton.

With only Bottas now able toovertake Hamilton in the standings,Mercedes clinched an unprecedent-ed sixth successive drivers’-con-structors’ world championship dou-ble.

“I’m happy, very happy,” said fly-ing Finn Bottas, who ended a six-month wait for his third victory of2019 after winning the season-opener in Australia and theAzerbaijan Grand Prix in April.

“Starting third isn’t easy. I hada really nice start, managed to getthe lead and then the pace was supergood, I could really control the race,”he added.

“I’m really proud to be part ofthe team. A sixth title is reallyimpressive.”

“Firstly congratulations to theteam,” said Hamilton, who nowleads the drivers’ standings by 64points from Bottas. “That’s themain point. I just wanted to bringhome good points for the team.”

Emotional Mercedes team prin-cipal Toto Wolff dedicated his team’sachievement to Formula One legendNiki Lauda, who died earlier thisyear.

“We want to dedicate this toNiki because he’s just been such animportant part from the beginningof the journey,” said Wolff.

Ferrari had enjoyed a front rowlock-out in the morning qualifyingsession caused by Typhoon Hagibisbut that was as good as “SuperSunday” got for them as their raceunravelled right from the start.

Vettel twitched before the lightswent out and his hesitation enabledthe fast starting Bottas to leapfrogfrom third into the lead.

“It was my mistake,” admittedVettel who escaped a penalty for hisfalse start. “It was worse than a poorstart. It was a really poor start. Withthe lack of pace today, second placetoday was probably the maximum.”

Meanwhile Leclerc’s miserableday was completed by being relegat-ed from sixth place to seventhbehind Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault.

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Indian boxer Manju Rani’s stupen-dous debut run at the Women’s

World Championships ended witha Silver medal on Sunday after shelost the light flyweight (48kg) finalto Russia’s Ekaterina Paltceva here.

The Haryana-boxer, who wasseeded sixth, went down 1-4 to thesecond-seeded local favourite in thefirst final of the day.

Rani, who turns 20 on Saturday,was the lone Indian to make the

finals after six-time champion M CMary Kom (51kg), Jamuna Boro(54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain(69kg) settled for Bronze medals. Incase of Borgohain, it was her sec-ond successive third-place finish.

There was very little separatingRani and her rival, both of whomlooked to attack in the first round.The Russian stood out for her near

perfect left hooks in the openingthree minutes.

In the second round, the Indianconnected some good straightsand seemed to have the upperhandover the crowd favourite.

The proceedings slowed downin the final three minutes whenboth the boxers adopted a cautiousapproach. There was quite a bit of

holding, requiring the referee’sintervention quite a few times.

However, at the end of it theRussian emerged victorious perhapsfor her a shade sharper reflexes. TheIndian contingent was howevervisibly upset after the Paltceva’shand was raised as the victor.

Rani broke into the nationalcamp only this year by winning the

national crown for Punjab after notgetting the selection nod inHaryana.

Earlier this year, she won aSilver medal on debut at the pres-tigious Strandja MemorialTournament, one of Europe’s old-est and most competitive boxingevents.

Rani hails from Rithal Phogatvillage in the Rohtak district ofHaryana. The youngster lost herfather, a Border Security Forceofficer, to cancer in 2010.

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Neymar’s return to ChampionsLeague action may be delayed

after the Paris Saint-Germain for-ward limped off after just 12 minutesof Brazil’s friendly against Nigeria onSunday.

The 27-year-old, who played thefull 90 minutes against Senegal onThursday, clutched his hamstringafter eight minutes and was replacedby Philippe Coutinho shortly after.

Neymar, who was playing his101st international, is now a doubtfor PSG’s Champions League meet-ing with Club Brugge on October 22.He has missed the first two rounds

because of a UEFA suspension.He was injured while on nation-

al duty back in June when he hurt anankle in a friendly against Qatar. Itruled him out of the Copa Americawhich Brazil went on to win.

If the injury was bad for Neymarthen the result was disappointing forBrazil — it is their fourth successivematch without a win.

