29
Friday
March
2019
`3.00 Ÿ Pages 14
AHMEDABAD
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Opinion
Zinc mining in the Zawar
mines of Mewar reveals the
dawn of Industrial Revolution
in 12th century CE, writes
Dr Paul T Craddock  P6
City
Four Gujarat MLAs and one
former MPs are among the
12 candidates announced by
Congress for the upcoming
Lok Sabha polls  P2
india
Four militants were killed
in two encounters with
security forces in Shopian
and Kupwara districts of
Jammu and Kashmir P4
world
A massive fire engulfed a
22-storey building in Dhaka’s
posh commercial complex
area, killing at least 19 people
and injuring around 70
sports
Yuzvendra Chahal’s 4/38 and
AB de Villers’s unbeaten
70 in vain as Mumbai
Indians eke out 6-run
win over Royal
Challengers
Bangalore 
 P10
Afterhrs 
Following the success of
Kesari, superstar
Akshay Kumar will fly
to Germany in April for
his annual
hydrotherapy
treatment
Major DP Singh, a Kargil War veteran whose right leg was amputated and is known as the ‘Indian Blade Runner’, became the first battle casualty veteran
to skydive after he accomplished the feat in Nashik on Thursday. He was trained by the Indian Army as part of its ‘Spirit of Adventure’ programme. —ANI
Art. 35A hampering J&K
development, says Jaitley
New Delhi: Finance Minis-
ter Arun Jaitley Thursday
said Article 35A, which re-
stricts non-permanent resi-
dents to buy property in
Jammu and Kashmir,
is “constitutionally
vulnerable” and also
hampering econom-
ic development of
the state.
The statement
comes amidst the BJP
pressing for early elections to
the state assembly in the
state.
Snap POLL
Q. Will the US pressure
finally swing the Masood
Azhar ‘global terrorist’ tag
vote in India’s favour?
Yes No Can’t say
Go to our Twitter handle
@dna, look for #DNAPoll
and vote.
AQI 167 BSE Sensex 38,545.72
US resolution in UN
corners China, Pak
US pushes draft in
UNSC to dub him
a ‘global terrorist’
Sidhant Sibal & Anas Mallick
Delhi/Islamabad: China and
Pakistan have been crunched
into a tight spot after the US
moved a resolution in the Unit-
ed Nations to list Jaish chief
Masood Azhar as a global ter-
rorist. Criticising the action,
Pakistan said the move would
weaken the UN sanctions body
which is mulling over the case,
while China asked the US to
“act cautiously”.
Pakistani foreign ministry
spokesperson Mohammad
Faisal said in a
briefing, “We re-
gret a resolution
P7 has been circu-
lated in the
UNSC when the
matter was un-
der consideration by the 1267
UNSC sanctions committee.
Such efforts to circumvent the
established machinery will
only weaken the 1267 regime.”
Hours later, echoing the
sentiments in Islamabad,
Chinese foreign ministry
spokesman Geng Shuang
said, “The US has bypassed
the 1267 committee and di-
rectly filed the draft resolu-
tion to the Security Council.
This is not in line with reso-
lution of the issue through
dialogue and negotiations.”
New Delhi said it is aware
such a draft resolution has
been initiated.  Turn to P4
blade slices the skies
The state is under Presi-
dent’s rule and the Union
Cabinet takes all policy deci-
sions related to the militan-
cy-hit state.
In a blog, Jaitley
said the seven-decade
history of the state
confronts changing
India with several
questions: “Was the
Nehruvian course,
which the state had em-
barked, a historical blunder
or was it the correct course to
follow?”  Full report, P14
YESTERDAY’S POLL RESULT:
Should MPs who don’t
ask questions in Parliament
be given tickets to contest
polls again?
Yes 
No
Maybe
412.84
pak still in denial: India
„„India is disappointed
with Pak’s response to its
dossier on JeM involvement
in Pulwama terror attack
„„‘Regrettably, Pakistan
continues to be in denial.. it
followed identical script after
2008 Mumbai and 2016
Pathankot attacks’: MEA
„„Well-known fact that UN-
designated terrorist group
JeM and its leader Masood
Azhar based in Pak, it said
Sent request to US for
WhatsApp details: Pak
Sumit Kumar Singh
singh.sumit@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: As part of its in-
vestigation into the Pulwama
terror attack, Pakistan has
approached the US to seek as-
sistance from messaging ser-
vice WhatsApp in extracting
details and activities of sus-
pect GSM numbers provided
by India in a dossier.
The claim was made in an
investigative report shared
by Pakistan with the Minis-
try of External Affairs here
on Wednesday, in response to
the evidence pertaining to
the February 14 attack India
sent to the neighbour.
In a detailed dossier
shared with Islamabad on
February 27, India had listed
space force DRDO chief says NSA doval gave final go-ahead for asat test
‘Scientists went into mission mode for 6 months’
Sumit Kumar Singh
singh.sumit@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: A day after the
successful launch of India’s
anti-satellite missile, Defence
Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) chair-
man G Satheesh Reddy re-
vealed that the project — Mis-
sion Shakti — was the result
of two years’ hard work with
around a 100 scientists work-
ing tirelessly on the project.
Speaking to DNA, Reddy
13%
81%
6%
NSE nifty 11,570.00
90 individuals with likely
links to the banned terror
outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad
and 22 ‘pin locations’ of al-
leged terror training camps
across the western border.
Denying that any terror
camps existed at the pointed
out by India in the file, Paki-
stan has expressed its will-
ingness to allow a global
team, as well as one from In-
dia, to visit the sites.
Its report states how Is-
lamabad has moved to initi-
ate a probe soon after receipt
of India’s dossier.
Other than to Delhi, Paki-
stan has also dispatched the
report to the UN Security
Council’s five permanent
members — China, France,
Russia, UK and US. Turn to P4
said that the launch took
place at around 11.10 am on
Wednesday morning and eve-
rything went as anticipated.
Recalling the last few min-
utes before the mission went
live, Reddy said that the final
go-ahead was given by Na-
tional Security Advisor Ajit
Doval after getting approval
from Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi. He also said that
they had to hit a target in mo-
tion, for which ‘kinetic kill’
— directly hitting the satellite
124.95
Panel to decide
today if NaMo
violated MCC
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: The Election
Commission on Thursday
said it is still examining
whether Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi’s Wednesday ad-
dress to the nation on the suc-
cess of Shakti Mission was a
violation of the model code
of conduct (MCC) and will
take a final call on Friday.
After keeping the country
on tenterhooks for nearly an
hour, PM Modi had announced
the successful test of an anti-
satellite missile (ASAT) in his
address to the nation.
Deputy Election Commis-
sion Sandeep Saxsena, who
heads the committee, said
that they are examining
three aspects of the matter
— MCC, law and media.
He said the committee had
written to Doordarshan and
All India Radio seeking de-
tails of the source of the
video feed. “The committee
has had two meetings — one
yesterday and one today...We
are going into the entirety of
the matter to see if there was
a violation,” he said.
Haryana botch-op: 38 strain to get sight back
Cheena Kapoor
cheena.kapoor@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Corrective sur-
geries had to be performed on
10 of the 38 elderly patients
admitted to Rohtak’s Post-
Graduate Institute of Medi-
cal Sciences (PGIMS) on
Thursday after they under-
went eye surgeries at govern-
ment hospitals across Hary-
ana that left them infected.
PGIMS medics, who re-
10 years after 34 died in hooch
tragedy, court holds 10 guilty
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Ahmedabad: Nearly ten
years after 149 people lost
their lives in a hooch tragedy
in Ahmedabad, a court con-
victed 10 people, including
eight women, while giving
the benefit of doubt to 12 oth-
ers and acquitting them.
Additional sessions judge
DP Mahida awarded varying
jail terms to the 10 people
found guilty of culpable hom-
icide, and manufacturing,
supplying and selling spuri-
ous liquor.
The main accused, Vinod
Thakkar and Arvind alias
mission shakti
„„Project got nod 2 years ago, with
100 scientists working round-the-
clock in last six months: Reddy
„„Tracking data.. confirmed
mission met all objectives: DRDO
— was used. The test was con-
ducted from the Dr APJ Ab-
dul Kalam Island in Odisha.
“It was a challenging task
Dumdaar versus daagdaar,
PM Modi sounds poll cry
‘Chowkidar’ kicks
off campaign trail
with rallies in
UP and Kashmir
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi began his
electoral blitz on Thursday by
batting for nationalism and
railing against corruption in
a series of public rallies in Ut-
tar Pradesh’s Meerut,
Rudrapur in Uttarakhand and
Akhnoor in Jammu.
Speaking for over an hour
on several issues in Meerut,
the PM also took on Congress
and coined a new phrase,
“dumdaar chowkidar versus
the daagdaar group”.
“On one side, you have a
New India brimming with
energy, and on the other side
you have dynasts who only
care for their personal bene-
fits,” said Modi.
He then attacked the oppo-
capital precedent
Apr 2017: In Delhi
state’s GTB Hospital,
20 patients injected with
contaminated Avastin
were left partially blind.
quested anonymity, ex-
pressed worry that after some
238 cataract surgeries, per-
formed between March 11 and
18 in Bhiwani, Karnal and
Ghanshyam Talpada, were
awarded jail sentences of 10
years and seven years respec-
tively. The court also imposed
a fine of Rs 50,000 on Thakkar.
The conviction came in a
case — registered with Kag-
dapith police station — which
was part of one of the worst
and that called for many tech-
nologies. It needed high ac-
curacy and in the last six
months, the team worked in
R.N.I. No. : GUJENG/2007/22424
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with party senior leaders during the ‘Vijay
Sankalp Rally’ in Meerut on Thursday —PTI
sition for seeking proof of
the Balakot airstrike and
thus speaking in the lan-
guage of Pakistan.
“This chowkidar has
shown the courage to carry
out surgical strike, be it on
land, in the sky or space,” he
claimed.
“The terrorists and people
in Pakistan establishment
are praying to rid India of
the chowkidar and bring the
Mahamilawati to rule. Is it
acceptable to you?” the
Prime Minister said. 
Turn to P4
Jhajjar districts, many may
have been rendered sightless.
While 38 of the patients
were rushed to PGIMS, oth-
ers are still to be traced.
The reason for the botch-
up is not clear, but hospital
sources hint at contaminated
syringes used for injection
during the operations.
“It is highly likely these
patients may not be able to see
again, or suffer from partial
blindness, despite the correc-
death by booze
The case was part of
a larger tragedy which
unfolded in Gujarat
between July 5 and July
7, 2009 and claimed a
total of 149 lives.
hooch tragedies which un-
folded in the dry state in July,
2009. Thirty-nine people were
accused in the case.
In the specific case at Kag-
dapith, 34 people, most of
them residents of Raipur lo-
cality, died consuming the
spurious liquor. Full report, P3
mission mode,” he said.
He claimed that the project
was implemented in the fast-
est way possible and it showed
the DRDO’s capability in han-
dling such programmes. “The
shooting down of a satellite
with a missile reflected that
we have matured to develop
technology which could
achieve accuracy in terms of
centimetres,” said Reddy.
A DRDO officer said the
biggest challenge was to de-
velop everything indigenously.
PM hurls ‘SARAB’
acronym at Oppn
Meerut: After PM Modi
tore into the opposition
parties by coining an ac-
ronym SARAB (alcohol’)
from the initial letters of
the parties’ names, he
urged people to stay away
for the good health of Ut-
tar Pradesh. The remarks
drew sharp reactions
from the opposition.
tive srugeries. There is only a
40 percent chance that teh op-
erations would be success-
ful... We cannot confirm any-
thing until the bandages are
removed,” said a source.
“Our priority right now is
to give them the required
treatment and then we will
look into the reasons how this
happened. We will get to know
the surgery results soon,”
said Dr Rohtash Yadav, medi-
cal director, PGIMS, Rohtak.
‘CBI inquiry in
Muzaffarpur
case hogwash’
Abraham Thomas
abraham.thomas@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: The CBI’s probe
into the Muzaffarpur shelter
home case in Bihar has now
come under a cloud after de-
tails emerged that the agency
dropped serious charges, di-
luted offences, and failed to
name the real perpetrators in
its final charge sheet submit-
ted before a Delhi court.
The details came to light
when they were shared with
the Supreme Court — which
is monitoring the case — fol-
lowing an application moved
by Nivedita Jha, who called
the CBI probe “ex-facie hog-
wash”. It was at her behest
that the trial was in Decem-
ber moved from Bihar to
Delhi’s Saket court.
The application cites sev-
eral instances where victims’
statements recorded that
they came across numerous
instances of inmates being
tortured, murdered, raped,
and trafficked, yet, the charge
sheet does not include the rel-
evant sections.
Another loophole, the plea
claims, is that along with shel-
ter home officials and prime
accused Brajesh Thakur, the
victims named his friends
and relatives, but they find no
mention in the CBI charge
sheet. Only the officials who
were part of Thakur’s NGO
Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas
Samiti are mentioned.

