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Massive protests eruptedacross Maharashtra on

Tuesday as Dalits took tostreets, blocked traffic andhurled stones at buses inMumbai and various otherparts of the State in protestagainst the killing of a youth atKoregaon Bhima during the200th anniversary of the Battleof Koregaon in Pune. Theprotests turned violent at manyplaces with at least 25 vehiclesburnt down.

Dalit organisations havecalled for a Statewide bandh onWednesday. Dalits were cele-brating the January 1, 1818, vic-tory of British troops overPeshwa Bajirao II’s army inKoregaon Bhima in Pune onMonday when the youth waskilled by miscreants.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavisordered a judicial into themurder. Fadnavis told themedia, “A sitting judge of theBombay High Court will headthe enquiry into the incident.At the same time. I am order-ing a State-CID enquiry intothe death of 28-year-old RahulPhatangale, who was killed inthe incident. The StateGovernment would pay an ex-gratia of �10 lakh to the next ofkin of Phatangale. We will ini-tiate stern action against thosespreading rumours on socialmedia. I appeal to political par-ties not fuel tensions, and peo-ple not to believe rumours”.

Senior Dalit leader andBharip Bahujan Mahasanghpresident Prakash Ambedkarcalled for as “Maharashtrabandh” on Wednesday. Heaccused Hindu right-wingleaders Milind Ekbote andSambhaji Bhide, who headHindu Ekta Aghadi and ShivrajPratishthan respectively, ofinciting attacks on the Dalits at

Koregaon-Bhima. In a relateddevelopment, the Pimpri policeregistered an FIR againstEkbote and Bhide. Based on acomplaint registered by a Dalitwoman, they have been bookedunder under the Atrocities Actand other sections of the IPC.

There was a major back-lash of the Koregaon-Bhimaincident in Mumbai, wherethousands of Dalits stagedintense protests in variousnorth-eastern suburbs likeSion, Chembur, Mankhurd,Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulundand other strongholds and dis-rupted traffic for several hourson Eastern Express highwaydemanding stringent action

against the culprits behindMonday’s attack in Pune.

The Dalit protesters alsostaged “rail roko” at Chemburand Govandi and brought thetrain traffic to a halt on the

Central Railway’s Harbour net-work between Kurla and Panvelfor more than five hours from11.45 am. The CR authoritiescancelled 84 trains on Tuesday.Protesters staged “autorickshaw

roko” at Mulund. Similarly, there were

protests in various parts of theState, including Aurangabad,Jalgaon,Ahmednagar, Dhule,Beed, Nashik, Pune, Solapur,

Thane and Palghar as Dalitsexpressed their angst.

A massive stone pelting waswitnessed at Aurangabad, whereseveral State-run MSRTC buseswere damaged. The AmbedkarMarathwada University can-celled all the examinationsscheduled for Tuesday. Mostschools and colleges remainedclosed during the day.

Not wanting to take anychance, police imposed restric-tions under section 144 of theIPC in Aurangabad and partsof Western Maharashtra,including Koregaon Bhima andareas surrounding it in Pune.

The police bandobast hasebeen intensified at all sensitiveareas, said an officer.

Meanwhile, NCP presidentSharad Pawar said that theKoregaon Bhima disturbancesexpose the failure of theDevendra FadnavisGovernment in Maharashtra.

Rooting for a comprehen-sive probe into the KoregaonBhima incident, Pawar saidthe Government should havetaken cognizance that it was200th anniversary of the warand should have made arrange-ments. “Why did the StateGovernment not take adequateprecautions to ensure peacefulconduct of the event. We havenever witnessed such a violenceat the event. The event wasbeing celebrated peacefully for200 years? Owing to itsGovernment’s lapses, there wasconfusion and rumour-mon-gering, resulting in the vio-lence,” the NCP leader said.

On his part, Fadnavis saidthe attendance at the KoregaonBhima event was more than itwas at any previous event in thepast. “Nearly 15,000 to 20,000people go there to observe theanniversary of the battle. Thisyear being the 200th year, near-ly 3.5 lakh people came.

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Aretired Army captain,believed to be mentally ill,

on Tuesday allegedly blud-geoned six persons to deathwith a rod in a killing spreehere that lasted about twohours, police said.

The accused, NareshDhankhad (45), went on therampage between 2 to 4 am ina two-km stretch between AgraChowk and Camp Colony, tak-ing advantage of low visibilitydue to dense fog.

He killed his first victim inthe second floor of a privatehospital, before hitting thestreets to kill five others andinjure one.

A resident of Macchgarnear Ballabhgarh, Dhankhadalso attacked the policemenwhen they tried to nab him.

He had joined the Army in1999 as a Lieutenant and takenretirement on medical groundsin 2003. He then joined theHaryana Agriculture depart-ment as an assistant develop-ment officer in 2006, a policespokesperson said.

He was working as a sub-divisional officer with theHealth Department. His firstvictim was a woman namedAnjum who was an attendant of

a person admitted in the ICUof the hospital. She was sleep-ing on the second floor wherethe accused managed to gainentry, Palwal Superintendent ofPolice Sulochana Gajraj said.

The incident was recordedon a CCTV camera and theaccused can be purportedlyseen coming inside the doorswearing trousers and a sweaterand carrying the rod. He thenwent to Agra Road intersectionwhere he killed three morepeople. Then a little farther, hekilled two others by repeated-ly hitting them on the head.

Gajraj said as soon as thepolice received the information,they started sending people,who were either sleeping orworking outside, indoors.

She said checkpoints wereset up in the town, which is 80-km from Delhi. “When wezeroed-in on him, he wassearching for another target andalmost had his seventh victim ashe had injured him,” she added.

He was arrested around 7am when he was roaming in astreet near a private hospital inPalwal, the SP said, adding thatthick fog in the town hadreduced visibility making iteasy for the accused to targetthe victims.

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The Political AffairsCommittee (PAC) of the

Aam Aadmi Party is likely tofinalise three Rajya Sabha can-didates on Wednesday. OnlySanjay Singh is believed tohave emerged as the sole con-sensus candidate while a num-ber of prominent names with-in the party are vying for theother two slots.

According to a party func-tionary, chartered accountantND Gupta and businessmanSushil Gupta’s names are in thereckoning as well while empha-sising that a final call will betaken by the PAC onWednesday.

“There are capable leaderslike Ashutosh, Atishi (Marlena),

Pankaj Gupta, Meera Sanyaland Ashish Khetan in the party.It is quite natural that there willbe some heart burn if onename is picked over the others.So nothing can be said for sureeven at this point,” the AAPfunctionary said on conditionof anonymity.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal and his deputyManish Sisodia, who cameback from the Andamans aftera short break, are likely to meetparty MLAs to seek their viewsbefore the PAC meeting.

Singh, Marlena, Ashutoshare full-time members of the

PAC while Pankaj Gupta andRaghav Chadha are its ex-offi-cio members. Meanwhile,Gujarat Patidar agitation leaderHardik Patel added twist to thetale by publicly batting for dis-gruntled AAP founder KumarVishwas’ candidature, saying hewas best suited to take on“fake nationalists”.

“If there is someone whocan silence the fake nationalistsin Parliament, then it is KumarVishwas but wonder who in theparty is so insecure of hisstanding that he is hell bent ondestroying the party,” Pateltweeted.

Vishwas, who is also aleader of the AAP’s PAC, hadopenly expressed his desire fora nomination to the UpperHouse of Parliament but sub-sequently had a bitter fall outwith the party’s top leadership.

Earlier, the party had con-tacted around 18 eminent per-sonalities from different walksof life including former RBIGovernor Raghuram Rajan,former Union Minister ArunShourie, ex-Chief Justice ofIndia TS Thakur and namesfrom the world of cinema.

“But they are hesitant dueto the political atmosphere inthe country. They fear vindic-tive action by the Centre uponassociating with the AAP,”another leader said. Electionsto three Rajya Sabha seats fromDelhi would be held on January16. The AAP, which enjoys abrute majority in the 70-mem-ber Delhi Assembly, is set towin all the three seats.

The last date to file nomi-nations for the three RajyaSabha seats is January 5.

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The triple talaq Bill is likelyto face hiccups in the Rajya

Sabha after the Congress onTuesday kept the Governmentguessing on its stand followingdemands by several Oppositionparties to send the Bill to aSelect Committee for review.The Government urged theCongress not to press foramendments to the Bill, whichseeks to criminalise the practiceof instant divorce amongMuslims. The Lok Sabhapassed the Bill last week.

A meeting chaired by RajyaSabha Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu in this regards saw num-ber of Opposition parties advo-cating for a Select Committeereview of the ‘Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Bill. A major NDA

ally, Shiv Sena, which in recenttimes have been vocal about theBJP Governments both at theCentre and States, too demand-ed the Bill be sent to a selectcommittee.

The Opposition parties,including the SP, the BSP, theAIADMK, the DMK, the CPI,the CPI(M) and the BJD, havedemanded detailed delibera-tions on the criminality clause,under which a man can be sen-tenced up to three years inprison for abandoning his wifethrough talaq-e-biddat orinstant triple talaq. AIADMK

and the BJD opposed the leg-islation in the Lok Sabha.

Rejecting the Oppositiondemand, Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan saidthere is no need to go to anycommittee because the issue hasbeen debated. Union Ministerfor Minority Affairs MukhtarAbbas Naqvi attacked theCongress for flip-flopping overits stance on the triple talaq Bill.

“There is a greater con-sensus within the country thatthere should be a stringent law,preventive mechanism to giveprotection to Muslim women.

I am confident that all partieswill cooperate in the RajyaSabha,” Pradhan said.

The Congress has, howev-er, played it safe and did notopen its card during the courseof consultation with otherpolitical parties. The Congresshad moved amendments tocertain provisions of the Bill inthe Lok Sabha but did not pressfor a vote.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumar saidthat the Government wouldlike the Congress to maintainthe stand it took in the LokSabha by not pressing foramendments. “We are havingcontinuous talks with theOpposition parties -- includingCongress. We have toldCongress that since they havenot pressed for any amend-ments in the Lok Sabha, they

should do the same in the RajyaSabha,” Ananth Kumar told themedia while announcing the Government may table the Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Congress MP Renuka

Chowdhury said her partyalways stood for empower-ment of women, right sinceIndependence, but the partyneeds to see what has beenactually included in the Bill.

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The Government on Tuesday outlined the detailsof the electoral bonds, which has been pitched as

a tool for cleaning up the election funding. The bondswill be alternative to cash donation to political par-ties and can be purchased by the donors from onlyspecified branches of the State Bank of India for tendays each in January, April, July and October. The win-dow will be for 30 days in the year of general election.

Only registered political parties which secured atleast 1 per cent vote in last election will be eligible forreceiving donation through electoral bonds. AnyIndian citizen or a body incorporated in India will beeligible to purchase the bond. Though the identity ofthe door will not be made public, the banks will havehis details since the purchaser will have to fulfil theKYC norms. The bonds will not carry interest.

Giving the details in the Lok Sabha, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley said the bonds, which would bevalid for 15 days and will not carry the donor’s name.Jaitley had first announced the idea of electoral bondsin his Budget 2017-18 speech made on February 1,2017, to make political funding more transparent.

On a question from Congress leader MallikarjunKharge as to what purpose the bonds would serve whenthe name of the donor is not disclosed, Jaitley said bondswould get reflected in the balancesheet of the donors.

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Hours after PresidentDonald Trump’s stinging

attack on Pakistan’s “lies anddeceit” over harbouring ter-rorists for many years, theUnited States has effectivelyblocked for now its proposed$255 million military aid toIslamabad.

“The United States does notplan to spend the $255 millionin FY 2016 Foreign MilitaryFinancing for Pakistan at thistime,” a National SecurityCouncil official told media out-

lets on Monday in what turnedout to be the Trump adminis-tration’s first pronouncement offor the new year.

Tying any future securityassistance to hard counter-ter-rorism measures by Islamabad,the official said, “The Presidenthas made clear that the UnitedStates expects Pakistan to takedecisive action against terror-ists and militants on its soil.”

“Pakistan’s actions in sup-port of the South Asia Strategywill ultimately determine thetrajectory of our relationship,including future security assis-tance,” the official stressed.

Trump, in what was hisfirst tweet of 2018, declared ear-lier on Monday that the UnitedStates will no longer put upwith its “lies & deceit”.

Detailed report on P12

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The decomposed body of a 40-year- oldman was found hanging in the forest

on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)campus on Tuesday evening. The deceasedhas been identified as one RampraveshSingh, a labourer or security guard on theuniversity campus, police said. Police sus-pect that Rampravesh, a resident ofSaraswati enclave in Najafgarh, commit-ted suicide six-seven days ago.

Police received a call around 5.45pmthat a man has been found hanging on theNelson Mandela road inside JNU forest,said a senior police officer. Police havefound a Samsung phone, Aadhaar card,voter ID card, driving licence, and a purse containing �90 and a badge fromhis clothes.

The body has been sent to All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) forpost-mortem. Police further said thatinvestigation has been initiated under sec-tion 174 of the CrPC (InquestProceedings).

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The Government has pro-vided incentives for inter-

caste marriages but does nothave plan to do the same forinter-religious marriages.

Responding to queriesfrom Opposition members inLok Sabha, Union MinisterVijay Sampla said, “As of now,there is no plan to extend thescheme (Dr Ambedkar Schemefor Social Integration) to inter-religion marriages.”

Under the centrally-spon-sored scheme for implementa-tion of the Protection of CivilRights Act, 1955 and theScheduled Castes and theScheduled Tribes (Preventionof Atrocities) Act 1989, incen-tives for inter-caste marriages,where one spouse is a memberof SC is provided.

The marriage has to be reg-istered under the HinduMarriages Act, 1955, theMinister of State for social jus-tice and empowerment said.

Sampla said as per thescheme, the incentive of �2.5 lakh is shared on 50:50basis between the Central andthe State Governments, whilethe Union Territory adminis-trations get 100 per cent cen-tral assistance.

“There is no proposal toincrease the existing incentiveamount of �2.5 lakh to an eli-gible couple,” he said.

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The Supreme Court has awarded �15 lakhcompensation to a rape victim who is deaf

and dumb and who secured an order from theHimachal Pradesh High Court directing theState Government to award her a compensationof �30000 every month for life.

Making it a one-time payment, the apexBench of Justices J Chelameswar and SanjayKishan Kaul said, “In the circumstances, we deemit appropriate to modify the order of the HighCourt (on June 29, 2016) insofar as it pertains tothe payment of compensation to the victim bydirecting the State to deposit an amount of �15lakh in an interest bearing fixed deposit in thename of the victim in any nationalized bank inconsultation with the Member-Secretary of the

Himachal Pradesh State Legal Services Authority.”The Court took note of the fact that the vic-

tim suffered 80 per cent disability and on accountof the rape also gave birth to a child, whoseresponsibility came upon her. The Bench felt thatthe interest accrued in the fixed deposit couldbe withdrawn each month and given to the par-ents of the victim who will ensure that theamount is spent on the welfare of the victim.

The order came on an appeal filed by theHimachal Pradesh Government stating thatthere existed no scheme to pay compensation torape victims for their entire life. The HC, whiledismissing the appeal of convict Rajneesh aliasVicky, had said that the victim was in a doublydisadvantageous position since she had to main-tain her and the baby. The incident occurred onDecember 26, 2013 in Hamirpur, HP.

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As some MPs in the RajyaSabha on Tuesday

expressed concern over risingnumber of atrocities againstwomen and children,Chairman M Venkaiah Naiduurged the media to refrainfrom glorifying and glamoris-ing such incidents and perpe-trators. He also said the needof the hour was to have achange of mindset amongst themasses on such cases.

The Chair made theseobservations after some MPsincluding KumariSelja(Congress) flagged theissue of crimes against womenand children in several statesincluding her home stateHaryana. She also expressedconcern over the role of socialmedia in glorifying such inci-dents and claimed this was alsoa reason for inciting youths tocommit such crimes. TheCongress leader also called fora check on social media.

Terming the matter as“important and serious,” Naidusaid the media including socialmedia and cinema had a greatresponsibility in not glorifyingsuch incidents. “We have tothink,” he remarked and calledfor a change in mindset in soci-ety.

Earlier, he sought a reportfrom the Haryana Governmenton the killing of Ashok Kumar,

a Rajya Sabha chamber atten-dant, in Bahadurgarh onDecember 30. He was report-edly shot at around 8 PM whenhe was returning home on hismotorcycle in the Arya Nagararea after buying milk. KumariSelja too mentioned the incident.

Among other issues thatfigured in the Rajya Sabha wasa demand to frame a strict lawto discourage begging wasmade by Shwait Malik (BJP).Ram Nath Thakur (JD-U)asked the Centre to give Bihar�7,636 crore it had demanded

for flood relief and also waivefarm and cattle loans.

Raising the issue of the“disastrous” move to someGovernment of India Pressesand all the Indian Railwayprinting presses, Tapan KumarSen (CPI-M) said the move rancontrary to the ‘Make in India’campaign of the government asit destructs domestic manu-facturing.

Rajeev Shukla (Congress)raised the issue of electoralreforms and said the ElectionCommission should come outwith clear-cut guidelines oncounting of paper slips of VoterVerifiable Paper Audit Trail

(VVPAT) and the EVMs. SMuthukaruppan (AIAMDK)demanded that the Centreshould raise the supply of sub-sidised sugar to Tamil Nadu, asa recent reduction had led thestate to cough up �1,300 croreannually to enable the supply ofthe sweetener at below marketprice levels.

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The Rajya Sabha set a recordof sorts on Tuesday by

taking up all the listed businessin the pre-lunch sessionincluding Zero Hour, SpecialMentions and Question Hour,the first time in the last 15years.

While lauding the Eldersfrom all parties for the accom-plishment, Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu, however,lamented the fact that six of the15 questions could not betaken up as the MPs supposedto ask them were absent. TheChair urged the members totake this responsibility seri-ously.

As soon as the Zero Hourand Special Mentions endedbefore the Question Hour,Naidu said a record was set asall the issues mentioned in theproceedings were taken upadding “I can only operatewith your co-operation.”