Their previous three outingssince winning the Copa America hadyielded draws against Colombia andSenegal and a defeat by Peru.

Even when Neymar was on thepitch, the Nigerians were causingproblems with Brazil goalkeeperEderson at full stretch to keep out

Victor Osimhen.Gabriel Jesus went close for

Brazil but it was the Super Eagleswho took the lead in the 35thminute when Moses Simon slippedthe ball to Joe Aribo who got thebetter of Marquinhos before firinghome.

Brazil showed more inventionin the second half and levelled threeminutes after the break.Marquinhos’ header came back offthe bar but Casemiro was on handto stab the ball across the line.

Jesus and Coutinho both hadchances to wrap up the win forBrazil but Nigeria held firm for thedraw.

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Dutee Chand completed a sprintdouble in the season-ending 59th

National Open AthleticsChampionships, clocking the fastesttime in 200m by an Indian this year witha 23.17 second burst here on Sunday.

Having set a national record in the100m on Friday, Dutee added the half-lapper Gold to her collection, showingher challenger Archana Suseendran(23.41) a clean pair of heels.

The Odisha athlete not only toppedArchana’s time of 23.18 seconds clockedin the AFI Grand Prix in Patiala onAugust 16 but also came up with herown second fastest time behind the23.00 timed in the Asian Games lastyear.

Dutee was also adjudged the bestfemale athlete while shot putterTajinderpal Singh Toor, who broke hisown national record on Saturday, wasnamed best athlete in the men’s catego-ry.

There was intense competition atthe triple jump pit, even in Asian GamesGold medallist Arprinder Singh’sabsence. Abdulla Aboobacker chal-lenged his Services team-mate KarthikUnnikrishnan till the very last jump inan event that saw the top six competi-tors cross the 16m mark.

Karthik Unnikrishnan, who tookthe lead with a 16.61m in the third

round, leapt 16.78m on his final try towin the Gold.

Chinta Yadav emerged a surprisewinner of the women’s 3000m steeple-chase, outsprinting her Railways team-mate Parul Chaudhary in a time of 10minutes 11.70 seconds.

Railways’ PU Chitra was anotherathlete who completed the double,adding the women’s 800m crown to the1500m title she won earlier this week.

With Lili Das dropping out, Chitradid not have to worry much in winningthe two-lap race in 2 minutes 04.59 sec-onds.

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Italy became the second team toqualify for Euro 2020 after a 2-0 win over Greece on Saturday,

while three-time champions Spainedged closer to the finals despiteconceding a stoppage-timeequaliser away to Norway.

Chelsea midfielder Jorginhodispatched a second-half penaltyas Italy, wearing green kits for justthe second time in history, regis-tered a seventh straight win inGroup J.

The Azzurri, who failed toqualify for the 2018 World Cup,added a second in Rome on 78minutes through a deflected strikefrom Juventus forward FedericoBernardeschi.

Roberto Mancini’s side joinedBelgium in the draw for nextyear’s finals, where Italy will playtheir first two group games at theStadio Olimpico.

“We managed to create a teamin a short period of time. It was-n’t easy but you have to thank theplayers, who have quickly devel-oped an understanding betweenthemselves,” said Mancini, whotook over as Italy coach 18 monthsago.

“It’s a team with character thatfights and plays with the ball butone that must also improve. Nowwe have a year to try and get bet-ter.

“We have a lot of work butwe’re not very far from the bestEuropean teams. I’m happy andproud to have helped the nation-al team come through a toughpatch.”

Spain dropped their firstpoints in Group F as Joshua Kingconverted a 94th-minute spot-kick to rescue a 1-1 draw forNorway following a foul by KepaArrizabalaga on Omar

Elabdellaoui.The visitors led when Saul

Niguez slammed home from 20yards moments after half-time butSpain were denied a seventh win ina row as King’s equaliser keptNorway in the running.

“It’s a real pain to lose points inthe final seconds. It’s complicated

to play against a team who knewthat if they lost they were prettymuch out,” said Spain captainRamos.