daily news & analysis I Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019
in brief
GU PhD student
writes to NHRC
A PhD student of Guja-
rat University, who had
filed a complaint with
the university a few days
ago, accusing her guide
of sexual harassment,
filed a complaint with
the National Human
Rights Commission
(NHRC) on Thursday.
The victim had accused
professor Vashisht Bhatt
of Chemistry depart-
ment of making lewd re-
marks and sexually har-
assing her. Following the
complaint and prelimi-
nary inquiry, the univer-
sity sent the professor on
forced leave and barred
him from the campus.
Court pays `71L
tax due to AMC
To avoid their office
premises being sealed by
the civic body, many com-
mercial units are hurry-
ing tax dues this time. On
Thursday, the magistrate
court of Ghee Kanta paid
Rs71 lakh tax which was
due for a long time. Other
defaulters like Silver Oak
College located in Gota
has paid Rs15 lakh while
Jindal Texofab paid
Rs8.31 lakh. The tax de-
partment of Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation
(AMC) on Thursday has
recovered Rs11.76 crore.
Total recovery of this
year is Rs884.14 crore
which is Rs76.60 crore
than the total tax recov-
ery of 2018. last year, the
civic body had recovered
Rs 808.54 crore.
`3.4 lakh worth
valuables stolen
A complaint was lodged
with Sardarnagar police
station on Wednesday by
Deepika Belani, 34, a resi-
dent of Sardarnagar, stat-
ing that an unidentified
person had entered her
house and taken away
valuables worth Rs 3.4
lakh, including gold-sil-
ver ornaments and cash.
Police have registered the
complaint and further in-
vestigation is on.
High Court verdict on Hardik
Patel’s fate likely on Monday
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
The Gujarat High Court is
likely to pronounce the
much-awaited verdict in the
plea filed by Congress leader
Hardik Patel seeking the sus-
pension of a two-year sen-
tence awarded to him for riot-
ing during the Patidar quota
stir in 2015 on Monday. Nota-
bly, the arguments in the case
concluded on Thursday, with
the state government con-
tending that a “lawbreaker”
should not be made a law-
maker and Hardik arguing
that the case against him is
without any evidence.
Following the conclusion
Congress leader Hardik Patel
Crackdown Liquor in the guise of snack was being allegedly advertised
ASCI upholds complaint against surrogate ad
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
The Advertising Standards
Council of India (ASCI) has
upheld a complaint by city-
based Consumer Education
and Research Centre (CERC)
in connection with a surro-
gate advertisement being
done for a liquor product- Of-
ficers Choice Blue.
The CERC raised a com-
plaint with the ASCI against
the advertisement of Officers
Choice Blue Snacks endorsed
by the former captain of the
Indian cricket team, MS Dho-
ni. Following the complaint,
the advertiser (Allied Blend-
ers and Distillers Pvt. Ltd)
could not provide any evi-
dence to show that it met the
02 
Four MLAs in Congress’
list of six LS candidates
The party has so far declared candidates for 12 out of 26 seats in state
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Four MLAs and a former MP
are among the six candidates
announced by the Congress
party for the upcoming Lok
Sabha elections on Thursday.
With this, the Congress has
so far declared candidates for
twelve out of 26 seats in the
state, while BJP has named
nominees for 19 seats.
The names were announced
after the meeting of Con-
gress’s Central Election Com-
mittee in New Delhi. The par-
ty announced that senior MLA
Punja Vansh would be its can-
didate from Junagadh Lok
Sabha seat. The six-term leg-
islator belongs to the Koli
community and is seen as a
good candidate. The BJP is yet
to announce its candidate
from the seat.
As expected, Jitu Chaud-
hary, MLA from Kaprada
(ST) seat, was named as the
Congress candidate from Val-
sad seat. The four-term MLA
would take on BJP nominee
and sitting MP KC Patel from
Valsad, which is considered
Poll panel issues notification for elections
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Gandhinagar: No candi-
dates turned up on the first
day of filing nomination in
Gujarat. The Election Com-
mission issued the notifica-
tion on Thursday for the
polls in Gujarat, in which 26
Lok Sabha seats will go for
General elections whereas 5
assembly seats will go for
by-polls on April 23.
The chief electoral
officer(CEO) in Gujarat Dr
S Murali Krishna informed
of arguments, the single-
judge bench of Justice AG
Uraizee directed the state
government to make written
submissions of its argu-
ments on Friday. Advocate
general Kamal Trivedi ap-
peared for the state govern-
ment in the case and referred
to a number of judgments by
case file
Until the sentence
awarded to Hardik by
a Visnagar court for
rioting during the Patidar
quota protests in 2015
is suspended, he cannot
contest the Lok Sabha
elections
what law says
„„The regulations now
demand that the extension
product should have an
in-store availability that is
at least 10% of the leading
brand in the category
„„Alternatively such
advertisement will be
allowed if the sales
turnover of the product
exceeds Rs5 crore per
annum nationally
ASCI guidelines for qualifica-
tions of brand extension prod-
ucts.
Pritee Shah, CGM, CERC
said that there are certain cri-
teria to be followed if a brand
Lalit Vasoya, Punja Vansh and Jitu Chaudhary
BATTLE LINES DRAWN IN NINE SEATS
SEAT BJP CONGRESS
Kutch Vinod Chavda Naresh Maheshwari
A’bad West Dr Kirit Solanki Raju Parmar
Rajkot Mohan Kundariya Lalit Kagathara
Porbandar Ramesh Dhaduk Lalit Vasoya
Vadodara Ranjanben Bhatt Prashant Patel
Panchmahal Ratansinh Rathod VK Khant
Bardoli Prabhu Vasava Tushar Chaudhary
Navsari CR Patil Dharmesh Patel
Valsad KC Patel Jitu Chaudhary
a bellwether seat. The Con-
gress fielded Lalit Vasoya,
the MLA from Dhoraji seat,
as its candidate from Por-
bandar. The seat would see a
Picture for representation
after the first day that no
nomination form was sub-
mitted by candidates in any
of the constituency. The last
day of filing of nomination
the apex court to drive home
the point that the sentence
awarded to Hardik should not
be suspended.
Notably, until the sentence
awarded to Hardik by a Vis-
nagar court is suspended, he
cannot contest the Lok Sabha
elections. With the judgment
coming on Monday, there will
be little time left for the
Patidar leader to approach
the Supreme Court in case if
the verdict goes against him,
as April 4 is the last date for
filing of nominations for the
Lok Sabha polls.
Putting forth his argu-
ments, Trivedi submitted be-
fore the court that it should
consider the criminal ante-
cedents of the Patidar leader,
who does not deserve to be-
come an MLA or MP. The ad-
vocate general argued that to
serve the people, there is no
need to become an MP or
MLA and represent them. Ex-
emplifying, he said, Mahat-
ma Gandhi never fought an
election, but he went on to
become the father of the na-
tion.
Meanwhile, the counsel
for Hardik, IH Syed, again
reiterated before the court
that the state does not have
any concrete evidence
against Hardik and it is a
case of no evidence.
Picture only for representation
wanted to advertise for its ex-
tension product or service.
“These guidelines were put
in place to prevent surrogate
advertising. Sometimes liq-
uor or tobacco companies
direct fight between Vasoya,
a first-term MLA, and BJP
candidate Ramesh Dhaduk,
who would be contesting his
first LS election.
is April 4 and both the major
parties in the state, BJP and
Congress are yet to declare
their candidates on many
seats.
The BJP chief and Lok
Sabha candidate of BJP on
Gandhinagar seat Amit
Shah is going to file nomina-
tion on March 30 while Va-
dodara candidate Ranjan
Bhatt is going to file her
nomination on Friday in
presence of CM Vijay Ru-
pani.
Sources from the office
of CEO said, “The first day
KEEPING TROUBLEMAKERS AWAY
Police personnel were deployed at the state Congress HQ as a precautionary measure on Thursday
HC goes through recordings of RS polls
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
The Gujarat High Court, on
Thursday, went through the
video recordings of the Rajya
Sabha poll proceedings in
connection with a petition
challenging the victory of
Congress leader Ahmed Patel
on August 8, 2017.
come out with ads of a par-
ticular product which would
not even be actually available
in the market or if available
would be few and far as the
actual intent would be to pro-
“By fielding so many
MLAs, the party is sending
the message of how serious
it is about winning seats in
Gujarat. The sitting MLAs
are strong in their areas,
and we should be able to
win some seats,” said a par-
ty leader, requesting ano-
nymity.
Lalit Kagathara, MLA
from Tankara seat, was
named as the candidate from
Rajkot seat. The first-term
MLA would take on sitting
MP and former union minis-
ter Mohan Kundariya from
the prestigious seat.
Former MP Jagdish Tha-
kor was named as the candi-
date for the Patan Lok Sabha
seat. Thakor had won from
the Patan seat in 2009. The
seat is presently held by Li-
ladhar Vaghela of BJP.
The Congress also an-
nounced the candidature of
VK Khant from Panchmahal
seat. Khant, an influential
OBC leader, is the father of
Morva Hadaf MLA Bhupen-
dra Khant. He would take on
MLA and BJP candidate Ra-
tansinh Rathod.
of filing nomination did not
see any candidate turning
up and that is because the
names have not been de-
clared on some of the seats.
The process, however, will
pick up the pace from Fri-
day onwards.”
Meanwhile, the CEO has
issued the guidelines for the
candidates for filing nomi-
nation on Thursday. The
guidelines are pertaining to
an oath to be taken by the
candidate on the time of
nomination filing, as per the
Constitution of India.
The court also dismissed
doubts about the authenticity
of the recordings. Returning
officer DM Patel informed the
court that the actual voting dur-
ing the Rajya Sabha Election
was recorded while the count-
ing of votes was not recorded.
Patel who gave a DVD of the
voting process in connection
with the petition said that all
mote a liquor or tobacco prod-
uct,” said Shah. She said, as a
result, the regulations now
demand that the extension
product should have an in-
store availability that is at
least 10% of the leading brand
in the category. She said alter-
natively such advertisement
will be allowed if the sales
turnover of the product or
service exceeds Rs 5 crore per
annum nationally or Rs 1
crore per annum per state
where distribution has been
established.
CERC said since the com-
pany failed to provide proof
of meeting with any of these
criteria, the ASCI upheld the
complaint and concluded that
it was a surrogate advertise-
ment for promotion of liquor.
ah edabad
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
Deputy CM Nitin Patel was the candidate from Mehsana assembly seat
BJP in a fix over
candidate for
Mehsana seat
Chintan Acharya fore assembly polls.
chintan.acharya@dnaindia.net Looking at the equations
of last Lok Sabha polls held in
Gandhinagar: During the 2014, BJP candidate Jayshree-
1984 Lok Sabha polls, which ben Patel won with the mar-
were held after former PM gin of more than 2 lakh votes
Indira Gandhi’s assassina-
against Congress’ Jivabhai
tion, 426 members of Con- Patel. It is noteworthy that
gress won across India. While deputy chief minister Nitin
only two candidates of BJP Patel was given the responsi-
could make to Lok Sabha, bility of these seats and he
Mehsana was one of those himself also was the candi-
two seats where Dr AK Patel, date from Mehsana assembly
BJP candidate won. seat. Patel also could manage
Since then, the seat is be- his victory with the margin of
lieved to be a strong fortress 7,137 votes only. Now the party
of BJP as majority chunk of is considering to field Nitin
voters that belong to Patel Patel as the candidate for Lok
community here have always Sabha polls, sources within
remained committed to BJP. the party said. He was called
Out of the 9 Lok Sabha polls by Gujarat BJP in-charge Om
held thereafter, Congress can- Mathur on Thursday for
didates could win twice only meeting at party headquarter
in 1999 and 2004. But, the table Shri Kamalam and the sourc-
turned suddenly in 2017 as- es said that the meeting was
sembly polls in Gujarat,
wherein results of all the
seats falling in the constitu-
ency showed deflection. There
to convince Nitin Patel to con-
test Lok Sabha polls. Patel,
however, denied any such de-
velopment and said that he
are seven assembly seats in- was there to discuss different
cluding Unjha, Visnagar, Be- issues related to the party’s
chraji, Kadi, Mehsana, Vi- poll preparations.
japur and Mansa. “The party will select a
Though BJP candidates proper candidate for Lok Sab-
won over four seats, the total ha polls. We need to wait for
votes they got remained lesser the announcement,” Nitin
than total votes went to Con- Patel said.The party experi-
gress candidates. In aggre- enced a great confusion over
gate, all seven BJP candidates the selection of candidate as
got only 4,64, 059 votes while the Patel community have dif-
that of Congress candidates ferent factions within the
remained 5,58,385. community. The Patel com-
The entire swing could be munity here has different
attributed to the agitations groups divided on the basis of
ran by Hardik Patel and Al- unions of villages.
pesh Thakor in the state be- Full report on dnaindia.com
NCP says to contest
all 26 LS seats, says
state unit president
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Even as the Congress and the
Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP) are contesting the up-
coming polls in an alliance in
Maharashtra, the Sharad
Pawar-led party announced
on Thursday that it would put
up candidates on all 26 Lok
Pravin Indrekar/DNA
Sabha seats in the state.
The announcement was
made by state NCP president
Jayant Patel (Bosky) two days
after former CM Shankersinh
Vaghela, who joined the party
in January, said that the party
would not field any candi-
dates in the state without a
seat-sharing agreement with
Congress. “NCP will field can-
didates in all 26 Lok Sabha
seats in Gujarat. Candidates
will also be fielded in all the
(five) assembly by-elections.
documents associated with the The list of candidates will be
polling were readied on August announced soon,” Patel said
9, 2017 and a set of 5 DVDs of the in a press release.
proceedings were given by the The Congress said NCP has
information department on Au- little presence in the state,
gust 14, 2017. The court went and its decision would make
through the video recordings little difference. “We have a
that showed the four controver- national alliance with NCP,
sial votes of Raghavji Patel, but the party has no presence
Bholabhai Gohil, Shailesh here. It needs to first assess its
Parmar and Mitesh Garasiya. ground situation. NCP also
Former Congress MLA Bhaga
Barad pins hope on SC for relief
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
In what could be the last hope
for former Congress MLA
Bhaga Barad who is fighting
a bitter battle against his dis-
qualification and subsequent
announcement of bypoll for
his Talala constituency, the
Supreme Court on Thursday
agreed to take up his plea for Congress MLA Bhaga Barad
an urgent hearing on Mon-
day. Barad lost his case before victed and sentenced to two-
the Gujarat High Court on year-and-nine-month in jail in
Wednesday and has moved a mineral theft case by a magis-
the apex court against the terial court in Sutrapada. The
high court verdict. former MLA also challenged
Notably, Barad had earlier the “hasty decision” of the
moved the high court challeng- Election Commission (EC) to
ing his disqualification by as- declare a bypoll for his constitu-
sembly speaker Rajendra Trive- ency on March 10, completely
di on March 5 after he was con- ignoring the fact that a stay in
BJP chief’s
son caught
cheating in
exam: NSUI
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
In what could be an embar-
rassment during peak elec-
tion season, Gujarat Bharati-
ya Janata Party (BJP) presi-
dent and MLA Jitu Vaghani’s
son was caught cheating dur-
ing university examinations
on Thursday. On Thursday,
MJ Commerce College, affili-
ated to Bhavnagar Universi-
ty, was conducting Allowed to
Keep Terms (ATKT) exams,
in which several students
were found copying.
The National Students Un-
ion of India (NSUI) alleged
that one of the students
caught cheating during the
exams was Meet Jitu Vagha-
ni but due to his political in-
fluence, the authorities did
not declare his name.
Speaking with DNA about
the same, Jayrajsinh Gohil,
Bhavnagar District presi-
dent, NSUI, said, “Meet was
appearing for ATKT exam
and was caught cheating. He
was caught with 27 chits to be
used during the exam. As
soon as he was caught, the of-
ficials took him to the vice-
chancellor’s office and he
was not allowed to appear for
the exam. However, the vice-
chancellor refused to declare
his name.”
“We now want his name to
be declared, an inquiry to be
initiated against him and a
fair hearing of copying case,
as per norms, to be conduct-
ed”, he further said, adding
that the vice-chancellor of
Bhavnagar University had
taken charge of his position
only recently and is hence
scared of the repercussions.
Jitu Vaghani
Jayant Patel, NCP president
party’s trend
„„At present, the NCP
has a lone MLA in the
182-member assembly
„„The number was 2 in
the previous term, and 3
in the one before that
needs to decide whether it
wants to help BJP by putting
up candidates everywhere,”
state Congress spokesperson
Manish Doshi said.
Congress sources said that
over the past few weeks, NCP
had staked claim for 3-4 seats
in the state. The seats sought
include Kutch, Gandhinagar,
Porbandar, and Sabarkantha.
“The NCP had submitted a
couple of letters staking the
claim. There was no serious
discussion on seat-sharing at
any point,” said the source.
his favour against the magiste-
rial court’s judgment was al-
ready granted by the Veraval
sessions court on March 7.
The HC’s division bench of
Justice SR Brahmbhatt and
Justice Justice VB Mayani had
rejected his plea on the ground
that the stay granted to him
was set-aside by a single judge
bench of the high court after
the state government chal-
lenged the sessions court’s or-
der. The division bench re-
marked that in the absence of
a stay, the conviction and sen-
tence subsists and therefore,
his petition cannot be enter-
tained. The court also clarified
that the court has also not ex-
amined any other arguments
by the contending parties.
 Full report on dnaindia.com
 ah
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
in brief
Amreli Congress
leader Dipak
Malani joins BJP
Gandhinagar: Con-
gress leader from Am-
reli Dipak Malani on
Thursday joined BJP
in presence of union
minister of state Man-
sukh Mandaviya. Mala-
ni is the leader from
the cooperative sector
and he, along with 300
supporters, joined BJP
during the BJP’s work-
ers’ congregation held
in Savarkundla Mar-
keting Yard of Amreli
district. On the other
side, former MLA
Shamji Chauhan also
quit Congress on
Thursday. Chauhan
was a BJP MLA but
had joined Congress in
2017 after he did not get
ticket in assembly
polls.
Hearing of PIL on
lions adjourned
The Gujarat High Court
on Thursday adjourned
a hearing in the suo-mo-
tu public interest litiga-
tion (PIL) questioning
the rampant deaths of
Asiatic Lions in the
state. The division
bench of Justice SR
Brahmbhatt and Justice
VB Mayani adjourned
the matter till April 3.
Notably, the court had
earlier asked the stake-
holders responsible for
conservation of lions to
identify the ground is-
sues affecting their con-
servation and come up
with probable solutions.
`17.13L cash stolen
in Krishnanagar
A break-in was reported
at the residence of Pi-
yush Bhuptani in Krish-
nanagar area of the city.
An unidentified person
broke into the complain-
ant’s house between
March 25 and 26 and
made away with Rs 17.13
lakh cash from the com-
plainant’s locker. An FIR
has been registered in
the matter and further
investigation is on.
Decentralise governance and
development models: Ela Bhatt
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Decentralisation of govern-
ance and developmental
models is required to reduce
vulnerability of the poor in
the country, said Ela Bhatt,
founder of Self Employed
Women’s Associaion (SEWA)
during a conference on na-
tion building by Confedera-
tion of Indian Industries
(CII) held on Thursday at
Indian Institute of Manage-
ment – Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
She said that disparity in
incomes is increasing the
vulnerability of the poorest
and as such, the focus should
be on their economic uplift-
ment.
Accordingly, the current
economic model of central-
ised production and longer
channels in manufacturing
and distribution of goods is
increasing the gap in income
between the ‘haves’ and
‘have-nots’ in the country.
“The rise in income (of the
poor) is slower than the rise
in prices of essential items.
We need to decentralise pow-
er, resources. We need to
bring producers closer to con-
sumers,” Bhatt said at a panel
discussion during the confer-
ence, ‘ARISE’ by CII. She said
not so swachh Study by MBA students, spanning 50 stations, finds 5 stations with no drinking water
Mahila police station cleanest, Sabarmati the worst: Report
Tanushree Bhatia
tanushree.bhatia@dnaindia.net
In a study by students of KS
School of Business Manage-
ment, Gujarat University, the
Mahila police station in the
city emerged as the cleanest
from among 50 other stations.
As part of an MoU between
the city police and the univer-
sity, the cleanliness project
was initiated last year by
cops.
The study spanned six
months and the stations were
ranked across categories in-
cluding area outside the prem-
ises, the entrance and overall
condition of the building. A
total of 39 students worked on
edabad
Tobacco ban near schools up in smoke
Study finds 99 per cent vendors across 6 city wards selling tobacco products to children
Tanushree Bhatia
tanushree.bhatia@dnaindia.net
In a shocking revelation, 99
per cent of tobacco-selling
vendors have been found sell-
ing tobacco products to mi-
nors. In addition, there is
high prevalence of such ven-
dors near educational cam-
puses in the city.
A report titled ‘Extent and
Types of the Vendors Selling
Tobacco Products
Ahmedabad city’ produced
in
by researchers from the Insti-
tute for Studies and Transfor-
mation, Gujarat found a total
of 2,214 vendors selling to-
bacco products across six
wards, of which, 250 or 12 per
cent, violated a section of
Cigarettes and Other Tobac-
co Products Act (COTPA) that
prohibits selling of any to-
bacco product to minors (per-
sons below 18 years of age)
and within the area of 100
square yards of any educa-
tional institution.
The study, undertaken by
researchers Nayan Patel and
Mercury touches 42°C,
highest in 2 yrs in March
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
It’s just March and city has al-
ready witnessed temperature
crossing the 40° Celsius mark
on Thursday itself. The tem-
perature recorded on Thurs-
day was 42 degree Celsius, it
was heighest in last two years.
In 2017, highest maximum tem-
perature was of 42.8 degree
Celsius which was recorded on
March 28, 2017. The city may
not get much relief in tempera-
ture today, the expected tem-
perature for Friday is said to
be 41 degree Celsius, while the
minimum temperature could
be around 23 degree Celsius.
The weather department
said Thursday’s temperature
was four degrees above the
normal condition. According
to India Meteorological De-
‘Agriculture can tackle income disparity’
Agriculture, food-processing and animal husbandry are
key to the rapid growth of the economy and reducing
income disparity, said experts during CII’s conference
on nation building. Piruz Khambatta, chairman of the
Western Council for CII said that agriculture and agro-
processing are key for the GDP to grow at a rate of 10
per cent. He also said that a situation where the top one
per cent of the people own 60 per cent of the country’s
wealth cannot be allowed.
that ‘roti, kapda and makaan’
(food, clothing and housing)
are the basic needs of com-
mon man and to meet them, a
decentralised model is re-
quired. “We need to shorten
the distance between govern-
ance and the governed as well
as the producer and the con-
sumer,” said Bhatt.
CII president Rakesh
Bharti Mittal advocated re-
the project in two phases. The
first phase involved a strategic
visit and recommendations,
while the second phase includ-
ed a surprise visit. The survey
was initiated to promote sani-
tization in police stations by
awarding the top 10 stations.
Vastrapur Mahila West po-
lice station was ranked the
cleanest among 50 stations fol-
lowed by Danilimda, Khokhra,
Shahibaug Mahila East. Oth-
ers in the top 10 included Ra-
nip, Airport, Vastrapur, Am-
raiwadi, Sarkhej and Naran-
pura. Sabarmati was the only
police station in extremely
unclean condition.
Speaking to DNA about the
report, AK Singh, city police
A vendor selling tobacco products outside Gujarat University
There is a high prevalence of vendors in the city
— one vendor for every 314 persons or 67
households. This is one of the reasons behind
children being exposed to tobacco very early in life
Ajaz Shaikh, One of the authors of the study
Ajaz Shaikh, covering six
wards — Naranpura, Shah-
pur, Odhav, Saraspur-Rakhi-
al, Vejalpur and Vatva — also
found that 52.57 per cent ven-
dors (1,164) sold only tobacco
products, whereas 47.43 per
cent vendors (1,050) sold to-
Top Heat stations
(in Celsius)
Amreli – 42.5
Ahmedabad - 42
Surendranagar – 42
Bhuj – 41.8
Vadodara – 41.6
Rajkot – 41.3
Vallabhvidhyanagar – 41.1
partment (IMD), that fall in
maximum temperature is like-
ly by 1-2 degree over the coastal
regions – Saurashtra and
Kutch in coming days. The Met
department made a forecast of
heat wave conditions at isolat-
ed pockets in the districts of
Saurashtra and Kutch.
‘Edu system not
fostering thougth’
Ela Bhatt lamented
that the current
education system is not
encouraging thinking
among the students. It
is also not giving skills
to students, especially
in urban areas, she said
ducing disparity in the coun-
try and stressed on the neces-
sity of systems that work for
the under-privileged. “We
cannot have islands of
growth and islands of happi-
ness,” said Mittal. He empha-
sised on increased interac-
tion between the academia
and businesses to make them
more productive.
Full report on: www.dnaindia.com
Mahila police station in Ahmedabad —Pravin Indrekar/DNA
commissioner said, “Interest-
ingly, some relatively new
buildings were in bad shape,
number speak
The six wards
covered by the
study:
Naranpura, Shahpur, Odhav,
Pravin Indrekar/DNA
Saraspur-Rakhial, Vejalpur
2,214
and Vatva
Number of vendors
250
Number of vendors selling
tobacco products near
schools/coaching classes
bacco products along with other shops.
other products. Of the total, Speaking about the same,
37.36 per cent sell primarily Ajaz Shaikh, a PhD from Gu-
through pan parlours, 6.96 jarat University said, “Taking
per cent sell along with tea or the sample size into account,
snacks in restaurants or eat- it can be presumed that the
eries and 30.76 per cent sell total number of vendors sell-
these in provisional stores or ing tobacco products is 17,712
for a better future
Demonstrators shout slogans during a rally organised by Trade Union Centre of India to press for implementation of
national minimum wage an end to contract labour in Ahmedabad on Thursday —Pravin Indrekar/DNA
Won’t enter
India without
City police’s ban on PUBG lapses
DNA Correspondent
visa: Russian correspondent@dnaindia.net
woman to HC
After issuing a proclamation
on banning the online mobile
game PUBG on March 14,
DNA Correspondent Ahmedabad city police has de-
correspondent@dnaindia.net cided to let the ban lapse. One
of the major reactions of peo-
Russian woman, Anastasiia ple against the ban was that
Leonskaia, who is seeking a cops shouldn’t restrict indi-
safe exit from India, and has vidual liberty. After taking
filed a petition before the Guja- feedback from the public on
rat High Court, gave an under- Wednesday, the city police com-
taking to the court on Thurs-
day that if she is allowed to
exit India, she will never re-
turn without a valid visa. She
has also agreed to give her bio-
`500 cr cache: Drugs were
to go to Mumbai, then Delhi
metric data to the Indian agen-
cies and to abide by all condi-
tions imposed by the High
Court. Notably, she is facing
charges of illegal entry in In- DNA Correspondent
dia and overstaying in the correspondent@dnaindia.net
country without a valid visa.
Following the submission by After interrogation of nine
Leonskaia’s advocate Nachiket Iranian nationals on Thurs-
Dave, the counsel for the state day, officials revealed that the
government sought time to re- heroin they were smuggling
spond in the case. was meant to be delivered to
Thereafter, the court ad- Delhi. On Wednesday, nine
journed the matter for further Iranian nationals were
hearing till April 1. Last week, nabbed off Gujarat coast and
the court had directed her to 100 kilograms of heroin,
file an undertaking that she worth around Rs 500 crore,
will not violate the law in fu- was seized.
ture, Dave told DNA. The The nine Iranians were
38-year-old woman, along with identified as Mohammad
her infant son, have been re- Aslam Abdil (39), Amin Mo-
questing the authorities for an hammad (28), Ishak Dilshad
exit permit so that she could (38), Ayub Baloch (39), Wahid
get back to her seven-year-old Baloch (26), Umid Iranka (20),
daughter Maitino Stefania. Tahir Raza (34), Sajid Umar
top 10 police stations
„„Vastrapur Mahila West
„„Danilimda
„„Khokhra
„„Shahibaug Mahila East
„„Ranip
„„Airport
„„Vastrapur
„„Amraiwadi
„„Sarkhej
„„Naranpura
while some old buildings fared sues, it’s also about mindset;
better. More than infrastruc- hence, the station head plays
ture and administrative is- an important role.”
Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019 I daily news & analysis
in all 48 wards. There is a
high prevalence of vendors in
the city — one vendor for
every 314 persons or 67 house-
holds. This high prevalence is
one of the biggest reasons
behind children being ex-
posed to tobacco very early in
life. A survey of 2009 had re-
vealed that in India, 56.2 per
cent of the people aged 13-15,
who bought cigarettes from a
store, were not denied the
product based on their age.”
“During the study, most of
the vendors did not have a
warning board saying ‘Sale of
tobacco to a person below 18
years is a punishable offence’.
This Section of the Act is
meant to protect school-going
children from tobacco expo-
sure, as the total number of
schools in the city is less than
the estimated number of ven-
dors. A total of 11.83 per cent
(262) vendors violated this sec-
tion — 8.58 per cent (190) among
them operate near schools and
3.25 per cent (72) operate near
coaching classes.”
Full report on: www.dnaindia.com
missioner A K Singh conclud-
ed that they shouldn’t continue
the ban. The commissioner
said, “Today is the last day of
the proclamation we had is-
sued. Yesterday, this matter
came up for review and we de-
cided that as the exam session
is over and the direct trigger to
initiating the action is not
valid any more, we will not re-
new the proclamation. We have
also taken public reaction into
account.”
(20) and Dhor Mohammad
Nakib Raisi (65).
While interrogating Aslam,
leader of the crew, the cops
found out that the consign-
ment was loaded at Pakistan’s
Gwadar port by one Pakistani
“The major concern is
seized property and record
management. In most cases,
due to court proceedings,
these items have to be pre-
served for a long time. Then
there are housekeeping is-
sues, to deal with which, we
will soon outsource the deep
cleaning of police stations. We
have also gotten approval for
building new police stations,”
Singh added.
Among the police stations,
23 are in new buildings, 21 in
old ones, five in rented build-
ings and one in a building that
has been declared as con-
demned. While among the top
five police stations on the list,
no changes were seen across
03
Widows seen at Majoor Gaam village in July 2009 —file photo
Hooch tragedy: 8
women convicted,
twelve acquitted
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Eight women were among ten
persons convicted in a
Ahmedabad hooch case of
2009, that killed 34 persons in
one of the worst hooch trag-
edies in the state.
The case, registered at
Kagdapith police station, was
part of a larger tragedy
which unfolded between July
5-7, 2009 and claimed 149
lives.
Additional sessions judge
DP Mahida found main ac-
cused Vikas Thakkar and his
aide Ghanshyam Talpada
guilty of culpable homicide,
manufacturing, supplying and
selling spurious liquor and
awarded jail term of ten years
and seven years respectively to
them. The court also imposed
a fine of Rs 50,000 on Thakkar.
In his order, the judge not-
ed that the two accused were
aware of use of methanol in
the making of liquor, but the
prosecution could not prove
that they intended to kill peo-
ple. Both were acquitted of
murder charges.
The court convicted Vimla
Chunara, Sunita M Chunara,
Asha Chunara, Sunita A
Chunara, Lata Chunara, Saj-
jan Chunara, Somiben Tha-
kor and Ganga Chunara for
supply and sale of spurious
liquor. The court sentenced
Somiben to two years’ jail,
while the other seven were
awarded six months. A fine
Govt nudge
The Ahmedabad police
also consulted the home
department regarding the
matter, as the decision
to ban the game was
based on the home
department’s directive
“However, we are still con-
cerned about the matter, as we
are coming across extreme use
national Hamid Malek.
Senior ATS officials said
the Iranian boat was to get to
Porbandar coast, where the
heroin was to be moved to a
Mumbai-based boat. A crore in start-ups in about a
Badruddin Shaikh was to re-
ceive it in Mumbai, and later,
it was to go to a Mohammad
in Delhi.
The accused tried to con-
tact the Indian boat via Very
High Frequency code mes-
sages once they crossed the
International Maritime
Boundary Line. It was also
revealed that Aslam had been
arrested by Oman police in a
narcotics case in 2002, for
which he went to prison for
seven years.
the two phases, in Satellite po-
lice station, the level of clean-
liness increased drastically,
shifting its rank from 16th to
sixth. Stations such as Vas-
trapur, Khokhra, Ranip,
Sarkhej and Amraiwadi, dete-
riorated from phase 1.
Full report on: www.dnaindia.com
ripple effect
„„The hooch case,
along with another hooch
tragedy that claimed
115 lives and led to
hospitalisation of almost
250 others, had led the
state government to
amend the prohibition law
and to make provision
for death penalty for
those found guilty of
manufacturing, selling
and supplying hooch or
spurious liquor resulting
in death
of Rs 500 each was imposed
on the women.
Apart from Thakkar, the
remaining nine accused
would be released from jail
soon, as they have already
spent more than their sen-
tence in prison during the
course of the trial.
The judge, however, ac-
quitted 12 other accused, in-
cluding two policemen. One
of the defence lawyers Ilyas
Khan Pathan said the ac-
cused were acquitted because
prosecution could not prove
the liquor supply channel.
There were a total of 24 ac-
cused in the case, of whom
Jayesh Thakkar and Daddu
Chhara absconded during pen-
dency of the trial. They were
arrested two weeks ago, and
would be tried separately, said
special prosecutor Amit Patel.
Full report on: www.dnaindia.com
of the game. We have decided
to take more aggressive af-
firmative action. Maybe we
will initiate a discussion and
helpline services to provoke
various resources in the civil
society to form. One of the ma-
jor reactions of society against
our ban was that we shouldn’t
act like a ‘Nani State’. But the
state needs a nani. If we don’t
act like a nani state, who will
perform the role of taking
care?” Singh added.
GVFL to invest
`10 crore in
start-ups
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Gujarat Venture Fund Ltd
(GVFL) will invest Rs 10
year or so, said a top official
of the company. It is looking
at tech companies or tech-
enabled companies across
sectors to make investments.
“We are planning to invest
Rs 10 companies in various
startups in about 12-18
months,” said Mihir Joshi,
president of GVFL. This will
be part of its Startup Fund. Its
focus is on tech enabled com-
panies as these companies
have an ability to scale up
faster compared to purely
manufacturing companies.
Joshi was talking to media
persons on the sidelines of
‘Venture Leap’ - a program to
bring investors and start-ups
on the same platform - recent-
ly organised by GVFL and The
Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) in
the city. Close to 300 start-ups
and about 15 investors from
across the country had par-
ticipated in the event.
GVFL had in about a year
invested Rs5 crore in eight
companies. Of these five are
from Gujarat, while remain-
ing three are from other
states.
  04
daily news & analysis I Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019
4 terrorists killed in 2 encounters
Three of those killed were Pulwama residents, while the fourth is believed to be from Sopore
Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
ishfaq@dnaindia.net
Srinagar: Ahead of the Lok
Sabha election the security
forces have gone a whole hog
against the terrorists and
killed four top terrorists in
two different anti-terror op-
erations in a bid to instill
confidence among the voters
and set the stage for peaceful
elections in the state.
The first operation was
launched in the Yawran vil-
lage of Keller in Shopian dis-
trict when security forces
received credible inputs
about the presence of terror-
ists.
“As the searches were go-
ing on, the search party was
fired upon by the terrorists.
The fire was retaliated lead-
ing to a gunfight. In the ensu-
tenders & Notices
Security guard stand guard as a family walks past during the enforcement
on restrictions of movement in Srinagar—File photo
ing encounter, three terror-
ists were killed and the bod-
ies were retrieved from the
site of encounter,” said a po-
lice spokesman
The terrorists were identi-
fied as Sajad Khanday, Aqib
Ahmad Dar and Basharat
Ahmad Mir, all residents of
Pulwama.
“It was a combined group
of proscribed terror outfits
Amit Shah alleges Cong-AIUDF
secret understanding in Assam
Teok (Assam): BJP Presi-
dent Amit Shah on Thursday
hit out at the Congress saying
the former Assam chief min-
ister Tarun Gogoi has
reached an understanding
with AIUDF chief Badruddin
Ajmal to ensure his son
Gaurav Gogoi’s victory in the
coming Lok Sabha elections
in the state.
Addressing his second
rally of the day in Assam
here, Shah said Gogoi and Aj-
mal fights during the day to
show people that they are op-
ponents “but do ‘ILU-ILU’ at
night”.
‘ILU’ was used as abbrevia-
tion for I love you in a song of
the Bollywood blockbuster
flick ‘Saudagar’ in the early
1990s by Bollywood director
Subhash Ghai.
Continuing his tirade
against Congress, Shah said
“What does this mean? It
means that they (Tarun Go-
election zone
„„Handwara is a part of
Baramulla parliamentary
constituency which is
going to polls in the first
phase on April 11. Ten
candidates are in the
fray in the constituency
which include National
Conference leader Akbar
Lone, PDP’s Qayoom
Wani, Congress’ Froooq
Mir, BJP’s MM War,
Peoples Conference’s
Raja Aijaz Ali and others.
Hizbul Mujhadeen and
Lashkar-e-Taiba. They were
wanted by law for their com-
plicity in a series of terror
crimes including attack on
security establishments and
civilian atrocities,” said the
BJP president Amit Shah being felicitated by his party leaders during an
election rally in Nagaon District on Thursday—PTI
If we want to develop Assam, then infiltration
has to stop. Congress cannot do that. Only
Narendra Modi, can do.
Amit Shah, BJP President
goi and Badruddin Ajmal)
plan to fill Assam with illegal
migrants for the win of Go-
goi’s son Gaurav.
“That is why Gogoi has
gone to Ajmal,” he claimd at
an election rally here.
BJP has launched a blitz-
krieg against Congress in As-
sam alleging a secret under-
standing with AUIDF. Ajmal’s
party had announced that it
would contest only three
spokesman.
Police said Aqib had a long
history of terror records and
several terror crime cases
were registered against him.
“He was involved in conspir-
ing and executing many ter-
ror attacks in the area. Simi-
larly, Sajad and Basharat
were involved in many terror
attacks and several terror
crime cases were also regis-
tered against them,” he said.
In another operation, se-
curity forces gunned down
Danish Ahmed Dar, a mili-
tant in Handwara area of
North Kashmir’s Kupwara
district. Police said based on
credible inputs about the
presence of terrorists in Ya-
roo area of Langate in Hand-
wara, a cordon and search
operation was launched by
police and security forces.
seats out of the total 14 in As-
sam.
Gaurav is the sitting MP
from Kaliabor seat and is
seeking a re-election for the
second term from the same
constituency.
“If we want to develop As-
sam, then infiltration has to
stop. Congress cannot do that.
Only Narendra Modi, Sarba-
nanda Sonowal and Himanta
Biswa Sarma can do.—PTI
Cruel act went unpunished
for want of evidence: Court
Panchkula: A special court
here, which had acquitted
Swami Aseemanand and
three others in the Samjhau-
ta Express train blast case,
has said there were “gaping
holes” in the prosecution evi-
dence and a dastardly act of
violence remained unpun-
ished for want of credible
and admissible evidence.
Naba Kumar Sarkar alias
Swami Aseemanand,
Lokesh Sharma, Ka-
mal Chauhan and
Rajinder Chaudhary
were acquitted by Samjhauta
the NIA court here
train blast
on March 20.
The judge said ter-
rorism has no religion
and it is generally noticed
that a malaise has set in the caught in a whirlpool of frat-
investigating agencies which
coin various terms- Muslim
terrorism, Hindu fundamen-
talism etc. “A criminal ele-
ment, belonging to a particu-
lar religion, community or
caste, cannot be projected as
representative of such par-
ticular religion, community
or caste and branding the en-
tire community, caste or reli-
gion in the name of such
Economist Dreze taken
into preventive custody
Ranchi: Noted economist
Jean Dreze was taken into
“preventive custody” on
Thursday for allegedly or-
ganising a meeting without
permission, police said. A
senior police officer said
that the Belgian-born econo-
mist, now an Indian citizen,
was addressing a meeting in
Garhwa district in violation
of the Model Code of Con-
duct.
Dreze, who was a member
of the National Advisory
Council headed by Sonia
Gandhi during the erstwhile
UPA government, and Vivek
Gupta, an activist, were
eventually released
“Dreze was taken into pre-
ventive custody for address-
ing a meeting at Bishanpura
in Garwha district, about
which the local administra-
tion had no information,”
said police officer.
Accusing the BJP of be-
ing anti-people, the CPI(M)
on Thursday came down
hard on the government over
the arrest of noted econo-
mist.
General secretary of
CPI(M) tweeted: A renowned
economist, speaking for the
rights of the people, is taken
into custody by a BJP state
govt. Forget their spin and
jumlas, this is how anti-peo-
ple the BJP is.”
Following CPI(M) general
secretary, Congress presi-
dent Rahul Gandhi took on
social media to criticise BJP
government. He posted on
his Facebook post: “I am ex-
tremely concerned about Mr.
Sent request
to US for
WhatsApp...
From p1
The Indian dossier, seen by
DNA, has 91 pages and is di-
vided into six segments, of
which second and third per-
tain to Pulwama terror at-
tack.
India also shared the “con-
fessional” video of the fiday-
een Adil Dar, who carried out
the suicide blast that killed
over 40 CRPF soldiers in Pul-
wama, and details of how he
was in constant touch with
his JeM handler in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s report stated,
“All aspects of the informa-
tion provided by India have
been examined, including the
confessional video of Adil
Dar, “claim” of responsibili-
ty for the attack, Whatsapp
and Telegram numbers used
to share videos and messages
in support of Pulwama at-
tack...”
“A request for assistance
from WhatsApp has also been
made to the US government,”
the report stated, adding that
54 detained individuals were
being investigated, but no de-
tails linking them to Pulwa-
ma had emerged so far.
It said the 22 pin locations
shared by India have been
examined and no such camps
exist. “Pakistan is willing to
allow visits, on request, to
these locations,” it stated.
“Additional information and
documents from India would
be essential to continue the
process of investigations,” it
said.
indi
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
File photo of Samjhauta Express blast
criminal element(s)
would be totally un-
justified.
“It would be in the
best interests of hu-
man kind to nip such
tendencies in the bud
lest we should be heading
towards intense civil war or
ricide,” National Investiga-
tion Agency (NIA) court spe-
cial Judge Jagdeep Singh said
in his 160-page judgment that
was made public Thursday.
The blast in the India-Paki-
stan train took place near
Panipat in Haryana on Febru-
ary 18, 2007, when it was on its
way to Attari in Amritsar, the
last station on the Indian side.
Sixty-eight people were killed
Jean Dreze
Economics prof
„„Jean Dreze is
currently an honorary
professor at the Delhi
School of Economics and
a visiting professor at the
Ranchi University.
„„He previously taught
at the London School of
Economics.
Dreze’s detention. The BJP
is in a state of war with eve-
rybody who works for the
poor & the downtrodden.”
The Belgian-born devel-
opment economist is known
for his activism on the right
to food and has co-authored
‘Hunger and Public Action’
with Nobel laureate Amar-
tya Sen, which focussed on
the problem of hunger in the
modern world.
Dreze is currently an hon-
orary professor at the Delhi
School of Economics and a
visiting professor at the
Ranchi University. He previ-
ously taught at the London
School of Economics.
US resolution in UN
corners China, Pak
From p1
But the Indian government
refrained from commenting
further, stating that the mat-
ter is still being discussed
informally in the UNSC.
It reiterated that Azhar is
the founder-leader of JeM, the
group behind a slew of terror
attacks in India including the
ghastly strike on its paramili-
tary forces in Pulwama.
Pakistan’s Faisal further
said, ““Any action outside the
committee will undermine
the integrity of the sanctions
regime and must be avoided.
Pakistan remains committed
to fulfil its obligations under
the UN sanctions regime.”
Geng added that the US ac-
tion “will only complicate the
issue” and asked the White
House to “act cautiously and
avoid forcefully moving for-
ward this resolution draft.”
In a major move, the US
has called for a public vote at
the United Nations Security
Council on the listing of the
Jaish chief by circulating a
draft of the resolution.
The resolution doesn’t
need a consensus like the
UNSC 1267 committee to be
ratified. Instead, it needs nine
‘yes’ votes in the 15-member
UNSC, provided the P5 — per-
manent UNSC members Chi-
na, Russia, US, France and
Britain — do not veto it. Any
veto has to be publicly justi-
fied by the country.
A date for the vote has not
been announced yet.
dreadful day
„„The blast in the India-
Pakistan train took place
near Panipat in Haryana
on February 18, 2007,
when it was on its way to
Attari in Amritsar, the last
station on the Indian side.
Sixty-eight people were
killed in the blast.
in the blast.
“I have to conclude this
judgment with deep pain and
anguish as a dastardly act of
violence remained unpun-
ished for want of credible and
admissible evidence. There
are gaping holes in the pros-
ecution evidence and an act
of terrorism has remained
unsolved,” he said. The judge
said terrorism has no religion
because no religion in the
world preaches violence.
He said a Court of Law is
not supposed to proceed on
popular or predominant pub-
lic perception or the political
discourse of the day and ulti-
mately it has to appreciate the
evidence

