Delhi

saturday, september 17, 2016

www.thehindu.in Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 6 No. 222 CITY EDITION 24 Pages Rs. 8.00

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

Raghuvansh Prasad
lashes out at Nitish
govt. over prohibition

SC agrees to hear
challenge to bail of
Mohd. Shahabuddin

German Chancellor
Angela Merkel says EU
in a critical situation

Doping case of wrestler

Narsingh Yadav
transferred to CBI

Page 12

Page 12

Page 14

Page 17

Cong. loses Arunachal

as 43 MLAs join BJP ally

All quiet on the western front

BRIEFLY
Pakistan building
nuclear centrifuge
Pakistan, which is already
suspected to be expanding its
nuclear weapons stockpile
faster than any other nation,
may be rapidly constructing a
centrifuge for a reprocessing
site within the Khan Research
Laboratories in Kahuta,
according to commercial
satellite imagery.
WORLD | PAGE 14

CM Khandu hints
at need for better
ties with Centre
for resources

4 killed in communal
clash at Bijnore

RANJU DODUM

BIJNORE: Four persons were

circle in Arunachal Pradesh

on Friday when 43 of the 44
Congress MLAs, including
Chief Minister Pema Khandu,
joined the Peoples Party of
Arunachal (PPA), a part of the
North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a BJP-led
front.
Just two months ago, Mr.
Khandu and his group of Congress rebels had deserted the
PPA and returned to the Congress to form the government.
Mr. Khandu became the
Chief Minister on July 16, replacing Nabam Tuki, who in
turn had replaced Kalikho Pul
after the Supreme Court reinstated the Tuki government.
During Mr. Puls four-anda-half month tenure, he and
other MLAs had formed the
PPA and joined the NEDA.

ITANAGAR: Politics turned a full

killed in a clash between two

communities here on Friday
after a school girl was allegedly
harassed by some persons.
NATION | PAGE 9

READY FOR ACTION: Security men guarding the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border at Attibele on Friday, when a bandh was
observed in Tamil Nadu. PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

METROPLUS MELANGE
4 Pages

L-G asks Sisodia

to return
immediately

In setback to Akhilesh, uncle

Shivpal regains portfolios

Hold inclusive
dialogue, India
tells Nepal

JATIN ANAND

Mulayam rushes to
control damage,
hammer out truce

KALLOL BHATTACHERJEE

NEW DELHI: In a late evening

development here on Friday, Lieutenant-Governor

Najeeb Jung issued urgent
summons to Deputy Chief
Minister Manish Sisodia,
directing him to "return to
the NCT of Delhi immediately" from Europe in light
of the dengue and chikungunya outbreak in the Capital.
According to a source
from Raj Niwas, Mr. Jung
"sent the summons via fax
personally" to Mr. Sisodia,
on an oicial tour of Finland, along with representatives of Brazil, China and
some Gulf Nations, to assess best practices in Finnish education.
Source said, besides Mr.
Sisodia, all oicers including Education Secretary
have been directed to return to Delhi immediately.

DETAILS ON | PAGE 7

OMAR RASHID
LUCKNOW: A day after the
crisis in the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh
escalated with the resignation of senior leader Shivpal
Yadav, his brother and party
supremo Mulayam Singh
Yadav stepped in to steady
the boat on Friday.
By the end of the day, it
appeared Mr. Mulayam
Singh had been successful
in enforcing a truce between his warring family
members, bringing an end
to a long-drawn power and
ego struggle that threatened
to derail the partys campaign ahead of next years
Assembly polls.

Nothing on paper
Though nothing is on paper yet, Mr. Shivpal Yadav
looks set to get back the

Recognising
Nepals eforts to build a
democratic polity, India on
Friday expressed the hope
that the government of
Prime Minister Pushpa
Kamal Dahal Prachanda
would hold an inclusive dialogue while implementing
the
controversial
Constitution of his country.
India and Nepal held
wide-ranging talks and
sealed three significant deals
as Mr. Prachandas September 15-18 visit to India unfolded but diferences over the
Constitution which led to
domestic discord and disturbed ties with Delhi, persisted. We are hopeful that
Nepal will successfully implement the Constitution
through inclusive dialogue,
Foreign
Secretary
S.
Jaishankar said.
NEW

RESTORING PEACE: SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav addressing

the media in Lucknow on Friday. With him is Gayatri Prajapati,
who is to be reinducted into the U.P. Cabinet. PHOTO: PTI
ministries he lost, including
that of the prestigious Public Works Department,
while retaining the post of
State party president.
Mr. Akhilesh Yadav,
whose authority appears to
have been diluted in the entire episode as he was not
only forced to revoke his decisions but also lost the post
of State president, might get

a bigger say in candidate

selection for the 2017 elections as a trade of.
SP sources, however, said
the younger Mr Yadav had
emerged unscathed from
the turmoil as he had shown
that he would not take his
uncles power play lying
down.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

DELHI:

EVERYONE WILL BE ON

BOARD: PRACHANDA | PAGE 12

Hours after losing its government in the State, the Congress dubbed the new dispensation an illegitimate

child of the BJP and blamed

Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and BJP chief Amit
Shah. The mandate of the
people of Arunachal Pradesh,
who voted the Congress to
power, has been robbed in
broad daylight, Congress
spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters in New
Delhi.
In Itanagar, Mr. Khandu justified the decision, saying the
State lacked resources hence
they had moved to join the
PPA. I have already released
Rs 1,200 crore and we have
more deficit, Mr. Khandu

said, hinting that his government had not received support from the Centre.
Government spokesperson
Pasang D. Sona said the Centre and the State need to be in
tandem. and that the decision
was fuelled by regional aspirations of the people.
Deputy Chief Minister
Chowna Mein echoed Mr.
Sona, saying the move was initiated to build better relations with the Centre.
(The writer is a
freelance journalist)

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

Police raid Alwar village on

cow slaughter suspicion
ASHOK KUMAR

Ransacked houses,
broken furniture, animal carcasses, damaged electrical
appliances, pieces of broken
bottles strewn around and
terror-stricken faces bear
witness to the large-scale
vandalism carried out in
over 40 houses at Rewara
Baas in Raghunathgarh village here following a raid by
the police in the early hours
of Thursday on complaints
of cow-slaughter.
The police claim to have
recovered 36 bovine carcasses and rescued six cows
from the village two days
after Bakr Eid on July 15 acting on a tip-of. Twelve peo-

ALWAR:

A scene outside a house that

was allegedly vandalised by
cow vigilante groups in
Alwar. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGMENT
ple have also been arrested
so far and raids are on in
search of at least 10 more.
The locals, however, claim

that a few hours after the raid

in the village at 4 a.m. on
Thursday, the police returned around noon along
with hundreds of right-wing
activists and ransacked
houses in the village. The
police along with the rightwing activists beat up the villagers, butchered their animals, broke the furniture and
even misbehaved with the
women. We were too terrorised to stop or question them
and fled to the fields. We returned around noon today
[on Friday] when the media
and social activists came to
the village, said Mohammad
Akeel.

CONTINUED ON | PAGE 12

Copying books for

teaching not copyright
violation: High Court
AKANKSHA JAIN
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High
Court on Friday held that
the photocopying of course
packs prepared by Delhi
University comprising portions from books published
by Oxford University Press,
Cambridge
University
Press and Taylor & Francis
did not amount to infringement of copyright.

Suit dismissed
The court dismissed the
suit initiated by the publishing majors, which had sued
DU and Rameshwari Photocopying Services, a kiosk inside the Delhi School of
Economics, claiming infringement of copyright by
engaging in preparing copies of course packs with
portions culled out of its
books in keeping with the
syllabus prescribed by the
varsity.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw also lifted the stay on
the kiosk from photocopying the course packs. The
case had seen protest by
students who backed the
kiosk.
Not a natural right
CM
YK

Copyright, especially in
literary works, is thus not an
inevitable, divine, or natural
right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creations. It is
designed rather to stimulate
activity and progress in the
arts for the intellectual enrichment of the public, said
Justice Endlaw.
Copyright is intended to
increase and not to impede
the harvest of knowledge. It
is intended to motivate the
creative activity of authors
and inventors in order to
benefit
the
public,he
added.

CONTINUED ON | PAGE 12
MORE REPORTS| PAGE 2
ND-ND

2|

CITY

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Chikungunya to be notified as dangerous

HC slams govt for lack of special educators

The Delhi government has said that chikungunya will soon

be listed as dangerous even as the Centre agreed to reserve
10 per cent of beds in its hospitals for patients Page 4

The AAP government and the municipal corporations

were pulled up by the Delhi High Court on Friday for their
failure to appoint special educators in its schools Page 4

TO PHOTOCOPY OR NOT?

Post-verdict, business as usual on North Campus

Students, photocopy shop owners and experts welcome HCs dismissal of a copyright suit against Delhi University and Rameshwari Photocopying Services
JAIDEEP DEO BHANJ

Verdict favours
the future of
the nation,
say experts

NEW DELHI: Tucked away be-

hind the canteen of the Delhi

School of Economics, there
is no signboard ofering directions to Rameshwari Photocopy shop, which has been
at the centre of a debate on
copyright laws after three international publishers filed a
suit against it in the High
Court. The shop is only identified by the constant buzz of
photocopy machines at
work.
It was business as usual on
Friday afternoon, a few
hours after the High Court
lifted a ban on the photocopier kiosk in a landmark
verdict. There is no sign of
emotion on the face of the
owner, Dharam Pal Singh. I
dont want to ofer comments before I read what the

Look at the list of

readings. If students
start searching for
these, it will take
them an year to
find them

STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: Experts of copy-

BIG STEP: Dharampal (left), who owns the shop that was at the
centre of the debate, refuses to comment without taking a
look at the verdict first. PHOTOS: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
court has said. I just got to
hear the news. It is good for
the students of Delhi University, he says.
Thanks to students
group
Dharam Pal says the case
was filed in 2012, when one
day he received a notice demanding a fine of 1 million
dollars. Court oicials had
come and seized some of the
reading bundles from the
store. It is thanks to the student community and an association of students - Association of Students for
Equitable
Access
to
Knowledge (ASEAK) - that

we have been able to fight

back, says Dharampal.
Explaining the issue,
Dharam Pal points to the index from a booklet of readings for first year Sociology
students. Look at the list of
readings. If students start
searching for these, it will
take them an year to find
them. Some of them are out
of publication, some are only
published abroad, and some
are pages from an Encyclopedia, he says. What the
photocopy shop does is to
put together all the suggested readings into one bundle
and sell them for approximately Rs. 800, depending on

the number of pages. If students were to go out and purchase these readings, they
would have to spend a fortune. Either students get the
material photocopied, or DU
needs to change the reading
list, adds Dharam Pal.
However, Dharampal refuses to talk about the future
without taking a look at the
verdict first. He says he has
been running the photocopy
shop for over 20 years. The
business began with two old
photocopy machines and has
served the students of Delhi
University well, something
Dharampal
wants
to
continue.

Why shouldnt students

use available technology?
AKANKSHA JAIN

College-goers cant imagine

life without photocopies
STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: For a DU student,

studying from sets of spiralbound photocopies is so

much a part of life that when
you ask them about the High
Courts observation of copyright not (being) a divine
right, they draw a blank.
If
photocopies
are
banned, how will we study
the suggested readings? The
books are not available in
shops. It is the bookshops
that sell the photocopies,
says Anvay Joshi, a third year
student who was purchasing
a new set of readings for the
term.
Owners speak
The owners of photocopy
shops that line the streets of
Patel Chest, in fact, are clueless about the storm raging
outside. Many students buy
the readings because they
have been recommended by
the University and are specific to DU. You wont get them
compiled elsewhere. Even if
we lose one page, it becomes
a task to find it again, says
Praveen Gujral, who owns a

Students say buying

original books is
an expensive option
compared to
photocopying material
photocopying kiosk.
Even books that are available cost a few thousand rupees. At these shops, the
complete version is available
for under Rs.1,000. Which
DU student will spend a few
thousand rupees on a book?
The fee for a quarter of a semester is the same as one
book, says Jagdev, another
store owner.
Students also feel that buying original books is not an
option. Ishvender Singh, a final year Economics (Hons.)

student at HansRaj College

welcomed the landmark decision. We are financially dependent on our parents, and
many of us are from the
middle and low-income
groups. It is very diicult for
us to pay PG and hostel fee,
and then shell out thousands
for semester books, he said.
Namrata Sehrawat, a
second year Economics
(Hons.) student at Kirorimal
College said that readings
were better than the books
students are asked to read.
The readings, Namrata said,
consist of chapters by diferent authors, which help the
students understand topics
better. Books are expensive;
every student can't aford
them, but readings are
pocket-friendly, she adds.
Photocopy centres, says
students, are a boon. The
photocopy shops near Patel
Chest Institute give us a compilation of all chapters by different authors at a reasonable
price. Even our seniors have
told us that we can get good
marks by reading them, remarked Rana Pratap, an
SRCC student.

NEW DELHI: Comparing the

present time with his days

as a student, Justice Rajiv
Sahai Endlaw said
students today cant be
expected to spend days in
the library, or buy books.
According to him, it
would qualify as fair use if
students take
photographs of relevant
portions on their mobile
phones to read later.
In the times when I
was studying law, the
facility of photocopying
was limited, timeconsuming and costly.
The students then used to
take turns to sit in the
library and copy pages by
hand. Subsequently, they
would either make carbon
copies or get these
photocopied. The
photocopying machines
then did not permit
replicating voluminous
books without
dismembering them.
However, students now
are not required to spend
days in the library and
copy pages, said the
judge.
Not in an ancient era
When modern
technology is available for
comfort, it would be
unfair to say that the
students should not avail

of it and continue to study

as if in the ancient era. No
law can be interpreted so
as to result in any
regression.
Today, nearly all
students carry cell phones
with inbuilt cameras,
which enables them to
click each page of the
book as required.
Thereafter, they can
connect the phone to a
printer. The same would
again qualify as fair use
and cannot be stopped,
he added.
Interestingly, the court

equated the Rameshwari

Photocopying shop being
given a licence by DU to
run in the Delhi School of
Economics as the one set
up by Bar Association in
its library in the High
Court so as to reduce the
burden of carrying heavy
books for references
while arguing in the court.
He also said that in
many cases, students use a
photocopier themselves,
but in DU, that was not
the case, which is why a
licence has been given for
a kiosk.

right laws have hailed the

Delhi High Court judgement
as progressive and a big relief
for students, teachers and researchers. According to
them, the decision does not
promote piracy or photocopying of books.
Gaurang Kanth, managing
partner at Kanth and Associates, says, The judgement,
which appears to have leaned
in favour of the students, has
not gone in for a strict interpretation of the copyright infringement law, at least as far
as the photocopy of
reference books is concerned. However, this is in
line with technological progress and should be appreciated as it provides students
with all the relevant material
that may otherwise be out of
their reach.
The
judgement
is
progressive and would go a
long way in encouraging students who are to become the
future of this country, said
Mr Kanth.
Case is specific to DU
Designated senior advocate Pratibha Singh, who holds
expertise in cases of copyright law, says the court in
this case was specifically
dealing with course packs
prepared by the Delhi
University.
The court has specifically
held that photocopying substantial portions of books is
infringement, but here, the
court was specifically dealing with course packs that
contained portions of works
from diferent books. That is
not infringement. You see, if I
teach law, and on a particular
point, to explain to my students, I cite various cases and
portions, that itself requires a
lot of expertise and cannot be
called infringement, said
Mrs Singh.
Asked if the verdict would
impact the interpretation of
the law, she said, I don't
think the judgement changes
the law in any way. It does not
encourage piracy or photocopying of books.
Dr S. N. Singh, former dean
of the Delhi Universitys Law
Centre said the judgement
would only help students,
teachers and researchers.

Ex Attorney-General
releases book at IIC

TAKE OFF: Former Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee (left) at the

launch of India, Inter-Country Parental Child Removal and
the Law on Friday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
NIRNIMESH KUMAR
NEW DELHI: Former Attorney-

General of India Soli Sorabjee on Friday released a book

titled India, Inter-Country
Parental Child Removal and
the Law that has been
jointly authored by Anil
Malhotra
and
Ranjit
Malhotra.
Dignitaries present
Mr. Sorabjee released the
book, for which he has written the preface, at the India
International Centre here in
the presence of Supreme
Court Judges Justice Madan
B. Lokur and Justice A.K.
Sikri, the US Ambassador to
India Richard Verma, and
Special Advisor for Children's Issues, Ambassador
Susan Jacobs.
In his brief address, Mr.
Sorabjee said that it was
amazing that the book was
CM
YK

being released in the presence of representatives from

about 90 countries, who had
come to participate in the
Conference of the International Academy of Family
Lawyers.
Justice Sikri, meanwhile,
appreciated the authors for
writing a book every year.
In the preface, Mr. Sorabjee says that about 30 million
of Indians live in 180 countries, having cross-border
matrimonial relationships.
Their broken multi-jurisdictional matrimonial relationships lead to removal of
chilpdren to India or foreign
jurisdiction in violation of
court custody orders, or the
infringement of parental
rights of the aggrieved parent, Mr. Sorabjee added.
He also expresses anguish
over the fact that India does
not recognise inter-parental
child removal as an ofence.
ND-ND

|3

CITY

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

D E L H I

Sep 17, Sat

Sep 18, Sun

Sep 19, Mon

RISE 06 07 SET 18 24

RISE 06 08 SET 18 22

RISE 06 08 SET 18 21

RISE 18 57 SET 06 25

RISE 19 41 SET 07 31

RISE 20 26 SET 08 36

Vihar fields hunting

Day after gangrape, kin shun accused Aman
ground for criminals, say locals
Father of one accused has refused to return home ever since the son was arrested

SHIV SUNNY
SHIV SUNNY
NEW DELHI: The vast stretch of
fields in Aman Vihars Prem
Nagar, where two teenage
girls were gangraped on
Wednesday, are a hunting
ground for criminals.
In the daytime, the fields
serve as a short-cut to the
nearby Mundka metro station. But come sunset, few
dare venture into these barren lands were Ramleela is
held once a year.
Those few are mostly
young couples looking for
private time together, away
from the glaring eyes of the
densely populated localities
surrounding these fields.

NEW DELHI: A day after four

youths were arrested for the

alleged gangrape of two girls
in Outer Delhis Aman Vihar,
the family members of the accused turned their backs on
them.
Vinod Jha, father of accused Manish, has refused to
return home ever since the
latter was arrested.
Disrepute to family
My father is ashamed of
the damage my brother has
done to his reputation. He has
decided not to visit the police,
either, said Rajnish, brother
of the accused.
According to the family,
Vinod had tried every trick in
his book from thrashing his
son to keeping an eye on him
to keep him away from
bad company, but they had
proved inefective.
Almost similar has been the
response of Heera Lal*, father
of another accused, Sonu*,
who has been absconding
since the crime occurred. According to Sonus mother,
Leela Devi*, his father has not
bothered to even defend his
son since he learnt of his alleged involvement.
Leela herself is in two
minds about her sons involvement. I believe my son
is innocent, but I dont know
why he is hiding. If he does
not surrender himself to the
police by today, I will assume
him to be guilty, she told The
Hindu on Friday.
On Wednesday, the five accused, including two juveniles, had allegedly approached
two
teenage
couples spending time at a
field outside the locality, tied
and thrashed the men, and
took turns to rape the girls,
aged 17 and 18.

ASHAMED: After the crime, family members have turned their back on the accused. PHOTO: SHIV SUNNY

Unsafe Kirari wants a

police station of its own
STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: A large number
of residents, especially
women, gheraoed the
police chowki and several
other intersections in the
heart of Kirari assembly
segment on Friday in
protest against the rape of

Barring Sonu, the others

had been caught by police in
the crackdown that followed.
Often seen loitering around
together, the five accused are
viewed by locals as rowdies.

two girls in the area.

Kirari is becoming a
haven for drug peddlers
and liquor mafia. The
nearest police station is in
Aman Vihar, which is
about 10 kilometres from
Kirari, said Congress
leader Pratyush Kanth,
who led the protest.
Some of the youths are
drug addicts. But we never expected them to indulge in
such a crime, said Sunil Kumar Mishra, a local resident.
Some in Manishs family,

however, do not deny his

presence at the crime spot.
Manish had a habit of defying his fathers orders, and
running away with his
friends. On the day of the incident, too, he had been
forced to sleep at home by his
elder brother, but he sneaked
out on receiving a call from
friends, said Manishs aunt,
Meera Jha.
Disbelief
Meera, however, is unwilling to believe that Manish
was involved in the crime.
Manishs friends asked
him to keep a watch on the
two friends of the girls during
the rape. Manish was only acting as a chowkidaar (guard),
she said.
*Names changed

Couples blackmailed
There have been incidents of men capturing the intimate moments of these
couples on their mobile
phones and blackmailing
them after that, alleged
Subodh, a man who works in
a factory nearby.
Another worker, Kamal,
said the targeted couples
rarely dare to take on these
goons. They are threatened
to be identified if they raise
their voice. So, girls are harassed fearlessly while their
male friends are left hoping
that their love afair does not
spill out, said Kamal.
The police acknowledge
that this stretch of fields is
prone to incidents of snatching, but claim no major
crime was reported from the
spot earlier.
Locals, however, choose
to difer.
Just two-three months
ago, a girl was raped inside a
car that the accused had
driven into the fields. Over a
year ago, a man was killed
and his body dumped in a
well here. A few years ago,
an 11-year-old girls body was

TERROR PATH: In the daytime, the fields serve as a short-cut to

the nearby Mundka metro station. But come sunset, few dare
venture into these barren lands. PHOTO: SHIV SUNNY
found in a sack in these
fields, said Dharmender,
another local.
Lack of police presence
In spite of the shocking
crimes, the area has limited
police presence.
Consisting of 108 colonies
all unauthorised and a
population of over eight
lakh, the area is manned by
barely around 100 police
personnel, less than 40 of
them out on the streets.
Not surprisingly, 35 rapes

have already been reported

at the Aman Vihar police station this year, more than a
third jump in the same
period last year, making it
among the worst in terms of
womens safety. With 40
rapes in 2014, the police station was the most notorious
in the city that year.
The
socio-economic
factors, combined with the
dense population of this area, could facilitate such
crimes, said Vikramjit
Singh, DCP (Outer).

ATTACK OVER BOVINE SACRIFICE

Mob thrashed victims, while others watched

SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
NEW DELHI: An eyewitness to
the alleged assault of two
Muslim men in Outer Delhi
for transporting remains of
sacrificed bufaloes to a
dumping ground two days ago
said at least 50 persons had
gathered around the victims
when a mob had unleashed itself upon them.
The Hindu on Friday
visited the open plot where
the alleged assault took place,
and met Rajpal who lives

close by. Mr. Rajpal said the

group was continuously accusing them of slaughtering
cows and consuming their
meat.
Ali Hasan (35) and Hafiz
Abdul Khalid (25) who faced
the wrath of the mob continue
to remain hospitalised. They
remained helpless as they
were thrashed. I wanted to
help but that would have
meant risking my own life given how aggressive the crowd
was. I stayed at a distance, but
there were others who

gathered around just to watch

them getting beaten up, said
Mr. Pal.
Victims stripped
Two police control room
staf members said when they
reached the spot, they saw
that the victims had been
stripped down and were
bleeding. We rushed them to
the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital,
said one of the police oicers
of Outer Zone. The local police reached later, and arrested Naveen, Raju Devesh and

Abhishek from the spot, said a

senior police oicer. Jasbir
Dabas, the uncle of Naveen
and Raju alias Sudhir, claimed
that the boys were not even
present at the spot when the
incident happened. We have
video evidence to show that
they were busy running a fogging drive, he claimed.
Sudhir is an undergraduate
student, while Naveen is a
farmer. Jasbir claimed that the
second PCR call was, in fact,
made by Abhishek, who hails
from their village.

AAP MLA writes

to minority panel
STAFF REPORTER
DELHI:
Aam
Aadmi Party MLA
from Kirari, Rituraj
Govind, has written
to the National
Minorities Commission alleging involvement of BJP
and RSS in the assault on three persons
over
cow
slaughter.
The accused, who
brutally thrashed the
victims, had identified themselves as
Gau Rakshaks (cow
vigilantes). A few

NEW

elements were deliberately trying to give

the incident a communal angle, he
wrote.
Referring to the alleged gang-rape of
two girls in Aman Vihar, Mr. Govind said
the area had earned
the dubious distinction of being most
unsafe in the absence of a robust law
and
order
machinery. Earlier in
the day, AAP leaders
condemned the attack, and blamed the
Modi police.

DELHI TODAY
Talk:
Bangladesh
Today
by
Deb
Mukharji, former High
Commissioner
to
Bangladesh;
Tariq
Karim,
former
Bangladesh High Commissioner to India; and
Shantanu Mukharji, security analyst; Chair:
Maj. Gen. Dipankar
Banerji, at Conference
Room - II, Main Building, India International
Centre (IIC), 10 a.m.
Talk: Lecture on The
Dynamics of Cultural
Conservation: Institution-Building Practices
at BDL Museum and INTACH by Tasneem
Mehta at Gulmohar
Hall, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 7 p.m.
Talk: Anand Arya on his
extensive work in bird

watching and bird photography, besides taking

up
public
campaigns for the conservation of bird sanctuaries , at IHC, 6 p.m.
Music and Dance:
Banaras Thumri by Kumud Diwan and band;
Shiv
Ki
Kashi,
Bharatanatyam recital
by disciples of Saroja
Vaidyanathan;
Namami
Gange,
Kathak performance by
disciples of Rajendara
Gangani, at The Stein
Auditorium, IHC, 7 p.m.
Exhibition: Soul in
Structure,
an
exhibition of paintings by
Vidur Bharadwaj, at
Visual Art Gallery, IHC,
10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
(Mail your listings for this
column
at
cityeditordelhi@thehindu.co.in )

Disclaimer: Readers are requested to verify &

make appropriate enquiries to satisfy
themselves about the veracity of an advertisement before responding to any published in
this newspaper. Kasturi & Sons Limited, the
Publisher & Owner of this newspaper, does not
vouch for the authenticity of any advertisement
or advertiser or for any of the advertisers products and/or services. In no event can the
Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Director/s,
Employees of this newspaper/company be held
responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for
any claims and/or damages for advertisements
in this newspaper.

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

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CITY

4|

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

BUZZING PROBLEM

MLAs, councillors ignored civic problems, says report

Politicians rarely took up issues of fogging or garbage pile-up in ward meetings and Assembly sessions in the last two years: Praja Foundation

Chikungunya to be notified as dangerous

MARIA AKRAM
NEW DELHI: As Delhi battles an
outbreak of dengue and
chikungunya, it turns out
that our elected representatives councillors and
MLAs did not take up the
issues of fogging, blockage of
drains or garbage pile-up seriously in ward committee
meetings and Delhi Assembly sessions for the last
two years.
As per data by the Praja
Foundation report on civic
services provided by the
municipal corporations and
the Delhi government, and
deliberations by councillors
in the ward committees and
MLAs in the Assembly sessions from January 2014 to
December 2015, nine MLAs
and 15 councillors never
raised any civic issue.
While some councillors
raised the issues intermittently in the ward committee
meetings, the MLAs never
talked about lack of fogging
or poor garbage collection in
any of the Assembly
sessions.
The report comes as the
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
government and the BJP-led
civic bodies are blaming
each other for this years
spike in dengue and chikungunya cases in the city, which
have claimed 18 and 14 lives
till date, respectively.
The report said that the
number of complaints of
blockage of drains increased
by 220 per cent, mosquito
menace and fogging complaints went up by 194 per
cent and garbage collection
complaints saw an increase
of 23 percent between 2014
and 2015.

Issues that mattered

For the MLAs, however,
construction of buildings
and repair of roads were priority and they raised these issues the most.
Similarly, maintenance of
municipal property and solid

BINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN

APATHY: Between 2014 and 2015, councillors raised the issue of fogging and mosqutio menace
only 234 times, while the MLAs never raised it. FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Friday said that

chikungunya will soon be listed as a dangerous/notifiable
disease even as the Centre
agreed to reserve 10 per cent
of beds in its hospitals for
dengue and chikungunya patients.
The AAP government said
that the move will ensure
that every hospital, nursing
home and laboratory furnishes data on chikungunya
patients to government
agencies, which is imperative for monitoring the situation and taking requisite remedial action.

LONG WAIT: Patients queue for medicine at a government dispensary in Khyala village on Friday.
PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Central government-run
hospitals to reserve beds
Chikungunya and dengue
have wreaked havoc in Delhi
with the death toll from the
two vector-borne diseases
climbing to 30 even as the
number of afected people
has crossed 2,800. At least 13
people have died of chikun-

gunya in the last few days.