“The Rajya Sabha todaymade history. For the firsttime, all Zero Hour submis-sions, all Special Mentionswere fully completed,” saidNaidu. His observation comesin the backdrop of the ongoingwinter session starting on

December 15 on a stormynote with no business con-ducted for some days due tofrequent disruptions.Moreover, the record onTuesday came about after 15years with at least 18 membersspeaking on issues of publicimportance during Zero Hour.

During the QuestionHour, six questions in the last end of the list were not taken up as the MPs con-cerned were not presentthough Naidu called out thequestions as per the norm.He then quipped that “some-thing special is happening” inapparent reference to missing MPs. Naidu then urged the members to be present.

“They have the liberty. Idon’t question them. At thesame time, we have a respon-sibility. If you file a question,so much time, energy andresources are spent. Not com-ing to the House is not a goodpractice. Keep that in mind,”he said. As many as 11 mem-bers were allowed to speak onissues of public importanceduring Zero Hour, whileanother eight were allowed toread out the text of their spe-cial mentions.

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Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Tuesday

gave the final approval for twodeals worth over � 1,714 croresfor procurement of 131 Barakmissiles for the Navy and 240KAB-1500 Precision GuidedMunitions (PGM) for the IAF.While the PGMs to be fitted infrontline fighter jet SU-30 willcost about �1,254 crores, theBarak missile contract is�460crores. These missileswill be fitted on all the mainwarships of the Navy.

Explaining the need forthe minister’s clearance for thePGMs, officials said here thismissile is a variant of the KABPGMs the IAF has in serviceand employed by SU-30 fight-er jets. It is a regular procure-ment through the revenueexpenditure. Due to the valueof the contract, the approval ofDefence Ministry was required,they said.

These precision guidedbombs will be procured fromRosoboronexport of Russiaand the induction of these

bombs will address the defi-ciency of Precision GuidedMunitions in the IAF arsenal,besides enhancing the offensivecapabilities of the IAF, officialssaid.

The second proposal wasthe final contract for 131 BarakSurface to Air Missiles (SAM).Last April, the DefenceAcquisition Council (DAC)chaired by then DefenceMinister Arun Jaitley had giventhe nod for procurementunder “Buy Global” category ofprocurement procedure underoptional clause from RafaelAdvance Defence Systems Ltd.of Israel at a cost of �460crore.

These missiles are surfaceto air missiles designed to beused as a ship-borne anti-mis-sile defence system againstanti-ship missiles, officials said.The procurement is beingmade as part of the govern-ment’s efforts to bolster oper-ational capability of the armedforces considering the evolvingsecurity situation in the region,the Ministry said in a state-ment.

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In a bid to give India’s Act EastPolicy a further boost,

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj will undertakeher first visit of the year to threeSouth East Asian countries —Thailand, Indonesia andSingapore — from January 4-8.All aspects of bilateral relationswill be discussed with specialfocus on political, defence andeconomic ties and on furtherenhancing India’s engagementwith ASEAN countries.

EAM will also share withher counterparts informationabout the forthcoming ASEAN-India Commemorative in NewDelhi Summit where the PrimeMinisters of the ten ASEANcountries will also be the chiefguest of the Republic Dayparade. Thailand will take overas the role of coordinator coun-try, from Vietnam, for India-ASEAN relations in the middleof 2018.

During her visit toThailand on January 4-5,Swaraj will hold meeting withher counterpart DonPramudwinai. In Indonesia,EAM will co-chair the 5thmeeting of India-IndonesiaJoint Commission with hercounterpart Retno Marsudi onJanuary 5-6. The ministers willalso inaugurate the secondmeeting of ASEAN-IndiaNetwork of Think Tanks.

“As the biggest country inthe ASEAN region with thelargest economy, Indonesia is animportant partner for Indiaincluding in trade and strategicmatters. In recent times, therehas been intensive engagementbetween the two countries bilat-erally, as well as plurilaterally.The Joint Commission meetingand other engagements of EAMwill enable the two countries tochart out the course of part-nership during the year 2018,”Ministry of External Affairs saidin a statement.

During her visit to Singaporeon January 6-8, EAM will inau-gurate the Regional PravasiBharatiya Divas (PBD) ofASEAN countries. The theme ofthe event is “Ancient Route,New Journey: Diaspora in theDynamic ASEAN-IndiaPartnership”. She will have bilat-eral meetings with the leaders inSingapore and also interactionswith PIO delegations fromASEAN countries, who are par-ticipating in the PBD. TheRegional PBD is a large scaleevent covering a wide range ofsectors including political rela-tions, economic and investment,tourism and culture, connectiv-ity, start-ups, science and tech-nology etc. PIO delegations fromall ASEAN countries, includingministers, eminent personali-ties, business and socio-politicalleaders are participating in theevent.

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Nine proposals to renamedifferent airports in the

country are being looked intoby the Centre, Civil AviationMinister Ashok Gajapathi Rajusaid on Tuesday. After ademand to name the MaduraiAirport after MuthuramalingaThevar was raised in the RajyaSabha during the QuestionHour, BJP memberSubramanian Swamy said theinvaluable contribution ofThevar was largely ignored,probably because he was aclose associate of NetajiSubhash Chandra Bose.

Replying to the question,Raju said that airports arerenamed based on recommen-dations by the StateGovernment supported by aresolution passed in the respec-tive Assembly. He said that withregard to Tamil Nadu, the statedid not favour naming of build-ings and other places afterpublic figures.

Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu said the deci-sion may have been taken inTamil Nadu as there is a ten-dency among political partiesto name buildings or airportsafter their leaders or thoseclose to them. The nextGovernment then begins theprocess of changing them, he

added, supporting Swamy’sdemand.

Naidu said that Thevarwas a figure who was abovepolitical lines and was an icon-ic freedom fighter. As Swamyand some other members per-sisted, the Minister saidenquiry can be made from theState Government on the issue.

Congress member AmbikaSoni raised the issue of renam-ing the Chandigarh Airportafter Bhagat Singh, even asSAD’s Naresh Gujral said thatthe matter had the endorse-ment of the Assemblies ofPunjab and Haryana. Ademand regarding renaming ofthe Aurangabad airport wasalso raised. The minister saidthere were nine such proposalswhich were being examined bythe civil aviation ministry.

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The 12-hour nation-widestir called by the Indian

Medical Association (IMA) toprotest a proposed legislationseeking to replace the MedicalCouncil of India (MCI) with anew body, was called off onTuesday after the NationalMedical Commission (NMC)Bill was referred to aParliamentary standing com-mittee.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumar, whosaid the Bill had been referredto the Standing Committee inthe Lok Sabha, requested theChair to ask the panel to giveits recommendation prior tothe Budget session.

The IMA has described theBill, which was tabled in theLok Sabha last week by UnionHealth Minister JP Nadda, as“anti-people and anti-patient”.Acclaimed cardiac surgeonDevi Prasad Shetty hailed theproposed NMC bill, but saidthe provision of Ayurvedicdoctors being allowed to pre-scribe Allopathic medicinesneeds clarification.

More than 2.9 lakh doctorshad gone on a 12-hour nation-wide strike (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) inprotest against the Bill, whichseeks to allow those practicingalternative and traditional

medicine to practice allopathyafter completing a “bridgecourse”.

The Bill proposes aGovernment-nominated chair-man and members, who will beselected by a committee underthe Cabinet Secretary. Themedical fraternity led by theIMA is opposing the clausefearing the body would effec-tively be run by the govern-ment.

Earlier in the day, the issueof doctors’ strike was raised inboth Houses of Parliamentduring Zero Hour.

Senior Congress leaderJairam Ramesh had written toVice-President M VenkaiahNaidu and the Union HealthMinister demanding that the

Bill be referred to a standingcommittee for examination.

Besides seeking to replacethe MCI, the Bill also propos-es allowing practitioners ofalternative medicines, such ashomoeopathy and ayurveda,practise allopathy after com-pleting a “bridge course”.

“We called off our strike asthe Bill has been referred to aParliamentary StandingCommittee which has mem-bers from diverse fields andthere should now be a fruitfuldiscussion. We are thankful toall the Lok Sabha members forsupporting us,” IMA’s KKAggarwal said.

“The NMC Bill in the pre-sent form is not acceptable,”newly-appointed IMA nation-al president Dr RaviWankhedkar.

IMA has already written toPrime Minister Narendra Modiand the Union Health Ministerurging them to redraft the Billand rectify some of its provi-sions to protect the interest ofmedical practitioners.

The NMC Bill proposesreplacing the Medical Councilof India with a new body and“possibly” Section 15 of theIMC Act, which says that thebasic qualification to practisemodern medicine is MBBS, DrAggarwal, the former presidentof the IMA, said.

%�� 83�'825&

The Lok Sabha on Tuesdaypassed amendments to the

Bill on protection of monu-ments to allow the Governmentto take up infrastructure pro-jects within prohibited areasaround protected archeologicalsites. “Moving away from theparty lines, the members havesupported the Bill,” CultureMinister Mahesh Sharma saidwhile replying to the concernsraised by the members duringthe debate on AncientMonuments and ArchaeologicalSites and Remains(Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The bar on new construc-tion within prohibited areas ofa protected monument wasadversely affecting various pub-lic works and developmentalprojects of the CentralGovernment, the bill’sStatement of Objects andReasons said.

Addressing the concerns ofShashi Tharoor (Congress),Sharma said the change whichis being brought about was inthe national interest. He said noindividual or private entityshould be benefited and thisbill should be used only in the

interest of the nation.He said the need was felt to

amend the law to allow “con-struction works related to infra-structure financed and carriedout by any department or officeof the central government forpublic purposes which is nec-essary for the safety or securi-ty of the public at large”.

There are more than 3,600monuments and sites that areare centrally-protected underthe jurisdiction of theArchaeological Survey of India,which is responsible for theirmaintenance.

Manoj Tiwari (BJP) sup-

ported the bill and claimed thatit will help in preservation ofcultural monuments and sites.As a member of a standingcommittee dealing with mon-uments, he came to know that24 such sites are only on paperand do not really exist due toencroachment, he said. AdhirRanjan Chowdhury(Congress) asked theGovernment to reconsider thebill and send it at the least toa standing committee. “Whomare you trying to benefit,” heasked and added that suchrelaxations will “open aPandora’s box”.

%�� 83�'825&

As the Congress on Tuesdayaccused the Government

in the Lok Sabha of failing toprotect military installationsfrom cross-border terror strikesand questioned Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s ‘silence evenafter five soldiers were killed inSunday’s Pulwama attack, theGovernment sought the oppo-sition to not to play politicsover the sensitive issue.

The Opposition party alsoasked why the Governmentfailed to prevent the attackwhen there was intelligenceinput about it.

Congress leaderJyotiraditya Scindia, whoraised the issue during thezero hour , also lashed out atthe government over NationalSecurity Adviser (NSA) AjitDoval meeting his Pakistanicounterpart in Bangkok lastweek, notwithstandingPakistani authorities ill-treatingthe family of Indian death rowprisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav inIslamabad.

“What is the Government’sPakistan policy? The NSA metthe Pakistani NSA in Bangkokafter the family of KulbhushanJadhav was ill treated byPakistan. On the other hand,cross- border attacks are goingon,” Scindia said while attack-ing the Government over itsalleged failure ward off terrorstrikes from across the border

.On the Pulwama attack,Scindia accused theGovernment of failing to put inplace security measures to pro-tect sensitive defence installa-tions even though there weresimilar terror strikes on mili-tary bases in the recent pastincluding in Uri, Udhampurand Pathankot.

“When people were cele-brating (the new year),Pakistan- sponsored terrorist

attacked a CRPF camp inPulwama. Five soldiers laiddown their lives. The soldiersare sacrificing their lives pro-tecting the country but the gov-ernment does not look seriousin protecting them,” Scindiasaid.

He also wondered why thePrime Minister was maintain-ing “total silence” over it.

Scindia also attacked BJP’sMP from Rampur, UP, NepalSingh for his reported com-ments that army jawans shouldexpect death because of theprofession they are in.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumaraccused the Congress of tryingto play politics over a sensitiveissue. “We had carried out thesurgical strikes. We killedaround 200 terrorists in the lastthree years. The Congressshould not play politics over asensitive issue,” Kumar said. Healso said 80 terrorists werekilled last year itself.

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The Raipur MunicipalCorporation (RMC) will

soon carry out a ‘drone survey’in its jurisdiction under theSmart City Mission, RMCCommissioner Rajat Bansalinformed in a press release.

He informed that the RMCunder the Raipur Smart CityMission will carry out State’s firstGIS based drone survey andcarry out data collection to pre-pare a total of 54 local base maps.

The work of green tree cen-sus, data on population change,building change detection, planfor catchments of reservoirsand data on level of encroach-ment on main roads would becollected through drone pic-tures, Bansal informed.

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National Bank forAgriculture and Rural

Development (NABARD),Chhattishgarh office has sanc-tioned �1500 crore to the State's' CG MARKFED' for procure-ment of paddy in the currentKharif season.

N P Mohapatra, CGM,NABARD informed that out ofthis, � 500 crores has been dis-bursed as first instalment onTuesday.

Further, an amount of�.40.34 crore has also beensanctioned to M/s. Indus BestMega Food Park Pvt. Ltd. to setup a Mega Food Processinghub at Tilda, Raipur. Anamount of �19.76 crore hasbeen disbursed so far.

Notably, NABARD onAugust 4, 2017 had alsoannounced that it is going toprovide �4489 crore toChhattisgarh for developmentof Agriculture and infrastruc-ture in rural areas.

This is 34% more than thatwhich was assisted by the Bankin the previous financial year(2016-17).

This information was pro-vided by NABARD's ChiefGeneral Manager ofChhattisgarh Region N.P.Mahapatra in a press confer-ence held here last year.

He had informed that inorder to double the financialincome of farmers of countrythe Lok Sabha on Thursdaypassed a bill raising theNABARD capital 6 times from

5000 crores to 30,000 crore. Mahapatra had further

informed that the financialassistance to the ChhattisgarhState in the financial year 2015-16 was �2816 crores and wasincreased 39% in the year2016-17 amounting �3928crores.

Commenting on the rain-fall in Chhattisgarh he said theState records 1000 to 1300 mmrainfall in an average and thatis good enough for cultivationwork. Status of agriculture hereis thus satisfactory but work hasto be done for better connec-tivity in the rural region andstop the migration of labour, hesaid.

He further informed thatNABARD has is committed toits motto of Developmentthrough credit and is movingahead for the development ofrural area by funding for agri-culture, Small and medium scaleindustries.

The NABARD will providefunding of �1050 crore in thefinancial year 2017-18 fordevelopment of infrastructure

under Rural InfrastructureDevelopment Fund (RIFD),he said.

The Bank is funding threemajor irrigation projects name-ly Kelo, Kharung and ManiyariTank Scheme here inChhattisgarh under the LongTerm Irrigation Fund (LTIF). AMoU has been signed by uswith Chhattisgarh governmentin this regard, he said.

One Major contributionof NABARD to the state devel-opment is that of funding forPaddy Procurement. To sup-port the welfare of farmers ofthe state �1000 Crore was dis-bursed to CGMARKFED thisyear, he informed.

The Chhattisgarh StatePower Transmission CompanyLimited (CSPTCL) has beenfunded �142 crores in order toestablish sub stations andpower transmission system forproviding electricity in ruralareas of the State, he said.

The C’garh Govt on March21 , 2017 had also signed aMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) with

NABARD with the latter agree-ing to provide loan worth near-ly � 715 crore for completion ofthree incomplete major irriga-tion schemes under PrimeMinister Agriculture IrrigationScheme.

These schemes include--Kelo Major Irrigation Project,Kharang Canal Lining Projectand Maniyari Canal Lining,which are to be completed byyear 2019 to meet the target.The completion of these pro-jects will expand irrigationfacility in 47,685 hectares, offi-cials informed.

Officials of WaterResources Departmentinformed on the occasion hadinformed that CentralGovernment has included 99important schemes in PrimeMinister Agriculture IrrigationScheme, which includes threebig projects of C’garh.

All these three projects areon the verge of completion.99% of the works under theseprojects has been completed,remaining construction workswill also be completed soon.

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NMDC Ltd celebrated ‘NewYear 2018’ at its corporate

headquarters in Hyderabad.N. Baijendra Kumar, IAS,

CMD; Dr. Narendra K. Nanda,Director (Technical); Dr. T.R.K.Rao, Director (Commercial);P.K Satpathy, Director(Production); D S Ahluwalia,Director (Finance); SandeepTula, Director (Personnel) andK. Vidyasagar, CVO greeted allthe employees on the occasionof New Year, a company pressrelease informed. He said thisshould continue in future too.

Speaking on the occasion,CMD N Baijendra Kumarappreciated the dedicatedefforts of the employees andemphasised on the excellentwork culture prevailing within

the organisation which wouldtake NMDC to greater heights.

On this occasion, NMDC’s

Corporate Diary, Calendarand Brochure of CSR wasreleased in presence of senior

officials and employees ofNMDC at its Corporate Officein Hyderabad.

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The Bharat AluminiumCompany Ltd (BALCO)

Bauxite Mines have won the'ICC Environment ExcellenceAward 2017' for MiningOperation & Process, a com-pany press release informed.

The award was received byPramod Ranjan, Head, HSE,Chhattisgarh Bauxite Mines;and Sunil Sathwane, HSEIncharge, Kawardha Mines,

from the hands of SubrataMukherjee, Minister of PublicHealth Engineering,Government of West Bengal,Dr. Kalyan Rudra, Chairman,Dept. of Environment,Government of West Bengal;and Alok Mukherjee, Director,ICC.

Indian Chamber ofCommerce (ICC) awards rec-ognize and reward excellencein businesses that are seekingways to be more sustainable

and inclusive in their activities.Winners of the awards are

role models that inspire othersto follow suit.

The ICC gives specialfocus on sustainable wastemanagement, water manage-ment, research, environmentalawareness programs, interac-tive sessions with key policy-makers, workshops, conclaves,training programs and creat-ing business-to-business inter-faces.

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Maoists are fast losing sup-port from the Janmilitia

members and the people ofBastar, Special DirectorGeneral of Police , Anti-naxalOperations, D M Awasthi toldreporters here on Tuesday.