on record.
—Agency
Dumdaar vs
daagdaar PM
sounds poll...
From p1
The PM then attacked Rahul
Gandhi for his tweet after the
ASAT test where he wished
PM Modi ‘Happy Theatre
Day’. He said, “One such per-
son spoke about theatre... It is
both worrying and funny. In
theatre you see sets ... now tell
me, what do you say about
someone who does not even
know the difference between
an ASAT and a theatre set.”
With an eye on the sizeable
Jat votes that seem to be shift-
ing away from the BJP, he also
heaped praises on Chaudhary
Charan Singh, reminding
people that the great Jat lead-
er was put in jail by the Con-
gress.
Later, at a mega rally in
Rudrapur, PM Modi began his
speech in the native language
that received a thunderous
applause. There he continued
his tirade against Congress
and blamed the “dynastic”
party for deliberately keeping
the people poor that forced
them to migrate elsewhere
from their own “richly en-
dowed Devbhoomi” in search
of jobs. “I can’t understand
is it the same Congress in
which Netaji Subhash Chan-
dra Bose had imagined Azad
Hindustan. My heart says it is
not same Congress.” He used
the later half of his speech to
talk about the achievements
of his government. In these
strategically chosen three
places, the PM Modi managed
to take his word to people of
at least 8 LS constituencies.
Security personnel inspect the
Pulwama terror attack spot
China has been frustrating
global attempts to list Masood
Azhar as an international ter-
rorist via the UN’s 1267 mech-
anism. The neighbour to the
north has blocked the listing
thrice in the past — in 2009,
2016 and 2017. The public vote
would bypass the 1267 commit-
tee procedure to designate
Azhar as a terrorist.
Last month, after the Pul-
wama terror attack, the US
along with the UK and France
had proposed the listing of
Azhar, but on March 13, China
put a hold on it.
UN-listed terror group
JeM, which is based in Paki-
stan, claimed responsibility
for the February 14 suicide
bombing of a bus carrying
more than 40 Central Re-
serve Police Force in Pul-
wama in Kashmir. None of
the jawans survived, making
it the worst attack on any
national security force in
the last two decades.
 mps’ assets Shot gun to

83% `14.72cr 33% join Cong

in April

ball t
of the 521 sitting MPs are ‘crore- Average assets per sitting MP. of sitting MPs have declared

05
patis’, says ADR report. While While 32 of them have more criminal cases against them in Rebel BJP leader
227 are from BJP, 37 are from than `50 crore worth of assets, affidavits. 106 of them have seri- Shatrughan Sinha on
Congress, and 29 from AIADMK only two have less than `5 lakh. ous criminal cases against them Thursday met Congress

ballet
president Rahul Gandhi
Unlike 2014, there is no Modi wave this time. There was and said he will join Con-
surgical strike, then Balakote air strike and now anti-satellite gress during auspicious
period of Navaratri that
missile test (Mission Shakti) -- the poll narrative is changing begins on April 6. The ac-
everyday. All these are signs of desperation to win this election tor was denied ticket by
Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM president BJP from Patna —PTI

lok sabha election 2019 EC issues notification for phase 3 of LS polls to be held on April 23 in 115 seats across 14 states

www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019 I daily news & analysis

Uttarakhand, the ‘land of Gods’, is witnessing a direct fight between BJP and Congress; in 2014, BJP had bagged all five LS seats from the state

Nationalist pitch to campaign in ‘Devabhumi’

Nikhil M Ghanekar bulk of the responsibility to along the route.
nikhil.ghanekar@dnaindia.net convey the message of the The BJP will also bank on

New Delhi: The five Lok

work done under since 2017.
lok sabha poll test for rawats K e y fa c e s the Balakot air strikes in Ut-
tarakhand, a state which
Sabha seats at stake in Utta- Key battles Rawat’s choice for the sends a large number of its
popularity of CM ts rawat and cong’s face harish rawat at test, but pm modi continues to hold sway CM’s post was a surprise.
rakhand may not have a huge The lists of candidates re- citizens to the armed forces.
bearing on the outcome of leased by both parties have A former RSS-pracharak, In addition, National Securi-
the overall results but the thrown up some surprises Rawat’s term has been ty Adviser Ajit Doval, Army
elections in this Himalayan and also have two ex-Chief a mixed bag till now but Chief Bipin Rawat and Re-
state will be watched keenly Ministers in the fray. The he will have to shoulder search and Analysis Wing
as one of the six states where BJP retained three of its MPs Trivendra the responsibility of the chief Anil Dhasmana all hail
the Bharatiya Janata Party Mala Rajya Lakshmi, former Singh Rawat party’s campaign. from Pauri in Garhwal dis-
(BJP) and Congress will be CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nis- trict of the state, a fact that
engaged in a direct contest. hank and Ajay Tamta for the PM Modi remains quite has been often discussed in
In power after sweeping the Tehri Garhwal, Haridwar popular in the hill state the state’s political circles.
2017 assembly elections, the and Almora constituencies and the BJP will bank The BJP will also focus on
BJP will be banking on respectively. on his rallies to stir its talking up the Centre’s
Prime Minister Narendra However, missing from its campaign. The PM will Namami Gange project to
Modi’s charisma and his list of candidates were the focus on his pet projects clean river Ganga. The river
push of two flagship projects names of two former CMs Narendra of Chardham all-weather originates from Gaumukh in
-- the Chardham all-weather and former union ministers Modi road and Namami Gange. Uttarakhand and is a major
highway and Namami Gange -- Major Gen (retd) BC Khan- source of livelihood, power
for the upcoming polls. duri, who is an MP from The former CM faces an generation, besides being a
Meanwhile, the Congress Pauri; and Bhagat Singh Ko- uphill task in Nainital- symbol of religiosity.
shiyari, who is an MP from
faces an uphill task as it tries Udham Singh Nagar. BJP’s Uttarakhand spokes-
to improve on its 2014 tally ofNainital-Udham Singh Na- Despite internal rifts and person Devendra Bhasin said
losing all seats. gar. BJP replaced them with setbacks, he remains that the Union government’s
former state president Tirath With two years in power, CM Trivendra the most popular face of road project, Namami Gange
What’s at stake Singh Rawat and current Singh Rawat (above) would have to
No. of voters 2017 Assembly 2014 Lok Sabha and Ayushman Bharat
as on Jan 31 Election Election Harish Rawat Congress in the state.
The Congress has its state president Ajay shoulder a bulk of the responsibility health cover scheme will be
work cut out as, in
2014, it had lost all
Bhatt.
The BJP’s deci-
the five seats to the Uttarakhand sion to drop the ex-
and prove his acceptability; (right)
Harish Rawat remains popular face for
Congress to rely on in the state
78.26 L Vote
percentage Ex-CM BC Khanduri’s
son Manish, a former
top poll planks.
“In the past two years,
Trivendra ji’s government
BJP which they had CMs and veteran Voters from services Facebook executive is has begun schemes on educa-
scan 46.5% 55.93% a fresh and new face

won in the previous
elections in 2009. In
terms of vote share, the
BJP got 34.1% of the votes
polled while Congress got
21% seats. The Bahujan Sa-
maj Party, which has always
remained a bit player in the
hill-state, had polled 2.9% of
the votes while debutante
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had
polled 1% of the total votes. eran leader was given charge
Independents had in fact
polled 41% votes.
In the state assembly polls and mishandling of the 2013
held in 2017, the Congress
was reduced to just 11 seats
in the 70-seat assembly while cessor Vijay Bahuguna. Ba-
the BJP won 55. The Con-
gress’ drubbing in the state
polls was attributed largely
to a spate of missteps in gov-
ernance, including the han-
dling of affairs in the after- say the least. He faced major
math of the 2013 floods and
due to the image of being a
corrupt government.
With two years already in
power, state Chief Minister
Trivendra Singh Rawat
would have to shoulder a
leaders has come as a
surprise for many giv-
en their popularity. How-
ever, BJP sources claimed
that Khanduri had decided to
not contest owing to health
issues while Koshiyari did
not want to fight.
The Congress campaign
will be led by another former
CM, Harish Rawat. The vet-
of the state in 2014 following
allegations of corruption
Uttarakhand floods rehabili-
tation process by his prede-
huguna joined BJP in 2016
before the assembly elec-
tions.
Rawat’s term as CM was
eventful and controversial, to
rebellion from within and 13
legislators had crossed over
to the BJP, threatening to pull
down his government. Rawat
was also embroiled in a sting
operation which featured
him fixing a money deal to
88,600
SeatsSeats tion, health care and 27 lakh
fielded from Pauri. The families are in the process of
Uttarakhand 57 BJP 5 seat is considered to be
33.5% 11 Congress 0
34.40% Manish stronghold of the BJP, and
being covered. The state gov-
ernment also set up a com-
Khanduri tough fight is on cards.
Voter turnout 10% 2 Independents 0 1.75% mission to reverse migration
out of the state and we are
2014 general elections
0 BSP 0 The BJP’s state unit chief working hard to stop migra-
7% 0 Others 4.78% will have to regain former tion,” Bhasin said.
61.67% 3%
CM Bhagat Singh Koshi-
yari’s seat and is pitted
against Harish Singh
Rawat. Bhatt had lost in
Congress’ candidate from
Haridwar and state legislator
Ambrish Kumar said that
BJP has failed to do much on
Ajay Bhatt 2017 assembly polls. Ganga and has hyped its mea-
Single-phase election Poll date: April 11 gre work. Kumar said that
Congress will counter BJP’s
In the past two years, Trivendra ji’s govt has constituency. Rawat’s origi- Election issues highways in the states con- nationalism pitch by advocat-
nal seat was Almora but he The Centre has aggressively necting the holy Hindu pil- ing for stability instead of
initiated many welfare schemes in education, had fought the 2009 Lok Sab- pushed two major flagship grim shrines of Badrinath, warmongering.
health care sectors. 27 lakh families are in the ha polls from Haridwar after projects — Chardham all- Kedarnath, Gangotri and “Under Namami Gange,
Almora was reserved as an weather road and Namami Yamunotri. The project has the government has only
process of being covered under these schemes in state SC seat. Gange — in Uttarakhand enjoyed the support of the spruced up Ghats and it has
Devendra Bhasin, BJP’s Uttarakhand spokesperson Besides Rawat, Congress since 2014. Coupled with state’s citizens but they have failed to make it a people’s
announced legislator Am- these projects, migration of also raised concerns on the movement. We are not op-
brish Kumar as a candidate locals, hydropower projects, large-scale felling of old posed to Chardham all-
woo rebels back in the Con- 2017 assembly elections from from Haridwar, former CM employment and the Balakot growth forests. Already, over weather road but considering
gress fold. Besides the rebel- Kichha and Haridwar Rural Khandur’s son Manish Khan- air strikes would be some of 50,000 trees have been axed the fragility of Uttarakhand’s
lion, Rawat’s tenure was also seats. This time around too, duri will fight from Pauri, the central issues in Uttara- for the project in river val- ecology, it was not wise to fell
seen as one where road, min- Rawat is in for another tough state Congress chief Pritam khand. leys and the road widening so many trees. We have to bal-
ing and dam contractors battle. He is pitted against Singh will fight from Tehri The Rs12,000-cr Chardham and mountain blasting has ance development to protect
flourished. BJP state chief Bhatt in the and Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep all-weather project is being also caused landslides and the state’s natural resourc-
The former CM lost the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Tamta will fight from Almora. executed to widen 889-km of related problems in villages es,” said Kumar.

Trivia
CPI(M) promises
min wage of 18k
New Delhi: The CPI(M) Thursday
proposed stoppage of mass
surveillance, statutory minimum
wage of not less than Rs 18,000/
month and curbing monopolies
over telecom and internet service
platforms in its manifesto for LS
polls. This is the first time the
Left party has mentioned digital
rights of citizens in its manifesto.
It said it would recognise digital
infrastructure as public infra-
structure and stop mass surveil-
lance by state agencies under
Section 69 of the IT Act.
BJP candidate gets
jail in Sabarimala row
Pathanamthitta: BJP’s
Kozhikode Lok Sabha candidate
Prakash Babu was remanded
‘Cong will remonetise
what PM demonetised’
New Delhi: Congress Presi-
dent Rahul Gandhi Thurs-
day said the party’s promised
minimum income scheme for
the poor will remonetise the
economy ‘damaged’ by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s
demonetisation, asserting the
anti-poverty pledge
has thrown the BJP
in ‘total disarray’.
Gandhi also said
the ‘angel tax’ for
startups will be
scrapped if Congress
comes to power, call-
ing it ‘draconian’.
In an exclusive in-
terview to PTI, Gandhi said
‘Nyay’ -- the world’s “biggest
scheme” for poor -- will trig-
ger a powerful economic cycle
of consumption and produc-
tion in the country that would
fire up the economy.
He stressed the scheme
pandits’ plea Kashmir’s displaced minority community meets, urges parties...
will not be implemented
“rashly like the demonetiza-
tion and GST of the BJP”.
Touching upon a wide
range of issues relating to the
economy, Gandhi, 48, said
Congress will abolish the ex-
isting ‘angel tax’ imposed on
start-ups, ensure that
new ventures do not
require any regula-
tory permissions for
three years and get
easy access to bank
credit.
Angel tax is levied
on investment in
start-ups. “We’ve
said that we will remove the
draconian and ill-conceived
angel tax. I’ve made that com-
mitment and it’s going to be
done,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi said promoting do-
mestic industry will be a key
priority for the Congress.
Shiv Sena aspires national role, All is not well with
to contest 35 non-Maha seats Mahagathbandhan
Dhaval Kulkarni
dhaval.kulkarni@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Despite tying up
with the BJP for the Lok Sab-
ha elections in Maharashtra,
the Shiv Sena is planning to
fight around 35 seats across
the country in states like Ut-
tar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Goa, Bihar and West
Bengal for a political opening
at the national level.
Though the Shiv Sena,
which aims at pitching itself
as a national party, may not
win any seats,its presence in
the electoral arena may affect
the prospects of the BJP by
dividing the pro-Hindutva
vote. The only time when the
Sena got a lawmaker elected
outside Maharashtra was in
1991 when its Pawan Kumar
Pandey was elected to the UP
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray
assembly at the height of the
Ram Temple agitation.
Sena leader and Rajya Sab-
ha MP Sanjay Raut said they
planned to put up candidates
on around 35 seats in states
outside Maharashtra. The
Sena has already announced
five candidates in UP.
“We wanted to fight the LS
elections (outside Maharash-
tra) with full strength, but we
have been caught in the
chains of an alliance again.
Our party thinks more about
others,” he claimed.
“After the demolition of
the Babri Masjid (1992), there
was a nationwide wave in fa-
vour of Sena and its candi-
dates would have won had we
contested. Balasaheb (late
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thacker-
ay) was ready to take the deci-
sion, but (former PM) AB Va-
jpayee impressed upon him “Those who think I am ignorant are ignorant themselves. I am well aware
that this would benefit the of who is worth what”, tweeted Tej Pratap (c) after quitting a party post
Congress. Hence, Balasaheb
decided against contesting Vithika Salomi
outside Maharashtra,” Raut, vithika.salomi@dnaindia.net brothers feud
executive editor of party „„More trouble brew for
mouthpiece Saamna, said. Patna: The Mahagathband-
the RJD, after Tejashwi’s
He said before finalizing han in Bihar seems to be on
elder brother Tej Pratap
alliance with BJP, the party shaky ground with the Con-
Yadav announced his
had decided to contest seats gress “not happy” on being
resignation as the patron
in all states across India. meted “second-hand treat-
of “Chhatra RJD”.
ment” in terms of constitu-
ency sharing for the 40 Lok „„Tej Pratap wanted
Sabha seats in the state.
The Congress is miffed for
a close aide’s name
for Sheohar seat, but
not being allotted any seat in alleges that he was not

‘Let our rehab be part of your poll manifestos’

in judicial custody on Thursday
for 14 days in a case related to
violence at Sabarimala. The Sa-
barimala temple and surrounding
areas witnessed a string of pro-
tests since October last year over
the Supreme Court’s decision to
quash curbs on entry of women
between 10 and 50 years.
VVPAT: EC to file
affidavit today
New Delhi: Apex Court on
Thursday allowed the Election
Commission’s plea seeking time
till Friday to file an affidavit on
the court’s query why physical
check of Voter Verified Paper
Audit Trails (VVPATs) should not
be extended to more than one
polling station per Assembly
segment in a Lok Sabha seat.
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Displaced Kash-
miri Pandits, at a conference
here on Thursday, urged all
political parties to add their
“rehabilitation and ensuring
of justice” in election mani-
festoes for the coming elec-
tions. They also expressed
their appreciation for the
Narendra Modi government
for acknowledging their gen-
ocide after three decades.
They demanded that their
voices be heard and the con-
cerns of the exiled minority
community be taken into
consideration.
“It has been 30 years since
the exodus of Kashmiri Pan-
dits from the valley; however,
the status of the ethnoreli-
gious-cleansed Kashmiri
Hindus has seen no improve-
ment. There have been no
closures in any of the murder
cases of the community; not
one rapist, not one murderer
has been charged or pun-
ished,” said Lalit Ambardar,
an activist.
The Kashmiri Pandit
group, known as ‘Roots in
Kashmir’, also alleges that
‘Roots in Kashmir’ also thanked govt
for acknowledging their genocide
until recently, no govern-
ment had acknowledged that
Yasin Malik was the master-
mind behind the purging of
hundreds killed
Figures compiled by
state govt reveal that
219 Kashmiri Pandits
were killed in the state
since 1989. However,
Kashmir Pandit Sangrash
Simiti (KPSS), say
672 Kashmiri Pandits
have been killed by the
terrorists since 1990.
the Kashmiri Pandits and
their genocide.
The conference also put
out the statement the commu-
nity wanted to be part of par-
ties’ manifestoes.
“We commit ourselves to
reverse the genocide of Kash-
miri Hindus in a time-bound
manner. We shall also ensure
their dignified return to their
motherland and protection
of their rights as citizens of
India so that they live in a se-
cure environment,” the state-
ment read.
It said the community not
only wishes a tribunal to look
into their demands but also a
safe and secure return to
Kashmir and ensuring of
proper livelihood.
Mithilanchal region, one of its
focus areas. The primary bone
of contention is Darbhanga
seat, with both RJD and Con-
gress staking claim, apart from
tussle on Madhubani, Jhan-
jharpur and Karakat seats.
The Congress wants it for
sitting MP Kirti Azad, who
joined recently after being
suspended from BJP. The RJD
wants it for its senior leader
Abdul Bari Siddiqui, and
sources said he has already
been handed over the party
symbol to file his papers.
On Thursday, Azad told
mediapersons that he will be
contesting only from Darb-
hanga, though party sources
say they are cajoling him to
shift to the Champaran region
seriously considered.
and that contentions on other
seats such as Supaul had also
been resolved. Bihar PCC
leaders held a meeting with
the party high command in
Delhi over the matters, follow-
ing which BPCC chief Madan
Mohan Jha told reporters,
“There are some issues but
they have been discussed and
everything will be sorted.”
The confusion, however,
delayed the formal entry of
BJP rebel Shatrughan Sinha,
into the Congress. RJD leader
Tejashwi Yadav too cancelled
his poll campaigns, including
one for Congress nominee
Tariq Anwar in Katihar.
 06
Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019
 opini n
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia

India’s tryst with technology

daily news & analysis Zinc mining in the Zawar mines of Mewar reveals the dawn of Industrial Revolution in 12th century CE

Follow the money

Western culture is
still basically Hel-
lenic. Subcon-
sciously or not
Electoral bonds may not be effective in curbing graft much of our ar-
chaeology and an-