The Centre has sought a
detailed report from the
Delhi government on deaths
due to dengue and chikungunya, including medical
history of the deceased.
Meanwhile, Delhi Health
Minister Satyendar Jain met

government appointed
committee on Friday came
down heavily on the Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP)
government saying it had
splurged the exchequers
money on ads that violated
Supreme Court guidelines.
It further said that the AAP
should reimburse the
money spent on the ads.
The three-member
committee, headed by
former Chief Election
Commissioner B. B.
Tandon, had been
constituted by the I&B

BINDU PERAPPADAN SHAJAN

AND JATIN ANAND

waste management were the

most taken up issues by the
councillors.
Rising number of dengue
cases is not new. In 2014 and
2015, Delhi saw 995 and 15,
867 cases respectively.
No relief
Despite the rising figures,
the councillors raised the issue of fogging only 158 times,
while the MLAs never raised
it. As per the report, most of
the old Delhi area, which
comes under North Corporations City Zone, saw the
worst representation. There

are seven councillors and

one MLA representing the
zone and they raised the least
number of issues.
Matia Mahal MLA Asim
Ahmed Khan never raised
any civic issue in the Assembly. When The Hindu
tried contacting Mr Khan, he
was not reachable.
Similarly, people residing
in the Rohini zone, which in-

Centre-appointed
panel says AAP
splurged exchequers
money on ads that
violated guidelines
Ministry on directions of
the Supreme Court to
address issues related to
Content Regulation in
Government Advertising.
The panel had received a
complaint from Congress
leader Ajay Maken
accusing the AAP
government of splurging

public money on ads.

In its order issued on
Friday, the Committee
came to the conclusion that
the Government of NCT of
Delhi has violated
guidelines issued by the
Supreme Court in six of the
nine areas listed by the
complainant.
Violations
The violations include
outstation ads, false/
misleading ads, ads for
self-glorification and to
target political opponents,
ads against media, ads

Unclaimed baggage on board,

Delhi-Dhaka flight returns to IGI
STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: Passengers of a Jet
Airways Delhi-Dhaka flight
had a harrowing time on Friday as their flight had to return to the IGI airport 45
minutes after taking of due
to security concerns.
The Boeing 737 aircraft
with 135 passengers on board
had arrived from London,
and in its next leg was to fly
to Dhaka, Bangladesh.
At around 1.30 p.m., flight
9W 272 took of from IGI airport but had to return 45
minutes after take of.
The reason behind the return was that baggage of two
passengers, who had the
same name, got exchanged
by mistake.
The flight had arrived
from London and the bag-

cludes Rohini, Pitampura,

Sultanpur Majra, had complained the most about lack
of fogging and increasing
mosquito menace. But their
MLAs never raised the issue
in the Assembly sessions.
In 2015, we all were new
and were learning the ways
of government functioning.
But this year, these issues are
our priority. We are carrying
out fogging ourselves as
municipal corporations have
failed, said Bandana Kumari, AAP MLA from Shalimar Bagh, which come under
the Rohini zone.

NEW DELHI: Reeling under the

spiralling cases of dengue

and chikungunya for the
second consecutive year,
sources in the Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP) government
said the the situation might
have been better had
Chinese academicians been
more forthcoming on guidance with the implementation of a revolutionary plan
to combat the Capitals mosquito population with a little
help from their genetically
modified (GM) cousins.
A year after it was announced, a proposal to re-

Genetically modified
mosquitoes were
planned to be used
to reduce population
of aedes aegypti
duce the population of local
mosquitoes, which spread
dengue and chikungunya,
with GM mosquitoes imported from China remains
limited to a government file
due to what sources termed
was a lack of help from
Chinese scientists.
The AAP governments internal think-tank, the Delhi
Dialogue
Commission
(DDC), was given charge of

Baggage of two
passengers, who
had the same name,
were mistakenly
exchanged
gage of a passenger, who disembarked from the flight in
Delhi, was left behind in the
aircraft. Another passenger
with the same name boarded
the flight from Delhi, but his
baggage was not loaded on
the aircraft, said a senior official of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
As a result, the baggage of
the passenger who had got
down at Delhi flew with the
aircraft towards Dhaka. The
flight was then asked to return back and the baggage
was exchanged, he said,

adding that there was no security alarm caused by the

incident.
Passengers on board the
aircraft, however, had a different experience to share.
The flight was supposed
to take of at 1.25 p.m. and by
1.30 pm we were airborne.
However, at 2.15 p.m. when
the flight was cruising, the
pilot made an announcement that he has just been
told by Delhi air traic control that due to security concerns, the flight has to be
turned back to Delhi, said a
passenger.
As the pilot didnt explain
what the security concern
exactly was and the crew
also didnt have anything to
ofer, all the passengers got
very nervous, said the passenger.

mentioning the party in

power by name and also
ads issued on incidents
occurring in other States.
In its order, the panel
which also comprised
adman Piyush Pandey and
journalist Rajat Sharma, has
said that the AAP should be
made to reimburse the
expenditure since the
violation of the Supreme
Court order of May 13, 2015,
has taken place.
The assessment of the
expenditure should be
made by the Delhi
government, it said.

The panel directed the

AAP government to assess
the expenditure incurred
by it in issuing ads outside
the territory of Delhi on the
occasion of various
anniversaries (except those
tender or appointment ads,
which are outside the
purview of the SC
guidelines in a judgement
delivered in May 2015).
It also directed that the
Delhi government assess
expenditure on those ads or
advertorials in which the
name of the Aam Admi
Party is mentioned, which

publicised the views of

Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal on incidents that
took place in other States,
and ads which targeted the
opposition.
The committee further
directs the Government of
NCT of Delhi to get the
entire expenditure so
incurred on the above
mentioned category of ads
reimbursed to the State
exchequer from the AAP,
the order of the Committee
on Content Regulation of
government ads has held.
PTI

Aftermath

NOT SO IDEAL: A view of the polluted Yamuna river a day after Ganesh immersion on
Friday. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Man dies two days after being thrashed on suspicion of theft

STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: Two days after he
was thrashed on suspicion of
theft, a 32-year-old man died
in north Delhis Jahangirpuri,
prompting his family to allege death due to assault.
The police claimed that it
did not seem like the thrashing had caused the victims

CM
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The Minister added that

Delhi government hospitals
have more than 1,500 beds
available and there is no
need to panic. We are working day and night and fever
clinics will be open even on
holidays to accommodate
the rush, Mr. Jain said.

Lack of help from China mothballs GM solution

Kejriwal govt misused public funds on ads, says committee

NEW DELHI: A Central

Union Health Minister J.P.

Nadda on Friday.
Mr. Jain, after the meeting,
said that the Centre has
agreed to reserve 10 per cent
of the beds in central government-run hospitals for treatment of dengue and chikungunya patients.

death, but a case against the

three assailants has been registered and they have been
arrested.
The deceased has been
identified as Mehbood, a ragpicker living in Jahangirpuri.
Last Saturday, some locals
suspected him of stealing a
hand-pulled cart from the area. Three men caught him,

tied him up and thrashed him

with sticks in public, said Vijay Singh, DCP (NorthWest), on Friday.
Some eyewitnesses called
the police and the victim was
rescued. Since no stolen cart
could be recovered from Mehboob, the matter was
settled amicably and no case
was registered at that time,

said the DCP.

On Monday, Mehboobs
health suddenly deteriorated
and he needed hospitalisation. He died within hours of
being admitted to the
hospital.
While his assailants were
immediately blamed for his
death, the police decided to
await his autopsy report.

The beating he had received before his death had

resulted in injuries to his legs
and did not seem bad enough
to cause his death. There
were no visible injuries to his
other body parts. The postmortem report has been unable to establish what caused
his death, said the DCP.
The oicer said other pos-

sible causes of his death

could be dehydration or due
to excessive drinking.
The police, meanwhile,
chose to play safe and not let
the assailants get away. The
three accused, identified as
Nunu, Sehnaz and Bablu,
were arrested soon after Mehboobs death, the oicer
added.

the initiative, which was

based mainly on attempting
to control the population of
the aedes aegypti mosquito,
which carries the diseases.
The plan
The plan called for the release of male mosquitoes of
the species that would be infected with a bacteria.
These modified males
would then mate with the females, but not produce any
ofspring, thus reducing the
population.
A detailed report on the
subject was prepared by the
DDC under my supervision
and was submitted to the
Health Department for its

consideration,
Ashish
Khetan, vice-chairman of the
DDC told The Hindu.
When contacted, oicials
from the Health Department
said that they will have to
check on the file and see
what and where the proposal
is, while the Health
Ministers oice said that no
specific work had started on
the proposal yet.
A senior government oicial, who requested anonymity, said the AAP government
was ready and willing to
implement the project but
certain technical details
crucial to it could not be
worked out from the scientists end at the last moment.

HC slams govt for lack

of special educators
STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: The AAP govern-

ment and the municipal corporations were pulled up by

the Delhi High Court on Friday for their failure to appoint special educators in its
schools.
The HC issued notices to
the Delhi government and
the South Delhi Municipal
Corporation (SDMC) on a
plea by a grieving mother,
who had approached the
court saying her two mentally-challenged sons have
studied at government and
municipality-run schools for
years, but learnt nothing and
were rather made a source of
entertainment.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva
directed the government and
the SDMC to file aidavits
within two weeks providing
details as to the number of
disabled students studying
in their schools and the special educators posted.
The court also directed
them to furnish details on
steps taken to implement a
2009 order, which ordered
that each government-run
school must have at least two
special educators.
The court was hearing a
petition filed by Mamta and
her husband Shyam Nandan,
who sell vegetables in Katwaria Sarai in south Delhi.
Their two sons both
mentally-challenged to varying degrees have studied
at government and municipality-run schools for
years.
While Shubham, 9, a student of Class IV at SDMC
primary school, Katwaria
Sarai, is sufering 50 per cent
mental retardation, 16-yearold Satyam is 75 per cent
challenged and left school
when he was in Class VI at
Government Boys Senior
Secondary School.
Sad state of afairs
There are over 30,000 students with disabilities in government and MCD-run
schools.
There are 137 special educators in MCD schools as
against the sanctioned

There are over 30,000

students with disabilities in
government and MCD-run
schools. FILE PHOTO

There are 137 special

educators in MCD
schools as against
the sanctioned
strength of 1,600
strength of 1,600.
Delhi government schools
have 400 special educators
in all its schools as against
933 posts.
Letter to CM
Earlier this month, Mamta
had written to Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal.
My kids have sufered immensely. We went to the
Education Departments office. They told us some
months ago that special educators would be appointed
soon, but nothing has been
done. They are kids with special needs. For years they
have been going to school,
but havent learnt anything.
They can talk, handle small
amount of money, but nothing beyond that. What will
they do in future, said
Mamta.
The couple also approached All India Parents
Association run by advocate
and activist Ashok Agarwal.
Mr. Agarwal said that
despite a 2009 High Court
order directing the government and the municipal authorities to appoint at least
two special educators in
each of their schools, nothing has been done in this
direction.
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NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

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NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

EDUCATIONAL

EDUCATIONAL

EDUCATIONAL

EDUCATIONAL

EDUCATIONAL

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|7

STATE

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

RALLY FOR DIGNITY

Left and Dalit groups unite to fight against supressors

Prof. Vijay Kshirsagar,
who is from Pune Samajik
Nyay Manch and associated
with the Republican Party of
India, recalled a recent incident of how the upper caste
members came out in lakhs
demanding the repeal of SC
and ST (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act because the accused in a rape case in
Ahmednagar in Maharashtra
were Dalit boys.

SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
NEW DELHI: Many shades of
blue and red from diferent parts of the country converged at the doorstep of
Parliament
on
Friday,
providing the Capital a
glimpse of the collective anger against atrocities on Dalits and the crusade for respect and dignity for them.

Not massive turnout

The turnout for Dalit
Swabhiman Sangharsh Rally
held at Parliament Street was
not massive, but it highlighted the anguish of witnessing repeated attacks on
Dalits in the recent past as
well as the hope that the new
talks of Dalit-Left political
combination will help improve the situation.
From Amritsar to Jalgaon,
members of organisations
such as the Republican Party
of India, Bharatiya Khet
Mazdoor
Union,
Dalit
Soshan Mukti Manch, Dalit
Aadhikar Raksha Rashtriya
Abhiyan who had come to
the rally said the upsurge in
number of atrocities against
Dalits had left them worried
about the intention of those

CALLING ATTENTION: CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury with Gujarat Dalit youth leader Jignesh
Mewani at a Swabhiman Sangharsh rally on Friday. PHOTO: V. V. KRISHNAN
in power.
This has been going on
for ages, but over the last two
years the suppressors have
felt more powerful. Not long
ago in Palwal where I come
from, a Dalits hand was
broken by an upper caste
man just because his cow

ventured into the latters

field. Later, there was a compromise as soon as the police
stepped in. We all know that
the victim was not ready but
thats how it was, said Dayanand, who had come to attend the rally.
He said if such incidents

are ignored, these atrocities

will grow bigger and lead to
another Rohith Vemula
suicide or flogging of Dalits
removing cow carcasses in
Gujarat. These have to become the rallying points for
our voices to be heard, he
added.

Sidelines
The police had arrested
the three accused, their own
community had joined the
chorus for stricter punishment for them, but to link
it to reservation and use it as
a pretext to strip the marginalised of the few rights
they have was unfair, he
said.
On the sidelines of the
rally, Jignesh Mewani, the
face of Dalit protests in Gujarat and one of the speakers,
said the time had come for
Dalits to make material demands like 5 acre land for the
members of his community
in Gujarat and said the discourse has to move beyond
merely raising slogans or criticising atrocities.

Not one assurance from PM

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: Communist

Party of India (Marxist)

general secretary Sitaram
Yechury on Friday
launched an attack on the
Narendra Modi
government in the wake of
a recent attack on Dalits by
cow vigilante groups,
saying that not one
assurance of action against
those violating the law had
yet been made.
He was addressing a
Dalit Swabhiman
Sangharsh (Dalit selfrespect struggle) rally here
in the presence of activists
Prakash Ambedkar,
Bezwada Wilson,
Hyderabad University
student Rohith Vemula's
mother Radhika Vemula,
Gujarat Dalit agitation
leader Jignesh Mewani and
CPI leaders S Sudhakar
Reddy and D. Raja.
The Prime Minister

said cow vigilantes should

kill him instead of
targeting Dalits. I have
been telling the Prime
Minister for two years to
give one assurance that the
government will follow the
law and act against
violators. But for the last
two-and-a-half-years, no
such assurance has come
from the Prime Minister.
In this sense, he is allowing
such things to happen,
Mr. Yechury said.
The rally saw placards
of Dalit and left
organisations, with
speakers giving the slogan
Jai Bheem, Lal Salaam.
Mr. Yechury made a plea
for unity between Dalit
organisations and the Left
parties to defeat the
present political
establishment.
We need a red star on
the blue sky. In a rainbow,
one end is blue and the
other red. All other colours

are in between these. If red

and blue combine, we can
capture every colour.
Safron is not a natural
colour. It is a mixture, Mr.
Yechury told the
gathering.
Speaking after Mr.
Yechury, Mr. Mewani,
who led the Dalit agitation
in Una, stressed on the
need to expose the
hollow Gujarat
development model.
He, however, underlined
at the beginning of his
speech that he was not at
this event to support any
political party.
CPI leader D. Raja
expressed deep concern
over continuing atrocities
on Dalits.
India belongs to Dalits
and Adivasis. They are the
original people. None can
ill-treat us. We give this
warning to the ruling
classes and the Sangh
Parivar, he said.

EDUCATIONAL

Two killed by
drunk driver

L-G asks Sisodia to return immediately

Summons issued via fax in the wake of dengue, chikungunya outbreak in Capital

STAFF REPORTER
JATIN ANAND
NEW DELHI: Two youths were

knocked down and as many

injured when an allegedly inebriated driver hit them with
his Eeco car in Mangolpuri on
Thursday.
The incident happened
around 11.30 pm when the victims -- Ghanshyam, Rohan,
Gopal and an unidentified
person -- were walking down
a culvert on a drain.
Driver was speeding
Eyewitnesses purportedly
told the police that the driver,
Ravi, was speeding when he
hit the victims.
They were hit from the
back, said a police oicer.
According to locals, the car
dragged all four for around 50
metres after which Ravi sped
away. Ghanshyam even tried
to hold on to the chassis of the
car until it was stopped by
locals near the Sultanpuri
crossing. Residents say that
Ravi even threatened to attack them with a beer bottle if
they tried to stop him.
The driver was, however,
caught from the spot by locals, who thrashed him before
handing him over to the
police.
The youths were rushed to
the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital,
where Rohan and his friend
were declared dead on arrival.
Ghanshyam and Gopal are
said to be critical. A case under sections of culpable homicide has been registered
against Ravi.

Techie killed, cops

hurt in accidents
STAFF REPORTER
DELHI: A 28-year-old
techie was killed and his
three friends critically injured when their Maruti
Swift car rammed a stationary truck in south Delhis
Vasant Vihar on Thursday
night.
The deceased has been
identified as Harbhajan. He
was returning home with his
three friends when the accident happened. At the Adhchini traic signal, their vehicle allegedly hit a truck
parked on the roadside. The
truck driver is absconding,
said the police.
The injured men include
two brothers who work as
Merchant Navy oicers.
Meanwhile, in a separate
incident in the early hours of
Friday, an allegedly speeding
Swift Dzire car rammed police barricades in Mahipalpur, injuring a Delhi Police
constable.
The policeman, Vikas, has
sufered serious injuries to
his head and fractures to his
left leg and collar bones. Vikas had signalled the speeding vehicle to stop, but the
driver had ignored his warnings, said a senior police
oicer.
The driver has been arrested, his vehicle seized and a
case of attempt to murder
registered against him at the
Vasant Vihar police station.

NEW

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NEW DELHI: In a late evening development here on Friday,

Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung issued urgent summons to Deputy Chief
Minister Manish Sisodia, directing him to "return to the
NCT of Delhi immediately"
from Europe in light of the
dengue and chikungunya
outbreak in the Capital.
According to a source
from Raj Niwas, Mr. Jung
"sent the summons via fax
personally" to Mr. Sisodia,
who is on an oicial tour of
Finland, along with representatives of Brazil, China
and some Gulf Nations, to assess best practices in Finnish
education.
Source said, besides Mr.
Sisodia, who also hold the
education portfolio, all
oicers including Education
Secretary have been directed

CUT SHORT: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is on an

official tour of Finland. FILE PHOTOS
to
return
to
Delhi
immediately.
The L-G has sent the
summons himself directing
the Minister to return to Delhiin light of the outbreak of
vector-borne diseases in the
NCT so that it may be
tackled more efectively,"
said the source.
Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal is away in
Bengaluru where he is receiving post-op care after a

AIIMS dentist commits

suicide, husband held
STAFF REPORTER

A 30-year-old
dentist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS) allegedly committed suicide at her residence
in east Delhi's IP Extension
on Thursday afternoon. The
police have arrested the husband of the dentist, Ritu
Bangoti, after registering a
case of dowry death and
subjecting a woman to
cruelty.
The family of the dentist
has claimed that she was
forced to take the extreme
step because of the harassment and torture she
sufered at the hands of her
husband, Brijesh Bangoti, a
pilot with Air India. They
said that the woman had injected herself with a poisonous substance even as
the police said the postmortem report was awaited.
On Thursday afternoon,
Brijesh informed Ritu's
family that she had not been
answering the door. Her
brother Vinod rushed to
their flat in Kurmanchal
Apartments only to discover
Ritu in an unconscious state.
I found the door was
closed. We kept pleading to
Ritu to open the door, but
she did not. I felt something
was wrong and together I
and Brijesh broke the door
open and found my sister lying unconscious on the floor
with a syringe in her hand,
recalled Vinod.
Deputy Commissioner of
NEW DELHI:

The family of the

dentist has claimed
harassment and
torture at the hands
of her husband
Police (East) Rishi Pal said
the victim was taken to a private hospital where she was
declared brought dead.
Based on the family's
statement, we have registered a case under Section
304B (dowry death) and
Section 498A (subjecting a
woman to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code and have
arrested her husband for
questioning, said Mr. Pal.
While the police claimed
that no suicide note was
found at the spot, Vinod said
that he had noticed shredded paper with something
written on it, efectively alleging that his brother-inlaw had torn it up. The police, however, refuted the
claim.
Alleging that there were
injury marks on her neck,
family members of Ritu further alleged that she was assaulted by her in-laws, but
the police did not find any
evidence to corroborate it.
The woman had married
Brijesh three years ago and
they have a daughter. Their
relationship had strained
and there were regular
fights between the two and
Brijesh often assault Ritu,
claimed
her
family
members.

throat surgery while Labour

Minister Gopal Rai is in Chhattisgarh for party work.
Till early this week, Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra
was the only member from
Mr. Kejriwal's cabinet to be
present in Delhi, before being joined by Health
Minister Satyendra Jain, who
was away in Goa for party
work.
Earlier in the day, Congress activists observed

'Bhagoda Divas' in Delhi to

protest against the alleged
absence of the Chief
Minister, his deputy and
other ministers from the
capital.
Refuting the allegation of
the Opposition that he is holidaying in Finland, Mr. Sisodia said it was not a sin to
study the schooling system
of other countries to fix the
problems in Delhis education system.
He said he had worked
hard to improve the education system in the Capital
and he was in Finland to see
what more needs to be done.
Learning from across the
world is not a sin. It's a sin to
defame an educational tour
as a 'holiday'. I'm in Finland.
We need to learn a lot from
their education system, the
best in the world (sic)," he
said in a series of tweets.

EDUCATIONAL

SITUATIONS
VACANT
GENERAL

PUBLIC NOTICES

PERSONAL
LOST & FOUND
IT IS notified for the information
that my Original Qualifying Examination Certificate of Main, Senior
Secondary Examination of Year 2006
and Roll No. 2246111 issued by CBSE has been actually lost. Name of
the candidate: Neetu Randhawa Full
Address: House No. 413, 1st Floor,
Near G.D. Goenka School, Shakti
Khand 3, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad,
Uttar Pradesh 201010 Mobile No.:
09987810518

ART / PAINTING

PUBLIC NOTICES

SITUATIONS
VACANT
GENERAL

Teenager kills self

STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: A 16-year-old girl

allegedly committed suicide

by consuming poison in her
school in North Delhis
Model Town area on Friday
morning. Vijay Singh, DCP
(North-West), said the girl
left behind a suicide note.
ND-ND

8|

SOUTH

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Cauvery row hits Karnataka, T.N. economies hard

Crisis plays
havoc with prices
of essentials

Food unites where water divides

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: Banni; vaanga

VIVEK NARAYANAN

(please come), shout a

group of people to harried
travellers walking with
their luggage to cross over
to Tamil Nadu or
Karnataka at Attibele. The
aroma of vegetable rice
attracts them, and their
faces brighten up as they
are ofered a plate of hot
rice for free.

BENGALURU/MYSURU/KOLAR: The

Cauvery
row
between
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
has hit the inter-dependent
economy of the two States
hard, especially the vegetable and flower markets.
The prices of most
vegetables, grown here and
sold in Tamil Nadu, have
crashed by over 50 per cent
over the last week, while the
prices of vegetables supplied
from Tamil Nadu have shot
up by around 40 per cent,
said a senior procurement
oicial of a retail chain.
Locally grown vegetables
like capsicum, cabbage, tomatoes and onions have
flooded the local markets
and their prices have
crashed.
Meanwhile, a kilo of
onions has crashed to Rs. 8 in
the wholesale market, which
was Rs. 20 to Rs. 22 a week
ago.
Floriculturists of Kolar
district are badly afected. A

TRYING TIMES: People getting down at Tamil Nadu border and entering Karnataka at Attibele
checkpost to get transport to reach Bengaluru on Friday. PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
kilo of marigold is being sold
at Rs. 10 ... it fetched more
than 20 rupees before the
disturbances broke out, said
K. Srinivasa Gowda, who
sells flowers in Tamil Nadu.
Dairy and poultry sectors
are also afected due to the
disruption of transport services.
Milk is supplied from
Erode to hotels in the city,
apart from two major private
diaries Nilgiris and Arokya.
An oicial said 30 Nilgiris

SC grievously erred in
Soumya case, says Katju

outlets in Bengaluru had

been closed for three days,
due to shortage of milk supply.
Lucrative business
A business that is, however, doing well even during
the troubled times is sticker
pasting on vehicles.
To avoid being stopped by
police, motorists halt at
sticker-pasting shops to
mask their registration. A in
KA, for instance, is masked

with L to make the vehicle a

Kerala- registered one.
Changing an alphabet
can cost between Rs.40 and
Rs. 50, said a man who runs
a sticker shop in Attibele.
The police turned a blind eye
to the act, he said.
In fact, a group of people
driving to Pune from Tamil
Nadu alleged that it was the
police who advised them to
buy the stickers to prevent a
law and order situation
from arising.

A ray of hope for family

of A.P. doctor
RAJULAPUDI SRINIVAS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former

Supreme
Court
judge
Markandey Katju on Friday
said the Supreme Court had
grievously erred by law in
the Soumya rape and
murder case in which the
death sentence of accused
Govindachamy
was
commuted.
In a Facebook post, he
said: The Supreme Court
has grievously erred by law,
by not holding Govindachamy guilty of murder.
The Supreme Court had
on
Thursday
quashed
Govindachamys death penalty, but it upheld life im-

CM
YK

prisonment for raping 23year-old Soumya on February 1, 2011.

The death penalty had
been imposed by a fast track
court in Thrissur, which was
later upheld by the Kerala
High Court.
No intention to kill
The apex court had found
that there was no intention
on the part of the accused to
kill the victim.
It held that since it had not
been proved that the accused intended to kill, he
could not be held guilty of
murder.

A group of 10 men from

Zuzuwadi in Hosur and
Attibele in Karnataka
decided to do their bit to
ease the tension. Food is a
uniting factor. As they say,
we can find our way into
peoples hearts through
their stomachs, said A.
Govindaraj at Zuzuwadi.
This also spreads a
message of unity. While
politicians from both
States are fighting over a
river, it is the innocent
people who are the most
afected, he said.
C. Muniraju from
Attibele added: Over the
past few days, hotels on

MOHAMED IMRANULLAH S.
MADURAI: A widow cannot

Kosanam Ramamurthy
September 8 last year.
Indian Ambassador to
Libya, Azhar A.H. Khan, in a
message
to
Dr.
Ramamurthys family, said
the Embassy was making all
eforts for the release of the
captives.

either side of the border

have remained closed, so
we decided to help out.
We have made
arrangements for three big
tanks of water. The
expenses are being shared
by the group.
This initiative has found
several beneficiaries like
R. Sukumar, employee of a
private company. I left
home in Bengaluru in a
hurry. As I reached the
border, I realised that no

hotels would be open

across the border. As I was
walking, a group of people
came forward and asked
me to have food, he said.
Another commuter,
C.K. Saraswathi, who was
walking towards Attibele
where her son was to pick
her up, said she was
surprised when a group
approached her and said it
did not want her to cross
the border without having
food.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
BENGALURU: The National Investigation Agency special
court, on Friday, sentenced
all 13 members of the
Lashkar-E-Taiba and Harkatul-Jihad-E-Islami who
were found guilty of plotting
to kill politicians, police
oicers and journalists to
five years imprisonment. A
penalty ranging from Rs.
3,000 to Rs. 5,000 has also
been levied on them.
The accused, who had
been charged under several
sections of the Indian Penal
Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and
the Arms Act, including conspiracy and being part of a
terrorist outfit, pleaded
guilty on Thursday before
the NIA special court.
In 2012, the Central Crime
Branch (CCB) investigators
had received a tip-of that the
men had hatched a conspiracy to kill important personalities in Bengaluru and
Hubballi to disturb communal harmony. After arresting them, the CCB sleuths
seized illegal firearms from
them.

Domestic Violence Act cant be used

to settle property disputes, says HC

VIJAYAWADA: The rescue of two

Telugu professors from the

Islamic State captors in
Libya has raised hopes of the
family members of abducted
physician
Kosanam
Ramamurthy.
A native of Eluru, Dr.
Ramamurthy was working as
a physician in the Lbn-e-Sina
Hospital at Sirte. A group of
IS militants gained entry into
the hospital and kidnapped
Dr. Ramamurthy, engineer
Samal Pravash Ranjan of
Odisha and seven other
Filipino nurses from their
residential quarters on

SINKING DIFFERENCES: Food being distributed to people

crossing the KarnatakaTamil Nadu border at Attibele on
Friday. PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.

