˜ˇ ˇ#˝ ’ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˘ ˚ ˇ · 2019. 6. 28. · Commerce & Industry Minister and USTR or we will first have technical discussions, that is an issue to be decided,” the Foreign

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Prime Minister NarendraModi and President Donald

Trump on Friday “aired” theirconcerns over the bilateraltrade disputes and agreed foran early meeting of theirCommerce Ministers to sortout the issues, a day after theUS leader demanded with-drawal of the “very high” tar-iffs levied by India onAmerican goods.

Though trade is an impor-tant part of the booming bilat-eral relationship, a row overmarket access and tariffs hasescalated in recent months,leading to fears of a protract-ed dispute.

On Thursday, PresidentTrump said that India’s “veryhigh” tariffs on US goods are“unacceptable” and must bewithdrawn.

“I look forward to speakingwith Prime Minister(Narendra) Modi about thefact that India, for years havingput very high tariffs against theUnited States, just recentlyincreased the tariffs even fur-ther. This is unacceptable andthe tariffs must be withdrawn!”Trump said in a tweet on hisway to Osaka, to participate inthe G20 Summit.

“The talks with @POTUSwere wide ranging. We dis-cussed ways to leverage thepower of technology, improvedefence and security ties as wellas issues relating to trade,”Prime Minister Modi tweetedafter his meeting with PresidentTrump.

“India stands committed tofurther deepen economic andcultural relations with USA,” hesaid. Briefing reporters on theModi-Trump meeting, ForeignSecretary Vijay Gokhale saidthe issue of trade was dis-cussed by the two leaders.

“There was a discussion ontrade, both sides aired theirconcerns, both sides spokeabout the interest of the otherside and what was agreed wasthat the trade Ministers ofboth countries would meet atan early date and would try andsort out these issues,” he said.

“The Prime Minister did

mention in particular that wehad taken some action after theGeneralized System ofPreferences (GSP) was revoked,that was now something thatalready had happened and nowwe should now look forwardand we should see how we canresolve some of these issues,”Gokhale said.

President Trump wel-comed this idea, he said, not-ing that both US TradeRepresentative RobertLighthizer and the TreasurySecretary Steven Mnuchin werein the room when the two topleaders met.

“So what we expect now(is) an early meeting and thelevel is still be decided whetherit will be at the level ofCommerce & Industry Ministerand USTR or we will first havetechnical discussions, that is anissue to be decided,” the ForeignSecretary said.

“But essentially it was avery productive discussion, itwas very open discussion andwe will take things forward,” headded.

The foreign secretary alsoasserted that “no one issue isgoing to impact on the largerstrategic relationship between

India and United States.“This is a relationship

which is deep, which is broad,we have some issues, we willwork through them but no one issue is going to, inany way, have any impact,” hesaid.

The Modi-Trump meet-ing assumes significance inthe wake of the strain that haspopped up in the bilateral rela-tionship on a host of trade andeconomic issues. OnWednesday, US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo, who was inNew Delhi said that “greatfriends are bound to have dis-agreements”.

“We’ll keep working toresolve any economic disputes— not only those that we haveat this moment, but those thatwith any significant tradingrelationship inevitably arise,”Pompeo said.

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Union Home Minister AmitShah on Friday blamed

country’s first Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru for theKashmir problem. He claimedthat terrorism is in its laststage and his Government willensure that J&K is freed fromthe grip of “three dynasticfamilies”. He also asserted thatArticle 370, which gave specialstatus to J&K, is a “temporaryprovision.”

Replying to a statutory res-olution seeking Lok Sabha’sconsent to extend President’sRule in Jammu & Kashmirand extend reservation in theGovernment jobs in the villagesof International Border besidesLine of Actual Control in theState, he said the Governmenthas spent �2,307 crore toupgrade security apparatus andcompleted all the demands ofthe armaments and equip-ments by the CRPF in theState.

The Lok Sabha on Fridaygave its nod to extendPresident’s Rule in J&K foranother six months beginningJuly 3, with Shah assertingthat Assembly elections in theState will be held in a democ-ratic, free and fair manner as

soon as the ElectionCommission announces thedates.

The Lok Sabha also clearedthe Jammu and KashmirReservation (Amendment) Bill,2019, to replace an Ordinanceissued by the previousGovernment.

The Home Minister said allthe elections in the borderState were “farjee” (fake) andremote- controlled by few fam-ilies which caused a distrustand gap between the people ofJ&K and the Government. Thesituation, he said, has changednow with 40000 “panchs” and“sarpanchs” invested with truepower in the recently heldpolls.

“We gave power to thepeople which was thus far lim-ited to three families,” Shah saidapparently alluding to familiesof Abdullahs, Muftis andGandhis. He said people in theState have “opportunity” tofree themselves from the stran-glehold of these families.

Shah said terrorism in theState will be eradicated soon asthe elements who were pro-vided security for “speakingagainst India” have been putbehind the bars, unauthorisedPakistani channels airing anti-India propagandaare banned, and morale ofarmed forces is high after theIAF strike at Balakot inPakistan.

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The New Delhi MunicipalCouncil (NDMC) will start

experimenting the plan torestrict entry of cars in theinner circle of ConnaughtPlace (CP) for Sunday andMonday at pilot basis.

While the council hasclaimed that before launchingthe experiment, traders havebeen taken into confidenceand a fresh plan was also dis-cussed however traders allegedthat civic body is adopting adifferent plan than what tradershad agreed upon.

CP traders had told thecouncil that the plan will impacttheir business. “A meeting washeld between council officialsand Traffic commissioner forsmooth operations during theexperiment launch of the plan,”said NDMC official.

The mock drill will startfrom 7:30 am on Saturday inCP — the iconic market whichis a hub of pubs, eateries,

restaurants and shops wherepeople go out to spend goodtime especially in weekends. .

“Seven radials are openedand six wardens will bedeployed to facilitate visitors.These wardens will be there toupdate visitors to reach atparking destinations,” councilofficial said. Apart from this,direction signage and parkingdestinations are also availablefor the visitors,” said the official.While the plan is prepared bythree agencies comprisingemployees of enforcementagency, local police and trafficpolice, personnel of these agen-cies will be deployed at all sevenradials. Pick and drop facilities

are also available for senior cit-izens and disabled persons atHaldi Ram, State Entry Raodand Palika Bazar and singleland parking in the middle cir-cle is closed.

Traders had raised objec-tion to the plan following whichthe NDMC had tweaked its ear-lier plan, which was to make theinner circle completely car-free, to focus on pedestrianis-ing the blocks but giving accessto all parking lots in the innerand outer circles to car users.

“They are now adopting adifferent plan than what wasagreed upon in the previousmeeting.

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More than 120 Congressoffice-bearers holding dif-

ferent positions within theCentral and State units steppeddown on Friday owningresponsibility for the Lok Sabhadebacles and to oppose the res-ignation of Rahul Gandhi asparty chief.

The spate of resignationscame a day after, in a meetingwith party leaders, Rahulexpressed unhappiness thatnone of the leaders excludinghimself had taken responsibil-ity for the disastrous perfor-mance in the general elections.

Those who submitted theirresignation during the last 24hours include Vivek Tankha, aRajya Sabha member, DelhiCongress Working presidentRajesh Lilothia, office bearersfrom Telangana, Haryana,Rajasthan, etc.

Many of them said theywould not withdraw their res-ignation until Rahul promisedto stay on as the Congress chief.

“Many AICC office bearershave come forward to takeresponsibility for the poll deba-cle and resign from theirrespective posts, responsibilitydoes not end with Congresspresident Rahul alone,” said asenior Congress leader.

Besides Tankha andLilothia, Haryana Women

Congress chief SumitraChouhan, general secretaryNetta P Sangma of Meghalaya,Secretary Virender Rathore,Chhattisgarh secretary AnilChaudhary, Madhya Pradeshsecretary Sudhir Chaudharyand Haryana secretary SatyavirYadav also gave up their posts.

Notably, in a meeting withHaryana Congress leaders onThursday, Rahul had stated hequit “taking full responsibility”for the party’s defeat. “I cannotask others to resign too. It is upto them if they want to takeresponsibility,” he told seniorparty leaders such as GhulamNabi Azad, Kumari Selja andBhupinder Singh Hooda.

Soon after this, Tankharesigned as the chairman of theparty’s legal and human rightscell and asked others to followhis example.

“We all should submit ourresignations from party posi-tions and give Rahul-ji a freehand to choose his team. I wel-come Kamal Nath’’s (MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister) state-ment to that effect. I unequiv-ocally submit my resignation asAICC Dept chairman Law,RTI and HR. Party cannotafford a stalemate for too long,”Tankha announced on twitter.

As part of his exercise tomeet leaders of poll bound

States, Rahul on Friday metsenior leaders of Delhi unit,including its president SheilaDikshit, and advised them toput up a united face before theopposition in the upcomingAssembly elections next year.He also asked the DelhiCongress leaders to avoid giv-ing statements to the mediathat could hurt the interests ofthe party.

Besides Sheila, All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC)incharge of Delhi Congress, PCChacko and the party candi-dates who contested the recent-ly concluded Lok Sabha polls inthe Capital were present in themeeting.

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In an attempt to make quick money, 19 mis-creants took a leaf from Akshay Kumar-star-

rer Bollywood movie “Special 26” and “raided”a sugar mill but they ran out of luck and land-ed in jail.

The sensational incident was reported fromSambhal district where a case of impersonationhas been registered against the accused and mostof them have been sent to jail. Efforts are on tonab the three impersonators who managed toflee.

According to reports, 19 people reachedDCM Sugar Mill in Asmoli area of Dhampur inSambhal district on SUVs on Thursday. Theyentered the mill, claiming to be officers of theCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The ‘team’went to the distillery area where ethanol wasloaded and claimed that there were certain dis-crepancies in adhering to pollution controlnorms besides some other lacunae and demand-ed �15-20 lakh from the mill management.

As the “sleuths” started taking photograph,they ran out of luck as Assistant Excise

Commissioner was present there in histemporary office inside the mill.

The excise officer called the “teammembers” and enquired about them, whythey were taking photographs and whoauthorised them to make a raid.

As the “team members” failed to giveconvincing reply, the excise officer askedthe staff to detain them. The miscreantsthen tried to flee but the staff managed tonab 16 of them while three managed toescape.

Later, the local police were called andthe impostors were handed over to them.

During interrogation, they revealedthat to make quick money, they tried toturn Akshay starrer “Special 26” into reality.

“Special 26”, is a 2013 Indian heist filmdirected by Neeraj Pandey starring AkshayKumar in the lead role. The film isinspired by the 1987 Opera House heistwhere a group posing as Central Bureauof Investigation officers executed anincome tax raid on a jeweller in Mumbai.

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Three persons, including aCRPF officer and a civilian

girl, were killed and two othersinjured in a gun battle betweenthe Maoists and the paramili-tary force in Bijapur district ofthe State on Friday, police said.

Two girls were caught inthe crossfire, police said, addingone of them died while theother sustained injuries.

The gun-battle took placeat around 11 am close to a cul-vert near Keshkutul villageunder the Bhairamgarh policestation area when a team of theCRPF's 199th battalion wasout on an area dominationoperation on motorcycles,Bijapur Superintendent ofPolice Divyang Patel said.

The bike-patrolling team ofthe paramilitary force washeading towards Bhairamgarhfrom its camp in Keshkutul.When it was advancingthrough Keshkutul, locatedaround 450 km away from thecapital Raipur, the CRPF teamwas ambushed by a group ofarmed rebels and a gunfightensued, he said.

“Two CRPF personnel —anassistant sub-inspector MadhuPatil and head constable TajuOti – belonging to force’s 199thbattalion were killed. Anotherassistant sub-inspector MadanPal of the same unit was injuredin the gunfight,” Patel said.

Two minor girls travellingin a goods carrier were caughtin the crossfire

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Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu on Friday

urged the Government andthe Opposition parties to holdregular interaction, both formaland informal, to arrive at someconsensus on issues on clearingpending bills. He also suggest-ed that once a Bill undergoesscrutiny by parliamentarystanding committee, it shouldgo through unless there issomething very urgent thatrequires further deliberations.

As many as 22 Bills, pend-ing in the Rajya Sabha, hadlapsed with the dissolution ofthe 16th Lok Sabha last monthand another 33 Bills have beenpending consideration in theUpper House for years includ-ing three of them for more than20 years.

While appreciating mem-bers for good debates on waterscarcity and environment ear-lier this week, Naidu, duringthe Zero Hour, said MPs par-ticipated in the discussionsand raised important pointscutting across political affilia-tions. The Chairman saidpeople have praised the func-tioning of the House duringthis week.

On the issue of Bills pend-ing in the House, Naidu saidthe issues could be resolvedthrough formal and informaldiscussions. The Governmentand other members shouldinteract and the former shouldtake initiative to clear pendinglegislative business, he added.Naidu said efforts should bemade to find out where theproblem is, is it with the gov-ernment, Opposition, the

House or the system. “At theend of the day, I want to see myHouse, our House get appreci-ation,” he added.

Naidu suggested that oncea bill is cleared by aParliamentary Committee,comprising members fromboth Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha, it should go throughuntil and unless there is some-thing very urgent that requiresfurther deliberations. TheChairman also told the mem-bers that he was looking intotheir suggestions regarding“parliament scrutiny” of bills.

The Chairman also askedLeader of the House ThawarChand Gehlot and Minister ofState for Parliamentary AffairsV Muraleedharan to ensurethat ministers reply to all ZeroHour and special mentionsraised by members.

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The CBI has booked NabamHari, brother of former

Arunachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Nabam Tuki, his wifeand some PWD officers foralleged corruption inGovernment contracts.

The case relates to con-tracts handed by Tuki as thePWD Minister in the State tohis relatives for “selfish gainswithout inviting tenders”,according to the FIR.

The CBI had earlier regis-tered a Preliminary Enquiry, atthe instance of the GauhatiHigh Court, into one suchwork related to construction ofa Kendriya Vidyalaya buildingin Umroi cantonment, Shillongworth �1.23 crore.

Several contracts wereallegedly given to MaryAssociate, a firm owned byTuki’s sister-in-law, NabamMary, which was maintaininga current account in the UnitedBank of India in which her hus-band Hari is one of the nomi-

nees.The contracts under CBI

probe were given between 2005and 2007.

The High Court onNovember 16, 2017 hadordered the CBI to carry outpreliminary enquiry into 11contracts followed by regularcases where prima facie evi-dence of corruption is detect-ed.

The work in the KendriyaVidyalaya building construc-tion was done in two phaseswith contract for first phase wasgiven to the company in 2005.

During the PE, the CBIfound that the work wasawarded to the company

through 25 work orders eachbelow �3 lakh totalling to�63.92 lakh. In addition, anoth-er six orders worth �5.15 lakhwere also given.

“It was found thatArunachal Pradesh PWD fol-lowed CPWD manual and doesnot have its own manual whichsays that in urgent mattersworks can be awarded withoutcall of tender if the value ofwork is below three lakh,” theCBI said.

If its above �1 lakh thework can be sanctioned bysuperintending engineer whilebelow it can be sanctioned byexecutive engineer. The PWDofficials broke a big order into

several smaller orders to avoidcall for tender, the FIR alleged.

The firm of Tuki’s sister-in-law was not registered as a civilcontractor with PWD,Arunachal Pradesh and did nothave requisite licence. It wasgiven trading licence to runbusiness of electrical goods,hardware, motor parts, lubri-cants and agri-equipment.

After successful comple-tion of the first phase, thecompany sought second phaseof tender worth �90.46 lakh forthe construction of 12 staffquarters. This work was award-ed to them in the form of 27separate orders worth �73.53lakh keeping the tab of �3 lakhto avoid tendering process.

Apart from MaryAssociate, which was a majorbeneficiary, some works werealso given to other companies,they said.

The agency also found thatMary is the owner of the com-pany and nominee of compa-ny’s current account is herhusband.

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED ) on Friday said it has

attached assets worth �209 crore,including 20 immovable prop-erties and bank deposits, in itsmoney laundering probe intothe alleged IMA group Ponziscam of Karnataka. In the ponzischeme the promoters of IMAgroup of companies dupedover 40,000 gullible Musliminvestors of an estimated �4,000crore.

The ED has provisionallyattached immovable propertiesworth �197 crore, �98 lakhfrom 51 bank accounts and �11crore from HDFC Bank held inthe Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Deposit Scheme underPrevention of MoneyLaundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)in a ponzi scheme case, theagency said in a statement.

Based on the FIR regis-tered June 9 under variousSections of IPC by BengaluruPolice against IMA Group ofCompanies and its ManagingDirector Mohammed MansoorKhan, the ED initiated investi-gations under PMLA.

The FIR had revealed thatthe accused entities had cheat-ed more than 40,000 middleclass and lower middle classpeople through Ponzi Schemes.It is also suspected that Khan isabsconding since the registrationof FIR.

“Investigations underPMLA revealed that the accusedcompanies and its directorshave indulged in the offence ofMoney-Laundering by cheatingcommon people through PonziSchemes and generated the pro-ceeds of crime in the form ofmovable and immovable prop-erties,” the ED said, adding adedicated team was constitutedto investigate the case.