T
he NDA had come to power promising corruption-free gov- cient history is
ernance. However, its electoral bond scheme that was sup- orientated around
posed to bring in transparency in the funding of political the classical Medi-
parties and curb “under-the-table cash transactions” has alleg- Dr Paul T Craddock terranean world.
In no field is this
edly encouraged opacity. The Election Commission’s affidavit truer than in the study of early science
to the Supreme Court states it clearly that the Centre hadn’t paid and technology. I refer here to our report
heed to the poll panel’s reservations about such kind of funding. titled ‘The production of lead, silver and
Back in 2017, the EC drew the Centre’s attention to a slew of zinc in ancient India’ (with IC Free-
amendments aimed at ensuring that donations to parties re- stone, LK Gurjar, A Middleton, L Willies
and Prof. KTM Hegde of the MS Baroda
mained outside the purview of mandatory reporting to the poll University).
panel. The EC had rightly emphasised that without thorough Joseph Needham, after Herculean ef-
scrutiny it would be impossible to tell whether political parties forts, managed to demonstrate that sci-
had accepted funds from government companies and foreign ence and alchemy in China originated
sources in violation of the law. It had even urged the government and developed independently, and that
to withdraw such provisions, calling the entire exercise “retro- their achievements were quite as pro-
found as their counterparts in Greece
grade”. The point is if Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is indeed and Rome. (Needham’s pioneering 8-vol-
fighting for greater transparency by moving away from the prac- ume work was titled ‘Science and Civili-
tice of cash donations, which was prevalent earlier, he should zation in China’). However, this is an
at least remove the clause that offers anonymity to the donors. exception and in most other areas the
Even if every party in its returns discloses the amount of dona- cultural and technical achievements be-
tions it has received through electoral bonds to the EC, the sys- yond the Mediterranean-Middle East
world are little studied or appreciated.
tem is still encouraging corruption by not revealing the sources This is especially true of archaeo-
of money. Such a move is akin to protecting the rich and power- metallurgy. The remains of early min-
ful who can try to control the outcome of the polls with financial ing and metallurgy we have studied in
muscle. It can also bring black money back into the system as India are at least as sophisticated as
businesses can round-trip their cash parked in safe havens to anything further west, and there are no
political parties for trade-offs. Moreover, the removal of the cap parallels or analogies anywhere for the
zinc smelting processes that we have
on corporate donations will also open the floodgates of unac- uncovered in the Zawar mines near
counted for money to flood the economy. In short, it gives a free Udaipur. This was the sharp edge of
hand to vested interests to increase their stranglehold on the technical innovation, taking place on a
electoral economy. Lastly, since a public sector bank, SBI, will major scale well away from Europe, the
be in charge of the bonds, it makes it easy for the political party Mediterranean and the Middle East.
in power to control the process. The election is the time when We can safely say it was the start of the
industrial revolution in the region of
parties are desperate for money because of the massive costs Mewar, 500 years before it begins in the
of campaigning. Though it is impossible to get actual figures West.
of campaign costs, it is safe to assume that virtually all parties The project: Our project began in the
are dependent on dubious sources of donations to report 1980s between Hindustan Zinc Ltd, the
spending less than the official limits of expenditure. Fundings British Museum, the MS University of
are proportionate to the political hierarchy. While a Lok Sabha Baroda, and the Peak District Mining
Museum, Derbyshire to investigate the
candidate will bag maximum donations, the money will gradu- remains of early zinc production at Za-
ally decrease for the assembly and district level aspirants. The war, which lies 45 km south of Udaipur
winning candidate during his tenure in office will have to en- in the Aravalli hills of Rajasthan.
sure that s/he pays back the benefactors with interest in cash Hindustan Zinc had previously rec-
or in kind (read favours). The EC’s affidavit to the SC made it ognised that their two other lead/zinc
clear that it had tried to do its bit to ensure fairness and trans- mines in Rajasthan, Rajpura-Dariba
near Chittor and Aampura-Agucha
parency: “The respondent had informed the Ministry of Law about 40 km south of Ajmer were also
and Justice that certain provisions of the Finance Act, 2017 potentially of great interest, and had
and the corresponding amendments carried out in the Income obtained radiocarbon dates which
Tax Act, the Representation of the People Act and the Compa- showed that Dariba was exploited well
nies Act will have serious repercussions/impact on the trans- over 2500 years ago. After the first sea-
parency aspect of political finance/funding of political parties.” son’s work, it was realised that these
other mines were not worked for zinc,
But, its powers are limited, which makes the system of checks and that even at Zawar lead and pos-
and balances wobbly. sibly silver was also exploited. The
lead, silver and zinc ores occur togeth-
The remains of early mining and metallurgy shows that Indians had developed a sophisticated process
er and their exploitation is an inte-
grated story which could not be under-
stood in isolation.
Let’s take a glimpse into the geology
of the region under discussion. The
Aravalli hills run for over 1000 km ap-
proximately northeast from Gujarat to
Delhi principally through the state of
Rajasthan. Although the hills are rare-
ly mountainous they are ranged in a
series of ridges running parallel rather
in the manner of a gridiron and, in his-
toric times, at least they have formed a
considerable barrier to communica-
tion. These ridges were formed by the
repeated folding of extremely ancient
highly metamorphosed Precambrian
rocks. Seven principal shear zones have
been located and all are rich in miner-
als.
Zinc smelting at Zawar: The cop-
per industry in the area has long been
recognised as being of considerable
antiquity, probably dating back to Har-
rapan times and evidence of copper
smelting was, found at the settlement
of Ahar near Udaipur dating to the
early second millennium BCE. At Za-
war, due to the different mineralisation
and distinct formation, zinc smelting
was developed here exclusively.
The report provides technical de-
tails of our archeometallurgical work.
It would suffice to say that in India by
the 12th CE, the production of zinc at
Zawar was beginning on an industrial
scale. It would seem that the mines at
Zawar were always worked predomi-
nantly for zinc, with lead recovered as
a byproduct. There is no evidence that
silver was every produced, thus con-
firming Zawar as the earliest known
zinc mine in the world.
Although no occupation sites have
been located at Zawar, it would seem
likely that these mines were also con-
trolled by the Mauryan Empire, and
again after its collapse, production
ceased. However, the story at Zawar was
to be different from then on. By the 7th
CE, the mines were back in production,
and by the 12th CE, zinc metal was be-
ing produced industrially. Already in
the late 14th CE production was on a
considerable scale, and perhaps it is not
surprising that the first direct historic
reference to Zawar dates from the 1380s
CE when Rana Lakha of Mewar (period
of reign 1382 – 1421 CE) was credited
with founding the mines. Production
continued on a major scale for about
four centuries before ending during the
wars and famine which plagued Ra-
jasthan in the early 19th CE, and in the
face of western competition. Ironically,
the western technology was almost cer-
tainly derived from Zawar.
Broader questions: These discover-
ies raise broader questions on the na-
ture of the society which had both the
resources and the technology to devel-
op these mines and processes, and why
such considerable quantities of metal
were needed. Please remember that to
develop mines, whether in the Mauryan
age or later in the 14th CE, it presup-
poses a good working knowledge of
mechanics, pneumatics, hydrostatics
and practical geology. A certain compe-
tence in mathematics would be neces-
sary, and almost certainly those in
charge of the operations were literate.
The remains excavated at Zawar are
of the developed industrial process.
Though Zawar cannot have been the
only source of zinc in India (other
sources probably in Kashmir and Af-
ghanistan were also producing zinc),
Zawar does seem to have been the major
producer as nothing on that scale has
been noted elsewhere. A furnace block
could have produced between 20 to 50
kilograms of zinc per day, depending on
the furnace type and on the retort ca-
pacity, and an overall production
through five or six centuries of the or-
der of 50,000 tonnes is estimated by us.
The first European process of zinc
smelting to be patented was that of Wm.
Champion of Bristol, England in 1738.
He claimed the process was an original
discovery, but of course, he had to say
this if his application for a patent was
to be granted. The principle of his
method is very similar to that practiced
at Zawar.
Author is the Emeritus Researcher,
Conservation and Scientific Research at The
British Museum, London

Shortchanging victims QUOTE HANGER slowburn

Cancer gets the upper hand due to institutional apathy Erik Solheim Susie Dent Water persisted on Mars later than thought
T
here is an epidemic of cancer today in India and over 83 per @ErikSolheim @susie_dent
W
ater from rivers on Mars persisted the many theories researchers have pro-
cent of cancer patients in India are receiving wrong treat-
ment. Last year about 12 lakh cases were reported, a jump of England may run out of If anyone’s in need of a on at hundreds of locations on Red posed to explain the climate. Mars is
Planet much later into its history crisscrossed with the distinctive tracks of
two lakh cases from six years ago. Despite the rising incidence, water in 25 years. Water shortage is word for an uninformed know-it-all it’s than previously thought, a study has long-dead rivers. According to research-
quality treatment is in short supply. Patients are being pre- already affecting 40% of humanity. ‘ultracrepidarian’. found. Riverbeds were carved deep into ers, it is a puzzle why ancient Mars had
scribed wrong drugs, and many of them aren’t encouraged to the Martian surface long ago, but the liquid water.
complete the set of tests required for treatment. The Indian understanding of the climate billions of
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) puts the figure of cancer- Bibi Mahdim Baloch years ago remains incomplete. Accord-
related deaths at 8,80,000 while the number of new cancer cases @BibiMahdim ing to a report by PTI, scientists in Uni- Virtual reality may help
We need to identify the versity of Chicago in the US catalogued
is estimated to be over 1.73 million by 2020. The treatment of
cancer is expensive, driving many families to penury. Cancer
A Free Democratic
sources of climate change and
these rivers to conclude that significant
river runoff persisted on Mars later into
treat autism, Parkinson’s
Balochistan is key to a new

P
puts a huge economic burden on India. Treatment for only 40 how to deal with them. its history than previously thought. The laying games in virtual reality (VR) may
per cent of cancer hospitalization cases is financed mainly educational paradigm & regional study, published in the journal Science help treat people with neurological dis-
through borrowings, the sale of assets and contributions from peace. DISMANTLE JIHADI Otherwise, this will adversely Advances, showed that the runoff was orders such as autism, schizophrenia
intense — rivers on Mars were wider and Parkinson’s disease, a study claims, ac-
friends and relatives. Also, over 60 per cent of the households PAKISTAN. Our Humanity is One impact the health than those on Earth today — and oc- cording to a report published in PTI. The
who seek care from the private sector incur out of pocket ex-
penditure in excess of 20 per cent of their annual per capita of residents, curred at hundreds of locations on the
Red Planet. This complicates the picture
technology, described in the journal Scien-
tific Reports, could help the patients shift
household expenditure. On top of that, if the quality of treat- Kiran Bedi especially our for scientists trying to model the ancient their perceptions of time, which their con-
ment is so poor, it shows a complete lack of accountability of Martian climate, said Edwin Kite, assis- ditions lead them to perceive differently.
the public and private healthcare systems. Cancer requires a
@thekiranbedi children tant professor at University of Chicago. The study will help researchers to under-
multidisciplinary approach involving a team of specialists. Ac- There’s a forest growing —M Venkaiah “It’s already hard to explain rivers or stand how these deficiencies might be ac-
lakes based on the information we have. quired, and how to recalibrate time percep-
cording to the National Cancer Grid, there are only 62 dedi- inside Mumbai thanks to a Japanese Naidu, Vice President, This makes a difficult problem even tion in the brain. It involved 18 females and
cated cancer care hospitals in the country, including both re- afforestation technique called on climate change more difficult,” Kite said. The con- 13 males with normal vision and no sensory,
gional and national facilities. It’s too small a number to cater Miyawaki. straints could be useful in winnowing musculoskeletal or neurological disorders.
to the growing number of patients.
send your feedback to editor@dnaindia.net

Delhi can’t avoid talking to Taliban in current scenario

India’s reluctance Afghanistan’s tortured presidential with more than $3 billion invested by it tribe, which comprises Afghanistan’s
AP

to hold talks with
the Taliban in
view of the latter’s
increasing resur-
gence against the
backdrop of the
US withdrawal
from Afghanistan
Prasenjit Chowdhury is both a good ex-
ample of moral
principle and a bad example of falter-
ing on realpolitik. It is all very well not
to hurt the sensitivities of the Kabul
government, but India cannot afford to
sit idle if the Taliban eventually be-
comes the chief interlocutor of one of
its strategically most important neigh-
bours. India’s need to talk to them be-
comes even more imperative in the light
of Iran’s Shia regime, despite being
staunchly hostile to the extremist outfit,
a Sunni dispensation, establishing an
official dialogue with the Taliban.
The bigger irony is that the ‘peace’
talks between the US and the Taliban
are happening against the backdrop of
race scheduled to be held on July 20
and the Taliban’s refusal to talk to the
government. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US
special envoy on Afghan reconcilia-
tion, who had six days of consecutive
talks with representatives of the Tali-
ban insurgents in Doha, Qatar early
this year spoke about how the Taliban,
wary of giving sole credit to the in-
cumbent President Ashraf Ghani,
whom India trusts, is averse to talking
to the current Afghan government.
Ghani is currently facing a line of
tough contenders, some seventeen of
them, challenging his bid for his sec-
ond term. While Khalilzad has been
given six months for Afghan peace ef-
forts, Ghani thinks the peace plan
needs at least five years. But with un-
certainties looming as to who would
govern Afghanistan next, the prudent
course of action is to resume talks
with the Taliban.
Like India’s dilemma in talking with
the Taliban, Pakistan would loathe to
deal with a dispensation likely to be
run by moderate Pashtuns working
with Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras
which might be keen to forge a strong-
er relationship with India than with
Pakistan. New Delhi had lent the
northern Afghans support during their
civil war with the Taliban in the late
1990s, which might prompt them to ally
with India. It is not only them who dis-
like Pakistan; the moderate Pashtun
Afghans have remained grateful for the
educational and commercial opportu-
nities India offered them, and they re-
sented Pakistan for stirring up trouble
in their landlocked nation. It is true
that India would have to talk with the
Taliban with the lurking and atavistic
fear that the Taliban could one day
serve as a proxy force to seize India’s
half of the Kashmir region. But if In-
dia desists from talking to the Taliban,
it would also shy away from those fa-
vouring India and waste the benefits of
goodwill it had earned so meticulously
since 2001, and at a great human cost.
It’s important to consider how the
Taliban refused to surrender their vi-
sion even when confronted by the Unit-
ed States after September 11, 2001 and
how, reinventing themselves as part of
a broad insurgency that destabilised
Afghanistan, they pledged to drive out
the Americans, NATO, and their allies
and restore their “Islamic Emirate.”
Having conceded that, it is prudent
for India to find a mechanism to begin
talks with the Taliban not when they
appear as non-state actors but when
they are legitimate stakeholders of the
reconciliation process. Afghan Nation-
al Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib
had already lambasted Khalilzad for
“delegitimising” the Ashraf Ghani
government by keeping it outside the
loop. Having a pacifist worldview, New
Delhi’s posture to “participate in all
formats of talks which could bring
peace and security in the region”
would stand it in good stead. The Tali-
ban are virtually from the Pashtun
dominant ethnic group. Taliban is not
one monolithic group that can prevent
groups like al-Qaeda from operating or
resist the emergence of a new similar
terrorist group seeking to build an
emirate. Due to the same reason, it is
no longer subject to ISI’s machina-
tions, having many clones and off-
shoots with differing loyalties, notably
the Al-Khorasan and the Tehrik-e-Tali-
ban which is a breakaway group from
the original Taliban created by the Pa-
kistan government only to become the
latter’s sworn enemy as evident in the
fissures between Afghan Taliban and
Pakistan.
With the conflict in Afghanistan en-
tering a critical phase, political leaders
begin to recognise that all stakeholders
need to engage with the Taliban to ne-
gotiate a sustainable peace. India must
learn to drift with the tide. Afghani-
stan is too important a country to re-
main outside India’s strategic bounds.
Author is a commentator on geopolitical
affairs, development and cultural issues