Norway last qualified for amajor tournament at the 2000European Championship and arefourth in the group, four pointsadrift of neighbours Sweden with

three games to play.Sebastian Larsson netted two

spot-kicks as Sweden cruised to a4-0 rout of Malta to reclaim secondplace behind Spain. MarcusDanielson broke the deadlock on 11minutes in Ta’ Qali and homeskipper Andrei Agius also scored anown goal.

Romania remain a pointbehind Sweden following a3-0 win in the Faroe Islandssecured by second-half goalsfrom George Puscas, IonutMitrita and Claudiu Keseru.

SCHMEICHEL STARSKasper Schmeichel produced a

series of excellent saves as Denmarkdefeated Switzerland 1-0 to climblevel with the Republic of Irelandin Group D.

Leicester City goalkeeperSchmeichel pulled off superb stopsto deny Granit Xhaka, AdmirMehmedi and Ricardo Rodriguezbefore Yussuf Poulsen grabbed an84th-minute winner.

The Danes moved up to 12points alongside group leadersIreland, who drew 0-0 away toGeorgia, while Switzerland are

four points off the pace but witha game in hand.

Mick McCarthy’s Irelandcouldn’t establish any momen-tum earlier in the day inTbilisi and were left frustrat-ed by wayward finishing

from their few opportunities tobreak the deadlock.

Bosnia and Herzegovinareignited their qualification hopesin Italy’s group with a 4-1 win oversecond-placed Finland.

A brace from Juventus mid-fielder Miralem Pjanic and goalsfrom Izet Hajrovic and ArminHodzic pushed Bosnia to withintwo points of Finland.

Armenia blew the chance tomove level with the Finns asLiechtenstein substitute Yanik Frickcancelled out Tigran Barseghyan’seffort in a 1-1 draw in Vaduz.

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Sergio Ramos broke theSpanish international

appearances record on Saturdayas he won his 168th cap in a 1-1 draw against Norway to over-take Iker Casillas.

The Spain captain wasnamed in the starting line-up inOslo for the Euro 2020 qualifi-er by coach Robert Moreno, 14years since making his debut ina 3-0 friendly win over China.

The 33-year-old was part ofthe Spain sides which lifted the2010 World Cup, Euro 2008 andEuro 2012 titles.

He took over the Spaincaptaincy in 2016 after goal-keeper Casillas’ final match.

The centre-back equalled

Casillas’ mark of 167 games lastmonth against the FaroeIslands.

“All that is personal is a lit-tle secondary,” said Ramos afterthe game.

“I would have happily trad-ed this 168th cap for a victory.It was not the case. But thisrecord is a great reward after somany years and it’s a greatsource of huge pride.

“I am emotional every timeI put on this shirt. That will notchange and I hope to continuedoing so for many years.”

Ramos is now only eightcaps short of the Europeanrecord held by Italian stopperGianluigi Buffon (176) and 16adrift of Egyptian AhmedHassan’s world record of 184.

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The Indian juggernaut contin-ued to roll as the hosts humil-iated South Africa by an

innings and 137 runs in the secondTest to clinch a record 11th consec-utive series victory at home, here onSunday.

The struggling South Africabatsmen surrendered yet againagainst the Indian bowlers, whoasserted their supremacy in allconditions.

The comprehensive victory,coming on the fourth day, has con-solidated India’s top position in theWorld Test Championship table.India now have 200 points in theirkitty, a handsome 140 points awayfrom nearest-rival New Zealand.

Competing in his 50th Test ascaptain, Virat Kohli has now ledIndia to their 11th consecutiveseries at home, a world record.

After being asked to follow-on,South Africa were all-out for 189 in67.2 overs just after the tea break.

Following a superb effort fromthe batsmen, it was an all-roundeffort from India’s five-prongedbowling unit with comeback manUmesh Yadav claiming 3 for 22.