13 get five years

imprisonment for
assassination plot

lodge a complaint under the

Protection of Women from
Domestic Violence Act 2005
against her father-in-law and
sister-in-law if the former had
sold his house to the latter
who, in turn, resorted to rent
control proceedings to vacate
the widow from the property,
the Madras High Court Bench
here said.
Allowing a petition filed by
the sister-in-law B. Sakunthala, also a widow , Justice S.
Vimala held that a complaint
lodged against her under the

Tells woman to file a

civil suit if she feels
her late husband had
a right over his
fathers house
Domestic Violence Act was an
abuse of process of law since
she had only resorted to a legal
remedy to get her property vacated.
The judge quashed the complaint instituted against the
petitioner before a Judicial
Magistrate in Dindigul and
held that the complainant,
Vasantha, could at best prefer
a civil suit before a competent

court if she was of the view

that her deceased husband
also had a right over his
fathers house.
According to Ms Sakunthala, her father had purchased the house for Rs.12,000
in 1986 and she had purchased
it from him for Rs.12.4 lakh in
September 2015, utilising the
compensation amount received after the death of her
husband and son in a motor
accident.
Claiming that her brothers
widow Ms. Vasantha, receiving a family pension of
Rs.12,000 a month, and her
daughter have been staying in

the house as tenants on payment of monthly rent of

Rs.2,500 to her father, the petitioner said the mother and
daughter had initially agreed
to vacate the property by the
end of last year.
However, they did not keep
their promise, forcing the petitioner to institute eviction
proceedings under the Rent
Control Act early this year. In
the meantime, Ms. Vasantha
filed a case under the
Domestic Violence Act seeking to restrain the petitioner
and the latter's father from vacating her and demanding Rs.5
lakh towards maintenance.

ND-ND

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Four persons killed

in communal
clash in Bijnore

|9

NATION

NOIDA/DELHI

NGT order on Metro stayed

These projects are meant to reduce pollution, make transport eco-friendly: AG

Rajasthan HC reserves
order on petition by
Chief Secretarys wife

LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BIJNORE (UP): Four persons

were killed and at least 12 injured on Friday in a clash between two communities here
after a schoolgirl was allegedly harassed by some
persons, the police said.
The incident in Peda village took place at around 8.15
a.m., with groups of the two
communities hurling stones
at each other, the police said,
adding there was even firing
between the clashing groups.
Four persons, aged between 27 and 30, were killed
in the clash while at least 12
others were injured. Five seriously injured were taken to
Meerut for treatment. The
accused fled the village after
the incident. Eight women
related to them have been
detained for questioning, the
police said.
According to police, the
girl was on her way to school
when she was allegedly harassed by some youth belonging to another community.
A passerby objected to this
and was beaten up by the ac-

Dalit activist held

as PM arrives
in Ahmedabad

Heavy police
force has been
deployed in the area;
situation under
control
cused, according to the
police.
He then told some persons
about the incident and soon a
clash started, the police said.
There were reports of arson
also.
Heavy police force has
been deployed in the area in
view of the incident.
DGP S Javeed Ahmed said
the situation was under control and ADG (Law and Order) was at the spot, monitoring the developments.
Chief Minister Akhilesh
Yadav announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the
family of each of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to the
injured. He also warned of
strict action against those
found guilty, an oicial release said.-PTI

NEW DELHI: In a green signal to

the concept of Metro rail services revolutionising public

transport in major cities, the
Supreme Court on Friday
stayed a National Green
Tribunal (NGT) order of
May 31, 2016, requiring Metro Rail services to take mandatory and prior environment clearances for all its
projects.
A Bench led by Chief
Justice of India and Justice
A.M. Khanwilkar stayed the
order passed by the Principal
Bench of the National Green
Tribunal (NGT) on a plea
that Noida Metro Rail constructions
fell
under
Schedule 8(b) of Environment Impact Assessment
Notification, 2006, which
relates to buildings, construction and development
projects.
Though the NGT order focussed on the Noida Metro
Rail, its shadow was cast on
all metro constructions and
expansion projects across
the country. The tribunal had
required the same environ-

TRACK CLEARED: Delhi Metro trains at the Pink Line. The Attorney-General termed the imposition
of the condition of prior clearance for the projects as ridiculous. FILE PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
ment clearance condition
from
the
Railways
Dedicated Freight Corridor
Corporation of India Ltd
(DFCCIL).
Appearing for the PSUs,
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi termed the imposition
of a condition of prior clearance on Metro projects in the
cities and the dedicated
freight
corridors
as
ridiculous.
These projects, he submit-

ted, are meant to reduce pollution and make transport

eco-friendly. Mr. Rohatgi
said the Metro and freight
corridors are symbols of sustainable development.
The Metros city projects
are spreading to over a dozen
cities. There are over 50 Metro stations in Delhi and
Mumbai each. Places are being dug up for expansion. We
are trying to remedy pollution by inviting people to

travel with us... Our main

purpose is development and
sustainable development,
Mr. Rohatgi said.
He said the NGT should
demand
environmental
clearances from polluting industries and not the Metro.
Mr. Rohatgi referred to some
notifications to point out
that Metro projects do not
require clearances from the
Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MoEF).

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High

Court has reserved its order
on a criminal revision petition filed by Chief Secretary
Om Prakash Meenas estranged wife Geeta Singhdeo
seeking financial support
from her husband for the
education of their daughter,
who is pursuing her postgraduation in Cardif, United
Kingdom.
The courts of the Metropolitan Magistrate and the
Additional District Judge
had earlier refused to entertain the plea. The Bench of
Justice Prashant Agrawal
had reserved the order on
Thursday on completion of
hearing, in which Ms.
Singhdeo sought 700 per
month from Mr. Meena for
the education of the couple's
daughter.
Molestation charge
Mr. Meenas daughter had
recently created a flutter by
accusing her father of molesting her in her teenage
years. She reportedly sent an

Estranged wife is
seeking support for
education of their
daughter in domestic
violence case
e-mail to the High Courts
Registry
with
these
allegations.
Forced to bear expenses
Ms. Singhdeo said in the
court that she was made to
bear all the educational expenses of her daughter,
which were beyond her financial capacity. However,
Mr. Meenas counsel contended that his daughter had
gone to U.K. without his permission and he had no obligation to support her studies
for a long duration in a
foreign country.
The case in which Mr.
Meenas daughter has made
allegations
pertains
to
cruelty and domestic violence against his wife. Ms.
Singhdeo has sought orders
for CBI inquiry into her complaint.

Bhagirathi panels BJP projects itself as

term extended
well-wisher of U.P. Dalits

Fever pitch

KAVITA UPADHYAY
OMAR RASHID
DEHRADUN: Amidst objections

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister

Narendra Modi arrived here

on Friday, on a two-day visit
to mark his birthday on
September 17.
The city police detained
Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani
and others to prevent any
protest at the airport during
the Prime Ministers arrival.
On Saturday, the Prime
Minister will visit his mother
Hiraba in Gandhinagar to
seek her blessings. Mr. Modi
is scheduled to attend two
events, one in Limkheda in
central Gujarat and another
in Navsari in south Gujarat.
Gujarat Governor O.P.
Kohli and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani along with the
Cabinet Ministers and BJP
leaders welcomed the PM.
Mr. Modi briefly addressed
party workers at the airport.
I am thankful to you all
for coming and wishing me
on my birthday. I am happy
to meet my old colleagues
and party workers, Mr.
Modi told the gathering.

DESPERATE REMEDIES: Patients queue up to buy medicine at a government dispensary in Khyala Village in New Delhi on
Friday as dengue fever and chikungunya cases increased in the national capital. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Five High Courts get new Chief Justices

Bail for Goan model convicted of rape

PRAKASH KAMAT

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: Two days after the

government assured the Supreme Court that appointment of judges to the High
Courts is its topmost priority, five new Chief
Justices have been appointed
to Kerala, Calcutta, Sikkim,
Tripura and Manipur High
Courts on Friday.
The senior most judges of
these High Courts have been
elevated as Chief Justices in a
much-anticipated wait for
filling up burgeoning judicial
vacancies which have reached well over 480 in High
Courts across the country.
Justice Girish Chandra
Gupta of the Calcutta High
Court will be its new Chief

The move comes two

days after the govt.
assured the SC that
such appointments
are topmost priority
Justice. The High Court was
without a Chief Justice after
Justice Manjula Chellur was
transferred as Chief Justice
of Bombay High Court
recently.
Acting Chief Justice of
Kerala High Court, Justice
Shantanagoudar
Mohan
Mallikarjunagouda, has been
elevated as its new Chief
Justice. Acting Chief Justice
of Sikkim High Court, Justice
Satish Kumar Agnihotri, has
been confirmed as the High

Courts
Chief
Justice.
Justices
Tinlianthang
Vaiphei and Rakesh Ranjan
have been elevated as Chief
Justices of Tripura and Manipur
High
Courts,
respectively.
The appointments come
at a time when 35 recommendations of the Collegium
on fresh judicial appointments and elevation of
judges as High Court Chief
Justices are awaiting clearance at the highest levels in
the government.
On Wednesday, the Centre
had assured a Bench led by
Chief Justice of India T.S.
Thakur that there is no logjam in filling up of judicial
vacancies.
In an indirect counter-at-

Notice to Centre on ban on convicted

persons from contesting elections
STAFF REPORTER
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High

Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre on a petition seeking lifetime ban
on persons from contesting
elections if once convicted
as against the current provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act
that allow a convicted person to contest elections six
years
after
their
conviction.
A division bench of
Chief Justice G. Rohini and
Sangita Dhingra Sehgal
sought response from the
Ministry of Law and Justice
and the Ministry of Parliamentary Afairs on the plea
filed by advocate Ashwini
Upadhyay
contending
once convicted, a person
should be barred for their
lifetime from contesting
elections.
CM
YK

The petitioner said sections eight and nine of the

Representation of the People Act, 1951, should be declared unconstitutional as
they restrict disqualification period to only six
years.
The disqualification rule
for convicted persons cannot be applied diferently
on the executive, the judiciary and the legislature,
the suit said.
"Hence section eight and
nine
of
the
Part-II,
Chapter-III (disqualification for member ship of
parliament and state legislature) of the Representation of the People Act,
1951, is violative of the fundamental rights, unconstitutional and inconsistent
with Article 13 and 14 of the
Constitution of India," the
plea stated.
In the executive and ju-

diciary, when one is convicted for any criminal offence, he or she is

suspended automatically
and their services are terminated for lifetime.
However, this rule is applied diferently in case of a
convicted person in a legislature, said the plea.
Even after conviction
and undergoing sentence,
one can form a political
party, become the oicebearer of a political party,
contest the election, and
become member of legislature after expiry of six
years from the date of their
conviction, Mr. Upadhyay
said.
The petition questioned
why should there not be a
lifetime ban on convicted
person on contesting elections, forming a political
party and becoming oicebearer of a political party.

tack on the judiciarys take

that the government is sitting
on recommendations made
by the Collegium, AttorneyGeneral Mukul Rohatgi told
the Chief Justices Bench that
the delay in appointments
process starts with the judiciary itself.
The top government law
oicer blamed the High
Courts of delaying the process of judicial appointments
by not just months, but years
together. He cited the case of
the Allahabad High Court,
which has the oldest judicial vacancies dating back to
2007. He submitted that
despite the almost nine-year
delay in filling up vacancies,
the HC started the process
only in February this year.

from the State government

over implementing, in its
current form, the Central
government
notification
where
a
100-kilometre
stretch of the river Bhagirathi
was to be declared as ecosensitive, the National Green
Tribunal (NGT) has extended the term of the monitoring committee to oversee the
implementation
of
the
notification.
According to the Central
government notification of
December 18, 2012, a 100kilometre stretch of one of
the two headstreams of the
Ganga the river Bhagirathi
from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi, covering an area of
4,179.59 sq km, was to be declared as eco-sensitive.
However, the notification
opposes
industrial
development activities in the
eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). It
also prohibits setting up of
new hydro-electric power
projects, mining, commercial
felling of trees and setting up
of polluting industries.

PANAJI: Goan model Siddesh

Juvekar, sentenced to seven
years imprisonment for
rape, was granted conditional bail on Friday by
Justice C.V. Bhadang of the
Bombay High Court at Goa.
Suspending the jail sentence pending the hearing of

LUCKNOW: Chasing Dalit votes

in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh
and countering senior Samajwadi Party (SP) Minister
Azam Khans contentious remarks
linking
B.R.
Ambedkar to land grab, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
on Friday projected itself as
the real well-wisher of Dalits by advertising all the supportive decisions it had taken and memorials it had built
to honour of Babasaheb over
the years.

Hits out at Rahul

The BJP said its decisions
had made Babasaheb immortal, while leaders of other
parties, like Rahul Gandhi
and Mayawati, did little more
than present themselves as
messiahs of Dalits.
BJP chief Amit Shah hailed
his party and its governments in the States and the
Centre over the years for
honouring Babasaheb while
Mulayam Singh tormented
Dalits and the Bahujan
Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief
exploited her community.
The BJP President also attacked the Congress party,
raking up past incidents of
tension between Ambedkar

Amit Shah
and the grand old party.
The BJP chief made these
comments while addressing
the
partys
Manavta
Sadbhavana Samaroh (event
for goodwill in humanity) at
the sprawling Kanshiram
smriti upvan (memorial
garden) here.
Intentional target
Looking to tear into the
States vote share an impressive 21 per cent the
BJP organised the public
meeting to especially target
Mr. Khan for his comments
on Ambedkar.
However,
interestingly,
Mr. Shah did not refer to the
SP leader even once or rake
up his comments. Instead, he
chose to flaunt the BJPs efforts to honour Ambedkar.

his appeal, the court directed

that Juvekar be released on a
bail bond and one or two
sureties of Rs.50,000.
On September 8, South
Goa Additional Sessions
Judge Sherin Paul sentenced
Juvekar to seven years imprisonment for raping a girl
from Navelim in south Goa
after promising to marry her.

UPSC declares
results of civil
services prelims
NEW DELHI: The results of civil
services preliminary examination were declared on Friday by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
The test was held on August 7.
The candidates who have
been declared successful
have to first register on the
website before filling up the
detailed examination form
online, the UPSC said.
The e-admit card, along
with the time table of the
main examination, will be
uploaded on the Commissions
website

www.upsc.gov.in around
two weeks before the examination. Successful candidates have been asked to fill a
detailed application form,
which will be available on
the website of the Commission from October 7 to 20, for
the main examination. PTI
ND-ND

10 |

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Summit over substance

Forthcoming summits will reflect Indias status as a key player both regionally and internationally. But unless
we move from an event-oriented to a process-driven diplomacy, this will only be a transient gain
having a formulation along these lines in the
BRICS declaration, post the award, would
be of even greater value to China, which will
undoubtedly press for it with Russian support. Indian negotiators will probably resist.
Already after the Moscow meeting there
had been criticism that India was speaking
with two voices, one when in the company
of Americans and the other when meeting
with the Chinese and Russians. Furthermore, given Chinese opposition to Indias
membership of the Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG) and its blocking at the UN of
naming the Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammed
chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist, it is likely
that India may dig in on this point. We shall
wait and see.

S AT U R D AY , S E P T E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 6

SHYAM SARAN

A break-up
foretold

ometimes the symptom, and not its underlying cause, seems like the real problem. If
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has anything to worry about,
it is not the resignation of her party MP, Tariq
Hameed Karra, but the issues he raised while announcing his decision to quit the Peoples Democratic Party and the Lok Sabha. Despite his call to
like-minded people to join him, Mr. Karra is unlikely to get critical support within the party to
threaten Ms. Muftis standing in the PDP. However,
while drawing attention to the unrest in the Kashmir Valley, and the civilian killings, he has also
pointed to the irreconcilable diferences between
the PDP and its alliance partner, the Bharatiya
Janata Party. Mr. Karra might have been politically
opportunistic in the timing of his resignation, but
there is no way the PDP can get away from having to
define, to its political constituency, the nature of its
relationship with the BJP. Ideologically, the PDP
has more in common with the National Conference
than with the BJP. But, after a fractured mandate in
the 2014 Assembly election, it chose to ally with the
BJP rather than explore the possibility of an alliance with the NC and the Congress. The NC was a
rival, with the support bases of the two parties overlapping in many areas of the Valley. The BJP, however, had its base in Jammu and did not compete
with the PDP. Short-term political calculations inevitably led to a PDP-BJP alliance.
To be sure, Ms. Mufti had grappled with the contradictions in the relationship with the BJP before
she was sworn in as Chief Minister following the
death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, her father. But
the BJP, just as conscious as the PDP of the need to
protect its own vote bank, did not give an inch while
renegotiating the terms of engagement. Not surprisingly, she failed to wrest any major concessions
from the BJP. Whatever the nature of Mr. Karras
political ambitions, he has framed the dilemma for
Ms. Mufti. Clearly, she cannot go into an election in
alliance with the BJP. Both the PDP and the NC, at
diferent points, have allied with the Congress. But
the BJP, with its Hindutva plank, is a non-starter as
an electoral ally for any party seeking to represent
the Muslims of Kashmir. The coalition government
of the PDP and the BJP is likely to fall before the Assembly election, but it is in the interest of both
parties to remain together in power for the longest
period possible. The break-up seems like an event
foretold; what is uncertain is the nature of the trigger and the timing.

Barely six weeks after participating in the

G-20 summit at Hangzhou, China, and the
East Asia and ASEAN-India summits at Vientiane, Laos, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi will himself play host to the annual
BRICS summit in Goa on October 15-16,
2016. This will bring together the heads of
state of Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa, and the summit theme put forward by India is Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions, which is a
clever play on the letters constituting the
membership of the grouping. India has also
exercised its privilege as host to arrange a
regional outreach.
At the Fortaleza summit in 2014, Brazil
had invited several heads of state/government from Latin America, while at Ufa last
year Russia had invited the leaders of the
Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation. One would have
expected India to have invited SAARC leaders to the outreach but it has chosen to host
the leaders of the seven-member BIMSTEC
(Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral
Technical and Economic Cooperation) instead. BIMSTEC is a potential Bay of Bengal
Economic Community comprising Bhutan,
Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from
South Asia and Myanmar and Thailand
from ASEAN. The motivation is obvious, to
avoid having to invite Pakistan. BIMSTEC
will also hold its fourth summit in Goa.
Nepal was to have hosted it in 2015 but was
unable to do so mainly on account of the
earthquake and the subsequent political turmoil. Not much should be expected from the
BIMSTEC summit. It has been as somnolent
as SAARC has been since its inception.
The China-Russia dynamic
There will be greater focus on the BRICS
summit mainly because of the stature of
those who will be attending, including
President Vladimir Putin of Russia and
President Xi Jinping of China. Both have a
shared image of being tough leaders, of having defied the U.S. and the West, and now
edging closer to a closer security partnership, if not an alliance. The largest ever SinoRussian joint naval exercises are being held
in the South China Sea of the coast of
Guangdong province. And Russia is the only

ILLUSTRATION: DEEPAK HARICHANDAN

At the BRICS meet, it will mostly

be a triangular game among Mr.
Modi, Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi. The
latter two seem to be leaning
closer to each other
country to have explicitly supported Chinas stand on the South China Sea dispute, of
rejecting the international tribunal award
and proposing bilateral dialogue with
claimant countries, though it has not endorsed its territorial claims.
There will be a Chinese efort to include
in the summit declaration a formulation
similar to what had been agreed upon in the
India-Russia-China
trilateral
Foreign
Ministers meeting in Moscow in April this
year and which appeared to support Chinas
stand: Russia, India and China are committed to maintaining a legal order for the seas
and oceans based on the principles of international law, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS). All related disputes should be addressed through
negotiations and agreements between the
parties concerned. In this regard the
Ministers called for full respect of all provisions of UNCLOS, as well as the Declaration
on the Conduct of Parties in the South China
Sea (DOC) and the Guidelines for the implementation of the DOC.
This was before the tribunal award. Now

A triangular game
The other two leaders, Brazils Michel
Temer and South Africas Jacob Zuma, are
unlikely to come up with any notable initiatives. Their countries are sufering from both
political and economic turmoil. Mr. Temer
has taken over after a politically polarising
impeachment of the former Brazilian
president, Dilma Roussef. Mr. Zuma is facing serious charges of corruption, and
there has been unprecedented infighting in
his ruling African National Congress. So it
will be mostly a triangular game among Mr.
Modi, Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi, and the latter
two seem to be leaning closer to each other.
This will be a challenge for the Indian host.
For Mr. Modi, a strong and categorical
statement on counter-terrorism will be a
must even though neither China and now
nor Russia will countenance the naming of
Pakistan or even an oblique reference to it.
Brazil and South Africa do not have much
play in this game. So expect a strong formulation but more general in scope.
BRICS has begun to sufer the aliction
characteristic of several other multi-country groupings, and that is the exponential expansion in its committees, working groups
and forums resulting in a extraordinarily
crowded calendar of meetings. There are
now over a hundred such bodies covering a
multiplicity of subjects ranging from trade,
investment and finance, to health, education
and security. India itself has been hosting
several tens of these meetings during the
year in its capacity as incoming chair, but it
is questionable whether such hyper activity
leads to substantive outcomes. The impression one has is of being stretched too thin
across a steadily expanding space with neither the human nor the financial resources

CARTOONSCAPE

Towards a
national health policy

he Supreme Courts order directing the

Centre to ask States to end the oppressive
practice of sterilising women in large
camps is a timely reminder that the country must urgently adopt a rights-based health
policy. Many course correction measures have
been ordered by the court in the Devika Biswas
public interest case, and if they are implemented
vigorously, they can greatly improve womens welfare. Civil society can efectively monitor sterilisation activity, if, as the court has directed, the list
of approved doctors at the State and regional levels
and members of quality assurance committees, and
details of compensation claims are publicised on
the Internet. At the same time, compensation for
losses, including deaths, should be raised substantially. The larger question is that of the fairness of
promoting permanent contraception, often for
young women, who are unable to exercise their reproductive rights due to social and economic
factors. Last year, the Population Division of the
UN took note of the extraordinary levels of sterilisations resorted to in India 65 per cent of all
contraceptive methods and pointed to a potential mismatch between what is being ofered and
what women would like, which is to delay or space
out births. Unthinking resort to tubectomies for
population control also ignores the evidence from
some developed States in India that womens empowerment through education and employment
brings down fertility, without sacrificing choice.
Ensuring the safety of women who undergo a
tubectomy is of immediate concern, and the Centre
should give rule-based authority to the Supreme
Courts directions. A significant number of women
have died due to the procedure during the past
three years. Every death due to family planning surgery is one too many, and the State concerned must
be called to account. In the case of Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerala, which did not
take the question of mismanagement in sterilisation camps raised in the petition seriously, the
court has acted decisively and called for monitoring and issue of appropriate orders by the respective High Courts. Such action is wholly welcome,
because it reinforces the idea of the right to health
being inseparable from the right to life. This is the
message that the Centre must take from the judgment, as it works on a national policy for health.
Empowerment of women through full opportunity
in education and employment, and access to all
contraception options, should be central to national policies. Ofering financial incentives and
subjecting women to permanent contraceptives is
unacceptable.
CM
YK

to follow through. The event itself then becomes the focus and not the process. It is no
surprise then that outcomes from such summitry are sparse.
BRICS has one practical outcome to its
credit, and that is the New Development
Bank, and an Indian, K.V. Kamath, is its
president. The Bank has been operationalised and India has reportedly received
loans totalling about $300 million. But this
institution is overshadowed by the much
better funded Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) initiated and led by the
Chinese. The Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), another important BRICS initiative, remains on paper. There is a proposal for the setting up of a BRICS Credit Rating
Agency to challenge the monopoly of the
West, and this might be of value if adopted.
On the trade side any hint of a BRICS free
trade agreement comes up against the fears
both India and Russia have of being
swamped by Chinese imports. It will not
have traction even though none of the five
countries are part of any of the emerging
mega trade blocs like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At a
time when both TPP and TTIP are stalled,
even a hint of a mega trade bloc of the key
emerging economies would be a major development. It could even bring the World
Trade Organisation back in play!
The BIMSTEC summit could be an important occasion for reviving what, on the
face of it, appears to be a grouping with immense potential. Its attraction is that China
is not there to crowd India out, and it fits in
very well with the logic of Indias Act East
policy. The parallel Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC), which is a platform for Indias
exclusive engagement with the countries of
Indo-China (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and
Vietnam) and Myanmar, could also be a major component of the Act East strategy. But
neither BIMSTEC nor the MGC have lived
up to their potential, and Indias engagement with them has been mostly episodic
and ad hoc. There are sets of activities under
both but they do not add up to a wellthought-out and long-term strategy of integrating India more closely with its eastern
neighbourhood. The perception remains
that India continues to be at the margins of
this increasingly contested geopolitical
space, unable to play a significant role in
shaping its emerging economic and security
architecture.
Trailing on connectivity
There is little doubt that connectivity will
have to be the key theme at the BIMSTEC
summit but here, too, is an Indian dilemma.
The connectivity platform also opens the
door to China selling its ambitious One Belt,
One Road initiative among the members of
this grouping. Indias own resources are
limited, but more than that its record of
delivery on commitments continues to be
abysmal. There are occasions when one
finds the same projects reappearing as
fresh initiatives in serial joint statements
over recent years. Our capacities and institutions continue to lag behind our
ambitions.
There is no doubt that the forthcoming
summits will be major events and will reflect Indias status as a key player in the region and as a globally significant player. But
that will only be a transient gain unless we
begin to pay attention to the much less
glamorous and more nuts-and-bolts efort
to use events as key markers in a well-conceived and systematic process of expanding
our strategic space, leveraging our strengths
and remedying our vulnerabilities. It is time
to move from an event-oriented to a process-driven approach.
Shyam Saran is a former Foreign Secretary. He is currently
Chairman, RIS, and Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy
Research.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Antibiotic resistance
The findings of the Lancet study are
shocking (Superbugs kill babies
as antibiotic resistance rises, Sept.
16). That nearly 26 per cent of
babies with sepsis died despite
timely medical intervention, and
because of unresponsiveness to
treatment, is worrisome. If in 80 per
cent of infections caused by
Acinetobacter, and in more than 50
per cent of Klebsiella infections, the
first line of treatment fails, it clearly
indicates the rampant misuse of
antibiotics. There is an
indiscriminate use of antibiotics
and analgesic drugs in India.
Unafordable and inaccessible
qualitative health-care services,
easy availability of drugs over the
counter without any prescription,
and inadequate dosage
recommendations by unqualified
medical practitioners are the main
reasons for the superbug menace.
It would be a major public health
disaster if the rampant use of drugs
were left unchecked.
D.V.G. Sankararao,
Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh

Alexander Fleming warned of the

dangers of antibiotic resistance in
1945 in his Nobel Prize acceptance
speech. Klebsiella, a common
bacterium, can cause a wide range
of conditions as the report on
superbugs highlights. It fits into a
wider group of bacteria with an apt

acronym ESKAPE owing to their

ability to avoid the efects of the
antibiotics used against them. The
acronym stands for the names of the
bacterial group members. These
infections are increasingly being
acquired in hospitals.
Antibiotic resistance can be
mitigated to some extent with good
hand hygiene, taking antibiotics
prescribed by a doctor, and
completing the full course if one
has to take them. Medical experts
believe this will help reduce the
problem of resistance. Another area
of key concern is to discourage
dispensing antibiotics of the
counter. These may be baby steps,
but they will have an impact and
may even avert a future where
treatable diseases become fatal.
H.N. Ramakrishna,
Bengaluru

A few days ago, the U.S. banned 19

chemicals used in antibacterial
soap. This is a bold move
considering the U.S. has one the
highest regulated antibiotic and
therapeutic markets in the world. In
India, the word antibiotic has
become synonymous with
cleanliness. In reality, however,
antibiotics are a double-edged
sword that can alter our bodies and
environment indefinitely. It is high
time our government heeded these
regulations and promptly banned
consumer antibiotics and regulated
medicines from the ground up to

avoid an epidemic disaster.

Ramaseshu Botu,
Visakhapatnam

An acid test for Nitish

There is no doubt that the granting
of bail to Mohammad Shahabuddin
will test the strength of the RJD-JD
(U) alliance (The message from
Shahabuddin, Sept. 16). Though
Nitish Kumar is the Chief Minister
of Bihar, it is the RJD which holds
more seats in the Assembly, and we
know the kind of relationship that
Lalu Prasad and Mr. Kumar have
shared in the past. Yes, Mr. Prasad
has said that the coalition is intact
and that Mr. Kumar is the leader,
but he is known to be a shrewd
politician. There is no doubt that
Mr. Kumar will be feeling
uncomfortable with Shahabuddins
release. His party may not challenge
the release considering the
compulsions of coalition politics,
but this episode will have a huge
bearing on the future political
events of the State.
Also, from a broader perspective,
we must think about whether
criminals should be allowed to
enter politics in the first place.
Bal Govind,
Noida

This is a great opportunity for Mr.