Vol 12 n Issue No. 143 RNI: GUJENG/2007/22424. Printed and Published by Prashant Saxena on behalf of Diligent Media Corporation ltd. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Press, Survey No.148 P, Nagdevta Mandir, Changodar, Bavla Highway, Sanand, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Published at Diligent Media Corporation
Limited, Venus Atlantis Building, Unit No. 201 to 208, 2nd Floor, 100 Feet Road, Prahladnagar, Satellite, Ahmedabad 380015. Phone: 079 4060 2000. Editor: Deepak Lokhande Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act.
 w rld
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
in brief
US taxpayers told
to support falcons,
fight pigeon poop
Boston: Along with all
the usual declarations
and deductions, Massa-
chusetts residents have
been asked to keep some-
thing else in mind this
tax season: pigeon drop-
pings. In an unusual and
at times stomach-turning
appeal, the state agency
MassWildlife proposed
that one way to fight
back against the sticky
messes befouling cars
and damaging bridges is
for taxpayers to check a
box on their tax forms to
support the state’s endan-
gered species program.
How so? Peregrine fal-
cons are among the pro-
gram’s beneficiaries, and
they prey on pigeons.
40 children killed
in year of Gaza
border protests
New York: Around 40
children have been killed
and many injured in one
year of demonstrations
along the border between
the Gaza Strip and Israel,
the UN said Thursday,
calling for an “urgent de-
escalation”. Thousands
of Palestinians have
gathered at least weekly
along the border in pro-
tests that have led to
deadly clashes with the
Israeli military.
British PM Theresa May to seek third Brexit vote today
Front pages of UK newspapers with Brexit coverage —AFP
Eleven dead as bomb
blast hits restaurant
in Somalian capital
Mogadishu: At least 11 people
died when a bomb exploded on
a busy street and ripped into a
nearby restaurant in Somalia’s
capital Mogadishu on Thurs-
day, medics said.
Security officials and wit-
nesses reported bodies strewn
on the ground as plumes of
smoke rose high into the air
after the bomb detonated on
Mogadishu’s Maka Al-Mu-
karama road, one of the sea-
side capital’s main thorough-
fares, an area busy with busi-
nesses and travellers.
It struck as people were eat-
ing lunch. “The death toll we
have confirmed so far is 11 peo-
ple, with 16 others wounded,”
said Abdulkadir Abdirahman
Adan, director of the Aamin
Ambulance service, adding
that the toll could still rise.
“There could be more losses.”
Witnesses described scenes
of devastation.
“The car bomb struck a res-
taurant along the road,” said
Abdulahi Osman, who was
nearby to the explosion. “This
really was a disaster.”
Vehicles were tossed into
the air by the blast, which also
damaged nearby buildings.
Witnesses said several cars
crystal & clear walls of 10-km cave sparkle with salt crystals, stalactites hang from ceilings
Israelis unveil world’s longest salt cave near Dead Sea
Mount Sodom: Israeli cave
explorers said on Thursday
that a salt cave with striking
stalactites near the Dead Sea is
the world’s longest, beating the
previous record-holder in Iran.
The cave named Malham,
stretching over 10 km, runs
through Mount Sodom, Israel’s
largest mountain, and spills
out to the southwest corner of
the adjacent Dead Sea.
Pale salt stalactites hang
from the ceilings, and some of
the walls sparkle with salt
crystals. Drops of salty water
are visible at the tips of some
of the stalactites.
Malham became known to
researchers through the work
of Amos Frumkin, founder
and director of the Hebrew
University’s Cave Research
Centre, who in the 1980s
19 dead in Dhaka building blaze
Desperate workers leap to their deaths, at least 73 injured being treated at hospitals across city
Dhaka: Desperate workers
leaped to their deaths as a huge
fire tore through a Dhaka office
block Thursday, killing at least
19 people and trapping others in
the latest major inferno to hit
the Bangladesh capital.
Rescue workers warned the
death toll could rise sharply as
fire fighters recovered charred
bodies from the complex where
an unknown number of office
workers were engulfed by in-
tense smoke and flames.
At least six people died after
jumping from the 22-floor build-
ing, officials said.
Dhaka police chief Asaduz-
zaman Mia told reporters at
least 73 people were injured and
being treated in hospitals
across Dhaka.
People were seen screaming
for help as hundreds of pan-
icked onlookers crowded the
streets of the upmarket Banani
commercial district.
Some workers slid down a
television cable on the side of
the building. Others grabbed
ropes lowered by emergency
service helicopters which
pulled them out of the blaze.
The inferno erupted barely
a month after at least 70 people
were killed in Dhaka apart-
ment buildings where illegally
stored chemicals exploded.
The latest disaster brought
new scenes of horror amid
fears that the toll would rise.
More than 100 ambulances
were parked in streets around
Somalis carry away an injured after
the blast in Mogadishu —AP
string of attacks
The bombing is the latest
in a recent string of blasts
in the capital, which has
been hit regularly by
Shabaab attacks
and three-wheeler motorbikes
were destroyed by the force of
the explosion. “I saw 16 people
carried from the blast scene --
and more than 10 of them were
already dead,” Osman added.
Ambulance workers rushed
in to help take the wounded to
hospital. “I don’t know wheth-
er they were dead or wounded,
but I could see several people
strewn in the street -- some of
them were motionless,” said
Suado Ahmed, another wit-
ness. —AFP
mapped around five kilometres
of it. But in 2006, researchers
mapped over six kilometres of
the N3 cave in southern Iran’s
Qeshm island, granting it the
widely recognised status of the
world’s longest salt cave.
Two years ago, Israeli spe-
lunker Yoav Negev decided to
(Clockwise from top left) A crowd seen outside the burning office building; Bangladeshi firefighters try to extinguish the blaze; a survivor reacts after being
rescued from the burning office building in Dhaka on Thursday —Reuters/AFP
lax fire safety
Fire disasters regularly hit
Bangladesh’s major cities
where safety standards are
notoriously lax. Experts said
the building. Shoikot Rahman
heard colleagues raise the
alarm and ran to safety before
smoke and flames engulfed the
building. “When I heard a fire
broke out in the building, I
quickly rushed out,” he told
AFP. “Many of my colleagues
London: The British govern-
ment said it intended to
bring back Prime Minister
Theresa May’s Brexit deal for
a third vote in parliament on
Friday to avoid a chaotic no-
deal divorce from the EU.
May’s throw of the dice
comes a day after her dramat-
ic pledge to resign in order to
persuade her rivals to finally
back her vision for breaking
Britain’s 46-year bond with
the European project.
The government’s back is
Malaysia PM
warns EU of
trade war risk
over palm oil
Langkawi: The European
Union risks opening up a
trade war with Malaysia over
its “grossly unfair” policies
aimed at reducing the use of
palm oil, Prime Minister Ma-
hathir Mohamad said on
Thursday.
This month, the European
Commission concluded that
palm oil cultivation results in
excessive deforestation and
its use in transport fuel
should be phased out by 2030.
Malaysia, the world’s sec-
ond biggest palm oil produc-
er after Indonesia, relies on
the crop for billions of dol-
lars in foreign exchange
earnings and hundreds of
thousands of jobs.
Mahathir, 93, said the EU’s
increasingly hostile attitude
towards palm oil, a commod-
ity used in everything from
chocolate spread to lipstick,
was an attempt to protect al-
ternatives that Europe pro-
duced itself, like rape seed
oil. “To do that kind of thing
to win a trade war is unfair,”
Mahathir said in an inter-
Reuters
view on Langkawi, a tropical
resort island 30 km off Ma-
laysia’s mainland.
—Reuters
complete Frumkin’s work,
reaching out to Bulgarian cave
explorers for reinforcements
with the promise of a warm
winter adventure.
Negev, founder of the Israel
Cave Explorers Club, joined
forces with Boaz Langford, a
researcher at the university’s
inspections of buildings in
the city frequently found fire
stairs blocked with stored
goods and exit doors locked
are still trapped in the office.”
Firefighters on long ladders
smashed windows to create es-
cape routes. More than one
hour after the blaze erupted
people could still be seen on the
13th and 14th floors desperately
waving for help amid clouds of
boris backs may
Former foreign minister
Boris Johnson said he
would now back the
premier “on behalf of the
17.4 million people who
voted for Brexit”
against the wall as it tries to
avert potential economic dis-
aster and financial panic in
the coming weeks. The House
of Commons leader Andrea
Brunei to impose death by stoning for gay sex, adultery
London: Adultery and gay
sex in Brunei will be subject
to death by stoning from next
week, authorities said, under
a strict Sharia law that has
been on hold for four years
amid heavy criticism.
Rights groups reacted in
horror Wednesday to the lat-
est hardline move from the
resource-rich nation on Bor-
neo, which practises a strict-
er brand of Islam than its
neighbours Malaysia and In-
(L) Researcher Yoav Negev uses
examines the Malham Cave;
(Above) salt stalactites seen inside
the cave —AP/Reuters
research centre, to organise a
delegation of eight European
spelunkers and another 20 lo-
cals. They spent some 10 days
mapping the cave in 2018.
A second 10-day expedition
this year with 80 local and in-
ternational spelunkers com-
pleted the measuring and map-
black smoke. Army helicopters
dangled ropes that victims
grabbed so they could be lifted
to safety, with crowds below
cheering and applauding every
time someone was rescued.
Rescuers kept at bay
Three hospitals reported that
six men and women had died or
arrived with fatal injuries after
jumping from the office block.
They included a Sri Lankan
man whose body was taken to
the army’s Kurmitola Hospital.
Dilkhosh Ahmed at the Ba-
Leadsom said the govern-
ment was trying to secure
permission for a third vote
from parliament speaker
John Bercow.
He already rejected a simi-
lar attempt last week after rul-
ing that the version May was
bringing back was essentially
the same text that lawmakers
had already twice rejected by
resounding margins.
“We recognise that any mo-
tion brought forward tomor-
row will need to be compliant
REUTERS
Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah
donesia.
The tiny sultanate will im-
plement the harsh new penal
trial by bear
ping of the cave with lasers,
determining its length at more
than 10 kilometres.
‘The most beautiful’
Mount Sodom is essentially a
huge salt block covered by a
thin but resilient layer of cap
rock. The rare desert rains
find their way through cracks
in the cap rock and dissolve
the salt to form small caves
that flow down toward the
Dead Sea. Even in the short
period of time since Frum-
kin’s mapping, the cave’s
structure has changed, and
will continue to do so.
Much of the cave’s interi-
or is covered by a fine dust
that blows in from the desert.
Massive slabs of salt, some
amber-coloured from dust
and minerals, jut out in dra-
Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019 I daily news & analysis
nani Clinic said one of the vic-
tims had attempted to use the
television cable to climb down,
but slipped and fell around the
eighth floor. A seventh death
from burns was recorded at the
Dhaka Medical College hospital.
Helicopters were deployed
to drop water on the blaze as
scores of firefighters backed
by navy and air force special-
ists struggled to bring it un-
der control. A top fire official
said the flames had been
stopped from spreading to ad-
joining buildings. —AFP
with the speaker’s ruling and
that discussion is ongoing,”
Leadsom told the chamber.
Anxious EU leaders last
week offered Britain a Brexit
extension until May 22.
But it is conditional on par-
liament voting through May’s
deal by Friday -- the day Brit-
ain was originally scheduled
to leave. Failure to pass the
deal could mean a no-deal
Brexit as early as April 12.
Businesses fear that will
cause economic chaos. —AFP
sultan’s word
A spokesman for Brunei
religious affairs ministry
on Wednesday said only
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah
was expected to make an
announcement on April 3
regarding new Sharia laws
code -- which also prescribes
amputation of a hand and
foot for theft -- next Wednes-
Aurora,
a female
polar bear,
approaches
photographs
of candidates
attached
to slabs of
lard or pig
fat, while
attempting
to predict
the winner of
the Ukrainian
presidential
election at
the Royev
Ruchey
Zoo in
Krasnoyarsk,
Russia on
Thursday
matic formations.
A thin slab appearing to
have been sliced out is nick-
named “The Guillotine,”
while twin slabs in a different
hall earned the title of “The
Ten Commandments.” Report-
ers touring the site clambered
and crawled through the nar-
row passages before reaching
the “wedding hall,” where
hundreds of white stalactites
of various shapes and lengths
created a festive backdrop.
To Negev, Malham was in
“a category of its own.”
“There’s nothing like it in Is-
rael,” he said, claiming that
no other cave came even close
to the 10-kilometre mark. Ne-
gev pointed to its vast net-
work of “caverns, passage-
ways, piers, plateaus, one
over another”. —AFP
07
Uttama Savanayana (C), Palang Pracharat Party leader, holds a news
conference after the general election in Bangkok —Reuters
‘Thai pro-army
party winner of
popular vote’
Bangkok: Thailand’s chaotic
election took another turn on
Thursday when the Election
Commission announced that
the pro-army party, which is
seeking to keep the current
junta leader in power, had won
the popular vote, with 100 per
cent of ballots counted.
The announcement does not
make clear the overall winner
of Sunday’s general election,
the first since a 2014 military
coup. Both the pro-army
Palang Pracharat and an anti-
junta “democratic front” have
claimed a mandate to form the
next government, but it is un-
clear if either side will be able
to gather enough votes in par-
liament to form a workable
government.
Palang Pracharat won the
popular vote with 8.4 million
ballots, the Election Commis-
sion said. The main opposition
Pheu Thai Party, whose elected
government was toppled in the
coup, got 7.9 million votes.
“These numbers are fully-
counted results officially re-
ported by each constituency,”
said Krit Urwongse, deputy
secretary-general of the Elec-
tion Commission. The results
represented 100 per cent of the
ballots counted but would re-
main unofficial until final re-
sults are announced on May 9.
The numbers were for the
nationwide popular vote.
Breakdowns of the parties’
shares of the vote in each of
the 350 constituencies were
also released. The commis-
sion has not announced the
day. Homosexuality is al-
ready illegal in Brunei but it
will now become a capital
offence. The law only applies
to Muslims.
The new penalty for theft
is amputation of the right
hand for a first offence, and
the left foot for a second of-
fence. Amnesty International
Wednesday urged Brunei to
“immediately halt” imple-
menting the new penalties.
“To legalise such cruel
Malta’s armed forces
take back oil tanker
hijacked by migrants
Valletta: A tanker that was
hijacked by migrants off Libya
docked in Malta on Thursday
after the Maltese armed forces
took control of the vessel.
The Palau-flagged tanker
Elhiblu I had picked up the 108
migrants including women
and children on Tuesday even-
ing and then headed back to
Tripoli. But six nautical miles
from port the ship suddenly
changed course and headed
north toward Europe.
Italy’s far-right Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini said
Wednesday the vessel had been
hijacked and vowed that the
migrants would not be allowed
to disembark in Italy.
The 52-metre tanker was
about 30 nautical miles from
Malta when the Armed Forces
of Malta (AFM) established
communications with the cap-
tain. “The captain repeatedly
stated that he was not in con-
trol of the vessel and that he
and his crew were being forced
and threatened by a number of
migrants to proceed to Malta,”
the AFM said in a statement on
Thursday morning. “AFM Pa-
trol Vessel P21 stopped the
tanker from entering the Mal-
tese territorial waters. An
AFM Special Operations Unit
team was dispatched to board
and secure the vessel in order
to hand over control of the ship
to the captain.”
It said the team was backed
up by several naval vessels and
a helicopter. Escorted by the
Maltese navy, the tanker ar-
rived in the port of Valletta
around 8:30 am, where the
AFM said it would “be handed
over to the police for further
leaders rejoice
„„Leaders of the armed
forces said they were
happy with how the
election went
„„They said they
supported governance
by “good people”,
echoing a statement
issued by the palace on
the eve of the election
„„The royalist-military
establishment has been
at odds with former
telecommunications
tycoon Thaskin
Shinawatra for years,
seeing his vote-winning,
populist policies as a
threat to traditional ways
full number of seats for each
party in the 500-seat House of
Representatives. Results for
the lower house’s 350 directly
elected “constituent seats”
showed Pheu Thai with 137
and the Palang Pracharat
with 97.
The remaining 150 House of
Representatives seats are allo-
cated according to a complex
formula involving the total
number of votes for each party.
The vote numbers released
on Thursday should allow a
clearer view of how the 150
party seats will be divided.
The commission itself has
said it would not to announce
the party seats until May 9,
when the official results are
finalised.  —Reuters
and inhuman penalties is ap-
palling of itself,” Brunei re-
searcher Rachel Chhoa-How-
ard said in a statement.
“Some of the potential ‘of-
fences’ should not even be
deemed crimes at all, includ-
ing consensual sex between
adults of the same gender.”
A notice on Brunei’s At-
torney General’s Chambers
dated December 29 last year
said the provisions will take
effect on April 3. —AFP
Migrants are disembarked from the
oil tanker on Thursday —AP
anti-migrant stance
„„Following Rome’s
increasingly tough anti-
migrant stance, vessels
that pick up migrants
making the perilous
journey across the
Mediterranean increasingly
return them to Libya
investigations”.
‘People are very upset’
The German charity Sea-Eye,
whose ship Alan Kurdi was in
the rescue zone off Libya, said
it had overheard radio mes-
sages between a European
military aircraft and the cap-
tain of the tanker, both before
and after the hijacking.
“The captain of the ship res-
cued the people and requested
assistance. He said unequivo-
cally on the radio that people
are very upset and do not want
to be brought back to Libya,”
Sea-Eye said in a statement.
“Tripoli, however, was the des-
tination port of the cargo
ship.” Migrants in chaos-
wracked Libya face traffick-
ing, kidnap, torture and rape,
according to the United Na-
tions and aid groups. —AFP
29
Friday
March
2019
ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
Sensex
38545.72 412.84 p
Gold 10 gram 31955.00
US $ 69.34 0.46 p
news in numbers
moneyedit More money from L&T on Strong rollovers may see
CBDT raises
alarm over
tax mop-up
A
s the fiscal year draws
to an end, it’s the usual
scrambling at the in-
come-tax department. The
IT officers are being pulled
up for the “alarming situa-
tion” created by the short-
fall in the direct tax collec-
tion that stood at Rs 10.3
lakh crore, way below the
revised Budget target of Rs
12 lakh crore. The news of
the Central Board of Di-
rect Taxes (CBDT) dashing
a strongly worded letter to
senior IT officials has now
caused a flutter among the
taxpayers. According to
CBDT, a head-wise analy-
sis of the regulator assess-
ment tax has indicated a
negative growth trend. Tax
officials are now working
overtime to improve the
collections, asking banks
to deposit Tax Deduction at
Source (TDS) well before
the deadline, and hoping to
collect another Rs 60,000
crore before the fiscal-end.
While banks, as well as
companies, can pay the
TDS until April 30, IT offi-
cials are requesting them
to deposit this month itself.
This could beef up the tax
collection for the current
financial year.
The shortfall is likely
to have an impact on the
fiscal deficit, and turn out
to be higher than the re-
vised Budget target of
3.4% of the gross domes-
tic product. The govern-
ment has a task cut-out to
bring down the gap by re-
ducing its expenditure. It
may now need to seek
higher proceeds from dis-
investment and dividends
from
companies.
public sector
ST smart
‘NYAY possible
by cutting doles’
Congress president Ra-
hul Gandhi’s minimum
income support scheme
for the poor, Nyuntam
Aay Yojana (NYAY), can
be implemented by cur-
tailing other doles and
allowing fiscal deficit to
widen, former Reserve
Bank of India governor
Y V Reddy said. Howev-
er, it would be difficult
for state governments to
implement a similar
scheme as they largely
depend on the Centre
for finance and borrow-
ing limit, he said. “The
state governments have
budget constraints,” he
added.
Exports to touch
$540 bn: Prabhu
India’s merchandise and
services export would
touch $540 billion mark
this fiscal, commerce
minister Suresh Prabhu
said. He said exports are
growing at a healthy
pace and shipments of
goods would reach over
$330 billion. Similarly,
services exports would
touch about $200 billion,
he said. In total, both
“merchandise and ser-
vices exports put togeth-
er will reach about $540
billion” by the end of
this fiscal, the minister
said. During April-Feb-
ruary 2018-19, the goods
exports grew by 8.85% to
$298.47 billion. Talking
about the stalled negotia-
tions for a free trade
agreement between India
and European Union, the
minister said India is
keen to resume the talks.
“We are really keen to
have this FTA with EU.
India will work to find a
workable deal,” he said.
The negotiations for the
pact, officially dubbed as
the Bilateral Trade and
Investment Agreement,
have been held up since
May 2013.
Nifty
11570.00 124.95 p
125.00 q
EURO 77.84 0.13 p
7.53 lakh - Smart speakers were shipped in India in 2018, with Amazon accounting for 59% market share, as per IDC
top of Mindtree brass’ mind Nifty hit 12000 in April
Firm may seek Rs 50-100 more over the price per share quoted by L&T
Praveena Sharma
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: After deciding
against equity buyback, the
Mindtree Board and man-
agement has turned its at-
tention to other options that
were in the interest of stake-
holders, Krishnakumar Na-
tarajan, its executive chair-
man, told DNA Money.
These would include ne-
gotiating a better valuation
for the open offer made by
engineering and construc-
tion conglomerate L&T,
Board seats for current man-
agement and extracting at-
tractive terms for employees.
“The Board and manage-
ment will consider various
options keeping in mind the
interest of all the stakehold-
ers. Until the time that any
decision will be taken, it is
inappropriate to make any
predictions or comments,”
replied Natarajan to a query
on whether it will continue
to oppose the L&T’s hostile
takeover bid.
Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO
and MD, The Head Hunters
India Pvt Ltd, said independ-
ent directors, who have been
entrusted the task of evalu-
ating the unsolicited L&T
offer, would negotiate for a
bid price that was Rs 50-100
higher than the quoted price.
L&T has made an open of-
fer to acquire a 31% stake in
NTPC adds over 1 gw
capacity in a month
Ateeq Shaikh
ateeq.shaikh@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: State-run power
producer NTPC said the sec-
ond unit of its Solapur Super
Thermal Power Station will
get commissioned on Satur-
day, thereby adding over 1 gw
of generation capacity to the
grid in the last one month.
The second unit of this
660 mega watt (mw) power
station was under construc-
tion for the last few years.
On Wednesday, NPTC an-
nounced that “Unit 2 of 660
mw of Solapur Super Ther-
mal Power Station (2 X 660
mw) will be declared on com-
mercial operation w.e.f 00:00
hrs of 30.03.2019.”
On having commissioned
the second unit, the commer-
cial capacity of Solapur Su-
per Thermal Power Station
would be 1,320 mw, as the
first unit of 660 mw is al-
ready operational.
Likewise, NTPC’s power
generation capacity would
also go up to 45,725 mw and
NTPC Group’s capacity will
touch 52,866 mw.
Earlier this week, the
third unit of Bongaigaon
Thermal Power Project (in
Assam) of 250 mw had also
commenced the commercial
operation. Thus, taking the
total generation capacity at
this power project to 750 mw.
Expensive drive M&M, TaMo, Toyota raise prices from April 1 due to high input and compliance costs
Automakers raise prices, but sales may fall further
Shahkar Abidi
a_shahakar@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Rising commodity
prices and enhanced regula-
tory compliance are forcing
automakers to take price
hikes despite vehicle demand
staying poor for the last six
months.
Mahindra & Mahindra
(M&M), Tata Motors, Toyota
are among the vehicle mak-
ers that have announced
price hikes from April 1. In-
terestingly, some of these
companies had raised prices
in January too. M&M on
Thursday announced raising
Silver kg 37635.00 375.00 q
British pound 90.98 0.10 q
Mindtree at Rs 980 per share
for Rs 5,030 crore.
“The Mindtree Board has
constituted a committee of
independent directors to look
into L&T’s bid. The independ-
ent directors will have to
work in the interest of share-
holders or they can be sued by
shareholders. What they are
negotiating is an additional
Rs 50-100 per share over the
quoted price plus some Board
seats for promoters. They
may also ask for golden hand-
cuffs for the current manage-
ment so that when the new
management takes over, their
jobs are not jeopardised for at
least a year. They might suc-
ceed in getting their way be-
cause L&T also does not want
to keep fighting,” he said.
A M Naik, chairman of
L&T, recently made it known
that his company would re-
tain Natarajan as executive
chairman of Mindtree post
acquiring majority stake in
the mid-sized information
technology (IT) company.
Lakhsmikanth is expect-
ing at least three Mindtree
directors to be retained on
the Board after the takeover.
On how much operational
and management control
Mindtree would be able to
retain after L&T scales up its
shareholding, Natarajan said
the “differentiated corporate
culture” of Mindtree was
crucial for its success.
NTPC
Share price on BSE in `
155
147.00
145
135
135.85
125
115
105
Jan 1, 18 Mar 28, 19
power-packed
„„The second unit of
660 mw of Solapur Super
Thermal Power Station
will get commissioned on
Saturday
„„NTPC’s power
generation capacity
would go up to
45,725 megawatt
On February 20, another
250 mw capacity was added
through Nabinagar Thermal
Power Project’s (in Bihar)
Unit 4. The power plant is
NTPC’s subsidiary – Bharti-
ya Rail Bijlee Company Ltd.
Taking into consideration
thOn Wednesday, NTPC had
announced that it raised
$450 million, or nearly Rs
3,105 crore, through a five-
year bond offering in the
international markets.
prices of its range of personal
and commercial vehicles by
0.5%-2.7%, or Rs 5,000-Rs
73,000, across its models from
April 1.
Rajan Wadhera, presi-
dent, automotive sector,
M&M, said, “This year has
seen record high commodity
price increases. Further,
regulatory compliances ef-
fective April 1 have also con-
tributed to cost increases.
While we have made efforts
to reduce costs, it has not
been possible to hold back
the price increase.”
Tata Motors last week an-
nounced raising passenger
FTSE 100
7194.19 2.10 q
Figuretively
speaking
31%
Additional stake
L&T is eyeing in
Mindtree to take its
shareholding in the
company to 67%
` 980
It has offered to pay
per share
At least 3
Mindtree directors
may be retained on the
Board after takeover
MINDTREE
605.95
Jan 1, 18
Infosys to buy
75% stake in
ABN AMRO arm
for €127.5 mn
New Delhi: India’s second
largest IT services firm Info-
sys said on Thursday it will
acquire 75% stake in ABN
AMRO Bank’s wholly-owned
subsidiary, Stater, for €127.5
million (about Rs 989 crore).
Both the companies have
signed an agreement to this
effect.
Founded in 1997, Stater
provides end-to-end mort-
gage administration servic-
es in the Netherlands, Bel-
gium and Germany.
As part of the deal, Info-
sys will acquire 75% of the
shareholding in Stater, while
ABN AMRO will continue to
hold the remaining 25%. In-
fosys said the partnership is
in alignment with its strate-
gy to strengthen its mort-
gage servicing capabilities
in Continental Europe.
The transaction is expect-
ed to close during the first
quarter of fiscal 2020, sub-
ject to customary closing
conditions, it added. “This
transaction strengthens our
approach to offer clients
digital platforms and indus-
try-focused solutions. It
brings together our comple-
mentary capabilities to en-
hance the value we offer to
our financial services cli-
ents,” Infosys president Mo-
hit Joshi said. —PTI
Total Passenger Vehicles
Feb '18 Feb '19
360
355.25
275.35
270
In '000 nos
180
90
-5.45
0 -6.0
Production
vehicle prices by up to Rs
25,000 from the next month.
Mayank Pareek, president,
PV business unit at Tata Mo-
Nikkei 225
21033.76 344.97 q
Brent Crude $/barrel 67.15 0.11 q
UAE dirham 18.88 0.10 p
Promoters
Public
18.63 13.32
Mutual
Funds
8.34
Mindtree
shareholding FIIs
pattern 40.18
Dec 31, '18
In % Bodies
corporate
19.53
18X Mindtree’s market cap has
grown in the last 10 years
`3,269cr
L&T shelled out to buy Cafe Coffee Day
founder V G Siddhartha’s 20.32% stake in
Mindtree on March 18
Share price on BSE in ` 941.15
Mar 28, 19
Mindtree shareholding pattern as on 31st December 2018 In %
The Board will consider various
options keeping in mind the interest
of all the stakeholders. Until the
time that any decision will be taken, it is
inappropriate to make any predictions
K Natarajan, executive chairman, Mindtree
Centre injects `21,428 cr into five PSBs
New Delhi: Five state-owned
banks, including Punjab Na-
tional Bank (PNB), Bank of
Baroda (BoB) and Union
Bank, on Thursday received
shareholders’ approval for
capital infusion to the tune
of Rs 21,428 crore in lieu of
preferential allotment of
shares to the government.
This capital infusion is for
the current fiscal ending on
March 31, 2019.
PNB said an extraordi-
nary general meeting of
shareholders was held on
March 28 for obtaining share-
holders’ approval to issue
and allot 80,20,63,535 equity
shares at a premium of Rs
71.66 a share amounting up to
Rs 5,908 crore on preferential
Amtek lenders seek fresh bids
New Delhi: Lenders of
Amtek Auto on Thursday
sought permission from the
National Company Law Ap-
pellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to
conduct a second round of
bidding for the debt-ridden
auto component maker
after the highest bidder
UK-based Liberty
House backed out.
The Committee of
Creditors (CoC) led by Cor-
poration Bank informed the
NCLAT that the second-high-
est bidder Deccan Value In-
vestors LP is also consider-
% chg (RHS)
0 partner, Grant Thornton In-
-1.11
-1.5
-3.0 tors, attributed the price
hike to the rising input costs
and external economic con-
-4.5
272.28
ditions. N Raja, MD, Toyota
335.90
Kirloskar Motor, echoed the
views of his counterparts.
Domestic sales “We have been absorbing ad-
Source: SIAM
ditional costs through a bou-
quet of cost reduction meas-
ures, including refinement in
the production process. How-
ever, considering the trend of
Ahana Chatterjee
ahana.chatterjee@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: A day after the
markets took a pause from
the recent upsurge, key eq-
uity benchmark indices
bounced back sharply on the
last trading session of the
current month’s expiry day,
as investors mounted bullish
bets on expectations the NDA
party may win polls in the
upcoming general elections.
Market participants are
also bullish about the pros-
pects of a rate cut in the RBI’s
credit policy next week and
the recapitalisation of banks.
On the last day of March
series, Nifty registered a de-
cent gain of 7.31% and closed
at 11570 compared to Febru-
ary series close of 10792 level.
The 50-share index closed
with gains of 778 points which
is the highest expiry gains
since January 2015 series.
“The index witnessed
higher rollover of 66.73%
compared to last two months
roll of (February 2019)
60.26% and (January 2019)
61.84% with better roll cost
of 0.81% which suggests that
longs are rolling their posi-
tion aggressively to the next
series and this momentum
could extend to new high ter-
ritory of 11760 and even
higher zones,” said Chandan
Taparia, derivatives and
technical analyst at Motilal
Oswal Financial Securities.
“Option data is scattered at
different strikes at the begin-
ning of a new series, but price
set up and sentiment suggests
basis to the government.
BoB said the finance min-
istry informed about its deci-
sion to infuse a capital of Rs
5,042 crore in the bank.
Union Bank said, “The
Committee of Directors for
Raising of Capital Funds of
ing to submit a revised offer.
However, an NCLAT
bench headed by Chairman
Justice S J Mukhopadhaya
said it would like to hear
Deccan Value Investors and
Amtek Auto’s former pro-
moters on the matter.
NCLAT listed the
matter for next hearing
on April 22 and said
“CoC would not approve
any other plan” in between.
It also said the Resolution
Professional (RP) will con-
tinue to function and would
“ensure that the company
continuous increase, we are
constrained to pass on a small
portion to the customers.”
A Mumbai-based analyst
from a global consulting firm
said it is a tricky situation for
the automobile companies as
they are being forced to in-
crease the price though the
demand is at nadir. He, how-
ever, did not rule out that
some of the manufactures
NIFTY
11570.00 11625
11400
11175
10910.10
10950
10725
10500
Jan 1, 19 Mar 28
on a
roll
`3,594.51cr
FPIs bought shares on Thursday
66.73
Higher rollover seen from March to
April series
that index is all set to head
towards its lifetime high of
11760 and even may hit the
12000 mark in a pre-election
rally,” added Taparia.
The Nifty started the
March series on a lighter
note as open interest (OI) po-
sition during February ex-
piry was at the lowest level
in last three years. However,
the broader index started
rallying right from the be-
ginning of the March series
and continued to make
‘Higher Highs Higher Lows’
as the month progressed and
eventually ended the series
with good gains.
shot in the arm
„„This capital infusion
is for the current fiscal
ending on March 31
„„BoB would get Rs
5,042 crore
„„IOB to issue shares to
the government for
Rs 3,806 crore infusion
the bank at its meeting con-
sidered and approved the
allotment of 52,15,62,658
equity shares at an issue
price of Rs 78.84 aggregat-
ing to Rs 4,111.99 crore to
the government in accord-
ance with the applicable
remains a going concern.”
According to reports, Dec-
can Value Investors, which
had emerged as the second
highest resolution applicant
for Amtek Auto, had placed a
bid of Rs 3,150 crore.
Amtek Auto has a total
debt of Rs 12,603 crore and
the liquidation value of its
assets was determined at Rs
4,119 crore.
Liberty House had offered
Rs 4,025 crore, including up-
front payment of Rs 3,225
crore and a fresh infusion of
Rs 500 crore. —PTI
may offer “discounts” after
raising the prices.
According to Sridhar V,
dia LLP, the steel, alumini-