Sixty five per cent of Bastarregion had been freed ofMaoists so far, he said whileaddressing a press conference here to list out theachievement of ChhattisgarhPolice during 2017.

“By year 2022, Bastarwould be made completelyinsurgency-free region,”Awasthi said.

He said currently there are16 insurgency infested dis-tricts in Chhattisgarh out ofwhich eight are ‘extreme insur-gency infested’.

“Two years ago, there werepockets in Bastar where ven-turing in was not possible.Now, the movement in suchregions have been made possi-ble even for civilians,” he said.

In Bastar, 700 kms of roadshave already been preparedand the target is to construct1,300 roads in the region,Awasthi said.

The Maoist menace havealready been eradicated fromNorth Chhattisgarh which isSurguja region , he said.

However, Naxal menaceremains a concern in somepatches of south Chhattisgarhin Bastar region which wouldsoon be ended, Awasthi said.

The joint offensive byCentral Reserve Police Force(CRPF), Border Security Force(BSF), Indo Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) and theChhattisgarh Police have putMaoists on back foot, he said.

In year 2017-18, 76 bodiesof Naxals were recovered while1,017 were arrested, the officialinformed.

A total of 365 Maoists sur-

rendered and 1458 were killed,the official said.

A total of 221 weaponswere recovered which includesthe AK-47 rifles, he said.

The operations ‘Prahar-I’and ‘Prahar-II’ also broughtgood result and the Maositswere also controlled in therestive Abujhmad area, he said.

Additional Chief Secretary,Home, BVR Subramaniam fur-

ther added that the Naxals arenow restricted to a triangularpatch in Kawardha region atthe borders of MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra andChhattisgarh.

With losing support of theJanmilitia and the people ofBastar, the Maoists are facing atough time, he said.

Awasthi further informedthat at present around 75,000

security personnel are deployedin the State for anti-Naxaloperations and the situation iswell under control.

There is proper coordina-tion between the Central andthe State forces as well as withthe construction agencieswhich are developing infra-structure like road networksand mobile networks in insur-gency infested regions, he said.

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District Collector ShrutiSingh has directed the

District Marketing Officer

(DMO) for speedy transporta-tion of paddy purchased in thedistrict on Minimum SupportPrice (MSP).

A directive regarding thesame was given by her at thetime-limit meeting held here atdistrict headquarters on

Tuesday.In the meeting, the

District Collector alsoreviewed the infrastructuredevelopment work approvedfor the Health Departmentand issued necessary directivesto the Chief Medical andHealth Officer.

She also directed the bankofficials present in the meet-ing to sort out the matters ofbeneficiaries under NationalRural Livelihood Mission forthe self help groups (SHGs) byJan 15 this year.

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Doctors from acrossChhattisgarh supported

the strike call given by Indian

Medical Association (IMA) onTuesday against the move ofCentral Government for theproposed formation ofNational Medical Commission.

The strike affected a largenumber of patients in various

hospitals and only emergencyservices were provided at theOPDs of the Governmentowned Dr Bhimrao AmbedkarHospital in Raipur.

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Atotal of 393 children whowere found begging at rail-

way stations, bus stations andreligious places in various dis-tricts of the State were handedover to their families. AntiHuman Trafficking unit ofState police had conductedspecial drive from December11 to 25, 2017, in Haridwar,Dehradun, Nainital andUdham Singh Nagar districtsfrom where the 300 plus chil-dren were rescued from beg-ging, said State AdditionalDirector General of police (law and order) Ashok Kumaron Tuesday.

Observations and com-plaints were received from var-ious organisations about chil-dren begging at different pub-lic places in Dehradun, UdhamSingh Nagar, Nainital andHaridwar districts. It was alsoreported that many such chil-dren had been forced into beg-ging by their parents or gangs.

With an aim to preventsuch children from begging, aspecial campaign was launchedin the plain districts of theState.

Teams were formed at dis-trict level and police officerswere also directed to identifygangs involved in forcing chil-dren to beg and take necessaryaction accordingly.

The police team memberslaunched drives at intersec-tions, railway stations, bus sta-tions and religious placesamong other public places. A

total of 393 children including177 girls were rescued andhanded over to their families orjuvenile home with NGOs alsobeing contacted to facilitatetheir education.

The family members werestrictly directed to ensure thattheir children do not beg.Legal action will be takenagainst parents if their chil-dren are found begging, hewarned, adding such children

should be sent to school fortheir education. Out of 393children rescued from beg-ging, 288 children were hand-ed over to their families. Onechild was found ill and wassent to the Government Doonmedical college hospital inDehradun.

The children found beg-ging were mostly aged 14years and below.

Four of the rescued chil-

dren were enrolled inDehradun based governmentschool. Twenty one such chil-dren were enrolled in UdhamSingh Nagar basedGovernment school while 35children in Nainital districtwere handed over to a day carecentre run by a self help group.This group would provideshelter, food, and educationdaily to these children.

In this drive, child

helpline, Aasra Trust,Dharohar self help group andKumaon Seva Samiti also pro-vided assistance.

Total 57 children includ-ing 41 girls were rescued inDehradun district while 93including 37 girls were rescuedin Haridwar, 154 including 67girls in Udham Singh Nagarand 48 including 32 girls wererescued in Nainital district, headded.

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Plain clothes police women would be deployed in public trans-port vehicles to put a check on eve teasing in the provision-

al State capital. In addition to this, City Patrol Unit personnelhave also been directed to conduct checking of public transportvehicles randomly from time to time to put check on eve teas-ing in the city. CPU personnel would ask women about their trav-elling experiences followed by action against eve teasers, said Stateadditional director general of police (law and order) Ashok Kumarwhile presiding over a meeting with police officers at police head-quarters on Tuesday. Kumar directed police officers to take mea-sures to prevent eve teasing in public transport and act againsteve teasers in the city. Kumar said that the police officers weredirected to convene a meeting with city bus and Vikram driversregarding the same.

Efforts should be taken to ensure eight seats are kept reservedfor women and separate entry and exit points are maintained incity buses. The mobile phone numbers of city police control room,women help line, CO traffic, SP Traffic and SSP should be dis-played at four places in Vikrams and city buses so that womencan approach them in case of emergency.

Deputy inspector general (DIG) of police and Traffic direc-torate in-charge director Kewal Khurana, Dehradun SSPNivedita Kukreti, SP Traffic DS Gunjyal and others were presentin the meeting.

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on Tuesday

blamed the previous CongressGovernment for pushing theState to a financial debt ofaround �46,500 crore.

Addressing his first publicgathering after becoming ChiefMinister in Municipal Groundat Bilaspur, he said that it wasshameful that the party whichruled for decades in Himachalhad done very little for thedevelopment except borrow-ings loans and creating finan-cial mismanagement.

He said the Governmentwould spend every single piereceived from the Centre for thedevelopment of the State andwelfare of the people

Thakur said he met Union

Finance Minister and the PrimeMinister who assured him toprovide all possible assistance toovercome the debt and to pro-vide bailout package from theCentre.

"Officers have been asked toprepare proposals to overcomethe debt", he said, adding that themajor challenge before him wasto steer out the Governmentfrom financial crisis. The ChiefMinister said it was due to thepeople of Himachal Pradeshthat the party was in absolutemajority. He also praised effortsof former Chief Ministers of theState Shanta Kumar and PremKumar Dhumal for victory ofBJP. “Today I am a satisfied to see‘Congress Mukt’ Himachal andit was the Mandi District, where9 out of 10 seats were won by BJPand one by an Independent,” he

said. Thakur said that theGovernment would not followthe revengeful attitude as was thetradition of the previousGovernment.

He thanked the people whogathered in numbers to conveytheir warm blessings.

JR Katwal, MLA Jhanduta,urged for an early solution toBhakra Dam oustees. MLAGhumarwin Rajinder Garg,MLA Bilaspur, ShubhashThakur, also welcomed theChief Minister and addressedthe gathering thanking the peo-ple for bestowing faith in newleadership of BJP.

Irrigation and Public HealthMinister Mahender SinghThakur, MLA Doon ParamjitSingh Pammi and other BJPleaders were also present on theoccasion.

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Food Supplies andConsumer Welfare

Minister Surjya NarayanPatro is in news for a wrongreason as he was seen urinat-ing in the open.

The pictures of Patro, alsoa BJD vice-president, peeingunder the open sky have gone viral on social mediaplatforms.

While the Minister hasmade a mockery of sorts ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s ambitious SwachhBharat Abhiyan, the inci-dence refreshes the memoriesof Union Agriculture MinisterRadha Mohan Singh doing a similar act beingflanked by security guardsearlier in July last.

Twitter users have react-ed variedly to Patro’s conduct.While some lambasted theMinister, some made fun of it.

This person Sur yaNarayan Patra is CabinetMinister in Odisha and Seehis behaviour. #Shame, @bira-janath tweeted.

The authenticity of thepictures, the location andtime could not be indepen-dently verified.

The Swachh BharatAbhiyan launched since 2014aims at making India opendefecation-free by buildingtoilets and sensitising peopleto use lavatories.

In reality, there aren’t suf f icient public toi lets leaving people with no chancebut to relieve themselves inthe open.

�� ,�� .�� ,�- � �� 6 �� 5��- +��From Page 1

“Let me clear misconcep-tions, if any. I had announcedin the Budget speech that polit-ical funding needs to becleansed up. A very large partof donation coming to politicalparties by the donors, quantumand source is not known...Electoral bonds substantiallycleanse the system,” he said.

That party will have togive one bank account to theElection Commission and itwill have to be cashed within 15days, Jaitley said.

“The donor will knowwhich party he is depositingmoney. The political party willfile return with the Election

Commission. Now, whichdonor gave to which politicalparty, that is the only thingwhich will not be known,” hesaid.

In the Budget for 2017-18,Jaitley had also announcedcapping cash donation at�2,000 instead of �20,000 andallowed parties to receive dig-ital donations.

Jaitley said the electoralbond, which will be a bearerinstrument, will not carry thename of the payee and can bebought for any value, in mul-tiples of �1,000, �10,000, �1lakh, �10 lakh or �1 crore.

Jaitley said the purchaser,whose name will not appear

on the bonds, would have tomake KYC (know your cus-tomer) disclosures to the SBI.

Later talking to reporters,Jaitley said the 15 days timehas been prescribed for thebonds to ensure that they donot become a parallel curren-cy.

On why the name of thedonor is being kept secret, hesaid the past experience hasshown that once the names aredisclosed, there is a tendencyto shift to cash donations.

Jaitley said the bonds willhelp a lot of Opposition par-ties because in case a disclo-sure is made it will always bein favour of ruling party.

From Page 1“There is no question of us

not standing by anything thatempowers women, but thereblack and white solution to this.We have to see how the debateevolves... What is actually includ-ed and how is it implementable...And until it is equitable for allwomen under all clauses oftalaq. This is only talaq-e-biddat(triple talaq)”, Chowdhury said.

CPI leader and Rajay Sabhamember D Raja said the Left wasin favour of referring the pro-posed legislation to the selectcommittee but the Centre wasdeliberately blocking suchattempts to prevent closer scruti-ny of the Bill.

“The BJP-led NDA

Government is bypassing thecommittee system. They aresaying ‘don’t send Bills to theStanding Committee for closerscrutiny’. When it comes to theRajya Sabha, we will demandthat it should be sent to theSelect Committee,” said Raja.

The Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Bill, 2017, makestriple talaq -- the practice bywhich Muslim men divorcetheir wives by saying talaqthree times -- a criminal offencepunishable by up to three yearsin jail. The Lok Sabha passedthe Bill on December 28 with-out any disruption as the rulingBJP has the numbers to pushlegislation.

From Page 1We had deployed six

police companies to controlthe situation.

Some vehicles weretorched and stone were pelt-ed, but we succeeded in pre-venting the violence fromturning into a riot-like situa-tion,” said the Chief Minister.

Distancing his party fromthe incident, Shiv Sena RajyaSabha member Sanjay Rautcharged that there appearedto be “premeditated” con-spiracy behind Monday’s inci-dent to incite caste riots in theState. “The State Governmentshould investigate and exposethe hidden hand behind theincident,” Raut said.

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On the first day of the year2018, the Union Home

Minister Rajnath Singh onMonday visited the forwardareas in the Himalayan regionof Uttarkashi district. He metthe Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) Force jawans deployedat the Nelong Border Out-Post (BOP) located at an alti-tude of 11,636 feet. The HomeMinister had personal interac-tion with the jawans deployed at the Himalayanheights of the region.

While addressing the ITBPjawans during a Sainik Sabha,Singh lauded their dedicatedservice done in tough circum-stances at high altitudes ofHimalayas in sub-zero tem-perature.

He said that the Himveersare working with high moraleand that the Ministry of HomeAffairs is aware of the invalu-able services rendered by theITBP personnel to the nation.

He assured them that theministry is trying to extend allpossible support to the force tomake it stronger.

The ITBP Director GeneralRK Pachnanda and senior offi-cers accompanied Singh on

the visit. Earlier, on New Year’seve, the home minister had metthe families of ITBP jawansresiding in the family quartersof the unit premises at Matli inUttarkashi and greeted them onthe occasion.

This was the first ever visitby Singh to Nelong valley inUttarkashi.

In September-October lastyear, the union home ministerhad visited Mana, Lapthal andRimkhim BOPs besides variousother formations of ITBP-Mountaineering and SkiingInstitute at Auli near Joshimathand Gauchar and had cele-brated Dussehra with ITBPjawans.

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Dehradun residents experi-enced cold conditions over

the past 24 hours on Tuesday.The minimum temperaturewas recorded at around sixdegrees Celsius in the provi-sional State capital and it isexpected to dip further by a fewdegrees in the next few days.Snowfall at higher reaches ofwas also reported in the past 24hours and the minimum tem-peratures at many places ofmountainous parts have dippedto sub-zero levels in the State.Meteorological centre officialsstated that frost is likely tooccur during the morninghours at a few places in moun-tains while fog is likely tooccur at isolated places inplains especially in Haridwarand Udham Singh Nagar dis-tricts of Uttarakhand onWednesday.

Dehradun residents expe-rienced cold conditions withmild wind during morningand evening hours. Sunshineduring the day provided somerelief from the cold to the res-idents.

The State MeteorologicalCentre Director Bikram Singhsaid that a fresh western dis-turbance is very likely to affectWestern Himalayan regionsfrom January 4, 2018 onwards.Very light to light rain/snowhas been forecast at isolatedplaces especially in higherreaches of Uttarkashi, Chamoliand Pithoragarh districts ofUttarakhand while dry weath-er is likely to prevail in rest ofthe state on January 5.

He further said that fogoccurred in some parts ofplains while was frost report-ed at isolated places in themountains on Tuesday.

The maximum tempera-tures remained normal inplains and appreciably belownormal in the mountainousregions. The minimum tem-peratures remained normal toappreciably above normal inplains and below normal in themountainous parts, he said,adding the highest maximumtemperature 23.1°C wasrecorded in Dehradun whilelowest minimum temperature-2.8°C was recorded at Matelain Almora.

He said that the weatherforecast for Uttarakhand onWednesday is mainly clear topartly cloudy sky and dryweather.

On Tuesday, the maxi-mum temperature and mini-mum temperatures wererecorded at 23.1 degreeCelsius, four notches above thenormal, and 6.0 degree Celsius,normal, respectively inDehradun.

In Pantnagar, the maxi-mum and minimum tempera-tures were recorded at 17.1degree Celsius, two notchesbelow the normal, and 9.7degree Celsius, four notchesthe normal respectively. InMukteshwar, the maximumand minimum temperatureswere recorded at 10.3 degreeCelsius, two notches belowthe normal, and 0.3 degreeCelsius two notches below thenormal.

In Tehri, the maximumand minimum temperaturesrecorded were 12.4 degreeCelsius and 2.2 degree Celsiusrespectively. Singh said that theweather forecast for Dehradunon Wednesday is clear sky.

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From Page 1Dhankar tried to resist arrest

and even assaulted the police-men before being overpowered,she said. The SP said Dhankarappeared to be mentally ill.However, doctors will be able to throw more light on this,she added.

“He appeared to be mental-ly-ill and looked highly aggres-sive. Preliminary investigationshave revealed that he hadstrained relations with his wifeand two children,” she said.

She said the accused, whohas been booked on murdercharge, was referred to the civilhospital at Faridabad. His psy-chological evaluation would becarried out.

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Iran’s supreme leader blamedthe country’s “enemies” on

Tuesday for days of unrest thathave seen 21 killed and hun-dreds arrested in the biggest testfor the Islamic regime in years.

“The enemies have unitedand are using all their means,money, weapons, policies andsecurity services to create prob-lems for the Islamic regime,”Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said ina speech carried on state tele-vision.

Iranian officials have saidonline accounts in the UnitedStates, Britain and Saudi Arabiaare fomenting protests.

A fifth night of unrest sawsix protesters killed during anattack on a police station inQahderijan in the centralprovince of Isfahan, state TVsaid today.

At least three other townsnear the cultural hub of Isfahanalso saw violence overnight,causing the deaths of a youngmember of the RevolutionaryGuards, a policeman and abystander.

The estimated death toll isnow 21 since protests began insecond city Mashhad andquickly spread to become thebiggest challenge to the Islamicregime since mass demonstra-tions in 2009.

“The enemy is always look-ing for an opportunity and anycrevice to infiltrate and strikethe Iranian nation,” Khameneisaid.The unrest appears lead-erless and focused on provin-cial towns and cities, with onlysmall and sporadic protests inTehran last evening where aheavy police presence wasreported.

As violence has spread,authorities have stepped uparrests, with at least 450 peo-ple detained in the capitalsince Saturday and 100 morearound Isfahan on Monday,officials told local media.

A Revolutionary Guardsspokesman said they had notbeen requested to intervenedirectly, but they requestedthe public to report “sedition-ist elements”.

“We will not permit inse-curity to continue in any wayin Tehran. If it continues, offi-cials will take decisions to fin-ish it,” said Esmail Kowsari, adeputy commander for a localbranch of the Guards, on statetelevision.

Ali Shamkhani, secretaryof the Supreme NationalSecurity Council, describedthe unrest as a “proxy waragainst the Iranian people”.

