12

Friday
Snap POLL
April
2019 Q. Do you want to YESTERDAY’S POLL RESULT:
know how a political How did you feel after seeing
party is funded? the first pics of the black hole...
`3.00 Ÿ Pages 14
Yes No Overwhelmed  62%
AHMEDABAD
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EC says polling peaceful, overall voting percentage 72%

Violence and technical glitches
mar first phase of LS elections
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: The first phase
of the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-
tions began on Thursday.
The world’s biggest fran-
chise exercise saw elector-
ates coming out to vote in 91
of the 543 parliamentary
constituencies in Phase 1 of
the Lok Sabha polls. The
overall voting percentage
was 72 per cent.
The voting began on a
brisk pace in north-eastern
states and picked up speed
gradually across the country.
The first phase witnessed
sporadic incidents of vio-
lence in Andhra Pradesh,
Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Chhattisgarh. A TDP worker
died and former speaker
from TDP K Shivaprasad Rao
was injured in clashes that
erupted in Andhra Pradesh.
The state also witnessed
widespread malfunctioning
of Electronic Voting Ma-
‘No political content on
NaMo TV without permit’
EC directed Delhi’s CEO to immedi-
ately remove all political publicity
content displayed without pre-certi-
fication on NaMo TV. It said any
such content has to be permitted by
local media certification panel.
the Fate of three union
ministers sealed in UP
BJP is in a tough contest on all
Voters in Hyderabad line up to exercise their franchise in the first phase of seven comprising the eight seats in western UP, which it
general election. Eighteen states and two Union Territories began casting ballots on Thursday —AP dominated in the 2014 general
election, because of BSP, SP and
RLD polling in their resources.
Round-1, Day-1 Clashes hit polls
People turnout in large numbers to exercise their franchise in Andhra pradesh
TDP and YSR Congress workers
SC & AG squabble
on electoral bonds
He claimed ‘voters don’t need to know’
Abraham Thomas
abraham.thomas@dnaindia.net top court prickly
New Delhi: In a fevered pitch
for electoral bonds, the Attor-
ney General on Thursday
argued in the Supreme Court
that in a democracy, voters
had no business to know how
a political party received its
funds. However, not willing to
buy the Centre’s claim, the „„Under the scheme
apex court observed that de- currently, only the banks
mocracy gives citizens the know the identity of the
right to know. The cross-fire donors and recipients.
ended with the bench reserv-
ing its verdict on the fate of
„„Apex court observed
that democracy gives
these bonds till Friday. citizens the right to know
In its arguments for the
source of a party’s funding
electoral bond scheme intro-
duced on January 2, 2018, the
Centre faced opposition — defeat a good scheme that
both from the Election Com- curbs the menace.
mission and petitioners led The bench then asked the
by NGO Association for Dem- Centre, “Why do you advocate
ocratic Reforms (ADR) — for anonymity of donors?
who claimed that there was a Your scheme can have larger
lack of transparency. The implications. The donor may
task of defending the ‘opaque’ like to keep his identity se-
bonds was left to Attorney cret, but the voter has a right
General KK Venugopal, who to transparency in elections.”
stated that the government
introduced the bonds to de-
To the question,Venugopal
responded, “Why should the
feat the ‘vice’ of black money, voter want to know where the
adding that transparency party has got its money

91
chines (EVM). Chief Minis-
ter N Chandrababu Naidu
shot a letter to the Election
Commission and requested
extension of polling time.
1
The state is having simulta-
neous Lok Sabha and Assem-
bly polls.
In Telangana, all the 17
segments, including Nizama-
bad saw over 170 farmers con-
LS seats n Reports of EVM malfunction, turnout till 6 pm clashed as polling took place for cannot be used as a means to from?”  Turn to P4
in Phase 1 missing names from voters’ list at 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 As-
Maharashtra (56%), UP
voting held several places sembly seats in Andhra Pradesh,
(63.69%), Assam (68%),
in 20 states and UTs
n Incidents of EVM damaged in Arunachal (66%), Bihar leading to the death of a TDP
Rio in Mumbai, now a reality
person killed Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, (50%), Lakshadweep (66%), leader S Bhaskar Reddy.
Meghalaya (67.16%),
in violence Bihar, Manipur and West Bengal
between TDP Odisha (68%), J&K anger over Citizenship Mumbai: Locals can now feast their eyes on Dudu, the
n Top leaders contesting polls Sulphur-crested cockatoo, Hulk, the eclectus parrot and
and YSRCP faction
today include Union Ministers Nitin
(54.49%), Sikkim (69%), Bill muted in NE states other such exotic birds at the nation’s first interactive
outside a polling Mizoram (60%), Nagaland
Gadkari (Nagpur), Gen VK Singh
While Citizenship Amendment Bill bird park in EsselWorld at Gorai village in Borivali.
booth at Tadipatri (78%), Manipur (78.20%),
(Ghaziabad), Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal
was the primary issue in the run- Spread over almost 1.5-acre of a rainforest-themed ter-
Bengal (81%), A&N Islands

2
testing demanding remuner- West), Satyapal Singh (Baghpat) and
up to the polls in 8 northeastern rain, tourists will be able to walk through the aviary,
personnel (70.67%), Andhra Pradesh
ative price for their produce. Mahesh Sharma (Gautam Buddha
states, closer to the polling date, where over 500 birds belonging to 60 different exotic spe-
injured in Naxal (66%), Chhattisgarh (56%),
The state had recorded 60.57 Nagar). RLD chief Ajit Singh and his
the anger seemed to have died cies including terrestrial, aquatic and high-gliding birds
attack on polling Telangana (60%), Uttarakhand
per cent voting till 6 pm. son Jayant Chaudhary (UP)
down. Fourteen of the region’s 25 roam freely.  Full report, P4
party in Gadchiroli (57.85%), Tripura (81.80%)
Turn to P4 seats went to polls.  P5

Assange arrested as MHA on RaGa’s scare: ‘Green Smriti Irani files nomination after
Ecuador pulls asylum light’ was from party man’s cell following RaGa’s roadshow trail
New Delhi: A ‘green light’ pointed at DNA Correspondent
Congress President Rahul Gandhi dur- correspondent@dnaindia.net
ing his roadshow in Amethi on Wednes-
day created a scare, but the Home Min- Amethi: Union minister Smriti Irani
istry has said there was no threat to his filed nomination papers from Amethi
life. There were concerns of a security on Thursday, after a road show, which
breach after the episode, but it was followed a similar route taken by Rahul
later found that the light was from a Gandhi when he submitted his own
Nat’l security, camera. When contacted, a home min-
istry spokesperson said that as soon
papers here on Wednesday. She’s pitted
against the Congress president who

religion, jobs as the ministry’s attention was

drawn, the Director (Special Protec-
has won thrice from the Lok Sabha con-
stituency regarded as a Gandhi family

most tweeted
tion Group) was asked to verify the pocket borough. The road show began
factual position. —PTI Director (SPG) informed MHA that the ‘green with prayers at the Gauriganj’s Bud- Smriti Irani admitted in her election affidavit
Full report on www.dnaindia.com light’ (circled) was from a cell phone —ANI hanmaai temple—With agency inputs that she is not a graduate—PTI
New Delhi: Of the total 45.6
million tweets related to Lok WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested from the Ecuadorean
Sabha elections recorded from
March 11 to April 11, a major-
ity were reportedly about ‘na-
embassy after the country revoked asylum —Twitter/@khaleejtimes