The ED probe revealed thatKhan had promised return oninvestment ranging from 2.5 to

3 per cent per month to all theinvestors. Investigations furtherrevealed that the IMA Groupwas not doing any business topay the promised monthlyreturn on the investments madeby public and that Khan wasrunning a ponzi scheme andthey were all working on hisinstructions.

So far, 20 immovable prop-erties held in the name ofMohammed Mansoor Khanand his entities have been iden-tified as proceeds of crime. Thevaluation of the 20 immovableproperties is about �197 crore asevaluated by the approvedGovernment valuers.

On analysis of 105 bankaccounts with various privatebanks and Co-operativeSocieties of IMA Group of com-

panies, it is revealed that Khanhad received about �4,000 croreas investments.

“The accused and his asso-ciates have diverted the amountin various accounts and acquiredvarious immovable and movableproperties in his name, in thename of the other Directors andassociates. Investigation done sofar has identified 20 immovableproperties and 105 bankaccounts. Balance available inthese bank accounts is around�12 crore,” the agency said.

The ED probe has alsorevealed that Khan had deposit-ed cash of about �44 crore invarious bank accounts duringthe demonetization period. Asa result of action of the IncomeTax Department, IMA Grouphad paid tax of �22 crore. Theremaining amount of �11 crorewas lying in a bank which hasbeen identified during the inves-tigation.

ED is in the process of issu-ing Red Corner Notice (RCN)against absconding accusedMohammad Mansoor Khanand is also examining possibil-ity of invoking FugitiveOffenders Act.

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Rising number of naxalrelated incidents in various

States, plight of ad-hoc teach-ers in universities, menacecaused by stray cattle andhuman trafficking in someborder States were some of theissues flagged by the membersin the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Drawing the attention ofthe house during the zerohour to naxal problem, RamVichar etam(BJP)claimed thatin the past few months violentincidents engineered by theNaxals had increased in somestates like Chattisgarh andJharkhand. Terming the trendas serious, he urged theGovernment to take note itadding the worst suffererswere poor tribal people. As pera report of the home ministry,only 10 districts were affectedfrom Naxal activities inChattisgarh, but now in thelast six month it has spread toalmost all districts, he said.

Roopa Ganguly(nomini-ated) sought to draw the atten-tion of the Upper House towhat she called rising numberof cases of human traffickingand illegal activities in border

states and urged the con-cerned state governments intandem with the centre toaddress them at the earliest.

The Samajwadi Party(SP)demanded compensation forpeople killed by stray cattleand insurance cover for cropsdamage caused by them.Raising the issue, party mem-ber Ravi Prakash Verma (SP)said stray cattle has become amenace in Uttar Pradesh andother northern states becauseof lack of an appropriate pol-icy. He said stray cattle wasclogging highways, damagingstanding crops and in manycases also killing/injuring peo-ple.

Prakash demanded thatfamilies of people killed by

stray cattle should be givencompensation of �5 lakh likethat given for those killed bywild animals. Further, cropdamage caused by animalsshould be covered under thePradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana.

Manoj Kumar Jha(RJD)highlighted the plight of ad-hoc teachers in universitiesacross the country. He ruedthat hundreds of ad-hoc teach-ers continue to teach for yearson paltry salaries. Jha saidteachers in private universitiesare made to sign on a higheramount but they get only�15,000-�16,000 monthly asremuneration.

In her mention, ShantaChhetri (TMC) said about 8.5

per cent of the country’s pop-ulation constitutes senior cit-izens. She suggested that theirexperience and knowledgeshould be used for the bene-fit of the country.

Another SP memberSurendra Singh Nagar high-lighted the incident ofBulandsahar in UP whereintwo Dalit women wereallegedly run over by a carafter they protested a molesta-tion attempt recently. Besidethe two women, another per-son, who was injured in theincident, died in the hospital,he said, and alleged that policewas giving protection to theaccused, a powerful person.

Sanjay Sinh(Congress)raised the issue of Kargil warveteran MohammadSanaullah, who was declared a“foreigner”, arrested and sentto detention camp in Assam.He said authorities did not actpromptly on documents pro-vided by Sanaullah regardinghis citizenship.

Stating that a fake case hasbeen registered againstSanaullah, who has also beenhonoured with the President’sMedal, Singh demanded thatresponsibility be fixed.

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The Advertising StandardsCouncil of India (ASCI)

has observed that formerIndian cricket captainMahendra Singh Dhoni’sendorsement of a prominentbrand of ‘Mastercard’ as a pay-ment gateway was misleading.

Another advertisement inwhich a well known brand’s ofrefrigerator claim of keepingvegetables fresh for up to 30days was also found mislead-ing. ASCI also observedPaisabazaar’s claim loanapproval in two minutes withthe key operative word provi-sional missing in the voiceover as misleading by ambi-guity and implication. TheASCI has investigated 206comlaints and found 114 aremisleading includingKingfisher Radler, Indulekhashampoo, Dove shampoo,Mohini Knitwears, Nestle’sbreakfast cereal NesPlusMultigrain Kokos’s.

In its order on theMastercard where Dhoni was

endorsing the brand, ASCIobserved that while the adver-tiser took a stance that theirMastercard is a payment gate-way, the visual in the TVCommercial shows a physicalcard. “It was observed thatthere was no evidence showingDhoni had done due diligenceprior to the endorsement.There was a violation of guide-lines for celebrities in adver-tising”, it added.

ASCI also observed thatthe advertisement’s onPaisabazar claim, “2 minutemein loan approval” (“LoanApproval* in 2 minutes”)regardless of the disclaimer,“…..*Provisional LoanApproval in 2 minutes”, is mis-leading as the key operativeword “provisional” is missingin the voice over itself. Theclaim, “Loan Approval in 2Minutes “with the protagonistcategorically stating “fatafatpaisa aapke account mein”,implies that the money wouldbe available in the person’saccount as quick as in twominutes, whereas the actual

fact is that the transfer ofmoney could take up to 10days. “Any normal Customer isbound to believe that the Loanwill be approved in two min-utes and amount will be cred-ited almost immediately. Theadvertisement is misleadingby ambiguity and implication,”the ASCI said.

ASCI also evaluated 157advertisements, of which 59belonged to the education sec-tor, 35 belonged to the health-care sector, five to personalcare, two to the food and bev-

erages sector and 13 were fromthe others category.

ASCI also found Nestle’sbreakfast cereal NesPlusMultigrain Kokos’s advertise-ment misleading by omissionand ambiguity as its claimthat the product remains crispyin warm milk did not mentionthe period of upto four min-utes.

ASCI also pulled upHindustan Unilever’sIndulekha and Dove Shampooadvertisements and foundthem to be misleading.“Indulekha Bringha HairCleanser is not directly bene-ficial for hair growth likeIndulekha Bringha oil. Theadvertisement called out ben-efits of Indulekha Oil and pre-sented Indulekha HairCleanser as additional product.The hair cleanser productdepicting mnemonic of hairroot identical to that shown onthe oil product pack and claim-ing ‘prevents hair fall’ wastherefore considered to bemisleading,” it said. It addedthat the disclaimer in fine

print at the back of the pack-age stating ‘hair fall due tobreakage’, was in violation ofASCI guidelines for dis-claimers.

The Dove intense repairshampoo and conditioneradvertisement claim ‘new’ wasnot substantiated for the prod-uct formulation. “The adver-tiser did not submit anyauthentic and verifiable evi-dence comparing the compo-sition of the old formulation ofDove intense repair and the re-launched version. Advertiserdid not submit physical sam-ple of the old products as well.It was concluded that the claim‘new’ was not substantiated forthe product formulation andwas misleading by implication”,it said.

ASCI noted that onlinepharmacy PharmEasy’s adver-tisement claim, ‘100 per centGenuine Medicines’ was notsubstantiated with any verifi-able supporting data such as alist of registered FDA approvedpharmacies who have tie-upswith the advertiser and how

the advertiser ensures that allmedicines supplied are 100per cent genuine.

It also noted that theadvertisement claim by AnandiAtta Chakki Pvt Ltd that onlyAtta Chakki Giving 100 percent Result in Bajri” was notsubstantiated with any marketsurvey data or with compara-tive data of the advertiser’sproduct and other Atta Chakkiproducts, to prove theirgrinder’s performance and effi-ciency in giving 100 per centresult in Bajri and how it isunique to their Atta Chakkialone. The claim is misleadingby exaggeration.

ASCI also found that theadvertisement’s claim by IASHotspot that Kerala’s biggestresidential hub for civil servicepreparation” was not substan-tiated with data to conclusive-ly prove that the residentialservices provided by the adver-tiser’s institute are the biggestin Kerala as compared to otherinstitutes offering similar facil-ities, or through an indepen-dent third-party validation.

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The Ministry of Fisheries,Animal Husbandry and

Dairying on Friday said thatthere is no proposal to fixminimum support price (MSP)for milk in the country as it isa highly perishable product.

In a reply to the RajyaSabha, Union Minister of Statefor Fisheries, AnimalHusbandry and DairyingSanjeev Kumar Balyan saidthis Department does not reg-ulate the prices of milk in thecountry. “Prices are decided bythe cooperative and privatedairies based on cost of pro-duction,” Balyan said.

Since milk is a highly per-ishable production, there is no“proposal to fix MSP for milkin the country,” he said.

The milk production in thecountry has been rising everyyear. The output stood at Rs176.35 million tonnes during2017-18 fiscal, the Minister

added.With regard to camel milk,

the Minister, in a separatereply, said the Union govern-ment has not received a pro-posal from the StateGovernments and state dairycooperatives for setting up of adairy for camel’s milk.

However, GujaratCooperative Milk MarketingFederation (GCMMF) —which owns Amul brand — hasreceived �2.65 crore during2014-15 to 2017-18 for pur-chase of machinery and equip-ments for camel milk collec-tion, chilling and processingunder the central schemeRashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana,he said.

In another reply, theMinister said that no survey hasbeen conducted by Food Safetyand Standards Authority ofIndia (FSSAI) on purchase ofdairy products from farmers asfarmers are exempt from theprovisions of FSS Act, 2006.

New Delhi: Within a fort-night of convening of the 17thLok Sabha, the business of theHouse on Friday collapseddue to lack of quorum minutesbefore it was scheduled toend.

The issue of quorum wasraised by AAP memberBhagwant Mann during a dis-cussion on a private memberresolution regarding waterscarcity and Ken-Betwa river-linking project.

Mann raised the issue ofquorum around 5:45 pm whenJagdambika Pal (BJP) wasspeaking on the resolution.

Raising the quorum issue,Mann said he was also object-ing to absence of oppositionmembers in the House and

lesser numbers on the treasurybenches.

The presence of at least 10per cent of the total strength ofHouse or about 55 membersconstitutes the quorum.

Rajendra Agrawal, whowas in the Chair, halted theproceedings of the House andordered ringing of the quorumbell.

Following this, some MPscame to the House but not inenough numbers to completethe quorum compelling theChair to adjourn the Housearound 5 minutes ahead of thescheduled time of 6 pm.

The discussion on the res-olution moved by PushpendraSingh Chandel will continuenext week.

Earlier participating in thediscussion, Bhanu PratapSingh Verma (BJP) said farm-ers of Bundelkhand are forcedto leave farming and migrate tocities for work due to shortageof water.

Due to lack of irrigationfacility, farmers are unable todo farming despite havingtheir own land.

The Government shouldalso initiate steps for replen-ishing dams to overcome theproblems of water scarcity andpractise of ‘Anna Pratha’ in theregion, he said.

‘Anna Pratha’ refers to thepractice of farmers freeing theircows to graze in open fields intimes of scarcity of water andfodder, he said. PTI

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The Ministry of Housingand Urban Affairs on

Friday sanctioned over 2.5 lakhmore affordable houses in 10States under the PradhanMantri Awas Yojana (Urban).

According to the MoHUA,the total number of housesbeing funded under the PMAY(U) is close to 84 lakh acrossthe country so far.

The approval was given ina meeting of the central sanc-tioning and monitoring com-mittee (CSMC) chaired byMoHUA secretary DurgaShanker Mishra.

“The flagship urban mis-sions, particularly PM AwasYojana-Urban, are#TransformingUrbanLandscape at an unprecedented pace. In

the CSMC Meeting held todaywe sanctioned over 2.5 lakhmore houses in 10 States (sic),”Mishra tweeted.

According to him, out of 84lakh houses sanctioned so far,Uttar Pradesh is the biggestbeneficiary state in the countrywith 13 lakh houses, followedby Andhra Pradesh with over12 lakh houses.

“Total number of housessanctioned now under thisvisionary Mission of Hon’blePM stands at nearly 84 lakhs.

“Out of these, UP with 13lakhs houses is the biggestbeneficiary State followed byAndhra Pradesh at 12+ lakhshouses sanctioned,” the secre-tary added in his tweet.

Earlier this week, UnionHousing and Urban AffairsMinister Hardeep Singh Pur

had said that the target of con-structing one crore housesunder the Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana (Urban) can beachieved by 2020-end, twoyears before the deadline.

The NDA government hasspent 554 per cent more in fiveyears than the UPA govern-ment had in 10 years on urbandevelopment projects, thehousing and urban affairs min-ister had also said. The PMAY(U), launched by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inJune 2015, aims at ensuringhousing for all by 2022 by pro-viding financial assistance tobeneficiaries.

The Government has set atarget of one crore houses inurban areas across the countryover a period of seven yearsfrom 2015 to 2022.

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New Delhi: During the Kargilconflict, the then PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeewas reluctant to use the AirForce and refused to give itpermission to cross the Line ofControl (LoC), former Air ChiefAnil Tipnis said on Friday.

Speaking at the launch of abook titled ‘A Prime Ministerto remember— Memories of amilitary chief ’, penned by for-mer Navy chief Sushil Kumar,Tipnis recalled a meeting heand the then army chief VedMalik had with Vajpayee dur-ing the 1999 Kargil fighting.

Tipnis said Vajpayee want-ed to know from General Malikif the ground forces could dowithout the use of Air Force.

“Even before Ved Malikcould respond, I chipped in

saying the Army needs it andwe are ready. The PrimeMinister was pensive for a fewmoments and then said ‘kalsubah shuruwat kariyega(begin tomorrow morning),”Tipnis said.

He also spoke about askingfor Vajpayee’s permission tocross the LoC.

“In a voice firmer than Ihad ever heard... (Vajpayeesaid) ‘No, we will not cross theLine of Control’,” Tipnis said.

He said the Indian AirForce was ready to join theArmy in the operation at ashort notice of six hours.

Admiral (Retd.) SushilKumar, who was navy chief atthe time of Kargil conflict, saidVajpayee turned a “strategicloss” to a massive victory. PTI

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New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will returnwith his monthly radio broad-cast ‘Mann ki Baat’ from June30.

On February 24, daysbefore the Lok Sabha electionswere announced, he had sus-pended his monthly broadcastfor March and April.

Confident of his return,Modi had said he will be backwith the programme on thelast Sunday of May.

The BJP-led NDAreturned to power with a mas-sive mandate and Modi wassworn in as the prime minis-ter on May 30.

In his first term, Modihad addressed the nation on 53occasions through his month-ly broadcast after coming topower in 2014. While discon-tinuing the programme, Modihad said he was doing so keep-ing in mind healthy democra-tic traditions. PTI

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | SATURDAY | JUNE 29, 2019

Security forces busted a Naxal camp in Aundhi region of Rajnandgaon district following a gun battle with ultras on Friday morning. One 303rifle, two 12 bore gun, one muzzle loading gun, one air gun, wireless sets and a large quantity of daily use items were seized from the spot.The encounter occurred in a hill located near Kokhkatola village at Rajnandgaon-Kankar- Gadchiroli border.

Residents of Surjula village in Jashpur district came together to construct a boulder check dam at Semer Nullah. SemerNullah is the chief source of water for the village. However, during rainy season the water from the stream drains out tonearby river. To store the water villagers decided to come up with a check dam.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

In a major organizationalchange, Congress president

Rahul Gandhi on Fridayappointed Mohan Markam aschief of Chhattisgarh PradeshCongress Committee, replac-ing Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel who led the party to animpressive win in the assem-bly elections late last year.

Markam is an MLA fromtribal-dominated Kondagaonassembly constituency inBastar division.

Baghel last week said hehad asked Rahul Gandhi toappoint someone else to headthe party’s state unit as he wasalready burdened with lots ofresponsibilities as a chiefminister.

Markam's elevation to the

post comes at a time whenpanchayat and urban bodies’polls are nearing. His imme-diate responsibility nowwould be to rejuvenate theparty workers once again

after debacle in Lok Sabhapolls. After stunning per-formance in the assemblyelections in 2018, the party’sperformance in the LokSabha polls suffered a set-

back. It could win just twoparliamentary seats out of 11in the state despite coming topower with a massive man-date in the assembly polls inDecember last year.

Mohan Markam made newPCC Chief replacing Baghel

Markam will take oath as aPCC Chief at a function

scheduled at party’s stateheadquarters Rajiv Bhawan

at 12 noon on Saturday.Outgoing PCC Chief BhupeshBaghel and State In chargeof AICC for party affairs PL

Punia would be specialypresent on this occasion.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The ongoing stir of theJunior Doctors’

Association of the PanditJawahar Lal NehruMemorial Medical College,Raipur affected functioningof the institution for thethird consecutive day onFriday, causing immenseproblems for patients.