“Hashtags and messagesabout the situation in Irancome from the United States,Britain and Saudi Arabia,” hetold local media.

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Hours after President DonaldTrump’s stinging attack on

Pakistan’s “lies and deceit” overharbouring terrorists for manyyears, the United States haseffectively blocked for now itsproposed $255 million militaryaid to Islamabad.

“The United States doesnot plan to spend the $255 mil-lion in FY 2016 ForeignMilitary Financing for Pakistanat this time,” a National SecurityCouncil official told media out-lets on Monday in what turnedout to be the Trump adminis-tration’s first pronouncement offor the new year. Tying anyfuture security assistance tohard counter-terrorism mea-sures by Islamabad, the officialsaid: “The President has madeclear that the United Statesexpects Pakistan to take decisiveaction against terrorists andmilitants on its soil.”

“Pakistan’s actions in sup-port of the South Asia Strategywill ultimately determine thetrajectory of our relationship,

including future security assis-tance,” the official stressed.

President Trump, in whatwas his first tweet of 2018,declared earlier on Monday thatthe United States will no longerput up with its “lies & deceit”.

“The United States has fool-ishly given Pakistan more than33 billion dollars in aid over thelast 15 years, and they have givenus nothing but lies & deceit,thinking of our leaders as fools,”Trump tweeted, adding: “Theygive safe haven to the terroristswe hunt in Afghanistan, with lit-tle help. No more!”

The first indication of theUS plan to block the aid camewith a New York Times reporton Saturday, citing officials assaying that such a move is afoot“as a show of dissatisfaction withPakistan’s broader intransigencetoward confronting the terror-ist networks that operate there”.The Trump administraton hadfirst put the $255 million aid ontemporary hold last August. Apart of the $1.1 billion aidpackage that the US Congresshad authorized for Pakistan in2016, the administration hadsaid that the aid tranche wouldbe held in abeyance untilPakistan agreed to do more tocombat terrorist networks.

Trump’s hard-hitting tweetis being viewed here as only the

climax of a steadily deteriorat-ing relationship, marked byWashington’s increasingly fre-quent warnings in recent weeksover Islamabad’s failure to actdecisively against terrorists andmilitants on its soil.

“We have made clear toPakistan that while we desirecontinued partnership, wemust see decisive action againstterrorist groups operating ontheir territory,” Trump saidwhile unveiling his NationalSecurity Strategy on December18, adding: “We make massivepayments every year toPakistan. They have to help.”

Lauding Trump’s offensiveagainst Pakistan, RepublicanSenator Rand Paul tweeted: “Icouldn’t agree more. I havebeen fighting to end aid toPakistan for years and willagain lead the charge in theSenate. Let’s make this happen.”

And Congressman Ted Poefrom Texas, who for long hasdemanded that Pakistan shouldbe declared a State sponsor ofterrorism, hailed Trump forrecognizing Pakistan for “whatit is”, adding: “If Pakistan doesnot stop aiding terrorists, wemust cut all aid to Islamabad,revoke their privileged status asa major Non-NATO ally & des-ignate Pakistan as a StateSponsor of Terrorism.”

Trump’s own eldest son,Donald Trump Jr., hailed hisfather’s push, tweeting: “Greatstart. Why give millions tocountries who would harborour enemies.”

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President Donald Trumppraised Iranian protesters

on Tuesday for acting againstTehran’s “brutal and corrupt”regime after days of unrest thathave seen 21 people killed andhundreds arrested.

“The people of Iran arefinally acting against the bru-

tal and corrupt Iranian regime,”Trump tweeted, a day after call-ing for regime change in theIslamic republic.

“All of the money thatPresident Obama so foolishlygave them went into terrorismand into their ‘pockets.’ Thepeople have little food, biginflation and no human rights.The US is watching!”

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Islamabad: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will chairCabinet and the National Security Committee meetings to dis-cuss Pakistan’s response to US President Donald Trump’s accu-sation that Islamabad deceived America by sheltering terroristsin return for $33 billion aid.

Trump on Monday tore into Pakistan accusing it of givingnothing to the US but “lies and deceit” and providing “safe haven”to terrorists in return for aid over the last 15 years thinking ofAmerican leaders as “fools”.

In his strongest attack against Pakistan yet, Trump in his firsttweet of the year on New Year’s day also appeared to suggest hecould cut off foreign aid to Pakistan.

Beijing: China on Tuesdaydefended Pakistan saying theworld community shouldacknowledge its all-weather ally’s“outstanding contribution” tocounter terrorism, a day after USPresident Donald Trump lashedout at Islamabad for providingsafe havens to terrorists.

In a scathing attack onPakistan, Trump had accusedit of “lies and deceit” and offooling US leaders while shel-tering terrorists.

“The United States hasfoolishly given Pakistan morethan 33 billion dollars in aidover the last 15 years, andthey have given us nothing butlies & deceit, thinking of our

leaders as fools,” Trump hadtweeted on Monday.

“They give safe haven to theterrorists we hunt inAfghanistan, with little help.No more!”, he said in a scathingcriticism of Pakistan. China, onexpected lines, praised Pakistan’scounter terrorism record.“Pakistan has made enormousefforts and sacrifice for the fightagainst terrorism and has madevery outstanding contribution tothe global cause of counter ter-rorism. The international com-munity should acknowledgethat,” Chinese foreign ministryspokesman Geng Shuang saidhere when asked about Trump’scriticism of Pakistan. PTIIslamabad: Pakistan has sum-

moned US Ambassador DavidHale to register its protest afterPresident Donald Trumpaccused the country of lyingand deceiving America by shel-tering terrorists while receivingbillions of dollars in foreign aid,a media report said on Tuesday.

The Pakistan ForeignOffice (FO) summoned Halelast night. Foreign SecretaryTehmina Janjua sought anexplanation from Hale overTrump’s remarks, The ExpressTribune reported.

There was no immediateresponse from foreign officeofficials. PTI

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Jerusalem: Israel has extended the detention without trial of a promi-nent Palestinian politician by another six months, the Army saidon Tuesday, meaning she will spend at least one year in custody.Khalida Jarrar was arrested on July 2 for being a senior memberin the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a movementconsidered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU.

She had been released from prison only a year before. Detailsof the accusations against her are secret, as is customary withIsraeli administrative detention orders, which allow detentionwithout trial for renewable six-month periods. A legislator in thelargely defunct Palestinian parliament, she was given a six-monthadministrative detention order in July. AFP

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Sulaimaniyah(Iraq): Iran onTuesday reopened the last twoborder posts with IraqiKurdistan that it closed inresponse to an independencevote rejected by Baghdad andneighbouring countries, offi-cials said.

The Iranian consulate inthe Kurdish autonomousregion’s capital Arbilannounced the Parwezkhanand Haji Omran posts werebeginning work again “fromTuesday”.

A Kurdish spokesman atParwezkhan confirmed thepost had “reopened officially at0900 (local time)” after notifi-cation was received from theIranian side. AFP

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For the CRPF, the new year inKashmir started on a bad note.Three Jaish-e Mohammad fidayeen-

including, surprisingly, two locals, infil-trated their camp in Pulwama killing fiveand wounding three troopers. This is oneof the several attacks on security forcesin Kashmir in 2017 and perhaps relatedto the killing of the Jaish leader NurMohammad Tantray. It could also havebeen a revenge attack for Indian Army'saction for a Pakistan BAT attack againstIndian soldiers in Poonch. The tit-for-tatcross LoC raids are a relic of the insur-gency started three decades ago, perhapseven earlier, since my days on the CeaseFire Line in the early 1960s. The fiday-een squad has once again demonstratedits motivation, capability and reach tostrike at will targets in the heart of theKashmir Valley invoking the demoralis-ing ritual of coffins draped in the nation-al flag.

Here is a snapshot of the insurgencyin the year gone by. Pakistan is known tohave maintained around 250 terrorists,60 per cent being local, in the Valley. Inhis briefing to the media followingSunday’s fidayeen attack, DG Police SPVaid attributed the success of OperationAll Out to the elimination of the top ter-rorist leadership including 206 terrorists.Against this, 75 security force personneland 24 civilians were reported killedwhile 117 local youth, the highest in adecade, joined the insurgency. Around 60local boys were weaned away from thestrife including some who surrenderedtheir arms. Infiltration and ceasefireviolations hit a new high. Despite thesemixed developments including an end tostone-pelting, support for the insur-gency has not diminished even as theCentre’s interlocuter Dineshwar Sharmadoes his routine rounds without attract-ing any significant hope.

Last week, in a collective display ofcompeting nationalism, most TV studioshad created models of Kashmir centredaround Poonch where Indian soldiers hadavenged the ambush of their comrades.

The noteworthy feature of thesereprisals is that while Pakistan employsits Army of jihadists for plunder andmayhem deep inside Indian territory, theretaliatory action, varying from crossinga few hundred meters across the LoC toat best three to five kilometers inside PoKis conducted by our Special Forces. Asduring the surgical strikes last year, thedepth of the Indian punitive strike lastweek was hamstrung by the operationalimperative to retrieve troops launchedacross LoC before dawn to avoid beingdaylighted. Following the Indian revengeattack, Pakistan’s Maj Gen Asif Ghafoorsaid last week that no attack had been

launched from the Indian side againstPakistani soldiers, that it was a lie, andadded: “Even the surgical strikes of 2016were a lie”. Denial is Pakistan Army'scredo. After Kargil, they refused toaccept the bodies of hundreds ofNorthern Light Infantry soldiers whowere killed in battle.

The ruling NDA Government hascoined the term ‘befitting response’which shows up in TV studios as jaw-for-tooth and instant publicity for the oper-ation. In the past, such operations werecovert and seldom claimed. Central to theobjective of defeating Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism (CBT) under a nuclearshadow has to be a pragmatic strategythat goes beyond the one-time, rathermodest, multiple raids against ‘terroristlaunch pads’, as DGMO Lt Gen RanbirSingh categorically (and in hindsightmysteriously) stressed that the surgicalstrikes were not against the PakistanArmy. Typically, Pakistan denied any sur-gical strikes on its soil and has consistent-ly maintained that position. The cardi-nal issue to emerge 18 months after thesurgical strikes is that it has had little orno coercive effect on Rawalpindi todeter CBT. Last year’s statistics post-sur-gical strikes on infiltration, cease-fire vio-lations, encounter killings and so onshowed no decline, rather the other wayaround. So, the hurried claim by theGovernment that surgical strikes (whichwere highly politicised during the elec-

tions) was the strategic panacea to teachPakistan a lesson and/or stop CBT hasnot been realised as it is not the answer.That does not detract from the excellentplanning, conduct and retrieval of spe-cial forces employed with the twin rid-ers of: a) no own casualties; b) no esca-lation.

Back in the TV studios, military vet-erans and super-charged anchors go totown advocating punishment for Pakistan— light up the LoC with artillery as in2003, destroy Pakistani posts from wherejihadists are launched, retake PoK, breakup Pakistan, blow up Balochistan… theretributive tirade continues. India, unfor-tunately, has not developed covert capa-bilities and skills to successfully conductsome of these options. Even the space forsurgical strikes has shrunk though themessage from the operation remains:India is able and willing to cross the LoCto conduct modest operations (in whichNew Delhi must control the escalationladder). A rising India does not want tobe side-tracked into the unintendedconsequences of a war. At the operationallevel surgical strikes have awarded agreater degree of decentralisation ofmatching fire with fire and with com-pound interest on the LoC. The bottomline remains tit-for-tat.The taunt of ourtime by Pakistani commanders that toreturn their fire “you will have to ask NewDelhi” has thankfully disappeared.

So, for how long will India stay at the

receiving end of CBT? To start with, theGovernment has to be proactive and notreactive. Till India operationalises thevintage doctrine repackaged by formerDefence Minister Manohar Parrikar — tocatch a terrorist, use a terrorist — and tilla counter jihadist force is created (theidea was first mooted in 2003 in the lastNDA regime), New Delhi will continuelosing its soldiers while combatingjihadists and fidayeen. Four years into histerm and following volumes spoken ondefusing CBT, National Security AdvisorAjit Doval has not found the antidote. Tillsuch a doctrine is in place a futurejihadist crisis (like Uri or Pathankot) mayrequire escalating the response beyondsurgical strikes. Or at least that is whatvociferous TV anchors will be clamour-ing for.

Is a rising India willing to be distract-ed in its growth trajectory by the fiday-een rather than opting for recommenc-ing dialogue with Pakistan backed byactive defence and deterrence includinga new force of counter jihadists? Anyonewho thinks President Donald Trump willcome to India’s rescue in times of crisisis living in LaLa land. The US can't coercePakistan to rein in the jihadists killingtheir soldiers in Afghanistan. So, aim andarm wisely.

(The writer is a retired Major Generalof the Indian Army and founder memberof the Defence Planning Staff, currently therevamped Integrated Defence Staff) �

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, ‘Don’t look back in anger(January 1). You have nicelysummarized whole of the outgo-ing year leaving us with the sagesuggestion to not recall the caus-tic memories gone by but insteadlook forward to ameliorationduring the year ahead.

Of course, the world hasundergone a revolutionarychange with state-of-the-art tech-nologies working in every walkof life for the better.

Simultaneously, the misuseof sophisticated technology hascaused the wild spread of pseu-do information resulting in hugesocial as well as political deca-dence at home while the attackson the media culminating, insome cases, in murders of jour-nalists and lynching of commonmen, have left an adverse impacton the country's liberal ethos.However, following the adage ‘letbygones be bygones’, we muststrive to work unitedly fornation-building sans traces ofdoom and gloom or acrimony.Let us remain hopeful that theyear2018 will bring us moreopportunities and a level playingfield for all citizens.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir— The decision of Rajinikanthto enter politics and contestpolls in Tamil Nadu is a goldenopportunity for him to show hisgreatness and bravery throughexcellent governance in the state

if elected. It is t ime forRajinikanth to show his mettleand win the political-electoralbattle.We hope for a real changein politics under his leadership.

M Rustam ParwezHyderabad

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Sir — Prime Minister NarendraModi in his 39th Mann Ki Baatradio programme praised theefforts of Jammu and Kashmirstudent Anjum Bashir KhanKhattak who cracked State civilservices examination. He saidKhattak “It is an inspiration notonly for the State but to thewhole nation. He lost his hometo militancy but despite all oddshe cracked the civil service exam-ination.” Militancy, verily, couldonly break his home but not hisfighting spirit. Bravo.

In the same programme helater express his concern overMuslim women. He said, theGovernment has upheld a lawwhich restricts Muslim womento perform Haj alone. Kudos tothe Government of India forphasing out a tradition whichwas there for years — if a Muslimwoman wants to go on Haj, shemust have a ‘Mehram’ or a maleguardian, otherwise she can notgo on Haj. Indian women havecome a long way in every sphereof life — assuming combat rolesin armed forces, going on spacemissions, then why this discrim-ination?

TS KarthikChennai

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Tamil superstar Rajinikanth'spunch line in his hit film Kabaaliis “Naan vandthttenuchollu (Tell

them I have come.)” On Sunday, wear-ing a spotless white kurta, Rajnikanthor Thalaivar as he is known to his mil-lions of fans, announced: “My entryinto politics is certain,” thus ending atwo-decade long suspense.

He is not the first mega star whohas chosen to enter politics; there aremany others, like MG Ramachandran,JJayalalitha and Captain Vijayakant.Even former DMK chief ministers CNAnnadurai and M Karunanidhi werefrom the film world. Tamil Nadu, astate driven by personality politics,currently lacks a charismatic leader.The political landscape has changedsignificantly with Jayalalithaa and

Karunanidhiout of the picture, but it'sstill a tough game. Rajinikanth knowsthis; he had said recently: “I am hes-itant in entering politics, as I am awareof the pitfalls. I am not new to poli-tics. I know its depths. I have beenwatching politics closely since 1996. IfI enter politics I will have to win.”

The question is, will Rajini be asuccess in politics? While some believethat he will bring in a revolution andbecome the Chief Minister after thenext election, there are others whothink that he might burn his fingersthe same way other superstars likeSivaji Ganesan, Amitabh Bachchan,and Chiranjeevi have. 1996 wouldhave been the right time for him toform a party and sweep the polls tobecome Chief Minister as he wasyounger and much healthier then, andwould arguably have been able to takeon the challenges of politics. At themoment, he is a political novice andis untested. Plus, his age may becomea factor going forward.

It is hard to keep count of thenumber of times Rajinikanth has“indicated” that he would enter poli-

tics. It is perhaps due to the pressurefrom his fan clubs and also from theBJP, which wants to ride piggyback onhis influence, that he announced hisdecision on Sunday. Secondly, what ishis vision? He has not spelt it out sofar. He has used a strange phrase -"Jaadhi madham illaadha aanmigaarasiyal (Spiritual politics withoutcommunalism or casteism.)” In a Statedominated by Dravidian politics,Rajini's over-emphasis on religionand spirituality, both on and offscreen, makes one wonder whether hemight lean towards the BJP. If notDravidian ideology, what does he rep-

resent? Tamil Nadu is known for itsidentity politics, with several caste-based parties existing in the State likePattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). Also,the DMK and AIADMK are estab-lished parties with committed cadresand committed vote banks of about 30per cent each.

Thirdly and more importantly,Rajini is talking of contesting all 234seats in the next Assembly poll, thusmaking it clear that his aim is not the2019 Lok Sabha poll. Elections are acostly affair, involving millions ofrupees spent on electioneering. Doeshe have the capacity to raise money

not only for running his party, but alsofor the elections and that too againstthe DMK and the AIADMK whichhave huge funds? Perhaps the BJPcould come to his aid if there is a pollalliance.

Fourthly, what kind of people willjoin his new party? So far, no credi-ble politician has even hinted at giv-ing him support except another polit-ical novice: Superstar Kamal Haasan,who also wants to join politics. Heneeds a group of efficient and politi-cally savvy people around him. Rightnow, Rajini has only his fan clubs, andeven they lack organization. Cadreshave to be raised, offices have to setup, and a million other tasks need tobe done. All this will have to be donewithout any older foundations tobank upon other than his films. Heneeds good candidates if he is look-ing to succeed in the elections. Hemust learn a lesson or two from whathappened to the AamAadmi Party(AAP), which was a big electoral suc-cess, but did not attract credible faces.