London: WikiLeaks founder ment’s withdrawal of asy-

tional security’ followed by
‘religion’, ‘jobs’, ‘agriculture’
and ‘Taxes and Trade’, as per
internal statistics.
On Thursday, the first day
of the first phase of polls, PM
Narendra Modi emerged as
the most mentioned figure in
conversation on the micro-
blogging site.
The social media platform
recorded over 1.2 million
tweets related to the Lok Sab-
ha elections on a single day
on Thursday. Other top men-
tioned leaders were BJP pres-
ident Amit Shah, Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi
Adityanath, Congress presi-
dent Rahul Gandhi and Con-
gress leader Priyanka Gan-
dhi Vadra. —ANI
Julian Assange was arrested
by British police and carried
out of the Ecuadorean em-
bassy on Thursday after his
South American hosts
abruptly revoked his seven-
year asylum, paving the way
for his possible extradition to
the United States.
“Julian Assange, 47, has
today, Thursday 11 April,
been arrested by officers
from the Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS) at the Embas-
sy of Ecuador,” British police
said. Subsequently, Ecuador
withdrew the citizenship he
was granted last year.
Police said they arrested
Assange after being invited
into the embassy following
the Ecuadorean govern-
lum. It was not immediately
clear what prompted Ecua-
dor to end Assange’s stay. The
Kremlin said it hoped his
rights would not be violated.
Police later added that As-
sange had been arrested a sec-
ond time after an extradition
request from the United States.
The US Justice Department
said he faces maximum pen-
alty of five years if convicted.
The arrests, after nearly
seven years holed up in a few
cramped rooms at the em-
bassy, mark one of the most
peculiar turns in a tumultu-
ous life that has transformed
the Australian programmer
into a rebel wanted by the
United States. —Reuters
Related reports, P14
Relief for Sharad Pawar as apex Naresh Goyal may place
court quashes Enron-Dabhol PIL initial bid for Jet Airways
Sanjay Jog & Abraham Thomas
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Eighteen years af-
ter a high powered committee
first exposed the web of cor-
ruption, bribery, fraud and
misrepresentation in the
agreement for the Enron-Dab-
hol power project, the top
court dismissed demands for
a judicial enquiry into it con-
sidering the enormous delay
in the case.
Thursday’s decision comes
as a relief to NCP President
Sharad Pawar in poll-bound
season as the petition levelled
serious allegations of corrup-
NCP’s Sharad Pawar was state chief
minister when the deal was inked
tion involving politicians, bu-
reaucrats and corporates. Pa-
war was chief minister of
Maharashtra in 1993 when the
deal was made.
The report prepared by a
five-member Committee head-
ed by former bureaucrat Mad-
hav Godbole in 2001 is the
foundation of the PIL filed by
the Centre of Indian Trade
Unions in the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Ranjan Go-
goi, Justices Deepak Gupta
and Sanjiv Khanna dismissed
the petition challenging the
execution of Power Purchase
Agreement (PPA). They felt
that no purpose would be
served to reopen the case after
more than a quarter of a cen-
tury had elapsed since the deal
was signed between the Maha-
rashtra State Electricity
Board and Dabhol Power Cor-
poration Ltd.  Turn to P4
Mumbai: Former Jet Air-
ways chairman Naresh Goyal
is likely to submit initial bids
for stake in the airline on
Thursday, sources said.
SBI Caps has the man-
date for Jet Airways’
sale on behalf of the
SBI-led consortium
of domestic lenders
to the debt-ridden
private carrier. The
airline currently owes
Rs 8,000 crore to lenders,
led by the SBI.
In a quick succession of
events on Thursday, the Air-
ways suspended operations to
East and Northeast markets,
travel industry sources said.
Additionally, 10 craft, from am
existing fleet of 14, were said
to be grounded due to non-
payment of dues. It may also
lose the right to fly on in-
ternational routes, of-
ficial sources said.
The government is
likely to review its
eligibility after the
report from regulator
DGCA. “We have
sought for all the details
from Jet. After we get those,
we will see to it,” aviation sec-
retary Pradeep Singh Kharola
said. — Agencies
 Full report in DNA Money

no model code labourer was carrying it for size when cops nabbed him
In election time, a fan rod lands man in jail
Sharad Kumar
sharad.kumar@dnaindia.net
Ahmedabad: Even as BJP
MLA Madhu Shrivastav, who
threatened voters, was lucky
enough to escape the wrath
of the Election Commission
and let off with a warning, a
poor labourer found himself
on the wrong side of the law
for simply carrying a rusted
rod on his bike — reportedly
a violation of the model code
of conduct.
Bharat Patni, 23, a resi-
dent of Chandanagar in Cha-
manpura was carrying the
rod to buy a new one for his
ceiling fan, when he was
nabbed by officers during a
routine check. He was booked
for violating the commission-
er of police’s notification for
election code of conduct that
prevents anyone from carry-
ing knife, rods, stones,
swords, etc, on their person.
The notification even pre-
vents anyone from using ver-
bal abuse and even singing in
public.
Cops said that when ques-
tioned, Patni did not give a
satisfactory explanation for
why he was carrying a rusted
iron rod tied to his bike.
“When questioned initially,
he did not say anything. He
was then taken to the police
innocuous rule-breakers
„„ Patni did not
give a satisfactory
explanation for
carrying a rusted iron
rod; later emerged that
he wanted to fix his
ceiling fan.
„„Earlier too, on April 4, a man walking with a stick was
held near Civil Hospital for violation of the model code of
conduct notification.
station where after three him for proportion,” said
hours, he said that he wanted Niraj Badgujar, DCP Zone 4.
another rod for his fan and He said that the officers
was only taking this one with booked him because his ex-
planation was not satisfac-
tory, adding that despite
verifying his story, they
found it to be implausible.
“We know labourers and oth-
ers need to carry the tools of
their trade, but Patni did not
provide a satisfactory expla-
nation,” he claimed.
This is the second such in-
cident in Shahibaug where a
citizen had landed in trouble
over innocuous rule-break-
ing. Earlier, on April 4, a man
was held near Civil Hospital
for carrying a stick (danda).
The man was walking when
the cops nabbed him and
slapped him with a case for
violating the notification.
‘Falsehood that Saudi Arabia funds
extremist madrassas & mosques’
Yogesh Pawar
yogesh.pawar@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: On the same day
that the world’s largest de-
mocracy embarked on its
election, the Saudi Ambas-
sador to India — HE Saud
bin Mohammed Al-Saty —
refuted campaign claims that
money funding Wahhabi ex-
tremism to India was being
routed though Saudi and
said, “We are with India on
its concerns about security.
Irrespective of the dispensa-
tion in power, we work close-
ly with the governments be-
fore donating any money to
anybody. It is a complete
falsehood that Saudi Arabia
funds extremist madrassas
and mosques.” He was in In-
dia for an official visit and in
an interview with DNA, also
elaborated on women’s
rights, gender rights, and the
Khashoggi case.
Speaking on women
rights, he said, “Overall,
there are efforts to improve
work opportunities for wom-
en across sectors. Saudi wom-
en are in-charge at immigra-
tion desks, airline counters,
hotels, shopping centres and
so on. Both our stock market
and our largest bank are cur-
rently headed by women.”
However, prodded about the
widely-criticised Brunei law
over stoning of homosexuals,
he simply said, “I’m not con-
cerned about what Brunei is
doing and can’t comment on
that, but in the Kingdom, we
have the Sharia law and we go
by what is prescribed.”
 Full interview, P14
 02
daily news & analysis I Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019
in brief
Scientist lodges
domestic violence
case against hubby
A complaint was lodged
with the Chandkheda
police station on
Wednesday by a 37-year-
old woman, accusing her
husband and in-laws of
domestic violence. Ac-
cording to her allega-
tion, her husband and
in-laws were mentally
and physically harass-
ing her. The complaint
was lodged by victim
Nupur Soni (37), a resi-
dent of Chandkheda
who works as a scientist
with the National Inno-
vation Foundation in
Gandhinagar. She stated
in her complaint that in
2003, she had gotten
married to Anit Soni, a
resident of Chandkheda.
Currently, the couple
have two children and
are living with the wom-
an’s in-laws. As per her
allegation, for the past
couple of months, her
in-laws have been men-
tally harassing her, say-
ing that her parents had
not given any dowry.
Seminar on value
based education
Four educational insti-
tutes of Ahmedabad will
host a day long seminar
on value-based educa-
tion to be held on
April12. Gujarat Univer-
sity, Gujarat Technologi-
cal University, Indian In-
stitute of Teacher Edu-
cation and Gujarat Fo-
rensic Sciences Univer-
sity have come together
to organise the seminar
to inculcate the impor-
tance of human values
and the need for the val-
ue based education
among the contempo-
rary generations of aca-
demia. Spiritual guru
Viditatmnanda Swamyji
will address more than
500 delegares including
VC’s, deans, directors,
professors and
researchers.
Farm distress a key issue in
Rajkot Lok Sabha constituency
Rajkot: Farm distress has
emerged a major issue in the
Rajkot Lok Sabha constituen-
cy, which is a mix of urban and
rural areas and a key seat in
Saurashtra region of Gujarat.
The constituency has re-
mained a BJP bastion for
over two decades, with the
party winning the seat six
times in the last seven elec-
tions.
However, this time the
Congress appears deter-
mined to give a tough fight to
the BJP in the seat.
The main contest here is
between sitting BJP MP Mo-
han Kundariya and Congress
candidate and MLA Lalit Ka-
gathara.
The Centre recently an-
nounced setting up a campus
of the All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in
Rajkot. The Cabinet Commit-
tee on Economic Affairs also
recently approved develop-
ment of an international air-
port here, after the state gov-
ernment alloted land for the
project.
In June 2017, Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi inaugu-
rated a project to bring water
to the Aji dam near Rajkot
under SAUNI Yojana, which
has to some extent addressed
the issue of drinking water
crisis in the city.