As per information, theroutine OPD, emergencyservices, surgery, medicinedepartment, gynecologyand other departmentscould not function properly.

Junior doctors havebeen staging sit-in-demon-stration in college premisessince Wednesday alleginglaxity on the part of the stategovernment towards theirthree ‘valid demands’ viz

security of doctors, raisingtheir stipend amount andamending the rural-serviceclause of their bond.

Minister of health andfamily welfare T. S.Singhdeo supported thecause of the agitating juniordoctors stating that theirdemands could be resolvedby Chief Minister Bhupesh

Baghel. They shouldapproach him for it.

Dr Bhagwati Verma,president of the JuniorDoctors’ Association whencontacted said, “Healthminister T. S. Singhdeo havebacked our demands statingit is vlaid. Raipur City NorthMLA Kuleep Juneja alsoarrived to support our

strike. We have sought timeto meet the Chief Ministerfor talks, but till now, it hasnot been granted.”

“As announced we haveskipped the emergencyservices from Friday. We areintensifying our agitationtill our demands are notmet,” Dr Verma added.

Medical services in Raipur takea hit as Jr Doctors go on strike


Chhattisgarh Rajya Sabhamember Ramvichar

Netam on Friday raised theissue of recent spurt in Naxal-related incidents in the statein parliament on Friday.

Incidentally, on the sameday three persons were killedand two others injured in agun battle between the securi-ty forces and the ultras in thestate’s Bijapur district.

Netam, during zero hour,said that the number of inci-dents related to Naxals hasincreased in the past sixmonth.

As per Home Ministryreport, till December 2018only 10 districts were affectedby Naxals, but now the num-ber has gone up, the BJP MPsaid.

Incidents from other dis-tricts are being reported, he

added. Netam alleged that theCongress-led state govern-ment is not taking the issueseriously.

He also said that inDhamtari district two vil-lagers were shot dead suspect-ing them as Naxals, whichpoints at laxity on the part oflaw enforcers.


Tribal MLA from Sitapurassembly constituency

Amarjeet Bhagat is tipped to beinducted into Bhupesh Baghel’scabinet to fill the vacant 13thministerial slot.

Sources in the ruling partyclaimed, chances of Amarjeetgetting a coveted ministerialberth brightened after the AICCon Friday elevated MohanMarkam, another MLA from atribal-dominated constituency,as Pradesh Congress chief,replacing Chief MinisterBaghel.

Senior Congress leader T.S.Singhdeo had already hintedduring the selection process ofPCC Chief that a tribal leaderfrom Bastar region would bemade state president of the partywhile Amarjeet from tribal dom-inated Surguja region could begiven the ministerial post as perhis wish.

Notable, Baghel inductedonly 12 ministers in the state

cabinet, leaving a ministerialpost vacant in order to pacify thepossible dissidents who wouldvie for the ministerial berth.

Senior leaders like formerPCC Chief Dhanendra Sahu, for-mer ministers SatyanarayanSharma and Amitesh Shukla

were also the front runners forthe ministerial berth at that time.

Amarjeet, who has beenelected third time as an MLA,was also a strong contender forthe post as Congress swept theassembly polls in Surguja regionby winning all the 14 assemblyseats.

Being a senior tribal legisla-tor from the region he wasexpecting to be the minister inthe Baghel cabinet.

He even vowed not to returnto his constituency till he wasallotted a ministerial portfolio,but Baghel had pacified him,assuring that soon his wishwould be fulfilled.

It seems that the long cher-ished dream of Amarjeet is final-ly going to be fulfilled as there isnow every possibility that hewould be rewarded with a minis-terial berth, Congress sourcesadded. But then in politics, therecan be many a slip between thecup and the lip, the sourceswarned.

Tribal leader Amarjeet tipped to be minister


Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel said that the Suraji

Yojana of the state govern-ment was a top priorityscheme, which will revive therural economy and willbecome a milestone in gener-ating employment for ruralyouth.

Baghel was chairing ameeting of the State Rural andOBC Area DevelopmentAuthority held here atMahanadi Bhawan onThursday.

The meeting also expand-ed the working area of the

authority and made necessaryamendment in the authorities’rules and regulations regard-ing allocation of fund.

The meeting was attendedby Scheduled Caste and TribalDevelopment Minister DrPremsai Singh, Minister forHome Affairs TamradhwajSahu, Minister for Forest andCivil Supplies Mohammad

Akbar, Agriculture and WaterResources Minister RavindraChoubey, PHE and VillageIndustries Minister RudraGuru, Urban AdministrationMinister Dr Shiv KumarDaharia, office bearers of theauthority, Chief SecretarySunil Kujur and senior offi-cials of the concerned depart-ments.

In the meeting, the CMopined that the Narva, Garva,Ghurva and Badi Yojana is aninnovative and importantscheme that ushered in socio-economic change in the state.It is meant to create a bovinewealth base for bio fertilizer

and development of Badis(vegetable gardens) in the vil-lage areas.

He further informed thatcow sheds in forest areas willbe constructed underCAMPA scheme and the workwill be done by forest depart-ment of the state. Along withrural areas, Baghel alsostressed on construction ofcow sheds in urban areas sothat stray cattle could nobecome cause of accidents.

Baghel also instructed inthe meeting for arranginggreen fodder for the cattlenear the constructed cowshed.

‘Suraji’ to revive rural economy,generate rural employment: BaghelCM chairs a meeting of State Rural and OBC Area Development Authority


Agriculture MinisterRavindra Choubey on

Friday instructed officials of hisdepartment to con-stitute a special cellto address com-plaints of farmers, ifany, over sub stan-dard seeds and fertil-izers provided tothem in this Kharifseason.

Choubey gavethe instruction at a reviewmeeting of the department heldhere at Sheonath Bhawan.

He told the officials to con-stitute such cells in offices of

every deputy directors in agri-culture department.

It was informed in themeeting that seeds and fertiliz-ers in adequate quantity have

been made availableat the cooperativesocieties across thestate. He instructedthe officers to ensurethat seeds and fertil-izers are timely madeavailable to the farm-ers this Kharif sea-

son.The minister warned of

stern action in case laxity wasfound in distribution of seedand fertilizers to the farmers.


Value based moral education isthe need of the hour to counter

the increasing crime and violence inthe society, said Anila Bhedia,women and child development,social welfare minister.

She said schools should makespecial arrangement to impart sucheducation as through moral educa-tion, steps can be taken to build acultured and value-based society.

She was addressing as chief guestat a workshop on the topic ‘Moralityand Culture, Rights of Children’organised by Chhattisgarh StateCommission For Protection of ChildRights at New Circuit House onFriday.

She said “Earlier in joint familieschildren used to hear stories ofmorality, behaviour, life-style andcharacter from their grandparents.But nuclear families do not have suchambience.”

Children linked with variouscrimes are brought in juvenilehomes, she pointed out, adding tounderstand their behaviour, theirbackground and family environmentshould be understood first.

State Child Rights CommissionChairman Prabha Dubey said apartfrom bookish knowledge, practicaland moral values should be impart-ed.

Chhattisgarh State Assembly sec-retary Chandrashekhar Gangrade,who was chief guest at the conclud-

ing ceremony, said moral educationis the foundation of school educa-tion.

Teachers should also followmoral values in their lives to reflectthat on children.

Three brochures ‘Mor MayaruGuruji’, ‘Ahvaan’, ‘Smajdhar Palak-Sashakta Desh’ and a short film wasreleased on the occasion.

Meanwhile, police officers, vol-unteers and talented children of juve-nile homes were felicitated for theirexcellent achievements.

Constitute farmers’complaints redressal cells,Choubey tells officialsAgriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey

reviews work of Agriculture dept

Bhedia stresses on moral eduto counter crime and violence

Netam raises Naxalissue in Rajya Sabha

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From Page 1when their vehicle was

passing through the encounterspot. One of them died, whilethe other was injured, the SPsaid.

Reinforcement was rushedto the spot soon after being

alerted about the incident and the injured were admittedat Bhairamgarh hospital, hesaid.

Later, during search of theencounter spot, two pressureimprovised explosive devices(IEDs) were recovered from the

spot, the SP added.According to another

police official, Naxals also loot-ed one AK-47 rifle, its fourmagazines, one Bullet Proofjacket, one wireless set from theCRPF team during theencounter.

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on Friday

said that the state has madevery significant strides in var-ious sectors and this makes itan ideal destination for invest-ments.The Chief Minister wasaddressing the entrepreneursand representatives of indus-trial houses during a ‘RoadShow’ at Mumbai. He invitedthe participants to be a part ofHimachal Pradesh's growthstory.

He emphasized that thestate has lowest crime rate inthe country, pristine environs,congenial industrial relations,surplus power, skilled man-power, etc. The state has every-thing that is required for sus-tainable investments, he added.

Thakur said that stateoffers attractive incentivesunder the industrial policy toboost investment in the state inall sectors. The government hascome up with some moreinvestor friendly policies insectors like tourism, wellnesscentres, educational and tech-nical institutes, logistics, aroma,Ayush, housing and real estate,IT& electronics, electric vehi-cles, MSME, he said.

The Chief Minister furthersaid that state is putting earnesteffort in improving ease ofdoing business which is visiblein the improved rankings doneby the Government of India.We were now ranked topamong fast movers category inease of doing reforms, headded.

Thakur also said that toensure efficiency, transparency,timeliness and accountability in

allotting clearances to variousindustrial projects, the StateGovernment has evolved singlewindow mechanism inHimachal which reflects strongcommitment of the govern-ment to make HimachalPradesh industrial hub of thecountry.

He informed that govern-ment is organizing its maidenGlobal Investors’ Meet inNovember at Dharamshala. Healso appealed to the entrepre-neurs to participate in themeet as they can play a vitalrole in success of the meet withtheir new ideas for develop-ment of the state.

He presented the prioritysectors of the state like tourism,food processing, pharmaceuti-cals, IT, etc and requested theparticipants to explore invest-ment opportunities in thesesectors and the government

will extend all support andfacilitation.Industry MinisterBikram Singh also addressedthe gathering of potentialinvestors and stressed upon thecongenial investment atmos-phere that has been created inHimachal Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the StateGovernment has signed a MoUworth Rs 300 crore with M/sMahindra Resorts for invest-ment in Mahindra Resorts atKandaghat (Solan district),Janjheli and Koldam (Mandidistrict) and Dharamshala.Chairman, Mahindra Holidaysand Resorts Arun Nanda wasalso present on the occasion.

The Chief Minister alsocalled on chairman of RelianceIndustries Mukesh Ambani atMumbai as part of outreachactivity for attracting invest-ments to the state.

He invited the Reliance

Group to participate in theInvestors’ Meet atDharmashala.

Thakur said that StateGovernment is providing allbasic facilities to the potentialentrepreneurs like availabilityof land, uninterrupted elec-tricity supply and responsiveadministration.

During the meeting,Mukesh Ambani showed inter-est in strengthening Jio net-work particularly in rural areasof the state by laying new opti-cal fibre line. He also showedinterest in post harvest man-agement of fruit and vegetablebesides setting up of mobilephone assembly unit in Baddi,Barotiwala and Nalagarh areafor which he assured that ateam of the company wouldvisit the state to finalize itsactivities.

He also expressed desire to

set up a resort in the state par-ticularly in Dharamshala area.Apart from Mukesh Ambani,the Chief Minister also hadBusiness 2 Government (B2G)meetings with heads and rep-resentative of industrial hous-es at Mumbai.He met chairmanRPG enterprises Harsh Goenkaand discussed about invest-ment in IT park at Waknaghatin Solan district. Goenka saidthat the company is looking atplantation as it was the largestcompany in tea and rubberplantation. The governmentsuggested that contract farmingis suitable for plantation inHimachal Pradesh.

Thakur also had a meetingwith representatives of DPWorld that showed interest ininvestment in logistics sectorand dry port at Baddi. TheState Government suggestedDP World to submit proposalfor the same so that possibili-ty of logistic park could be

explored in Baddi area.The Chief Minister also

had one to one meeting withChief Counsel India andAMEA, Mondeleze India, SreePatel, COO UnitedPhosphorous Limited SagarKaushik. The firm is into hor-ticulture and procures applesand oranges for distribution toretail stores. They shared asmall presentation with ChiefMinister about the firm, itsproducts and expansion plansin India.

The company also sub-mitted proposal for expansionof existing facility in Himachalby five times in procurement ofapples.

Another meeting was heldwith chairman, Foods and InnsLimited Bhupendra Dalal.The company is into exports ofmango pulp and is looking atinvestment in food processingsector.

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Aday after a prisoner diedand several others were

injured in clashes at LudhianaCentral Jail, a jail inmate hasgone missing. Besides, thePunjab Police on Fridaybooked 22 jail inmates forallegedly attacking cops anddamaging jail property.

As per available informa-tion, an undertrail prisonerAman Kumar alias Deepakhas been missing since theviolence — a developmentalso confirmed by the JailsMinister Sukhjinder SinghRandhawa.

The Police sources main-tained that they suspect thatthe undertrial prisoner couldhave used the confusion thatfollowed the violence toescape.

The police has registereda case against prisoner-accused — Gagandeep,Ghanaiya, Ranbir, Bhupinder,Boota Khan, Babu, Gaggu,

Vishal, Pankaj, Suni, Ajit,Sarwan, Ranjit, Gurjant,Romish, Karanjot, Jatta,Rakesh, Queem Khan,Karamjeet and others — at theDivision Number 7 policestation, under various sec-tions of the Indian PenalCode, including 307 (attemptto murder).

Meanwhile, LudhianaDeputy CommissionerPradeep Aggarwal, who isalso Ludhiana district magis-trate, has started an inquiryinto violence at the jail.

Ludhiana Central JailSuperintendent ShamsherSingh said that the two groupsof gangsters had entered intoa scuffle, and when the copstried to pacify them, theinmates attacked the jail staffwith bricks and stones.

Singh claimed that theinmates put on fire the gascylinders, the record room, atractor and another vehicle inthe jail, forcing the cops toopen firing in the air to con-trol the situation.

In the melee, an inmateidentified as Ajit Baba waskilled after being hit by a bul-let and 11 people — includingfive inmates and six policepersonnel — were injured.

Punjab Jails MinisterSukhjinder Singh Randhawa,who visited the central jail totake stock of the situation,faced protests from the relativesand friends of those injured inthe clash, who raised slogansagainst the State Governmentand the Minister.

The mother of undertrialAvtar Baba, who fell to the bul-lets of police on Thursday,said that they would not let thepost-mortem be done till a caseof murder is registered againstthe persons responsible for thekilling of her son. She claimedthat her son was innocent.

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Jails Minister SukhjinderSingh Randhawa, who visitedLudhiana Central Jail accom-panied by the senior officers

of the Department as well asthe District Administrationsaid that ‘Prison Action Force’would be set up in the stateprisons, on the lines of theRapid Action Force, to avoidrecurrence of such incidentsin jails.

Randhawa inspected thehigh security zone, all bar-racks, and all those placeswhich were damaged by theinmates.

Apprising the Minister ofthe background of the vio-lence, DGP Jails Rohit

Chaudhary said that somegangsters plotted the entireviolence spree who were irkedwith the jail administration fornot letting them out of thehigh security zone besidesnot letting prohibited itemsinside the premises.

Randhawa also met thosejail officers who had bravelytried to bring the rowdy jailinmates gone berserk undercontrol. The Ministerannounced the award of Rs5,000 each for these officers oremployees besides the award-ing of commendation certifi-cates and promotion.

He praised those inmateswho cooperated with the jailauthorities in bringing thesituation under control andsaid that special concessionswould be given to suchinmates.

The Minister, during thecourse of visit, felt that the teargas played an important rolein controlling the mob.

Randhawa talked with theDGP on the spot and direct-ed him to provide tear gasshells and rubber bullets to theJail Department so as to bebetter prepared to tackle sucha situation in future.

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Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) president Sukhbir Badalhas demanded registration of amurder case against PunjabJails Minister Sukhjinder SinghRandhawa who was directlyresponsible for the killing of ajail inmate during police firingin Ludhiana Central Jail, a daybefore.

“Besides the Jails Minister,the role of other senior policeoff icers and the Jai lSuperintendent should alsobe examined to fix responsi-bility for the death of inmateAjit Baba in the police firingbesides gun-shot injuries tofour others,” he demanded.

Sukhbir said that in casethe Congress Government didnot order a probe into the caseby a central agency or a sittingjudge of the Punjab andHaryana High Court, the SADwould order a high level probe into the incident onceit returned to power in theState.

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Taking suo motu cogni-sance of Ludhiana

Central Jail clash, the PunjabState Human RightsCommission (PSHRC) hasset a month’s deadline for thestate Home and JusticeDepartment’s secretary tosubmit a report by July 29.

The Commission, com-prising of its chairpersonJustice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari,along with membersAshutosh Mohunta and

Avinash Kaur, has fixed July29 as the next date for hear-ing in the matter, asking theGovernment to submitreport in the incident.