Fifthly, hardly anything is knownabout his intellectual capacity and his

understanding of crucial social andpolitical problems. No one knows hisviews on economic and foreign poli-cy. What will be his new narrative toget votes? Sixthly, Rajini has noproven ability for administration. So,on what basis can one expect that hewill be able to meet the challenge ofgovernance? He needs to find a goodteam to bridge this gap like theOdisha chief minister Naveen Patnaikhas done for the past two decades.Rajini has declared “We will resign ifwe do not deliver on our promiseswithin three years.”

Seventhly and most importantly,while he has mass appeal and animmense crowd pulling capacity, canhe convert these into votes? This is themillion-dollar question. But despite allthese, Rajini might prove to be a suc-cess like MGR and Jayalalithaa ifDame Luck smiles at him. After all, hehas become a superstar from hishumble beginning as a bus conductorin Bengaluru!

(The writer is a senior politicalcommentator and syndicated colum-nist)

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One can decidedly differentiatebetween an ordinary CEO anda great one. Great CEOs are

exemplary visionaries, with superbmanagerial and leadership skills. Theyare admired by colleagues and commonpeople alike, and are considered idolsby millions of young leaders-to-bedreaming of making it big in the cor-porate world. Their greatness lies in thefact that they have not only created prof-itable enterprises; they have also creat-ed brands that are etched forever in theimagination of the consumers. So,what are the leadership principles andmanagement philosophies that drivethese icons and enable them to taketheir organizations to such stellarheights?

Brad Feld, an American entrepre-neur and venture capitalist said, “Don’tbe afraid to have a big vision, but makesure it’s a clear one.” Clarity of vision isone of the main traits of great CEOs.Let us take the example of Steve Jobs:An unconventional leader whodemanded excellence from his staff andwas controversial for his blunt deliveryof criticism. However, his sheer genius,his amazing ability to articulate hisvision, and his tendency to take hisinvestors and customers with him onhis journey made him an exceptionalleader. Jobs had exceptional clarity ofvision, and excelled at designing min-imalist devices that broke barrierswhen it comes to computer speed. Hecreated an ecosystem that could standalone or work together in an intercon-nected way-like an iPod connected toa Mac connected to an iTunes store.Apple could manage vast amounts ofinformation through division of labouramong the systems. For example, theMac controlled system administrationwhile iTunes fetched content fromcloud storage, freeing the device to con-centrate on playing music. Bill Gates,listed as the richest person on this plan-et for 12 consecutive years, is also a manof colossal vision. He envisioned thatevery person on this planet would havea computer and every computer, a pro-gramme designed by Microsoft. Sincethen, he has worked tirelessly to achievehis vision. In this process, he has beeninstrumental to the IT revolution thatthe world has witnessed.

Great CEOs, apart from adding tothe bottomline of the company, alsocontribute to society in a big way.Itwould be hard to talk about the life ofBill Gates and not discuss his philan-thropy and humanitarianism. Heedinghis mother's advice before she passedaway due to breast cancer, Gates hasalways displayed a selfless approach tohis leadership, spending considerablemoney and time in philanthropicefforts to give to others. The Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation has donat-ed billions of dollars to causes all overthe world, making significant differ-

ences in the lives of children and adults.This process of giving back illustratesGates' character, and his focus onsocial responsibility as a global corpo-rate citizen. It also shows that his pur-suit of solutions and making lives bet-ter goes beyond just making a profit.Instead, it is about driving significantchange in the world, thus making a dif-ference for those who need itmost.Indra Nooyi, an iconic leader con-sistently ranked among the world’s 100most powerful women, is, since 2006,the CEO of Pepsico, the world's secondlargest food and beverage company.Nooyi manages employee strength of30,000 workers, and her company sellsin around 200 countries. She believesin developing two balance sheets: oneis to provide returns to shareholders,and the other is to provide returns tothe environment. Under the leadershipof Nooyi, Pepsico is focusing on peo-ple and the planet, in addition to prof-it. Nooyi has worked tirelessly toreduce the use of energy, water andpackaging, and simultaneously to pro-vide a great workplace for Pepsico’semployees and associates.Jobs’s prima-ry motive was to feel as if he had madea solid and positive impact on the worldduring his lifetime. Since he had suchhigh expectations set for himself, he wasable to achieve excellence.

Great CEOs show that great worksare performed not by strength but byperseverance. “It’s not where you start outin life that matters, but where you endup.” This adage fits Ursula Burns perfect-ly. Born in a poor neighbourhood ofManhattan to immigrant parents andraised by a single mother, she rose tobecome the first female AfricanAmerican CEO of a Fortune 500 com-

pany, Xerox. She also holds the honourof being the first woman to succeedanother woman CEO, Anne Mulcahy.Having joined Xerox in 1980 as amechanical engineering summer intern,Burns progressed through the corporateechelons to become the CEO from 2009to 2016. At present, she is theChairperson of Xerox. She did not useher underprivileged background as anexcuse, instead persevering to reach thetop of the corporate world. Burnsworked hard to return Xerox to prof-itability. NR Narayan Murthy, a rolemodel for every Indian, is an apt exam-ple of the adage ‘simple living, highthinking’. He is a billionaire with a networth of about USD 1.8 bn, but still flieseconomy and drives around in a simplecar. Murphy's life gives a strong messagethat world-class businesses can be cre-ated based on transparency and goodgovernance.Born in a middle-class fam-ily in Sidlaghatta, Karnataka, the oddshe faced in life were no match forMurphy's brilliance and enthusiasm.Through discipline and determination,NR Narayan Murthy created an IndianIT success story. Infosys, today, is one ofthe most respected IT companies in theworld with footprints all across the globe,and is also the second largest IT com-pany in India by revenue. One of the ini-tial challenges faced by Murthy was hisinability to take admission in the pres-tigious Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), even after earning a high rank anda scholarship, as the scholarship was notenough to cover his studies. Since hisfather was unable to fund his education,he enrolled in a local engineering col-lege but later secured admission in postgraduation in IIT, by dint of hard work.Similarly, the failure of his first entrepre-

neurial venture, Softronics, did notdeter him from going on to establishInfosys.Murthy follows the path ofMahatma Gandhi by practicing what hepreaches. He has always led by example,and believes that the primary responsi-bility of a leader is to give hope and con-fidence in the face of adversity.

Taking care of people is one of themajor attributes of great CEOs. NarayanMurthy has been most generous inrewarding employees with stockoptions. He has given away stocksworth �50,000 crores to his employees,saying that performance should berewarded suitably. In Infosys, drivers,electricians and secretaries walkamongst millionaires due to their stockoptions.Indra Nooyi is a caring,humane CEO who takes care of heremployees by being in touch with themand understanding their concerns. Sheeven writes thank-you letters to the par-ents of her employees in order to showher appreciation for the latter.KenChenault, CEO of American Express,believes in reaching out to each employ-ee of the organisation. He makes it apoint to reply to each and every emailhe receives from any of his employees.He travels around the world to meetemployees at different locations aroundthe globe.To further connect personal-ly with his staff, he runs an open oper-ation where anyone can talk to him.

Great CEOs, because of their innatequality of perseverance and their con-tribution to society, ensure the stabili-ty and growth of their organisations.They live by their principles and leadby example, making them exemplaryleaders of the corporate world.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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Two days after sulkingDeputy Chief Minister

Nitin Patel was placated byallotting him Finance portfolio,Minister of State in newlyformed Vijay RupaniGovernment ParshottamSolanki – a Koli communityleader in Saurashtra regionshown displeasure on Tuesdayover ‘insignificant’ Fisheriesportfolio allocated to him.

The five times MLA fromBhavnagar district has alsoexpressed annoyance for keep-ing him junior Minister anddemanded Cabinet rank.Talking to media personnel atthe sprawling Gujarat StateSecretariat Solanki demandeda Department through whichhe could work for the people.

“Unlike previous govern-ments, I have been margin-alised with a singleDepartment. In the lastGovernment I had charge ofAnimal Husbandry also. WithFisheries department, I wouldbe able to give my services topeople who stay in coastalareas and not those who are liv-ing in other parts,” said the 57-

year-old strong Koli leader.According to him he had

met Chief Minister VijayRupani before he came in frontof media but he couldn’texpress his feelings beforeRupani as he was surroundedother people also. He went onto say that with only oneDepartment, he wouldn’t beable to even pass time at hisoffice in the State Secretariat.

“I don’t mind even with asingle Department, but peopleof Koli community are nothappy and they want partyleadership to do something,” headded. It is worth mentioningthat as many as 45 seats out of182 are Koli influenced in theState. The population of Kolicommunity in the State is morethan 15 per cent althoughthere are many sub-castes with-

in the community. Immediately after Solanki’s

controversial remarks beforethe media, BJP leadership cameinto damage control mode anddeputed senior MinisterBhupendrasinh Chudasama forthe purpose. It was Chudasamawho played crucial role totroubleshoot to resolve NitinPatel episode.

Within an hourChudasama told media thatcontribution of Solanki tomake the saffron party accept-able in Koli community could-n’t be ignored. He said that theMoS Fisheries had put forth hissentiment before the CM andthe party would do somethingin next 3-4 days. Solanki whowas present at that time reiter-ated that his community mem-bers want him to take morenumber of portfolios.

The way Patel created in thename of Patidar communityand succeeded to get Financeportfolio, Solanki too resortedto same technique using hisKoli community which is inlarge number in Gujarat. Patel’sissue was resolved only afterBJP president Amit Shah puthis foot down.

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Strongly opposing the Billcriminalising the instant or

triple talaq, which was passedby Lok Sabha recently, the AllIndia Muslim Personal LawBoard has decided to challengeit before the Supreme Court.

Prominent scholar andSecretary of AIMPLB MoulanaKhalid Saifullah Rahmani hassaid that the Board had doneeverything possible to per-suade the Government againstgoing ahead with the Bill.

“If it is passed in the RajyaSabha too, then the Board willchallenge it in Supreme Courtas it is a blatant intervention inthe Shariah law, against thespirit of the Constitution ofIndia and was against the inter-est of women”, he said.

He expressed confidencethat the judiciary will agreewith the views of AIMPLB onthe issue. He urged theMuslims to remain united andnot to fall prey to propagandaaimed at creating differencesand confusion in the commu-nity. “Muslims should remainunited and foil any attempt toweaken the Board, which is abody representing the entirecommunity”, he said.

Moulana Rahmani alsoadvised Muslims against takingany action on their own andwait for the guidance of theBoard in the matter. He reject-ed the criticism that the Boardhad failed in effectively dealingwith the Bill and said thatBoard had approached all theOpposition parties and MPsincluding the Muslim MPs andpresented its views beforethem.

“What happened onDecember 28 in Lok Sabha wasmore painful than the tragedywhich happened on December6, 1992 in Ayodhya”, he said. “In

Ayodhya a mosque was demol-ished but now in Lok Sabha astupid attempt was made toweaken the foundation ofShariah”, he said.

He cautioned that the Billwas against the interest ofwomen as it will lead to aban-doning of wives.

“It will be more problem-atic for women as a wife willhave to first prove in the courtthat her husband had given hertriple talaq to send him to jail.And a jailed husband will notgive her divorce leaving her fatehanging in balance and she willnot be able to remarry”, he said.

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Islamic seminary of DarulUloom Deoband has con-

demned and termed Muslimgirl Aliya Khan ‘unislamic’ fordressing up as Lord Krishna andreciting Gita. Aliya of Meerutrecently stood second in a com-petition for recitation ofBhagwad Gita.

“Her act is shirk (opposed tomonotheism) and Islam strict-ly prohibits such acts. Donningthe dress of Lord Krishna is alsostrictly prohibited in Islam asthis is transvestite where awomen cannot take on thedress of a male and vice versa,’’said Chairman of Online FatwaDepartment of Darul UloomDeoband Mufti ArshadFarooqui.

On December 30, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath hadfelicitated Aliya Khan and givenher a prize of �25,000 during aconvention in honour of BalGanghadahar Tilak in Lucknow.Aliya had received the prizefrom the Chief Minister dressedas Lord Krishna. Responding toDarul Uloom’s criticism, Aliyasaid, “I am an Indian first. I havenot shunned Islam by recitingshlokas from Bhagwad Gita and

donning the attire of LordKrishna does not affect religiousbelief and identity of any per-son.’’ “I read Gita for knowledgeand this can be obtained fromscriptures of any religion. Thescriptures tell us about human-ity and human values. I havedone that by reading and recit-ing from Bhagwad Gita. Its isnot a religious book, it teachesyou about the philosophy of lifeand Karma.”

Rejecting Darul Uloom’sobjections, she said, “Please donot drag me into politics. I ama student, allow me to pursuemy studies. All those who wantto politicise this issue shouldfirst express their opinion aboutSalman Khan, Shahrukh Khanand others.’’

Alia had beaten thousandsof children across the State towin the second prize for Gitarecitation competition organ-ised by the State. Alia assertedthat no one discouraged herfrom learning the scriptures ofa different religion. “Even ifsomeone says anything, I havea straight-forward answer. I donot read Gita for religion. I readGita for knowledge and we canaccess knowledge from any-where,” she said.

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The permanent synod of theErnakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese

of Kerala’s Syro-Malabar CatholicChurch has instructed the bishopsand priests under it to put an end to thewar of words over a controversial landdeal in which Major ArchbishopCardinal Mar George Alencherry isallegedly involved even as the Cardinaladmitted that there had been sometechnical lapses from his side in theland deal.

The synod issued the instructionafter an emergency meeting held onNew Year Day in a desperate bid to sal-vage the reputation and credibility of theArchdiocese, its leadership and theentire Syro-Malabar Church after thewar over the land deal between oppos-ing sections within the clergy and laityspilled over to the streets.

The synod asked the bishops andpriests in the Archdiocese to abstainfrom making public statements aboutthe issue of the land sales, which had ledto the loss of several crores of rupees.It instructed Auxiliary Bishops Sebastian

Adayanthrath and Jose Puthenveettil totake the initiative for establishing unityamong priests and bishops. As per thedecisions taken at the meeting of thesynod, the concerned council of theArchdiocese and critics of the Cardinalwould jointly inform the media that theissue that had been rocking the Churchhad been settled. It also said that the pas-toral council of the Archdiocese coulddecide on matters like petitioning thePope against Cardinal Alencherry.

The controversy pertains to the saleof over three acres of prime landbelonging to the Archdiocese in Kochicity worth tens of crores of rupees to pri-vate persons. The lands were sold in twoschedules to 36 persons in September,2016 and between January and Augustlast year and Cardinal Alencherry him-self had signed in all the land sale doc-uments.

The Archdiocese had suffered a lossof a minimum of �18 crore throughthese land sales for which a middleman,whose credibility has now come undersuspicion, had been engaged allegedlyunder instructions from the MajorArchbishop himself.

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The DMK which was mauled inthe recently held RK Nagar by-

poll has dissolved all its units in theAssembly constituency following areport submitted by the three-mem-ber committee which probed the fac-tors behind the debacle of the partycandidate Marudu Ganesh. TTVDhinakaran, the independent can-didate who contested with pressurecooker as his symbol had humbledall his 58 rivals. All barring theAIADMK candidate forfeited theirsecurity deposits.

But H Raja, the national secre-tary of the BJP, came out on Tuesdaywith a new finding which may act asa deterrent for other major politicalparties in the State. “The DMK suf-fered a rout at RK Nagar because ofits alliance with the VCK,” saidRaja. To substantiate his findingsabout the VCK, Raja pointed out thevoting pattern and results of variousAssembly and Lok Sabha electionsheld in Tamil Nadu.

“The general public in Tamil

Nadu do not like the VCK, a mili-tant caste outfit led by TholThirumavalavan. Whoever alignswith the VCK is sure to loss badly inthe elections,” said Raja.

The DMK had aligned with theVCK for the 2001 Assembly election.“Though there was no visible anti-incumbency feeling against theDMK Government which had ruledthe State from 1996 to 2001, theparty lost badly in the election,” saidRaja. Since both the AIADMK andthe DMK were reluctant to forge anykind of alliance with the VCK, theparty had floated People’s Alliancewhich drew a blank in the 2004 LokSabha election, said Raja.

Thirumavalavan managed toget into the good books of AIADMKleader J Jayalalithaa who included theVCK in her front for the 2006Assembly election. But the AIADMKcame a cropper in that election.“Thirumavalavan crossed over to theDMK camp in time for the 2009 LokSabha election and he managed towin from the seat he contested. Hestayed on with the DMK and con-

tested the 2011 Assembly election asan ally of the Dravidian major. TheDMK and its allies were mauled inthat election,” said Raja.

The DMK had continued its tieswith the VCK for the 2014 electionsand the party was defeated by theAIADMK. “The DMK failed to winat least a single seat in the 2014 LokSabha election,” he said.

The VCK and five other partieshad launched the People WelfareFront for the 2016 Assembly electionin their bid to form a third alterna-tive in Tamil Nadu. “The PWF wasobliterated on the election. Sadlyenough, Vijayakanth, whose DMDKhad 10 per cent of the popular votes,lost his security deposit in the hus-tings,” said Raja.

The moral of the RK Nagarresult is that those who align with theVCK do so at their own peril, point-ed out the BJP leader.

The VCK which had cam-paigned for the DMK candidate hasstarted exploring the possibilities ofaligning with the TTV Dhinakarancamp of the AIADMK.

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Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s prop-erty’s value has been reduced from

�16.40 lakh to �16.23 lakh in 2017. Thisis the second consecutive year that thevalue of his assets has decreased.

But the value of his only sonNishant’s has increased. Nitish hasalready transferred entire assets underhis name in favour of his son who is nowowner of assets worth over �1.88 crore.Nishant also owns 30 grams of gold andfive kg of silver.

The CM still has a debt of �43,458which was earlier �3.79 lakh that hetook from bank to purchase a car. Hehas three bank accounts in which alto-gether �44,627 are deposited.

On the last day of the year, all theMinisters foiled details of their movableand immovable properties, assets andcash.

The details have been uploaded onGovernment website. Deputy CM SushilKumar Modi has assets worth �94.92lakh including 105 grams of gold. Modialso has a debt of �16 lakh.