Kumar to display his political
courage by facing Shahabuddin
head-on. No doubt, there will be

tremendous pressure from the RJD

chief and his party to adopt a soft
and lenient attitude towards this
notorious politician. Yielding to
such tactics of his majority coalition
partner in the name of political
expediency would mean reemergence of the jungle raj in
Bihar and would surely prove
suicidal for Mr. Kumar. His image of
an honest politician with good
governing skills has been built over
the decades. It is diicult for any
Indian politician to earn this
reputation, especially if he or she
has been in power for a long time.
If mid-term polls become inevitable
because of his tough stand against
Shahabuddin, Mr. Kumar and his
party will certainly emerge
victorious for taking a tough stand
against a gangster. This would also
enable him to become a successful
prime ministerial candidate later, a
wish that he has harboured for long.
M.V. Nagavender Rao,
Hyderabad

The AAPs headache

Nothing tests the competence and
vision of politicians than the
exercise of power (A party in a
hurry, Sept. 16). With its alibi for
the unsatisfactory performance of
the Delhi government
interference by the Lieutenant
Governor and non-cooperation
from the Central government
looking increasingly stale, the Aam

Aadmi Party has frittered away a lot

of public goodwill that catapulted it
to power.
The AAPs failure to settle down in
power (it is still behaving like an
opposition party) largely stems
from a deadly mix of incompetence,
inexperience, and arrogance. After
its electoral victory in Delhi, it
started behaving like a national
party and cast its leader in the
mould of a messiah who has arrived
to deliver India from corruption.
Previous governments worked
within the constraints imposed by
Delhis peculiar hybrid status that
make it neither a full-fledged Union
territory nor a State.
Unable to give up the street
fighters mindset despite being in
power, the partys leaders showed
no respect for constitutional limits
to Delhis statehood, and niceties of
political conduct as is evident from
their abrasive confrontations with
the Lieutenant Governor.
The partys image has plummeted
in Punjab as its record in Delhi is
nothing inspiring. Its resort to
populism in Punjab has only
betrayed its moral bankruptcy.
Bereft of any alternative political
vision except empty grandiloquent
rhetoric, the AAP is looking like a
sole proprietorship political party
that has neither the organisational
reach and base nor the leadership
material needed to rule any State.
V. N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram
ND-ND

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

| 11

GROUND ZERO

The bane of a bumper crop

Farmers in Maharashtras onion belt are getting an unprecedented low price for their produce, though they retail at tear-inducing rates after leaving
Asias largest wholesale market for it, Lasalgaon. Alok Deshpande details their helplessness

INJUSTICE: Traders decide the price, farmers accept it without protest. The Lasalgaon onion market in Maharashtra. PHOTOS: VIVEK BENDRE
Every day, around 3 p.m., hundreds of
lorries loaded with onions queue up at
the new agricultural market complex at
Lasalgaon, around 45 km from Nashik,
waiting for the afternoon auction to
begin.
As a group of traders approach, the
farmers drop their produce at their feet,
as if to tempt them into bidding high.
The traders halt and look over the merchandise. A market committee employee calls out the reserve price: 400!
Eyes roll, unspoken words seem to pass
between the traders. Then the bidding
starts: 1! 11! 13! 17! In less than 30
seconds, the auction is over. The farmer
gets 17 rupees over the reserve price,
Rs.417 per quintal (100 kg). A pittance at
any given time, more so now when compared to prices last year.
A trader-controlled market
No matter how united the farmers
are, no matter how hard they fight for a
better price, they turn into mute spectators in front of the traders when auction begins. The auction is dictated by
the traders with money and considerable political clout. Traders decide
the price, farmers accept it without
protest.
The market complex has a huge parking space for the lorries. Sometimes
there are up to 1,000 vehicles at a time.
The otherwise deserted place comes
alive twice a day. The first auction of the
day starts at around 10 a.m. and the
second at 3 p.m. Depending on the number of vehicles, the auction can stretch
from an hour to three hours.
Once the rate is fixed, the group of
traders moves immediately to the next
vehicle. The farmer, left with the price
decided by the group, starts collecting
the onions he has dropped on the
ground. An oicial from the market
committee approaches him with a receipt, bearing the auction rate, traders
name and farmers name. With a receipt
in hand and onions in the vehicle, the
farmer then proceeds to the godown
where the weighing process takes place.
As per the rules laid down by the market
committee, the farmer must get the payment before the end of the day, which is
largely followed.
After the produce is dropped of at a
shed in the complex, the traders take
control of it. Workers start segregating
the onions according to the quality and
the packaging begins. Vehicles are
loaded with the produce to be sent of to
cities or to diferent States. Traders then
get into a huddle to firm up the retail
price of the produce adding their
profits with nary a concern for the
farmer and the price demanded by him.
The operation is bloodless and smooth.
Barely breaking even
While onion is one of the major crops
in this belt, farmers also cultivate
grapes, soya bean, sugarcane, and ginger. Speaking out against the cartel of
traders is not easy when the farmer is
dependent largely on the onion crop, as
it may result in traders ganging against
him (or her) by dropping rates for his
produce.
CM
YK

Abundant supply has brought

prices down. But farmers say
traders are conspiring against
them and the government has
done little to help
Oicial data from the Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee
(APMC) says that this years prices
between Rs.500-Rs.800/ql., down from
Rs.970-Rs.3,786/ql. are the lowest in
the last five years. This year, Rs.1,020/ql.
(in June) was the highest rate given to
farmers, compared to Rs.6,326/ql. in
2015-16, and Rs.2,626 in 2014-15.
Growing onions costs between
Rs.50,000 and Rs.80,000 per acre, and a
cultivated acre yields not more than 100
ql. With this years average selling price
at Rs.728/ql., an acres worth of onions
would get the farmer around Rs.72,800.
This sees some farmers barely break
even; many lose money.
Small wonder that Milind Darade,
who owns 13 acres of land, is furious.
This is the only industry where producers have no right to decide the price of
their product, the onion farmer from
Karanjgaon, Nashik district, says. Isnt
it cruel? Shouldnt we get angry? The
week before The Hindu caught up with
him at the Saikheda sub-market committee, Darade was given a humiliating
price for his produce: Rs.5/ql., or 5
paisa/kg. If that was not bad enough,
Maharashtras Minister for Co-operation, Subhash Deshmukh, said on a
live television show that his onions
were rotten. Let me give you some information, he says indignantly, this is
the onion you eat at a restaurant. Just
peel of two layers and you would wonder whether it was really rotten.
Darade has preserved the oicial paper from the market committee with the
ofered rate; he has laminated it to ensure it doesnt get dog-eared. He says
that he was so angry that he refused to
sell his onions and brought the load,
some 10-11 ql., back to his farm to use as
fertiliser. But, he says, When I calmed
down, it dawned upon me that I must
use it to highlight the plight of onion
farmers.
Supply-demand mismatch
Simplistically put, there was a shortage last year, and this year has seen record onion cultivation. Abundant supply
has brought the prices down. The farmers, though, are used to this kind of fluctuation. They dont blame the bumper
crop and supply-demand equation; they
say its the traders who are conspiring
against them and the government has
done little or the wrong things to
help.
To understand the current crisis for
farmers, we need to step back a little.
India has three onion crops a year.
Early kharif (the crop sowed in the monsoon) onions come to market between
October and December. Onions from
the rangda, or late kharif, crop arrive
from January to March. The winter or
rabi crop is up for sale from April to
May. Usually, some parts of the rabi crop

are stored for a few months to fill the

gap from May to October. Traditionally,
prices rise from July to October; oicial
data show that wholesale rates rise by as
much as Rs.1,000/ql., even Rs. 1,500, later reflected in the retail market with an
increase
of
Rs.5-Rs.10/kg
for
consumers.
In 2014-15, the onions took a hit following a hailstorm in North Maharashtra which, in turn, afected their
storage value. With many rotting, the
onions that did make it to market commanded high prices.
Then the drought of the summer just
past played a role too; many sugarcane
farmers switched to the less thirsty
onion this year. The onion cultivation
area in the State has almost doubled in
year 2015-16, says Nanasaheb Patil, Director, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.
(NAFED). Farmers hoped that they
will get last years rate close to
Rs.3,000-Rs.4,000/ql. which did not
happen, as production increased in
huge proportions.
India is the worlds second-largest
onion producer (after China) with 26.79
per cent of the planets land under onion
cultivation and 19.90 per cent of its
production. Maharashtra is Indias
largest producer, with a 32.45 per cent
share of total onion production, and in
turn, Nashik district in north Maharashtra accounts for with 41 per cent of
the States onion harvest. According to
the Directorate General of Commercial
Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), India produced 203.33 lakh metric tonnes
(MT, 1,000 kg) of onions in 2015-16, up
from 189.28 lakh MT in 2014-15. Lasalgaon, Asias biggest onion market, received around 32,680 MT in the previous fiscal year. Five months into this
year, it has received 10,874 MT.
To make matters worse for Maha-

rashtras farmers, other States

notably Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh and Karnataka have reported higher onion yields.
Holding on for a better day
Aside from the production glut,
another important factor was a 40day strike by traders in July and August, opposing the State governments decision to free agricultural
market committees from government regulations. With no outlet for
their rabi onions, farmers had no option but to store them and wait for the
strike to end. In addition, thanks to the
low prices, some farmers are choosing
to not bring their onions to the markets,
and instead are storing them away hoping an artificial scarcity later in the year
will pay of for them.
This strategy, however, comes with
its own dangers: that of the crop rotting
or the onions sprouting. Malti Bodke of
Bhuse village points to her rotten
onions with disgust. How long can we
store them? Its been almost four
months. Once the onions start sprouting, they lose weight, and it becomes
diicult to get a higher price.
The farmers also say that the traders
are colluding to cheat them. Its a cartel
of traders which decides the rates and
once the market reopened, they ensured
prices didnt cross Rs.1,000/ql., says
Rajaram Fafale, from Maralgoi village.
The strike gets blame for the glut. But
did trade actually stop? Oicials and
traders seem to want consumers to believe that, but farmers say it never really
stopped. Darade says that opportunistic
traders discreetly approached farmers
and quoted lowest possible rates.
Farmers, thinking it was better to sell,
even at a low price, rather than keep
them and let them rot, did sell.
Three years ago, when the farmers

were getting Rs.4,500Rs.5,000/ql., retail onion

prices reached Rs.90/kg., which
resulted in protests from the thenopposition parties, as well as consumer organisations, in Delhi, Mumbai
and other major cities, accusing the
United Progressive Alliance government of failing to protect consumers.
The governments first step was to increase the Minimum Export Price
(MEP) to $1,150/MT. This made it diicult for Indian exporters to compete in
international markets; whatever stock
was available was diverted to the
domestic market, which brought prices
down. By March 2014, when the late
kharif crop got to market, prices had
dropped to less than Rs.1,000/ql. in the
wholesale market, and consumers got
theirs at Rs.20-Rs.25/kg.
This may have played out well for
consumers, but has had other consequences for the industry. There is absolutely no consistency in our approach
towards onion exports, says NAFEDs
Patil. A look at MEPs between December 2010 and December 2015 bears him
out: the figure has fluctuated wildly,
dropping to $0 in May 2012, and with a
high of $1,150 in November 2013. It only
enrages our customers overseas, says
Patil. They are left with absolutely no
guarantee of quantity and price of
onions exported from India. These customers have instead chosen Pakistan,
China and Iran, and we have lost guaranteed markets.
Patil says that the governments decision to placate enraged urban customers has lost it both its farmers support
and its overseas markets. The onion, he
says, is no longer an agricultural commodity, it has become a political
symbol.
An MSP for onions?
Assuming the government has to balance the needs of consumers with those
of producers, what else could it have
done to ensure that farmers get some return on their labour?
The National Horticulture Research
& Development Foundation (NHRDF)
keeps track of potential harvests by collecting information on each district.
This year, despite being aware of the
possibility of a bumper crop, the government appears to have failed to take
any measures to protect farmers. The
NHRDFs estimates say the rabi onions
should be selling at around Rs.818/ql.,
which is significantly higher than what
farmers are managing to get. If the government chose to use its Price Stabilisation Fund, it could subsidise the crop,
paying, say, Rs.500/ql.
What the State government has an-

nounced this week by way of relief

Rs.100 per quintal, up to a maximum of
200 quintals, or a maximum of
Rs.20,000 has, to put it mildly, failed
to enthuse farmers. Every farmer The
Hindu spoke to called the measure not
just inadequate but practically a mockery of their plight.
Fafale, who sold 10 ql. at Lasalgaon for
Rs. 220/ql., or Rs 2.2/kg., greeted the
news with scorn. Now I will get one rupee more. What a relief! he says sarcastically. We arent begging in front of
the government. What we are asking is
our right. How does this government
conclude that this much of money is sufficient as financial aid? Who advises
them? Have they bothered to check the
ground reality?
One of the major demands the farmers have is for the government to introduce a Minimum Support Price (MSP)
for onions, as it has for sugarcane. Why
dont the oicers understand that we are
not independent and traders enjoy a
free run here? says Darade. Unless an
MSP is announced, we cannot be sure of
a certain minimum profit. Why this
neglect?
Western Maharashtra, the States
sugar belt, has seen, in recent times, sugarcane farmers agitating for an increased MSP. It became an electoral issue in 2014 when the Congress and the
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
sufered major defeats in the Assembly
polls in the region considered a bastion
for both.
The
Swabhimani
Shetkari
Sanghatana (SSS; its name means organisation for farmers self-respect), led
by Raju Shetti, which was in the thick of
the agitation, is now part of the State
government and Shetti is an MP. While
the SSS has stage limited protests in the
States onion belt demanding an MSP, it
has not been able to take the protests to
a wider audience. With the Bharatiya
Janata Party-Shiv Sena regime, as with
the previous Congress-NCP rule, the
MSP for onions issue is far from being
solved.
In the village of Bhuse, Ramdas
Bodke, 65, is philosophical. I have seen
many seasons and farming has never
been easy. We know how to tackle
nature. What do we do with man-made
problems? We farmers feed the world,
but now we wonder whether we will
have food cooked at home. He lapses
into silence for a minute, and then his
tone turns bitter: Did the government
discuss its proposal to hike MLA
salaries for even a day? The government
takes an instant decision to increase the
salary of MLAs, but it takes a long time
to decide about farmers. This is injustice. But there is no one to give
justice to farmers.
As for the urban consumers and their
agitations, farmers mince no words
when the topic comes up for discussion.
Turning towards me, one of them asks,
You get agitated when prices
skyrocket, but have you ever wondered
what happens when prices hit rock bottom? Why dont you come out on the
streets demanding a fair price for us?
I have no answers.
ND-ND

12 |

NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

Cong. loses Arunachal

as MLAs join BJP ally
Government spokesperson Pasang Sona also said
the decision was fuelled by
regional aspirations of the
people. We felt that a regional identity is needed
right now to fulfil the aspirations of the people, he
said.
State BJP chief Tapir Gao
welcomed the decision and
said the decision to join the
BJP at a later stage lies with
Mr. Khandu. The ball is in
his court, Mr Gao said. He
congratulated Mr. Khandu
for joining the Congressmukt Arunachal.
Mr. Khandu however,
said while his party will be
with the BJP in NEDA, he
ruled out the possibility of
the safron party coming to
power in the State.
Fridays
development
came abruptly although

talks of a possible merger

were underway. Mr. Sona
said discussions have been
on for quite some time but
didnt disclose the exact
timeline.
The 60-member State
Assembly has an efective
strength of 57. The status of
two MLAs, Wanglam Sawin
and Gabriel D Wangsu, is
currently pending with the
Speaker following contentions that they were
wrongly disqualified.
Another seat fell vacant
when Mr. Pul allegedly
committed suicide on August 9.
After
Fridays
development, there are currently 43 PPA MLAs, 11 BJP
MLAs, two independents
and one Congress, with Mr.
Tuki being the lone Congress member.

A setback for Akhilesh

Mr. Akhilesh Yadav had
virtually sacked his uncle
on Tuesday as the power
struggle intensified in the
party.
Significantly, controversial
mining
minister
Gayatri Prasad Prajapati,
who was sacked on
Monday and enjoys little
media sympathy for his record, will also be re-inducted into the State cabinet,
Mr. Mulayam Singh confirmed during an address at
the party headquarters in
Lucknow in a bid to quell
tension and restore confidence in the party.
The decision might yet
bring awkward moments
for the Chief Minister, as a
controversial figure, Mr.
Prajapati has been mired in
allegations of corruption,
disproportionate
assets
and illegal mining. A CBI
probe is on into illegal
mining.
After days of power
struggle and verbal attacks,
which saw the sacking of
the States topmost bureaucrat, two ministers,
and the downsizing of and
later resignation of Mr
Singhs brother, Shivpal, an
agreement is expected to
be announced on Saturday,
even as opposition parties
continued to call the episode a staged drama.
Addressing supporters
here amid the escalation of
the factional feud, Mr Singh
on Friday morning said as
long as he was alive, there
will be no division in the
SP, a contrasting stand from
last month when he had
said that if his brother quit,
the party would split. This
also showed the supremo
stepping in to take control
as things began to fall apart.
The SP supremo played
down the internal tussles,
saying there was no rift of

any kind in the party. He

expressed confidence that
his son Akhilesh would not
defy him and that looking at
elections, the party leaders
and workers would work
together.
His address came after
his meeting with his son
and brother to bring an end
to the conflict.
We have a big family, differences may occur. Every
father and son face issues...but there is no rift
whatsoever in the party between anybody, Mr Singh
insisted, even as he announced that the punitive
action taken against Mr.
Prajapati
would
be
quashed. Mr. Prajapati, who
flanked Mr. Singh, reacted
with a grin.
While Mr. Shivpal Yadav
did not speak to the media
after meeting Mr Singh,
saying all would be announced by Netaji as Mr
Mulayam Singh is known in
the party, Mr. Akhilesh Yadav publicly announced
that he would return the
portfolios snatched from
his uncle, while also welcoming back the sacked
Mining Minister.
I will honour the word
of the party president and
will do everything to make
my father happy, he said.
Earlier in the day, as tensions flared, Shivpal Yadav
reposed all faith in his elder
brother. Netaji ka sandesh
hamare liye aadesh hai
(Mulayams message is my
command), he said.
Interestingly,
while
Shivpal spoke, he was
flanked by none other than
Mr. Prajapati, who is a bone
of contention between the
minister and the CM. Mr.
Prajapati enjoys the patronage of the supremo and is
said to have deeper links in
the family, observers feel.

HC on copyright violation
In a joint statement, the
publishers said, Whilst the
verdict is not what we had
hoped for, we note the
courts decision on the matter. We brought this case to
protect authors, publishers
and students from the potential efects on the Indian
academic and educational
book market caused by the
widespread creation and
distribution of unlicensed
course packs by a copy
shop operating from within
the premises of the University, where a legitimate
and afordable licensing
scheme is already in place.
It is unfortunate that the
courts decision today
could undermine the availability of original content
for the benefit of students

and teachers. We will be

considering the full judgment when it is made available, and shall decide the
next course of action after
consultation with our legal
teams, they said in the
statement.
The court was of the
view that with the advancement of technologies, the
students are not expected
to be sitting in the library
and taking notes.
If the facility of photocopying were to be not
available, they would instead of sitting in the comforts of their respective
homes and reading from
the photocopies would be
spending long hours in the
library and making notes
thereof..., it said.

Police raid Alwar village

Social activists who visited
the spot claimed that more
than a hundred houses were
vandalised in the village.
The villagers alleged that
the police were harassing
innocent people instead of
arresting the real culprits.
We rear cows. I have two
cows and two calves. We do
not kill them. But the police
have been harassing us,
said Khalid, whose house
had also been ransacked.
Shahid Khan, who runs a
travel agency in Delhi, said
he had come to village on
Eid and had now decided to
stay back fearing for the seCM
YK

curity of his parents.

Shabnam Hashmi of ANHAD, who visited the village along with some social
activists on Friday, said it
appeared to be an act of
miscreants to create communal tension in the area.
The police claim that the
cows were found buried
with their throats cut. But
there is no ritual among
Muslims to kill and bury the
animals. It seems to be the
handiwork of some miscreants to create tension in the
area. It needs to be investigated, said Ms. Hashmi.

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Ally RJD attacks Nitish for

Bihars prohibition policy
Collective punishment is against spirit of jurisprudence: Raghuvansh Prasad
NISTULA HEBBAR

If a boy is alcoholic,
is it fair to arrest his
grandparents and
parents, asks senior
Raghuvansh Prasad

NEW DELHI: Former Union

Minister
and
senior
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
leader Raghuvansh Prasad
Singh has strongly opposed
the new Prohibition Act imposed by the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, an
alliance between the Janata
Dal (U) led by Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar, the RJD and
the Congress.
Mr. Singh told The Hindu
in an exclusive interview
that the new law levying a
collective fine on villages
and the arrest of entire
households where alcohol
has been found goes against
the spirit of jurisprudence.
This is not the first time
that Bihar is seeing prohibition. It was done in 1977
under the leadership of late
Karpoori Thakur. That government fell soon and the
one that followed repealed
it, he said. What Nitish Kumar did till 2015 was the exact opposite of what he is doing now. When he became
Chief Minister, he rapidly expanded the availability of alcohol, often boasting that

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh

revenue from alcohol had
jumped from Rs. 200 crores
to Rs. 4,000 crores. He made
alcohol, which was available
in a controlled way in the
State [till then], available in
residential
areas,
near
schools, colleges etc. The
revenue from this, he said,
was being spent on buying
bicycles for girl students.
We in the RJD opposed
this. I raised this matter at
least 12 times in Parliament,
and at one time, 16 MPs associated with me on my intervention, Mr. Singh said.
Blames Nitish
I had declared that Nitish
Kumar was the ideological
killer of the Mahatma, as the

latter had decried alcoholism. But he was claiming that

he was earning high revenue
and distributing cycles for
the education of the girl
child. In the run-up to the
latest round of elections, he
announced that he would
impose prohibition as he saw
that there were hardly any
blocks in the State where
women had not opposed it,
he added.
When he announced Prohibition, I praised Nitish Kumar, Mr. Singh claimed.
The latest law on prohibition in force in the State,
however, of community
fining and arrest, is against
the spirit of jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence is the eye of
the law. A 100 guilty men can
be let of but to convict an innocent man is unacceptable.
This law runs counter to that
sense. Say, if a young boy in
the family is a black sheep, an

alcoholic, is it fair to arrest

the women of the house,
grandparents and parents of
the boy? he asked. If a whip
had not been issued, not a
single MLA would have supported this Bill. In fact, alcohol smuggling had gone up,
he said.
Defends Shahabuddin
Mr. Singh also justified the
comments made by the recently released don and
former Lok Sabha MP
Shahabuddin.
He
[Shahabuddin] is toeing his
own partys line. We are still
a separate party. We havent
merged we are in an alliance government. So why
should he acknowledge Nitish Kumar as his leader? he
asked. The Janata Dal (U)
neednt be so sensitive to
Nitish Kumar being called a
circumstantial
chief
minister. It is a reference to
his political journey. Forget
chief ministers, we have had
Prime Ministers, from P.V.
Narasimha Rao to Deve
Gowda to Manmohan Singh
who can be termed circumstantially created prime
ministers, he said.

Bihar moves SC against

Shahabuddins bail
KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL
AMARNATH TEWARY
NEW DELHI/PATNA: The Bihar
government
on
Friday
moved the Supreme Court
against the bail granted to
Mohd. Shahabuddin. The
move is likely to widen the
cracks in the ruling Mahagathbandhan, or Grand Allaince,
between
Chief
Minister Nitish Kumars
Janata Dal (United [JD(U)],
Lalu Prasads Rashtriya
Janata Dal (RJD) and the
Congress.
Mr Shahabuddin, a former
RJD member of Parliament,
allegedly has over 50
criminal cases against him
and he has been convicted in
eight. He was released on
bail on September 7.
The Nitish Kumar government challenged the Patna
High Court order releasing
Mr Shahabuddin citing a sixmonth delay in his trial.

Petitions to be clubbed
The State governments
petition came a few hours
after the Supreme Court allowed a plea by Siwan-resident
Chandrakeshwar
Prasad, whose three young
sons were allegedly killed by
Mr Shahabuddins henchmen over a decade ago, for an
urgent hearing in his separate petition challenging the
bail order. A bench led by

Mohd. Shahabuddin
Chief Justice of India T.S.
Thakur agreed to list Mr.
Prasads case for hearing on
September 19 after his counsel, senior advocate Prashant
Bhushan, made an urgent
mention in court.
It is likely that the Bihar
governments identical plea
will also find a mention
when Mr. Prasads case
comes up for hearing.
The State government
agreed with Mr. Prasad that
Mr Shahabuddin has a
criminal background and
that the High Court ought to
have considered his antecedents before granting him
bail.
Its not the release of the
Mohd Shahabuddin which
has annoyed Nitish Kumar
and his partymen but his
statement saying that he was
the CM of circumstances,
said a senior RJD leader, a
view JD (U) sources concurred with.

Everyone will be on board, says Prachanda

KALLOL BHATTACHARJEE
NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcoming his Nepalese counterpart Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Prachanda and his wife Sita Dahal, during a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in
New Delhi on Friday. PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

Pak. doctors quit

Gujarat hospital

Gujarat may use GST to woo U.S.

VARGHESE K GEORGE

AHMEDABAD: Following the ar-

rest of a Pakistani doctor for

allegedly raping a patient in
the ICU of Apollo Hospital,
at least a dozen Pakistani
doctors have resigned.
Reports in local media
suggested that they were
asked to put in their papers
following the rape complaint
against Dr. Rajesh Chauhan,
a Pakistan national. Apollo
Hospital
spokesperson
Sandip Joshi confirmed the
resignations. On September
8, the police arrested Dr.
Chauhan and a ward boy
named Chandrakant Vankar
for allegedly raping a 19year-old girl, who was being
treated for dengue. PTI

S. Jaishankar on Friday hinted that India would not give

up on the concerns of the
Madhesis, after India and
Nepal held wide-ranging
talks during the ongoing visit
of Prime Minister Pushpa
Kamal Dahal Prachanda.
Mr. Jaishankar said, In an
open border, our doors are
never closed to our neighbour.
However, Mr. Prachanda
who came to power in the
first week of August has not
initiated a cross-party dialogue for addressing the
Madhesi concerns ostensibly
as he does not have twothirds mandate or 397 votes
in the Nepali Parliament
which is necessary for
amendments.
In his oicial address delivered at the Hyderabad
House, Mr. Prachanda de-

WASHINGTON: Several U.S. State

Governors and Amazon
founder Jef Bezos are likely
to participate in the 2017 edition of the Vibrant Gujarat
Summit. A team of oicials
from the State government
and Invest India led by Gujarat Resident Commissioner Bharat Lal met U.S.
business leaders and lawmakers this week in several
cities.
The passage of the Goods
and Services Tax Bill recently has added strength to
all Indian eforts to woo
American investors. The
Modi government had inspired a lot of hope among

Post passage
of GST law, India
may become
a more attractive
destination
American businesses initially but it did not last and
the disappointment was reflected even in the State Department report on global investment climates early this
year. The GST Bill has
turned around the situation,
and investors increasingly
look at India more favourably, consequently.
Addressing a luncheon organised by the U.S.-Indian
Business Council (USIBC),

Mr. Lal pointed out that the

GST law indicated the political consensus that has
emerged in India in favour of
reforms.
Not only that Parliament
passed the law with the cooperation of all major political parties, more than half of
the State legislatures have
approved it in record time,
meeting the threshold for the
Constitution amendment.
This shows that across
parties and across States,
there is larger support for reforms, Mr. Lal said.
GST has convinced
American companies that
the Modi government is
serious about reforms and is
capable of doing it, said

Wish birthday boy Modi, get personalised thanks

Special feature added on NaMo app to enable people to greet the Prime Minister today
NISTULA HEBBAR
NEW DELHI: A 66 birthday
may not seem much like a
milestone, but Prime
Minister Narendra Modi,
who turns that age on
Saturday, is determined
that no birthday wish shall
remain unacknowledged. A
special tech feature on the
NaMo app has been added
to enable people to leave
messages wishing the
Prime Minister a happy
birthday, and also upload
personalised birthday
cards.
In response, a message
thanking the sender for
his/her wishes will be sent
to them, referring to the
sender by name, and can be
shared across social media
platforms.
This is not the first time
Mr. Modi is using tech to
get personal, when he won
the General Elections of

scribed the Constitution as a

historic achievement. You
are aware that my government has made serious efforts to bring everyone on
board as we enter the phase
of the implementation of the
Nepali Constitution, he
said.
The new Constitution was
criticised by the Madhesi
Morcha led by leaders from
the plains of Nepal who led
the movement for blockade
of economic supply lines on
the Nepal-India border. The
issue of the Constitution also
featured prominently in
Prime Minister Narendra
Modis formal speech welcoming Mr. Prachanda.
I am confident that under
your wise leadership, Nepal
will successfully implement
the Constitution through inclusive dialogue accommodating the aspirations of all
sections of its diverse society, Mr. Modi said, describ-

th

CLEAN MESSAGE: A sand sculpture of Narendra Modi in

Mumbai on Friday. The BJP has urged people to celebrate
September 17, the PMs birthday, as Seva Divas. PHOTO: AFP
2014, his team sent out
direct messages of thanks
to every congratulatory
message posted on social
media site Twitter.
Several prominent
personalities have posted
their wishes on the app,
including superstar
Amitabh Bachchan, singer
Lata Mangeshkar, actor

Aamir Khan and industry

titans Cyrus Mistry, and
Anil Ambani, each
recalling with warmth,
their past association with
Mr. Modi.
Mr. Bachchan recalls Mr.
Modis attention to detail
and phenomenal recall. I
am astounded by how you
manage to remember small

details of past incidents,

like the way you enquired
about the cut I sufered on
my finger during Uttarayan
while flying kites, he said
in his greetings.
Mr. Anil Ambanis
wishes include a prophecy
that he recalls was made by
his father, the late
Dhirubhai Ambani, when
the Ambani family hosted
Mr. Modi for a meal in
Mumbai.
Lambi race no ghodo
che, leader che, (he is a
thoroughbred for the long
run, a leader), PM banse
(he will be Prime
Minister), Mr. Ambani
quotes his late father as
saying in Gujarati.
Says former Comptroller
and Auditor Vinod Rai in
his greetings: I came way
from the meeting of Bank
Boards Bureau realising
that he had listened to me
more than I had to him.