Notably, a prisoner waskilled while five policemenand an equal number ofinmates were injured in theclash. The prisoners wereprotesting the death of aninmate and the mob turnedviolent when the jail stafftried to prevent them fromheading towards the maingate.

“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances,while taking serious view of the matter, thisCommission takes suo motocognizance in the matter,”read the order.

The Commission statedthat a detailed report regard-ing the entire incident isrequisitioned from the stateof Punjab, through theSecretary, Home and JusticeDepartment, Punjab, on orbefore the next date of hear-ing, that is July 29.

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Aday after Haryana Congressspokesman Vikas

Chaudhary was shot dead inFaridabad, the Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on Fridaysaid that the deceased had 13FIRs against him and anythingcould be possible with such aperson.

The Chief Minister whiletalking to the mediapersons inFaridabad said, “The murder isunfortunate but we would alsohave to look at the person'scharacter. There were 13 FIRsregistered against the murderedperson and some of those casesare under Section 120 (B) and307 of the IPC. It (the murder)

could also have been because ofsome personal enmity but weare still engaged in conductingthe investigation fairly.”

“The incident is horribleand murder should never besupported but the victim's char-acter should also be kept inmind who has been declared asa bad character. This personwho had been a spokespersonof a party (Congress), shouldhave been identified by theparty,” he added.

Vikas was shot dead byunknown assailants at the carparking of a gym in Faridabadon Thursday. The incident tookplace around 9 am, when Vikas(42) was parking his car outsidethe gym.

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The Centre has assuredPunjab Chief Minister

Capt Amarinder Singh to ini-tiate work on the infrastruc-ture development ofSultanpur Lodhi as proposedby the Punjab Government atthe earliest.

The assurance was givenby the Union Minister ofState for Civil Aviation withIndependent Charge HardeepSingh Puri to press for earlyapproval for Rs 321 croreinfrastructure developmentprojects proposed by the StateGovernment for SultanpurLodhi town which holds his-torical significance due to itsassociation with Guru NanakDev, whose 550th birthanniversary is being celebrat-ed this year.

Puri said that he hadalready instructed theDepartment to immediate vetthe proposals and secure thenecessary approvals to startwork on priority.

To the Chief Minister’srequest for inclusion of thethree Municipal Corporationtowns of Patiala, Bathindaand SAS Nagar in SmartCities Project being assistedby the Central Governmenton sharing basis, Puri assuredto consider the same, as andwhen the project is expandedto cover new cities.

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Osaka: British Prime Minister Theresa May told RussianPresident Vladimir Putin on Friday that normal relations willnot be restored until Moscow ends its “irresponsible and desta-bilising” activity, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

The comments came as May met Putin on the sidelines ofthe G20 summit in Japan’s Osaka, their first formal face-to-facesince the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal last year.

“She told the president that there cannot be a normalisationof our bilateral relationship until Russia stops the irresponsibleand destabilising activity that threatens the UK and its allies --including hostile interventions in other countries, disinforma-tion and cyber attacks,” the spokesperson said.

May also told Putin that Britain “has irrefutable evidence thatRussia was behind the attack” on the former spy. AFP

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World leaders attending aGroup of 20 summit in

Japan are clashing over the val-ues that have served fordecades as the foundation oftheir cooperation.

European Union PresidentDonald Tusk on Friday blast-ed Russian President VladimirPutin for suggesting in aninterview with the newspaperFinancial Times that liberalismwas “obsolete.”

In a statement to reporters,Tusk said, “We are here as

Europeans also to firmly andunequivocally defend and pro-mote liberal democracy.”

He said, “What I find real-ly obsolete are: authoritarian-ism, personality cults, the ruleof oligarchs. Even if some-times they may seem effective.”

As US President DonaldTrump, Chinese President XiJinping, Putin and other leadersmet on the sidelines of the sum-mit, Tusk told reporters that suchcomments suggest a belief that“freedoms are obsolete, that therule of law is obsolete and thathuman rights are obsolete.”

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Protesters stormed theBahraini Embassy com-

pound in Baghdad onThursday night, removing theflag from above the buildingand replacing it with aPalestinian banner in protestagainst a conference held in thegulf nation to promote peacebetween Arabs and Israelis.

No one was hurt in thestandoff that lasted more thanan hour and later in the nightIraqi security forces were incontrol of the area.

An Iraqi security officialsaid the protesters forced theirway in by breaking through themain gate but stayed in the gar-den without storming theoffices inside the compound.

The official, who spoke oncondition of anonymity in linewith regulations, said securityforces opened fire in the air todisperse the protesters and

reinforcements were sent toBaghdad’s western neighbour-hood of Mansour where theembassy is.

More than an hour later,the nearly 200 protesters, wav-ing Iraqi and Palestinian flags,dispersed.

The Bahraini diplomatswere evacuated earlier from thecompound into the heavilyfortified Green Zone after themission received threats, theofficial said.

The two-day workshop inBahrain that ended Wednesdaywas to promote the Trumpadministration’s USD 50 billioneconomic support plan for thePalestinians ahead of a WestAsia peace plan, widely knownas the Deal of the Century, tobe announced later.

Several Arab countriesboycotted the Bahrain confer-ence including Lebanon andIraq as well as the Palestinianauthority.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister onThursday warned US

President Donald Trump hewas mistaken to think a warbetween their countries wouldbe short, as Washington soughtNATO’s help to build an anti-Tehran coalition.

The latest developmentsin the Iran-US standoff came asa diplomatic source in Viennasaid Tehran would not exceeda uranium stockpile limitagreed with world powers,contrary to what it had saidearlier this month.

Iran had set Thursday as adeadline to surpass the agreed300-kilogram reserve ofenriched uranium because it nolonger felt bound by certain lim-its contained in the 2015 deal,which the United States unilat-erally pulled out of in May 2018.

“They won’t exceed ittoday,” the diplomatic source,speaking on condition ofanonymity, told AFP in Viennaon the eve of a meeting by acommission that oversees thenuclear deal.

The source suggested theremight be a “political reason” for

this, given intensified efforts byEuropean governments inrecent days to de-escalate ten-sions in the Gulf region.

The tensions, sparked byTrump’s withdrawal from thenuclear deal, were exacerbatedearlier this month when Iranshot down a US spy drone overthe strategic Gulf after a seriesof tanker attacks thatWashington blamed Tehranfor despite its denials.

Since then the arch-foeshave been locked in a war ofwords, which escalated thisweek when Trump announcednew sanctions against Iran’sSupreme Leader Sayyid AliKhamenei and top diplomatMohammad Javad Zarif.

“‘Short war’ with Iran is anillusion,” Zarif wrote on Twittera day after Trump said he doesnot want a war with Iran butwarned that if fighting didbreak out, it “wouldn’t lastvery long”.

The Iranian foreign minis-ter added: “Whoever beginswar will not be the one endingit.” On Wednesday, Trumphinted that any conflict wouldbe waged with air strikes, say-ing there would be no US

boots on the ground.In an interview on Fox

Business Network, Trump wasasked if America was going togo to war with Iran.

“Well, I hope we don’t butwe’re in a very strong positionif something should happen.We’re in a very strong position,”Trump said.

“It wouldn’t last very long,I can tell you that. And I’m nottalking boots on the ground.”His remarks came after IranianPresident Hassan Rouhani triedto rein in the crisis between thetwo sides, saying that Tehran“never seeks war” withWashington.

But as the tensionsremained high, the acting USdefence chief on Thursdaypressed NATO allies to joinWashington’s efforts to squeezeIran and ensure the safety ofships in the Gulf after thetanker attacks.

Mark Esper urged allies to“consider public statementscondemning Iran’s bad behav-iour and making the pointthat we need to have freedomof navigation in the Strait ofHormuz”.

He also sought to “inter-

nationalise” the Iran issue, at ameeting of NATO defenceministers in Brussels devoted todiscussing the Iran-US crisis.

Many European countrieshave been alarmed at theTrump administration’s hawk-ish approach to Iran, fearingthe US policy of “maximumpressure” is counterproductiveand could lead to war.

Any NATO involvement inthe Gulf would need unani-mous support from all 29member states, and givenEuropean unease this would beextremely difficult to achieve.

“We would like to see morecalm from the two actors but wereally don’t want this to becomea NATO issue,” said a diplomatfrom the alliance in Brussels.

Under the landmark dealwith world powers in 2015,Iran pledged to reduce itsnuclear capacities for severalyears and to allow inspectorsinto the country to monitor itsactivities in return for relieffrom international sanctions.

The deal set a limit on thenumber of uranium-enrich-ing centrifuges, and restrictedIran’s right to enrich uraniumto no higher than 3.67 percent,

well below weapons-grade lev-els of about 90 percent.

But after being hit by waves

of crippling UN sanctions, theIslamic republic said in May itwould gradually step away

from its commitments.Tehran has also threatened

to start enriching uranium

above the agreed purificationlevel of 3.67 percent startingfrom July 7.

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Senior officials from Iran and theremaining signatories to its 2015

nuclear deal with world powers are gath-ering on Friday as tensions in the PersianGulf simmer and Tehran is poised to sur-pass a uranium stockpile threshold, pos-ing a threat to the accord.

At the heart of the meeting in Viennais Iran’s desire for European countries todeliver on promises of financial relief fromU.S. Sanctions. Iran is insisting that itwants to save the agreement and has urgedthe Europeans to start buying Iranian oilor give Iran a credit line to keep the accordalive.

The regular quarterly meeting of theaccord’s so-called joint commission, whichbrings together senior officials from Iran,France, Germany, Britain, Russia, Chinaand the European Union, is meant to dis-cuss implementation of the deal.

The 2015 agreement aimed at curb-ing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchangefor relief from economic sanctions. TheUnited States withdrew from the accordlast year and has imposed new sanctionson Iran to cripple its economy, in hopesof forcing Tehran into negotiating awider-ranging deal.

President Donald Trump said on thesidelines of the Group of 20 summit inJapan that “there’s no rush” to ease the ten-sions with Iran.

“There’s absolutely no time pres-sure,” he added. “I think that in the end,hopefully, it’s going to work out. If it does,great. And if doesn’t, you’ll be hearingabout it.”

Iran recently quadrupled its produc-tion of low-enriched uranium. It previ-ously said it would surpass a 300-kilogramstockpile limit set by the accord byThursday, but an Iranian official said thatit was 2.8 kilograms below that limit

Wednesday and there would be no newassessment until “after the weekend.”

It is currently a holiday weekend inIran.

European countries are pressing forIran to comply in full with the accord,though they have not specified what theconsequences would be of failing to do so.But Iranian officials maintain that even ifit surpasses the limit, it would not bebreaching the deal, and say such a movecould be reversed quickly.

The Europeans also face a July 7 dead-line set by Tehran to offer long-promisedrelief from U.S. Sanctions, or Iran says itwill also begin enriching its uranium clos-er to weapons-grade levels.

On Thursday, Iranian state televisionreported that Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif sent a letterurging European signatories to the accordto implement their commitments, sayingIran’s next steps depend on that.

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Osaka: With a smirk and a fin-ger point, President DonaldTrump dryly told Russia’sVladimir Putin “Don’t meddlein the election” in their firstmeeting since the special coun-sel concluded that Moscowextensively interfered with the2016 campaign.

The tone of the president’scomment did little to silencequestions about Trump’s rela-tionship with Russia in theaftermath of special counselRobert Mueller’s conclusionthat he could not establish acriminal conspiracy betweenTrump’s campaign and Russia.

The moment at the Groupof 20 summit in Osaka echoedone of the most definingmoments of Trump’s presiden-cy in Helsinki, Finland.

There, he pointedly did notadmonish Putin about electioninterference and did not sidewith US intelligence agencies

over his Russian counterpart.Trump and Putin traded

brief remarks Friday, the firsttime they sat together sinceHelsinki, about issues theyplanned to discuss when areporter asked Trump if hewould warn Putin not to med-dle in the 2020 election.

“Of course,” the presidentreplied.

Then he turned to Putinand facetiously said, “Don’tmeddle in the election.”

He playfully repeated therequest while pointing at Putin,who laughed.

Trump said he enjoyed a“very, very good relationship”with Putin and said “many pos-itive things are going to comeout of the relationship.”

The Kremlin says Putin hasinvited Trump to visit Russianext year to mark the 75thanniversary of the allied victo-ry in World War II. AP

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London: Footage of BritishPrime Ministerial hopefulBoris Johnson calling theFrench “turds” over their Brexitstance was cut from a BBC doc-umentary following a requestfrom the Foreign Office, theDaily Mail reported on Friday.

The comments werereportedly made duringJohnson’s time as foreign min-ister, and were cut out of thefly-on-the-wall documentary“Inside the Foreign Office”.

A Whitehall memo seen bythe paper said the departmentasked for the footage to be cut,saying it would make Anglo-French relations “awkward”and make Brexit negotiationsmore difficult.

Johnson resigned asForeign Secretary in protest atTheresa May’s Brexit plan, andis now the overwhelmingfavourite to replace her asConservative Party leader andprime minister. AFP

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Avery serious legal and environ-mental hazard is looming largeover India. It is the illegal andhazardous planting of HerbicideTolerance (HT) Bt Cotton in the

fields of Akola, Maharashtra. An alarmedCentral Government, the GeneticEngineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)and the State Government issued severalnotifications and inquiries. Meanwhile, awell-funded Non-GovernmentalOrganisation (NGO) has been using thefarmers as scapegoat to push an unapprovedGenetically Modified (GM) variety of cot-ton on India’s farms and biodiversity.

The NGO has unabashedly called thisplanting as “civil disobedience or satyagra-ha” against the Government. Its satyagrahais a euphemism for illegality and irre-versible toxic contamination that threatensto undermine thousands of years of farm-ers’ hard work. Like a tyrant, it believes itknows what is right for the farmers. Not onlyis the NGO infringing upon a number ofrules but is also threatening the sovereign-ty of the Government besides sabotaging thelivelihoods of thousands of farmers involvedin the Indian cotton seed sector.

BT HT mystery history: The HT Btstory dates back to 2008 when trait devel-oper, Monsanto (now Bayer), through itsIndian subsidy, Mahyco, imported GM-Bollgard II cotton seeds with HT trait(known as event MON 88913) calledRoundup Ready Flex (RRF). Roundup isa glyphosate-based herbicide (glyphosate+ formulants) and is also known as a car-cinogenic. The World Health Organisation(WHO), along with independent scientistsand courts, confirmed its toxicity alongwith the presence of banned heavy metalssuch as arsenic among others. The RRFvarieties are tolerant to Round-upHerbicide, which means once Round-up issprayed in the field, all other plants will dieexcept the RRF varieties.

The GEAC gave Mahyco approvals toconduct large-scale field trials in Punjab,Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka andTamil Nadu. Within three months of theapprovals, GEAC confirmed that HT traithad escaped into the environment. Reportsof illegal HT cotton seeds being sold underthe trade name of Weed Card in Gujaratwere also confirmed.

The United States Department ofAgriculture (USDA) lays down specificinstructions for the prevention of contam-ination, but these limits were discarded byMahyco and seed breeders around its seedproduction area.

Once the trait escaped, it began conta-minating seeds in the cotton belts. HT traitshave not been approved for cultivation byour country. Once enough time had passedon July 5, 2016, Mahyco withdrew its appli-cation from the GEAC of the ongoing HT-BG2 cotton bio-safety trails after eightyears of open field cultivation. In September,

2017, we heard that HT cottonwas being planted illegally andabout five to 10 per cent of thecotton was of illegal variety.The National Seed Associationof India (NSAI) wrote to theGovernment, alerting it of thesituation and various commit-tees were formed on the instruc-tion of the Prime Minister’sOffice. This is not only an issueof the field but also of our foodsystem as with growingdemands for cottonseed oil inIndia, this toxin is entering thecountry’s bloodstream. TheGovernment was quick to actand it conducted raids to preventthis illegal bio-hazard to under-mine our laws. But perhapsthey missed a few corners.

What next? This illegalintroduction will also contam-inate the breeding material andparent lines of the seed compa-nies and will result in completedisruption of the cotton seedeconomy. All Indian companies,who are selling GEAC approvedBG2 cotton seeds, are the firstvictims and under the Seed Actwill be penalised for trait cont-amination. Instead of the pol-luter, the polluted have to pay. By2019, the Andhra PradeshGovernment had suspended thelicence of 13 seed companies inthe alleged presence of HT geneand Maharashtra Governmentissued show-cause notices, too.In both these States, FIRs werelodged and actions are being

taken against licensed seed com-panies. It is important to knowthat only one or two lots, out ofthe several lots tested, werefound contaminated with HTgene. While illegal HT seedbreeders continue to contami-nate and sell HT Bt cotton,licensed Indian companies aremade scapegoats and harassed.They were victims, not culprits.

A report by the FieldInspection and ScientificEvaluation Committee (FISEC)found that, “the 14 illegal hybridscollected can be grouped intotwo major groups, indicatingvery narrow genetic basesreflecting organised base activ-ity by a couple of companies.”Further, it stated that studieshave also ruled out the involve-ment of smuggling of seeds…asgenotypes found were native inIndia.” This proves the inno-cence of the Indian seed sectorand clearly points towards the“couple of companies” involvedin this.