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PUBLIC NOTICEMy clients Sh. Mahipal Singh & Veenaboth R/o 848, Gali No. 14, UttranchalColony, Loni, Ghaziabad, U.P. have dis-owned their son Ankur Singh Tomar andhis wife Pooja Chauhan from all their mov-able-immovable properties and have sev-ered all their relations with them as theyare out of control, disobedient, disre-spectful. Anyone deals with them, will doso at his own risk and cost, my clients willnot be responsible for their acts.

ANIL KR. SHRIVASTAVAAdvocate

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The BJP-led AssamGovernment has made a

history on the interveningnight of the New Year by pub-lishing the first draft ofNational Register of Citizens(NRC) that includes the namesof 1.9 crore people out of total3.29 crore people of the State.

Registrar General of India,Sailesh made the first draft ofthe NRC public on the strokeof midnight on December 312017 and said that while 1.9crore names have been includ-ed in the first draft, the namesof rest of the people are at dif-ferent stages of verificationand that those will be includ-ed in the final NRC after prop-er verification.

The NRC authorities hadreceived 3.29 crore applica-tions accompanied by six croredocuments, for inclusion oftheir names in the NRC. TheRGI also announced that thefinal NRC will be published

within the year 2018.The publication of the draft

NRC has created a mixed reac-tion in the State as many peo-ple found their names in thehistoric document while someothers did not found theirnames in the NRC. There arealso reports that while namesof some members of one fam-ily were included in the NRC,

names of some of the membersof the same family did notappear in the document.

“It is a positive develop-ment that finally the first draftof the NRC was published onMonday. This is a result ofAssam movement and the his-toric Assam Accord. I thankSupreme Court for its consis-tent monitoring all these

months. There are some com-plaints about non inclusion ofnames of some genuine citizensin the NRC but I think the finalNRC will include the names ofall genuine citizens,” said AASUadviser SamujjalBhattacharyya.

Partner of the BJP led rul-ing alliance in Assam andregional political party AsomGana Parishad (AGP) alsoexpressed their happiness overthe publication of the NRC andsaid that the people of the Statemust keep a strong vigil till thefinal NRC is published.

Assam’s Opposition leaderDebabrata Saikia, on the otherhand, said lamented the factthat the updated draft NRClacked names of many genuineIndians despite the fact thatthey had submitted valid doc-uments fort inclusion of theirnames in the NRC.

“This should not have hap-pened as this is going to dis-hearten many citizens.Everyone had applied for inclu-

sion of their names in theNRC but did not find theirnames in the document onMonday. I hope theGovernment takes urgent stepsto correct the same,” he said.

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Hyderabad city policeTuesday arrested the

famous singer Ghazal Srinivason charges of sexually harass-ing a woman. AssistantCommissioner of Police,Panjagutta Division VijayKumar told the media that hewas taken into custody onTuesday after investigation intoa complaint filed by a womanRadio Jockey last week.

After taking him into cus-tody on Tuesday morning, thepolice produced him in theNampally court which remand-ed him to judicial custody tillJanuary 12. He was later shift-ed to Chanchalguda CentralJail. The court rejected thebail petition of Srinivas. Thepolice moved a petition for hiscustody for questioning and itwill come up for hearing later.

“We found substantial evi-dence that the woman was

harassed by the singer”, hesaid. The police investigationsrevealed that there was a truthin allegation that he had sum-moned the lady to his roomand behaved in an uncivilisedmanner the ACP said.

The police said that thelady provided them the videoclips of the incident whichtook place in the office of a webradio in the city.

The woman, whose identi-ty was being kept secret by thepolice had lodged complaint onDecember 29 alleging that the

accused was stalking andharassing her and forced her togive him a body massage. Shetold the police that the accusedwas harassing her for the lasttwo months and when thethings became unbearable sheapproached the police.

However Ghazal Srinivasdenied the allegations. “I don’tknow why this lady is targetingme and leveling this sort of alle-gations against me”, he said. “Ihave always saw the girl as mydaughter and I respect hervery much”, he said.

Denying any body messagehe said that he had suffered aninjury and despite his refusalshe had applied medicine to hishead.

Meanwhile on the com-plaint of the lady, the police alsobooked a case against anotherwoman, an attender at theoffice of the Web Radio forallegedly helping GhazalSrinivas.

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Guwahati: One person identi-fied as one Hanif Khan haveallegedly committed suicide atSilchar in Cachar district ofAssam’s Barak Valley onMonday morning after he didnot find his name in the NRC.

Police said that the persontried to find his name in theNRC on Monday morning.“However, he did not find it andpanicked,” said the police whilequoting some local people. “Weare still investigating if there issome other reason behind hissuicide,” said the police. PNS

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation has alleged

that Bengal Police was destroy-ing vital evidences in Sharadaand other chit fund cases.

In a written complaint filedin the Supreme Court theAgency has complained thatsome senior State police offi-cers — who probed the multi-crore chit fund fraud until theCalcutta High Court and theSupreme Court handed overthe case in 2014 to the CBI —had acted beyond their brief,connived with the accused per-sons and destroyed evidence.

Not only this, in an appar-ent act of intimidation theState Police even summonedthe CBI officials handling theprobe to share the details ofinvestigations.

The CBI has also allegedthat despite repeated remindersthe State Police has failed totransfer to it the call details oftwo most powerful Sharadamasterminds Sudipto Sen and

Debjani Mukhejee. The inves-tigation had hit a wall for thewant of the stated call detailsbetween Sen and Mukherjeeand the top politicians whosename had repeatedly appearedin the chit fund fraud.

It has also been alleged thata top IPS officer also got a sub-altern official to summon thesenior CBI officers in a separatecase during which he was evenasked to share probe details inthe chit fund case. This hap-pened after the CBI summonedthe said senior officer for ques-tioning.

The stated senior IPS offi-cer — who led the Sharadaprobe before court gave it to theCBI — had chosen to look rightthrough the repeatedreminders of appearance by theCentral agency, the complaintsays.

Curiously the same officerwas subsequently rewardedwith priced postings for hisfavourable service rendered tohis political masters and wascurrently heading a branch of

the State Police, experts say.It was only after repeated

failure of the State Police tocomply with the CBI directivesthat Central agency lodged thecomplaint with the Apex Courtearly last month sources said.

Bengal had been thehotbed of chit fund fraud sincepast one decade with a host ofcompanies including Sharada,Rose Valley, Angel, Tower,Sumangal etc together alleged-ly doing a business in excess of�50,000 crore.

After the name of Stateruling party TrinamoolCongress got entwined withthe chit fund case followingallegations of active destruc-tion of evidences by the policethe Opposition parties movedthe judiciary following whichthe High Court and theSupreme Court directed theprobe to be handed over to theCBI rejecting the StateGovernment’s stubbornOpposition against the inves-tigation taken off the policehand.

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Is Kochi, disputably the mosthappening city in South

India, turning into an impor-tant transit point in the nar-cotics trade network of LatinAmerican drug cartels?

The seizure of a huge quan-tity of cocaine that originatedfrom Brazil’s Sao Paulo, thelargest city of South America,at the Kochi InternationalAirport on New Year Day froma young Philippine womanand the arrest in the past twomonths of a Venezuelannational and a Paraguayan cit-izen with large quantities of thesame substance are seen asindications of this possibility.

The 36-year-old Filipino,arrested at the Kochi airport bythe Narcotics Control Bureau(NRB) on Monday while tryingto smuggle out 4.75 kilos ofcocaine valued roughly at �25

crore in the international mar-ket, has told the sleuths that shewas getting her instructionsfrom Sao Paulo from where shehad flown to Kochi throughAddis Ababa and Muscat.

The authorities believe thatthe cocaine was not intendedfor customers in Kochi, whichhas of late become a destinationfor new-generation high-inten-sity psychotropic drugs, but tobe forwarded to other placeslike Goa. They have learnedthat the Filipino, Jhonna DeTorres, was only a carrierwhose job was to deliver the‘consignment’ to an agent onground in Kochi.

The NRB officials foundthat the huge quantity ofcocaine was hidden in a falsechamber in the bottom of hercheck-in baggage when shelanded in Kochi from Muscatby an Oman Air flight onMonday afternoon. She told the

officials that her job was todeliver the contraband to anagent, of whom she had noidea, for which she was to bepaid �300,000.

The sleuths, with the helpof interpreters and from themessages recovered from theFilipino’s mobile phone, foundout that an accommodationhad been booked online for herat a star hotel in Kochi city. Theroom was booked online fromSao Paulo by unknown per-sons. The officials have alsolearned that the agent based inKochi was to take the deliveryof the drug at the hotel.

As per the instructionsconveyed to Jhonna from SaoPaulo on her mobile, she wasto wait at the Kochi hotel. Shewas to be given the contactdetails of the agent once shewas in the hotel where theagent was to take delivery.Sources said it was not known

whether the agent had alreadyvisited the hotel as Jhonna didnot have the opportunity toreach the hotel.

“This is not the first timecocaine is seized at the Kochiairport. Even the volume – thiswas the biggest seizure of

cocaine in Kerala – is not whatis causing concern. What ismore disturbing is the point oforigin of and control on thestuff – Sao Paulo. It may meanKochi has got a place on theactive map of South Americandrug cartels,” said an official.

The NCB had last montharrested a Venezuelan nation-al from Kochi airport withone kilo of cocaine. InNovember, a Paraguayan citi-zen was arrested in this airportitself with 3.6 kilos of the samesubstance.

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The Budget session of theJammu & Kashmir State

Assembly started on a stormynote on Tuesday. Soon after theGovernor NN Vohra arrived inthe central hall of the State leg-islature complex to addressthe joint session of both thehouses opposition membersfrom National Conference andCongress disrupted the pro-ceedings to register theirprotest against the alleged fail-ure of BJP-PDP allianceGovernment on all fronts.

As pandemonium contin-ued Governor waited patient-ly amid loud sloganeering bythe members. After Oppositionmembers exhausted their ‘lungpower’ they decided to stage awalk out from the central halland staged another sit in on thefoot steps of the State legislaturecomplex.

Wearing black badges sev-eral Opposition members wereseen displaying placards withslogans, “Murderers ofDemocracy answer the people”,“Panchayat ki taaqat ko waapaskaro” and “Choti Kaatne walisarkar haaye haaye”, “RSSsarkar haaye haaye”, “stop inno-cent killings, human rightsviolations” inside the central

hall.Speaking to the media after

staging a walkout from the

legislature, Ali Mohd Sagar,legislator and senior NC leadersaid: “We have walked out ofthe central hall against the fail-ure of the State Government.

The National Conferenceleaders also submitted a mem-orandum to Governor NNVohra here, seeking a politicaldialogue to resolve the situationin Jammu and Kashmir.

The memorandum’s releasecoincided with the start of theBudget session. It claimed thatunder the BJP-PDPGovernment the identity ofJammu and Kashmir and itsconstitutional status was underthreat.

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The police was suspecting theinvolvement of two mentally

disturbed persons in two dif-ferent incidents of attacks onmosques in Andhra Pradeshand Telangana. Andhra Pradeshpolice has arrested onManiratnam in connection withthe murder of the priest ofNoorani Mosque in Lalachervunear Rajahmundry on the nightof last Thursday. Assistant Imamof the mosque MohammedFarooq was brutally murderedand the holy Quran was burntby the unknown miscreantscausing tension in the area.

In another similar inci-dent in Mallapur village ofJagtiyal district, the police havedetained a mentally disturbedperson for questioning. In theincident the miscreant haddesecrated the mosque andburnt the copies of Holy Quranon the night of December 29.

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Regulator Trai has tightened thenetwork connectivity rules by

mandating a 30-day deadline for tele-com companies to ink interconnec-tion pacts on non-discriminatorybasis and also fixed a daily penaltyof up to �1 lakh per service area forviolations.

The ‘Telecom InterconnectionRegulations 2018’ of the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India (Trai),come into force from February 1 andassume significance as newcomerReliance Jio and incumbent telecomoperators have, in the past, clashedover network connectivity issuesand inadequate ports.

At the time of launch of its ser-vices in 2016, the new entrant hadaccused large and established oper-ators like Airtel, Vodafone and IdeaCellular of not giving it sufficientPoints of Interconnect (PoIs) leadingto massive call failures on its net-work, even as the incumbents hadblamed free calls offered by Jio for‘tsunami’ of network traffic.

The telecom regulator has nowstipulated a penalty of up to �1 lakhper day per service area for opera-tors who violate its latest intercon-nect rules. Trai has also said that“every service provider shall, with-in thirty days of receipt of requestfrom a service provider, enter intointerconnection agreement, on non-discriminatory basis, with such ser-vice provider”.

The regulator has fixed five daysfor service providers to respond tointerconnection seekers with a draftinterconnect pact. So far, there wasno explicit timeline for inking of

interconnect agreements. Trai, has also laid down a 'for-

mula' that would act as a ceiling for‘bank guarantees’ in case of inter-connection, instead of the currentpractice of such guarantees beingworked out through mutual negoti-ation between operators.

For provisioning of ports at thePoints of Interconnect (point ofexchange of network traffic), the reg-ulator has fixed 30-day time-frameinstead of the 90 days earlier.

“The interconnection chargessuch as set-up charges and infra-structure charges may be mutuallynegotiated between service providerssubject to the regulations or direc-tions issued by theAuthority...Provided that suchcharges are reasonable, transparentand non-discriminatory,” Trai said inits interconnect regulations.

For disconnection of the ports,a service provider would have to nowgive a show-cause-notice of 15 work-ing days to the other telco clearly dis-closing the ‘reasons’ for the proposeddisconnection. If not satisfied by thereply or in case no reply is received,the operator will give a notice of 15days specifying the disconnectiondate for points of interconnect.

At a broad level, the regulationscomprise rules for crafting networkconnectivity agreements, initial pro-visioning of such connectivity, aug-mentation of Points of Interconnect,applicable rates or charges, discon-nection of ports, and financial dis-incentive on interconnection issues.

The regulations will apply to allthe service providers offering tele-com services in India, Trai said in astatement. A mail sent to operators,

including Bharti Airtel and RelianceJio, seeking their views on the latestinterconnect rules went unanswered.

The telecom watchdog has alsooutlined a framework for provi-sioning and augmenting of inter-connectivity ports, laying down astep-by-step process in this regard.The rules issued on Tuesday comesafter a detailed consultation processby Trai that started in October 2016and included open house discussionsand written comments by stake-holders. The strengthening of therules follows a firestorm of contro-versy in the past over provisioning

of points of interconnect, withReliance Jio and incumbent opera-tors trading charges over call connectissues. At one point, Jio had allegedthat up to 75 per cent of calls fromits network to that of other operatorshad failed due to inadequate PoIs.

Taking note of issue, the regula-tor in 2016 recommended a cumu-lative penalty of �3,050 crore onBharti Airtel, Vodafone and IdeaCellular for violating norms bydenying adequate interconnectionpoints to Reliance Jio and held thattheir actions were anti-consumer andagainst public interest.

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As the Chairman’s post forInsurance Regulatory and

Development Authority (IRDA) willfall vacant on February 21, 2018, theGovernment has already started hunt-ing for the coveted post. The FinanceMinistry has received applicationsfrom public sector insurance firms aswell as top bureaucrats as the last dateto apply for the post ended onDecember 27, 2017.

According to sources from theFinance Ministry, names of the appli-cants include most of serving headsof the state-owned insurance firms,whereas a few of them are top bureau-crats who have also been reported tohave applied for the key position.IRDAI's serving Chairman TS Vijayanwill demit office in the third week ofnext month after completing his five-year terms.

“It is learnt that some big guyssuch VK Sharma, Chairman, LifeInsurance Corporation (LIC) and GSrinivasan, CMD, New IndiaAssurance are among the insurerswho have applied for the post,” saidthe sources. Besides, the other insur-ers, it added, include K Sanath Kumar,CMD, National Insurance, HemantBhargava, MD, LIC, Sunita Sharma,MD, LIC, B Venugopal, MD, LIC,Rajesh Kandwal, CEO & Managingdirector, LIC, Bahrain. Nilesh Sathe,member (life), IRDA, is also in thefray. Sources further said that sever-al serving and retired bureaucrats,including Anjuly Chib Duggal, formerSecretary in the Department ofFinancial Services of the FinanceMinistry, have become strong con-tenders for the top IRDAI post. Thebuzz is also doing the round that that

this time, the Government may alsoconsider a person from the bureau-cratic circle for the post. Vijayan wasappointed in 2013 as the then FinanceMinister P Chidambaram had strong-ly recommended for an insuranceprofessional over bureaucrats to leadthe industry into growth path.

Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha headsthe committee while AdditionalPrincipal Cecretary to the PrimeMinister PK Mishra - a permanentGovernment nominee in the panel-Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, Departmentof Financial Services and Ajay Mittal,Secretary, Department of Personneland Training along with Bimal N Patelfrom Gujarat National Law Universityare other members on the panel.According to the InsuranceRegulatory and DevelopmentAuthority (IRDA) Act, 1999, thechairperson of the authority will holdoffice for a term of five years, and isentitled to a consolidated salary of Rs4.5 lakh per month without housingand car facilities.

A notification issued by theDepartment of Financial Servicessays that an applicant should have atleast 30 years of work experience, andhe/she should have worked asSecretary to the Government of Indiaor in its equivalent position either at

a Central or State institution.However, the Ministry had

amended the initial notification so thatthe CMDs public sector general insur-ance companies and MDs and evenEDs of LIC who are in the rank ofAdditional Secretary could apply forthe post. The post is also open to theprivate sector experts who haveworked as CEO in a large financialinstitution. In November 2017, theFinancial Sector RegulatoryAppointments Search Committee hadinterviewed a few candidates to selecttwo members (Life and Finance) of theIRDAI. Some of the senior officials ofthe insurance industry who hadappeared for the interview for the postof member(non-life), IRDAI, are KSanath Kumar, CMD, NationalInsurance Company, Suresh Mathur,Executive Director, IRDAI, SegarSampathkumar, former Director, GICRe and Vinay Sah, CEO, LIC HousingFinance.