Mukesh Aghi, President, USIBC. USIBC member companies have invested $ 28 billion in India in the last two
years and investments of $ 45
billion are in the pipeline.
Ahmedabad, new hub
In the second edition of
Vibrant Gujarat after Mr.
Modi
became
Prime
Minister, the thrust of the
State oicials is not limited
to projecting the State, but
the entire country. Mr. Lal, a
confidant of Mr. Modi,
places the eforts to project
Gujarat within the broader
picture of the country. At the
centre of this efort is showcasing Ahmedabad as a new
financial centre in Asia.

ing the Nepali leader as a

catalytic force of peace in
Nepal.
New line of credit
Prime Minister Prachanda
was earlier welcomed at the
Forecourt of the Rashtrapati
Bhavan by Mr. Modi and the
two held wide-ranging discussions. The major agreements sealed between the Indian and Nepali delegations
included upgrade of road
network in Nepal and two
line of credit agreements between Nepal and the Exim
Bank.
We signed also a Line of
Credit for 750 million USD
which was something we had
committed earlier and which
would cover a lot of development
projects
in
Nepal, said Mr. Jaishankar.
Mr. Prachanda is accompanied by his Foreign
Minister Prakash Sharan
Mahat.

In PoK, Sharif
promises action
on Kashmir
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif on Friday met
Hurriyat
leaders
from
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir
(PoK) and assured them that
he would emphatically
highlight the Kashmir issue
at the 71st session of the U.N.
General Assembly next
week.
Mr. Sharif met the leaders
of the All Parties Hurriyat
Conference PoK chapter at
Muzafarabad.
PoK President Sardar
Masood Khan and Prime
Minister Raja Farooq Haider
were also present at the
meeting. PTI

Yet another youth dies,

Kashmir toll touches 80
SRINAGAR: Another youth in-

jured in clashes in Kashmir

last week died on Friday, taking the death toll in the ongoing unrest to 80.
Basit Mukhtar, who was
injured by a teargas shell in
clashes on September 5 in
south Kashmirs Pulwama,
died at a hospital here. With
this 80 persons, including
two policemen, have died in
the violent clashes that broke
out a day after Hizbul militant Burhan Wani was gunned
down in an encounter with
security forces in south
Kashmir on July 8.
Curfew reimposed
Curfew was reimposed in
many parts of Kashmir on
Friday, including in summer
capital Srinagar, due to apprehension of violence after
Friday prayers.
Curfew has been imposed
in Srinagar city and towns of
Baramulla, Pattan, Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama,

Schools, colleges
and shops shut
as separatists
extend their protests
till September 22
a police oicial said.
The oicial said restriction on assembly of people
continues to remain in force.
Life continued to remain
paralysed in Kashmir for the
70th consecutive day due to
restrictions and separatistsponsored strike.
The separatists have extended the protest programme till September 22.
They have not announced
any relaxation in the strike
even in the evening. Shops,
business establishments and
petrol pumps continued to
remain shut while public
transport was of the roads.
Schools, colleges and
other education institutions
also remained closed.
ND-ND

| 13

NEWS

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

climate impact:
Centre against imposition of Hindi Himalayan
India, China share concerns
Promotion of regional languages is the responsibility of the respective States, says Kiren Rijiju

NEW DELHI: Minister of State

for all Central government

oices to communicate on
social media.

(Home) Kiren Rijiju said the

government was against imposing Hindi on other regional languages like Tamil,
Kannada or Telugu, and the
Centre will continue to promote Hindi as it was the oicial language as envisaged in
the Constitution. He also
said that promotion of regional languages was the responsibility of the respective
States.
The BJP-ruled NDA government has come under severe criticism in the past for
its eforts to promote Hindi
and making it compulsory

Hindi is oicial language

In an interview to The
Hindu, Mr. Rijiju said that
Hindi and English have become the link languages for
oicial correspondence. The
proposal to include English
along with 37 other regional
languages like Bhojpuri,
Chattisgarhi, Khasi and
Bundelkhandi in the VIII
Schedule
of
the
Constitution, granting it an
oicial status, has been
pending with the Centre for
12 years now.
Our policy is very clear

VIJAITA SINGH

remains the same, said Mr.

Rijiju.
It was on September 14,
1949, that the drafting committee of the Constitution
had agreed to accept Hindi
as the oicial language of India and from then on the day
is celebrated as Hindi Divas
across all Central ministries,
departments and oices.

Kiren Rijiju
we have to promote all indigenous Indian languages.
Hindi is an oicial language
as per the provisions of the
Constitution. The situation

English for convenience

He said English is an international language used for
convenience.
We are here to promote
Hindi to the extent that it is
permissible, especially in the
A category states. In India,
nobody should force any-

body to adopt a particular

language. Hindi and English
have become link languages
for the states but, at the same
time, we have important languages like Tamil, Telugu,
Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Odiya and Assamese, he said.
He added that there were
38 proposals pending for inclusion in the VIII Schedule
of the Constitution with the
ministry.
We instituted an oicial
group to look into the inclusion of these languages in the
VIII Schedule. The committee has given its report and
we are examining it, said
Mr. Rijiju.

ED eyes info on chopper

deal from Switzerland

Soul ofering

DEVESH K. PANDEY
NEW DELHI: A two-member

FOR THE DEPARTED: People performing Tarpan ritual for their ancestors on the first day
of 'Shraad' at the Upper Lake in Bhopal on Friday. PHOTO: A.M FARUQUI

team led by the Enforcement

Directorate Director Karnal
Singh will visit Switzerland
to hold meetings with the authorities there on the issue of
expeditious execution of judicial requests seeking information in certain important
cases,
including
AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.
The ED teams visit focuses on presenting facts of
the cases in question to the
Swiss oicials to highlight
importance of the information sought by the agency.
The team is scheduled to
leave on Saturday.
It is learnt that the Indian
delegation will discuss the
AgustaWestland case which
is under investigation since
March 2013. Letters Regotary
(judicial requests) have already been sent to eight
countries seeking information on suspect financial
transactions. While Italy has
shared all necessary documents, Indian investigating

It will seek quick

execution of judicial
requests in important
cases, including
AgustaWestland deal
agencies are yet to get complete reports from Switzerland, besides the United
Kingdom, the UAE, Singapore, British Virgin Island,
Tunisia and Mauritius.
Details pertaining to investigations into issues related to 2G spectrum allocations case had earlier been
sought from Switzerland.
The team is also expected to
hold discussions in this regard, apart from the City
Limousine chit-fund case.
In May last year, the
Switzerlands oice gazette
had made public the names of
City Limousine case prime
accused Sayed Mohammed
Masood and his wife Chand
Kauser Mohammed Masood,
about which Indian agencies
have made enquiries in connection with a Bahamasbased company.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
PANAJI: Stating that the rapid

melting of glaciers in the Himalayan ranges was a major

concern, Union Minister for
Environment and Forests
(Independent Charge) Anil
M. Dave on Friday said India
and China were both concerned about the degradation of the worlds highest
mountain range.
Mr. Dave, briefing the
media on Friday about the
two-day discussions on global climate change and other
environment issues at a
meeting of the BIRCS
(Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa) Environment Ministers at Goa, said
there was now a wider understanding that there is
something wrong because of
a larger issue of climate
change.
Joint working group
He said the Environment
Ministers had agreed on a
Memorandum of Understanding and announced the
setting up of a joint working
group institutionalising their
mutual cooperation on diverse environment related
issues.
He said India and China
the main two countries on
the either side of Himalayas,
were both concerned about
the degradation.
We are all concerned, nobody is blaming each other. It
is not the countries that are
surrounding the mountains
that are responsible, but it is
the efect of the global climate change. So we are
thinking in details in length
about what to do and what
not to do, he said.
He said the areas for mutual cooperation were abatement and control of air and
water pollution, eicient
management of liquid and
solid waste, climate change
and conservation of biodiversity. Issues related to air,
industrial pollution, agriculture, bio-diversity and the effect of climate change on it

CHARTING A ROAD MAP: Minister for Environment, Forest and

Climate Change Anil Mahadev Dave with his counterparts
from other BRICS nations in Goa on Friday. PHOTO: PTI

BRICS MoU on climate

cooperation signed
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: India signed an

agreement with fellow

BRICS countries to
deepen cooperation in
abatement and control of
air and water pollution,
eicient management of
liquid and solid waste,
climate change and
conservation of
biodiversity.
Two key issues
Minister of State for
Environment and Forests
Anil Dave, said in a
statement that
technology transfer and
finance were two issues

were primarily discussed.

We have all agreed that
we should work on this and
we have formulated a group
which will exchange views.
We can have bi-lateral eforts
to conserve rivers and ponds
or we can have multi-lateral
eforts or individual countries can work on that.
Choices made by BRICS
countries have global significance as the member coun-

that need to be addressed

to limit global warming.
Earlier this week, the
Environment Ministry
announced a
collaborative R&D
programme to develop
next generation,
sustainable refrigerant
technologies as
alternatives to
hydrofluorocarbons.
Key players include
the Council of Scientific
& Industrial Research
and its allied institutions;
Department of Science
and Technology; Centre
for Atmospheric &
Oceanic Sciences and
key industry players.
tries account for 41.6 per cent
of global population, 29.31
per cent of total world area
and about 22 per cent of
worlds total Gross Domestic
Product.
Later talking to The
Hindu, Mr. Dave admitted
that issues associated with
degradation of the coastal
environmental were serious,
but said this did not figure in
the discussions.

Considering Indias
AIR launches Baloch
letter on 26/11 probe: Pak. mobile application
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: India has expressed

willingness
to
share
material evidence related to
the attacks of 26/11,
Pakistans
Ministry
of
Foreign Afairs said on Friday. The statement came a
day after India said that
Foreign
Secretary
S.
Jaishankar has written to his
Pakistan counterpart Aizaz
Ahmad Chaudhry seeking
cooperation into the investigation of the eight-year-old
case.
However, Pakistan has
said that the letter from Mr.
Jaishankar is the response to
Mr. Ahmads letter dated
September 8 2015.
In reply to the Foreign
Secretary of Pakistans letter,
dated 8th September 2015,
the Indian Foreign Secretary,
in his letter of 6th September

has expressed Indias readiness to share the material

evidence, which Pakistan has
been seeking for quite some
time for the Mumbai trial.
Evidence required
The material evidence and
the cross examination of
prosecution witnesses are
needed to proceed further
with the trial in Pakistan as
per our law of the land,
Nafees Zakaria, Spokesperson of Pakistans Ministry of
Foreign Afairs said in a
statement.
India on Thursday had expressed dissatisfaction over
the slow pace of investigation of the Mumbai terror attack trial in Pakistan.
Pakistani sources said the
letter from India has been
delayed though the MEA is
yet to comment on this
observation

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: All India Radio on
Friday announced the launch
of a multi-media and mobile
app for Balochi-speaking
people in the Af-Pak region
and other parts of the world.
Prasar Bharati Chairperson A. Surya Prakash, who
launched the services said
the move was part of Indias
eforts to reach out to the
neighbourhood for a better
people-to-people contact.
While oicials denied any
connect between Prime
Minister Narendra Modis
speech on Independence
Day wherein he had raised
the issue of Pakistani atrocities on the people of Balochistan, the service, they
clarified was part of ongoing
process to engage with
neighbours.
India had also raised the

issue of atrocities in Balochistan at the meeting of a

U.N. body earlier this week.
Prasar Bharati oicials said
the mobile app and the
webpage were just value addition as Balochi service of
the AIR has been in existence since 1974.
As the worlds largest democracy, we have the responsibility to disseminate
news and information across
the world, he said.
Cannot be blocked
Asked if the services could
face obstruction in Pakistan,
AIR DG F. Shehryar said the
radio service was on the
short-wave which cannot be
blocked. Mr. Shehryar added
that while AIR does not aim
at countering any kind of
propaganda, it will challenge
falsehoods by presenting the
correct information.

Your daily cuppa gets a spirited makeover

CSIR develops a version of tea-wine that has 7-12 per cent alcohol content
JACOB KOSHY
NEW DELHI: India may finally
have an indigenous answer
to Long Island Iced Tea.
The CSIR-Institute of
Himalayan Bioresource
Technology (CSIR-IHBT)
at Palamapur, Himachal
Pradesh, claims to have a
developed a brand of tea,
called tea-wine, with a 7-12
per cent alcohol content by
volume. That makes it
much boozier than beer
and to be in the same
league as the conventional
grape-derived wine.
Catechins are the key
active ingredient in tea and
said to possess
antioxidants that make
body cells more resilient to
degradation. Freshly
picked green leaves of tea
contain almost 30 per cent
catechin. Tea also contains
theanine and cafeine that
provide the kick most
associate with the drink.
Sanjay Kumar, Director of
the CSIR-IHBT, said at a
new conference that the
tea-wine would be high on
catechins and therefore

CM
YK

India may soon have its

own version of the Long
Island Iced Tea. FILE PHOTO
was a health drink. The
alcohol would be sourced
from fermenting berries
local to the region and four
varieties of tea-wine with
varying sugar content were
to be developed.
Excise problems
The CSIR-IHBT had
signed an agreement with a
Mozambique-based
company and expected
production to begin next
year. A similar agreement
with an Indian company
hadnt yet seen tea-wine
bottles roll out owing to
excise problems, he said.
Mr. Kumar didnt disclose

the financial terms or the

names of the companies
involved. I see it as an
export product, said Mr.
Kumar, that may be
popular among niche
groups. India is one of the
biggest exporters of tea
and despite Indians
growing appetite for cofee,
tea remains the most
consumed beverage. Four
in five urban Indians
consume tea as opposed to
8 per cent cofee drinkers,
according to a survey by
the National Sample
Survey Organisation.
Himachal Pradesh is
known for a variety of tea
called Kangra Tea thats
distinct from tea sourced
from the North-east and
South India.
We are developing the
tea-wine with the Kangra
variety, said Mr. Kumar,
and there is also a nonalcoholic version thats
much superior to iced tea.
This isnt the CSIRs first
tryst with manufacturing
alcoholic beverages. In
2003, the National
Botanical Research

Institute, a CSIR body,

announced that it had
developed a herbal beer
with several medicinal
properties and an alcohol
content of 2-3 per cent.
Though the technology
was licensed to a Kanpurbased company, its yet to
become a commercial
product.
Born out of necessity
However, tea-wine was
born out of necessity and
the need to develop
innovative products that
could weather problems in
Indias tea plantations that
are grappling with reduced
manpower. Being a labourintensive crop, the IHBT
said in a statement, its
tender apical bud and
subtending two leaves
needed to be picked at the
right stage by trained
pluckers.
Owing to labour
shortage in plantations, the
tea leaves werent being
plucked at the right time,
and this afected their
quality and resulted in
poor prices at auctions.
ND-ND

14 |

WORLD

Pakistan constructing new

nuclear reprocessing site
NARAYAN LAKSHMAN

that in addition to being located near to the KRL, a

known centrifuge facility,
the new building shared similarities with known centrifuge facility structures
built by the URENCO enrichment consortium in
Capenhurst (in the U.K.), Almelo (in the Netherlands)
and Gronau (in Germany).
This may be more than coincidence as A.Q. Khan, considered by many to be the
founder of Pakistans nuclear
programme, worked at
URENCO before stealing
centrifuge designs and returning to Pakistan to work
on the countrys centrifuge
programme, said Charlie
Cartwright, an imagery analyst for IHS Janes.
The group also noted that
on September 28 last year,
satellite imagery showed
that work on a large building
had commenced, with a
multi-bay steel-frame structure visible in commercial
imagery. The site is still under construction, IHS noted,
the construction work to
continue for at least another
12 months while plumbing,
electrics and ducting for airconditioning installations
are undertaken. The site is
not likely to be ready for occupation until at least late
2017 or early 2018.

European nations, sans Britain, meet informally to devise a road map for reform
BRATISLAVA: EU leaders, meet-

ing without their British

counterpart on Friday, said
they had come up with a
road map of strategies for
rebuilding public trust in the
European Union after the
shock of Britains vote to
leave.
However, among pledges
of cooperation to come up
with a plan by the 60th anniversary of the Unions
founding treaty in March, arguments over how to handle
an influx of refugees
rumbled on.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying the British vote had plunged the rest
of the bloc into a critical
situation, said the 27 had
agreed at a day-long summit
Bratislava to use the next six
months to develop a plan to
reinvigorate the Union.

nuclear
weapons
development activities in
Pakistan comes in the wake
of a long series of such observations made in the recent
years, mostly from commercial satellite photography.
Last year, a report by the
Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a
think-tank in the U.S., said
that Pakistan may be accelerating the weaponisation of
spent nuclear fuel through
its plutonium reprocessing
plant in Chashma in Punjab.
This weeks report said

23 killed as Pak.
Taliban bomber
targets mosque

President Obama was born in

the U.S., concedes Trump

PESHAWAR: A Taliban suicide

bomber killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens

more as they attended Friday
prayers at a mosque in a
northwestern
Pakistani
tribal area, oicials said.
The bombing took place in
the village of Butmaina in the
Mohmand tribal district bordering Afghanistan where
the Army has been fighting
against Taliban militants.
At least 23 people have
been killed and 30 others
wounded, deputy chief of
the Mohmand tribal district
administration Naveed Akbar told AFP. The bomber
came in as Friday prayers
were in progress and blew
himself up in the main hall,
he said. The victims include
four children, he said, adding
that a curfew has been imposed in the area.
Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif
condemned
the
bombing, saying the government would remain steadfast
in their fight against extremists.
Taliban faction Jamaat-ulAhrar (JuA) claimed responsibility for the attack,
saying it was carried out to
avenge the deaths of 13 of its
members and arrests of others by a local vigilante force
in 2009.
On September 2, at least 14
people were killed after a
suicide bomber attacked a
court in Mardan in another
assault claimed by the JuA.
According to data from the
South Asia Terrorism Portal,
457 civilians and 182 members of the security forces
were killed in Pakistan from
January 1 to September 11,
putting the year 2016 on
course for fewer casualties
than 2015. AFP

Hillary was to blame

Without ofering evidence, Mr. Trump accused
Democratic rival Clinton of
starting the birther allegations during her 2008 presidential primary campaign.

WHITHER THE UNION? German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande
deliver a joint statement after the EU summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Friday. PHOTO: AFP
cooperation, the values it
was founded on by six countries in 1957.
That sounded like a
barbed
reference
to
continued frustration with
especially
ex-communist
eastern states which have refused to take in asylumseekers, many of the
Muslims, even as Ms. Merkel
let in a million people last
year.
Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orban, her bte noire
on the issue, said the summit

had failed to change EU immigration policies that he

called self-destructive and
naive. He planned a new
push for change at meeting of
Balkan states on Sept. 24.
Others were keener to
highlight positives from the
meeting.
French President Francois
Hollande, sitting alongside
her in a demonstration of
how Britains departure has
thrown the focus back on to
the two old enemies who
drove the blocs foundation

after World War Two, said

the summit had shown that
the Union could move on
after the British referendum
result.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Twitter: We have a proposal of a
road map for concrete steps
for strengthening citizens
confidence in the functioning of the EU.
Years of economic crisis
have pushed up unemployment across southern Europe, while a spate of attacks

Restoring faith in EU
The informal summit
so-called because any formal
one still has to include Britain until it leaves the bloc
is aimed at restoring public
faith in the European Union,
which for decades was seen
as a guarantor of peace and
prosperity but is now, oicials acknowledge, in an existential crisis.
The aim in Bratislava was
to agree a road map for reform of the EU that can be finalised over the next half
year.
More
concrete
proposals would be presented at a summit in March of
next year that coincides with
the 60th anniversary of the
bloc's founding Treaty of
Rome.
Diplomats said a busy
morning of talks in Bratislavas hilltop castle had remained civil and constructive in analysing what was
wrong. There were no recriminations, said a spokesman for summit chair Donald Tusk. It was in a good
atmosphere. Reuters

Swedish court upholds Assange warrant

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish ap-

peals court decided to uphold the arrest warrant for

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Friday, prolonging
the six-year-long legal stand
of with prosecutors and
clearing the way for the
Wikileaks founder to be
questioned in London next
month. Mr. Assange (45) is
wanted by Swedish authorities for questioning over allegations, which he denies,
that he committed rape in
2010.
The Court of Appeal
shares the assessment of the

District Court that Julian Assange is still suspected on

probable cause of rape, the
court said.
Mr. Assange avoided possible extradition to Sweden
by taking refuge in Ecuadors
London embassy in 2012. He
says he fears further extradition to the United States,
where a criminal investigation into the activities of
Wikileaks is ongoing.
The court said the lengthy
deadlock and the previous
passivity of Swedish prosecutors in pursuing the investigation were arguments

for setting aside the warrant,

but there remained a strong
public interest argument for
it remaining in place.
Ecuador has set an October 17 date for questioning
Mr. Assange at its London
embassy. Swedish prosecutors have said the questioning will be conducted by
an Ecuadorian prosecutor.
The latest request by Mr.
Assange to have the warrant
for his arrest overturned
came after a UN panel in
February said his stay at the
embassy equalled arbitrary
detention. Reuters

Wikileaks Founder Julian

Assange

Mr. Trump had for years

promoted the birther movement against Mr. Obama,
who was born in Hawaii to an
American mother and a
Kenyan father.
The birther conspiracies,
which cast doubt over
whether Mr. Obama is legally
able to be President, incense
black Americans whose
votes Mr. Trump has been
trying to court.

Ms. Clinton demanded Mr.

Trump apologise to the
President for having helped
spread the birther idea and
said Trump had tried to delegitimise our first black
President. His campaign
was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing
it in history, Clinton said in
an address to the Black
Women's Association in
Washington. Reuters

Snowden to vote in U.S. polls

ATHENS: Edward Snowden,
currently in exile in Moscow,
said on Friday he intends to
vote in the U.S. presidential
election, but did not say
which candidate he favours.
I will be voting, Mr.
Snowden said, speaking at a
conference in Athens by
video link from Moscow.
But as a privacy advocate
I think its important for me
... that there should never be
an obligation for an
individual to discuss their
vote. And I wont be doing so
with mine.
Mr. Snowden (33) spoke

RICK GLADSTONE

ahead of the opening of the

movie Snowden, starring
Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He
thanked
human
rights
groups for their campaign to
seek a pardon for him from
President Barack Obama.
On seeking pardon
Im not actually asking for
a pardon myself because I
think the whole point of our
system and the foundation of
our democracy is a system of
checks and balances, he
said.
But ... Im incredibly
grateful and fortunate to be

U.S.-based cleric
spoke for the first
time since the coup
attempt and its
aftermath in Turkey

CM
YK

by Islamist militants and a

record influx of refugees
from war-torn countries like
Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq
have unsettled voters, who
are turning to populist, antiEU parties.

BACK IN BUSINESS: Hillary Clinton returns to campaigning in New

York on Thursday after a bout of pneumonia. PHOTO: AFP

Fethullah Gulen calls Turkey

crackdown dark page in history
he Turkish Muslim
cleric accused by Turkey of plotting a failed coup
two months ago denounced
the repression of his supporters on Thursday, calling
the crackdown dark pages
in world history.
The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the Pocono
Mountains of Pennsylvania,
said the arrests, purges and
dismissals undertaken by
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a former
ally, reflected the behaviour
of a man seeking to acquire
sovereignty unconditionally
for himself.
Mr. Gulen accused the
government of subjecting his
followers to oppression and
tyranny.
Mr. Erdogan and his subordinates have blamed Mr.
Gulen for the coup attempt,
which left at least 271 people

Post-Brexit agenda
We have agreed that Europe, in the critical situation
its in after the referendum in
Britain but also due to other
problems we have, that we
must jointly agree on an
agenda, that we must have a
working plan, she said, referring to a summit in the
Italian capital to mark 60
years of the Treaty of Rome.
Ms. Merkel said the EU
needed more solidarity and

WASHINGTON: Republican Don-

ald Trump finally acknowledged on Friday that

President Barack Obama was
born in the United States but
accused Hillary Clinton of
starting the so-called birther
controversy, a charge that independent
fact-checking
sites have said is false.
President Barack Obama
was born in the United
States. Period, said Mr.
Trump, reversing himself on
a controversy about Mr. Obamas birth that the Republican helped launch but that
had become a distraction to
his White House bid. Now
we all want to get back to
making America strong and
great again, he said at an
event at a new hotel he owns
in downtown Washington.

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

EU is in a critical situation: Merkel

akistan, which is already suspected to

be expanding its nuclear weapons stockpile faster than any other nation, may be rapidly
constructing a new reprocessing site within the Khan
Research
Laboratories
(KRL) in Kahuta, according
to recent commercial satellite imagery.
According to IHS Markit,
an analyst of business-intelligence information, the satellite imagery of a newly
built site at the KRL, taken by
Airbus Defence and Space
on September 28 last year
and then again on April 18
this year, shows the progress
on construction at the possible new uranium enrichment complex near Kahuta.
IHS Markit noted that the
area of the site is approximately 1.2 hectares and is located within the KRL, in the
southwestern part of the
complex. Roughly rectangular in shape and approximately 140 metres by 80
metres, it is surrounded by
scrub land and trees that
provide
an
additional
measure of security on the
ground, the IHS report
noted.
The latest report of covert

The Shaheen-III surface-tosurface ballistic missile,

launched last year.