It is the responsibility of theapplicant Mahyco, trait develop-er Monsanto/Bayer and GEACto prevent any escape of HTgene into the environment and,hence, cases against Indian seedcompanies for HT contamina-tion should be redirectedtowards the real culprits, whostand to profit from this.

In fact, any deliberate plantbreeding activities with unap-proved HT trait by fly-by-night

operators and unscrupulousplayers need to be investigatedand strict penal action should betaken. There should be a strictinquiry on how this trait wasleaked into India.

To take this further, thesampling procedures, testingprotocols and tolerance limits forinterpretation of test resultsneed to be published by GEACand other departments of theGovernment to prevent anywrong test results, and if thereare any false results, they shouldbe dealt sternly.

The Government shouldamend the laws to ensure rightsof contaminated seed companiesare protected and they get fairtreatment. While on the otherhand, a strict task force of seedsinspectors and experts shouldtake the help of farmers to iden-tify polluters and hoarders of thisbio-hazardous HT Bt seed.

This grave environmentalthreat needs to be jointlyaddressed by all stakeholdersand illegal cultivation of HT cot-ton should be immediatelystopped. There ought to becomplete ban on Round-Upand all glyphosate-based herbi-cides. The motivation to useRRF-BG2 cotton is for killingweeds in cotton crops byRoundup (a Monsanto/Bayerpatent product) as RRF-BG2trait will produce herbicide tol-erant plants. This directlyincreases profits of

Monsanto/Bayer while toxicresidues from the herbicide willmake Indian cotton belts a toxicwasteland, plagued by deformedIndian children and cancer.

When it comes to the issueof illegal planting of RRF BG2cotton, it is in violation of theIndian law and not about tech-nology. Laws should be upheldand all legal processes should berespected by even behemothagricultural MNCs. There arestrict scientific procedures,which no NGO (and their mas-ters included), should overridebecause of their opinion.

The timing of this transgres-sion is pre-meditated and doneto challenge the Government. Ihope Prime Minister NarendraModi will give a befitting replyto the people who don’t respectIndian laws and put corporateprofits before the country. Thisis New India and ifMonsanto/Bayer can respect thelaws of the US, France andBritain, why not here? We standwith the farmers of Akola, theIndian Government and fortechnology, not for illegalityand crime that expose millionsof Indians for the profit of a few.India has to be very carefulbefore its mega cotton seed sec-tor crumbles because of pro-GMvigilantism of a few bad apples.

(The writer is programmedirector for policy and outreach,National Seed Association ofIndia)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Anatomy of hate crime” (June28) by Ajoy Kumar. It is disheart-ening that lynching incidents, likethe one happened in Jharkhandrecently, have become the newnormal. Each time such incidentsoccur, they threaten to become ablot on our country and cast usin low light in the eyes of theworld community.

The Prime Minister did wellto express his pain in theParliament but the fact remainsthat mere verbal expression maynot be enough to alter the situa-tion for the better. It is distress-ing that the Government hasfailed to take measures even afterthe Supreme Court pulled it upand asked it to put specific pre-ventive, punitive and remedialmeasures. The top court alsomooted a special law to deal withlynching and the appointment ofa nodal officer in each district tocombat the threat. Now that withevery passing day the issue isassuming alarming proportions,the onus is on the political lead-ership to act.

Khushi JainGwalior

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Sir — It is distressing to read newsreports nowadays. AkashVijayvargiya, a first-time MLAwhose father is the Bengal BJPminder and a national general sec-

retary of the party, was caught oncamera attacking the Indore civicofficial, who was part of a demo-lition drive, with a cricket bat andhitting him twice on the leg.

The attack happened in fullpublic view and in front of the

police. While Akash was finallyarrested and denied bail, theincident clearly exposes the exis-tence of VIP culture in the coun-try where politicians feel they canget away with anything.

Unfortunately, VIP arrogance

isn’t confined to a single party. Assoon as they are elected, manypoliticians and their childrenallow power to go to their heads.

All of this needs to change andpoliticians must be held to accountif they break the law. As of today,Akash has been booked. But theparty will not take any actionagainst his father. After all, he is oneof the brains behind BJP’s Bengalgains. The party is not in a moodto topple the applecart ahead of2021. Even if the fruit may rot.

P ArihantSecunderabad

��

Sir — It is disheartening that UttarPradesh as well as Bihar have beenunable to improve their position onthe health index. Perhaps, the sys-tem is filled with too many loop-holes. Expecting change to comequickly will be foolhardy. Instead,States can deploy their manpowerin hospitals and ensure that thereare a higher number of well-trained doctors and researchers.

Anubha AroraNew Delhi

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has restoredthe primacy of the eastern axis of power align-ments by endorsing a trilateral meeting

organised at India’s initiative on the sidelines of theG-20 summit. Said he, “The joint work in the Russia-India-China format is obviously beneficial both interms of developing and strengthening relations direct-ly between our countries and in terms of the contri-bution our three countries make to resolving acuteinternational and regional problems. The trilateralforeign policy coordination has been growing. InFebruary our foreign ministers had another, now the16th round of consultations. The dialogue of our secu-rity councils, financial intelligence agencies and othersectoral institutions has been developing concurrent-ly. Representatives of the scientific, academic andyoung people’s communities are interacting closely.In this context, I note that Russia will host a festi-val of young diplomats from the RIC countries thisautumn. It is important that Russia’s, India’s andChina’s positions are close or coincide on most issuesof the world economic and political agenda. Ourcountries stand for the preservation of the system ofinternational relations with the UN Charter andinternational law at its core. We assert such funda-mental principles of international ties as respect forsovereignty and non-interference in countries’ inter-nal affairs. Russia, India and China are jointly work-ing for stronger global stability, combatting the ter-rorist threat, extremism, drug trafficking and cyber-crime, and thus are laying the foundation for equaland indivisible security architecture in Eurasia. I thinkour countries, for example, could jointly advocategreater authority of the World Trade Organisationand the preservation of its role as a universal enti-ty regulating international trade. Joint support of theefforts to reform the International Monetary Fundis another important task.”

Earlier, the Kremlin official site also released atranscript of Putin’s interview with The FinancialTimes Editor Lionel Barber and Moscow BureauChief Henry Foy, where he talked of Russia’s role inthe Asia-Pacific, every nation’s commitment tostrengthen international trade and China. Excerpts:

Do you believe that the world now hasbecome more fragmented?

During the Cold War, the bad thing was theCold War. But there were at least some rules thatall participants in international communicationmore or less adhered to or tried to follow. Now, itseems there are no rules. In this sense, the worldhas become more fragmented and less predictable.This is the most important and regrettable thing.

Tell us what you want to achieve in Osaka,in terms of your relationships with other parties?What are your main goals for the summit?

The G20, in my opinion, is a key internation-al economic development forum today. So Iwould like all the G20 members to reaffirm theirintention — at least an intention — to work outsome general rules that everyone would follow andshow their commitment and dedication to strength-ening international financial and trade institutions.Everything else is details. We certainly supportJapan’s presidency. As for the development of mod-ern technology, the information world, the infor-mation economy, as well as our Japanese colleagues’attention to matters such as longevity and the envi-ronment — all this is extremely important and wewill certainly support it. Even though it is hard toexpect any breakthroughs or landmark decisionsin the current conditions; we can hardly count onit today. But in any case, there is hope at least thatduring these general discussions and bilateral meet-ings, we will be able to smooth out the existing dis-agreements and lay a foundation, a basis for pos-itive movement forward.

You have observed four American presidentsat close quarters and have had direct experience.So, how is Mr Trump different?

On the whole, I maintained good-natured andstable relations with all the leaders of the US. Thefirst US President I came into contact with was BillClinton. Generally, I viewed this as a positive expe-

rience. We established sufficiently stable and busi-ness-like ties for a short period of time because histenure was already coming to an end. I recall howhe established partner-like relations with me. Therehave been different times and we had to addressvarious problems with all other colleagues.Unfortunately, this often involved debates and ouropinions did not coincide on some matters that,in my opinion, can be called key aspects for Russia,the US and the entire world. For example, thisincludes the unilateral US withdrawal from theAnti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that, as we have alwaysbelieved, and as I am still convinced, was the cor-nerstone of international security system.

We debated this matter for a long time, arguedand suggested various solutions. In any event, Imade very energetic attempts to convince our USpartners not to withdraw from the Treaty. And ifthe US side still wanted to withdraw from the Treaty,it should have done so in such a way as to guar-antee international security for a long historical peri-od. I did this because I consider this matter to beimportant. I suggested working jointly on missile-defence projects that should have involved the US,Russia and Europe. They stipulated specific para-meters of this cooperation, determined dangerousmissile approaches and envisioned technologyexchanges, the elaboration of decision-makingmechanisms, etc. Those were absolutely specificproposals. I am convinced that the world wouldbe a different place today, had our US partnersaccepted this proposal. We can see that the situa-tion is developing in another direction; newweapons and cutting-edge military technology arecoming to the fore. Well, this is not our choice. Buttoday, we should at least do everything so as to notaggravate the situation.

With Mr Trump, we have seen somethingnew, something much more transactional. He isvery critical of alliances and allies in Europe. Isthis something that is to Russia’s advantage?

It would be better to ask what would be toAmerica’s advantage in this case. Mr Trump is nota career politician. He has a distinct world outlookand vision of US national interests. I do not acceptmany of his methods when it comes to address-ing problems. But do you know what I think? Ithink that he is a talented person. He knows verywell what his voters expect from him. Russia hasbeen accused, and strange as it may seem, it is stillbeing accused, despite the Mueller report of

mythical interference in the US election. What hap-pened in reality? Mr Trump looked into his oppo-nents’ attitude to him and saw changes in Americansociety and he took advantage of this. You and Iare talking ahead of the G20 meeting. It is an eco-nomic forum and it will undoubtedly have discus-sions on globalisation, global trade and internation-al finance. Has anyone ever given a thought to whoactually benefited and what benefits were gainedfrom globalisation, the development of which wehave been observing and participating in over thepast 25 years, since the 1990s?

China has made use of globalisation, in par-ticular, to pull millions of Chinese out of poverty.What happened in the US and how did it happen?In the US, leading companies made use of thesebenefits. The middle class hardly benefitted fromglobalisation; it was left out when this pie was divid-ed up. The Trump team sensed this keenly andclearly and used this in the election campaign. Itis where you should look for reasons behindTrump’s victory. He believes that the distributionof resources and benefits of globalisation in the pastdecade was unfair to the US. I am not going to dis-cuss whether it was fair or not, and I will not sayif what he is doing is right or wrong. I would liketo understand his motives. Maybe this could explainhis unusual behaviour.

Here you are, the President of Russia,defending globalisation along with President Xiwhereas Mr Trump is attacking globalisation andtalking about America First. How do youexplain this paradox?

I don’t think that his desire to make Americafirst is a paradox. I want Russia to be first and thatis not perceived as a paradox; there is nothingunusual there. As for the fact that he is attackingsome manifestations of globalisation, I made thatpoint earlier. He seems to believe that the resultsof globalisation could have been much better forthe US than they are. These globalisation resultsare not producing the desired effect for the US andhe is beginning this campaign against certain ele-ments of globalisation. This concerns everyone, pri-marily major participants in the system of inter-national economic collaboration, including allies.

Mr President, you have had many meetingswith President Xi and Russia and China have def-initely come closer. Are you putting too many eggsin the China basket?

First of all, we have enough eggs, but there are

not that many baskets where they can be placed.This is the first point. Second, we always assess risks.Third, our relations with China are not motivat-ed by time-serving political any other considera-tions. Let me point out that the Friendship Treatywith China was signed in 2001, long before the cur-rent situation and long before the current econom-ic disagreements, to put it mildly, between the USand China. We do not have to join anything, andwe do not have to direct our policy against any-one. We are just consistently implementing ourplans for expanding cooperation. We have not doneanything that transcends the framework of theseaccords.

The G20 has accomplished many usefulthings for stabilising the global financial system,for developing global trade and ensuring its stabil-isation. I am talking about the tax aspect of the glob-al agenda, the fight against corruption, and so on.Both China and Russia adhere to this concept. TheG20 has accomplished a lot by advocating quotachanges at the IMF and the World Bank. BothRussia and China share this approach.

Do you think that there is a risk of a mili-tary conflict in your time between you, Americaand China?

You know, the entire history of mankind hasalways been full of military conflicts, but since theappearance of nuclear weapons, the risk of globalconflicts has decreased due to the potential glob-al tragic consequences for the entire population ofthe planet. I hope it will not come to this.However, of course, we have to admit that it is notonly about China’s industrial subsidies on the onehand or the tariff policy of the US on the other. Firstof all, we are talking about different developmentplatforms, so to speak, in China and in the US. Theyare different. They have different philosophies inboth foreign and domestic policies, probably. ButI would like to share some personal observationswith you. China is showing loyalty and flexibilityto both its partners and opponents. Maybe this isrelated to historical features of Chinese philosophy,their approach to building relations. Therefore, Ido not think that there would be some such threatsfrom China. I cannot imagine that, really. But it ishard to say whether the US would have enoughpatience not to make any rash decisions, but torespect its partners even if there are disagreements.But I hope, there would not be any military con-frontation.

You have seen what the Chinese are doing interms of their buildup of their Navy and theirmaritime strength. How do you deal with thosepotential security problems, territorial disputesin the Pacific?

You mentioned the build-up of naval forces inChina. China’s total defence spending is $117 bil-lion, if memory serves. The US defence spendingis over $700 billion. And you are trying to scare theworld with the build-up of China’s military might?It does not work with this scale of military spend-ing. No, it does not. As for Russia, we will contin-ue to develop our Pacific Fleet as planned. Of course,we also respond to global developments and to whathappens in relations between other countries. Wecan see all of this, but it does not affect our defencedevelopment plans, including those in the RussianFar East. We are self-sufficient, and we are confi-dent. We are also primed for cooperation in theAsia- Pacific region.

What has the return been like on the risktaken in Syria?

I believe that it has been good and positive. Firstof all, many militants planning to return to Russiawere eliminated. This implies several thousand peo-ple. Second, we have managed to stabilise the sit-uation in a nearby region. We have established suf-ficiently good business-like relations with allregional countries, and our positions in theMiddle East region have become more stable. Wehave managed to preserve Syrian statehood, no mat-ter what, and we have prevented Libya-stylechaos there. (Courtesy: en.kremlin.ru)

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Post-modernism was a broadmovement that developed inthe late 20th century and almost

immediately began to dominate theintellectual, academic and artisticscenes, especially in Europe and theUS. As a philosophy and a scholarlyand artistic method, post-modernismwas highly critical of “meta narra-tives” or methods of reaching holis-tic truths through science, empiricalinquiry and readings of historymainly developed during the Age ofEnlightenment and/or the Age ofReason in the 18th and 19th cen-turies. Post-modernism is seen as anattack on modernism.

The emphasis on reason, science,democracy and the capitalist system

during the era of Enlightenment isoften seen as the main catalyst whichpropelled the Western world towardsmodernism, which is often explainedas a mindset, attitude and a move-ment. Modernism looked at modify-ing and re-adjusting traditionalmodes of political, social, economicand theological beliefs in accor-dance with modern ideas of progress.

In this context, modernism dom-inated Western politics and the artsacross the 19th and much of the 20thcentury. It created powerful narrativesto explain economic, social, militaryand political progress as the result ofscientific advancements, free enter-prise, individualism, secularism, anda linear reading of history in whichhumans continuously evolved andmodified their need to innovate andinvent and, thus, dominate the plan-et and its resources.

Interestingly, both capitalism aswell as socialism/communism wereproducts of modernism and so werethe thriving Western democracies aswell as modernist authoritarianregimes.

Historians see “post-modernism”

as initially being a project of Leftistintellectuals, who presented it as a cri-tique against modernism in the1960s. In their essay for the 1996anthology, Counternarratives:Cultural Studies and CriticalPedagogies in Postmodern Spaces,Colin Lankshear and Michael Peterssuggest that postmodernism began asa cultural movement during the rad-ical youth and student movements ofthe late 1960s, in which the protest-ing youth described economic, polit-ical and social progress guided bymodernism as tyrannical.

After the collapse of the studentmovements, former Leftist intellec-tuals and artists rebounded in the late1970s to denounce modernism in amore articulate manner. The mostinfluential were Jean Baudrillard,Jean-François Lyotard, JacquesDerrida and Michel Foucault. Theytook to task modernism’s idea of his-tory, art, politics and even languageto demonstrate that they were inher-ently biased towards truths whichwere manufactured to keep the polit-ical, economic and intellectual statusquo in power. The post-modernists

believed that there were no univer-sal truths but that every culture hadits own understanding of truth, sci-entific or historical.

Post-modernism began as anattempt to free Leftism from the bag-gage of Marxist meta narratives butaccording to the American literarycritic, Fredric Jameson, it eventuallybecame the “cultural logic of late cap-italism.” Its emphasis on scepticismand scathing critique of enlighten-ment and modernism marked thedestruction of modernist meta nar-ratives (which were also denouncedas being “colonial”).

But as critics such as Jamesonpoint out, in its attempt to destroy thewhole idea of meta narratives andreplace it with regional and culturalmicro-narratives, post-modernismended up creating its own meta nar-rative and colonising tendencies.