um and copper prices have
been showing an upward
trend in the past three
months, and hence the origi-
nal equipment manufactur-
ers (OEMs) would look at
passing the increase to the
buyers. The last price in-
crease was in January where
some OEMs increased prices
by about 4-5%. “The input
costs have not shown any re-
duction in the last quarter,”
Sridhar said.
“The up-move in Nifty
was supported by heavy long
build-up as the OI has in-
creased by more than 70% in
March month (till Wednes-
day). The high rollovers (in
term of OI) indicates that
participants are carrying
their long positions to the
April series,” said Jay Puro-
hit, technical and derivatives
analyst at Centrum Broking.
“Highest OI for April
monthly expiry is placed at
11000 put and 12000 call op-
tions. Considering the overall
derivative data, we are ex-
pecting a continuation in the
ongoing optimism in Nifty
towards 12000-mark,” he said.
In the cash segment,
benchmark Nifty on Wednes-
day rose 124.95 points, or
1.09%, to settle at 11570 while
the 30-share Sensex finished
at 38545.72, surging 412.84
points, or 1.08%.
HCL Technologies, State
Bank of India, YES Bank,
Axis Bank and Sun Pharma
contributed to the Sensex
pack, rising as much as 3.84%.
“Benchmark indices out-
performed the broader indi-
ces on the expiry day. Bank
Nifty propelled to a new high
on expectations of a rate cut
from the Reserve Bank of In-
dia next week and recapitali-
sation of banks. Besides, the
slid in India’s 10-year bond
yield further raised the pos-
sibility of a rate cut,” said
Vinod Nair, head of research,
Geojit Financial Services.
BSE Midcap and Smallcap
indices closed 1.06% and
0.95% up, respectively.
provisions.”
Indian Overseas Bank
(IOB) decided to allow prefer-
ential shares to the govern-
ment to get a capital infusion
of Rs 3,806 crore. With this
allotment, the government
holding has increased from
89.39% to 92.52% in the bank.
“This capital infusion will
help the bank to shore up its
capital adequacy require-
ments and enable the bank to
build a robust loan book,” R
Subramaniakumar, manag-
ing director and chief execu-
tive officer, Indian Overseas
Bank said.
Central Bank of India al-
lotted 68,72,48,322 equity
shares at Rs 37.25 aggregat-
ing up to Rs 2,560 crore. —PTI
Jet Airways
delays ECB
repayment
New Delhi: Crisis-hit Jet
Airways, where lenders are
set to take control under a
debt resolution plan, Thurs-
day said it has delayed repay-
ment of overseas borrowing
due to “temporary liquidity
constraints”.
This is at least the fourth
time that the airline has de-
faulted on debt repayment in
recent months.
After weeks of specula-
tions and uncertainties over
the future course of Jet Air-
ways, which has grounded
over 80 planes due to finan-
cial woes, the airline’s board
Monday approved a resolu-
tion plan formulated by
State Bank of India-led do-
mestic lenders.
“... the the repayment of
the External Commercial
Borrowing (ECB), availed
by the company for working
capital purposes, falling
due on March 28, 2019, has
been delayed owing to tem-
porary liquidity con-
straints,” the airline said in
a filing to the BSE.
The company has engaged
with the lender in relation to
the same, it added.
As part of the resolution
plan, on Monday, Naresh
Goyal quit as chairman of
the embattled airline and the
board also approved lenders
taking control as well as im-
mediate fund infusion of Rs
1,500 crore. —PTI
 c mpanies
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
Cab-hailing major
Ola to put $500 mn
Deal
Street in self-drive service
Ola Fleet Technologies, an arm of cab-hailing major
Ola, will get about $500 million funding over the next
two years as it looks to launch self-drive service,
according to sources. According to the sources, Ola
Fleet Technologies will get about $500 million
through a mix of equity and debt to offer self-drive
services in the country. This service, which is in a
small-scale pilot in Bengaluru currently, is expected
to be launched over the next few weeks. The launch
of self-drive service will pit Ola against the likes of
Sequoia Capital-backed Zoomcar and Y Combinator-
backed Drivezy.
PharmEasy to tie
up with Ascent
PharmEasy and
pharmaceutical
distribution company
Ascent Health and
Wellness are said to be
in talks for a potential
merger. According to a
report, key investors
of both companies
including Everstone
Capital, Eight Roads
Ventures and Orios
Venture Partners have
given their in-
principle approval for
the all-stock
transaction, according
to DealStreetAsia.
In brief
MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA
Share price on BSE in `
9665.45
9900
9200
8500
7800
7100
6585.70 6400
Jan 1, 18 Mar 28, 19
Alstom bags
`700 cr contracts
Alstom has bagged Rs
700 crore contracts to
the Mumbai and Pune
metros, under which it
will supply
communication-based
train control technology
to three upcoming lines
in the megapolis and
two upcoming lines in
Pune. The Rs 700-crore
contracts include
equipping the Mumbai
metro lines 2A, 2B and
Line 7 and the first and
second metro lines in
Pune, with Urbalis 400,
the company’s
communication-based
train control technology,
the company said.
Maruti Suzuki
drives in new Ciaz
Maruti Suzuki India
(MSI) launched mid-size
sedan Ciaz with a new
1.5-litre diesel engine,
priced at Rs 9.97 lakh
onwards (ex-showroom
Delhi). Developed in
house, the 1.5-litre
engine comes mated
with six-speed
transmission and offers
improved performance.
TVS launches
Apache RTR range
TVS Motor Company
said it has upgraded its
entire Apache RTR bike
range with anti-lock
braking system (ABS)
technology. With ABS,
TVS Apache RTR 160 is
priced at Rs 85,510, TVS
Apache RTR 180 is
tagged at Rs 90,978, TVS
Apache RTR 160 4V at Rs
89,785 and TVS Apache
RTR 200 at Rs 1.11 lakh.
Amazon sets up
fulfillment centre
Online retailer Amazon
is investing in
technology, logistics and
infrastructure to provide
better services to its
customers, and has also
set up a fulfillment centre
in Jaipur for timely
delivery, a top company
official said. Amazon has
set up a 1.30 lakh cubic
feet fulfillment centre in
Jaipur to ensure timely
delivery and drive
customer value, he said.
Titan’s m-cap tops
`1 lakh cr mark
Titan Company’s market
valuation crossed Rs 1
lakh crore mark, helped
by a surge in the stock
price which touched an
all-time high level during
the day. It’s stock closed at
Rs 1,129.75, up 1.39%.
Titan is ranked 30th in
the list of top companies
based on their market
valuation on the BSE.
Honda, Hino join
SoftBank-Toyota
Japanese automakers
Honda and Hino are
joining a partnership
between SoftBank and
Toyota for mobility
service innovation
such as self-driving
cars. Technology
company SoftBank
Corp and Toyota
Motor Corp
announced late last
year a joint venture for
mobility services, in
what they called a
“united Japan” effort
to face global
competition.
PFC completes REC acquisition,
pays `14,500 crore to Centre
New Delhi: State-owned
Power Finance Corporation
(PFC) on Thursday complet-
ed the acquisition of major-
ity stake in REC Ltd by trans-
ferring Rs 14,500 crore to the
government, an official said.
The transaction has
helped the government meet
its disinvestment target of
Rs 80,000 crore for the cur-
rent financial year.
“The entire consideration
of Rs 14,500 crore for acquir-
ing 52.63% equity of the Gov-
ernment of India in REC is
paid by PFC through RTGS
(real-time gross settlement)
mode this morning,” the of-
ficial told PTI.
The official said PFC
CMD Rajeev Sharma handed
over the RTGS advice to Pow-
er Secretary A K Bhalla on
Thursday to complete the
acquisition. The money has
been transferred into the
government’s account on-
line. The official further said
the government’s 52.63% eq-
Bandhan Bank, Gruh Finance merger
to give a big push to affordable housing
Kolkata: Private sector
lender Bandhan Bank is ex-
pecting to give a big push to
the affordable housing sec-
tor after completion of its
merger with housing and
rural finance company
Gruh Finance, its managing
director and chief executive
officer Chandra Sekhar
Ghosh said.
Ghosh told reporters on
Thursday that the merger
process, which has already
got the approval from the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI),
was expected to be complet-
ed by December.
“We have got the approv-
al from the RBI. Now we
are awaiting permission
from the Sebi (Securities
and Exchange Board of In-
dia) after which we will ap-
proach the NCLT (National
Company Law Tribunal)”,
Ghosh said on the sidelines
Hyatt plans 14 new hotels in two years
New Delhi: Chicago-head-
quartered Hyatt Hotels Cor-
poration on Thursday an-
nounced plans to open more
than 14 new properties in
India over the next 24
months.
The new properties will
include hotels and resorts in
Bengaluru, Dehradun,
Udaipur, Gurgaon, Jaipur,
and Trivandrum.
In a statement, Hyatt Ho-
tels said 2019 would mark
record growth for Hyatt in
India.
“Expansion plans foresee
the addition of over 2,100
guest rooms through the
opening of more than 14 new
properties over the next 24
months,” it said.
Aside from growth in the
larger capital cities, the em-
phasis will be on leisure and
S&P downgrades credit
ratings of TaMo and JLR
CARE Ratings had downgraded the Indian co’s credit rating to AA from AA+
New Delhi: S&P Global Rat-
ings has downgraded the
credit rating of Tata Motors
and its wholly-owned sub-
sidiary Jaguar Land Rover
(JLR), citing weak profitabil-
ity, Tata Motors said on
Thursday.
“We would like to inform
that based on S&P Global
Ratings, the credit rating of
the company and Jaguar
Land Rover Automotive Plc
has been downgraded,” the
company said in a regulatory
filing.
The rating agency cited
weakness in profitability of
JLR as the main reason for
downgrading credit rating of
Tata Motors and its British
arm.
S&P cut its rating on sen-
ior unsecured notes of JLR
and Tata Motors to ‘B+’ from
‘BB-’. CARE Ratings’ Credit
Research had last month
downgraded the company’s
credit rating to AA from AA+.
The revised rating indicates
that the outlook is stable.
capital transfer
„„PFC has raised money
from Bank of Baroda, Life
Insurance Corporation
and State Bank of India,
among others, to make
the payment
„„PFC bought REC
shares at Rs 139.50
apiece
uity in REC would be trans-
ferred in the name of the
PFC by the closing of the
stock market on Thursday.
PFC has raised money
from Bank of Baroda, Life
aggressive
plans
25
Branches to be opened soon as
per RBI’s approval
986
Total number of branches of the
Kolkata-headquartered bank
cultural destinations, with a
focus on emerging cities
within India.
This expansion includes
hotels in eight new markets
in the country which will es-
tablish Hyatt brand presence
across 27 cities in India.
“As a result of an increas-
ingly favourable business
climate and heightened tour-
£3.1bn £2.5 bn
Taken as one-time exceptional
speed non-cash charge for asset
breaker
impairment by JLR
Tata Motors is the 3rd
fastest-growing brand among
top 20 automobile companies
of the world. The company is
also now the first Indian au-
tomaker to cross the 1 million
annual sales mark, surpass-
ing Chinese giants SAIC and
Changan. It sold a total of
1.049 million units in 2018 as
against 0.986 million units
sold in the year 2017.
The company is currently
facing headwinds as its Brit-
ish subsidiary JLR is under-
going severe losses back on
further deterioration of
market conditions in China,
Brexit issue, and uncertain-
ties regarding diesel vehi-
cles in Europe.
The company has taken a
one-time exceptional non-
Insurance Corporation and
State Bank of India, among
others, to make the payment.
Earlier on March 20, PFC
had inked a share purchase
agreement to acquire 103.94
crore equity shares of Rs 10
each of REC Ltd.
This deal was in pursu-
ance to the in-principle ap-
proval from the Cabinet
Committee on Economic Af-
fairs for a strategic sale of
52.63% of paid-up equity
shareholding of REC held by
the government to PFC,
along with the transfer of
management control.
Both PFC and REC are
navratna central public sec-
tor enterprises with com-
bined annual revenue of
about Rs 50,000 crore and this
acquisition is a step towards
consolidation of companies
operating in the same space.
PFC bought REC shares at Rs
139.50 per piece with a total
acquisition cost of about Rs
14,500 crore. —PTI
of a bank branch opening
at Burrabazar in north
Kolkata.
He said, “the entire pro-
cess is expected to be over by
the end of this year, after
which the bank will give a
big push to the affordable
housing sector”.
Bandhan Bank’s merg-
er with Gruh Finance
would reduce the non-op-
erative promoter Bandhan
Financial Holding’s stake
to 61% from the previous
80%. “Ultimately it will go
down to 40% for which
there is a good plan”,
Ghosh added.
He said that there was a
good demand for affordable
housing with the demand
pegged at two crore units.
Last week, the bank had
got the approval for opening
25 more branches, Ghosh
said.
expansion spree
„„The expansion
includes hotels in 8
new markets in India,
establishing Hyatt brand
presence across 27 cities
„„The company is
planning to launch its
new properties over the
next 24 months
ism spend, encouraged by
relaxed visa rules and a
growing upper middle class,
there is a general demand for
growth in the hospitality in-
dustry in India,” the state-
ment said.
This year’s expansion be-
gan with the introduction of
the Hyatt Centric brand
through the opening of Hyatt
Investment JLR infused as
part of its turnaround plan
cash charge for asset impair-
ment of nearly 3.1 billion
pounds. The automotive gi-
ant reported a loss of Rs
26,697 crore in the December
quarter; this is the biggest
one ever reported by a corpo-
rate entity in India.
Though JLR, in response,
as part of its turnaround
plan has put in a plan of £2.5
Future Supply
signs logistics
deal with
Benetton India
New Delhi: Future Supply
Chain Solutions said it has
signed a multi-year agree-
ment to provide contract and
express logistics services to
Benetton India.
“As per the agreement, Fu-
ture Supply Chain Solutions
will manage Benetton India’s
supply chain requirements
from a large built-to-suit,
multi-customer distribution
centre in north India,” Fu-
ture Supply Chain said.
The company also aims to
bring several supply chain ef-
ficiencies leading to better
inventory management and
optimum warehouse opera-
tions for Benetton India.
Apart from Benetton, the
company has signed multiple
new contracts with Voltbek
Home Appliances, Haldirams
Products, Crompton Greaves
Consumer Electricals,
among others in the past one
year. —PTI
“Out of that, we are open-
ing eight by March 31. The
remaining will be opened in
the next financial year”, he
said.
With the Burrabazar
branch, the Kolkata-head-
quartered bank’s total num-
ber of branches stood at 986,
he said, adding that the
Bandhan’s deposits touched
Rs 34,639 crore and loan
book at Rs 35,599 crore.
Ghosh said that the
bank’s NPA stood less than
0.7% of advances.
Regarding Gruh Finance,
he said that its activity so
far was concentrated to the
states of Maharashtra and
Gujarat.
“We plan to expand the
activities to other states
also”, Ghosh said.
Shares of Bandhan Bank
closed 5.13% higher at Rs 518
on the BSE. —PTI
Centric Candolim Goa.
New to the Hyatt portfolio
as part of the Two Roads Hos-
pitality acquisition in No-
vember 2018, the Alila brand
also added two new proper-
ties in India, located in Diwa
Goa and Fort Bishangarh.
Later in 2019, Hyatt plans
to expand its brand footprint
in Kerala with the opening of
Hyatt Regency Kochi Malay-
attoor, a resort property on
the banks of the Periyar riv-
er, and Hyatt Regency Thris-
sur, providing travellers with
the first premium hotel in
Thrissur.
Hyatt also plans to add its
first resort in the foothills of
the Himalayas with the an-
ticipated opening of Hyatt
Regency Dharamshala Re-
sort in the second half of
2019. —PTI
09
Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019 I daily news & analysis
IOB gets nod to
raise `3,806 cr
Chennai: Indian Overseas
Bank said its shareholders
have approved the special
resolution to issue equity
shares towards capital infu-
26Kcr
sion of Rs 3,806 crore from
the Government of India.
` According to the bank’s
Loss reported by MD and CEO, R Subramania-
the company in the kumar the capital infusion
December quarter of the would help the bank shore up
its capital adequacy require-
current fiscal
ments and enable the bank
billion investment, analyst build a robust loan book. seeking funds
claim that the fire fighting is “The shareholders of In-
„„Shareholders approved
not expected to be easy, espe- dian Overseas Bank at the
the special resolution to
cially since the motivation Extra Ordinary General
issue 269 crore equity
level of employees would be Meeting held on March 28,
shares at issue price of Rs
down after the company in have approved the special
14.12 apiece
January reduced its global resolution to issue
workforce by 4,500 people. 269,54,67,422 equity shares at „„The bank has issued
However, the efforts by issue price of Rs 14.12 per and allotted shares to
the company to work more equity share (including a the government
closely with retail operators premium of Rs 4.12 per eq-
in China instead of pushing uity share) on preferential
wholesales sales in China basis to Government of In- en by the Bank for turna-
combined with innovative dia for the capital infusion of round, there was visible im-
product launches and place- Rs 3,806 crore received from provement on its perfor-
ment, may help JLR resur- the Government in February mance in the third quarter
rect its positioning in the 2019,” a bank statement said. results.
world’s largest luxury car Following the approval, Indian Overseas Bank re-
market. the bank has issued and al- corded a net loss of Rs 346
Shares of Tata Motors on lotted the shares to the gov- crore for the quarter ending
Thursday closed 0.41% high- ernment, it said. December 31, 2018. It was
er at Rs 170.60 apiece on the Subramaniakumar said down 64% from Rs 971 crore
BSE. —Agencies following the initiatives tak- in the year ago period. —PTI
MSEDCL says
no dues
pending to pvt
generators
New Delhi: Maharashtra
State Electricity Distribu-
tion Co Ltd (MSEDCL) on
Start-ups, e-comm drive PE, Wednesday said it has no
outstanding towards pri-
VC investments in 2018 vate power generators and
dues reflecting on a govern-
Revival of start-ups, continued uptick in control deals and
larger bets, increased focus of sovereign wealth funds towards
ment portal are “unilater-
ally” uploaded by private
assets boosted PE investments, a Grant Thornton report said
power generators without
validation from distribu-
$20.5 bn 786
tion companies.
- Number of funding transactions last year
Responding to reports of
Private equity 12 power generating compa-
59%
and venture nies belonging to firms such
- Of PE investments
capital as GMR and Adani Group
accounted for start-ups in
investments and public sector generators
value terms
last year like NTPC having about Rs
41,730 crore outstanding
47 6
from state distribution com-
deals were deals were panies (discoms), it said,
valued at $100 worth over “the figures posted by pri-
million or above $500 million vate power generators on
this website may be mislead-
ing”.
It is not unusual to witness high levels of public It said the report was
spending in election years and it may push based on the data available
investments in rural and infrastructure-related
on PRAAPTI online portal
sectors in the near term,  – The report added of the government of India.
—PTI
29
Friday
March
2019
Ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
ATHLETICS
BALL GAME
Hafeez undergoes
second surgery
Pakistan’s experienced
all-rounder Muhammad
Hafeez could find him-
self out of the upcoming
World Cup after he un-
derwent a follow-up sur-
gery on his fractured
thumb in Manchester
earlier this week. The
38-year-old Hafeez has
been told to rest for two
weeks before he can re-
sume training of any
sort.
‘Don’t see need
for using Mankad’
Kings XI Punjab captain
Ravichandran Ashwin’s
recent ‘Mankad’ dis-
missal of Rajasthan Roy-
als batsman Jos Buttler
in the IPL was not
“within the spirit of the
game”, Delhi Capitals
pacer Trent Boult said
on Thursday. “It is pret-
ty interesting to see it
happen. I think the IPL
tournament itself is
very exciting, amazing
cricket is being played. I
think we should just let
the cricket play in the
right spirit, I do not real-
ly see too much need for
anyone to be doing
that,” Boult told report-
ers here.
Guptill preparing
by playing Rashid
Martin Guptill is not
among the four first-
choice overseas players
for Sunrisers Hyderabad
but the senior New Zea-
land batsman wants to
utilise his time facing
Rashid Khan at the nets
to prepare for the World
Cup game against Af-
ghanistan on June 8.
Cardiff Blues signs
Botham’s grandson
James Botham, grand-
son of England cricket
great Ian Botham, has
signed a first senior con-
tract with Welsh region-
al rugby side Cardiff
Blues. The 21-year-old, a
former Wales Under-20
international, made his
Pro 14 debut for the
Blues earlier this season.
The Blues announced
deals for back-row for-
ward Botham, whose fa-
ther Liam played for
Cardiff, prop Keiron As-
siratti and flanker Shane
Lewis-Hughes.
Richardson’s bone
damage ruled out
Australian pacer Jhye
Richardson remains
hopeful of his participa-
tion in the forthcoming
World Cup after it was
confirmed on Thursday,
that there was no bone
damage after he dislo-
cated his shoulder in the
ongoing series against
Pakistan.
Jain appointed
Ethics Officer
Supreme Court-appoint-
ed BCCI Ombudsman
Justice D K Jain (retd)
will now serve as the
Ethics Officer of the
Board of Control for
Cricket in India on an
ad-hoc basis, the Com-
mittee of Administrator
(CoA) said on Thursday.
According to BCCI, pro-
visions in its constitu-
tion require an Ethics
Officer to be appointed
to determine and decide
issues related to conflict
of interest.
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MotoGP Valentino Rossi will re-
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accused the world champion of “destroying
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The IAAFclears five more Russian athletes to return to international events, albeit competing under a neutral banner
Mumbai Indians win humdinger with a ‘no ball’
Rohit & Co clinch last-ball thriller by 6 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore but TV replays show Malinga overstepping line
Match No. 7
DNA Correspondent
sports@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Mumbai Indians
edged past Royal Challengers
Bangalore by six runs off the
last ball, but there was contro-
versy as the final delivery by
Lasith Malinga was a no ball.
Chasing Mumbai’s 188, it
all came down to seven runs
off the last ball with Shivan
Dube on strike. Malinga
bowled a full ball, and all the
southpaw could do was hit it
on the ground to long on. MI
players celebrated widly, but
it was TV replays later
showed that Malinga had
overstepped the line.
The chase was anchored
by AB de Villiers, whose un-
beaten 70 off 41 balls went in
vain due to some brilliant
death bowling by Jasprit
Bumrah and Malinga.
RCB started the chase
positively, with Moeen Ali
and Parthiv Patel sending a
few balls to the boundary
rope before the former was
run out by a direct throw by
Rohit Sharma.
Kohli came out looking
good, smacking Bumrah for
three consecutive fours to
signal his intent. Patel was
going good at the other end as
well but leg-spinner Mayank
Markande cut short his stay,
cleaning him up in the sev-
enth over as RCB were 67/2.
De Villiers was dropped
off the very first ball, Yuvraj
Singh dropping a faily simple
catch at first slip off Mar-
kande. That was the favour de
Villiers needed, finding his
groove slowly yet steadily
Haven’t discussed Mankading: Unadkat MCC U-turn: Ashwin
Match No. 8
Hyderabad: Rajasthan Roy-
als as a team has moved on
from the Jos Buttler ‘Mankad-
ing’ incident and the focus
will strictly be on winning
their next IPL encounter
against Sunrisers Hyderabad
here on Friday, said seamer
Jaydev Unadkat.
A rampaging Buttler was
‘Mankaded’ by KXIP skipper
Ravichandran Ashwin and
the incident sparked off a
wide-ranged reaction across
cricket community with cus-
todians of the game MCC do-
ing a U-turn that the Indian
did not adhere to ‘Spirit of
Cricket’.
Asked if the team was af-
fected by ‘Mankading’ contro-
versy, Unadkat said: “We
haven’t even mentioned it
once after that day. We have
moved on from that incident.
It’s time that we focus on the
game coming up.
“Every game is going to be
crucial in a tournament like
this. Mankading (controver-
sy) has not really made any
kind of impact on us and we
are looking for what we can do
to win the game tomorrow.”
Buttler looked a cut above rest
when it came to attacking the
KXIP bowling and Unadkat
said that the Englishman
Ban on Smith, Warner ends; eligible for Australian return
Brisbane: After a long, hard
12-month slog for Australian
cricket, ex-skipper Steve
Smith and his deputy David
Warner will be allowed to re-
join their old teammates af-
ter serving bans for a ball-
tampering scandal in South
Africa.
Friday marks the day both
senior batsmen can return to
the national team, but that
won’t translate into an imme-
diate recall.
Smith and Warner are
playing franchise cricket in
the Indian Premier League,
while Australia is in the Unit-
MI’s Mayank Markande and skipper Rohit Sharma celebrate after
dismissing RCB’s Parthiv Patel in Bengaluru on Thursday —PTI
Orange cap
Nitish Rana
(KKR)
131 runs
Rishabh Pant (DC)  103
Robin Uthappa (KKR)  102
We are playing at
the IPL level, it’s
not club level. The
umpires should have
their eyes open. That was
a big no ball
Virat Kohli, RCB captain
even as Kohli was moving
along nicely at the other end.
RCB crossed the 100-run
mark, and MI needed a wick-
et. Rohit turned to his strike
bowler, and Bumrah deliv-
ered for his captain, sending
Kohli back on 46 with a
bouncer to reduce the hosts
to 116/3 in the 14th over.
But that’s when AB took
over completely, hitting the
frequent boundary to keep
the required run rate in
check.
SRH
Match No. 8, Rajiv Gandhi Intl Stadium, Uppal
Live On Star Sports 1, 2 & 1 hindi, 8 pm
williamson likely to return
SRH: The good news is
captain Kane Williamson
is likely to return to
already boosted batting,
News
thanks to the inform David Ajinkya Rahane looking to
Warner. Their bowlers, how- return to form. Steve Smith and
ever, will have to pul Joss Buttler will like to
up their socks win against SRH
Rashid
Khan
contest
Rajasthan Royals’ Steve Smith has shown form in the last game.
He would be keen to take on SRH’s best bowler Rashid Khan that
will serve as one of the best contest between the bat and ball
Head to head: Played: 9, SRH: 5, RR: 4
Pitch Report: It won’t be
a true batting track with
something for spinners
7
Punter Point:
SRH 4/6,
RR 6/5
alone can’t win the franchise
games as he would also re-
quire support from other bats-
men.
“It (Buttler’s form) actual-
ly adds to that confidence. If
someone starts like that, peo-
ed Arab Emirates playing Pa-
kistan with two games left af-
ter clinching a five-match
limited-overs international
series.
The World Cup starts in
late May in England, so
there’s not much time left for
players to prove themselves,
or get reacquainted.
Smith and Warner met up
briefly with the Australia
squad in Dubai this month
and said it felt like they’d
never left.
But Aaron Finch, who took
over as captain of Australia’s
limited-overs squad, said
Football Cristiano Ronaldo will undergo
further tests in Turin on Thursday as he battles to be
fit for Juventus’s Champions League double header
against Ajax after picking up a thigh injury on interna-
tional duty for Portugal
Purple cap
Yuzvendra Chahal
(RCB)
5 wickets
Imran Tahir (CSK)
Jasprit Bumrah (MI)
HOW THEY STAND
TEAM M W L T P NRR
KKR 2 2 0 0 4 0.834
CSK 2 2 0 0 4 0.495
DC 2 1 1 0 2 0.782
KXIP 2 1 1 0 2 -0.350
MI 2 1 1 0 2 -0.775
SRH 1 0 1 0 0 -0.255
RCB 2 0 2 0 0 -0.575
RR 1 0 1 0 0 -0.700
With RCB needing 40 off 18
balls, de Villiers struck
Hardik Pandya for a four and
a couple of consecutive sixes
to bring the equation down to
22 off 12.
But Bumrah then deliv-
ered a perfect penultimate
over to turn things back in
favour of MI.
Earlier, Hardik Pandya
late burst MI reached 187/8.
VS RR
RR: The Mankading contro-
Team versy might have had an
impact on their minds, but
RR will look to start afresh.
Key
Steve
Smith
Weather Report: Temperature
will touch 40 degree which
may make tough for players
Watchability quotient: (1-3: Forget it;
4-7: If there is nothing else to watch; 8
and above: try not to miss it)
ple can take confidence and
can learn from the way he has
been approaching the game.
He has been tremendous for
us throughout the last season.
“However, there need to be
others, who can also contrib-
They were
probably as
nervous as anyone
coming back into the
group..
Aaron Finch,
Australia captain
there was some nervousness
at that meet-and-greet. “It’s a
totally different set-up to
when they left it,” Finch was
quoted as saying. “What’s im-
portant is they’re really keen
to slot back into how this cur-
4 Yadav, 15.3 ov), 5-145 (KA Pollard, 15.6 ov), 6-146 (KH
4 Pandya, 16.3 ov), 7-147 (MJ McClenaghan, 17.1 ov), 8-172
MI batsman Hardik Pandya plays a shot agianst RCB in Bengaluru on Thursday —PTI
RR’s Joss Buttler (L) will look to get
over Mankading controversy —AFP
ute as Buttler alone can’t win
you games. Yes, him being in
prime form is an advantage
for us.”
The 27-year-old Unadkat
said that at this level, a player
needs to have with hunger
and passion inside him to step
up the game as the unherald-
ed bowling unit is getting a
taste of it.
“To step up the game, eve-
ryone does it individually.
Captain, coaches are there.
But at this level, you have to
have it inside you. Even if we
don’t have as much experi-
ence but we have the talent to
go forward.” On a personal
front, Unadkat was asked if
he fancied his chance of mak-
ing it to the World Cup squad.
“It’s that time of my career
where I want to really focus
and enjoy playing each and
every game that I get,” he
signed off. —PTI
rent side works.
“They were probably as
nervous as anyone coming
back into the group. You’d
think guys with 20-odd test
hundreds would just come
back in, but it is a different
time and they have been out
for quite a while.”
The so-called “Sandpaper-
gate” sent cricket into turmoil
in Australia, where fans and
ex-players struggled to fath-
om how a team that claimed to
hold the moral high ground in
the sport could suddenly lose
all credibility in a clumsy
cheating scheme. —AP
pause was too long
London: The Marylebone
Cricket Club, considered the
custodian of cricket laws, has
made a U-turn on Ravichan-
dran Ashwin’s ‘Mankading’
of Jos Buttler in an IPL
match, saying it found the
Indian’s action against the
spirit of the game after a re-
view.
The MCC had earlier
backed Ashwin’s right to run
out Buttler at the non-strik-
er’s end without a warning
on his bowling stride. But has
changed its position within a
day of its original statement.
“Having extensively re-
viewed the incident again
and after further reflection
we don’t think it was within
the spirit of the game,”
MCC’s manager of the Laws,
Fraser Stewart was quoted as
saying by British newspapers
here.
“We believe the pause was
too long between the time
Ashwin reached the crease
and the moment it was rea-
sonable to expect the ball
would be delivered. When
Buttler could have reasona-
bly expected the ball to be
delivered, he was in his
ground.” In its original state-
ment on Tuesday, the MCC
had stated, “...it has never
Steve Smith & David Warner, who were involved in Sandpaper Gate will hope
to return to the Australian set up —Reuters
MCC made a U-turn on the
controversial ‘Mankading’ wicket
by KXIP skipper R Ashwin
been in the Laws that a warn-
ing should be given to the
non-striker and nor is it
against the Spirit of Cricket
to run out a non-striker who
is seeking to gain an advan-
tage by leaving his/her
ground early.” Even in its
fresh take, the MCC main-
tained that the non-strikers
should remain behind the
line till the time the ball is
delivered.
“It is also unfair, and
against the spirit of cricket,
for non-strikers to leave their
ground too early. All these
debates wouldn’t be neces-
sary if non-strikers remained
in their ground until the ball
is on its way down the pitch,”
Stewart said. —PTI
10
Six meter
10 9 7
SCOREBOARD
RCB vs MI
Match No. 7, Venue: M Chinnaswamy Stadium,
Bengaluru, Toss: RCB, bowl first
Mumbai Indians R B 4/6 SR
Q de Kock b Chahal 23 20 2/1 115.00
R Sharma c Siraj b Yadav 48 33 8/1 145.45
S Yadav c Ali b Chahal 38 24 4/1 158.33
Y Singh c Siraj b Chahal 23 12 0/3 191.66
K Pollard c Hetmyer b Chahal 5 6 0/0 83.33
K Pandya c Saini b Yadav 1 2 0/0 50.00
H Pandya not out 32 14 2/3 228.57
M McClenaghan b Siraj
M Markande c Patel b Siraj
1 4 0/0 25.00
6 5 1/0 120.00
J Bumrah not out 0 1 0/0 0.00
Extras (B4, LB1, NB1, W4) 10
Total (for 8 wkts in 20 Overs) 187 (9.35 runs per over)
Fall of wickets: 1-54 (Q de Kock, 6.3 ov), 2-87 (RG
Sharma, 10.4 ov), 3-124 (Yuvraj Singh, 13.4 ov), 4-142 (SA
(M Markande, 19.1 ov)
Bowling: U Yadav 4-0-26-2, N Saini 4-0-40-0, M Siraj
4-0-38-2, Y Chahal 4-0-38-4, C de Grandhomme 3-0-27-0,
M Ali 1-0-13-0
Royal Challengers Bangalore R B 4/6 SR
P Patel b Markande 31 22 4/1 140.90
M Ali run out (Sharma) 13 7 1/1 185.71
V Kohli c HH Pandya b Bumrah 46 32 6/0 143.75
AB de Villiers not out 70 41 4/6 170.73
S Hetmyer c H Pandya b Bumrah 5 6 0/0 83.33
Grandhomme c K Pandya b Bumrah 2 7 0/0 28.57
S Dube not out 9 5 0/1 180.00
Extras (LB2, W3) 5
TOTAL (for 5 wickets in 20 Overs) 181 (9.05 runs per
over)
Fall of wickets: 1-27 (MM Ali, 3.2 ov), 2-67 (PA Patel, 6.5
ov), 3-116 (V Kohli, 13.4 ov), 4-147 (SO Hetmyer, 16.1 ov),
5-169 (C de Grandhomme, 18.3 ov)
Bowling M McClenaghan 2-0-24-0, L Malinga 4-0-47-0, J
Bumrah 4-0-20-3, H Pandya 3-0-37-0, K Pandya 4-0-28-0,
M Markande 3-0-23-1
Result: Mumbai Indians win by 6 runs
Man of the match: Jasprit Bumrah
Nitish Rana
Would like to
continue form I
started till end,
says Rana
Kolkata: Consecutive fifties
in different batting positions
ought to be a confidence-
builder but Kolkata Knight
Riders batsman Nitish Rana
says he is occupied by the con-
cern of maintaining his form
that usually “fizzles” out ear-
ly in the IPL.
As a makeshift opener in
the absence of Sunil Narine,
Rana struck a fine 68 in KKR’s
first match against Sunrisers
Hyderabad on Sunday.
Back at No.4 in their sec-
ond match, Rana scored a 34-
ball 63 against Kings XI Pun-
jab on Wednesday to overtake
Delhi Capitals’ Rishabh Pant
(103 runs in two matches) in
the early Orange Cap race.
“I haven’t thought too far
ahead. But for the last couple
of seasons, I start well but my
form fizzles out towards the
later half of the tourna-
ment,” Rana said after KKR’s
28-run win here on Wednes-
day night.
“So this time around, I
want to work on this. I want
to continue the kind of form
I have started in till the end of
the tournament.” Rana did
not have a good season with
Delhi in the domestic circuit,
managing just 147 runs form
10 matches in the Syed
Mushtaq Ali T20 and 191 runs
from six matches in the Ranji
Trophy.
Four of his seven sixes
came against India’s top off-
spinner Ravichandran Ash-
win but Rana said the attack
was not pre-planned. —PTI
 sP rt
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
11
Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019 I daily news & analysis