Threat speech: EC lets off
BJP MLA with warning
Shrivastav’s speech found to be violating MCC, decision on FIR left to cops
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
While stating that BJP MLA
Madhu Shrivastav’s speech
threatening voters was a vio-
lation of Model Code of Con-
duct, the Election Commis-
sion on Thursday left him off
with a stern warning asking
him to be careful in the fu-
ture. The EC also wrote to the
police for appropriate action
against the MLA.
“We have gone through his
speech and found that it vio-
lated the Model Code of Con-
duct. We have issued a stern
warning to him, and asked
him to be careful in the fu-
ture, and to strictly adhere to
the code of conduct,” Va-
dodara collector and district
election officer Shalini
Agrawal told reporters.
The election authorities
had on Monday issued a no-
tice to the MLA from Vag-
hodia seat in Vadodara for
his April 3 speech where he
allegedly threatened voters.
In his reply to the notice,
Shrivastav claimed that he
had not threatened the vot-
ers, and blamed it on lan-
guage issues.
Vaghani gets Surat DEO’s clean chit
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
State BJP president Jitu Va-
ghani’s use of abusive words
to target the Congress did not
violate the model code of con-
duct, Surat collector and dis-
trict election officer said in a
report to the Election Com-
mission.
“We have examined the is-
sue, and have reported that
there was no violation of mod-
el code of conduct. We have
submitted a report to the
Chief Electoral Officer,” Surat
Opposition claims that government failed to address drought issues in
Saurashtra region leaving farmers high and dry —Pic for representation
Face off
The main contest here is
between sitting BJP MP
Mohan Kundariya and
Congress candidate and
MLA Lalit Kagathara.
“After Modi became prime
minister, he did for Rajkot
what the Congress govern-
ment could not do in 60years.
The city is set to get an AIIMS
and an international airport.
The SAUNI Yojana has ad-
dressed the drinking water
issue,” said BJP leader Dhan-
sukh Bhanderi, who is par-
ty’s Lok Sabha poll in-charge
for Rajkot.
Language barrier
The election authorities had on Monday issued a notice
to the MLA from Vaghodia seat in Vadodara for his April
3 speech. In his reply to the notice, Shrivastav claimed
that he had not threatened the voters, and blamed it on
language issues
“I am not from Gujarat.
Gujarati is not my mother
tongue. The same word can
have different meanings, and
I did not intend to or threaten
the voters,” Shrivastav, who
has been representing Vag-
hodia seat in the assembly
since 1995, wrote in his reply.
However, the Vadodara
DEO said that they did not
find Madhu Shrivastav’s ex-
planation to be acceptable.
collector and district election
officer Dr Dhaval Patel told
DNA.
CEO S Murali Krishna con-
firmed that he had received
the report.
“We have received the re-
port, and are examining it. We
will be able to share more de-
tails tomorrow,” he said.
Vaghani had stirred a con-
troversy when he used an abu-
sive word for the opposition
party during an election rally
in Surat on Sunday.
“I am telling the Congress,
you cannot win, so you are try-
Bhanderi claimed the BJP
is well-poised to win the Ra-
jkot seat, which consists of
seven Assembly segments,
with even rural voters sup-
porting the ruling party.
Since almost half of the
Rajkot Lok Sabha constitu-
ency is rural, agriculture dis-
tress is a big issue for voters.
Highlighting the issue, the
Congress has claimed the
BJP government failed to
provide crop insurance to
drought-hit farmers.
The BJP won the seat six
times in a row since 1989 be-
fore Congress leader Kunvar-
ji Bavaliya snatched it from
the saffron outfit in the 2009
Lok Sabha polls. —Agencies
golden days Recalls 103-yr-old Kamlaben Dahyabhai, one of 200 centenarian voters felicitated
‘Did garba when India got freedom from Britishraj’
DNA correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
“The night we got freedom, we
did garba in Swaraj Chowk.
We sang ‘Asopalavna Toran
Lagadya, Aaj Aazadi Aavi
Chhe Maare Aaangne Re Lol
(We put Aasopalav Toran at
our gates to welcome free-
dom),” recalls 103-year-old
Kamlaben Dahyabhai from
Viramgam, one of the 200 odd
centenarian voters felicitated
by district administration in
the city on Thursday.
“We are seeing in front of
our eyes, people who have
crossed 100 years of age.
Ahmedabad district has 719
of them. They have witnessed
ups and downs of democracy.
MLA Madhu
Shrivastav (top)
seen on stage with
other BJP leaders
during a poll rally
She also said that they had
written to the Vadodara SP
and asked him to take a call
on appropriate legal action
against Shrivastav.
“The issue of threatening
of voters falls under the po-
lice’s purview, and hence we
have written to police,” she
clarified.
A senior government offi-
cial said that leaving the deci-
sion about filing of FIR on
Jitu Vanghani
ing to spread hatred and cre-
ate chaos. One such incident
has occurred but if second
such incident takes place, we
Campaigning set to pick up
With barely ten days to go for
polling, the election cam-
paigning in the state is set to
pick up, as a host of top po-
litical leaders are slated to
address election rallies in
the coming days.
On Friday, union home
minister Rajnath Singh is
slated to address public
meetings in Kutch, Bhavna-
gar, and Botad.
Maharashtra CM Deven-
dra Fadnavis, union minis-
ters Sushma Swaraj, Smriti
Irani, VK Singh and Nitin
Gadkari, former MP CM
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adity-
anath, are among the BJP
leaders who will campaign for
BJP between April 14 and 19.
Prime Minister Narendra
BJP complains to EC over Modhwadia’s remarks
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
A day after Congress leader
Arjun Modhwadia wrote to
the Election Commission de-
manding a complaint be reg-
istered against prime minis-
ter Narendra Modi for seek-
ing votes in the name of
martyrs, the Gujarat BJP
complained to the EC against
Modhwadia for using unpar-
liamentary language and
words like ‘donkey’ while
criticising the PM.
They say that they have voted
in all the elections. They are
inspiration for us, especially
at a time when voters are find-
ing excuses for not voting. It
is our privilege to felici-
tate them,” said Vikrant
Pandey, Collector of
Ahmedabad district.
A retired teacher 91-
year old Natvarlal Pathak
said that he could not vote in
1952 elections as he was un-
dergoing training, while in
1957, he was on election duty
and so could not vote. Howev-
er, since then he has voted in
all the elections. “Now peo-
ple’s behaviour has changed.
Everyone is criticising others.
Everyone is drawn by the lead-
ers,” said Pathak. 90-year old
police was unusual, and the
EC itself should have ordered
an FIR against the BJP legis-
lator.
State’s chief electoral of-
ficer S Murali Krishna, how-
ever, said the Vadodara DEO
had taken the decision after
going through the contents of
his reply.
Vadodara DSP Tarun Dug-
gal, told DNA that they had
not received any official com-
munication so far.
Agrawal said that they had
also submitted a detailed re-
port into the case to the
state’s CEO.
Separately, Om Mathur, in
charge of Gujarat BJP, said
that the Madhu Shrivastav
incident was an internal mat-
ter of BJP, and the party
would take appropriate ac-
tion. He also said that the
party did not have any com-
pulsions in acting against
Shrivastav.
The alleged threat speech,
in which Shrivastav, threat-
ened people of dire conse-
quences if they did not
vote for the BJP in the com-
ing Lok Sabha elections, was
made at a rally in Vaghodia
on April 3.
can throw you out of Surat. I
want to tell people of the state
to recognise those... their in-
tentions are not clean, they
want to harass people,” he had
said.
Vaghani later claimed that
he had used the abusive words
for Congress leaders like Mo-
hammad Surti, a former min-
ister who was convicted for
his involvement in 1993 Surat
bomb blast case. The CEO had
taken suo motu cognizance of
media reports of the speech,
and directed the Surat collec-
tor to conduct an inquiry.
Modi is slated to address
public meetings in the state
on April 17 and 20.
Among Congress leaders,
party president Rahul Gan-
dhi will address an election
rally in Amreli on April 15,
and in Bardoli, Dahod and
Patan on April 19. Party gen-
eral secretary Priyanka
Gandhi is slated to address a
public meeting at Ambaji on
April 17. Among other star
campaigners, former crick-
eter and Punjab minister
Navjot Singh Sidhu will
campaign for the party on
April 16. State Congress
spokesperson Manish Doshi
said that Sidhu will address
rallies in Modasa in Sabar-
kantha and Gandhinagar on
the day. —DNA
In a letter to EC on Wednes-
day, the state BJP’s legal cell
said that Modhwadia’s re-
marks were an insult to the
constitutional post and a vio-
lation of model code of con-
duct.
“Modhwadia during a pub-
lic rally at Deesa town in Ba-
naskantha uttered unparlia-
mentary, abusive and foul
words against the PM by de-
scribing him as a ‘donkey.
This is a clear violation of
code of conduct and an insult
to the constitutional post,”
Around 200 nonagenarian voters were felicitated on Thursday (inset)
Kamlaben —Pravin Indekar/DNA
Manguben Modi from Vi-
ramgam said that earlier, cam-
paign was more intense. “I
remember stamping the bal-
lot. I have never missed vot-
ing,” she said.
Savjibhai Bharbhidiya of
Panchi village in Dholera said
ah edabad
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Alpesh’s exit is
plan to weaken
Cong: Hardik
Alpesh Thakor
Congress in
damage
control mode
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
A day after Radhanpur MLA
Alpesh Thakor announced
that he was quitting all posts
in the Congress, the party got
into damage control mode to
minimise the impact of the Hardik Patel joined Congress party last month. Patel says Alpesh Thakor’s
development on its perfor- allegations against Congress are baseless —File photo
mance in the upcoming Lok
Sabha elections in the north DNA Correspondent
Gujarat seats of Banaskan- correspondent@dnaindia.net vote maths
tha, Sabarkantha, Patan, and The combination of
Mehsana. The decision by Thakor Sena OBC (Thakor) vote and
Sources said that the party leader and Radhanpur MLA Patidar vote was being
leaders reached out to Tha- Alpesh Thakor to step down looked upon as a winning
kor community leaders, in- from all the post of Congress formula for Lok Sabha
cluding Vav MLA Geniben party is part of a conspiracy to elections. However,
Thakor and Siddhpur MLA weaken Congress at a time Thakor’s revolt can
Chandan Thakor, and asked when the party is poised to severely put a dent in
them to take steps to ensure win more seats in Gujarat and Congress’ votes.
the community stayed with the country, Patidar leader
the party in the polls. The Hardik Patel said here on
Congress is also reaching out Thursday. He denied Thakor’s ignored and betrayed.
to other representatives of allegation that he was not giv- Patel said that allegations
Thakor community in a bid en proper respect in Congress. levelled by Thakor are un-
to seek their support. “Congress is poised to get founded as Congress party
The party is also prepar- more seats in Gujarat and in has given him lots of promi-
ing the ground for initiating rest of the country. So various nence is so less time. “Al-
disciplinary action against forces are at a play to punc- peshbhai is perhaps and the