In her March 2017 essay for Areomagazine, journalist and authorHelen Pluckrose writes that post-modernists drew inspiration fromcontroversial philosophers such as the19th century German thinkerFriedrich Nietzsche, who romanti-

cised “unreason” and irrationalism.In his book, The Seduction ofUnreason, Richard Wolin writes thatthe early fascination with Nietzschegave birth to Nazism in the early 20thcentury, even though Nietzsche wasapparently not a racist.

Wolin writes that Nietzsche’sattack on the idea of holistic truths,both theological and scientific, excit-ed the late 20th century post-mod-ernists who critiqued modernistideas in such a manner that theyopened up the scene for what is nowbeing termed as the “post-truth”age. US President Donald Trump cannow tweet whatever he wants to andcall it the truth because to his sup-porters, that is the truth, whichaccording to post-modernist doc-trine, cannot be questioned accord-ing to the perception of the truth ofhis critics.

On the other hand, quite like the“alt-right,” the so-called liberal-Left,too, is not that far behind as they nowseem to spend every waking hour‘discovering’ sexism and racism in the“subtext” of a text that might havenothing like that in it at all. This, too,

is post-modernism. The post-modernist critique of

modernism also excited non-Westerners who, for example, beganto reject science as a “Judaeo-Christian construct.” Since, suppos-edly, every culture has its own truth,various Muslim ‘scientists’ and IndianHindus began to construct “Islamicscience” or “Hindu science.” IfMuslims want to derive energy fromjinns or Hindus believed they cancure cancer with cow dung, so be it.This is their truth and can’t be ques-tioned — or else you have a colonialmindset.

No wonder then, in the lastdecade or so, post-modernism hasincreasingly come under scathingcriticism. It is denounced as being anaive intellectual fetish which spi-ralled out of control, romanticisingsuspicion, sensationalism and irra-tionalism. And in its passion for plu-ralism, it has curtailed universalismand integration and encouraged theghettoisation of cultures with theirown set of truths, no matter how irra-tional they may be.

(The Dawn)

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Equity benchmarks nursedlosses on Friday as investors

remained cautious ahead of thecrucial US-China trade talks onthe sidelines of the G-20 meet.

Domestic trading senti-ment was also at a low ebb fol-lowing tightening of mutualfund norms by regulator Sebi,and the RBI recommendingextra vigil regarding non-bank-ing finance companies(NBFCs), traders said.

After a choppy session,the 30-share BSE Sensex settled191.77 points, or 0.48 per cent,lower at 39,394.64, dragged byindex heavyweights RIL,HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and TCS.

The broader NSE Nifty fell52.70 points, or 0.45 per cent,to end at 11,788.85.

However, the key indicesposted gains for the week. The Sensex rose 200.15 pointsor 0.51 per cent, while Niftygained 64.75 points or 0.55 percent during the week.

Asian markets ended loweras G-20 leaders sat down tochart a way forward for theglobal economy hit by risingtrade tensions. However, USPresident Donald Trump tem-pered expectations of an easybreakthrough, saying he hadnot promised his Chinesecounterpart Xi Jinping anyreprieve on imposing new tariffs.

Back home, top losers in

the Sensex pack included YesBank, IndusInd Bank, TataMotors, RIL, ONGC, BajajAuto, Vedanta, Tata Steel,TCS, HDFC Bank and ICICIBank, which fell up to 3.29per cent.

On the other hand, BajajFinance, Axis Bank, NTPC,Maruti, HUL and TechMahindra rose up to 1.05 percent.

Regulator Sebi Thursdaymade it mandatory for MFsselling liquid schemes to holdat least 20 per cent in liquidassets like cash and G-secs, andalso banned them from enter-ing into standstill agreementswith firms whose debt theyhave exposure to.

Meanwhile, in its bi-annu-al Financial Stability Report,the Reserve Bank said thecountry’s “financial systemremains stable despite somedislocation of late”, but rec-ommended extra vigil onNBFCs.

“Indian markets had a lessthan productive session, asconcerns on IT demandimpacted IT majors, whichwere a drag on the headlineindex, alongside weakness inmetals and commodities.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi held bilateral talks withUS President Donald Trumpahead of the formal inaugura-tion of the G-20 Summit inOsaka. Investors are hoping fora positive outcome from theupcoming G-20 summit.

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India, Japan and the US onFriday held extensive dis-

cussions on the Indo-Pacificregion and how they can worktogether in improving the con-nectivity, infrastructure devel-opment and ensuring peace inthe strategic region whereChina has been trying tospread its influence.

The Indo-Pacific regionwas the main topic of discussionduring the Japan-India-America(JAI) Trilateral Meeting ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi,US President Donald Trumpand Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe on the sidelines ofthe G20 Summit.

The US has been pushingfor a broader role by India inthe strategically importantIndo-Pacific region that con-tributes two-thirds of globalgrowth in gross domestic prod-uct (GDP) and accounts for 60per cent of the global GDP.

India, the US and severalother world powers have beentalking about the need toensure a free, open and thriv-ing Indo-Pacific in the back-drop of China’s rising militarymaneuvering in the region.

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The Indian Rupee on Fridaynotched a marginal 4 paise

gain at 69.03 as forex marketkeenly awaited further cues fromthe high-stakes G20 summit. Ona weekly basis, the Indian cur-rency has gained 55 paise.

At the interbank foreignexchange, the domestic unitopened at 69.00 and swungbetween the day’s high of 68.88and low of 69.11 to the US dol-lar. It finally settled at 69.03 a dol-lar, registering a rise of 4 paise.

The American currency’sweakness against its key rivalsalso boosted sentiment indomestic forex market.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, fell marginally by 0.04 percent to 96.15.

Meanwhile, brent crudefutures, the global oil bench-mark, rose 0.18 per cent totrade at $66.67 per barrel.

“Traders have been takingcautious approach ahead ofthe G20 Summit, which is tak-ing place amidst ongoing US-China trade tiff and rising ten-sions in the Middle East,” saidV K Sharma, Head PCG &Capital Markets Strategy,HDFC Securities.

Sharma further said thatthe meeting between USPresident Donald Trump andChinese President Xi Jinping

this weekend could lead to aneasing of trade tensions.

Analysts believe thatmacro-economic data and liq-uidity situation in the NBFCsector will also have an impacton the rupee and financialmarket sentiments.

As per the data released bythe Controller General ofAccounts (CGA), the govern-ment’s fiscal deficit touched 52per cent of the budget estimatefor the full-year in the first twomonths of 2019-20.

In absolute terms, the fis-cal deficit or gap betweenexpenditure and revenue, was�3,66,157 crore.

The Reserve BankThursday underlined the needfor “greater surveillance” onlarge non-banking finance com-panies (NBFCs) and housingfinance players (HFCs), sayingthe failure of the biggest amongthem can have the same impactas a big bank going down.

Foreign investors soldshares worth 513.91 crore on anet basis Friday, provisionaldata showed.

Meanwhile, the 10-yeargovernment bond yield was at6.88 per cent on Friday.

After a choppy session,the 30-share BSE Sensex settled191.77 points, or 0.48 per cent,lower at 39,394.64. The broad-er NSE Nifty fell 52.70 points,or 0.45 per cent, to end at11,788.85.

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Former Nissan ChairmanCarlos Ghosn cancelled his

news conference planned forFriday within hours of itsannouncement, citing opposi-tion from his family and mediaadviser. It would have been hisfirst such appearance since hewas arrested in November onfinancial misconduct allega-tions, and timed with the Groupof 20 summit of world leadersbeing held in Osaka, Japan.

The reason for the cancel-lation was not given, but Ghosnhad been rearrested afterscheduling a news conferencein April during a previousrelease from detention.

At the time, his lawyersreleased a video statement inwhich Ghosn asserted his inno-cence and accused some exec-utives at the Japanese automak-er of a “conspiracy” that led tohis arrest.

Ghosn is out on bail and isawaiting trial on charges of fal-sifying financial documentson retirement compensationand charges of breach of trustby diverting Nissan Motor Co.Money for personal gain. Hehas spent 130 days in detentionover the two arrests.

The Foreign CorrespondentsClub in Tokyo had invitedreporters to the news conference.But Ghosn’s family and mediaadviser met with him after theannouncement, the club said ina statement.

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India has received $1.81 bil-lion (around �12,474 crore)

foreign direct investment fromChina during April 2014 toMarch 2019, Parliament wasinformed on Friday.

The sectors which receivedmaximum inflows from Chinaduring the period include auto-mobile industry ($876.73 mil-lion), electrical equipment($152.5 million) and servicessector ($127 million).

The information was pro-vided by Commerce andIndustry Minister Piyush Goyalin a written reply to the Rajya

Sabha.He also said the trade

deficit (difference betweenimports and exports) declinedto US 53.57 billion in 2018-19from $63 billion in 2017-18with China.

Moreover, India receivedFDI worth $13.62 billion dur-ing the period from the US.

The sectors which receivedmaximum inflows from the USinclude computer software andhardware, automobile industryand services sector.

New Delhi: Cheaper imports ofCaustic Soda and Soda Ash aretaking over the rising demandfor these inorganic productswhile domestic manufacturersare facing low capacity utilization.

Alkali industry has askedfor an increase in customsduties on imports of CausticSoda and Soda Ash from theexisting level of 7.5% to 12.5%for both products. PNS

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The Reserve Bank Friday set an average base rate of 9.18 percent for non-banking financial companies and micro finance

institutions to be charged from their customers for the quarterbeginning July 1.

“The applicable average base rate to be charged by non-bank-ing financial companies and micro finance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) to their borrowers for the quarter beginning July 1, 2019will be 9.18 per cent,” RBI said in a release.

The central bank in a circular in 2014 had communicatedto NBFCs and MFIs regarding pricing of credit on the last work-ing day of every quarter.

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OPEC is on red alert overescalating US-Iran ten-

sions that have fuelled strongoil-price gains — but the car-tel and other crude-producingnations are unlikely to endoutput cuts at a meeting onTuesday, traders say.

The Organisation of thePetroleum ExportingCountries, a cartel of 14 coun-tries pumping one third of theworld’s oil, is acutely aware thata faltering global economy issapping growth in crudedemand, helping to offset fearsof potential supply disrup-tions in the Middle East.

Ministers from OPEC’smember-nations meet inVienna on Monday, beforegathering a day later for theOPEC+, a group of 24 oil-pro-ducing countries that includesmajor crude supplier Russia.

Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, speaking onthe sidelines of the G20 sum-mit in Japan, insisted that oil

producers would seek inVienna to safeguard output“stability”.

“We believe that our pro-duction stabilisation agree-ments... Have had a positiveeffect,” Putin told the FinancialTimes in remarks publishedFriday.

The cartel and its oil-pro-ducer nation allies opted inDecember to trim daily crudeoutput by 1.2 million barrelsowing to abundant world supplies.

The reduction howevercontributed to oil prices soar-ing by almost one-third in thefirst quarter of 2019, withEuropean benchmark contractBrent crude currently tradingat about $66 per barrel, upseven percent since the lastmeeting.

Oil futures have jumped inrecent weeks also on the US-China trade war — but main-ly owing to supply fears linkedto the fast-developing crisisbetween Tehran andWashington.

New Delhi: Markets regula-tor Sebi has levied a total fineof �64.40 lakh on eight enti-ties for indulging in unfairtrade practices in the illiquidstock options segment on theBSE.

GKS Technology Park PvtLtd, Femina StockManagement, SagarConstructions, SPFL SecuritiesLtd, Leelaben SureshchandraKachadiaunder, Laxmi Rolling& Strips Pvt Ltd,Mahakaleshwar Mines &Metals Pvt Ltd and South DelhiPromotors Ltd are the entitiesfacing penalty.

Sebi had initiated adjudi-cation proceedings betweenApril 2014 and September 2015after observing large scalereversal of trades by variousentities in the stock optionssegment of the BSE.

Investigation revealed thatthe eight entities were amongthe various entities involved inreversal of buy and sell posi-tions by the clients and coun-terparties in a contract. PTI

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Chennai: A host of measuressuch as rainwater harvestingand increasing the number oftrips by tankers have been takento mitigate the water crisis in thecity, Tamil Nadu Minister SPVelumani said on Friday.

From around 9,000 trips,the number has gone upto11,360 trips every day, therural and municipal adminis-tration minister said, adding "itwas never done before."

"We have noticed a largenumber of people queuing upnear water tankers to fetchwater for nearly four hours.

We have ordered increas-

ing the number of pipes (out-lets) from tankers from one ortwo to five," Velumani toldreporters.

Similarly, steps have beentaken to hastenthe process offilling water tankers at the fill-ing stations.

On bringing water fromJolarpettai from neighbouringVellore district, the ministersaid it would happen in anoth-er two weeks.

The Minister also said ateam of officials has beendeployed to strengthen rainwater harvesting in parts of thecity. PTI

Chennai: Spiking speculationsthat former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh might befielded from Tamil Nadu to theRajya Sabha, sources in theDMK and Congress on Fridaysaid such a proposal was notbeing pursued.

Neither the Congress haspersuaded DMK nor was itpossible for the regional ally toallot a seat now in view of itscommitments, the sources said.

Leaders from both theDMK and Congress sought todub as 'media creation' reportsthat Congress was pressing forthe Rajya Sabha seat for Singh,whose term in the Upper Houseof Parliament ended recently.

Beinnial elections to sixRajya Sabha seats from TamilNadu are to be held on July 18and going by the respectivestrength of parties, the rulingAIADMK and DMK can winthree each.

As per the prepoll arrange-ment firmed up by the DMK forthe recent Lok Sabha elections,one Rajya Sabha seat from itskitty will go to the MDMK. TheDMK would field its candidatesin the other two, sources in theM K Stalin-led party told PTI.

MDMK is likely to field its

chief Vaiko for the seat."It is a media creation," a

DMK leader said on reportsthat was Congress pressing fora Rajya Sabha seat for Singhand this view found resonancewith leaders of state Congress.

The DMK leader said theparty would like to see itsnumbers go up in Rajya Sabhato fight for Tamil Nadu's rightsand field its own nominees,adding a decision on candi-dates will be taken by Stalin.

A Congress senior saidconsidering aspects like DMK'sline on state autonomy, theDravidian party may wish toback a candidate from TamilNadu and anyway his party hasnot pressed on Singh's name.

In over three decades, hesaid he could not remembereven a single name belonging to

other states getting elected to theRajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.

The term of office of DMK'sKanimozhi who was elected tothe Lok Sabha from Tuticorin,AIADMK's V Maitreyan, K RArjunan, T Rathinavel, RLakshmanan and CPI's D Rajawill expire on July 24 and theElection Commission earlilerthis week announced the sched-ule of poll to fill the vacancies.

Among the names doingthe rounds in the DMK for theRajya Sabha openings are thatof Dravidian outfit's tradeunion wing Labour ProgressiveFront leader P Shanmugamand former additional solicitorgeneral P Wilson.

AIADMK and DMK havethe requisite numbers to electthree members each in the234-member Assembly withtwo vacancies.

If the two parties nameonly three nominees each,there will be no contest.

The AIADMK has 123MLAs including the Speaker,the DMK 100, its allies theCongress seven, the IUMLone and Amma MakkalMunnetra Kazhagam leaderT T V Dhinakaran is an inde-pendent. PTI

Jammu: Rocked by militantattacks in the recent past,Jammu & Kashmir's Kishtwardistrict is updating the list ofultras whose whereabouts arenot known and those who arepresently in Pakistan orPakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK), police said on Friday.

The decision in this regardwas taken at a crime reviewmeeting of police sub divisionsof Kishtwar and Atholi,chaired by SeniorSuperintendent of Police,Kishtwar, Shakti K Pathak,they said.

It said the meeting held athreadbare discussion on thepolice station wise list of mil-itants whose whereabouts arenot known and those who arepresently in Pakistan orPakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK).

"During the meeting, vari-ation was found in the list ofsuch militants maintained bythe District Police Office(DPO), Kishtwar, and policestations of the district. Inorder to update the list of suchmilitants, various instructionsand directions were imparted

among the Sub-DivisionalPolice Officers and StationHouse Officers concerned fornecessary action," the policesaid.

The district, which falls inJammu region, was rattled bythe killing of state secretary ofBJP Anil Parihar and hisbrother Ajeet Parihar onNovember 1 last year, fol-lowed by assassination ofsenior RSS leaderChanderkant Sharma and hissecurity guard inside a healthcentre on April 9.

Besides the kill ings,

Militants also snatched theservice rifle of a policeman inthe district on March 8, daysbefore police circulated pic-tures of seven wanted terror-ists and announced a cashreward and a job for anyoneproviding information lead-ing to their arrest or killing.

Inspector General ofPolice, Jammu, MK Sinharecently said at least 10 localmilitants — eight belonging toHizbul Mujahideen and twoaffiliated with Lashker-e-Toiba(LeT) — were active in the dis-trict, which also witnessed

two encounters between mili-tants and search parties inMarwah area on May 31 andKeshwan forest on June 21.

While two special policeofficers were injured in thebrief Marwah gunfight, themilitants managed their escapeafter another brief encountersin Keshwan forest, thoughone of them was believed tohave got injured.