Manchester United sing Ole, Ole

Hot on heels

India seek to test

attacking skills
Their final berth already
sealed, favourites India
would look to test their
attacking prowess and Old Trafford club confirms Norwegian as full-time
aim for a big win when
High Here are five key wins that landed Solskjaer his dream job
manager for 3 years after leading turnaround

they take on lower-
ranked Poland in their
final league match of
the Sultan Azlan Shah
Cup hockey tournament
in Ipoh on Friday. The
last round league match-
es have become inconse-
quential for all the
teams but finalists India
and Korea would look to
keep their winning mo-
mentum intact.
EB may not play
Super Cup
East Bengal board mem-
bers decided not to par-
ticipate in the Super
Cup main round which
begins in Bhubaneswar,
holding firm to the alli-
ance of eight revolting I-
League clubs. Terming
it ‘unethical’ to pull out
of the alliance, East
Bengal said in a state-
ment: “The East Bengal
nominees on the Board
5
Cardiff 1 Manchester United 5 PSG 1
1The calibre of opposition may have been meagre, but on the ground where 5 Man Utd 3
Manchester: Manchester I’m beyond excited to have his only previous experience as a Premier League manager went badly wrong, The French cham-
United appointed Ole Gun- the chance to lead the club Solskjaer got the flying start he needed to kickstart his time in charge. pions inflicted
nar Solskjaer as the club’s long-term and hopefully de- the sole defeat
permanent manager on a liver the continued success Tottenham 0 Manchester United 1 of Solskjaer’s
three-year contract on Thurs- that our amazing fans de- gunnar 2 When Mourinho was sacked, Mauricio Pochettino was immediately installed first 17 games
day following a highly suc- serve,” he added. as the favourite for the Old Trafford hotseat. But Solskjaer won his first head- in charge with
cessful caretaker spell in After Mourinho was to-head battle with the Argentine at Wembley thanks to a combination of smart what seemed like
charge of the team. sacked following a 3-1 loss to tactics and the brilliance of David de Gea. a statement 2-0
The Norwegian, 46, has Liverpool on December 16, win at Old Trafford
inspired a dramatic revival Molde boss Solskjaer was Chelsea 0 Manchester United 2 in the first leg of
of United’s fortunes since given the task of reviving 3 A quest for FA Cup glory may have ended in quarter-final defeat to Wolves, their Champions
taking over from the sacked United’s flagging for- but impressive wins at Arsenal and Chelsea in the earlier rounds showed League last-16
Jose Mourinho in December, tunes but was expected Solskjaer’s victory at Tottenham was not a flash in the pan. Ander Herrera tie. No side had
winning 14 of his 19 games to return to the Norwe- and Pogba scored two wonderfully crafted goals. ever overturned a
and leading the Red Devils to gian club after his 2-0 first leg home
the quarterfinals of the caretaker spell. Manchester United 3 Southampton 2
Champions League. 4 “It is like the old days,” said Solskjaer, a legendary scorer of late
defeat in European
Cup history and
Solskjaer, who scored 126 Pogba goals in his playing days, after Romelu Lukaku’s late winner swung a five- United travelled
goals in 366 appearances for transformed goal thriller United’s way. A home win over Southampton is not normally to Paris bereft
United, was a hero to fans as At that stage Totten- a cause from great celebration, but the manner of victory in coming of 10 first team
the man who scored the stop- ham manager Mauri- from behind with an injury-ravaged squad proved vital. players, including
page-time winner in the 1999 cio Pochettino was the Pogba through
Champions League final to firm favourite for the suspension. But
complete a historic treble.
In his short spell in charge,
permanent Old Traf-
ford hotseat but Solsk- Solskjaer at Man Utd this was the night
when any doubts
he has lifted United back into jaer forced the hand of

2 3 14 17
over who would
suggested that since an contention for a top-four fin- Manchester United hier- get the job on a
alliance of Clubs have ish in the Premier League archy by sheer weight of permanent basis
already been formed, it and is preparing for a mouth- results, becoming the first Drawn Lost Won disappeared. Sol-
would be unethical for watering Champions League United manager to win his Goals
Against skjaer was canny
us to come out of the Al- clash against Barcelona next first six league games. to remain cautious
liance.” month. Solskjaer also helped and ensure United

Currey, Durant
star for Warriors
Stephen Curry and
Kevin Durant each
scored 28 points, with
Durant going 12 of 13
from the field, and the
Golden State Warriors
beat the Memphis Griz-
zlies 118-103 to take sole
possession of the West-
ern Conference lead.
Curry also had 10 re-
bounds, and DeMarcus
Cousins added 16 points
and nine rebounds to
help the Warriors break
a tie with idle Denver for
the top spot in the West.
40
“From the first day I ar- cleanse the toxic atmosphere stayed in the tie
rived, I felt at home at this at United, where Mourinho
long enough to
special club,” Solskjaer said had fallen out with a number prey on PSG’s
in a statement on United’s of key players. Goals for nerves.
website. “It was an honour to France World Cup winner
be a Manchester United play- Paul Pogba and Marcus
er, and then to start my Rashford in particular
coaching career here. have thrived under Sol-
“The last few months have skjaer, who has been
been a fantastic experience credited with restor- In elite club
and I want to thank all of the ing an attacking
Here are five managers with the most points from their
coaches, players and staff for verve missing un-
opening 13 Premier League games at a single club
the work we’ve done so far. der a succession of
“This is the job that I al- managers.
ways dreamed of doing and —AFP Guus Hiddink (Chelsea) 34
Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea) 33
Luiz Felipe Scolari (Chelsea) 32

Unique Hopman
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United) 32
Cup disbanded Jose Mourinho (Chelsea) 32
The unique mixed teams
Hopman Cup in Perth n zone
has been axed after 31

32
years and replaced by Since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s appointment at Man Utd in
the ATP World Team December, the Red Devils have won more points than any
Cup, officials said other Premier League team
Thursday in a revamp

of the season-opening
tennis calendar. Two of
the three cities to host
the new men-only tour-
nament — Sydney and
Brisbane — had already
been announced with
Perth now confirmed as
the third. It means the
popular Hopman Cup,
won this year by Swiss
pair Roger Federer and
Belinda Bencic, has had
to make way.
Bajrang, Rani
bag awards
Bajrang Punia, Rani
Rampal, Rishabh Pant
and Manu Bhaker were
Halep 1 victory away from
reclaiming world No. 1 spot
presented the Delhi
4 1
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (R) shakes hands with manager Solskjaer is United’s fourth permanent No. of EPL
Sir Alex Ferguson before his testimonial match against manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired games, out 13
Espanyol at Old Trafford in August 2008 —File, AP in 2013 matches, that
Manchester United
United since Sir Alex Ferguson
6
The position of Manchester United in the have lost (against
EPL table when Solskjaer took charge. Arsenal) since Sol-
Manager Played Won Drawn Lost Win ratio % They were 11 points off the top four skjaer took charge
David Moyes (2013-14) 51 27 9 15 53
did you know?
Ryan Giggs (caretaker, 2014) 4 2 1 1 50
When he was asked to join Manchester United on a temporary
Louis van Gaal (2014-16) 103 54 25 24 52 deal, Solskjaer was manager of Molde. He had signed a three-year
Jose Mourinho (2016-18) 144 84 32 28 58 deal with the Norwegian club in December when their season had
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (2018 – present) 19 14 2 3 74 finished and the team was only “lending” him to Old Trafford
AFP
Asian Airgun:
Indians clinch Sai Praneeth pips Verma in
all-India clash to enter QF

Sports Journalists Asso-
ciation Best Sportsper-
sons awards by the Indi-
an Olympic Association
president Narinder Ba-
tra at a function in New
Delhi on Thursday.
Awards: Best Sports-
man: Bajrang Punia,
Rishabh Pant (Cricket);
Best Sportswoman: Rani
Rampal, Manu Bhaker;
Lifetime achievement:
Karnam Malleswari, Raj
Singh ; Best Coach: Jas-
pal Rana, Tarak Sinha
1 do my best result here and
2 Osaka’s third-round exit and
3 chance to become No. 1
Miami: Simona Halep over-
came a hiccup in the second
set to secure a 6-4 7-5 Miami
Open quarterfinal victory
over China’s Wang Qiang on
Wednesday, putting the Ro-
manian one win away from
reclaiming the world’s top
ranking from Naomi Osaka.
Standing in her way will
be Karolina Pliskova, who
endured a blip of her own in
the second set before defeat-
ing Marketa Vondrousova 6-3
6-4 in the evening session.
“Playing again in the
semi-finals is going to be a big
challenge. And maybe I can
play in the final,” Halep said
on court. “It’s going to be a
big match in the next round.”
Halep is the highest seed
left in the draw following
she said that while she is
aware she can reclaim top
spot it is not something she is
overly concerned about.
“If I play well, if I play my
best tennis, I have a better
again,” said Halep. “But it’s
not in my mind. I just want to
find my rhythm, to find my
level.” —Reuters
1 gold, 2 silver
New Delhi: Indian shooters
Federer in clinched one gold and two sil-
quarters ver on the second day of com-
petitions to remain on top of
Roger Federer the standings in the 12th
is preparing Asian Airgun Champion-
himself for a ships in Taoyuan, Taipei.
barrage of Kevin Ravi Kumar and Elavenil
Anderson big Valarivan won a silver in the
serves after the senior 10m air rifle mixed
Swiss sealed team event while India made
his place in the it a 1-2 in the corresponding
Miami Open junior event.
quarterfinals in Ravi and Elavenil topped
just 61 minutes the qualification rounds with
on Wednesday. a score of 837.1 but were beat-
Federer is en in the five-team final by the
celebrating 20
years at this
Korean pair of Park Sunmin
and Shin Minki. The Koreans
tournament and won the gold with a score of
edged closer to 499.6 to the Indians’ 498.4.
his fourth title In the junior 10m air rifle
in Miami as the mixed team event, two Indian
up and coming
Russian Daniil
teams made it to the final
round. The pair of Mehuli
Medvedev was Ghosh and Keval Prajapati
swatted aside topped the qualification round
6-4 6-2. “If you with a score of 838.5, while
beat me at Wim- Shreya Agrawal and Yash Var-
bledon, you’ve dhan qualified in second posi-
got my atten-
tion,” Federer
tion with 831.2. Shreya and
Yash, however, turned the ta-
said of his match Romania’s Simona Halep smacks a forehand bles on their compatriots in
with Anderson. return to Qiang Wang of China —AFP the final, piping them by a
margin of 0.4 points. —PTI
India open
DNA Correspondent
sports@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: B Sai Praneeth
pipped Sameer Verma in an
enthralling all-India second
round clash to enter the quar-
terfinals of the India Open
here on Thursday.
The world No. 20 Sai Pra-
neeth lay on the court for an
emotional moment after ral-
lying to edge past his compa-
triot 18-21 21-16 21-15 in a
match that lasted 1 hour and
11 minutes.
This was the 26-year-old’s India’s HS Prannoy returns to Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen during their
second consecutive victory second round match in New Delhi on Thursday —PTI
over the world No. 15 Verma
after beating him at the Swiss Key results
Open – where he made it to
Men’s singles: 3-K Srikanth (IND) bt Lu Guangzu (CHN) 21-11
the final – earlier this month.
Having beaten his practice 21-16, HS Prannoy (IND) bt Jan O Jorgensen (DEN) 21-19
partner, Sai Praneeth re- 20-22 21-17, S Praneeth (IND) bt 5-S Verma (IND) 18-21 21-16
vealed how tough it can get to 21-15, P Kashyap (IND) bt T Saensomboonsuk (THA) 21-11
play an opponent you know 21-13, W Tzu Wei (TPE) bt S Dey (IND) 21-16 21-13; Women’s
so well. “When you play an singles: 2-PV Sindhu (IND) bt Deng Joy Xuan (HKG) 21-11 21-
opponent who you play with, 13, 8-M Blichfeldt (DEN) bt R Mookerjee (IND) 21-8 17-21 21-
13; Men’s Doubles: 6-Attri/Reddy (IND) bt Huang/Wang (CHN)
it is obviously tough. We
know each other’s weakness- 25-23 21-18; Women’s doubles: 4-Hoo/Yap (MAS) bt Dandu/
es and strengths, so with no- Santosh (IND) 21-11 21-15, Balan/Sruthi (IND) bt Yeung/Wing
body outside the court to tell NG (HKG) 21-19 7-21 21-17; Mixed doubles: 4-Faizal/Widjaja
you something about strate- (INA) bt Chopra/Reddy (IND) 19-21 21-19 21-14
gies, you have to think on
your own,” Sai Praneeth said.

Shubhankar best-placed Indian at tied-7th Meanwhile, Parupalli

Gurgaon: Indian golfer
Shubhankar Sharma
emerged as the best Indian at
tied-7th, lying two shots off
the lead at the end of the first
round of the Indian Open
here on Thursday.
Send in your answers to Sharma was five-under
sportsdna@gmail.com. Names through 14 holes and looked
of the first 10 winners will be set for a share of the lead
published tomorrow with Stephen Gallacher, who
Shubhankar Sharma finished half an hour earlier.
But Sharma ran into back-
to-back bogeys and finished
with 69, which he said was
“still a decent start”.
Gallacher, who missed the
cut in his last four starts, and
Julian Suri shared the first
round lead with rounds of 67
each. Gallacher, a two-time
Dubai Desert Classic winner,
shot five-under 67 in the
morning wave and that effort
was equalled by Suri, who has
Indian origins, with the same
number in the afternoon.
“I think I played very well
today (Thursday), did not
make too many mistakes. I
missed a couple of key putts
on my front nine. Made a silly
mistake on six and seven but
apart from those holes I am
pretty happy with how I fin-
ished,” Sharma said. —PTI
Kashyap made short work of
world No. 58 Tanongsak Saen-
somboonsuk 21-11 21-13 in
just 37 minutes to secure his
quarterfinal berth.
Subhankar Dey failed to
repeat his first round heroics
and succumbed to a 16-21 13-
21 defeat to world No. 32 Wang
Tzu Wei.
Rising star Riya Mooker-
jee’s brave run, however,
came to an end at the hands
of eighth seed Mia Blichfeldt
8-21 21-17 13-21.
Sindhu, Srikanth win
Meanwhile, former champi-
ons PV Sindhu and Kidambi
Srikanth notched up com-
manding wins to storm into
the last eight stage.
Sindhu, the 2017 champi-
on, never relinquished con-
trol to Hong Kong’s world No.
37 Deng Joy Xuan in her 21-11
21-13 win. Up next for the sec-
ond seed is Danish eighth
seed Mia.
A day after needing three
games for his first round
win, 2015 men’s singles
champion Kidambi Srikanth
did not put a foot wrong and
recorded a 21-11 21-16 victory
over China’s Lu Guangzu,
and will face Sai Praneeth in
the quarterfinals.
HS Prannoy continued his
unbeaten streak against for-
mer world No. 2 Jan O Jor-
gensen. With a 21-19 20-22 21-
17 win, the Indian registered
his fourth win over the Dane
in as many meetings.
Prannoy will next meet
the second seed and former
champion Viktor Axelsen.
 29
Friday
March
2019
Ahmedabad

After
www.dnaindia.com

According to reports, Malaika Arora and Arjun Kapoor plan to have a big fat Christian
Malla-Arjun to wedding at a church in Bandra on April 19, in the presence of close friends and family
members. Industry invitees include Malla’s gang of girls and bridesmaids, Kareena
wed on April 19? Kapoor Khan, Amrita Arora Ladakh and others. The Kapoor khandaan will celebrate
along with Karan Johar, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Varun Dhawan.

Junglee takes Revisit the scenic

families on an beauty of Kashmir
adventurous ride with Notebook

Ashwini Sawant/DNA
(Clockwise) Ashwin Varde,
Salman Khan, Murad Khetani,
Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl

N
ational Award- amongst others.
winning director Decades later, the
Vidyut Jammwal Nitin Kakkar’s magnificent place still
in Junglee Notebook paints a adds magic to a romantic
mesmerising picture of tale as seen in movies like
In the film, Vidyut

W
hen you have
Vidyut Jammwal
as a hero in your
film, how do you
choose which of his skills
in action and other
martial arts forms should
be highlighted? This was
the biggest question for
Hollywood director Chuck
Russell, who makes his
Bollywood debut with
Junglee, which stars the
actor. Chuck, however,
adds that it is a good
problem to have. In the
movie, Vidyut plays a vet
who returns to his father’s
elephant sanctuary and
fights an international
poachers’ racket. The film
is filled with adventure
that will appeal to audienc-
es of all age groups across
India.
To make the action
new and fresh, Master
Chung Chi Li, the Chinese
action director who has
done many films with
Jackie Chan including
Rush Hour (1998),
Shanghai Noon (2000),
Shanghai Knights (2003),
was roped in to design
the sequences along with
Kashmir as the movie Ayan Mukerji’s Yeh
showcases the never- has been filmed in its Jawaani Hai Deewani
Jammwal plays a seen-before Kalaripayattu picturesque locales. (2013), Vishal Bhardwaj’s
vet who returns animal flow, in which he
moves his body according
Over the years, the
region, which is popularly
Haider (2014), etc.
Drawing a romantic tale
to his father’s to various animal forms. known as Heaven on as beautiful as the delight- A still from Notebook
Chuck is confident that Earth, has been one of the ful locations, Notebook is
elephant Junglee will add to the most desired locations for an unconventional story of
sanctuary and actor’s growing fan base. Indian filmmakers. Shakti two individuals — Kabir love story begins when The simple and
Junglee Pictures’ Samanta’s Kashmir Ki (Zaheer Iqbal) and Firdaus they start exchanging beautiful love story
fights an Junglee is a family action Kali (1964) introduced (Pranutan Bahl) — who letters. It traces Kabir’s is backed by soulful
international adventure about coming viewers to its snow-clad fall in love despite never journey, who sets out on a songs.
home to one’s roots, mountains and breezy meeting each other. quest to search for Firdaus Notebook, presented by
poachers’ racket co-existing with nature valleys. Post which, The movie is set in 2007 and tries to reach her be- Salman Khan Films, is a
and fighting for the right. several classic hits have when the internet was fore she gets married to Cine1 Studios Production.
Mr See Young Oh, from Junglee, produced been set against its back- inaccessible to the locals someone else. Kabir is The film, produced by
Korea. The action is not by Vineet Jain and drop, such as Raj Kapoor’s of the Valley. Given the supported by his six Salma Khan, Murad
only entertaining but also co-produced by Priti Bobby (1973) and Mani backdrop and remote facil- students, who were Khetani and Ashwin
quirky. Moreover, Vidyut Shahani, releases today. Ratnam’s Dil Se (1998) ities, Kabir and Firdaus’s Firdaus’ students earlier. Varde, releases today.

Akshay to do Gully Boy takes music

hydrotherapy in April to the next level
The Bollywood superstar will fly to Germany for the same Ranveer Singh launches independent record label
Meena Iyer
IncInk; turns global entrepreneur!