NOIDA/DELHI

Fethullah Gulen
dead. Mr. Gulen (75), who
has repeatedly denied involvement in the coup attempt, made his remarks in
Turkish in a recorded video
address to the World Afairs
Council of Philadelphia,
which streamed the address
and provided a simultaneous
translation.
It was Mr. Gulens first
public comment about the
coup attempt and its af-

termath since Turkey, a U.S.

ally, formally requested that
U.S. authorities arrest him
while Turkish prosecutors
seek to have him extradited.
Turkeys semi-oicial Anadolu news agency said on
Tuesday that the Justice
Ministry had demanded his
arrest on charges of ordering and commanding the attempted coup.
Mr. Gulen did not address
the extradition issue. But his
principal deputy, Y. Alp
Aslandogan, who spoke to
the World Afairs Council
after the video was shown,
said Mr. Gulen had no plans
to leave the United States.
New York Times News
Service

able to experience the support of the worlds three

leading human rights organisations.
A Republican-led bipartisan U.S. House intelligence
committee had on Thursday
released a report calling Mr.
Snowden a serial exaggerator and fabricator who
doesnt fit the profile of a
whistle-blower.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Human Rights Watch (HRW)
and Amnesty International
are behind the campaign to
pardon him. AFP

China frees
Canadian charged
with spying
OTTAWA: Kevin Garratt, a
Canadian held in China for
two years and charged with
spying, returned to Canada
on Thursday in what was a
diplomatic triumph for
Prime
Minister
Justin
Trudeau.
Mr. Trudeau had raised the
during an oicial visit to
China this month when he
both pressed for closer
economic ties and openly
discussed human rights,
which is a sensitive matter in
Beijing. A Canadian government oicial said Mr. Garratt
had been formally sentenced
earlier in the week and then
released on bail. He flew into
the Pacific city of Vancouver.
Mr. Garratt and his wife,
Julia, were detained in August 2014 near Chinas border with North Korea. He
was charged with spying and
stealing state secrets. A
source said Mr. Garratt was
tried on April 20. Reuters
ND-ND

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Renewable energy capacity can touch 225 GW if

hydroelectricity is added to renewable category
Piyush Goyal, Power Minister

BRIEFLY
Tea prices, production
costs affecting industry
KOLKATA: A persistent gap
between tea prices and the cost
of production is affecting the
viability of the industry, said
Ashok Kumar Bhargava,
Chairman Indian Tea
Association. Tea prices for the
last 10 years have risen by
around six per cent, while input
costs have risen by over 10 per
cent. Even high-quality teas are
selling at lower prices now he
told reporters. Mr. Bhargava
advocated adoption of the
Trustea certification for
improving tea prices. Lower
demand for better teas has also
eroded the margins of
companies in West Bengal and
Assam, Mr. Bhargava said.
Special Correspondent

Chennai Port installs

container scanner
CHENNAI: To enable seamless

movement of containers of
vessels through radio frequency
identification solution and to
reduce the dwell time of vessels,
the Chennai Port Trust has
installed a fixed container
scanner at its O yard. This is
the first port on the east coast
to get such a scanner.The
Rs.20-crore facility was
inaugurated by, Vanaja N. Sarna,
Central Board of Excise and
Customs (CBEC) Special
Secretary and Member. With the
help of advanced technology,
the scanner will classify and
discriminate the materials
depending upon their atomic
numbers either as orange
(organic), green (intermediate)
and blue (inorganic). It can scan
12-15 (twenty or forty foot
containers mounted on truck or
trailer) per hour. N. Anand

Dr.Reddys to market
3 Amgen drugs in India
HYDERABAD: Dr. Reddys
Laboratories Ltd. said on Friday
it will market and distribute in
India three medicines of U.S.
biotechnology firm Amgen that
are used in the therapy areas of
oncology and osteoporosis.
Stating that its strategic
collaboration with Amgen was
being expanded, the Hyderabadbased drug-maker said XGEVA
(denosumab), Vectibix
(panitumumab), and Prolia
(denosumab) are the three
products. They provide unique
treatment options to physicians
to address unmet medical need
in the areas of oncology and
osteoporosis, said M.V.Ramana,
Head-Emerging Markets and
India Business of Dr.Reddys.
Special Correspondent.

India loses WTO appeal

in U.S. solar dispute
GENEVA: India lost its appeal at

the World Trade Organization in

a dispute over solar power on
Friday, failing to overturn a U.S.
complaint that New Delhi had
discriminated against importers
in the Indian solar power sector.
The WTO's appeals judges
upheld an earlier ruling that
found India had broken WTO
rules by requiring solar power
developers to use Indian-made
cells and modules. The appeal
ruling is final and India will be
expected to bring its laws into
compliance with the WTO rules.
Indian officials made no
immediate comment. Reuters

Exchange Rates
Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit
except yen at 4 p.m on September 16

Currencies
U.S. Dollar
Euro
Pound Sterling
Jap Yen (100 Units)
Chinese Yuan
Swiss Franc
Singapore Dollar
Australian Dollar
Canadian Dollar
Swedish Kroner
Danish Kroner
New Zealand Dollar
Hongkong Dollar
Malaysian Ringgit
Kuwaiti Dinar
UAE Dirham
Bahraini Dinar
Qatari Riyal
Saudi Riyal
Omani Riyal

TT
TT
Buying Selling
66.78
67.10
74.95
75.31
87.96 88.39
65.53 65.87
10.00 10.06
68.55 68.88
48.93
49.17
50.08 50.33
50.55 50.79
7.84
7.88
10.06
10.11
48.75 48.99
8.61
8.65
16.13
16.21
220.75 223.29
18.18
18.27
177.03 177.98
18.39 18.40
17.85
17.86
173.31 174.23

Source:Indian Bank

Bullion Rates
September 16 rates in rupees with
previous rates in brackets

Delhi
Silver
Standard gold
Sovereign

45,100 (45,450)
31,000 (31,070)
24,400 (24,400)

CM
YK

| 15

BUSINESS

NOIDA/DELHI

SENSEX

16-09-2016
15-09-2016

GOLD
28,600
28,413

187

points

16-09-2016
14-09-2016

31,070

Steel sector showing signs

of turning around: Jaitley
Centre introduced a minimum import price to protect domestic steel firms
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: The steel industry,

one of the top contributors to

the banks non-performing
assets, is slowly turning
around and companies are
beginning to pay interest
dues to banks, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said on
Friday.
Provisioning with regard
to NPAs has been increasing, Mr Jaitley told
reporters
following
a
quarterly review of public
sector banks on Friday. The
major contributors continue
to be the steel and infrastructure sectors. With regard to
the steel companies, balance
sheets have started turning
and they have started paying
interest. However, unless
they pay the entire interest
due, they cannot be
reclassified.
Minimum price
In the steel sector, the government
introduced
a
minimum import price to
protect domestic firms from
a flood of cheap imports. In
other sectors, like infrastructure construction, the government has tried to ensure
at least partial payment to
contractors even in the case
of disputes. In addition to
this, the Reserve Bank of India has provided banks with
a number of tools to convert
debt in stressed firms into
equity, which can allow them
to bring in new promoters.
After the government implemented the Minimum
Import Price for steel, imports have come down and
demand has gone up as well,
so it is positive for the industry, D.R Dogra, who retired as the MD & CEO of

POSITIVE SIGNS: Implementation of minimum import price has

seen imports decline and demand revive. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS
Care Ratings had told The
Hindu. It would be wrong to
say the sector is out of the
woods, but now some companies can at least service a
portion of the interest.
The banks also express
optimism regarding the infrastructure sector, Mr. Jaitley said. Highways picking
up and the steps taken by the
government in the construction sector would add a lot of
liquidity to those accounts,
he said.
K. Ravichandran, Senior
Vice-President and CoHead, Corporate Sector Rating, ICRA said: A lot of steps
have been taken in infrastructure at the regulatory
level, For example, in construction, the move to release advances to the companies
even
during
arbitration has helped a lot of
companies.
Lots of awards are happening on the roads front. In
power, UDAY is helping the
discoms. Even in ports, there
are awards being given.
Overall, sentiments have improved and this will be reflected in the debt servicing
capabilities
of
these
companies.

Mr Jaitley said that while

banks may prefer higher capital infusions from the government, there were budgetary constraints to be
considered, and the banks
themselves needed to take
the initiative in trying to find
buyers for their stressed
assets.
The banks did admit that
they are finding it challenging to find alternative promoters and buyers to take
over stressed assets, Mr Jaitley said, adding that they
needed to take a greater initiative in finding buyers.
The government had
promised Rs.70,000 crore to
recapitalise banks over a
four-year period up to March
2019. Of this, Rs.25,000 was
injected last year, and another Rs.22,900 crore has been
committed this year. A Fitch
report in July said that Indian
banks would require as
much as Rs 6 lakh crore to
meet the Basel III requirements, 80 per cent of which
would be needed by the public sector banks.
Regarding the MUDRA
scheme,
the
Finance
Minister said that Rs.86,000
crore has already been dis-

BRENT OIL

RUPEE
31,000

bursed this year in relation to

the target of Rs 1,80,000
crore. Slow moving banks
have been asked to rectify
this and meet the target, Mr
Jaitley said.
Mr. Jaitley also said that
though PSBs have been financially challenged, especially due to high NPAs, he
hopes that they would soon
recover to a situation where
they could adequately transmit the interest rate cuts implemented by the central
bank.
The Finance Minister also
said that four PSBs were conducting
investigations
whether money in some of
their Jan Dhan accounts had
been deposited by the account holders or banking authorities so as to reduce the
number of zero-balance
accounts.
In case of few accounts,
this issue has arisen and
there are names of four
banks, Mr Jaitley said.
We have asked them. The
banks
are
investigating....after that the banks will
give their report to the Department
of
Financial
Services.
Bank mergers
Despite resistance from
the banking unions, Mr Jaitley said the government
would go ahead with the
merger of associate banks
and Bharatiya Mahila Bank
with the State Bank of India
since the proposal had been
approved by the Union
Cabinet.
All procedures will be followed. The government has
already taken decision at the
level of the Cabinet to fully
support the proposal for the
merger, Mr Jaitley said.

70

/10gms

16-09-2016
15-09-2016

66.97
67.02

0.05
/$

16-09-2016
15-09-2016

45.96
46.58

0.62
$/bbl

Auto industry can create

65 million new jobs by 2026
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: The government

expects the automobile industry to create 65 million

new jobs and clock annual
revenues of $300 billion by
2026, Heavy Industries
Secretary Girish Shankar
said.
Indias auto industry is
one of the largest and most
competitive in the world,
contributing 7 per cent of the
countrys gross domestic
product
or
GDP,Mr.
Shankar said. We have
worked out an Automotive
Mission Plan 2026 along
with industry, which is aiming for a 12 per cent share in
GDP, third position in the
worlds auto industry and 65
million additional jobs.
The auto sector is presently facing a lot of challenges in
the country, such as the uncertainty around diesel en-

The passenger vehicle

market is expected to double
gines forcing players to hold
back investment plans, Mr.
Shankar said that the passenger vehicle market is still
expected to double to 4 million units by 2020 from the
current level of 1.97 million.
R & D initiatives
Our industry still doesnt
cover 100% of technology or
components to make the car,

but it does provide around 97

per cent. The government is
ofering high incentives for
research and development
investments by the automotive industry which has led to
many auto makers setting up
research centres or expanding existing ones, he said.
While India has become a
design hub for global auto
makers, especially for compact cars and two-wheelers,
the industry needs to respond expeditiously to fresh
challenges such as the emergence of driver-less cars, Mr.
Shankar said.
There will be a greater
demand for newer automotive designs to meet the aspirations of the Indian market,
he said adding that the industry must focus more on
tapping the rural market
which currently has only a 13
per cent share of passenger
vehicle sales.

Global reinsurers may start

operations by January: IRDAI
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India expects global reinsurers, who have
applied for a licence, to start
operations by early 2017.
In the Insurance Act, we
have allowed foreign re-insurers to open their branches
in the country. Many people
have approached us, IRDAI
chairman T.S. Vijayan told
reporters at the sidelines of
seminar organised by industry body Assocham.
About five-six (companies) have come and I think by
January 2017, there should be
some players in this market,
Mr. Vijayan said. We will be
taking a decision in October

MUMBAI:

GIC Re, the

state-owned
company, is the only
reinsurer that is fully
operational
in the next meeting, then
they have to bring capital
and start working at it.
Only state-owned reinsurer GIC Re is fully operational within the country.
Some of the global re-insurers that have approached
the insurance regulator for a
licence to open their
branches in the country are
Munich Re, Swiss Re, SCOR,
Hanover Re, and XL Catlin,
among others.
After announcing norms

on reinsurance regulations
in November last year, the insurance regulator gave its
initial approval, known as R1
in regulatory parlance, to
global players like Munich
Re, Hannover from Germany, Swiss Re from
Switzerland and French major SCOR, in March this year.
Listing regulations
On the listing of insurance
companies, Mr Vijayan said:
In the previous Act itself
there was a provision for listing. This was changed. We
wanted to have a discussion
on this subject, so we
brought out a paper and
companies have expressed
that thing, so let us see how it
goes forward.

Reliance, L&T in last leg to

bag $2 billion defence deal
PIYUSH PANDEY
MUMBAI: Reliance Defence
and Engineering Limited
(RDEL) and Larsen and Toubro are in the final stages to
bag a $2 billion contract from
the Defence Ministry next
month for making amphibious fighting ships for
the Navy, sources said.
Both have entered the final lap after ABG Shipyard
failed to clear the capacity
assessment test of the Defence Ministry.
The Ministry of Defence
(MoD) is likely to open bids
in October for awarding four
Landing Platform Dock
(LPDs), each costing about
$1 billion, and the only two
private sector firms which
cleared the financial and
technical capability for this
project are RDEL and L&T,
the source close to the development said.
As per the terms of the
deal, two LPDs contract will

A landing platform dock

be awarded to a private sector player based upon technical capabilities and financial bids and the winning
private sector firm would assist state-owned Hindustan
Shipyard Limited (HSL) to
construct the remaining two.
Warfare ship
LPD, also known as amphibious transport dock, is a
warfare ship designed to
transport troops into a war
zone by sea, primarily using
landing craft and has the capability to operate transport

helicopters in addition to
having hangar facilities and a
landing deck.
The $2 billion contract is
the biggest warship construction project for the private sector and has the potential to make the winner a
leading player.
The 20,000 ton LPD would
be the largest warship to be
built in an Indian yard after
the aircraft carrier under
construction in Kochi.
A
Reliance
Defence
spokesperson declined to offer any comments while an
L&T spokesperson said:We
have already cleared the financial and technical capacity
assessment report long time
back.
The Defence Acquisition
Council (DAC) in its last
meeting has cleared the capacity assessment of RDEL,
which is now eligible for all
defence projects particularly
Naval Warships and Submarines, the source said.

Hike MSP for chickpeas Mahindra forays

during rabi season: Panel into fruits, juices
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: A panel headed by

Chief Economic Advisor

(CEA) Arvind Subramanian
has recommended an immediate hike in the minimum
support price (MSP) of
pulses chickpeas (chana)
to Rs. 40 per kg for rabi 2016
and Rs.60 per kg for both
split black gram (urad) and
split red gram (tur) for kharif
2017 so as to reduce volatility in consumer prices of
pulses and at the same time
boost farmers income.
War-footing
The government should
procure pulses on a war
footing for building up the
bufer stock of 2 million
tonnes announced earlier,
Dr.
Subramanian
told
reporters after submitting
the panels report to Union
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday.
The CEA-led panel, which
was set up in the wake of a re-

cent spurt in retail prices of

pulses, has cautioned against
the use of trade policy to
control domestic prices as
this induces policy volatility
and called for the elimination of export bans on pulses
and the placement of stock
limits.
Hurting consumers
Such short-term actions
that apparently benefit consumers end up hurting them
because production and
availability of pulses decline
over time, the CEA-led panel
explained.
In turn, better incentives
for farmers in the form of
higher minimum support
prices (to reflect the true social value of growing pulses
compared to other crops)
combined with efective procurement of the produce offers the best way of increasing domestic availability and
preventing price increases,
Dr.
Subramanian
told
reporters.

MUMBAI: Mahindra Agri Solutions Ltd, a 100 per cent

subsidiary of Mahindra &
Mahindra Ltd, has forayed
into fresh fruits and juices retailing business under the
Saboro brand to tap demand
for high quality food items by
the
health
conscious
individuals.
The company unveiled its
first Saboro Lounge at
Churchgate in Mumbai to
serve fresh food made out of
fruits, vegetables and dairybased products. Additionally, Saboro fresh fruits will
also be available for retail at
the outlet.
The outlet serves cold
pressed juices, smoothies,
salads, refreshments, and
desserts. The targeted customers include oice executives,
health
conscious
couples and students. The
price range starts from
Rs.129 for a regular glass of
juice to Rs.349 for a large
plate of salad.
ND-ND

BUSINESS

16 |
SNIPPETS
Indowind to invest Rs.65 crore for 10 MW plant
CHENNAI: Indowind Energy, an independent power producer, has decided
to set up 10 MW wind energy project in Chitradurga district, Karnataka,
within a year, its Chairman Bala V. Kutti said. The planned investment is
about Rs.65 crore for the project, he told reporters. The company is also
exploring the possibility of entering into solar power to improve its
profitability. It is planning to set up a 25 MW unit either in Tamil Nadu or
Karnataka with an investment of Rs.150 crore. We have done some
preliminary work on that. However, we are going slow as we are seeking
some clarity on policy issues, he said.Special Correspondent.

HPLs Rs.361-cr IPO to open on September 22

MUMBAI: Electric equipment manufacturer HPL Electric and Power will

raise Rs.361 crore through initial public offer (IPO), which will be mainly
used to meet its working capital requirements and retire part of its debt.
The issue, with a price band of Rs.175-202 per equity share, will be open
from September 22-26. We plan to utilise the proceeds of the issue to
fund working capital requirements and for repayment of loans in this
fiscal. We will also utilise the proceeds for other general corporate
purposes, companys Joint Managing Director Gautam Seth told
reporters here.PTI

Gionee to set up Haryana unit, invest Rs.500 cr

NEW DELHI: Handset maker Gionee Mobiles has signed an agreement

with the Haryana Government for setting up a manufacturing unit in the

state entailing an initial investment of Rs.500 crore. The unit will be set
up in about 50 acres in Faridabad and provide employment to over
28,000 people in the next three years, according to Gionee.With an
annual capacity of close to 30 million units, Gionee plans to manufacture
around six lakh mobiles per month from this facility, it added. India is
one of our most important markets and Gionee has been seeing an
exponential growth here, Chairman Liu Lirong said.PTI

Suzlon bags order from Oil India

NEW DELHI: Energy solution provider Suzlon Group announced that it has

won its maiden order from Oil India Ltd(OIL) for 52.50 MW project
capacity. The project is capable of providing power to over 28,000
households and offsetting 0.11 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per
annum, it said. Suzlon will provide a comprehensive range of services
and dedicated life cycle asset management services for an initial period
of 10 years. The projects will be located in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat
and are scheduled to be completed by June 2017. The order comprises
Suzlons latest product offerings the S111 90m tubular tower and S97
120m hybrid tower with a rated capacity of 2.1 MW each, the company
said in a statement.PTI

Sufficient interconnect points for Jio: BSNL

NEW DELHI:BSNL has said it has provided sufficient points of
interconnect to Reliance Jio and can augment it more based on
requirement. BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava told PTI that there has
been no fresh request from Jio for increasing the capacity at points of
interconnect, and added should they make an enquiry, we will augment
the capacity. We have provided sufficient points of interconnect to
Jio...while Jio is providing voice calls free of cost, whenever those calls
land into BSNL network, we get interconnectivity charge of 14 paise...so
it makes commercial sense for us, he said. Interconnection between
telecom networks is crucial as it enables mobile users to make calls to
subscribers of other operator. A mobile operator levies interconnection
usage charge for each incoming call it gets from a subscriber of another
network. BSNL said it has not experienced any call congestion on its
network with regard to traffic coming from Jio. PTI

Container trade grows

four times global pace
Containerized
foreign trade
grew 11% in H1
LALATENDU MISHRA
MUMBAI: A recovery in the

U.S. economy and various

measures taken by the Centre helped India register a 11
per cent jump in containerized foreign trade in the firsthalf of 2016. The rate of
growth was four times the
pace in worldwide containerized trade in the period, according to a report by
Maersk Group, owner of the
worlds biggest container
shipping company.
In its first ever trade report
on India titled India, a silver
lining in global trade the
Maersk Group, which has a
dozen companies operating
in India, said the 11 per cent
increase was almost double
the 6 per cent growth registered during the same
period last year. Growth in
imports into India remained
strong at 12 per cent, it said.
In contrast, overall global
containerized trade grew 2.8
per cent in the first half.
Right track
This growth clearly indicates that the initiatives
taken by India to boost the
economy are on the right
track since containerized
trade accounts for approximately 55 per cent of the countrys total EXIM trade
volumes, the reports authors wrote.
Though global trade did
not start 2016 on a positive
note, the Indian market has
grown consistently in the
first half and the upswing
will continue till 2017,
Franck Dedenis, Managing
Director India, Sri Lanka &
Bangladesh Cluster, Maersk

BOX BOOST: Overall global containerized trade grew 2.8 per

cent in the first half. FILE PHOTO:REUTERS
Line, told The Hindu.
Maersk Line is the worlds
biggest container shipping
company.
This is primarily due to
relatively strong U.S. economy and slight improvement
in the European market,
which account for over a
third of the containerized
trade from India, he added.
During the first half most
containers went to the U.S.,
U.K., Germany, Saudi Arabia,
Turkey and Kenya.
Elaborating on the report,
Mr. Dedenis said vegetables
and fruits & nuts were
among the top exported
commodities. Exports of
vegetables grew by 56 per
cent, followed by fruits &
nuts at 42 per cent. Among
fruits, outbound shipments
of grapes surged by 180 per
cent.
Growth was witnessed in
the exports of automobiles
and auto parts despite a dip
in demand from Nigeria. Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey
and a few South American
markets were the major markets for auto exports, according to the report, which
added that the segment grew
by 9 per cent.
Demand for Indian garments remained strong and
witnessed a volume growth
of 13 per cent due to demand
from North America.

However, exports of guar

gum halved due to the low
production and prices of
crude oil. Guar gum is widely
used in oil and gas
exploration.
Led by electronics, China
was the largest source for imports with a share of 30 per
cent followed by North
America. The top supplier
countries included the U.S.,
Germany, South Korea and
Saudi Arabia.
The top imported goods
included consumer durables, scrap paper and
plastic waste imported by
the cycling industry. However metal scrap imports fell.
On the outlook for exports, the report said the
growth momentum would
continue with strong demand for pharmaceuticals
from Europe, North America
and Africa. Central America
would continue to be a fastexpanding market for automobiles, yarn and steel coils,
Maersk said.
We expect Indian growth
to be driven by the emergence of new destination
markets, a strong U.S. demand and a recovery in Europe, Mr. Dedenis said. We
can expect Indian trade to
clock 8 to 9 per cent growth
for the full year of 2016,
which will be four times the
growth of global trade.

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

UCC, PAN must

for transaction on
commodity
bourses: SEBI
NEW DELHI: Markets regulator
SEBI made Unique Client
Code (UCC) and Permanent
Account Number (PAN)
mandatory for all the persons transacting on commodity exchanges. It shall
be mandatory for the members of the commodity derivatives exchanges to use UCC
for all clients transacting on
the commodity derivatives
exchanges, Securities and
Exchange Board of India
(SEBI) said in a circular.
It said PAN would be sole
identification number and
mandatory for all entities/
persons who are desirous of
transacting on the exchanges.
However, investors residing in Sikkim are exempted
from the mandatory requirement of PAN.
The exchanges should,
however, ensure a system of
proper verification to verify
that such investors are
residents of Sikkim.
The exchanges would
have to ensure that the members upload details of PAN so
collected to the exchanges as
part of UCC and verify the
documents.
Member would also be required to furnish the documents of their clients to the
commodity exchanges and
the same would be updated
on a monthly basis.
Such information for a
specific month should reach
the exchange within seven
working days of the following month.
The exchanges would impose penalty on the member
at the rate of 1 per cent of the
value of every trade that has
been carried out by the
member without uploading
the UCC details of the clients. The penalty collected
by the exchanges would be
transferred to the Investor
protection Fund (IPF).
PTI

MFIs see higher growth in urban India than rural: Report

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: Over the last year,

microfinance institutions
(MFIs) have seen their business grow faster in urban India than in rural, according
to an annual report by SaDhan, the self-regulatory
body for MFIs.

CM
YK

In addition, the report

finds that these loans are being put to increasingly
productive uses with a
higher proportion of them
going towards income generation than before.
In 2016, total loan amount
disbursed increased by
Rs.13,433 crore over 2015,

there is a growth of 23 per

cent where amount increased in rural areas by 14
per cent and in urban areas
by 27 per cent, the Bharat
Microfinance Report 2016
said.
The report also found that
94 per cent of the loans disbursed in 2015-16 were used

for income-generating purposes, up from 80 per cent in

the previous year.
Income generation
In 2011, RBI (Reserve
Bank of India) regulation
stipulated that a minimum of
70 per cent of the MFI loans
are to be deployed for in-

come generating activities,

the report said.
Analysis of the loan portfolio held by reporting MFIs
for 2014-15 and 2015-16 shows
that the proportion of income generation loan to non
income generation loan is
94:06.
Within the income-gener-

ating loans, the report found

that the largest proportion39 per centwent to
the animal husbandry sector,
followed by 29 per cent to
the trading & small business
category.
Agriculture received 15
per cent of the loans, according to the report.

Task force to evolve

steps to boost Indias
innovation ecosystem

RANKING FOCUS: Panel will suggest steps to enhance improve

Indias innovation index standing. FILE PHOTO
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: The Department of
Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) has decided to
set up a Task Force on Innovation, according to a government statement.
It will comprise members
from the industry and the
government and will assess
Indias position as an innovative country, suggest measures to enhance the innovation ecosystem and improve
the countrys ranking in the
Global Innovation Index
(GII).
Indias ranking in GII-2016
rose 15 places to 66th position. Recognising Indias potential, Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman had sought the
setting up of the Task Force.
The team includes experts
from private organisations Naushad Forbes (Co- Chairman , Forbes Marshall
Group; President, CII), Anil
Wali (MD, FITT, IIT Delhi),
Gopichand
Katragadda
(CTO, TATA Sons), Kris Gopalakrishnan
(Executive
Vice Chairman, Infosys),
Nikolai Dobberstein (Partner, A.T. Kearney Limited),
Rajeev Srinivasan (Adjunct
Faculty, Innovation IIM-B),
as well as the representative
from the Department of
Science and Technology.

Public comments
The Convenor of the Task
Force is Rajiv Aggarwal,
Joint Secretary, DIPP. The
Cell for intellectual property

India ranks second

on innovation
quality among
middle-income
economies
rights (IPR) Promotion and
Management and the DIPP
has invited ideas and suggestions from the public, the
statement said, adding that
the Task Force may hold discussions with some of the
contributors.
In the GII 2016, India retained the top rank in Information and Communication Technology Service
Export, according to the
statement. India is the topranked economy in Central
and Southern Asia, and
shows particular strengths in
tertiary education and research & development
(R&D), including global
R&D intensive firms, the
quality of its universities and
scientific publications, it
added.
India ranks second on innovation quality amongst
middle-income economies.
As per the report, India is a
good example of how policy
is improving the innovation
environment. India moved
up across all indicators
within the Knowledge Absorption sub-pillar. It has
also recorded a good performance in the GII models
newly incorporated research
talent in business enterprise,
where it ranks 31st, according
to the statement.

ND-ND

| 17

SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Telecast schedule

Success mantra

Davis Cup: World Group: Play-off: India vs Spain, DD Sports, 7 p.m.

Semifinals: Neo Sports & Neo Prime, 5.30 p.m.
Formula One: Singapore GP qualifying, STAR Sports 4 & Select HD 2, 6.25 p.m..
TNPL: Second semifinal, STAR Sports 1 & HD 1, 6.30 p.m.
EPL: STAR Sports 4 & Select HD 1, 7.30 p.m. & 9.50 p.m.

Teams that have been successful have had guys who have got big runs
upfront. May be a couple of good sessions is not enough. One has to post big
first innings scores and one has to take that responsibility, if you get in. That
may require a little bit more patience than some of the players will normally
show. Graeme Hick on how Australian batsmen should play in India.

A partnership ends
The Ballon dOr deal between France football and FIFA
has ended, the French publication and world footballs
governing body announced on Friday. The next
recipient will be determined by a vote of journalists.
Players and managers will no longer have a say.

Lopez and Ferrer give Spain a 2-0 lead on opening day

Ramkumar takes a set off the World No. 26 playing in Rafael Nadals place; Saketh Myneni has his moments but goes down in straight sets
Ramkumar won the break
after a rally on the next point
to bring the crowd alive.
Ramkumar then did exceptionally well to close out the
set in the following game.
The home teams upswing
did not continue, though, as
Lopez struggling a bit with
the humidity put his game
together to race away with the
first three games of the fourth

KAMESH SRINIVASAN
NEW DELHI: Rafael Nadal filled

the R.K. Khanna Stadium to

capacity, but had to pull out
from the opening singles rubber of Spains Davis Cup
World Group play-of match
against India to protect his injured wrist. Playing in the
World No. 4s place, Feliciano
Lopez was eicient enough
though he slipped a bit in

set, dropping two points in all.

That took the sting away
from Ramkumars challenge,
and he managed to win only a
token game after that, surviving a break-point in the fourth
game.
Myneni had his moments
when he made Ferrer scamper
around the court, but could
not sustain those spells for
long; Ferrer was just too good.

It was quality tennis, never

mind the fact that the 14-time
Grand Slam champion did not
take the court, as the home
team did its best to make sure
it was not entirely one-sided.
The result:

India trails Spain 0-2 [Ramkumar

Ramanathan lost to Feliciano Lopez
6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Saketh Myneni lost
to David Ferrer 6-1, 6-2, 6-1].

Was it the wrist or was it the tummy?