Similarly, among the candidates,PH Kutumbe, Executive Director(Finance and Accounts), LIC, ChiefFinance Officer V Chandrasekaran,former Executive Director LIC, PullaRao, ED, IRDAI, Ashwin Kumar, for-mer CMD, Dena Bank, were inter-viewed for the post of member(Finance & Accounts) of IRDAI.

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As the Opposition onTuesday tried to corner

the Government in the RajyaSabha over rising number ofnon-performing assets (NPA)of banks in the last few years,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid bulk of such cases came upbefore April 1,2014. He said the

situation arose due to aggressivelending by banks without prop-er risk assessment and evenwithout being backed by secu-rities.

Fielding questions, theminister also said the govern-ment and banks have not writ-ten loans by willful defaulterswhen the Elders claimed somecorporate houses got away after

their loans were waived off.Jaitley said the liability of the

borrower remains. Raising theissue, Neeraj Shekhar(SP) askedthe government to spell outsteps taken to initiate probeagainst NPAs and said theamount now had risen morethan Rs nine lakh crore.Associating himself with theissue, P

Chidambaram(Congress) askedJaitley to reveal the amount ofNPAs after the NDAGovernment came to power inMay 2014. He was apparentlyclaiming that the NPAs rose inthe last three years and askedwhether performing loans as onMarch 31, 2014, have becomenon-performing later andwhether that is a scam.

Taking on record the min-ister's claim that earlier the reg-ulation was lax and the assetregulation value has now beenmade stricter, Chidambaramasked whether the minister hasthe data now or will he furnishit to the House later as to howmany loans given by banks afterApril 1, 2014 have become NPAtoday. Jaitley shot back and said

most of the NPA cases came upbefore April 1, 2014.

As regards spike in theamount of NPAs in the last threeyears, Jaitley clarified that in2015, the RBI reviewed assetquality of all banks and foundmany such assets shown as per-forming assets in the accountshad been non- performing andshould be accounted as NPAs.

NEW DELHI: TheGovernment on Tuesdayreplaced its GOI SavingsBonds, 2003, scheme earn-ing eight per cent interestper annum by another which hasa lower rate of interest at 7.75 percent. On Monday, theGovernment had announcedthat its GOI Savings Bonds,2003, will cease subscriptionfrom the close of banking busi-ness on January 2.

“The 8 per cent SavingsBonds Scheme, also known asRBI Bonds Scheme, is not beingclosed. 8 per cent Scheme is beingreplaced by 7.75 per cent SavingsBonds Scheme,” EconomicAffairs Secretary SC Garg tweet-ed on Tuesday. The bonds -- witha tenure of six years, a minimuminvestment of ̀ 1,000, no limits onmaximum investment and theoption to receive interest on a

half-yearly basis -- areavailable in physical formonly and are not listed ortradable on stockexchanges. The interest

received from these bonds is tax-able at the marginal rate ofincome tax the investor is liablefor.

These became a preferredchoice for investors seeking fixedincome like senior citizens andpensioners after the Governmentcut interest rates on fixed depositsand small savings schemes likethe post office monthly incomescheme and public providentfund (PPF) to below eight percent in April 2016. Last week, theGovernment cut the interestrates on small saving schemes,including NSCs, PPF and KVP,by 0.2 percentage point for thefourth quarter of the fiscal(January-March). IANS

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The Government on Tuesdaysaid the proposed Financial

Resolution and DepositInsurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017seeks to protect and enhancedepositors’ ‘existing rights andbring in a comprehensive andefficient resolution regime forfinancial firms’. According to theMinistry of Finance, there ispresently no comprehensive andintegrated legal framework forresolution, including ‘liquidation,of financial firms in India’.

The ministry said that cur-rent resolution instrumentsavailable under respective leg-islations are ‘limited, and so isguidance on the process lead-ing up to the resolution’. “Thecurrent resolution regime isespecially inappropriate for pri-vate sector financial firms in thelight of significant expansion ofprivate financial firms and manyof these acquiring systemicallyimportant status in India,” theministry said in a statement.

“The Insolvency andBankruptcy Code, 2016 hasintroduced in the country acomprehensive resolutionregime for mainly non-financial

firms, but such a regime is notavailable in the country forfinancial firms.” The ministrysaid the FRDI Bill proposes toestablish a ‘ResolutionCorporation’ and a comprehen-sive regime to enable timelyand orderly resolution of a fail-ing financial firm.

“It provides for detectingincipient insolvencies in finan-cial firms by introducing a five-stage health classification offinancial firms and stepping into appropriately nurse a financialfirm at the stage when its healthbecomes weak and it is classifiedin the category of material riskto viability,” the statement said.

HYDERABAD: Salil Parekh tak-ing over as CEO is hugely posi-tive for Infosys as he is a teambuilder who understands thebusiness and changing marketenvironment, says the company’sformer chief financial officer T VMohandas Pai.

Parekh being based inBengaluru, the NASDAQ-listedcompany's headquarters, wouldalso make a huge difference asmost clients visit the campusesbefore they sign the deals and theteams working on their projectsthere, Pai told PTI. “It (Parekh asCEO) is hugely positive for Infy.They will have a CEO who

understandsthe servicesb u s i n e s s ,who under-stands thechanges thatare happen-ing and whatneeds to be done,” he said.

“He is a customer-facingperson and that’s exactly thekind of talent that's required.Working in a services company(in Capgemini where he workedearlier), he understands, he knowshow to deal with people and howto carry teams along with him,”Pai said. Taking a dig at Parekh's

predecessor Vishal Sikka, whomostly operated out of the US, Paisaid, “Locking yourself in PaloAlto (in the US) did not serve anypurpose for the earlier CEO; itonly created barriers between theCEO and the teams. So, it’simportant for the CEO to be inthe location, which is the head-quarters, wherever it is.”

He said, “Parekh has demon-strated good leadership atCapgemini where he seems tohave lost out on the CEO raceonly because of his origin whichis what happens in mostEuropean companies (which pre-fer Europeans at the helm).” PTI

NEW DELHI: Bitcoins orsuch crypto-currencies arenot legal tender and thoseindulging in such transactionsare doing it at their own risk,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid on Tuesday as MPsexpressed concern over trad-ing on these platforms.

During the QuestionHour in Rajya Sabha, DMKmember Kanimozhi sought toknow whether theGovernment was consider-ing regulating crypto-curren-cies like Bitcoin and Ethereum,as India ‘accounts for morethan 11 per cent’ of such tradeglobally.

Jaitley emphasised thatthe Centre’s consistent posi-tion was that such currencieswere not legal tender. “The

Government is examiningthe matter.

A committee under thechairmanship of secretary,department of economicaffairs, is deliberating over allissues related to cryptocurren-cies to propose specific actionsto be taken,” he said. While arepeated message was beinggiven that such currencies werenot legal tender, more detailedsteps would be taken once thereport of the committee issubmitted, he said.

Independent memberAmar Singh wanted to knowwhat action was being takenin regard to the names whichhave figured in the Panamapapers and Paradise papers,even as trading in bitcoinswas also going on. PNS

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NEW DELHI: Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on Tuesday said theGovernment has entered into anunchartered territory as far asbankruptcy and insolvencyCode is concerned and wouldcontinue to modify the lawdealing with the issue.

“Insolvency and bankruptcy isan area in which it is only in therecent years that we have charteredinto. It is a learning experience,” theMinister said while winding up adebate on the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code AmendmentBill, which was later approved by theRajya Sabha through a voice vote.

The Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (Amendment)Ordinance, 2017 Bill was passed bythe Lok Sabha last week. TheGovernment, Jaitley said, has beenencountering situations which werenot anticipated earlier and assuredthe House that it would continueto take corrective action. PNS

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Spurring a bunch of underdogs to India's biggestprize in domestic cricket is no small task but

so confident was Vidarbha coach ChandrakantPandit that he had made inquiries about rewardsfor the improbable feat at the very start of the Ranjiseason.

After winning their maiden Ranji Trophy fol-lowing five decades of trying, Vidarbha CricketAssociation (VCA) vice-president Prashant Vaidyarecalled the time when Pandit, after being signedup last season, asked what they would do with theprize money.

Surprised, the VCA official had asked Panditwhat prize money was he referring to? "The onefor the Ranji Trophy winners", replied the mul-tiple-time winning coach.

"That was so confident of him, that this manwas already thinking of winning the trophy, so Ithought Vidarbha is definitely going to have a goodseason. I started believing on the first day he(Pandit) came to Nagpur," Vaidya said after thenine-wicket win over Delhi in the title clash here.

Seated beside Vaidya was Pandit, who has anenviable record as coach in first-class cricket. Theformer India player, as coach, has won the titlethrice, reached the final four times. The lonedefeat, to Gujarat in last season's final, was enoughfor Mumbai to show him the door.

Mumbai's loss turned out to be Vidarbha'sgain. Having been a part of so many of Mumbai'striumphant campaigns -- both as a player andcoach, Pandit knew what it would take to win.

"I have always been thinking about theachievement. Everybody wants to win the title, butI think, this win will not only change the team,it will also have an impact on the youngsters. Theplayers of 14 or 16 years can also raise their handsand say that I can win. That's the kind of cultureI would be happy to achieve in Vidarbha," the 56-year-old Pandit said.

A hard taskmaster, Pandit has his own waysto operate and doesn't like interferences.

"We have been following our routine and that'sthe best part, we have done. All credit goes to theplayers as they have put in the hard work. I amvery happy with the way they have respected me,and the players have never ignored the system wehave followed.

"That is one of the major things. The team istogether, they have started enjoying the sessions.We stayed together all the time and there were cer-tain kinds of activities in the team. That's a fan-tastic thing."

Pandit praised the support staff for helpinghim immensely in the endeavour.

"When you don't do well, people say there isno unity in the side. That's not the case. Supportstaff is equally helping. Bowling coach SubrotoBanerjee has been of great support.

"See the performance of fast bowlers -- espe-cially (Rajneesh) Gurbani -- that has helped.

Wasim Jaffer, Satish have been role models."Today, youngsters like (Akshay) Wadkar have

performed because players like Faiz (Fazal) havepassed on positive energy in the dressing room.We are grooming them also. We have been talk-ing to Prashant regularly about team combination,"he emphasised.

Pandit said some performances took him bysurprise. "Look at Aditya Thakare. I was not tooconvinced initially but Prashant convinced me. Iwas thinking whether VCA will make or breakhim. But now the U-19 boy is now a part of his-tory and he will always remember it," he said.

Making his first-class debut, Thakare, who isa stand-by in India's U-19 World Cup squad,picked up a wicket in the match's first over.

'�&&��/��&��%��0��Turning 40 in less than two months, Wasim

Jaffer has already achieved more than what manycould in first-class cricket, but the batting creaseremains the place where he feels most at home,most at peace with the world.

As one of the three seasoned professionals inthe side, Jaffer played a pivotal role in Vidarbha'smaiden Ranji Trophy triumph -- astonishingly hisninth overall.

The years of experience he gained repre-senting Mumbai benefitted Vidarbha greatlyand he willingly played mentor to the young play-ers besides scoring nearly 600 runs.

Though he concedes he doesn't have manyyears left in him, the former India opener says hewill continue to play as long as fitness allows him.Jaffer has nearly 18,000 runs in first-class crick-et.

"Nobody probably believed that I'd play anoth-er Ranji final but here I am with my ninth RanjiTrophy title," he says.

But being the exemplary team-man, Jafferdoesn't forget to acknowledge the others behindthe concerted effort that made for Vidarbha's fairy-tale campaign.

"Vidarbha had the talent but I think (coach)Chandrakant Pandit brought a lot of discipline,a lot of strictness, he brought the players out oftheir comfort zone — which was required I feel,"says the veteran.

"These players have the talent but sometimesyou need to push them; they don't know their lim-

%�� /8��13�

Cheteshwar Pujara, a vital cog inIndia's batting wheel, today stressedon the importance of leaving the

ball on the bouncy pitches of South Africaduring the three-Test series beginninghere on Friday.

India lost the series 0-1 on the pre-vious tour of South Africa four years agobut Pujara was amongst the runs along-side Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.

"It is important to leave the ball well,especially overseas. Once you move outof Asia, there is enough bounce in thepitches and that is the reason one shouldbe able to leave the ball," said Pujara aftera practice session here.

The gritty 29-year-old has gainedvaluable experience from his two trips toSouth Africa, and goes into his third serieshere in a positive frame of mind.

"It (the adjustment) is both technicaland mental. The good thing is that mostof the players have been here before.Personally, I have been here twice (2010-11 and 2013-14). It is about knowing yourgame, knowing the conditions and youjust need to apply yourself."

India arrived here four days ago andgo into the first Test without playing awarm-up match.

Asked if the players feel rusty, Pujarareplied in the negative.

"See, when we were playing at homeagainst Sri Lanka, we had the South Africaseries in our minds. We had prepared fewthings even in India. I don't think we arein any rush, there is plenty of time to pre-pare."

Indian batsmen struggled in the SriLanka series when they played on bowl-ing friendly tracks in Kolkata andDharamsala.

The moving ball is not so much a fac-tor in South Africa, it is the bounce.

"Yes, there will be some bounce andthat is always a challenge. But this timewe have have enough preparation and wewould like to back ourselves and try andexecute the things which we have doneover the past one and a half months."

Pujara said majority of the squadmembers have played here and thatexperience will come handy.

"I think the experience is mostimportant. You know what to expect fromthe pitch, what to expect from the oppo-sition. Nothing can match the experienceof scoring on such pitches. You knowwhat you want to do as a batsman andeven as a team," said India's number three.

The team has been training intense-

ly at the Western Province Cricket Club.Pujara was pleased with the preparationso far.

"Preparation has been fantastic. Wehave had three net session so far and twicewe had two sessions in a day. We are veryconfident of our chances," he said adding

the team is determined to win their maid-en series in South Africa.

Considering the unusual droughtCape Town is experiencing, the Newlandspitch might not get the amount of waterneeded to have a fast and bouncy trackover five days.

However, Pujara is not losing sleepover the kind of pitches Indian batsmenwill get to play on.

"We are not bothered about the kindof pitches they will prepare. We will justtry to focus on our processes. We have aclear gameplan, if it is a flat wicket or agrassy one," he said.

He refused to speak on the opposi-tion's strengths and weaknesses, saying histeam is well balanced for the challenge.

"It is up to South Africa how theywant to prepare. It doesn't matter whoplays for them. As a unit we are well pre-pared. Our pace attack is also much bet-ter this time. They are quick. We have thatadvantage this time," said Pujara.

India have picked five specialist pac-ers for the series with all-rounder HardikPandya being the sixth fast bowingoption.

Pujara backed the pace departmentto do the job for the team. "I can men-tion the Australia Test series at home. Ourpacers picked so many wickets eventhough the pitches were flat. There willbe lot of assistance here and I am sure theyhave made their gameplans by now."

India will also tour England andAustralia over the next 18 months, giv-ing the current team a great opportuni-ty to become one of the greatest Indiansides of all time. Pujara acknowledged thatprospect. "Yes, we have that opportunity.If we do well here and in England andAustralia. We have a team which can dom-inate overseas and it will be one of the bestteams India have ever had (if we do wellin South Africa, England and Australia),"he added.

�%� /8��5

Roger Federer continuedpreparation for his

Australian Open title defensewith a 6-3, 7-6 (8) win overKaren Khachanov at theHopman Cup, helping giveSwitzerland a 2-0 win overRussia.

Federer's playing partnerBelinda Bencic beat AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 ina later women's singles matchTuesday to give Switzerland itssecond consecutive win inGroup B.

The 36-year-old Federerhad his service broken by the 21-year-old Khachanov in theopening game, but rebounded tobreak back immediately andwon the opening set in 29 min-utes.

Khachanov matchedFederer impressively with back-hand winners in the second setbefore a back-and-forthtiebreaker. Federer saved a setpoint in the tiebreaker and wonon his third match point after asuccessful challenge.

"I had to work hard, expe-

rience helps sometime," saidFederer, who beat Rafael Nadalin the Australian Open final lastyear. "It's good to be free-swing-ing and young, like he is. Iremember those days ..."

The win came before arecord crowd of 13,943 at PerthArena, an attendance whicheclipsed one of Federer's match-es last year in the WesternAustralia state capital.

Earlier, the United Statesbeat Japan 2-1 after an illnesswithdrawal by one of theJapanese players. But the winmay come at a cost after JackSock injured his hip.

Sock slipped on the courtduring the first set of his matchagainst Yuichi Sugita, grabbinghis hip. He was forced to retireat 1-1 in the second set after los-ing the first set 7-6 (1).

Hopman Cup director PaulKilderry said he thinks Sock willbe OK for the unbeaten U.S.team's important third game.

"He has had some treatmenton it and he feels he'll be goodto go," Kilderry said. "He said iffelt uncomfortable out there, soI think he was just a little ner-vous about doing more dam-age."

The U.S. team had alreadyled 1-0 after Japan's femaleplayer, Naomi Osaka, withdrewwith an unspecified illness,handing CoCo Vandeweghe a6-0, 6-0 win.

The Americans were alsoawarded the Fast4 mixed dou-bles match 4-0, 4-0 becauseOsaka was not able to compete.

Osaka's place in bothmatches was taken by 19-year-old local player Maddison Inglis,who was woken up at 8:30 a.m.by tournament officials whotold her she would be requiredto play.

The U.S. and Switzerlandplay on Thursday in a matchthat will decide which teamadvances from the group toSaturday's final.

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Andy Murray's long-term hip injury hasforced him out of the Brisbane

International, cast serious doubts over hisparticipation in the Australian Open andhas him contemplating surgery.

Former No 1-ranked Murray pulledout of the Brisbane event after failing topractice Tuesday, two days ahead of hisscheduled return to competitive tennis forthe first time since July.

"I came here with every intention ofmaking a strong start to the year, but sadlymy team and I don't feel that I'm where Ineed to be just yet to compete at the high-est level," the two-time BrisbaneInternational champion said in a statement.

His withdrawal was confirmed hours

after Garbine Muguruza, the Wimbledonchampion and women's top seed, retiredfrom her opening match because of legcramps.