Alpesh Thakor. ture, Congress’ advances. first and only one to get mul-
“We have sought a clarifi- They want that Congress lead- tiple positions in so less a
cation from Alpesh Thakor ers level allegations and coun- time. Within about 15 months
for the allegations levelled by ter allegations. Such kind of of joining the party, he has
him against the party leader- politics is going on now,” Patel become a MLA, secretary in
ship. We are also examining said while talking to media AICC and co-in-charge of Bi-
the speeches made by him persons in the city. har. He is also part of all the
today while campaigning for Thakor, had on Wednesday, critical committees being
a candidate of Thakor Sena resigned from all the posts of formed in view of ongoing
in Banaskantha. Discipli- the party, alleging discrimina- elections,” said Patel. The Pa-
nary action will be taken tion and disrespectful treat- tel leader also termed Al-
against him,” said state Con- ment from the party. He was pesh’s move as his personal
gress president Amit Chavda. flanked by two more Congress decision.
Party sources said that MLAs, Dhavalsinh Jhala from Thakor was, on Thursday,
they were ready for Alpesh Bayad and Bharat Thakor reportedly campaigning for
Thakor’s exit from the party from Bechraji. He had said an independent Thakor candi-
in view of his overtures to that Thakor Sena has ordered date in Banaskantha seat
the BJP in the last few him that he should not stay against Congress candidate
months. where he is being insulted, Parthi Bhatol.
lotus love
Bharatiya Janata Party supporters hold cut-outs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party president Amit
Shah during an election campaign rally in Ahmedabad on Thursday —Praveen Indekar/DNA
and strict action against him
attack on Pm Modi is promptly sought,” the par-
Modhwadia during a public rally at ty demanded.
Deesa town in Banaskantha uttered Modhwadia, former presi-
unparliamentary, abusive and foul words dent of state Congress and
against the PM by describing him as a former leader of opposition,
‘donkey’ The letter claimed that Modhwadia had said on Tuesday that
had a record of using abusive language only donkeys have a 56-inch
against PM Modi since 2002 chest.
“A fit person has a chest of
36 inches, a body-builder can
have a chest of 42, it is only
BJP said in the letter. against the PM since the 2002 donkeys who have a chest of
The letter claimed that state polls. 56 inches, and bulls have a
Modhwadia had a record of “The word used by Arjun chest of 100 inches,” Modh-
using abusive language Modhwadia is very serious wadia said.
Salt satyagraha in Kharaghoda, Dholera
C
enturion voters recalled their then Salt Act imposed by Britishers
memories of pre-independent and proudly joined many who
India. They have witnessed the participated in the satyagraha. “We
changes India has gone through. would hear disturbing stories of
Kamlaben Dahyabhai of cruel Britishers, but that did not
Viramgam recalls that day how deter us to stand united,” he says.
she saw India taking steps Activist for salt-pan workers,
towards freedom. “When Gandhiji Sukhdev Patel validated the narra-
started the salt satyagraha in Dandi tive of these elderly people. “While
simultaneously there were similar Dandi March got prominence
protests across the state. We had in history books, other parallel
that after independence, he salt pans in Kharaghoda and satyagrahas held in Kharaghoda,
got 50 bigha land under land then Britishers would restore Dholera and other parts of the
reforms program initiated by different means to stop us from state have not been documented
then state government. He re- protesting. I realised then India is properly. Gujarati poet and journal-
calls that entire village was lit moving in right direction to attain ist, late Jhaverchand Meghani
up, as if it was Diwali that day. freedom.” had reported satyagrahas in
“People had also fired from Dholera’s Savjibhai Bharbhidiya Kharaghoda in detail at that time,”
country pistols,” he said. says at their port they recalled the Patel told DNA.
 ah
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in brief
Accused GU prof
seeks documents
A professor of Gujarat
university accused of
lewd behaviour by a PhD
student on Thursday
sought for documents in-
cluding complaint copy
from the Internal Com-
plaints Committee (ICC).
Professor Vashishth
Bhatt, who was suspend-
ed on grounds of ‘moral
turpitude’ has sought a
copy of the complaint
and the committee’s or-
der in order to give a le-
gal fight, a source said.
On March 23, a PhD stu-
dent had made a written
complaint against Bhatt.
HC disposes PIL
against reservation
The Gujarat High Court
on Thursday disposed a
public interest litigation
(PIL) that questioned the
advantage of lower fees,
lower eligibility criteria,
and age relaxation, to ap-
plicants of reserved cate-
gory in competitive ex-
aminations. The petition-
er had argued that such
benefits were provided to
reserved category candi-
dates in examinations, as
well as jobs, due to the
vote bank politics. The
court was not in a mood
to entertain the PIL.
Bhanushali murder case: 1 more BJP man held
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
In the Jayanti Bhanushali
murder case, the Special In-
vestigation Team (SIT) has
arrested one more accused,
identified as Jayanti Th-
akkar, BJP leader from Ab-
dasa. It has been revealed
that Thakkar was the person
who had given Chhabil Rs 5
lakh to pay the sharpshoot-
ers.
According to officials, it was
revealed during the investi-
gation of Thakkar that he is
Ban on PUBG not an issue of
‘public interest’: High Court
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
The Gujarat High Court on
Thursday rejected a public in-
terest litigation (PIL) filed by
Internet Freedom Foundation
(IFF) seeking the court’s inter-
vention against the ban im-
posed on playing Player Un-
known’s Battlegrounds, or
PUBG, by authorities in sev-
eral cities across the state. The
division bench of Acting Chief
Justice AS Dave and Justice
Biren Vaishnav, during the
hearing, said the petitioner-
organisation should not waste
the court’s time and remarked
that the issue cannot be termed
as a PIL.
“Whether the ban is for pub-
lic good, or not, is for the au-
thorities to decide. The ban
does not violate any funda-
mental rights of people. We
are not inclined to entertain
the petition as we are not satis-
fied. If you want, you can ap-
proach the authorities and re-
quest them to lift the ban,” the
court said. While advocate for
the organisation, Asim Pan-
dya, argued that the ban im-
posed by the authorities under
Section 144 of the Criminal
Procedure Code (CrPC) is a
classic example of abuse of
power and violates the funda-
mental rights of people, the
PET FRIENDLY Guest arrived at hotel with her six cats, seven dogs and a goat
Pet owner calls cops after hotel asks her to leave
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Talk about guests from hell! A
hotel in Shah Alam is waiting
for one of its guests to leave for
her luggage is a big turn off
for other guests.
Noreen Flower, 58, had
booked a room in Silver Spring
hotel in Shah Alam by her
friend and the pet-friendly ho-
tel agreed to accommodate her
two pups. But to the horror of
the hotel, Flower arrived with
her six cats, seven dogs and a
goat taking the parking to ac-
commodate her feline friends
and the goat. Her canine
friends are living with her in
the room. Flower called the
Kagdapith police station when
the hotel owner asked her to
leave the premises. “She re-
edabad
No hawker policy leaves
400 vendors in a lurch
AMC says street vendors can’t resume biz at Lal Darwaza sans a policy
Gargi Raval
gargi.raval@dnaindia.net
Unrest has been growing
among street vendors who
have not been allowed to earn
their livelihood for the last two
months. The angry vendors
rushed to the Karanj police sta-
tion on Thursday, holding a
rose in one hand and roti
(bread) in another, to show
their misery. According to
them, they were being har-
assed and not allowed to oper-
ate their business near Lal
Darwaja where they have
traded for more than three dec-
ades.
“We are completely living
under bhay (fear), bhukh (hun-
ger) and bhrashtrachar (cor-
ruption). We are jobless, hun-
gry and under the shadow of
corruption. The police depart-
ment and the civic body work
as per their whims and fancies
to implement law and order,”
said Ismail Qazi, leader of the
Bhadra Pathana Bazar.
He further added that he
has been selling items as a
street vendor for more than 30
a business partner of the
main accused Chhabil Patel.
He and Patel had planned to
murder Bhanushali so that
Thakkar can get access to the
seat of Abdasa.
Thakkar knew the gang of
Manisha Goswami and Sur-
jeet Bhau, and it was through
him that Patel came into con-
tact with them. It was further
revealed that Thakkar con-
tacted Surjeet Bhau and
through Bhau, the two sharp-
shooters were given the con-
tract to kill Bhanushali.
DIG of railway police
what is pubG
„„PlayerUnknown’s
Battlegrounds (PUBG)
is an online multiplayer
battle game developed
and published by PUBG
Corporation, a subsidiary of
South Korean video game
company Bluehole.
„„It is inspired by the
2000 Japanese film Battle
bench straightaway rejected
the same.
Notably, the multi-platform
battle game, which took the
gaming world by storm with
over 10 crore downloads on
Google Play alone, was recent-
ly banned in Ahmedabad, Ra-
jkot, Gir Somnath, Vadodara,
Surat, Anand, and Bhavnagar.
The ban was imposed by
the police authorities of the
respective city under Section
144 of the Criminal Procedure
Code (CrPC) on the ground
that it results in violent behav-
ior among youngsters and af-
fects their studies. While many
The animal farm
„„Noreen Flower had
booked a room in Silver
Spring hotel in Shah
Alam through her friend
and the pet-friendly hotel
agreed to accommodate
her two pups
„„Owner of the hotel
claims that Flower’s
pets have messed up
the basement and also
the room which she has
occupied
fuses to leave stating that she
has paid for three days. So we
are waiting for that to get over.
Her pets have messed up the
basement and in and around
the room she has occupied,”
Protestors held a roti one hand and rose in another to show their misery
years near the plaza. “I have
completed B.Ed., but never got
a white-collar job and hence,
was forced to do the street ven-
dor’s job to run my family. But
for one year, the AMC and po-
lice have almost ruined our
lives. We’re not allowed to run
the business there. For the last
two months, whenever we try
to go there, the police detain
us,” added the leader.
According to advocate
Shamshad Pathan, there is no
implementation of street ven-
dors’ policy. “T he people have
Gautam Parmar said, “The
advance payment which Pa-
tel had given to the sharp-
shooters during his visit in
Mumbai was actually Th-
akkar’s money, he had given
Royale, and expanded into
a standalone game. In the
game, up to one hundred
players parachute onto an
island and scavenge for
weapons and equipment
to kill others while
avoiding getting killed
themselves.
„„The available safe
area of the game’s map
decreases in size over time,
directing surviving players
into tighter areas to force
encounters. The last player
or team standing wins the
round.
cities including Ahmedabad
lifted the ban, it is still in place
in other cities like Rajkot
where the ban is in force till
April 30.
The petitioner had ques-
tioned how can people be har-
assed by authorities for play-