Ravindra Jadeja (3/52),Ravichandran Ashwin (2/45),Mohammed Shami (1/34) andIshant Sharma (1/17) played theirpart in the comprehensive victory.

Like in the first innings, VernonPhilander (37) and Maharaj (22)again came together to delay theinevitable adding 56 runs in 21.2overs.

Once Philander was caughtdown the leg-side by WriddhimanSaha, the resistance was over in aflash.

In the morning, the stodgyDean Elgar (48 off 72 balls) put upsome stiff resistance beforeRavichandran Ashwin (2/45)snuffed him out, in what was a deci-sive blow to the Proteas, just beforelunch.

After going wicket-less in thefirst innings, Ishant Sharma (1/17struck with the very second deliv-ery of the morning, a full-length in-dipper that struck Aiden Markram’spads (0) and umpire Nigel Llonghad no hesitation in raising his fin-ger.

The opener had the ignominyof bagging a ‘pair’ in this Test.

However it was WriddhimanSaha’s superb keeping skills that hadeveryone on the edge of their seats.He showed why he is so highly-rated in world cricket.

On the third morning duringSouth African first innings, poorTheunis de Bruyn (8) had sufferedtrying to play an expansive coverdrive off Umesh Yadav (1/14 off 5

overs) that Saha had plucked fromthin air in-front of the first slip.

On the fourth morning, DeBruyn tried playing a delicate glanceafter Umesh had drifted on thepads. To his horror, he saw an air-borne Saha pull off an acrobatic

stunner that left everyone stunned.Elgar and skipper Faf du Plessis

(5 off 54 balls) added 49 runs andwere ready to show patience, espe-cially the skipper, who was present-ing dead bat.

However, the ultra defensivetactic didn’t work for a lengthy peri-od as Du Plessis got out trying todrive an Ashwin off-break. The bat-pad inside edge kept low but Saha’ssharp reflexes meant that hepouched it on the fourth attempt.

Elgar, who lost a bit of concen-tration, tried to play a lofted shotbut didn’t get his timing right asUmesh ran back from his mid-offposition to take a fine runningcatch as India got the decisivebreakthrough.

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Paceman Umesh Yadav said heowed Wriddhiman Saha a “treat”

since the wicketkeeper plucked catch-es out of thin air when his leg-sidedeliveries could have gone to theboundary line, in the second Test.

Umesh returned figures of 3 for 22in South Africa’s second innings andthe pacer admitted that the credit forhis first two wickets entirely goes toSaha for his brilliant display behind thestumps.

“I think I should treat him forthose wickets down leg-side and thatfirst catch, and I think those two wick-ets are Wriddhi bhai’s wickets,” Umeshsaid after the match.

Saha’s superb keeping skills onceagain stole the show. On the thirdmorning during South African firstinnings, poor Theunis de Bruyn (8)tried playing an expansive cover driveoff Umesh but a diving Saha held a sen-sational catch in-front of the first slip.

And on the fourth day again, Sahapulled off two stunners down the leg-side off Umesh’s bowling in SouthAfrica’s second innings to dismiss DeBruyn and Vernon Philander.

“When you put the ball outside legstump you think it’ll be a boundary, butif there is a little bit chance to converta catch, we know he will take it,”Umesh said of Saha.

Meanwhile Saha, who was mak-ing a comeback in the Test playing XIafter being sidelined for more than ayear, said keeping against quality pac-ers at nets makes life easy for him dur-ing match situations.

“The ball wobbles for all three —Umesh, Ishant, Shami. We practice forthat. But ultimately you have to comeinto the match and do it,” he said.

“Our trainers help us out withstretches, ice-baths, and we are trainedfor the match-day really well, so cred-it to them for my fitness as well as mywicket-keeping performance,” addedSaha.

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Rising Indian shuttler LakshyaSen on Sunday clinched his

maiden BWF World Tour title bywinning the Dutch Open men’ssingles title after beating YusukeOnodera of Japan in the summitclash here on Sunday.