Uthra Ganesan
NEW DELHI: The R.K. Khanna

beating
Ramkumar
Ramanathan 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
Later, Saketh Myneni was
classy in patches but was not
allowed to stay on court for
long by the fluent David Ferrer, who cruised to a 6-1, 6-2,
6-1 victory to put the visitors
2-0 ahead on Friday.
It will be interesting to see if
Spain opts to field the Olympic
gold winning duo of Nadal and
Marc Lopez in the doubles
against Leander Paes and, possibly, Myneni.
Though he had withdrawn
to rest his wrist, Nadal did
have a training stint, during
the first part of the second
singles rubber.
Twitter was abuzz with
news of Nadal being replaced
for the first rubber, with Spain
changing its nomination an
hour before the first rubber,
but the stadium was packed

IN CONTROL: Feliciano Lopez played well within himself, doing just enough to stay ahead and, though he dropped the third set,
came back strongly to clinch the opening rubber. PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA
before the first point was
played this evening.
A true team player, Nadal
stayed glued to his seat on the
sidelines, cheering on his
team-mate, the World No. 26,
right through the battle that
lasted two hours and 26
minutes during the course of
which the crowd even called

out to him in desperation at

times.
Lopez stepped up his game
whenever required and had
the match in control even
though Ramkumar managed
to turn the third set around
with a break of serve in the
eighth game.
Lopez started on low gear,

playing sharp enough to break

serve, in the fifth game of the
first set and the first game of
the second, to stay on course
for an easy win.
Ramkumar, who kept challenging a lot of the calls but
without much success, played
with a lot more purpose and
conviction in the third set, es-

pecially after he took a medical time-out after five games.

He was particularly charged
up in the eighth game as he rallied briskly to force two breakpoints. Lopez saved those emphatically, but Ramkumar had
a fortuitous point as his slice
clipped the net-cord to set up a
third break-point.

Stadium, better known as the Delhi

Lawn Tennis Association Complex
here, that mostly stays empty
barring a few tennis enthusiasts,
was not just packed to capacity at
the Centre Court here on Friday but
had huge snaking lines outside its
gates with people standing in the
aisles and sitting on stairs.
All for one man Rafael Nadal.
Ever since it was announced that
Nadal would accompany the
Spanish Davis Cup team here for
the tie against India, the buzz had
been all about the former World No.
1.
Since he landed in the City a
week ago, the tie itself had been all
about watching Nadal play.
But the crowds were left
disappointed after Nadal pulled out
of the first singles match of Spains
Davis Cup tie against India,
replaced by World No. 26 Feliciano
Lopez for the match against
Ramkumar Ramanathan.

The multiple-Grand Slam

champion, who has repeatedly
spoken about respect for the
opposition in the one week he has
been here, finally decided not to
play.
Contrasting versions

The reasons, though, differed

with contrasting versions coming
from the Spanish camp.
There were rumours of Nadal
being down with a stomach bug
but Lopez refuted it.
He is ok, nothing wrong with
his stomach.
It is his wrist, it is getting
better but is still painful. I think he
just did not want to take any risk,
Lopez clarified, claiming that the
team knew through the week that
Nadal was doubtful for the opening
match and even on Thursday night
the team had talked about Lopez
playing instead.
But non-playing captain
Conchita Martinez insisted it was
the stomach that was the problem.
The wrist issue has been there

CRICKET

GENERAL

Kiwi batsmen have a good hit

Narsingh case
referred to CBI

RAKESH RAO
NEW DELHI: New Zealand got the

better part of the bargain on

day one of its three-day practice match following a good
hit in the middle and then
pushing Mumbai on the defensive with an early wicket.
Asked to bat on a warm Friday, New Zealand briskly
scored 324 for seven in 75
overs and declared the innings. Thereafter, when
Mumbai batted, speedster
Trent Boult sent back Jay
Bista in the first over. At
stumps, Mumbai was 29 for
one. Playing in India for the
first time, Tom Latham hit 10
boundaries in his 55 but
equally significant was the
fact that he spent over twoand-a-half hours in the
middle.
Unlike his teammates,
Latham displayed patience
and looked very comfortable
against the variety of bowlers
he faced before deciding to retire. Skipper Kane Willamson
was more dominating in his
50, punishing the spinners

more. Ross Taylor fell for 41

after hitting two sixes and four
(out of five) boundaries of
leg-spinner
Parikshit
Valsangkar.
In the later part of the innings, the spin trio of Mitchell
Santner, Mark Craig and Ish
Sodhi proved they were no
bunnies with the bat.
All nine Kiwi batsmen on
view reached double figures
and sent the ball across the
ropes at least twice.
The fact that New Zealand
managed to hit nine sixes and
44 boundaries reflected its
positive approach.
The hot conditions prevailing in the Capital did make
things diicult for the visiting
team but every Kiwi batsman
showed the willingness to stay
at the wicket.
Barring the early exit of ofform Martin Guptill, who hit
the fifth delivery of the match
for a six of Balwinder Sandhu
but later fell to the same
bowler in chasing an awayswinger, New Zealand had
every reason to be pleased. Of
the nine Mumbai bowlers, on-

ly Sandhu made an impression.

The scores: New Zealand 1st
innings: Martin Guptill c Tare b
Sandhu 15, Tom Latham retd. out 55,
Kane Williamson c Tare b Sandhu 50,
Ross Taylor lbw b Gohil 41, Henry
Nicholls lbw b Lad 29, B-J. Watling
retd. out 21, Mitchell Santner c Gohil
b Dabholkar 45, Mark Craig (not out)
33, Ish Sodhi (not out) 29; Extras
(b-2, lb-1, nb-3): 6; Total (for seven
wkts. decl. in 75 overs): 324.
Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-115, 3151, 4-184, 5-210, 6-235, 7-281.
Mumbai bowling: Balwinder
Sandhu 11-5-21-2, Tushar Deshpande
5-0-29-0, Vishal Dabholkar 14-075-1, Royston Dias 6-2-20-0,
Parikshit Valsangkar 9-1-46-0, Harshal Soni 4-0-21-0, Vijay Gohil 13-158-1, Siddhesh Lad 9-1-34-1, Jay Bista
4-0-17-0.
Mumbai 1st innings: Jay Bista
c Watling b Boult 0, Kaustubh Pawar
(batting) 5, Armaan Jaffer (batting)
24; Total (for one wkt. in 13 overs):
29.
Fall of wicket: 1-0.
New Zealand bowling: Trent
Boult 3-2-5-1, Neil Wagner 4-2-3-0,
Mitchell Santner 4-1-10-0, Bracewell
2-0-11-0. Toss: Mumbai.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: The Narsingh Yadav
saga refuses to die down. After
being handed a ban for four
years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on appeal,
Narsinghs case has now been
referred to the CBI for further
enquiry.
Both Narsingh and the
Wrestling Federation of India
(WFI) have insisted that there
is a conspiracy against the
wrestler, which resulted in his
positive test for prohibited
substances. However, while he
was acquitted by the National
Anti-Doping Agency, the CAS
banned him on appeal from the
WADA.
The WFI president had
sought a CBI enquiry into the
matter at a meeting with the
Prime Minister on his return

WELL DONE: Tom Latham showed good application as he racked

up a half-century on the first day of the tour match against
Mumbai. PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

An incredible odyssey spanning 84 years

K.C. VIJAYA KUMAR

istorys weight will be felt

when Kanpurs Green
Park Stadium hosts the first
Test between India and New
Zealand from September 22.
The aura of a major milestone will linger as India will
play its 500thTest, a steady
progress from its maiden venture against England at Lords
in 1932 when C.K. Nayudus
men showed that they could
compete despite a 158-run
defeat.
After 84 years and 499
Tests, the countrys cricketing
journey has been one of
growth and a gradual bucking
of the stereotype.
The nation, perceived to
lean heavily towards the instant pleasures of the shorter
formats, has also been loyal to
Tests. The current home
season, featuring 13 Tests,
starting with the one against
New Zealand, reiterates that.

Measure of confidence
From being diident travellers for long, the Indians
have, of late, acquired a
measure of confidence when
the seas have been crossed;
from being confined into the
two boxes of being either high
on aesthetics (wristy batsmen) or cunning (wily spinners) to now being labelled as
a squad that has a wide range
of players be it unconventional batsmen or fast bowlers, India has come a long way.
A glance at the results reveals a pattern that moves
CM
YK

STUFF OF LEGEND: One of Indian Test crickets memorable

moments was realised when V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid
forged a mammoth partnership to help the team carve out an
improbable win over the mighty Australians at the Eden
Gardens in Kolkata in 2001. THE HINDU PHOTO ARCHIVE

HISTORIC 500
from a draw-oriented approach to one that pushes for
victory.
Yet,
in
the
overall
sweepstakes, Indias winning
percentage of 25.85 is better
than only New Zealand,
Bangladesh and Zimbabwe,
while its shot at draws (42.48
per cent) is the highest among
all Test-playing countries.
Since Sachin Tendulkar
made his debut in 1989 and
others like Anil Kumble and
Rahul Dravid, to name a few,
joined him, India has given a
better account of itself both at
home and away. The successive 0-4 losses to England and
Australia in 2011, as twilight
engulfed a few greats, dented
the gloss, though.
The story of Indian cricket

has been one of growth. If it

was about drawing succour
from individual performances
in below-par results in the
earlier era, it is about the confidence of delivering, irrespective of the opposition, in
the latter part.
Doing a Houdini
Perhaps, the birth of belief
occurred when Sourav Gangulys men did a Houdini at
Kolkatas Eden Gardens in
2001 as V.V.S. Laxman and
Dravid, together with Harbhajan Singh, conjured up a
victory from the jaws of defeat
against the hitherto invincible
Australia.
An earlier generation, when
the team lost, would have felt
happy to draw strength from
Sunil Gavaskars brilliant batting while countering the
fiercest of fast bowlers or de-

rived joy from the exploits of

the famous spin quartet.
En route to its current position, India has busted a few
myths. Cannot produce fast
bowlers? Remember Kapil
Dev striking Sadiq Mohammeds helmet in Pakistan
in 1978.
Inferior in verbal duels?
How about when Australias
Mike Whitney threatened to
knock down Ravi Shastri, the
latter quipped: If you were so
good, you wouldnt be the
bloody twelfth man. Scared
of fast bowling? Recall Mohinder Amarnath coming
back with a bloodied jaw and
hooking the first ball in the
West Indies in 1983.
Be it the sheer miracles that
Tendulkar uncorked in his
prime or the irreverence that
Virender Sehwag reserved for
the best of bowlers, the rousing tales of Indian cricketers
cannot be compressed into a
few words.
The collective self-esteem
that permeates Indian cricket
today and the widening demographic profile with players
emerging from far and wide
Ranchis M.S. Dhoni being the
most glittering example are
are among heartening factors.
As skipper, Virat Kohli has
to build on the edifice bequeathed to him by many
predecessors ranging from
the great M.A.K. Pataudi to the
charismatic Dhoni.
It has been a good ride so far
but the road ahead is long and
a young squad has promises to
keep.

Time at the crease

was important:
Latham
NEW DELHI: Tom Latham came
good in his maiden appearance in India.
Whether facing pace or
spin, the young opening batsman showed tremendous
sense of purpose given the
motive with which New Zealand took the field against
Mumbai in the one-of warmup match ahead of the Test
series.
During his impressive
knock of 55, Latham expectedly punished the pace bowlers with some splendid drives.
The ball wasnt necessarily
turning that big. Now, using
the feet, coming down the
wicket and to go over, was
good method, said the
opener, explaining his gameplan against the turning ball.
He said the New Zealand
batsmen wanted to spend time
in the middle after being asked
to bat. I think most of the guys
spent enough time at the
crease; so that will put them in
good stead for the next few
days.
On batting in the morning
session, on a fresh wicket,
Latham said, There was a
little bit of swing early on and
the odd one nipped back a
little bit.
We have been here for
three days and probably
havent adapted to the heat
quite yet, but another day out
in the park would help to acclimatise quickly. Special
Correspondent

from Rio. The matter has now

been referred to the CBI, the
federation confirmed on
Friday.
Narsingh had already filed a
criminal complaint against a
couple of junior wrestlers for
adulteration of his food before
leaving for Rio, but there had
been little development in the
matter since then.
Narsingh had gone to the Rio
Olympics after getting clearance from the international
wrestling federation but could
not participate after the CAS
order came hours before his
bout.
The CAS order efectively
rules Narsingh out of the
Tokyo Olympics as well, ending his career, unless there is an
appeal against the ruling with
further evidence to back Narsinghs claims of adulteration.

BADMINTON

Sourabh Varma advances

LEUVEN (BELGIUM): Indian shuttler Sourabh Varma reached
the quarterfinals of the Belgian International Challenge
after eking out a 21-19, 16-21,
21-15 win over Frances Lucas
Claerbout here on Thursday.
However, Rahul Yadav
Chittaboina and Rituparna
Das sufered defeats in the
second round. While Rahul
squandered an opening

game advantage and went

down 21-19, 15-21, 15-21 to Sam
Parsons of England, Rituparna lost 20-22, 11-21 to
Malaysias Soniia Su Ya
Cheah.
In mens doubles, it will be
an all-Indian clash in the
quarterfinals with Vighnesh
Devlekar and Rohan Kapoor
taking on M.R. Arjun and
Ramchandran Shlok. PTI

for a while now. Today after lunch

he felt a stomach ache and so did
not want to risk playing. Definitely
it was a stomach issue, she
claimed.
Lopez, in fact, had even claimed
that he was confident of Nadal
playing over the weekend.
For those present at the venue,
however, it was Rafa who
mattered, on court or off it. So
much so that, at the beginning of
the first match, there were chants
of We want Rafa across the
stands.
That soon gave way for an
overwhelming support for
Ramkumar.
The chair umpire often had to
delay play and request silence,
reminding people to stay quiet
between rallies.
The crowd though did manage to
get its fill of Nadal the Spaniard
joined his team courtside and
occasionally waved to his fans
across the stadium and for most
people present, it was worth the
effort.

del Potro outlasts

Murray, puts
Argentina up
GLASGOW: Juan Martin del Po-

tro shocked World No. 2 Andy

Murray in five sets to get Argentina of to a winning start in
their Davis Cup World Group
semifinal against holders
Great Britain.
The 27-year-old, playing his
first Davis Cup singles rubber
in four years, sealed a 6-4, 5-7,
6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 victory in just
over five hours, following an
epic battle on the hard-court of
the Emirates Arena in
Glasgow.
The resurgent Del Potro had
to produce some of his best
tennis to defeat the Scot, who
missed his paternal grandfather's funeral to play the rubber, and gain some revenge for
his Olympic final defeat in Rio
de Janeiro last month.
In the other semifinal at Zadar, Richard Gasquet put visitors France 1-0 up, beating
Croatias Borna Coric 6-2, 7-6
(5), 6-1.
Gasquet, 30, was drafted in
after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and
Gael Monfils pulled out with
knee injuries and the World
No. 17 made the most of the opportunity against the 19-yearold Coric on Zadars indoor
hard courts.
The results: Semifinals:
At Glasgow: Great Britain trails
Argentina 0-1 [Andy Murray lost to
Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 5-7, 6-7
(5), 6-3, 6-4].
At Zadar: Croatia trails France 0-1
[Borna Coric lost to Richard Gasquet
6-2, 7-6(5), 6-1]. Agencies

ND-ND

18 |

SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Nico Rosberg fastest in second practice

Indias campaign
ends in last-eight
TEHRAN: Indias run at the FIBA

Asia Challenge came to an end

after a 47-77 defeat to host Iran
in the quarterfinal.
India stayed in contention in
the early stages, with the
higher-ranked Iran side taking
a manageable 38-31 lead at the
end of the first-half.
A horror start after the interval, however, cost the
Indians dearly. Iran outscored
its rival by a whopping 26-2
margin in the third quarter,
and India had no way back.
Captain and in-form centre
Amritpal Singh (6 points) had
a disappointing outing, converting only two of 14 fieldgoal attempts. Amjyot Singh (7
points) was not much better,
converting two of 13 field-goal
attempts. The dependable
Vishesh Bhriguvanshi stood
out with 14 points.
Iran captain Hamed Hadadi,
the first player from his country to play in the NBA,
recorded a game-high 17
points.
In the previous edition, held
at Wuhan (China) in 2014, India had similarly exited in the
last-eight stage.
The result:
Quarterfinal: Iran 77 (Hamed
Hadadi 17, O. Sahakian 16, Yachkhali
15) bt India 47 (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi
14). Sports Bureau

India-A bowlers
frittered away the initial advantage as Australia-As
middle-order put on a collective performance to help it
reach a healthy 319 for five at
stumps on the second day of
the second Test here on
Friday.
After dismissing India-A at
the overnight score of 169,
Australia-A was reduced to 11
for two within the first five
overs, but Hilton Cartwright
batted responsibly to remain
unbeaten on 99 (14x4, 1x6) as
the home team cruised to a
150-run lead by the end of the
days play.
He added 152 runs in 43.2
overs for the fourth wicket
with Beau Webster (79, 9x4).
Nic Maddinson (81, 12x4, 2x6)
also looked good for three-figure scores before he was dismissed. Shardul Thakur has
taken three wickets so far.
The scores: India-A 169 in 66.4
overs (Hardik Pandya 79, Kane
Richardson four for 37) vs. Australia-A 319 for five in 91 overs (Hilton
Cartwright 99 batting, Beau Webster
79, Nic Maddinson 81, Shardul
Thakur three for 71). PTI

BRISBANE:

FORMULA ONE / Hamilton and Vettel

have an error-strewn session
S. DIPAK RAGAV

PRETTIER AT NIGHT: Nico Rosberg drives through the picturesque Marina Bay Street Circuit. PHOTO: LARS BARON/GETTY IMAGES

Behind the voice in the drivers ear

Talking shop with Mark Slade, race engineer to the greats
S. DIPAK RAGAV
Pit-to-car radios
were introduced in the 1980s,
but it was only after the turn of
the century that the messages
were made available for
broadcast. This gave Formula
One coverage a new edge, with
drivers cribbing, being sarcastic and at times even dismissive of the instructions
given.
Jenson Buttons typically
dry British humour is often on
air, while the radio messages
of Kimi Raikkonen are part of
F1 folklore, like his famous rant
to his race engineer Leave
me alone. I know what I am doing on route to winning the
Abu Dhabi race in 2012 for Lotus. The team even made tshirts out of it.
As much as these conversations have enlivened broadcasts, very little is known
about the men/women talking
to the driver. The Hindu sat
down with one of the most experienced race engineers in
the sport, Mark Slade, to discover whats behind the voice
in the earpiece.
Slade has been in F1 25 years
and worked with the best
Michael Schumacher (at Mercedes),
Mika
Hakkinen,
Fernando
Alonso
(at
McLaren), and Raikkonen (at
McLaren and Lotus). He is
currently Chief Engineer at
Renault Sport Formula One
Team.
The race engineer is basically the technical liaison between the factory design department and the driver and
the other engineers of the operational team that runs the
car, says Slade.
The race engineer will pass
drivers comments and results
of track running to the design
oice who can then adapt as
needed.
One of the key requirements
of the job is being a jack of all
trades. It is diicult for the
race engineer at times because
they havent driven the car,
he says, but at the same time
they have a good understand-

Australia-A piles
up a big lead

SINGAPORE:

Mark Slade.
ing of the aerodynamic, mechanical performance of the
car. The person needs to have
a wide knowledge and a good
overall idea so that the specialists can then do their work.
Race engineers and drivers
often strike up close relationships. Alonso and Andrea
Stella, Felipe Massa and Rob
Smedley both at Ferrari
and even Slade and Raikkonen
are instances of successful
tight-knit partnerships. In the
case of the first two pairs, both
engineers even moved teams
with the drivers.
Is the engineer-driver relationship underpinned by a
strong personal bond? I think
it varies, says Slade. Some
drivers have stronger relationships depending on their
needs. But it is important to
communicate well and relate
to each other. He must understand what the driver wants
but also explain to the driver
what the limitations are in a
constructive way.
In recent times there has
been a growing cynicism
about the role of the driver and
his capabilities, with criticism
that drivers are coached by
their race engineers. This resulted in a back-and-forth on
what could be said on the radio
until recently when it was decided to free up communications once again.
No substitute for the driver
Can an engineer actually
coach a driver to victory? In a
race environment, it is overstated, says Slade.
We can give info about
tyres and brakes and stuf like

if they are too hot or not. But it

still requires the driver to do
the right things and manage
the situations. So I dont agree
when people say drivers are
not driving the cars anymore.
You cant coach a driver to
become great. We just guide
them.
But at the end of the day, it
is the driver who has to filter
the information and get the best out of the car.
The one time race engineers
can make a significant contribution is when guiding
young drivers. Slade says,
With a young driver, you
have to make up for the lack of
experience.
It is just a quicker way of
learning for the driver than to
make mistakes and learn from
it.
For example, we can explain certain characteristics of
the tyres and how it is diferent
from the diferent types of
racing he has done previously
and why one way of driving
might not work.
Telling the diference
Having worked with four
world champions, Slade is incredibly well-positioned to
analyse what separates the
good from the great.
Individually, they had different traits, he says. For example, Michael was very methodical in his whole approach
while Mika had an incredible
talent and a natural flair for
driving the car.
Kimi in my opinion was
one of the best test drivers I
have worked with in terms of
feedback, which is not what
some people think and
Fernando had incredible
determination.
But what set them apart is
the ability to deal with diicult
situations and deliver under
pressure.
There are many drivers
who can drive quickly but to
maintain that level of performance through lots of diferent
circumstances and do it consistently for a period is what
makes a great driver.

SINGAPORE: Mercedess Nico

Rosberg led from Ferraris
Kimi Raikkonen followed by
the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo
in the second free practice session here on Friday.
However, the outcome of
the qualifying simulations
done by teams was not truly
representative, as both Lewis
Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel
failed to do a good lap on their
respective simulation runs.
Hamilton made quite a few
mistakes on his ultrasoft tyre
runs and did not set a time on
the fastest tyre available this
weekend.
The reigning champion was
only seventh fastest behind
Vettel and the Force Indias
Nico Hulkenberg. Things
looked grim for the reigning
champion as he then had to
stop his run 25 minutes before
the end of the session due to a
hydraulic issue.
McLarens
Fernando
Alonso was ninth quickest,
sandwiched between the Toro
Rossos of Carlos Sainz in

eighth and Daniil Kvyat in

tenth with the other Force India of Sergio Perez 11th.
Force India, which is locked
in a close battle with Williams
for the fourth place in the constructors championship, will
be pleased to have both its
drivers ahead of the Williams,
which could only post the 14th
and 15th fastest times with Felipe Massa ahead of Valtteri
Bottas.
Earlier, in the first practice
session held on Friday evening, Verstappen led teammate Red Bulls Ricciardo.
Vettel was third quickest
ahead of the Mercedess
Hamilton and Rosberg with
Raikkonen rounding of the
top six.
The German, towards the
end of the session, hit the barrier at turn 18, breaking his
front wing. While Hamiltons
time was six-tenths slower
than Verstappens, both the
Mercedess time were set on
the soft tyres, the hardest
available compound this
weekend while the Red Bulls
and Ferraris set their times on
the quicker ultrasoft tyres.

Sai Vishesh
in lead
KOLKATA: C. Sai Vishesh of

CRICKET

Biopic doesnt glorify me but shows my journey

NEW YORK: He wanted the

THROWING LIGHT: M.S. Dhoni at a press conference to promote

his biopic, in New York City on Thursday. PHOTO: PTI

No live telecast of
Ranji Trophy
VIJAY LOKAPALLY
NEW DELHI: Once again domestic

cricket will take a hit, reairming the belief that there are no
takers for the game if it is not
of international flavour.
It is learnt that Ranji Trophy
matches, to be held at far flung
venues, will not be telecast
live because the season is
packed with international
cricket.
India is scheduled to play 13
Tests at home against New
Zealand, England and Australia. The hectic itinerary
leaves little space for domestic
cricket to find a slot on
television.
For sometime, one match
per round was being shown
live backed up by live streaming too. It will be missing from
this season much to the disappointment of fans.
The Board has been battling
to popularise domestic cricket
by taking it to neutral venues
at small centres. But the National championship will disappear from the circuit if the
matches cant be watched by
die-hard cricket fans.
The oicial broadcasters

have little role to play since the

Board is in-charge of the
production. The broadcasters
would struggle to find space
for the Ranji Trophy, which
does
not
attract
any
sponsorship.
With
two
channels
dedicated to the home series,
the broadcasters are committed to promoting other sports
like hockey, kabaddi and
football.
The broadcaster had faced
the embarrassment of hiding
empty stands at Ranji Trophy
matches until last year and this
years decision should come as
a relief to cameramen saddled
with the task of not showing
empty seats.
This move would also hurt
some former players contracted for commentary work. But
there is some encouraging
news that the telecast may
start with the quarterfinals.
Those connected with the developments are keeping their
fingers crossed.
It all depends on the Board
which is presently locked in a
dispute with the Justice Lodha
Committee on various administration-related issues.

biopic on him to show his journey, the inherent struggles in

decision making processes
rather than glorify him and
thats precisely what Mahendra Singh Dhoni told films
director Neeraj Pandey during
the conceptual phase of MS
Dhoni The Untold Story
Its about the journey of a
professional sportsperson and
thats what it should depict,
and thats what I told Pandey,
Dhoni said here during the
films promotional event.
Being a person who likes to
live in the present, it was diicult for him to go back into his

life and narrate his story to

Pandey for the movie.
Dhoni also shared moments
from his cricketing life that
had a huge impact on him.
2007 WC loss, turning point
He said the World Cup loss
of 2007 and the ensuing reactions against him and the team
had a big impact on him and to
some extent that experience
was a big turning point in my
life. He said in India when a
team loses a cricket match,
they are perceived as people
who have committed a crime
or are murderers or terrorists. PTI

TENNIS

Sriram & Vishnu win

Tamil Nadu settled for a draw

with Asian blitz silver medallist Mitrabha Guha to gather
nine points and maintain his
top position in the boys section after the 10th and penultimate round of the 27th National
under-17
chess
championship here on Friday.
Mitrabha of West Bengal retained his third position with
7.5 points. Venkataraman
Karthik outwitted Subhayan
Kundu to move into second
position with 8.5 points.
In the girls section, local favourite Arpita Mukherjee lost
her sole lead after being held
to a draw by Isha Sharma of
Karnataka.
Reigning National sub-junior champion Aakansha
Hagawane of Maharashtra defeated P. Saye Srreezza to join
Arpita in the joint lead on 8.5.
Sakshi Chitlange is third on
eight points. Special
Correspondent

Ankita Raina
in doubles final
ZHUHAI (CHINA): Ankita Raina, in

NO STOPPING THEM: Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan went

down a break early in the match but came back strongly to
coast to the title. PHOTO: M. VEDHAN
SPORTS REPORTER
CHENNAI: Sriram Balaji and
Vishnu Vardhan beat Kunal
Anand and Anvit Bendre 6-3,
6-4 to take the doubles title in
the $10,000 Justice P.S.
Kailasam MGC ITF Futures
tournament at the Powerpak
Tennis Academy on Friday.
The pair rallied from an
early break down to take the
first set.
They broke Bendre in the
third game of the second set,

and volleyed well to clinch the

title.
The duo will face each other
in the singles final on Saturday.
Sriram has made it to three
consecutive
singles
and
doubles finals in three weeks
now.
The results: Final: Sriram Balaji
& Vishnu Vardhan bt Kunal Anand &
Anvit Bendre 6-3, 6-4. Singles semifinals: Sriram Balaji bt Sanam Singh
6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan bt
Vijay Sundar Prashanth 7-6(3), 6-3.

partnership with Emily-Webley Smith, made the doubles final of the $50,000 ITF
womens tennis tournament
here on Friday.
The Indo-British pair beat
Kamonwan Buayam of Thailand and Pei-Chi Lee of
Chinese Taipei 6-4, 0-6, 10-6 in
the semifinals. They will play
Chinese wildcards Hanyu Gu
and Xinyu Jiang in the final.
The results: $75,000 Challenger: Nanchang, China: Semifinals: Nicolas Barrientos (Col) &
Ruben Gonzales (Phi) bt Amir Weintraub (Isr) & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan
7-5, 2-6, [10-4].
$50,000 ITF women, Zhuhai,
China: Semifinals: Emily-Webley
Smith (GBR) & Ankita Raina bt Kamonwan Buayam (Tha) & Pei-Chi Lee
(Tpe) 6-4, 0-6, [10-5].
$10,000 ITF women, Sharm El
Sheikh: Pre-quarterfinals: Riya
Bhatia bt Melissa Morales (Gua) 6-4,
6-4; Giada Clerici (Ita) bt Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy 6-1, 6-4; Eetee Maheta bt Minami Akiyama (Jpn) 2-6,
6-2, 7-5.
Zeel Desai bt Akshara Iska 6-1, 6-1;
Akilah James (Grn) bt Ramya Natarajan 6-3, 6-3. Sports Bureau

VARIETY
THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11803
1

Xchequer
5

10

11

12
13

14

15

16

17

18

20

19

18 Bring together world body

providing base in Germany
(5)
22 Happened to remain on floor
(6)
23 Fortunately delivered by
nurse, very proficiently
self-possessed (8)
24 Usual cap of senior
commanders (8)
25 New at pole dancing, lose
hold (6)

21

Down
22

23

24

25

Across

7 Alien caught in severe

deviation (6)
8 Jack returns, reportedly to
fetch bread (8)
9 Expression of gratitude from
excited youth securing an
introduction to king (5,3)
10 Cheap rum in short (6)
CM
YK

11 Leading newspaper probed by

American tax administration
(5)
12 Burn Master in Chancery (6)
14 Not disheartened, further
toilet trained smallest child
in family (4,2,3,6)
17 Importance of mother before
turning ten (6)

1 Method to manage last of fire

and quench it (9)
2 Establishes hospital for female
dogs (6)
3 Conflicts from a short
expression in speech (5)
4 Incites underworld
characterizing fragile China
(8)
5 Reach no conclusion in
mandate, refer back for
further consideration (8)
6 School's duty around
examination (5)

8 They turn criminal in

recovering bonus (6,7)
13 Foundation collapsed, wise
bird ditching rookie partner
(9)
15 Withdrawing agent in control,
daughter interfered (8)
16 Well-known Mafia circles
comprising the Italian
resistance (8)
19 More or less normal, ahead of
schedule (6)
20 Shining example in tale we
joke about (5)
21 Energy release in incident (5)

Solution to puzzle 11802

A
S P
P
F O
R
E T
I
N O
N
B
F A
N
C A
L

I
A
UM E D
S A
P M U
R E L I MB
N
T
J
U D E
Z E U
C
T A P R E T T
R
A M
C OMB A T
H
P
T
R I N A
T E
V
G
E
M E L E E R
S
S

P
L
U
G
U
G
L
Y

P
A
T
S
Y

P
F
V A G E S
S W
A T H E R
R
R
MA
M C
S I G H T
A
C H I P S
O
E
MWO R K
L
O
T E I N S
R
E

FAITH

SU | DO | KU

The protector
Koora Narayana Jeer sang 100 verses in praise of the Lords
discus Sudarsana. In one of the verses, he says that
Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Narayana entrust to Sudarsana
their work of protecting the righteous and saving them from
the evil designs of the wicked.
Having thus placed on Sudarsanas shoulders the task of
protection, the Divine couple are joyful, said V.S.
Karunakarachariar in a discourse.
There is a Puranic story which shows how Sudarsana
fulfils this duty assigned to him by the Lord, so that the Lord
and His Consort are without anxiety. During the Krishna
avatara, there was a man who pretended to be the Supreme
One incarnate. His name was Paundaraka Vasudeva. In order
to establish that he, and not Krishna, was the Supreme One,
Paundaraka Vasudeva made two hands and attached them to
himself, trying to appear like a four handed one! He also had
a Garuda made and would sit on this Garuda and be lifted by
his men, trying to give the impression that he too travelled
on Garuda. And yet, his supremacy remained
unacknowledged.
So he challenged Krishna to war. Krishna entrusted the job
of dealing with this impostor to Sudarsana. The discus
lopped of the head of the impostor.
But the king of Kasi had been a friend of Paundaraka
Vasudeva and so he now sent an ogre to burn Krishna and
Dwaraka. Krishna and Rukmini remained unperturbed, for
they knew that Sudarsana would take care of the ogre.
Sudarsana chased the ogre, who ran back to the King of Kasi.
The ogre killed the King, who had sent it on an impossible
mission and Sudarsana in turn burnt the ogre. Thus
Sudarsana always fulfils his role of protector.