ing a game, when the ban on it
is in clear violation of Article
14 (equality before the law), 19
(freedom of speech), and 21
(deprivation from life and lib-
erty) of the Constitution. It
also challenged the arrests of
around 21 persons in the state,
mostly youngsters, after the
ban was implemented.
Pets at the basement of Silver Spring hotel in Shah Alam
said Pradeep Agrawal owner
of the hotel.
Kagdapith Police station
police inspector SS Modi said
flower had indeed sought help
from the police. “But since she
Pravin Indekar/DNA
been surveyed twice in 2011
and in 2017, there is still a cha-
otic condition. These people
have been running their busi-
ness for generations and there
was never a hurdle in traffic
movement. Detaining them
and seizing their goods is not
the solution,” said Pathan.
Dharmendra Sharma, DCP
of zone two, said that some rep-
resentatives met them on
Thursday. “They came for rep-
resentation regarding the
area. The thing is, they were
operating from the footpath
point of contact
Jayanti Thakkar knew
the gang of Manisha
Goswami and Surjeet
Bhau, and it was
through him that main
accused Patel came into
contact with them
his part to Patel. Thakkar is
also one of the main conspir-
ators in the murder case and
further investigation is on.”
On March 13, former BJP
Leader Chhabil Patel and
A girl walks on the dry bed of Thol lake, a popular sanctuary, in Mehsana District as mercury levels touch 42
degree Celsius in Ahmedabad on Thursday —Pravin Indrekar/DNA
1,34,846 students register for GUJCET
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
The Gujarat Secondary and
Higher Secondary Education
Board (GSHSEB) has regis-
tered a total of 1,34,846 candi-
dates for the Gujarat Common
Entrance Test scheduled to be
held on April 26. Of the
1,34,846 candidates, 56,913 stu-
dents are in Group A, 77,478 in
Group B and 455 in Group AB
has not filed a complaint we
could not do much. Moreover,
she said that she was cheated
by someone who dropped her
in Rajasthan instead of Mum-
bai and she is short of cash.
troubled lot
„„Vendors say they have
been doing their business
near Lal Darwaja for years
and two surveys related
to the number of vendors
have been carried. One
survey was done in 2011
and another in 2017
„„According to
officials, the civic
body is waiting for a
policy from the state
government
and some, on the road, which
was hampering traffic move-
ment. That’s why we have
asked them not to use public
space,” said Sharma.
When contacted, Amul
Bhatt, the standing committee
chairman of Ahmedabad Mu-
nicipal Corporation, said that
due to Model Code of Conduct,
a new policy cannot be formed.
“There are certain things we
are working on for street ven-
dors. However, we cannot
share that right now because
of the elections,” said Bhatt.
main culprit in ex-MLA Jay-
anti Bhanushali’s murder
case surrendered before CID
crime. Patel was detained at
the Ahmedabad Internation-
al Airport at around 3:30am.
On January 7, Jayanti
Bhanushali, a former BJP
MLA from Abdasa was
shot dead by two shooters
in the Sayajinagri Express
train. After killing
Bhanushali, the accused
pulled the chain and fled.
During the investigation,
the cops arrested a total of
seven accused.
drybed
of class 12 science.
The dates of the exam
was postponed several
times this year, first
when it clashed with
the examination of
the Central Board of
Secondary Education
(CBSE) and then, it clashed
with Lok Sabha polling date
in the state.
Students appearing for
Physics will take the exam
She wanted us to help arrange
for her funding which we can-
not do,” said Modi. Agrawal
said Flower had landed at 3 am
on Tuesday and only his care-
taker and watchman were
there. “It was night and we
could not turn her away but we
did not realise that she had so
many animals with her. Now
two of our guests have left due
to the mess,” claimed Agrawal.
Flower, when contacted,
did not talk to DNA. Cops said
Flower was on her way to
Mumbai but someone had put
her on a bus to Rajasthan.
“From there she called up a
local friend in Ahmedabad
who booked her a hotel in
Ahmedabad. Flower wants to
go to Kerala but she does not
have the funds for it,” said
Modi.
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019 I daily news & analysis
Last year more 25,000 saplings were planted in each zone —File photo
AMC to increase
green cover with
over 10L trees
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
In a bid to increase the green
cover across the city, the
Ahmedabad Municipal Cor-
poration has decided to plant
more than 10 lakh trees and
saplings in the city. The corpo-
ration plans to plant around 5
lakh saplings and five lakh
grown trees. The drive will
start from July 1, 2019.
Looking at the deteriorat-
ing air pollution and shrink-
ing tree cover in the city, last
year the civic body had plant-
ed three to five year-old trees.
However, according to the
parks and garden depart-
ment, the survival ratio after
the plantation drive is just 30-
40 per cent. The department
also claims that last year,
more than 25,000 saplings
were planted in each zone.
To plant grown trees, the
civic body is going to buy
around 4.30 lakh trees as the
different nurseries have only
70,000 trees. “We have around
70,000 trees which are two to
three years old which we’re
going to plant across the city.
Mainly in the open and vacant
land,” said a senior official
from the parks and garden de-
partment.
The Congress is quite scep-
tical of the tree plantation
drive. “Every year the civic
body is planting trees but we
can’t see any tree cover. This
from 10am to 12pm,
the Biology exam will
be held from 1pm to
2pm and Mathematics
students will appear
from 3pm to 4pm. Over
1.36 lakh candidates
took the Gujarat Com-
mon Entrance Test (GUJCET)
at 34 centres in 2018. Out of a
total of 1,36,498 registered
candidates, 1,34,979 took the
exams.
HC asks amicus to check tent
schools for salt pan workers
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
The state government on
Thursday submitted to the
Gujarat High Court that it has
repaired the 16 tents erected
in Kharagoda and Zinzuwada
area of Surendranagar dis-
trict which are being used to
impart education to children
of salt pan workers.
The response came after
the high court initiated a suo-
motu public interest litiga-
tion against the state govern-
ment for not repairing the
tent schools operating in the
area, thereby forcing students
to study in those schools at
extreme temperatures cross-
ing 45 degrees Celsius. The
court initiated the PIL after
photographs of the torn tents
03
new purchase
„„To plant grown trees,
the civic body is going
to buy around 4.30 lakh
trees as the different
nurseries have only
70,000 trees.
„„Looking at the
deteriorating air
pollution and shrinking
tree cover in the city,
last year the civic body
had planted three to
five year-old trees.
„„The department
also claims that last
year, more than 25,000
saplings were planted in
each zone
a mere scam. . Don’t know
where they are planting trees
as I have not seen a single new
tree grown in the city in last
few years,” said Badruddin
Shaikh, former leader of the
Opposition party.
The official added that the
estate department has been
asked to identify places
where the plantation drive
could be undertaken. “They
are going to prepare a list of
places and open spaces. Plac-
es like vacant land, areas
near to Pirana landfill site,
school campuses and along
roadsides have been defined
as the possible places,” the
official said.
IIMA exec prog
registers steady rise
in female students
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
The number of female stu-
dents for the executive pro-
gramme at the Indian Institute
of Management, Ahmedabad
records a steady increase. As
against a total of 87 female stu-
dents in 2017-18 batch, number
of females who have made to
for the Post Graduate Pro-
gramme for Executives
(PGPX) for 2019-20 are 108.
The 14th batch IIMA’s one-
year full time residential
PGPX programme was inau-
gurated by IIMA Director Er-
rol D’Souza. Speaking about
the increasing trend, profes-
sor Arindam Banerjee, Chair-
person, PGPX said, “Diversity
in the student population
helps in enriching the learn-
ing process by bringing in di-
verse perspectives in the class-
room discussion. It appears
we are on the right track in
terms of work experience,
profiles and gender diversity
in our batches.”
Interestingly, other than
the rise in gender diversity,
the current batch is also very
diverse in terms of work-ex-
perience.
were published by media.
The counsel for the govern-
ment also submitted that the
government has also ensured
hostel facilities in Suren-
dranagar district for the chil-
dren of salt pan workers. The
government also submitted to
the court its initiative—
School on Wheels—under
which Gujarat State Road
Transport Corporation buses
are modified into a classroom
Parents want
RTE admission
date to be
extended
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Parents of children taking
admission under the Right to
Education (RTE) along with
the National Students Union
of India (NSUI) have demand-
ed the admission process date
to be extended to benefit more
number of parents.
NSUI in their letter to the
District Education Officer
have cited state government
officials busy in poll duty due
to which the documents
availed by the parents are be-
ing delayed. Without the docu-
ments, admission cannot take
place. Also, of the 11 days of
process, three days have gone
as holidays, said Narayan
Bharwad, secretary, NSUI.
Another a letter written to the
education department, Gul-
moin Khokkhar, who runs
Zubeida Seva Ghar helping
parents fill up admission
forms, he has said that many
parents are unable to get their
income certificate and Aad-
har cards till April 15. Since
these document processes are
being delayed, it would help if
the dates are extended so that
more parents can benefit out
of the same, Kokkhar said.
When DNA asked MI
Joshi, Director, primary edu-
cation, he said, “There is no
plan as yet to extent the ad-
mission process dates as we
have to finish the admissions
on time. Till date, we have re-
ceived good response from
parents.”
This year, the state govern-
ment aims to give admissions
to 1.10 lakh students as against
85,000 last year. The process
will continue till April 20. The
education department intends
to complete the first round of
admissions under RTE before
summer holidays begin. The
first list of admissions will be
declared by April 25 and the
students whose names are on
that list will be required to
confirm their admission be-
fore May 1.
mixed batch
„„Interestingly, other
than the rise in gender
diversity, the current
batch is also very
diverse in terms of work-
experience.
Officials said, “The batch
comprises of participants
having worked with 21 indus-
tries and 140 companies, with
9.29% of the batch comprising
of NRIs spread across six
countries and international
work-experience (35% of the
batch has worked abroad be-
fore joining PGPX). The 2019-
20 batch has an average
GMAT score of around 702
and GRE score of 320, average
age of around 32 years, aver-
age total work experience of
8.9 years.
for children of salt pan work-
ers.
Following the submissions,
the division bench of Acting
Chief Justice AS Dave and
Justice Biren Vaishnav di-
rected advocate GM Joshi,
who is the amicus curiae in
the case, to visit the places to
check the government’s
claims. Thereafter, the court
adjourned the hearing in the
case till April 16.