Muguruza fell to the court behind thebaseline and had treatment on her legsbefore retiring from her opening matchagainst Aleksandra Krunic while leadingin the third set

Krunic rallied from 5-2 down in thesecond set, forcing the third in a tiebreak-er, and earned a spot in the quarterfinalswith a a 5-7, 7-6 (3), 1-2 retired result afteralmost 2 ½ hours in humid conditions onPat Rafter Arena.

Fifth-seeded Johanna Konta reachedthe quarterfinals with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 winover Ajla Tomljanovic and Alize Cornetadvanced with a 6-1, 7-5 win over MirjanaLucic-Baroni.

The Brisbane International had beenMuguruza's only scheduled tuneup eventbefore the first major of the season getsunder way in Melbourne on Jan. 15.

The 30-year-old Murray is also unde-cided, planning to stay in Brisbane for afew days before deciding whether or notto contest the Australian Open or fly home.

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Asublime performance bymidfielder Mahmoud Al

Amna against Indian Arrows atthe Dr Ambedkar Stadium onTuesday helped I-league table-toppers East Bengal triumph 2-0. The Syrian attacking mid-fielder scored and assisted (toYusa Katsumi) a goal each for theKolkata giants on the day toincrease their gap at the top tofour points — ahead of MinervaPunjab, who are placed secondwith 13 points and have playedtwo matches less.

Starting as the favourites,East Bengal took control of the

match from the first minute asmuch of the action took place inArrows' half. They managed topenetrate into the box on coupleof occasions from both the flanksbut lack of quality delivery failedto perturb the Arrow defenders.

But the persistence soonpaid off in the 13thth min whenKatsumi was taken down byAbhishek Halder at the edge ofthe left-side of the box. A well-taken shot from the resultingfreekick to the near post byAmnah caught PrabhsukhanGill by surprise — who wasexpecting an in-direct set-pieceand left the first post unguard-ed — as the ball sailed into the

net for the opening goal."I am happy with my perfor-

mance today as it helped us feel morecomfortable at the top of the table,"said Amna. "For a big club like EastBengal, it is always important to chal-lenge title and hopefully we will con-tinue doing that."

Before Arrows could recoverfrom the first goal blunder, things gotworse in the 16th minute for the homeside as Katsumi doubled Red andGold's lead after receiving Amna's

cross from the right flank. Shot-stop-per Gill seemed again at fault as hewas caught way off his line by theJapanese midfielder, who struck theblow with a finesse shot.

This was Katsumi's fifth goal ofthe season, which also made him topscorer in I-league so far. The formerMohun Bagan player said result mat-tered more than his goal.

"I was happy to score again but itis not more important than the threepoints we earned today. They man-aged to draw against Bagan in Kolkata,so this is a big result for us," he said.

Arrows tried and push back intothe game for the remaining 30 min-utes but were dwarfed by the impos-ing defenders of East Bengal. Theteenagers enjoyed bulk of possessionbut the presence of robust defensivemidfielder Bazie Armand negated anyattack from developing. Arrowscouldn't manage a single shot on tar-get and won just one corner in the firsthalf.

In order to change things, Arrows'

coach Luis Norton de Matos sent inSuresh Singh Wangjam instead ofmidfielder Halder at the beginning ofthe second half. The move addedimpetus in their attack as the blue-cladboys came close to finding their firstgoal in the 50th minute. Arrows' strik-er Edmund Lalrindika managed tosneak away from two East Bengal'sdefenders inside the box but wasclosed down by goalkeeper LuisBarreto. Another glorious opportunityarrived six minutes later. Wangjam'scorner kick was headed by Anwar Alitowards Abhijit Sarkar, whose side-heeled but weak effort on target waseasily saved by Barreto.

Both the sides had sniffed the goalfor the remainder of the match butthey failed to convert those chancesas the referee blew final whistle afterthree minutes of injury time.

This was Arrows' last homematch in the national Capital as theywill play remaining home matches inGoa — at the same venue where theyplayed their first two home matches.

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South Africa head coachOttis Gibson on Tuesday

hinted that Dale Steyn mighthave to wait longer to make hiscomeback as it would be a riskto field the rusty pacer in thefirst Test against India, begin-ning here on Friday.

"Dale Steyn is fit again.But I don't know just yetwhether we will see him thisweek," Gibson told reporterson Tuesday.

Steyn is coming backfrom an injury and played hislast Test in November 2016.He is fit but faces stiff com-petition for a playing elevenspot.

"He has had a year's lay-off. I don't think if we were topick a three-man seam attackplus a spinner that you wouldwant to put him in that three-man attack, in case somethinghappens and that leaves theteam vulnerable if he can't fin-ish the game," Gibson said.

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its. So with me around, (bowl-ing coach) Subroto (Banerjee)around and Chandu around,you can see what they can do,"he adds.

Jaffer made his first-classdebut in 1996-97 and twodecades on, he shows no signof slowing down. In the inter-national arena, he has nearly2000 Test runs with five cen-turies, including a double tonagainst the West Indies in 2006.

Into his 20th season infirst-class cricket, Jaffer'shunger for playing the sport isas incredible as ever. "I thinkjust about playing, to be hon-est. I don't know anythingother than playing cricket. Iknow I can do a bit of coach-ing and a bit of commentating,but it won't give me as much joy.”

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For all the recent talk about themoney Jose Mourinho has — orhasn't — spent at Manchester

United, his best player at the momentmight be one who cost the club nothing.

United prides itself on the blossom-ing of its youth-team graduates and JesseLingard is the latest to flourish on the bigstage.

Lingard scored his seventh goal in hislast nine Premier League games to wrapup United's 2-0 win at Everton onMonday, which ended the team's run ofthree draws that might have fullyknocked it out of title contention.

At age 25, the forward is finally estab-lishing himself as a first-team regular atUnited, proving much more influentialand clinical than the dropped HenrikhMkhitaryan in the position just off thestriker.

Lingard signed professional termswith United in 2011 before spending peri-ods on loan at Leicester, Birmingham,Brighton and Derby in England's lowerleagues from 2012-15. Much like HarryKane at Tottenham, Lingard - a locallyborn player - has taken a circuitous routeto his current position as one of the formplayers in the Premier League.

"These boys, they jump or they don'tjump," United manager Jose Mourinhosaid. "One thing is to be a talent, anoth-er thing is to be a very good player. Someplayers are not capable of making thatjump, some players go from that ... to nor-mal players.

"I think Jesse has made that jump. Hehas been more consistent, adaptable, heunderstands the game, the differentpositions. He is going in a good direction."

It is not just the number of goalsLingard is scoring that is impressive, it'sthe quality of his strikes, too. His latestwas a curling 25-meter (yard) shot thatfound the top corner in the 81st minute,adding to Anthony Martial's goal forUnited in the 57th.

A difficult festive period for Unitedhad threatened to get worse on Monday.With Liverpool edging past Burnley 2-1earlier thanks to an injury-time winner,a defeat for United at Everton hours laterwould have dropped Mourinho's teambelow its arch rival to fourth place.

Instead, United climbed to secondplace, 12 points behind ManchesterCity, whose game in hand is against

Watford on Tuesday.Here's what else happened in the

Premier League on Monday:

��(�� Ragnar Klavan headed home from

close range in the fourth minute ofstoppage time to earn Liverpool a thirdstraight win and cement fourth placeat the end of the busy four-game fes-tive period.

Liverpool had conceded an equal-izer in the 87th minute to Johann BergGudmundsson, which canceled out theopening goal by Sadio Mane - the onlymember of Liverpool's so-called "Fab4" attack to start at Turf Moor.

Roberto Firmino was on the bench,while Philippe Coutinho andMohamed Salah were out injured.

Liverpool is six points clear of fifth-place Arsenal.

%�� Mark Hughes is the latest Premier

League manager in danger of gettingfired after his Stoke side lost 1-0 athome to Newcastle, two days after a 5-0 defeat at Chelsea when Hughes rest-ed his frontline players.

There were boos from Stoke fans atthe final whistle, while a "HughesOut" banner was on display inside thestadium.

"Who else is going to do it?"Hughes said, when asked about hisfuture after 4 1/2 years at Stoke. "Interms of the knowledge of the groupand the progress in my time here, I'mthe best person to do it."

Stoke has won only two games inits last 12 and dropped to 16th place,two points clear of the relegation zone.

Ayoze Perez scored the 73rd-minute winner for Newcastle.

��0&��Leicester hardly missed the injured

Jamie Vardy in a routine 3-0 win overHuddersfield.

The striker had a groin problemand wasn't risked by manager ClaudePuel. Vardy's replacement, IslamSlimani, scored as did Riyad Mahrezand Marc Albrighton.

In the other game, Callum Wilsonscored a late equalizer forBournemouth in a 2-2 draw at Brightonin a match between two mid-table teams.

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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho hashit back at club great Paul Scholes for his crit-

icism of midfielder Paul Pogba.While working as a TV pundit, Scholes said after

United's 0-0 draw with Southampton on Saturday thatPogba was "just strolling through games" and "does-n't look fit."

"I think the only thing Paul Scholes does is crit-icize," Mourinho said after United beat Everton 2-0in the Premier League on Monday. "I don't think hecomments, I think he criticizes, which is a differentthing.

"Not everyone of us has to be phenomenal likehe was as a player. That does not mean that we allhave to be phenomenal."

Mourinho said he thought Scholes was jealousof Pogba, who joined United in the summer of 2016for 105 million euros (then $116 million) - a world-record fee at the time.

"Paul (Pogba) tries to do his best all the time,"Mourinho said. "Sometimes he plays very well,sometimes he plays well, sometimes he doesn't playso well. It's not Paul's fault that he made much moremoney than Paul Scholes. It's just the way footballis.

"I think Scholes will be in history as a phe-nomenal player, not as a pundit. I prefer to look athim as a phenomenal player that gave so much tothe club that I am proud to represent."

Scholes, who made 718 appearances for United,is one of many former United stars who are nowpundits or commentators for British broadcasters.Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Owen Hargreaves havealso been critical of the team in recent weeks, withUnited having drawn three straight games in thePremier League over the festive season to drop outof realistic contention for the title.

Asked if he was frustrated by the number ofhigh-profile ex-United players working in themedia, Mourinho said: "I think they would love tobe here, in the club. That's a problem that I cannotresolve."

On Scholes, Mourinho added: "If Paul one daydecides to be a manager, I wish that he can be 25percent as successful as myself. Fifty percent of thatis 12.5 silverware, 25 percent is around 6. If he's 25percent, he'll be quite happy."

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Upbeat after registering the sea-son's maiden home victory,

defending champions ATK wouldlook to continue their winning runwhen they face FC Goa in an IndianSuper League match, here onWednesday.

The most successful ISL franchisehad kicked off their title defence ona shaky note after being winless fromfour matches.

But the two-time champions havebrought their title campaign back ontrack with successive victories overMumbai City and Delhi Dynamos,the last coming at their home groundSaltlake Stadium in their last roundfixture.

ATK are now at seventh placewith eight points from six matches.

The season's maiden home vic-tory only turned sweeter when starIrish captain Robbie Keane firedhome the winner in a sheer momentof brilliance.

The hosts broke the deadlock 12minutes from time when Keane chest-ed the ball from substitute BipinSingh's headed pass, brought it down,and turned his marker before placingthe ball exquisitely into the bottomright corner of the goal.

While ATK appeared to be find-ing their mojo back, fancied Goa havestarted slipping after securing fourwins from five outings. They are nowplaced fifth in the standings with 12points from six games.

The Gaurs will be smarting froma 0-2 defeat against FC Pune City atJawaharlal Nehru Stadium - theirmaiden home defeat of 2017-18 sea-son.

This was also the first time of theseason that the Goans failed to findthe back of the net and they would be

under pressure to score against aKeane-bolstered ATK attack.

Goa's defence is not as strong astheir attacking unit and the TeddySheringham-coached side would behoping to take the early advantage toput pressure on the visitors.

"Like I have said before, we loseand win as a team. Had we taken ourchances, the game would have beencompletely different. When we movedup the field, we left a bit of spacebehind, and they took advantage ofthat. But I don't see it as a problem

with the defence today," Goa'sSpaniard head coach Sergio Loberasaid.

The 40-year-old, however, wantsto take the positives into count aheadof the big match.

"The loss made sure that our feetare grounded. It tells us that we stillhave a lot of work to do. We have toimprove our mistakes, and we have tobe capable to grab our chances,"Lobera said.

It's not only Keane but the inclu-sion of former Newcastle Unitedplayer Ryan Taylor, who was broughtin as a replacement for the injuredCarl Baker, that has benefited the red-and- whites.

In his debut for ATK against atMumbai, Taylor ran the show fromthe midfield and also created oppor-tunities in their win over Delhi.

"He (Taylor) has been very good.We lost Carl Baker to injury, and I wasvery lucky to pick up the phone andcall Ryan to come over at the drop ofa hat," Sheringham said.

"He could not wait to get overhere, and I am delighted with his reac-tion. He has been fantastic in the mid-field. He has played at the top level inthe Premier League. He knows thegame and he has great qualities aswell."

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Sumit Nagal's unbeaten streak of seven matches washalted by fellow qualifier Ilya Ivashka as the Indian

bowed out of Tata Open Maharashtra following a tamedefeat, here on Tuesday.

Nagal, ranked 223, came into the match after win-ning the Bengaluru Open and two qualifying match-es here for his maiden ATP World Tour event but suf-fered a 3-6, 3-6 defeat in the opening round againstthe Belarusian, placed seven places below him.

It was second meeting between 20-year-oldNagal and Ivashka with the Indian losing the firstmatch at the same venue during the 2015 Challengerevent.

There were no easy points for Nagal as Ivashkanot only played aggressive but had good control overhis strokes. His measured game meant that there werenot many unforced errors, forcing Nagal to rethinkhis strategy.

Realising that Ivashka was having problem in tack-ling high bounce, Nagal tried to feed such balls con-sistently but the Belarusian was up to the task and racedto a 4-1 lead following a break of serve in the fourthgame.

Ivashka kept Nagal under the pump by movinghim side to side with his superior stroke-play. Evenholding serve became tough for the young Indian.

Serving to stay in the set, Nagal was up 30-0 buta flurry of unforced errors, including a double fault,meant that he was soon facing a set point. He man-aged to save that but unrelenting Ivashka closed theset in his favour by serving the next game at love.

Nagal tried very hard but could not find a way toovercome his opponent. He lost serve in the very first

game of the second set when he hit a forehand wide.While Ivashka maintained the intensity, Nagal was

again facing a break point in the third game.Desperate to save the point, he even argued with thechair umpire who overruled the wrong call from a lines'umpire and asked to replay the point.

Nagal did save that point but was soon facinganother. Egged on by the little crowd, the 20-year-oldHaryana lad finally got on board.

Trailing by a set and a break, Nagal did not do anygood to his cause by dropping serve in the fifth. Thematch was as good as over however Ivashka droppedserve while serving for the match.

Nagal's struggle to put the ball in the court andwas down 0-40, facing three match points. He lost witha double fault on the first.

In an all-Indian clash, India's top singles playerYuki Bhambri will be up against Arjun Kadhe laterin the evening. In another match of great interest isthe doubles first round encounter between defendingchampions Rohan Bopanna and JeevanNedunchezhiyan and Leander Paes and Purav Raja.

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Women hockey team's chief coachHarendra Singh has set his sights on

achieving positive results against higherranked sides as India embark on an"important" 2018 season.

After a short two-week break, 33women players will report for the nation-al camp starting in Bengaluru's SportsAuthority of India campus on Wednesday.

"It is an extremely important year forus. It was a satisfying 2017 where weended the year with a career high worldranking of 10, but the team has self-beliefof achieving bigger goals.

"The girls know they are capable ofdoing well against higher ranked teamsand getting good results against theseteams will be one of our top prioritiesgoing into a new season. It is importantto play these major tournaments in 2018with the fittest team," said Harendra.

With important tournaments likeCommonwealth Games and Asian Gameslined up, 2018 is extremely crucial forIndian hockey.

The 21-day camp that concludes onJanuary 24 will lay the foundation for acrucial year for the women.

The Indian girls will take part in the

Gold Coast Commonwealth Games inApril, fifth women's Asians ChampionsTrophy in Korea in May where they willdefend their title followed by an exposuretour to Spain in June ahead of thewomen's World Cup in London startingin July and the 18th Asian Games inJakarta in August which is also anOlympic Qualifying event.

In their previous camp, the team's

focus was on improving their strength andfitness, agility and speed apart from skill-driven training.

"It was a gruelling camp and apartfrom these aspects we also worked on alot on mental conditioning. In this camptoo we will continue with our fitness pro-gram along with tactical training," thecoach said.

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The ICC has giventhe Melbourne

Cricket Ground pitch apoor rating for lastweek's drawn Ashestest, giving CricketAustralia two weeks torespond to the criti-cism before determin-ing a sanction.

Players and com-mentators criticized thelifeless drop-in pitchused for the Boxing Daytest between Australiaand England inMelbourne, andInternational CricketCouncil match refereeRanjan Madugalle fol-lowed up in his officialreport to the sport'sgoverning body whenhe gave it a poor rating.

It was the firstAustralian test venueto be rated with such alow rating.

Under existingrules, the ICC sanctioncan range from an offi-cial warning to a fine.But under regulationsset to come into effecton Thursday, pitchesofficially rated as pooror unfit will be givendemerit points whichcould ultimately lead

to suspensions.The ICC also rated

the Indian venue Puneas poor last year afterAustralia's victory thereover India.

The MCG is one ofthe sport's most iconicvenues, becoming a testfixture for the annualBoxing Day test in

Australia and havinghosted the most recentWorld Cup final.

The opening day ofthe test drew more than88,000 spectators lastweek, despite Australiahaving already clinchedthe five-match serieswith victories inBrisbane, Adelaide and

Perth.But in his report,

Madugalle outlined theconcerns of the matchofficials over the per-formance of the pitchon which Australiascored 327 and 263-4declared, and Englandscoring 491 in its onlyinnings.

"The bounce of theMCG pitch was medi-um, but slow in paceand got slower as thematch progressed,"Madugalle said in thereport. "The nature ofthe pitch did not changeover the five days andthere was no naturaldeterioration. As such,the pitch did not allowan even contest betweenthe bat and the ball as itneither favored the bats-men too much nor itgave the bowlers suffi-cient opportunity totake wickets."

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