A mind game and a

puzzle that you solve
with reasoning and
logic. Fill in the grid with
digits in such a manner
that every row, every
column and every 3x3
box accommodates the
digits 1 to 9, without
repeating any. The
solution to yesterdays
puzzle is at left.
ND-ND

| 19

SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Just a matter of few points

in the fourth set: Ramkumar
TENNIS / Confident that Nadal will play over the weekend, says Lopez

FOOTBALL

Manchester City is the team to beat

LONDON: The Premier League
season is only four games old,
but ahead of Saturdays home
game with Bournemouth, Pep
Guardiolas Manchester City
already appears the team to
beat.
Last weekends impressive
2-1 derby win at Manchester
United left City with the only
100 per cent record in the division and it followed it up with
a classy 4-0 Champions
League victory over Borussia
Moenchengladbach.
Sergio Aguero was Citys
match-winner against Gladbach with a hat-trick his
second in the Champions
League this season but he is
suspended for Bournemouths
visit.

Kelechi Iheanacho, a goalscoring replacement for

Aguero against Gladbach, is
expected to take the Argentines place at the tip of the
attack.
David Silva is due to miss
out after sitting out the Gladbach game with an unspecified
minor injury.
Eddie Howes Bournemouth
registered its first win of the
campaign last weekend by
edging West Bromwich Albion 1-0.
Guardiola lost only four
home league games in his
three seasons at Bayern Munich and while Howe is plotting how to outwit him.
United will hope to bounce
back from its derby defeat and

Europa League loss at Feyenoord when it travels to Watford in one of four games taking place on Sunday.
United captain Wayne
Rooney and full-backs Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw
were left out of the mid-week
trip to the Netherlands with a
view to Sundays game at Vicarage Road.
Defending
champion
Leicester City should have a
spring in its step again when it
welcomes Burnley to the King
Power Stadium on Saturday.
Claudio Ranieris men
crashed 4-1 at Liverpool last
weekend the second defeat
of its title defence but made
a memorable Champions
League bow in mid-week by

Vilhenas winner spoils

Mourinhos return
WELL DONE, MATE! Spainss Rafael Nadal greets Feliciano Lopez after the latters win against Ramkumar Ramanathan in the Davis
Cup tie in New Delhi on Friday. PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI: It is a sign of a play-

ers greatness when even in his

absence, most of the questions
at a press meet happen to be
about him.
Feliciano Lopez is ranked 26
in the world, had just won a
four-setter, but most of the
questions shot at him after his
win
against
Ramkumar
Ramanathan to give Spain a 1-0
lead in the Davis Cup World
Group playof tie were about
Rafael Nadal, who was supposed to play but did not.
Rafa is ok but did not want
to take risk with his wrist,
Rafas injury is nothing
serious, his wrist was getting
better and better but it was
still painful from what I heard
from him, We knew during
the week that I might play instead of Rafa, Maybe by tomorrow Rafa will be ready,
Confident that he will play

over the weekend the answers were similar but so were

most of the questions he was
asked.
Later, Ramkumar was asked
about Nadal as well, as was
Saketh Myneni, who lost to
David Ferrer in the second
match. The Indians got to
know of the replacement only
during warm-up but Ramkumar said it did not make much
diference. It was the same
tactic I had to fight hard, he
is a great player and great respect for him. At the same
time, I felt I could make a
match of it. I was feeling good
in the last few days, it was just
a matter of few points in the
fourth set, he said.
Lopezs own game in the
match was impressive even if
the capacity crowd was firmly
behind his opponent. I think
the atmosphere was great. For
us players, it is always such a
great feeling when we are

When I was
sitting during
the changeovers, I
was looking at the
big screen and it
said 95 per cent
people wanted me
to win and was an
amazing feeling.
Ramkumar
playing in front of big crowds
like today. I think they were all
very excited hoping Rafa
would show up. Its unfortunate that he didnt play, still
the court was full. It is good for
tennis and the fans, he said.
No one had expected the 21year old, 203-ranked Ramkumar to put up a fight, leave
alone take a set of his opponent, but he did.

And Lopez was appreciative

of the efort.
It is part of our job win
two sets, start feeling tired and
lose a set, then try to do your
best. I think I was lucky I got an
early break in the fourth set, it
was a big point and after that it
became very easy, he said.
The crowds, though, did its
best.
You know, when I was sitting during the changeovers, I
was looking at the big screen
and it said 95 per cent people
wanted me to win and was an
amazing feeling. I knew if I had
taken the fourth set, I had a
chance, he added saying his
Barcelona stint had made him
stronger
mentally
even
though coach Zeeshan Ali admitted not playing many fivesetter matches made a diference.
The more he plays those,
the more he will get mentally
stronger," Zeeshan said.

FORMULA ONE

Starting troubles for Mercedes

S. DIPAK RAGAV
SINGAPORE: In the last two years,

Mercedes lost only three races

each season, to Red Bull in
2014 and Ferrari in 2015 including here last year. But for the
reigning champions, unlike its
other defeats where technical
trouble or crashes played a
part, last years race was the
first time in two years it was
genuinely found lacking in
pace. The team struggled to
get the tyres right and lacked
pace throughout the weekend.
While the team has increased its superiority over
the field this year losing only
at Spain to Max Verstappen
when both the drivers crashed
out on the opening lap, the

Talk show during

Eden Test
KOLKATA: The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) will
organise a special talk show
reflecting on Indias long journey in Test cricket.
India will play its 500th Test
match when it takes on New
Zealand in the Kanpur match,
starting on September 22. The
Eden Gardens will host the
501st match here from September 30. We will put up a special canopy to organise an exhibition
featuring
photographs
of
some
prominent players the country
has produced over the years. A
talk show will also be organised in which Sunil Gavaskar
and Anil Kumble will take
part. It will be held on the first
day of the match, said CAB
president and former India
captain Sourav Ganguly here
on Friday. The CAB is also
planning some other initiatives to add colour to the Test
match.

Special
Correspondent

VERY BRIEFLY
Bangladesh
cricketer
Shakib Al Hasan and his wife
Umme Ahmed Shishir on Friday narrowly escaped an accident after the helicopter that
was carrying the two crashed
immediately after dropping
them in Coxs Bazar. I am fine,
but feel rather shocked at the
news of the chopper crash,Shakib was quoted as saying
by ESPNcricinfo.
CM
YK

teams one weakness has been

with the starts. At a circuit
where track position could
hold the key, the starts could
become a crucial factor that
decides the outcome of the
race.
Both the drivers have
sufered from poor starts this
season and even in the last
race, Hamilton slipped to sixth
from pole before fighting back
to finish second.
Speaking about it, the Briton
said, its pretty hard to start
the races but its little bit hard
now because you are not allowed certain feedback like
clutch temperature. Sometimes it gives you more torque,
some it is less.
Rosberg too agreed the

starts have been a challenge

and needs attention. I have
been feeling good lately but
also have had my diiculties
losing in Hockenheim and
Hungary at the starts. There
are always diferent reasons to
the start issues and it is always
a combination of factors.
Hamilton added, If you
gauge my season, the championship can be lost through
starts. I have lost quite a few
races from pole position at the
start. You work the whole
weekend but those two
seconds have determined a
few races.
Since the break, Hamilton
lost the momentum he built in
July winning all four races, as
Rosberg fought back with

wins in the last two events. But

Hamilton said he is still positive looking ahead. I was 43
points behind at one stage, so
feeling pretty good leading the
championship with all the engine penalties and starts. The
speed is still there so I feel
good.
Rosberg who will be starting his 200th Grand Prix this
weekend said the team has
learnt from last years race but
remained guarded on the
teams chances.
We understand some of
them and made some major
changes so we hope to look
better. But is it enough to turn
around a one-second deficit
per lap we had last year? It is
not an easy one.

CRICKET

Teenager Haseeb in England squad

NOTTINGHAM: Teenage opener

Haseeb Hameed was included

in the England Test squad announced on Friday for the tour
of Bangladesh.
The 19-year-old Lancashire
star was included after a successful season for the Red
Rose county and following the
decision of current England
opener Alex Hales to rule himself out of the tour on security
grounds.
Yorkshire batsman Joe
Root, for so long an England
mainstay in all three international formats, will be rested
for the three One-Day Internationals, which begin on October 7, before joining the Test
squad.

Meanwhile, Surrey captain

Gareth Batty, whose last Test
came in 2005, has been recalled at the age of 38, together
with fellow Surrey spinner Zafar Ansari.
Left-armer Ansari is joined
in the squad by another uncapped player in Northamptonshire
batsman
Ben
Duckett.
The squads :
Tests : Alastair Cook (capt.), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance,
Gareth Batty, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Ben Duckett, Steven Finn,
Haseeb Hameed, Adil Rashid, Joe
Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes,
Mark Wood.
ODIs : Buttler (capt.), Moeen, Bair-

Haseeb Hameed. PHOTO:

JAN KRUGER/GETTY IMAGES
stow, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Liam
Dawson, Duckett, Liam Plunkett,
Rashid, Jason Roy, Stokes, James
Vince, David Willey, Woakes, Wood.
AFP

We are keen to tap into American

market, says Thakur
WASHINGTON: The sell-out
crowd at the recently concluded two T20 International
matches between India and
West Indies in Florida has encouraged the BCCI to mull on
a long-term plan of tapping
the potential cricket market in
the United States, said its
president Anurag Thakur.
We are coming out with a
five-10 years program.
I will be sending a team
soon to the United States to

look at the potential venues

where we can have international matches, Thakur said
while speaking to the
reporters here.
Thakur is part of a delegation of Indian MPs, who are
in the US to meet their American counterparts and administration oicials.
We are very serious about
this (American) market.
Cricket fans, which are in
large numbers in the United

States, have been deprived of

live matches in the past several years, Thakur said in response to a question.
Referring to the recently
held T20 matches between India and West Indies in Florida,
Thakur said the experiment
was very successful.
It was decided just three
weeks in advance. The atmosphere. It was very lively,
thanks to the Indian cricket
fans, he added. PTI

winning 3-0 at Belgian side

Club Brugge.
Tottenham Hotspur will not
approach Sundays visit of
winless Sunderland in quite
such a sunny mood after its
Champions League opener at
Wembley saw it beaten 2-1 by
Monaco.
But Arsenal, which visits
Hull City on Saturday, will
draw encouragement from
having rescued a 1-1 draw from
its mid-week trip to Paris
Saint-Germain despite being
outplayed for much of the
game.
Everton, third in the table
after Mondays 3-0 win at Sunderland, welcomes Middlesbrough to Goodison Park on
Saturday. AFP

Ghosal in Macau
Open semifinal
National champion
Saurav Ghosal, seeded second,
defeated compatriot Harinder
Pal Sandhu 11-9, 11-6, 3-11, 11-8
and entered the semifinals of
the Macau Open, a PSA world
tour event, here on Friday.
Ghosal will meet fourthseed Daryl Selby of England.
Sports Bureau

MACAU:

Rich haul for

Indian cyclists

ON TARGET: Feyenoords Tonny Vilhena (right) punished a disjointed Manchester United in a

Group A Europa League match on Thursday. PHOTO: AP
ROTTERDAM (NETHERLANDS): Jose

Mourinhos reluctant return to

the Europa League ended in
embarrassment as Tonny Vilhena fired Feyenoord to a 1-0
win over Manchester United
in its Group A opener on
Thursday.
For a man with a keen eye
for his position in the football
hierarchy, competing in the
Europa League for the first
time in 13 years was an unappetising prospect for Mourinho and his players seemed
equally uninspired as a muchchanged United line-up succumbed to Vilhenas late strike
at De Kuip.
It was Uniteds second consecutive defeat after Saturdays painful loss to bitter
rival Manchester City in the
Premier League and Mourinho
will hope his decision to make
eight changes against Feyenoord is rewarded with a victory when it returns to
domestic action at Watford on
Sunday.
Twice a Champions League
winner with Porto and Inter
Milan, Mourinho is usually
launching his latest bid for Europes top prize at this time of
year.
With Wayne Rooney rested
and only David de Gea, Paul

Pogba and Eric Bailly retained

from the side beaten by City, it
was little surprise to see
United deliver a disjointed
performance.
Giovanni van Bronckhorsts
team had swept to the top of
the Dutch league with five successive victories and it started
brightly as Steven Berghuis
and Vilhena brought de Gea
into action with long-range
eforts.
The results:
Group A : Feyenoord 1 (Vilhena
79) bt Manchester United 0; Zorya
Luhansk 1 (Grechyshkin 52) drew
with Fenerbahce 1 (Kjaer 90+5).
Group B: BSC Young Boys 0 lost
to Olympiakos 1 (Cambiasso 42);
APOEL 2 (Vinicius 75, de Camargo
87) bt Astana 1 (Maksimovic 45+1).
Group C: FSV Mainz 05 1 (Bungert
57) drew with Saint-Etienne 1 (Beric
88); Anderlecht 3 (Teodorczyk 14,
Rafael 41-og, Capel 77) bt Qabala 1
(Dabo 20).
Group D: AZ Alkmaar 1 (Stijn
Wuytens 61) drew with Dundalk 1
(Kilduff 89); Maccabi Tel-Aviv 3 (Medunjanin 26, 70, Kjartansson 50) lost
to Zenit St. Petersburg 4 (Kokorin 77,
Mauricio 84, Giuliano 86, Djordjevic
90+2).
Group E: Astra Giurgiu 2 (Alibec
18, Sapunaru 74) lost to Austria Vienna 3 (Holzhauser 16-pen, Friesenbichler 33, Alexander Gruenwald 58);
Viktoria Plzen 1 (Bakos 11) drew with

Roma 1 (Perotti 4-pen).

Group F: Sassuolo 3 (Lirola 60,
Defrel 75, Politano 82) bt Athletic Bilbao 0; Rapid Vienna 3 (Schwab 51,
Joelinton 59, Colley 60-og) bt Genk 2
(Bailey 29, 90-pen).
Group G: Panathinaikos 1 (Berg 5)
lost to Ajax 2 (Traore 34, Riedewald
67); Standard Liege 1 (Dossevi 3)
drew with Celta Vigo 1 (Rossi 13).
Group H: Konyaspor 0 lost to
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Ferreyra 76);
Sporting Braga 1 (Andre Pinto 24)
drew with Gent 1 (Milicevic 6).
Group I: FC Salzburg 0 lost to FK
Krasnodar 1 (Joaozinho 37); Nice 0
lost to Schalke 1 (Baba Rahman 75).
Group J: Qarabag 2 (Michel 7,
Sadygov 90+4) drew with Liberec 2
(Sykora 1, Baros 68); PAOK 0 drew
with Fiorentina 0.
Group K: Inter Milan 0 lost to
Hapoel Beer Sheva 2 (Miguel Vitor
54, Buzaglo 69); Southampton 3
(Austin 5-pen, 27, Rodriguez 90+2)
bt Sparta Prague 0.
Group L: Osmanlispor 2 (Diabate
64-pen, Umar 74) bt Steaua
Bucharest 0; Villarreal 2 (Pato 28,
Jonathan dos Santos 45+1) bt FC
Zurich 1 (Sadiku 2). AFP

Top teams for rugby event

KOLKATA: Top 12 teams of the

country will be seen in action in the 83rd edition of the

all-India and South Asia
rugby championship to be
held at the Calcutta Cricket
and Football Club (CC&FC)
ground here from Saturday.
While the absence of any
foreign team is an aberration, the introduction of the
womens championship, featuring six sides, is the
novelty factor in this years
event.
Defending
champion
Army
Red,
Bombay

A womens championship,

featuring six sides, has been

introduced this year
The event will be played

on league-cum-knockout
basis

Gymkhana,
Delhi
Hurricanes, Maharashtra State
Police, Jungle Crows, Bangalore RFC, Bhubaneswar
RFC, Young Rugby Club,
Kolkata Sergeants Institute,
Mumbai Magicians, Delhi
Lions and CC&FC will com-

pete in the mens section.

Delhi Hurricanes, Bihar
RFC, Odisha RFC, Jungle
Crows, Young Rugby Club
and CC&FC will be the sides
in the womens event.
The event will be played
on
league-cum-knockout
basis and the bottom three
teams will be relegated to the
lower division, said Rugby
India Chief Executive Oicer Nasser Hussain at a press
conference here on Friday.
The womens final will be
played on September 23 followed by the mens final.

Brathwaite wants his team to

quickly adjust to Dubai conditions
DUBAI: West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite has urged his
players to adapt quickly to the
hot and dry conditions in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
ahead of their three-match
Twenty20 International series
against Pakistan.
The Caribbean side open the
tour with a warm-up game
against an Emirates Cricket
Board XI on Tuesday before facing Pakistan in the opening
T20 International three days
later at the Dubai International
Stadium. With temperatures
expected to soar to nearly 39
degrees Celsius at the weekend,
Brathwaite said it was important that the West Indies focused intensely on the prepara-

tion. It wasnt as hot earlier in

the year but apparently were
smack dab in the middle of their
summer now so it can get very,
very hot, Brathwaite said, referencing the Windies T20
World Cup training camp
staged here earlier in the year.
It is for the players to prepare
well, manage themselves well
of the field rehydrationwise, getting enough rest. Each
and every one of us is a professional and we know what our
bodies need to be at optimal
strength to perform, so its just
about us doing the things we
need to do of the field planning well, preparing well, practising well and then evidently
performing when the games

come.
The West Indians start the
series as favourites, especially
after crowning themselves
world champions six months
ago in India. In their only games
since then, they beat powerhouses India, 1-0, in a twomatch series in Fort Lauderdale, US, and Brathwaite said it
was key the side built on that
success.
I think this is another important series. We just defeated
India and it would be a fantastic
boost for the Caribbean people
for us to come to Dubai, which
has been Pakistans home for
the last few years, come into
their backyard and get a series
victory against IANS

NEW DELHI: Indian cyclists improved on their performances

from the previous edition of
the Track Asia Cup, finishing
second on the leaderboard
with a rich haul of eight
medals on the final day of the
competition at the Indira
Gandhi Complex velodrome
on Friday.
Favourite Deborah Herold
added another gold medal to
her kitty, this time in the Elite
Sprint with a timing of 12.493
against Hong Kongs Zhoujuan
Meng (12.734). Indias Kezia
Varghese finished fourth. India finished second with a total
of 16 medals in the competition including five gold, four
silver and seven bronze. Hong
Kong finished on top with 18,
including 11 gold.
The junior cyclists too
continued to impress, with
Nayana Rajesh taking gold in
the junior womens sprint.
The results: Women: Elite:
Sprint: Deborah Herold (IND,
12.493), Zhoujuan Meng (HK,
12.734), Farina Shawati (MAL,
12.342); Keirin: Zhoujuan Meng
(HK), Deborah Herold (IND), Kezia
Varghese (IND); Team Pursuit:
Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, India.
Junior: Nayana Rajesh (IND,
12.865), Anu Chutia (IND, 13.178), Hoi
Wah Leung (HK, 13.644).
Men: Elite: Sprint: Feng Shih
Kang (TPE, 11.309), Ali Askari (IRI,
11.412), Shih Hsin Hsiao (TPE,
11.684); Keirin: Shih Feng Kang
(TPE), Mohd. Daneshvar Khorram
(IRI), Ali Askari (IRI); Points race
(30km): Ka Yu Leung (HK), Chun
Wing Leung (HK), Yousif Alhammadi
(UAE).
Junior: Sprint: Chun Long Leung
(HK), Tsz Chun Law (HK), Sanuraj P.
Sanandaraj (IND); Keirin: Tsz Chun
Law (HK), Chun Long Leung (HK),
Emerson (IND); Points race (15km):
Iogan Shtein (KAZ), Dmitriy
Lessechko (KAZ), Semyon Sevastyanov (UZB). Special
Correspondent

S.A. Poonawalla
Multi-Million
tomorrow
PUNE: The S.A. Poonawalla
Multi-Million, one of the
leading events of the Pune
Racing Season, will be
staged
here
tomorrow
(Sept.18).
This Grade II mega event
will be run over a mile,
which belongs to the troika
of races that herald the arrival of another champion
who exhibits the ability and
form to aspire for the Pune
Derby.
It is also the richest race
for three-year-olds with the
winner guaranteed to take
home more than Rs. 1.2 million.
The Poonawallas will be
giving away prizes worth Rs.
4 lakh in a contest of skill.
The lucky winner will drive
home a Hyundai Eon, take
away a 32 inch Sony LED TV
or a laptop ofered in a free
contest Of skill.
Participants will get a free
contest form at the entrance
and they will have to correctly nominate the first
four horses in the order of
finishing in the S.A. Poonawalla Multi-Million.
The
carried
forward
amount of Rs. 1 Million will
be added to the Super Jackpot pool collection and Rs.
13,30, 666 will be added to
the second combined Jackpot Pool collection.
Racing Correspondent
ND-ND

20

LIFE

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Japan to designate manga hotspots

People around the world can vote for the landmarks through a website
can vote on the landmarks
through a website set up in
several languages, including
English and Chinese.
Japanese pop culture has
grown to rival American
Hollywood,
Tsugihiko
Kadokawa, chairman of
Kadokawa Corp. publisher
and film studio, one of the officials behind the efort, told
reporters on Friday. Animation can change the times.
The project highlights Ja-

pans recent push to make

tourism a valuable boon for a
stagnant economy, as dynamic as the export of the
long-hailed Toyota cars and
Sony video-game machines.
Tourist numbers have
grown, under a Cool Japan
initiative, reaching 20 million people last year five
years ahead of the governments goal, prompting oicials to raise its 2020 target to
40 million tourists. AP

TOKYO: Eighty-eight places in

Japan are going to be designated animation spots to
encourage tourism using
train stations, school campuses, rural shrines and
other fairly everyday places
where popular manga
characters are depicted.
Such landmarks number
in the tens of thousands, given the popularity and
volume of manga comics
In Japan. But this is being

billed as the oicial list for

any fans animation pilgrimage, as the places are known
as seichi or sacred spots.
People around the world

Cassini to make
final observation
of Saturn

Girl sues parents for sharing

embarrassing childhood photos

WASHINGTON: After studying

Saturn, its rings and moons

for more than 12 years, NASAs Cassini spacecraft has
entered the final year of its
epic voyage during which it
will make the closest-ever
observations of the planet.
The conclusion of the historic scientific odyssey is
planned for September next
year.
Beginning November 30,
Cassinis orbit will send the
spacecraft just past the outer
edge of the main rings. These
orbits, a series of 20, are
called the F-ring orbits.
Cassini will approach to
within 7,800 kilometres of
the centre of the narrow Fring, with its peculiar
braided structure, NASA scientists said.
During the F-ring orbits
we expect to see the rings,
along with the small moons
and other structures embedded in them, as never before, said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at
NASAs
Jet
Propulsion
Laboratory in California.
Cassinis final phase,
called the Grand Finale, begins in earnest in April next
year. A close flyby of Saturns
giant moon Titan will reshape the spacecrafts orbit
so that it passes through the
gap between Saturn and the
rings, an unexplored space
only about 2,400 kilometres
wide. PTI

CM
YK

A poster from the anime

series Lucky Star. PHOTO: AP

VIENNA: An 18-year-old Austrian girl has sued her parents for posting pictures, including
embarrassing
images from her childhood,
on Facebook without her
consent.
According to Austrian
news website The Local, the
teenager said that her parents had made her life miserable as they have posted
500 pictures of her since
2009 on the social networking site. The photos were
shared on Facebook with her
parents 700 friends. The
shared images include baby
pictures of her having her
nappy changed and pottytraining pictures.
They knew no shame and
no limit and didnt care
whether it was a picture of
me sitting on the toilet or lying naked in my cot every
stage was photographed and

Images include baby

pictures of her having
her nappy changed
and those of
potty-training
then made public, the girl
was quoted as saying.
Despite her requests, they
have refused to delete the
photos, prompting her to sue
them, she said, adding that
her father believes that since
he had taken the photos he
had the right to publish the
images.
If it can be proven that the
images have violated her
rights to a personal life, then
her parents may lose the
case, noted Michael Rami,
the girls lawyer.
This is the first case of its
kind in Austria, but, based on
similar cases abroad, the

girls parents may have to pay

some financial compensation for her pain and sufering, and will also be liable for
her legal costs, Mr. Rami
added.
The case will be heard in
November and, if the parents
lose, it could have repercussions for Austrians who post
countless images of their
children on social media
without their consent, the report said. Austrian privacy
laws concerning social
media are not as strict as
some other countries.
In France, anyone convicted of publishing and distributing images of another
person without their consent
can face up to one year in
prison and a fine of up to
45,000 euros.
This would apply to parents publishing images of
their children too. IANS

5 Indian museums on best in Asia list

NEW DELHI: Five Indian museums feature among the best 25 in Asia list, drawn up
based on an online survey.
Lehs Hall of Fame has
topped the India list as a
must-visit place by travellers in a survey.
The other four top-rated
museums of India are
Bagore Ki Haveli (Udaipur);
Victoria Memorial Hall

(Kolkata); Salar Jung Museum (Hyderabad); and Jaisalmer War Museum (Jaisalmer). The list was made by
travel website TripAdvisor.
The list was determined
using an algorithm that took
into account the quantity
and quality of reviews and
ratings for museums worldwide, over a 12-month
period, a statement said.

No museums from India

feature in the top 25 world
list, which is topped by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
in the New York City. The
next few spots are taken by
the Art Institute of Chicago,
State Hermitage Museum
and Winter Palace in Russia,
Musee dOrsay, Paris and National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico. PTI

ND-ND