ball
ballet
lok sabha election 2019-20
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
in brief
Not a graduate,
says Smriti Irani’s
election affidavit
New Delhi: Putting an end to
her degree row, Union Minister
Smriti Irani, the BJP candidate
from Amethi Lok Sabha seat
on Thursday, admitted in her
election affidavit that she is not
a graduate. Irani declared in
her election affidavit that she
had “enrolled” for a three-year
degree course in Bachelors of
Commerce at School of Open
Learning (Correspondence) in
Delhi University, which she had
not “completed”. According
to her affidavit, Irani passed
secondary school examination
in 1991 and senior secondary
school examination in 1993.
Irani’s admission is contrary
to her declaration about her
own educational qualification
during the 2004 and 2014 Lok
Sabha elections. This could give
fodder to the Opposition to hit
out at her.
—DNA Correspondent
61% turnout in
Telangana
Hyderabad: An estimated 61
per cent voters cast their ballot
on Thursday in LS elections in
Telangana. The exercise passed
off peacefully, officials said.
The ruling TRS is hoping for an
encore in LS polls after sweep-
ing the December assembly
elections, while both Congress
and BJP are looking to increase
their respective tallies.
Hope afloat, they trek, cross river to vote Villagers pitch for development and trade
Advitya Bahl
advitya.bahl@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Around 200 vil-
lagers from Dalelpur in Hary-
ana, spent the day off-roading
and crossing a river to cast
votes as general elections be-
gan on Thursday.
The village, part of the
Gautam Buddh Nagar con-
stituency, has the Yamuna
river cutting across its
breadth. While one half of the
village is in Haryana, the
other is in Uttar Pradesh. It
was a part of Haryana until
1982. Voters had to walk and
drive on battered roads for
three kilometres to reach the
river bank and the take a boat
to the other side to reach the
polling booth in Gulawali vil-
First interactive exotic
bird park in Mumbai
Virat A Sing
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Mumbaikars can
now spend quality time in the
company of Dudu- the Sul-
phur-crested Cockatoo, Rio the
blue and yellow macaw, Hulk
the Eclectus parrot and sever-
al other such beautiful exotic
birds at the EsselWorld Bird
Park, which is India’s first in-
teractive Bird Park located at
Gorai village, Borivali.
Spread over almost 1.5
acre of a rainforest themed
terrain, tourists can take a
walk through the aviary
where over 500 birds belong-
ing to 60 different exotic spe-
cies including terrestrial,
aquatic and high gliding
birds are housed, most of
which roam freely providing,
visitors and bird enthusiasts
an opportunity of watching
the birds from very close dis-
tance. For the safety purpose
and to ensure that the birds
do not escape, the entire bird
park has been covered with a
50-foot tall mesh cage.
Flt Lt (Retd) Anand Lamd-
hade, vice president- new pro-
jects said that the bird park
took almost three years to
shape up as construction took
about a year’s time while rest
was spent in the procurement
of birds from certified breed-
ers and then allowing them to
t
Clashes & damaged
EVMs rock poll day
Clashing party workers disturb voting in several areas
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Incidents of vio-
lence and clashes were report-
ed from various parts of the
country during the first phase
of polling in 21 states for Lok
Sabha elections. The incidents
ranged from blasts, clashes to
Electronic Voting Machines
(EVMs) being damaged.
In Andhra Pradesh, Telugu
Desam Party (TDP) leader, S
Bhaskar Reddy was hacked to
death, while several other per-
sons were injured after clash-
es broke out in the Tadipatri
town. TDP workers alleged
that the YSR Congress Party
(YSRCP) workers killed Reddy.
Clashes also broke out be-
tween workers of TDP and
YSRCP at a polling booth in
Srinivasapuram village of Gu-
rajala assembly constituency
in Guntur district while poll-
ing was underway. YSRCP sup-
porters alleged that TDP work-
ers had forcefully stopped one
of their supporters outside the
polling booth when voting was
underway. Later, clashes
erupted and voting machines
and other necessary polling
material were damaged.
In another incident report-
ed from Guntakal in Andhra
Pradesh (AP), a Jana Sena
Party candidate Madhusu-
dan Gupta was arrested after
he broke an EVM machine in
ground report
Gurmeet Singh (L/inset) and Gansham Sharma (2nd from L) cross Yamuna
river while on their way to the polling booth —Advitya Bahl/DNA
lage. Villagers complained
that they are never visited by
any political party, but they
still cast their votes, consider-
ing it their duty.
Villagers also said that
there are no healthcare and
education facilities, electrici-
acclimatise, train and bond
with the bird handlers.
“Since this was the first of
its kind exotic bird park in the
country, right from the start a
lot of study and planning was
done. All activities were close-
ly monitored and led by an
expert and globally experi-
enced team of bird behaviour-
ists and handlers from Catalo-
nia Spain who trained a team
of 10 bird handlers. We also
have on board Dr Rina Dev an
avian and exotic specialist,”
informed Lamdhade.
Rajesh N, a robotics engi-
neer who found his calling in
being a bird handler and has
been with the bird park for
past two years said that all
the birds had acclimatised to
this surrounding very well
and many like Cape barren
goose have bred successfully
while many others have laid
eggs and incubating it.
Full report on: www.dnaindia.com
Encouraging: Describing the
voter turnout in phase-1 of LS polls
“encouraging”, BJP said everything
seems to be going in favour of it.
Social media platforms removed more than 500 posts, ads with objectionable content, says EC
A security personnel stands guard as voters queue to cast their vote at a
polling station in Meerut on Thursday —PTI
Maha’s gadchiroli targeted
In Maharastra’s Gadchiroli,
an IED blast occurred
close to a polling booth,
while polling was
underway. However, no
casualties were reported.
Gooty because names and
parliamentary constituen-
cies were not being displayed
properly.
Former Speaker and TDP
leader Kodela Siva Prasad
Rao was also attacked by YS-
RCP supporters in Yanamat-
la village, where he had gone
during polling.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Kaira-
na, rounds were fired in the
air after around two dozen
people tried to barge into a
ty, roads and documents such
as Aadhaar Card, driver’s li-
cence or pension cards for the
elderly. This, even though
they risk their lives to cast a
vote. “The village has been
voting since 1984 and it feels
likes we have only made a fool
SC and AG
squabble on
electoral bonds
From P1
“It’s none of his concern. All
that the Court must see is
whether this is a forward
step to curb black money. It’s
good to speak of transpar-
ency, but we are going to kill
a scheme with transparen-
cy,” he said.
The Centre’s submission
struck a discordant note
with the bench, which re-
torted, “There is a larger is-
sue that you are missing to
see. There may be an illegal
state of affairs, but here
what is being done is to le-
gitimise it,” referring to
shell companies.
“There is so much opacity
in the system and you block
the Election Commission
from knowing who the do-
nors are. What about the
right of voter to know who
is funding the party?” the
bench added.
Additionally, the SC asked
the Centre if it had data on
the percentage of cash dona-
tions to explain unaccount-
ed cash in elections, to
which the EC came to the
Centre’s rescue. It stated
that anonymous cash dona-
tions (less than Rs 20,000)
accounted for 90 per cent of
political party funding in
2015-16 and 62 per cent in
2016-17.
Full report on: www.dndindia.com
Bhagwat among first to vote
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was among the early ones
to cast his vote on Thursday for the Lok Sabha polls in
Maharashtra’s Nagpur constituency, where Union minister
Nitin Gadkari is the BJP’s candidate. Bhagwat along with
RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi arrived at a polling
booth at Bhauji Daftari School in Mahal area at 6.50 am.
spokesperson quits: In a
major jolt to Odisha Congress, its
spokesperson Sonali Sahoo quit on
Thursday, over ticket distribution.
The blast took place in
the morning in Waghezari
area, barely 200 metres
away from the polling
booth, where people were
waiting in queues
polling booth in Rasulpur
Gujran village of Kandhla
town without identity cards.
BSF officers initially tried to
disperse the crowd using ba-
tons, but later fired rounds in
the air. Polling at the booth
halted for an hour due to this.
Later on, heavy deployment
was arranged in the area to
take control of the situation.
A case under appropriate sec-
tions has been registered. No
arrests have been made so far.
of ourselves. We have been
ignored by the government
and local administration over
the years. We trek on bad
roads and risk crossing the
polluted Yamuna. It is either
that or going all the way
through Faridabad and Delhi
via Kalindi Kunj, covering
about 70 km, to reach the poll-
ing station in Gulawali,” said
Gurmeet Singh, a resident of
Dalelpur. “I hope something
good happens. It is the only
village in Noida which falls
across the Yamuna but be-
longs to the Gautam Buddh
Nagar constituency. Perhaps
if the village is made part of
Haryana, the situation might
improve,” said Gansham
Sharma, a resident.
Full report on: www.dnaindia.com
Violence & technical glitches...
From P1
Naxals carried out an IED
blast in Maharashtra while
voting was underway. A simi-
lar blast was triggered by
Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s
Narayanpur district in
Bastar Lok Sabha constitu-
ency. People, however, defied
terror by coming out in large
numbers to vote. Shyamgiri,
the target of Naxal violence,
polled an impressive 77 per
cent votes.
Polling was largely peace-
ful in eight seats of western
Uttar Pradesh barring Kaira-
na where paramilitary forces
CBI has closed my DA case, Mulayam tells SC
Abraham Thomas
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party
chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on
Thursday filed an affidavit in
the Supreme Court claiming
that the Central Bureau of In-
vestigation (CBI) has dropped
the disproportionate assets
case enquiry against him and
his family, initiated on the or-
ders of the apex court.
The affidavit came in re-
sponse to an order passed by
the Supreme Court on March
25, seeking a response from the
CBI and Mulayam on an appli-
cation filed by the original pe-
titioner Vishwanath Chatur-
vedi, who sought to know the
Sonia files papers, Vadras in tow
Rae Bareli: UPA chairper-
son Sonia Gandhi Thursday
filed her nomination papers
from the Rae Bareli Lok Sab-
ha constituency in Uttar
Pradesh.
She was accompanied by
her son and Congress presi-
dent Rahul Gandhi, daughter
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and
her son-in-law Robert Vadra.
Before filing her nomina-
tion papers at the Collectorate
here, the UPA chairperson
held a roadshow and offered
puja at the Congress central
office here. Congress general
secretary in-charge for Uttar
Pradesh (East) Priyanka Gan-
dhi, her children Raihan and
Miray, and several party lead-
ers attended the puja at the
Congress office.
Congress workers carrying
WB: Mamata,
Shah engage
in verbal duel
Arshad Ali
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Kolkata: As two of West Ben-
gal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats went
to poll, BJP national president
Amit Shah and West Bengal
CM Mamata Banerjee had ver-
bal duels on Thursday. Shah
during his meetings in Kalim-
pong and Islampur said that all
the Opposition party Mamata
planned to ally with left the al-
liance. Mamata retaliated at
her public meeting in Darjeel-
ing, saying that BJP leaders
only came to the hills during
the polls but she had visited
there every three months and
worked for their development.
Advitya Bahl
advitya.bahl@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Voters turned
out in greater numbers in vil-
lages than in the cities as the
first phase of Lok Sabha polls
began on Thursday.
People in villages said that
they are voting for develop-
ment and are looking at the
wider, national perspective.
In Uttar Pradesh, the first
phase of polls is being held in
eight parliamentary seats,
including Saharanpur, Kaira-
na, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor,
Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad,
Gautam Buddha Nagar. The
Gautam Buddh Nagar con-
stituency comprises of five
assembly segments includ-
ing, Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Si-
had to disperse a crowd that
was trying to barge in a poll-
ing station. All the eight
seats engaged in a tough tri-
angular contest between BJP,
Mahagathbandhan of BSP,
SP and RLD and Congress.
The Congress is expected to
slice the votes of both the
BJP and the grand alliance.
Saharanpur polled highest
with 70.68 per cent, while
Ghaziabad clocked the least
at 57.60 per cent. Overall poll-
ing percentage on eight seats
was 63.69 per cent. 
Polling on two seats in
West Bengal – Alipurduars
Mulayam Singh Yadav
action taken by CBI since the
last order of the Court passed
on December 13, 2012 dismiss-
ing the review petitions of Mu-
layam and his two sons, Akh-
Illegal immigrants are like
termites, eating the grain meant
for the poor...taking our jobs. T of TMC
stands for Tushtikaran (appeasement),
M for Mafia and C for Chitfunds
Amit Shah, BJP president
Soliciting votes in the name of
the martyrs of the Assam
Agitation is also an indirect violation of
the model code of conduct. The martyrs
are ours and not of the BJP
Tarun Gogoi, Former Chief Minister of Assam
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019 I daily news & analysis
Sonia Gandhi, flanked by her family, files her nomination from Rae Bareli
party flags and banners, gath- held in the fifth-phase of the
ered at the Collectorate to Lok Sabha polls on May 6, will
greet the UPA chairperson. see a straight contest between
Sonia Gandhi (72) is seek- Sonia Gnadhi and Dinesh
ing re-election from the seat Pratap Singh, who recently
for the fifth time in a row. Rae joined the BJP after leaving
Bareli, where voting will be the Congress.
Odisha records 66% voter turnout,
down from 2014’s 74% in Phase 1
Saswat Panigrahi stituency recorded a turnout there were reports of booth
correspondent@dnaindia.net of 53 per cent, Kalahandhi rigging in Chikiti Assembly
recorded a 53 per cent turn- segment under Berhampur
New Delhi: Four Lok Sabha out, Koraput 55 per
constituencies in Odisha – Ko- cent and Nabarang-
raput, Nabarangpur, Kalahan- pur 50 per cent. The
di and Berhampur – on Thurs- figures are likely to
day went to polls in the first be revised.
phase of general elections. In 2014 elections,
As many as 28 Assembly Nabarangpur had Odisha
segments, under these Lok
Sabha (LS) constituencies,
recorded 78 per cent
turnout, Koraput
also simultaneously went to recorded a turnout Polling
polls. According to Odisha
Chief Electoral Officer
of 64.7 per cent,
Kalahandi 75.7 per
seats
Surendra Kumar, the state cent and Berham-
recorded a voter turnout of 66 pur 68 per cent.
per cent. In the 2014 elections, The lower turnout may af- Berhampur, in Kalahandhi,
Odisha had recorded 74 per fect the overall results, said elections are fought on the is-
cent polling in the first phase. political observers. Though sues of poverty, farm distress,
While Berhampur LS con- polling was largely peaceful, lack of irrigation among others.
An woman casts her vote in Sawaal village, near Meerut, UP —AP
kandrabad and Khurja. With eral campaigns in order to
Thursday’s polling, the fate make the people of the village
of 13 candidates from various aware. If our nation is devel-
political parties and inde- oping, so are we. Our kids will
pendent contestants has been have a brighter future,” said
locked. “Development of the Vipin Tomar, a resident of
nation is the most important Dadri.
thing for us. We had run sev- Voters started thronging
Relief for Pawar as
apex court quashes...
and Cooch Behar - was large-
ly peaceful, barring minor
clashes. The two constituen-
cies recently saw high volt- From P1
age campaign by PM Modi The foreign partner, Enron,
and chief minister Mamata has abandoned the project
Banerjee. and most senior officials
The four Lok Sabha seats have retired.
– Nawada, Gaya, Jamui and Even the Godbole Commit-
Aurangabad in Bihar polled tee was divided (3:2), with the
53 per cent overall, a mar- majority seeing no purpose
ginal increase of 1 per cent in ordering a judicial probe.
than 2014. All four seats fall “In view of the long delay and
in Left-Wing extremists af- non-availability of many per-
fected districts. Voters in the sons involved, no useful pur-
northeast states came out in pose would be served in con-
large numbers to vote. tinuing with the judicial
Full report on: www.dndindia.com commission of enquiry,” the
file its response ascertaining
Mulayam’s claim.
Mulayam stated to the
Court that the preliminary en-
quiry by the CBI continued for
two years since the order of
December 13, 2012 when the
agency summoned him and his
family members, inspected
several documents, and con-
ducted enquiries with regard
to personal and family assets.
“After detailed enquiries
spread over two years, no case
was found against the respond-
ent (Mulayam) or his family...
ilesh Yadav and Prateek Yadav. to the best of the information
The matter has been listed for available with the respondent
hearing on Friday before a (Mulayam), the preliminary
bench headed by Chief Justice enquiry registered by the CBI
Ranjan Gogoi. The CBI is yet to was closed.”
04
seeking blessings
Before filing her
nomination papers at the
Collectorate here, the
UPA chairperson held
a roadshow and offered
puja at the Congress
central office in Rae Bareli
The Samajwadi Party (SP)
and the Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP) have not fielded a candi-
ANI
date in the Congress bastion.
Sonia Gandhi had won the
seat in 2004, 2006 (by-polls),
2009 and 2014. On Wednesday,
Rahul Gandhi filed his nomi-
nation papers for neighbour-
ing Amethi Lok Sabha seat.
He had also held a roadshow
and was accompanied by his
family. —PTI
constituency by rul-
ing BJD workers.
There were also re-
ports of poll vio-
lence in Jeypore As-
sembly segment in
Koraput LS seat.
% 66 Polls issues
While drinking water
4/21 scarcity, migrant la-
bourers, law and or-
der problems are the
main poll issues in
to polling booths early in the
morning. Trade with other
countries and issues of na-
tional security are the things
that the people of Gautam
Buddh Nagar focused on.
Polling began at 7 am and
brisk voting was recorded
during the initial hours, but
it went down during the after-
noon. It gained momentum
again during the evening
with large number of people
queuing up at polling booths.
The district constituency
on Thursday recorded a voter
turnout of 60.15 per cent,
with Noida segment record-
ing 53.6 per cent, Dadri 64.6
per cent, Jewar 68.4 per cent,
Sikandrabad 62.5 per cent and
Khurja 64 per cent.
Full report on: www.dnaindia.com
Bench concluded.
Meanwhile, Nationalist
Congress Party spokesperson
Nawab Malik said the BJP
and Shiv Sena had been run-
ning a false campaign alleg-
ing Pawar of corruption
since 1990. “With the Su-
preme Court order, the saf-
fron parties stand exposed,”
he noted. In early February,
the Maharashtra government
had urged the court to end
the proceedings.
Full report on: www.dndindia.com
Mulayam added that even
the Income Tax authorities did
not find anything against him
or his family. On this basis, the
former union minister said
that Chaturvedi’s application
has been timed close to the
elections to defame him and
his family and is politically
motivated.
Chaturvedi had produced a
status report of CBI submitted
in October 2007. The investiga-
tion report of CBI found that
assets of the entire family,
when taken together, records
that assets disproportionate to
known sources of income were
to the tune of over Rs 9 crore,
the value of assets being Rs 24
crores in 2013.
 POLLMETER Tiniest
woman’s
32/91 42% 42% big vote