According to police

sources, about three dozenlocal militants have crossed theLoC and are presently living inPakistan or Pakistan-occu-pied Kashmir.

The police said the meet-ing discussed all sensitive andsensational cases with SSPpersonally checking the casefiles of such cases and direct-ed the Investigation Officersconcerned for speedy dispos-al of these cases. PTI

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In yet another setback to theAMMK, Thanga Tamilselvan

who recently fell out with TTVDhinakaran joined the DMK onFriday. Tamilselvan, the propa-ganda secretary of the AMMKhad contested from Theni in therecent Lok Sabha election butwas finished third behindCongress-leader EVKSElangovan, the runner up.

Tamilselvan told reportersthat he was drawn to the DMKbecause of the leadership qual-ity of M K Stalin, the party chief.“The AIADMK is controlled bythe BJP and I would not join thatparty at the expense of my self-respect. A party controlled by asingle leader alone could take itformward and provide effectiveleadership. After the death ofJayalalithaa, the AIADMK hasfallen into the hands of multipleleaders and no one is in a posi-tion to take any firm decision,”said Tamilselvan.

Till Thursday, there werereports that Tamilselvan may

join the AIADMK. But theAIADMK district unit of Theni,his hometown, unanimouslypassed a resolution asking theparty leadership not to re-admithim into the party. It is said thatthe resolution was passed at theinstance of deputy chief minis-ter O Panneerselvan with whomTamilselvan was having a run-ning feud dating back to 2016.Had Tamilselvan rejoined theAIADMK, it would have helpedchief minister Palaniswamy tocheckmate Panneerselvam inTheni. MK Stalin, president,DMK, welcomed Tamilselvan tothe DMK and gave him the pri-mary membership in the party.The entry of Tamilselvan intothe DMK is seen as a majorboost to the party which is yetto make any inroads in Thenidistrict since the exit of MGRfrom the DMK in 1972.Tamilselvan also disclosed thatmore cadre would follow himinto the DMK. He is the secondleader to join the DMK afterSenthil Balaji who too hadditched Dhinakaran and joinedthe DMK.

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Srinagar: A Pakistan-basedJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) mil-itant was on Friday killed in anencounter with security forcesin Jammu & Kashmir'sBudgam district, police said.

On a credible input, a cor-don and search operation waslaunched by security forces inKralpora Checkpora area ofcentral Kashmir's Budgam dis-trict on Friday morning, apolice spokesperson said.

He said during the searchoperation, the militants, whowere hiding, fired on the searchparty of the forces.

The security personnelretaliated, leading to anencounter in which one mili-tant was killed, the spokesper-son said, adding the body wasretrieved from the site.

From the incriminatingmaterial recovered from the siteof the gunfight, the slain mili-tant was identified as aPakistani named Zarar whowas affiliated with proscribedoutfit JeM.

Arms and ammunitionwere also recovered from thesite of the encounter, he added.

The spokesperson saidwith efforts of police and secu-rity forces, it was a clean oper-ation and no collateral damagetook place during the exchangeof fire. PTI

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Four persons, including aneight year-old boy, were

killed and three others injuredin rain-related incidents, asMumbaikars and the people inthe neighbouring Thane dis-trict bore the brunt of monsoonthat arrived with a bang inun-dating low-lying areas and dis-rupting road, rail and air traf-fic in the metropolis and sub-urbs.

Of the killed, three persons— Rajendra Yadav (60), SanjayYadav (24) and KashimaYudiyar (60) were electrocutedin Mumbai, while a boy iden-tified as Mahender Badga (8)from Teranpada village nearVikramgad in Thane districtdied after he was struck bylightning.

In all, there were nine inci-dent short-circuits across themetropolis till the evening.Four members of a familyincluding a minor girl suf-fered electrocution at Goregaonin north Mumbai, after theycame in contact live wires inthe vicinity of their home. Ofthem, two died while theywere treated at a local hospital,two others are undergoingtreatment at the same hospital.

Three persons wereinjured, when a wall collapsedat Dadar (East) in north-cen-tral Mumbai. The injured wereadmitted to KMC Hospital. A

female school student and hermother fell into a swollen gut-ter at Thane. However, somealert citizens rescued the moth-er and daughter from beingswept away in the flood waters.

The monsoon — whicharrived in the metropolis andneighbouring areas 20 daysbehind the schedule — madeits presence felt, as heavy rainslashed incessantly since thesmall hours of Friday.

Mumbai received 53 mm of

rains between 8 am and 1 pm,while the eastern and westernsuburbs recorded 92 mm and77 mm rainfall respectively.

Several low-lying areas ofDadar, Sion, Andheri (Eastand West), Bhandup, Kurla(west), Mazgaon, Sewree,Chembur, Khar, Kanjurmarg,Tardeo, Barve Nagar,Ghatkopkar (west), and placeslike Milan and Andheri sub-ways, Andheri metro station,Bhandup village road and

Nalasopara lay under thicksheets of water.

The lifelines of the city —the Central Railway, WesternRailway main and harbourline, Eastern and WesternExpress highways – were affect-ed due to intense water-loggingat several places.

Owing to inundation ofrailway tracks at several places,suburban trains on both the CRand WR ran 15 to 45 minutesbehind the schedule, throwing

haywire the schedules of themillions of office goers.

Lakhs of vehicles crawledon roads across the metropo-lis due to huge traffic snarlstriggered by inundation.Andheri and Milan subwaysremained shut because offlooding. Some vehicles werestranded inside. Traffic con-gestion was reported from bothEastern and Western ExpressHighways.

Tree falls were reported

from at least half a dozen placesin the city. The BMC-run BESTbuses run on route nos 1, 4, 5,6, 7, 8, 11, 21 were divertedthrough Hindmata Bridge dueto water-logging at Hindmatacinema in Dadar, while Sewree-bound were diverted throughSharda talkies. Similarly, buseswith route nos 25, 22, 302, 305and 213 were diverted throughmain road due to water-loggingat Sion road no 24.

There were 15 to 20 min-utes in the arrivals and depar-tures of flights at the city air-ports because of the poor vis-ibility. However, flight opera-tions remained largely unaf-fected

Meanwhile, RegionalMeteorological Centre, Mumbai,has forecast heavy to very heavyrains in the city and heavy rainsat isolated places in the suburbsfor the next 24 hours.

Skymet Weather has pre-dicted heavy rains inMaharashtra in the next 24hours. “Heavy to very heavyrains are likely along theMaharashtra Coast includingMumbai, Thane, Ratnagiri andadjoining areas in the next 24 to36 hours,” a Skymet Weatherforecast said.

Mumnaikars heaved a sighof relief as the temperaturescame down to a comfortableminimum of 24 degree C anda bearable maximum of 30degree C since the morning.

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What more can we sayabout Virat Kohli at this

point? He continues to breaknew ground for India. But it ismore than that, this is a man re-writing the record books in thehistory of our great game.

To reach 20,000 runsquicker than any man beforehim is a fantastic achievementbut his true greatness lies in hisadaptability.

The captain can play everyrole for his team, across everyformat.

He can drop anchor and lethis partner shine if that iswhat the team needs, then hecan shift through the gears ifthe situation demands andkeep pushing the run rate.

This is his true mastery, hecan manoeuvre and control agame and pace himself beauti-fully.

The only concern for Indiais that the batting at themoment is slightly the ViratKohli show.

Admittedly, it was the part-nership of MS Dhoni andHardik Pandya that won thelast game against the WestIndies.

But at the top of the order,Rohit Sharma has not fired thelast couple of times, and thatmeans KL Rahul needs to domore.

He has made some fantas-tic starts but then got himselfout — he will know better than

anyone that he must convertthose starts into big scores.Everyone knows he is capableof doing it, he has done it beforeand will need to correct hiscourse.

In the middle order VijayShankar and Kedar Jadhav haveyet to really convince. I think it’sfair to say that their approachneeds some fine-tuning.

If I was involved with theteam management, I think I

would consider putting a guylike Rishabh Pant in at No.4.

They have brought himover here now, he is ready to goand, most importantly, he hasplayed in England before sounderstands the conditions.

We saw him impress in theTest series here last summerwhen he came into the side andwith England up next, maybenow is a good time to get himin there against a familiar oppo-

nent.Of course the batting con-

cerns have been papered over inthe last couple of games by thebowlers so it hasn’t matteredquite as much as it could have.

India’s bowling has beenfantastic all tournament.

Mohammed Shami hascome in and been a real wick-et taker — the same guy whowas so impressive at the lastICC Men’s Cricket World Cup

four years ago.And the best news of all is

that the wrist spinners are com-ing to the party.

As this tournament reach-es the business end, they aregoing to be more and moreimportant and Kohli will be sopleased with how they are per-forming.

Next up is England, who justmaybe have a slight weaknessagainst wrist spin, and it will befascinating to see how the gameunfolds at Edgbaston.

India against England, onSunday, in Birmingham, I thinkit's the biggest game of the tour-nament so far. Momentum iseverything in a World Cup, andright now India have it.

They come into the gameunbeaten and will be desperateto keep it that way while Englandare in ‘must-win’ territory now.

India can afford to lose, butthey won’t want to — carryingthat positive mindset into thesemi-finals is absolutely crucial.

Look at Australia, they havewrestled back momentum,Pakistan are peaking at just theright time, it is now or never forEngland.

I think the toss is going tobe absolutely vital — the captainthat calls correctly, bats first andputs a score on the board will bethe winning one when all is saidand done.��'��L�)��

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KL Rahul is “disappointed” atnot being able to convert hisstarts but not at all “worried”

as he believes that he is doing a lotof things right.

Rahul had scores of 26, 11 notout, 57, 30 and 48 in five complet-ed games and barring the oneagainst Australia where he came inat the fag end of the innings, he hasgot out after getting set.

“It’s a bit disappointing,” the tal-ented Karnataka batsman said,accepting that he should have goneon to score a few more runs.

“I am doing the hard work ingetting through the first 10 or 15overs, or as an opening batsmen,scoring the first 25, 30 runs, whichis the hardest. (But then getting out)when the time comes to accelerateand may be take the game deeper,so a bit disappointed that I have notbeen able to do that,” Rahul lament-ed.

He will certainly assess and dothe course correction but he does notwant to brood over what has hasalready done.

“But again I can sit, I will sit andassess, but it won’t worry me thatmuch because there are a lot ofthings I’m doing right, and I knowthat the mistakes I’ve made I canlearn from them and get better,”Rahul said at the post-match pressconference after India beat theWest Indies by 125 runs onThursday.

He got out playing a reversesweep to off-spinner MohammedNabi against Afganistan and versusWest Indies, it was a pitched updelivery from Jason Holder thatbrought about his downfall.

“Against Afghanistan, I wouldnot say it (reverse sweep) was a badshot. It was a shot I play all the time.And more often than not I hit it forfour, so I get it away. But unfortu-nately, I did not execute it,” Rahulsaid.

“But the planning and the tim-ing of that shot may be was question-able because I needed to stitch up apartnership with Virat,” he admitted.

“And today (vs WI), as a bats-man, it disappoints you but thenagain you know bowlers are allowedto bowl good balls. And you domake mistakes. And I can’t sit backand break my head about it. I just goon and try to start fresh inBirmingham and try to get a bigone.”

He was always “ready” to jug-gle up and down the order, andShikhar Dhawan’s untimely injurydid not change much for him.

“I know that Shikhar gettinginjured was unfortunate. And Ihad to go to the top of the order. Butnot that I never prepared for open-ing the batting. In my head, the lastone or two years I have been prepar-ing for whatever might be my role,”

the 27-year-old right-handed bats-man said.

In fact, he is more comfortableopening the batting as that has beenhis natural slot in all forms ofcricket.

“I had to prepare hard for num-ber four because that’s not where Ibatted all my life. I did that. Andnow to come back to opening thebatting again, it’s just a bit morecomfortable and easier for mebecause I’ve batted it all my life,”Rahul said. On India’s not so impres-sive batting show in the past twogames, Rahul said that both wick-ets weren’t easy for scoring runs.

In fact, he revealed that when heand Rohit were batting, they hadsent a message to the dressing

room that the wicket was two pacedand 260 was a par-score.

Ask about Virat Kohli onceagain looking like a different play-er compared to all others whostruggled, Rahul said it’s his specialability to get runs irrespective of theconditions.

“I don’t think he’s doing any-thing different. He has been doingthe same thing for how long I canremember since the time he start-ed playing cricket, this is what he hasbeen doing, performing consistent-ly,” he observed.

“And no matter what condition,what wicket condition, who thebowlers are, he always finds a wayto get runs, always finds a way to putthe bowlers under pressure.”

'��6%"8�+ �,

India pacer Mohammed Shami says only he deservesall the credit for his remarkable turnaround as it was

“me and only me” who suffered for 18 months.“Credit? Who else but me. I give full credit to

myself,” said Shami after India’s 125-run victory overWest Indies.

Shami has been to hell and back in the last oneand half years, fighting accusations of domestic vio-lence. As a result, he was dropped from the BCCI’scentral contract list pending inquiry, and also sat outa Test match on fitness ground.

But he is now back to his best, asking probingquestions to the best in the business with his pace andswing. “... Because I had to endure all that I was madeto go through. What I went through in the past 18months, it’s me and only me who had to suffer. So cred-it goes to me,” Shami said without getting into thedetails about the nightmare that he had endured.

“Yes, I thank the Almighty for giving me thestrength to fight everything — from family issues tofitness. I am now only focussed on doing well for mycountry,” said the pacer, who has now taken eight wick-ets in two games, including a hat-trick.

After two mindblowing performances againstAfghanistan and West Indies, Shami said that work-ing on his fitness has been the turning point. He hasshed those extra kilos, and more importantly, it hasput him in a good head space.

“It wasn’t only about failing YoYo test. There aretimes when your rhythm goes for a toss. I failed that’sa separate thing but then I have worked hard andimproved my fitness. I feel I am in a good zone nowas I have lost weight, got rhythm and everything isworking for me.

“I now try to maintain my diet, training regimeconsistently. Because I am feeling stronger, not get-ting tired easily, my speed has also increased. And asfar as skill is concerned, I always knew I can performwell on any track,” he said, the confidence could eas-ily be mistaken as arrogance.

While many thought that it would be the fitBhuvneshwar Kumar, with his ability to take the ballaway from left-handers, but it was Shami whobounced out ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle.

“Since we played IPL together, I have a bit of anidea about him when you play together for some time.I knew that if I don’t allow him to chance his arms,he will get out in desperation trying to hit me,” he said,the explanation sounding much simpler than his on-field execution.

How did he feel when he wasn’t getting chancein the first four games? “Look, 15 people have cometo represent the country. You must have had some-thing special that you are in that 15, isn’t it? It’s aboutremaining patient and positive. And, yes, have a clevermind."

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Australia coach Justin Langerwants his fringe players to

ensure they are ready to perform,but those hoping to replaceMitchell Starc and Pat Cumminswill need to be content with ridingthe pine.

Australia secured their ticket tothe semi-finals with an emphaticvictory over England on Tuesday,giving them some breathing roomfor their final two group gamesagainst third-placed New Zealandon Saturday at Lord's and thenunderperformers South Africa inManchester next week.

But Langer stressed the reign-ing 50-over champions won'ttake their foot off the gas andwill likely follow the wish-es of their star quicks bykeeping them on the parkfor their final two groupgames.

"I don't think theywould want to," thecoach said when askedif the pair would rest.

"It is going to beone of the challengesfor us. It is really niceto know we are in thesemi-final. It's a real-ly nervous time lead-ing out to it becauseyou can't win the finalunless you are in the semi-final."But I would be surprised ifeither of those guys rest up.

"The challenge is going tobe that we have long layoffsnow, a bit of a layoff here, then

five or six days in Manchester, wehave to manage that really well. SoI don't think they will want to rest."

There had been concern overhow their bowlers would pull upafter playing four games and trav-elling nearly 700 kilometres in agruelling nine-day stretch earlier inthe tournament.

But, in the midst of a morespread-out finish to the group-stagein which they play their final threegames in 15 days, Starc andCummins both appear in goodphysical nick.

Australia are understandablywary of overcooking them giventhe duo have a key role to play inthe five-Test Ashes series to fol-low.

The recalled JasonBehrendorff made a strongcase to be the third seamer forthe business end of the WorldCup after a career-best inter-national five-wicket haul toflatten England.

Off-spinner NathanLyon, in his first game of thetournament, was also com-mended for his frugal return

even if he didn't claim a wicket.But despite only losing one

game all tournament, Australiahave consistently mixed andmatched their team and Langerurged the four players who missed

out against England - AdamZampa, Kane Richardson, NathanCoulter-Nile and Shaun Marsh - tobe prepared to play the Kiwis.

"Will Smith used to say 'alwaysstay ready so I don't have to getready'," Langer said. "And I'vethought that for 10 years and that'sbeen a big motto for us.

"You always stay ready andthat's the same for Zampa andCoulter-Nile and Kane Richardsonand for Shaun Marsh who didn'tplay the last game and for every oneof our players."

Langer took particular pride inthe performance of Behrendroff,having mentored the left-arm quickduring his time as WesternAustralia and Perth Scorcherscoach before taking the nationaljob.