The 18-year-old Indian ralliedfrom a game deficit to defeat hisworld No 160 opponent 15-21,21-14, 21-15 in a final that lasted63 minutes.

The Dutch Open is a BWFWorld Tour Super 100 tourna-ment.

In the opening game, Lakshyafell behind early on and could noterase the deficit, despite comingas close as 10-11 and 13-14.Onodera managed to keep hisnose ahead and pocketed theopening game to earn the brag-ging rights.

The second game started ona competitive note with the pairtrying to outwit each other. TheIndian grabbed a 8-5 lead at onestage but the Japanese clawed hisway back.

Lakhsya again managed tomove to 12-8 with four straightpoints. Onodera narrowed it

down to 11-12 but Lakshyajumped to 18-11 and then roaredback into the contest.

In the decider, Lakshya cameup with a clear strategy and man-aged to keep his rival at a distance.He led 9-4 before making it 11-8at the break.

After the interval, Lakshyacontinued to move ahead andslowly marched ahead to shut thedoor on Onodera.

Lakshya, currently ranked72nd, had won the Belgian Openlast month and reached the finalsof Polish Open this year.

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Daniil Medvedev won hisfourth title of a spectac-

ular year with a thumping 6-4, 6-1 victory overAlexander Zverev in theShanghai Masters final onSunday.

Victory for the 23-year-old Russian, contesting asixth final in a row, wasmore evidence that he is theprime contender to join the“Big Three” of NovakDjokovic, Rafael Nadal andRoger Federer.

The US Open finalist isalso able to say that he hasfinally beaten the GermanZverev, another young con-tender at 22, at the fifthattempt.

This was an emphaticstatement from the worldnumber four, needing just74 minutes to seal thecrown.

“I think the stadiumwas full today and you guysare amazing support, start-ing from my first match,”Medvedev told the crowd.

“You gave me goodenergy to win this tourna-ment. Thank you very much,Shanghai will always be a

special place in my heart.”Zverev, long touted as

the best of the new genera-tion of men’s tennis stars,was error-prone, but hadno complaints.

“As I said yesterday, youare probably the best playerin the world right now,” theworld number six toldMedvedev.

“How you are playing isunbelievable.”

The next generationhas stamped its authority on

Shanghai with Djokovic andFederer — beaten by Zverev— both going out in thequarter-finals.

Medvedev said that he isa better player than he wasat the start of the year, buthas really sparkled since thesummer.

Starting withWashington, DC, in July,the Russian has reached sixfinals on the spin — includ-ing the US Open — winningthree of them.

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All conquering Americangymnast Simone Biles won

her fifth Gold, her second of theday, at the world championshipson Sunday in the women’s floorfinal to extend her own all-timerecord to 25 worlds medals.

Having earlier won the beamfinal, the 22-year-old alsoextended her own record of 19world championships Goldsafter success earlier this week inStuttgart in the team, all-roundand vault events with the USA.

Biles was crowned worldfloor champion for the fifthtime in her career after winningthe final by a full point fromteam-mate Sunisa Lee, whoearned Silver with Russia’sAngelina Melnikova takingBronze.

Her double Gold successcame within a two-hour spellafter earlier winning the beamfinal with China’s Liu Tingting,19, taking Silver with 16-year-old team-mate Li Shijia inBronze place.

Her victories on the beamand floor makes Biles the mostdecorated gymnast in history,surpassing the previous all-timerecord of 23 world medals wonby men’s star Vitaly Scherbo ofBelarus in the 1990s.

This is the first time Bileshas finished a world champi-onships with five Gold medalshaving said she is “99percent”sure Stuttgart will be thefifth and final worlds of hercareer.

The only blot on Biles’near-perfect record in south-westGermany came in Saturday’suneven bars final when she fin-ished fifth.

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Sounding a warning to the rivals,India captain Virat Kohli on

Sunday said they will not “taketheir feet off the gas” and will aimfor a whitewash when the finalTest begins in Ranchi.

“Looking at the larger pictureof the Test championship, everygame has value, whether it is athome or away, that is the format.So, we’re not going to take our footoff the gas in the third Test,” Kohlisaid at the post-match presenta-tion.