I
t’s that time of the year when summer
temperatures peak. And, it’s also that
time of the year when Akshay Kumar
heads for his annual hydrotherapy treat-
ment. The Bollywood superstar, who is on a
career-high after delivering three `100-crore
movies back-to-back, is scheduled to fly out
in three days to begin the treatment. A
source says, “Akshay is one of the most agile
actors in Indian cinema. Though he is 51, he
is still considered to be an international
Khiladi on screen because of the stunts he
delivers. Even in Kesari, he has done some
spectacular ‘live’ action including rope
climbing. Of course, at the end of the day,
his physical form does wear thin. In a bid to
rejuvenate and restore his muscles, and
bring his body to optimum form, he has
taken to hydrotherapy.” Every year, he visits
Germany to follow the same under expert
care. The source adds, “He undergoes the
treatment required by most international
and desi actors, who do stunts in their
movies.”
(L to R): Kaam Bhaari, Spitfire, Navzar Eranee,
Ranveer Singh and SlowCheeta
Hindustani
More about rap/hip-hop is
Hydrotherapy Meena Iyer “We are first starting telling our nation’s turns a global entrepreneur

B
Hydrotherapy is a part of alternative with launching some really with his music venture.
medicine (particularly naturopathy), ollywood actor raw, immensely talented,
story and reality IncInk will launch its
occupational therapy, and physiothera- Ranveer Singh has new rap and hip-hop artistes and we, at IncInk, first single and music video
py, which involves the use of water for
pain relief and treatment. It takes
taken his love for
music to another
who we believe will be the
next superstars of the scene.
want to bring out Zeher today! He added, “The
first three exceptional
advantage of the physical properties level. He has teamed up with Rap and hip-hop are the the real poets of talents being launched are
Akshay Kumar of water, such as temperature and filmmaker/music evangelist biggest thing happening our generation Kaam Bhaari (who has sung
pressure, for therapeutic purposes that Navzar Eranee to launch in Indian music today. This Zeher), SlowCheeta and
help stimulate blood circulation and their passion project, an poetry is speaking of a revo- Ranveer Singh, actor Spitfire and I’m a huge fan
relax muscles. Various therapies used independent music record lution, it is speaking of how of their music. We intend to
Akshay is one of the most agile actors in Indian in present-day hydrotherapy employ label called IncInk. The India is protesting against Hindustani rap/hip-hop is sign and promote more
cinema. In a bid to rejuvenate and restore his water jets, underwater massage and label will look to unearth class structures, injustice, telling our nation’s story artistes, who are exploring
mineral baths or whirlpool bath, hot the future superstars of the and social atrocities. It is and reality and we, at various genres, in the days
muscles, and bring his body to optimum form, he has Roman bath and cold plunge among music scene in India and the voice of India, from the IncInk, want to bring out to come and showcase their
taken to hydrotherapy A source others. present their raw talent to a country’s streets that you the real poets of our genera- music to India and the
global audience. just can’t ignore anymore. tion,” said Ranveer, who world.” Contd on P13

Disclaimer: Note to reader: Some of the content/coverage that appear in our special ‘feature’ page/s may be paid for by the concerned brands. Such page/s will be appropriately declared as ‘features pages’ (e.g. reader engagement feature, etc.)
 After
Etc daily news & analysis
Ahmedabad I Friday, March 29, 2019
13
Nargis-Matt
Contd from P12

Gully Boy takes music

patch up
F
ilms or no films, Nargis Fakhri
always makes news. More so, be-
cause of her tumultuous
personal life. The pretty actress
was seeing American editor and film-
maker Matt Alonzo, till sometime
early this year. While in India to pro-
mote her last film, Nargis had an ugly
break-up with Matt and she headed
back to America in a jiffy. The heart-
broken heroine then took to yoga and
Nargis Fakhri The actress with Matt Alonzo
spiritualism to channel her inner
positivity. But there’s good news now.
She and Matt allegedly patched up
last week. “The two met and recon-
ciled. They sorted out their differenc-
es and are back together,” says a
source. Nargis, who had also deleted
all her pictures with Matt from her
social media accounts, has started fol-
lowing him again. Hope the couple is
lucky the second time around!
to the next level
Ranveer Singh says, “As an outsider in
Bollywood, I have always wanted to do my
bit to bring out and support the outstand-
ing talent that we have in every street of
our country. So, when Navzar and I came
up with the idea of IncInk, it appealed to
my core, my heart. IncInk is my passion
and I intend to use this platform to give as
many artistes, from across the country, a
chance to dazzle India with their talent.”
Navzar said, “Art can comfort the dis-
turbed and disturb the comfortable. Music
has always inspired me to think and act be-
yond my perceived limitations. As an ar-
tiste bubbling with a point of view, I grew
tired of safe conversations and diplomacy
driven by economic interests. I want to con-
nect with people. These connections via
truth and authentic expression, though not
always agreeable, create a more inclusive
conversation. This insight drove Ranveer
and I to push our own boundaries and form
IncInk. Anushka Manchanda a.k.a. Nuka &
Shikhar Manchanda a.k.a. RAKHIS came on
board as our Head of Music, because we all
agreed on the absolute core of what we envi-
sion for IncInk. Where artists can collabo-
rate and express with real freedom. In my
view, the haves and the have nots must en-
gage on common ground — through art and
music. This is where all collisions, disagree-
ments and agreements must occur. To cause
this change we must stir the nest, with our Ranveer Singh
thoughts, our deeds and our words.”

pick your brain crossword hidato Baby Blues

Down
1 Unusual item (6)
2 The science of law (8)
3 Chop into pieces (4)
4 Perspicacity (7)
5 Rest and relaxation, abbr.
(1,3,1)
6 Incentive (4)
7 Bed covering (7)
12 Actress Peeples (3)
14 Book after Joel (4)
18 Junkie (4)
19 Incorporeal (8)
20 Gofer’s jobs (7)
21 Cautious (7) The Pajama Dairies
24 Greek letter (3)
25 Six-line stanza (6)
26 Happen (5)
29 Male children (4)
30 Chief official of Venice or
Genoa (4)

Across 13 Small Indian weight (4) 26 Crew member (3)

1 Capital of Jharkhand (6) 15 Gujarat’s Sasan ___ (3) 27 Hoar (4)
16 D-day beach (5) 28 Cooked out on a spit (9) The goal of Hidato is to fill the grid
5 Ethiopian prince (3) with consecutive numbers that
8 Dancer Pavlova (4) 17 Geometrical solids (5) 31 Instigate (6)
20 Self-esteem (3) 32 Without purpose (4)
connect horizontally, vertically, or
9 Heap (4) diagonally from first to the last
10 Negligent (6) 22 Drunkard (3) 33 Sumerian sun god (4)
number in the grid. The first and last
23 Assignation (5) 34 Title of knight (3)
11 Checking or impeding (9)
24 Domesticated (5) 35 Escapes (4,2)
numbers of a puzzle and some other Tina’s Grove
numbers are already filled in.

spellathon How good is your vocabulary? Spell out sudoku

as many words of four or more letters
as you can from the letters in today’s To solve a Sudoku
diagram. In making a word, each letter puzzle, every digit
must be used only once and each word must appear once
must contain the letter in the centre. in: Each of the
There should be at least one nine-letter vertical columns;
word! Plurals, foreign words, and Each of the
proper nouns do not qualify. horizontal rows;
Rate yourself Each of the boxes.
21 Average; 23 Good; 25 Wow!

Tinkersons
crossword
solutions

leaded, lied
sudoku
hidato

idle, idled, lade, laid, lazed, lead,

died, idea, ideal, idealize, IDEALIZED,
dazed, dead, deal, deed, deli, dial,
addle, adze, aide, aided, dale, daze,
spellathon

Marjorie Orr
Your year ahead will be responsible, dutiful and conscientious, which doesn’t sound like an adventure. But your efforts won’t go unnoticed by those
IF IT’S YOUR whose judgement you trust. And you will know that determination is required to get your finances onto a better footing, especially since nothing seems
BIRTHDAY TODAY to stay the same for long where cash is concerned. Persistence will pay off. By the year end, success will come your way along with recognition.

ARIES TAURUS GEMINI CANCER LEO VIRGO

Mar 21 - Apr 20
This is a time for concentrating
on your successes and cutting
your losses. Don’t trail on with
what is not working well. There
may be truths to be faced but once you
have decided to come to grips with the
problem everything instantly gets easier.
You need to be self-disciplined and
self-controlled. This is not a time for
frivolity or indulgence, nor indeed laziness.
You have to face the bottom line, get a grip
and then start building.
Apr 21 - May 20
Your life is going through a
slow patch but maybe delays
could be giving you a chance to
see how to shake yourself loose
from a piece of the past that has been
weighing you down. If you could volunteer
for change then your life would become a
little easier. Having your opinions and
beliefs challenged is unsettling since you
take them seriously. But by widening your
understanding you will also come to see
where you may have got it wrong.
May 21 - June 21
Discouragement may get you
down about tricky emotional or
financial matters, but usually
after you have hit the bottom,
life gets better. You may have to be more
supportive than usual for close partners.
But through your experiences you are
building more resilience and stronger inner
resources, and should be able to achieve
more than most. When you decide to exert
your willpower, nothing much will distract
you from your goals.
June 22 - July 23
You will have an influential
effect on others but won’t be in
a mood to be out and about at
the moment. Your single-
tracked determination won’t always endear
you to close partners. The better
relationships in your life will weather the
current storms to emerge stronger. Saturn
around now may cut down on warmth, and
give rise to more nit-picking, or land you
with heavy responsibilities, but it does
make the good bonds more long lasting.
July 24 - August 23
With Saturn now creeping
closer to Pluto you have a
great deal of tenacity, but that
stubbornness does not always
work in your favour. Try not to be too much
a loner, or obsessive in your outlook and
resistant to change. If you do overwork to
excess at the moment, you will find your
body complaining. Whenever you feel under
par, you must ask yourself where you’ve not
been paying proper attention to your
physical needs. Learn to loosen up a little.
Aug 24 - Sep 23
Be reassured if you re not
feeling exuberant and carefree
that others are feeling much
the same. You must change,
even though you will feel like resisting. You
need to get right down into the depths to
new levels of understanding. If you can
push your more sensitive feelings to one
side for a while, you will learn a great deal
that is beneficial. This is not a time for
being playful or expressing your feelings
wholeheartedly. Be firm and practical.

LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES

Write to Sept 24 - October 22 Oct 23 - November 22 Nov 23 - Dec 22 Dec 23 - Jan 20 Jan 21 - Feb 19 Feb20 - March 20
Marjorie You may be rather uneasy Don’t be discouraged if you feel Try not to get gloomy. It always This is no time to be living on This is a time of tidying up an The people around you,
Orr at home and in your family that others are disagreeing with happens when Pluto and Saturn other people’s terms. You must old way of being. You are not whether friends or workmates,
relationships at the moment, you, or excluding you from are around because they push prune everything out of your life quite at the point where you may be older or more career
with your
but don’t get too gloomy. You conversations at work or in your you into your depths. You’re that is inessential and can step out into the new oriented. At times, you won’t be
queries at will almost certainly be held back by everyday routines. Just force yourself to find discovering new things about yourself. So phase that’s coming ahead. There may be happy with their rather critical advice but it
understand that you are now beginning a
afterhrs@ things outside your control. What will help the courage to ask what has gone wrong and you’ll ultimately be grateful because what new cycle in your life. Challenges around a tremendous amount of pressure at the is solidly based and well-meant. They are
dnaindia. is to continue with your plans to either then try to put it right. When you feel held comes out of this testing time is in the long now should be improving your strength of moment. You have to bend your back into prompting you to be more serious about
net move home or have work done on the one back by irritating circumstances, you need to term going to be tremendously helpful, character, making you tougher. You will be it and not give way. Think about getting your long-term plans. You’ll be fighting a
www. you live in. This is a parallel for an inner find patience, perseverance and let your making you a much more solid kind of putting constant pressure on the significant along with less than usual in terms of battle with yourself about whether to hang
star4cast. re-organisation. Life may not be rapturous dogged determination see you through. You person. And because of the lessons you are situations in your life until you get what you material resources. You will find that onto the way things have always been or,
com and ecstatic but you are building more have the courage and toughness required to being forced to learn about money, you’ll be need. So it will be push, push, push, push, you’re getting to where you want to be, whether to let go and find a new approach
solid foundations for the future. see you through to easier times. better organised and more secure. very slow and very profound. just very slowly. and new goals, which can lift your spirits.

14 www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
snapshot
‘Cong’s Nyay
scheme poses
big challenge’
Former NITI Aayog vice-
chairman Arvind Panagariya
‘Nyay’ is difficult
1 to implement and
unlikely to achieve its
intended objective. It raises
three major questions — the
incentive compatibility issue,
the fairness issue and fiscal
challenge
Transfer is meant
2 to be Rs 6,000 per
month per family to
50 million families and at the
same time, it also guarantees
an income of Rs 12,000 per
month to these families
What happens if one
3 family has an income
of only Rs 4,000 and
another Rs 8,000 per
month? Will the former then
receive Rs 8,000 and the
latter Rs 4,000 per month?
If so, why should anyone
with income below 12,000
do any work at all since their
incomes will be Rs 12,000
regardless of what they earn?
If the scheme is meant
4 to transfer flat Rs
6,000 per month to
identified families regardless
of the family’s earned in-
come, you cannot deliver Rs
12,000 per month to families
earning less than Rs 6,000s.
Add to it all other
5 in-kind transfers: sub-
sidised food, NREGA
wages, free house, free
toilet, free education and Rs
500,000 free health insurance
coverage.
SC refuses to stay screening of ‘Ram Janmabhoomi’ Karnataka ministers
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: The Supreme
Court on Thursday refused to
block the screening of a mov-
ie narrating the controversy
of the disputed Ramjanmab-
hoomi-Babri Masjid site find-
ing no “connection” between
the film in question and the
ongoing mediation on the
Ayodhya title suit dispute.
The film titled Ram ki Jan-
mabhoomi will be released
nationwide today as a bench
of Justices SA Bobde and S
Abdul Nazeer found that the
mediation process going on at
Faizabad, UP will not be af-
fected by the screening of a
film. The petition to block the
film’s release was mentioned
before the court by advocate
FB bans support to Taiwan’s drunk drivers may get death
‘white nationalism’
F
acebook Inc on Wednesday
banned praise, support and
representation of white
nationalism and white sepa-
ratism, a move that drew
qualified approval from New
Zealand where a massacre of
50 people in mosques was live
streamed earlier this month.
Civil rights groups have
said social media giants have
failed to confront extremism
and that was under the spot-
light this month after a sus-
pected white supremacist
broadcast live footage of his
attacks in Christchurch,
New Zealand.
Facebook, Twitter Inc and
Alphabet Inc’s YouTube have
been under pressure to re-
move white supremacist and
neo-Nazi content from their
platforms, alo-ng with fake
news and other
types of abusive
posts.
In response, Face-
book has beefed up
its content monitor-
ing teams and taken
down event pages
that were used to
promote and organize
rallies by white su-
premacist groups.
New Zealand Prime
Minister Jacinda
Ardern, who has called
for social media plat-
forms to be accountable
If anyone tries to play with your
dignity, self-respect and attempts to
bully you, Sanghmitra will turn into
a bigger goon than those people.
—Sanghmitra Maurya, daughter of UP
cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya
‘Article 35A pushing J&K A step forward in Mallya’s
case, backward in Nirav’s
economically backward’
Lashing out at Cong, Jaitley asks if Nehruvian course was historical blunder
New Delhi: Union Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley on
Thursday said that Article
35A, which restricts non-per-
manent residents to buy
property in Jammu and
Kashmir, is “constitutionally
vulnerable” and also ham-
pering economic develop-
ment of the state.
The statement comes
amidst the BJP pressing for
early elections to the state as-
sembly in the state. The state
is under President’s rule and
the Union Cabinet takes all
policy decisions related to the
militancy-hit state.
In a blog, Jaitley said the
seven-decade history of Jam-
mu and Kashmir confronts
changing India with several
questions. “Was the Nehru-
vian course, which the state
had embarked, a historical
blunder or was it the correct
course to follow? Most Indi-
ans today believe that it is the
former,” he said.
“Does our policy today
have to be guided by that er-
roneous vision or an out of
box thinking which is in con-
sonance with ground reali-
ty?” Jaitley questioned.
The senior BJP leader and
in-charge of the party’s cam-
paign committee for general
elections said Article 35A
was “surreptitiously” includ-
ed by a presidential notifica-
tion in the Constitution in
1954. Artcle 35A, he said, was
neither a part of the original
Constitution framed by the
Constituent Assembly, nor
did it come as a Constitution-
al Amendment under Article
368 of the Constitution which
requires an approval by two-
third majority of both Hous-
es of Parliament.
EC notice to 4 producers cry foul over I-T raids
Time to hit the screen nationwide
n The film titled ‘Ram ki Janmabhoomi’,
directed by Sanoj Mishra, will be
released nationwide today
n The SC appointed 3 mediators,
namely former SC judge FMI Kalifulla,
spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
and senior advocate Sriram Panchu
on March 8 giving them a month’s
time to submit an interim report.
Lily Thomas. She said the me-
diation process in the sensi-
tive Ayodhya title suit case is
presently ongoing.
The bench said, “There is
no connection between the
mediation process and the re-
lease of the movie. If the par-
ties want to settle it, they will
without being affected by the
outburst of anger
„„FB had banned white
supremacy under its
rules on “hateful” content,
but did not previously
consider white nationalist
or separatist content to
be explicitly racist. Tech
publication Motherboard
revealed that the
company was maintaining
the distinction last year
after an investigation
into its content
moderation policies.
for what users post, said ma-
terial covered by the meas-
ures should arguably have
already been banned under
Facebook’s hate-
speech rules.
“Having said
that, I’m pleased
to see that they
are including it,
and that they
have taken that
step, but I still
think that there
is a conversation
to be had with the inter-
national community
about whether or not
enough has been done,”
she told the media in
Christchurch on Thurs-
day. — REUTERS
Articulating article
‘Surreptitiously’ included in Constitution
„„Artcle 35A, Jaitley said, was neither a part of the
original Constitution framed by the Constituent Assembly,
nor did it come as a Constitutional Amendment under
Article 368 of the Constitution
„„It also discriminates between permanent residents
of the state and other Indian citizens living elsewhere
„„Article 35A, which is constitutionally vulnerable, is
used as a political shield by many but it hurt the common
citizen of the state the most. It denied them a booming
economy, economic activity and jobs
Does our policy today have to be guided by that
erroneous vision or an out of box thinking which
is in consonance with ground reality?
Arun Jaitley, Union Finance Minister
“It came as a presidential
notification and is a surrepti-
tious executive insertion in
the Constitution,” he said,
adding that the Article gives
the right to the state govern-
ment to discriminate be-
tween two state citizens liv-
ing in the state on the basis
of declaring some as perma-
film. No film can come in the
way of mediation. We are not
pessimistic about it.”
The SC appointed three
mediators: former SC judge
FMI Kalifulla, spiritual guru
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and sen-
ior advocate Sriram Panchu,
giving them a month’s time to
submit an interim report.
Taipei: Taiwan plans to
ramp up punishments for
those who cause a fatal acci-
dent while drunk driving,
including the death penalty
for the most egregious cases,
sparking an outcry from abo-
lition and rights groups.
The cabinet on Thursday
approved a draft amendment
to the Criminal Code that
would make death by drunk
Blooming colours Over 2 lakh footfall expected at Tulip Garden this year
1.2 mn tulips to spring colours on Paradise
Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
ishfaq-ul-hassan@dnaindia.net
Srinagar: Asia’s biggest Tu-
lip Garden is all decked up.
The garden, with 12 lakh tu-
lips and ranging across 55
varieties, will reopen next
week. The authorities also
boast that Hyacinths, a new
addition this year, will foster
the garden in new hues.
Spread over 600 kanals (20
kanals form one hectare), tu-
lip cultivation has been done
on 300 kanals of the garden
area. Located at the foothills
of Zabarwan hills on the
banks of Dal Lake, the gar-
den is the biggest draw for
the tourists visiting Kashmir
in spring.
Grandeur, serenity and
nent residents while leaving
out the others.
It also discriminates be-
tween permanent residents
of the state and other Indian
citizens living elsewhere, he
added. “Lakhs of Indian citi-
zens in J&K vote in the Lok
Sabha elections but not in As-
sembly, municipal or Pan-
of film ‘PM Narendra Modi’
New Delhi: Election Com-
mission of India has sent a
notice to four producers of
the film ‘PM Narendra Modi’
after receiving complaints
from few other political par-
ties regarding the intent and
timing of the movie.
The Congress party and
Communist Party of India
(Marxist) had complained to
the ECI about the film’s re-
lease, claiming that it’s being
done with political intent.
On March 25, a Congress
delegation had visited the EC
to protest against the Vivek
Oberoi-starrer, alleging that
driving an indictable murder
offence, potentially punisha-
ble by death if the deed is
deemed “intentional”, offi-
cials said. The proposal needs
parliamentary approval but
comes after a spate of high
profile deaths that have gen-
erated widespread outrage.
Currently the maximum
sentence in Taiwan for caus-
ing a death while drunk be-
tulip star
n J&K tourism department data shows 8.5 lakh
domestic and foreign tourists visited Kashmir in 2018.
The number was 23 per cent less than that 2017 when
the Valley received 11 lakh visitors.
n 1.80 lakh people visited the Tulip Garden last year.
This year, the figure might cross two lakh, says Abdul
Hafeez Shah, director, Floriculture Department Kashmir
colorful tulip beds, beautiful
Zabarwan mountain range
overlooking the garden and
world famous Dal Lake at its
base mark the spring beauty
of the Valley.
“It shall be opened in the
first week of April. There
will be 12 lakh tulips on dis-
play. In addition, a good num-
chayat polls. Their children
don’t get government jobs,
can’t own property and ad-
mission to governmental in-
stitutes,” he said.
“The same applies to those
who live elsewhere in the
country. The heirs of ladies
marrying outside the state
are disinherited from owing
or inheriting property,” the
minister added.
He said the state does not
have adequate financial re-
sources and its ability to
raise more has been crippled
by Article 35A. No investor is
willing to set up an industry,
hotel, private educational in-
stitutions or private hospi-
tals since he can neither buy
land or property nor can his
executives do so, he said.
“Article 35A, which is con-
stitutionally vulnerable, is
used as a political shield by
many but it hurt the common
citizen of the state the most.
It denied them a booming
economy, economic activity
and jobs,” Jaitley said.
The minister added that
the present government has
decided that the rule of law in
the interest of the people of
Kashmir valley and the larg-
er interest of India must
equally apply to Jammu &
Kashmir. He listed out devel-
opment works taken up in the
state. Jaitley also informed
that the National Investiga-
tion Agency (NIA) has lau-
nched a crack-down on ter-
rorist funding. The Income-
tax Department has swung
into action after 17 years and
discovered several sources of
anti-national funding. The
CBI is looking into 80,000 gun
licences given in recent years,
he added. — PTI
the film’s release slated just
ahead of the commencement
of Lok Sabha polls is a viola-
tion of the model code of con-
duct. The Congress delega-
tion, included Randeep Sin-
gh Surjewala, Kapil Sibal,
and Abhishek Manu Singhvi,
also sought a ban on the re-
lease of the biopic ahead of
polling. Last week, the EC
had sent notices to two news-
papers for publishing posters
of ‘PM Narendra Modi’ for
promotions. The movie has
also got into legal trouble af-
ter a petition was filed in the
Bombay High Court. — ANI
hind the wheel is 10 years.
The new proposal would
increase jail sentences for
repeat offenders who commit
a new offence within five
years of their first convic-
tion. They face up to a life
sentence for causing a death
and 12 years for grave inju-
ries. Very few countries em-
ploy the death penalty for
drunk driving cases.— AFP
ber of Hyacinths will be
showcased. This year, 55 vari-
eties of tulips will be dis-
played as compared to 45 last
year”, Abdul Hafeez Shah,
director, Floriculture Depart-
ment Kashmir
“What’s more important is
that most of the tulip varie-
ties this year are indigenous
second
front
page
Ahmedabad I friDAY, March 29, 2019 I daily news & analysis
London: The stage is set for
a busy period of Indian ex-
tradition-related activity in
the UK courts as liquor bar-
on Vijay Mallya’s High Court
appeal moves forward for a
judge’s verdict on paperwork
and fugitive diamond mer-
chant Nirav Modi returns to
Westminster Magistrates’
Court here for a second bail
hearing on Friday.
“All the papers have been
received and are now await-
ing allocation to a single
judge who will decide, on the
basis of those papers, if per-
mission is given to go to a full
hearing,” said a spokesper-
son for the UK judiciary, in
reference to Mallya’s applica-
tion seeking an appeal
against his extradition or-
dered by the magistrates’
court and then signed off by
the UK home secretary Sajid
Javid last month.
While there is no set time-
scale for the judge to pro-
nounce a decision on wheth-
Bengaluru: In a pre-dawn
swoop on Thursday, Income
Tax officials along with CRPF
personnel carried out raids at
the residences of Karnataka
Minor Irrigation minister
CS Puttaraju and his nephew.
The raids were also carried
out at the residences of
PWD minister HD Revanna’s
close associates Narayana
Reddy, Ashwath Gowda and
Raya Gowda in Hassan, sourc-
es said. Revanna’s son and
former prime minister H D
Deve Gowda’s grandson Pra-
jjwal is contesting from the
Hassan Lok Sabha seat.
Condemning the raids,
Karnataka Chief Minister H
D Kumaraswamy tweeted,
“PM @narendramodi’s real
surgical strike is out in the
open through IT dept raids.
The constitutional post offer
for IT officer Balakrishna
helped the PM in his revenge
game. Highly deplorable to
use govt machinery, corrupt
officials to harass opponents
during election time.” Speak-
ing to a private news channel,
JD(S) leader Puttaraju said
three teams of Income Tax of-
ficials and Central Reserve
Police Force personnel car-
ried out raids at his Chinna-
kurli residence in Mandya
and only one-third have been
imported. Only four lakh tu-
lip materials have been im-
ported this year. The rest is
ours”, Shah said.
“Also, 1.80 lakh people vis-
ited the Tulip Garden last
year. This year, the figure
might cross two lakh,” he
said. The icing on the cake
62-year-old former Kingfisher
Airlines boss Vijay Mallya
er Mallya will be granted an
appeal in the UK High Court,
a decision is likely within the
next few weeks.
In her ruling at the end of
his extradition trial in De-
cember last year, Chief Mag-
istrate Emma Arbuthnot had
said that Mallya has a case
to answer in the Indian
courts over substantial “mis-
jumbo backlash
CS Puttaraju
raid-faced
“Three teams of I-T
officials and CRPF
soldiers comprising
eight soldiers carried out
raids at my Chinnakurli
residence in Mandya and
my nephew’s residence in
Mysuru,” Puttaraju said
and his nephew’s house in
Mysuru. The development
came a day after Kumaras-
wamy raised fear about pos-
sible raids on Congress and
JD(S) functionaries in state.
He claimed that CRPF per-
sonnel were brought from
various parts of the country
to carry out the raids.
Puttaraju said he was not
afraid of the raids and in-
stead, it had instilled confi-
dence in him. — PTI
this year is that authorities
have installed floodlights to
light up the garden after sun-
set and extended the visiting
hours. Plus, there will be a
10-day tulip festival showcas-
ing traditional exquisite
handicrafts, ethnic cuisine,
painting competitions, pho-
tography competition and
cultural extravaganza.
“Everything will be on a
major scale. There will be a
festival over 10 days, which
encompasses cultural festi-
val, art and photography
show”, Shah said.
Amid the rising tension
after the Pulwama attack, the
Jammu and Kashmir govern-
ment has gone into an over-
drive to offset the negative
perception.
howzzat?
n There is clear evidence of
dispersal and misapplication of
loans and I find a prima facie
case that Mallya was involved
in a conspiracy to launder
money, Chief Magistrate Emma
Arbuthnot had said
n Arbuthnot may preside
over the next extradition trial
to come before Westminster
Magistrates’ Court, that of
diamantaire Modi wanted for
“high value and sophisticated”
fraud
representations” of his
dealings. Meanwhile, the
48-year-old Nirav Modi has
been lodged in HMP Wands-
worth prison in south-west
London since last Wednes-
day, when a judge had de-
clined his request for bail on
the grounds that he posed a
flight risk. 
 — PTI
An elephant,
named Ming
Jung, plays
with a tyre in
its enclosure
at Antwerp’s
zoo, Belgium,
on Thursday
—REUTERS
Space debris
from A-SAT to
‘vanish’ in 45
days, says US
Tampa (Florida): Acting US
Defense Secretary Patrick
Shanahan said on Thursday
he expected debris from an In-
dian anti-satellite weapons
test to eventually burn up in
the atmosphere instead of cre-
ating a lasting debris field that
could threaten other satellites.
Asked about comments by
India’s top defense scientist
that the debris would burn up
in 45 days, Shanahan said he
could not confirm any particu-
lar time frame.
“But in terms of threats to
other objects, that’s consistent
with what I’ve heard,” that it
will burn up in the atmos-
phere, Shanahan told report-
ers traveling with him in
Florida. The comments came
a day after India said it used an
indigenously developed ballis-
tic missile interceptor to de-
stroy one of its own satellites
at a height of 300 km (186
miles), in a test aimed at boost-
ing its defenses in space.
In 2007, China destroyed a
satellite in a polar orbit, creat-
ing the largest orbital debris
cloud in history, with more
than 3,000 objects, according to
the Secure World Foundation.
Because the impact altitude
exceeded 800 km (500 miles),
many of the resulting scraps
stayed in orbit.
Asked whether he believed
India, with a test at a lower al-
titude, had avoided a China-
type scenario, Shanahan said:
“That’s my understanding.”
The Pentagon said on
Wednesday the U.S. military’s
Strategic Command was
tracking more than 250 pieces
of debris from India’s missile
test and would issue close-ap-
proach notifications as re-
quired until the debris enters
the Earth’s atmosphere.
 — Reuters
A-SAT launching