"To come to England and bowlon the big stage as well as he did,it will be a great confidence boostfor him. I think it's also a big con-fidence boost for the team," saidLanger "I've seen it for a long timeand we've seen him do it intermit-tently playing and not playing forAustralia. We know he can do it, heis a very good athlete and he's anincredible professional so he will doeverything possible to play.

"And he's a really nice person.So we see those sort of people geta reward is really pleasing."

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Peaking at the right time, Australiawill resume their Trans-Tasmanrivalry at the World Cup stage

when they take on a New Zealand sidelow on confidence after its first defeatof the tournament today.

Barring the defeatagainst India,defending champi-ons Australia havedone nothing wrongin this tournament,becoming the first teamto qualify for the semis.

The Aaron Finch-ledside is in roaring form andwould look to continue thewinning momentum at thehallowed Lord’s.

New Zealand go into thematch after suffering a defeatagainst Pakistan, which snappedtheir unbeaten streak in the tourna-ment.

The Black Caps — who haveamazingly retained the sameside for all their sevenmatches — have secured11 points and need atleast a win from theirremaining two out-ings — againstAustralia andEngland (July 3) —to be assured of afourth straightWorld Cup semifi-nals berth.

They met in the2015 final at theMCG and withmemories of thatgame st i l l fresh,Saturday’s match mayturn out to be a crack-er.

The Trans-Tasmanrivalry is heavily skewedagainst New Zealandwith Australia havingwon all but one of the 20ODIs played outside the

two countries. The only win for theBlack Caps in a neutral venue havecome in the 1999 World Cup match at

Sophia Gardens.That win in 1999 has also been the

lone victory for New Zealand in sevenWorld Cup matches between the twosides.

Not only history but current formof the players also point to five-timechampions Australia beginning as thefavourites.

Australia swept past hosts andworld number one England by 64 runsin their last match and currently look

like one of the two sides most likelyto lift the trophy, the other being

India.Finch and David Warner

have been the dominant open-ing duo of this tournament

and are on track tobecome the greatestever pair at the top in

a World Cup.They rank first

and second in therun-scoring lists,and have put on a

record-equal l ingthree century stands

with two league games stillto go.

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc is top-ping the bowling charts with 19 wick-ets at 18.26. He’s caused New Zealandbatsmen headaches before with his

bounce, swing and pace.Jason Behrendorff also came good

with the new Kookaburra ball in thewin over England as the left-armer took5/44.

New Zealand will again rely heav-ily on captain Kane Williamson who hasscored 414 runs at 138 in five innings.His lone century against Australia

came when they last met, at theChampions Trophy in 2017, a contestthat was washed out.

His overall record against Australia(416 runs at 41.6 in 12 ODIs) is,though, not as great as his overall careeraverage of 48.12.

�E ��Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), JasonBehrendorff, Alex Carey, NathanCoulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, UsmanKhawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh,Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, SteveSmith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis,David Warner, Adam Zampa.New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt),Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, TomLatham, Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham,Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, IshSodhi, Trent Boult , Colin deGrandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, TimSouthee, Ross Taylor, Tom Blundell.

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�Have you officially got a team?We will have a team, but I can’t name

it just yet because we just turned up to train-ing for the afternoon session and wehaven't quite been able to look at the wick-et yet. Obviously a used surface, so we’llhave to take that into account when wechoose our side.�Is there a need for a change to the side?

Every time we've turned up, we've hadto try and adapt in terms of on the park, butalso how we've looked to pick our side. Wewill have to see the surface and try and pickthe best side suitable.�How much consideration do you give toSodhi?

We'll just need to look at the surface,try and determine whether we think it willspin. Over in England, it can at times, as wesaw in the last game, which surprised every-one a little with the amount of spin. We allneed to have a look at the surface and pickour side accordingly.�Is there a trend in the way captains areusing strike bowlers in the middle overs?

I don't know if it's a change in trend asmuch as you're trying to read the game asbest you can. For example, bringing backwhat you might think are your strikebowlers to make breakthroughs at impor-tant times. There's that subtle difference thatwe are here at a tournament where perhapsteams adopt slightly different plans.�Who do you see as the key wickets in thisAussie batting lineup?

They have got a very strong top order.They have been playing really well, as well.Naturally you're targeting anyone that's atthe crease, basically, and that's what we'll belooking to do.�In terms of lineup, what is more impor-tant for you — stability and continuity orthe right team?

There’s always a fine balance, especial-ly when it comes to tournament sport wherethings are changing so quickly in terms ofopposition, conditions, which I think everycaptain spoke about so much, whereas afive-match series in very similar conditions,mind-sets can change in respect to that.�How much of a disadvantage is it to youthat Australia have played on the pitchand you haven't had experience on thepitch.

It's kind of hard to say. The conditionswill be a little bit different to perhaps whatthey experienced the other day. It's also oneof those things you can't control. So notworrying about it is more important. �Have you got any sort of extra stress?

It kind of is what it is, really. You cometo tournaments and sides beat each otherand they climb the ladder, and that's whateverybody sort of desires to do, and whoremains is kind of the ones that go through.But at the end the day, you're trying to playthe best cricket that you can.�What are your memories of time spentWarner?

He's a world-class player. He's able toadjust to conditions and continued toimprove his game. We've seen that through-out this tournament. He's been instrumen-tal on the Australian side; that he's adapt-ed his game and been able to help put hisside in a position of strength.�What advice have you given Munrowho’s struggling a bit?

Everyone is wanting more. Then youcome into a tournament where conditionsvary so much, and someone like Munro haslooked really nice for the most part, alongwith a number of other guys, and then kindof had some good balls or some lack of for-tune, and that's led to downfalls.

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Captain Aaron Finch hasbacked Pat Cummins to find

top gear in their match againstNew Zealand, as Australia mulltheir best bowling combinationson what shapes as the driest pitchthey’ve played on at the WorldCup.Cummins has taken none for106 from 18 overs in wins overBangladesh and England, butFinch suggested the numbers aremisleading and labelled him a keypart of their attack.

“With the ball I think he’sbeen excellent,” Finch said ofCummins, who took 11 wickets inAustralia’s first five games.

“There’s nothing to suggestotherwise. Yes, he hasn’t got thewickets in the last two games, buthe’s still been a huge part of ourside.

“He’s someone who’s so reli-able that you go to when youeither need a wicket or you needsome control in a game. He pro-vides so much for the side.”

Having expressed his sur-prise that pace had prospered overspin in the early stages of the tour-nament, Finch says Australiaremain open to playing two spin-ners with the mercury tipped tohit 32 degrees for Saturday’s clashwith the Kiwis.

The Lord’s pitch used for theAustralia-New Zealand game will

be the same one that hostedAustralia and England earlier inthe week and will have beenexposed to 72 hours of hot anddry weather come the weekend.

Finding room for bothNathan Lyon and Adam Zampa intheir XI will be difficult givencoach Justin Langer has said nei-ther Cummins nor Mitchell Starcare likely to be rested, while JasonBehrendorff is fresh off a career-best 5-44 after being recalled toplay England.

Lyon got the nod over Zampafor his first game of the tourna-ment on Tuesday, but Finch saidit’s difficult to split the two andsuggested match-ups with indi-vidual New Zealand batters woulddictate selection, as they didagainst England.

“They’re both neck and neck,”said Finch. “The way Nathanbowled the other day is probablymore of a defensive option, a bitmore control.

“But leg-spin is an incrediblyhard craft. For Zamps, the num-bers were against Zamps (for)England, Nathan had a distinctiveadvantage.

“That’s just the way we’relooking at it. There’s nothingmore or nothing less to it. Thereis no science. Just looking a bitdeeper into tournaments.”

Asked if they could playtogether, Finch said: “Absolutely.”

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Gabriel Jesus scoredthe winning spot-

kick in a tense penaltyshoot-out as Brazil exorcizedtheir demons to beat Paraguayand reach the CopaAmerica semi-finals.

Twice before in2011 and 2015Paraguay had beat-en Brazil at thissame stage onpenalties at the South Americanextravaganza.

Willian came closest to scor-ing in normal time for Brazilwhen he hit the post asParaguay held out for a 0-0draw for more than 40 min-utes following the dismissalof Fabian Balbuena for aprofessional foul onRoberto Firmino onThursday.

Brazilian media had beenalmost in a state of paranoia beforethe match recalling the painfulmemories from Argentina in 2011and Chile four years later whenParaguay produced stubborn defen-sive displays before snatching vic-tory in the spot-kick lottery.

But it wasn’t to be this time asBrazil goalkeeper Alisson savedGustavo Gomez’s opening spot-kickat the Gremio Arena in PortoAlegre.

Although Firmino dragged hiseffort wide, Derlis Gonzalez alsofired past the post allowing Jesus,who missed a penalty in Brazil’s lastmatch, to be the match-winner.

The tournament hosts will faceeither perennial rivals Argentina orVenezuela in Tuesday’s semi-finalin Belo Horizonte.

Brazil started brightly and pro-duced a beautiful passing move inthe fourth minute as local favoriteEverton drove in off the left wingand found Dani Alves on the edgeof the area, with the full-back slip-ping the ball on to Firmino, whoseweak shot was straight at goalkeep-er Roberto Fernandez.

The best chance of the firstquarter fell to Paraguay as HernanPerez found Gonzalez unmarked atback post but Alisson saved his nearpost shot. It was turgid fare on offerto the Porto Alegre crowd, whostarted a slow clap just after the halfhour.

� I�� ! ��Predictably, Brazil were booed

off at half-time, for the third timein four matches. Tite wasted notime in making a change, but it

was a curious one swapping left-back Felipe Luis for Alex Sandro.

Neat interplay saw Firmino teeup Coutinho just outside the boxbut his precise finish was easilysaved again. Brazil had changedtactic and were driving more

purposefully at the heart of thedefence, with Arthur flashing

a shot over the bar.It paid dividends on 54

minutes when Firminowon a free-kick on theedge of the penalty area —

overturned from the origi-nal decision of a penalty by

VAR — and Balbuena wasshown a red card for a profes-sional foul.

Dani Alves’s fierce low free-kick was def lected wide,though. Brazil started to pullParaguay’s over workeddefenders out of position andArthur forced Fernandez intoa diving save before Jesusdragged an effort wide.

With Paraguay unable topose any threat Tite withdrewhis defensive midfielder Allanand threw on winger Willian,

with Jesus pushed into themiddle alongside Firmino.

Almost immediately, Jesusmissed a gilt-edged chance fromeight yards out before Firmino

headed a Marquinhos crosswide.

Tite went for broke,bringing on attacking mid-fielder Lucas Paqueta forfull-back Alves and italmost worked but Williansaw his low left foot shotcannon back off the post

sending the match into atense penalty shoot-out.

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Former champions Sri Lanka are all butout of the ongoing World Cup aftersuffering a nine-wicket drubbing

against a clinical South Africa, here Friday.Sent in to bat, Sri Lanka produced a

dismal batting show to manage a modest203, a target which the Proteas overhauledwith 76 balls in hand.

With just six points from seven games,Sri Lanka still have a mathematical chanceto be in the semifinals.

First, they need to win their last twogames against already-eliminated WestIndies (on July 1) and India (July 6) andthen depend on favourable results fromother remaining league stage games.

The win, however, came as a welcomerelief for South Africa, who have endureda nightmarish World Cup campaign.

The Proteas are already out of the tour-nament after registering just two wins outof their eight games.

Chasing the modest target, SouthAfrica lost Quinton de Kock (15) at thescore of 31 in the fifth over but thereafterHashim Amla and skipper Faf du Plessisheld the fort and stitched an unbeaten 175-run stand to guide the Proteas home com-fortably.

While Du Plessis remained unbeatenon 96 off 103 balls, hitting 10 boundariesand one six, Amla finished on 80 not outoff 105 balls with the help of five fours.

Lasith Malinga (1/47) was the only suc-cessful bowler for Sri Lanka.

Earlier, the Proteas picked up wicketsat regular intervals after the first 10 overs,never allowing the Sri Lankan middle-ordersettle down.

Drafted into the playing eleven in placeof Lungi Ngidi, pacer Dwaine Pretarius

(3/25) justified his selection with a three-wicket haul.

Chris Morris (3/46) and Kagiso Rabada(2/36) shared five wickets between them.

Sri Lanka had a horrible start as theylost skipper Dimuth Karunaratne in thefirst ball of the match, caught by his coun-terpart Du Plessis at the second slip offRabada.

Thereafter, Kusal Perera (30 off 34) andAvishka Fernando (30 off 29) took thecounter-attacking approach and playedfearlessly to stitch a 67-run stand off 58 ballsbefore the duo perished in quick succes-sion.

Right-arm pacer Pretorius sent boththe batsmen packing in consecutive oversas Sri Lanka slumped to 72 for three in 11.3overs.

New man Angelo Mathews looked inno hurry and took 29 balls to score his 11runs before he played on a Morris deliv-ery in the 22nd over.

Kusal Mendis (23 off 51) had to dugdeep for his runs before he becamePretorius' third victim, spooning one toMorris at extra cover.

Dhananjaya de Silva (24) , JeevaMendis (18) and Thisara Perera (21) all gotstarts but threw away their wickets whenSri Lanka needed them to carry on.

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Rafael Nadal breathed a sigh ofrelief Friday after he was slated to

meet eight-time champion RogerFederer in the Wimbledon semi-finals.

Nadal's fears that he would bedrawn in top-seeded favourite anddefending champion NovakDjokovic's half of the draw — andface him in the semis — provedunfounded despite Wimbledon pro-moting Federer above him in theseedings.

The Spaniard, seeded thirdbehind Federer, had complained ear-lier this week that Wimbledon'sunique formula for seeding thatcombines ranking points with formin grass-court competitions was dis-respectful.

World number one Djokovicwill in theory face South African

fourth seed and last year's beatenfinalist Kevin Anderson — who waspromoted from eighth in the world— in the last four.

Nadal, who comes in onthe back of his 18th GrandSlam singles title after winninghis 12th French Open whichincluded beating Federer in thesemi-finals, will do well to reachthe last four as he has a tough look-ing draw.

He should have little troublewith his first round opponent, YuichiSugita of Japan, but after that thingsbecome more perilous.

Moody but talented AustralianNick Kyrgios — who beat Nadal inthe last 16 at Wimbledon in 2014 —is a potential second round opponentand highly-rated Canadian youngsterDenis Shapovalov could await in thethird round.

If he emerges from those tussles

he could face Croatia's 2017Wimbledon singles finalistMarin Cilic in the last 16.

His great rivals Djokovicand Federer begin their cam-

paigns against 35-year-oldGerman Philipp Kohlschreiber andLloyd Harris of South Africa respec-tively.

Kohlschreiber beat Djokovic ear-lier this year in the third round atIndian Wells.

The women's draw seesAustralia's new world number oneand French Open champion AshleighBarty open against China's ZhengSaisai with a potentially tricky datewith Spain's 2017 champion GarbineMuguruza in the third round.

The most intriguing match-up

could come in the fourth round witha rematch of last year's final betweendefending champion AngeliqueKerber of Germany and Americanlegend Serena Williams.

There is a first round match ofthe old and the very new asWilliams's 39-year-old sister Venuswill play compatriot Cori Gauff, whoon Thursday at 15years of agebecame the youngest woman toqualify for the tournament in theOpen era.

Japan's Naomi Osaka — whomBarty replaced as world number onewhen she won the Birminghamtournament last Sunday — beginsher bid to add Wimbledon to her USand Australian Open titles againstKazakh Yulia Putintseva.

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Riyad Mahrez and Algeriafired a warning to the

rest of their Africa Cup ofNations title rivals with adeserved 1-0 win over SadioMane's heavily-fanciedSenegal in Cairo onThursday.

Mane struggled toimpress on his return fromsuspension as Youcef Belailicrashed home the winner on49 minutes to guaranteeAlgeria a berth in the last 16.

It is almost a decadesince Algeria last made animpact at the competition byreaching the 2010 semi-finals, and this was a perfor-

mance of great promise fromthe north African side infront of a large crowd at a

blustery 30 June Stadium.However Senegal, on the

hunt for a first continental

title, will still be expected tojoin Algeria in the knockoutrounds as they wrap up thegroup phase against Kenyaon July 1.

Mane was one of threechanges to the Senegal teamthat brushed Tanzania aside2-0 in their opening game,with Cheikhou Kouyate fill-ing in for the injured Salifsane in central defence.Algeria coach DjamelBelamdi stuck with the teamthat rolled Kenya over by thesame scoreline.

Having absorbed

Senegal's advances with rel-ative comfort, Algeria grewmore assertive and BaghdadBounedjah had EdouardMendy scrambling acrosshis goal when his a deflect-ed effort that bounced nar-rowly wide.

Bounedjah, who hit 39goals in just 21 starts forQatar's Al Sadd last season,looked odds on to score forthe second game running inEgypt when he lifted the ballover Mendy only for aretreating Kalidou Koulibalyto clear.

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˜ˇ ˇ#˝ ’ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˘ ˚ ˇ · 2019. 6. 28. · Commerce & Industry Minister and USTR or we will first have technical discussions, that is an issue to be decided,” the Foreign