“No one is going to relax atany stage, we are going to go fora result in the third Test and hope-fully make it 3-0, that’s a guaran-tee,” he said.

South African captain Faf du

Plessis conceded that India aredeserving series winners and hisside was found wanting in the con-test.

“They are very tough to beatat home, their record speaks foritself. We know in the subconti-nent your first innings is reallyimportant. The runs you put onthe board gives you a chance,” hesaid.

“But the way India batted,especially Virat with 250, it takesa lot of mental toughness. Twodays in the field can wear youdown. Especially that secondevening, the batsmen were a bitweak in the mindset. From thenit’s playing catch-up.”

He said Kohli was too goodand his hunger for runs stood out.He was not satisfied with 100, 150.”

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South Africa captain Faf duPlessis on Sunday

acknowledged that the dif-ference between his teamand India in the ongoing Testseries has been the “inexpe-rience” of the Proteas as it’snot possible to replace worldclass players like Hashim

Amla and AB de Villiersovernight.

“I think, it’s purely acase of inexperience. I saidbefore this Test series, yourbest Test teams are the teamswith the most experience.When it comes to this Indianteam, there’s a lot of experi-ence in that dressing room,there’s a lot of Test matches

behind their names,” adejected Du Plessis said afterlosing the series and Gandhi-Mandela Trophy.

“We are at this stagewhere we have lost almost allof our experience. DaleSteyn, Morne Morkel,Hashim Amla, AB deVilliers, all of them were sea-soned campaigners. You

don’t replace those guysovernight.

“And now it’s a newgroup of guys, who haveplayed 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 15 Testmatches. That will take time.If you take the best playersout of any team, they wouldfind the same challenges,”Du Plessis explained.

He put his hands up and

said that as captain he needsto show the way along withQuinton de Kock and DeanElgar.

“For us, it is importantas a senior player group tomake sure that we put inperformances ourselves.Myself, Deano (Elgar) ,Quinny (De Kock), we can’texpect other guys to make

runs.“We need to make sure

we make the runs first andthen the others guys to chipin with us. In a time like this,it is important that your bigguys really, really take con-trol and make sure that theyput in the bulk of the work,”said Du Plessis, puttingacross his point clearly.

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Left-arm spinner George Lindewill replace an injured Keshav

Maharaj in South Africa’s squadfor the third Test in Ranchi,starting on Saturday.

According to a CSA mediarelease, Maharaj sustained aninjury to his right shoulder whilefielding on day two of the secondmatch and MRI results revealedthat he will not be fit in time toplay in the final Test match.

“An MRI scan revealed thatKeshav has sustained an injury toa muscle in his right shoulder. Hewas re-assessed this morning,particularly with regards to bowl-ing, and he showed significantdiscomfort in this latter disci-pline,” team doctor RamjeeHashendra commented.

“Based on this morning’sassessment and the findings ofthe scan, the medical team feels,he will not be fit in time for thenext Test match in six days’time. The nature and extent ofthe injury would mean that hewill probably return to play in 14to 21 days based on his progressduring the rehabilitation phase.”

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Teenage prodigy CocoGauff won her first

WTA title on Sunday fol-lowing a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 winover Jelena Ostapenko inthe final in Linz that sawher hold her first trophyaloft aged 15.

Gauff, who onlyentered the field as a luckyloser after failing to quali-fy, completed a dream weekin Linz in front of a sup-portive crowd to becomethe youngest player to wina WTA event since CzechNicole Vaidisova, who tri-umphed in Vancouver andTashkent two months apartin 2004.

“I’ll remember this dayfor the rest of my life,” thedelighted Gauff said afterreceiving a minutes-longstanding ovation from3,000 spectators.

“I had an amazingweek and I hope to be backin the future.”

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˘ˇˆ˙˘˝˛˚˚˜ · Commissioner Garhwa, Harsh Mangla informed that a devel-opment fair has...

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