ball t
seats that went to polls are sitting of Congress candidates and 36% of of 526 Ph-1 candidates have educati-

05
BJP seats. These seats are likely to BJP candidates in phase one have onal qualification between Class 5 and World’s tiniest woman,
determine the relevance of ‘Modi criminal cases, ranging from murder Class 12. 66 candidates are illiterate, Jyoti Amge, attracted
magic’ to power of grand alliance to kidnapping & crime against women 19 just educated to be deemed literate eyeballs when she

ballet
turned up to vote in
Nagpur Thursday. The
There were no women constables. If there is such a long queue of
25-yr-old of 2 ft & 1
women voters and no woman official among polling officials, inch became a celebrity
then male officials should check. If someone comes in a burqa, whether after making a guest
the same person is coming four or five times, how will you know appearance in reality
TV show Big Boss 6.
Sanjeev Baliyan, BJP Muzaffarnagar MP

lo k s a b h a ele c t i o n 2 0 1 9 Govt effort to curb black money in polls futile if identity of donors not known, says apex court

www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019 I daily news & analysis

Fate of 3 Union ministers sealed Bihar turnout excels 2014,

test for NDA to retain all 4
in phase-1 polls in Uttar Pradesh
Voters turn out in large numbers across country; western UP poised for interesting battle
Vithika Salomi
vithika.salomi@dnaindia.net

Patna: Over 53% of voters

exercised their franchise in
four constituencies of Bihar,
Manan Kumar ma (Gautam Buddha Nagar) percentage in Kairana was which went to polls in the
manan.kumar@dnaindia,net - are in the fray. 62.10%, Muzaffarnagar 65.66, first phase of the Lok Sabha
Polling was brisk in the Bijnor 65.40 and 60.15% in Gau- election on Thursday. It is a
New Delhi: Eight seats in morning, but it slowed down tam Buddha Nagar, they said. marginal increase of about
western Uttar Pradesh that in the afternoon, picking up At a Kairana polling 1% since 2014, when 51.8%
saw complete domination of again towards the evening booth, a BSF jawan fired in turnout was recorded here.
BJP in 2014 Lok with enthusiastic the air to disperse some peo- While maximum turnout
Sabha elections reg- voters, mostly first- ple, who were not carrying was registered in Gaya (56%),
istered 63.68% poll- timers, lining up in their identity cards and tried Jamui followed at 54% and Voters show ID-cards at a booth in Nawada district, Bihar on Thursday —PTI
ing on Thursday. long queues outside to forcibly enter the premises Nawada at 52.5%. These three
The BJP this time is several polling cen- to cast vote, police said. The seats saw a rise in turnout brisk polling was recorded leader Chirag Paswan, who is
in a tough contest tres. BJP is banking incident took place at a poll- compared to 2014 when across these constituencies seeking re-election against
on all the eight on first-time young ing booth in Rasoolpur Gu- 53.92%, 50.01% and till afternoon. “The RLSP’s Bhudeo Choudhary.
Uttar Pradesh
seats because of voters this time be- jran village under Kandhla 52.18% votes were afternoon heat and It is likely to be a direct con-
BSP, SP and RLD
polling in their re-
63.68 % cause of Balakot
airstrikes.
police station around noon.
In Muzaffarnagar, BJP MP
polled respectively.
Aurangabad regis-
Chaiti Chhath ritu- test in Gaya where former Bi-
als may have de- har CM Jitan Ram Manjhi
polling
sources. The only The opposition Sanjeev Balyan stoked a con- tered a dip at 49.85% terred some of the (HAM-S) is fighting JD(U)’s
solace for the BJP is 8/80 has tried to stick to troversy by demanding that as against 51.19% in voters to come to Vijay Manjhi, as well as Au-
Congress that has seats the narrative of An election official applies indelible ink on the fingers of voters at a polling male officials check the iden- 2014. Nawada as- Bihar the booths, or else rangabad seat, where BJP MP
chosen to fight sep- agrarian crisis, station at a village in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on Thursday —PTI tity of burqa-clad women at sembly constituen- the turnout would Sushil Kumar is seeking re-
arately. Usually, a non-payment of poll stations where women cy, which also went % 53 have been even bet- election against HAM-S candi-
triangular contest helps BJP sugarcane dues and rising Congress is hoping to bring Saharanpur recorded maxi- security personnel had not to polls, recorded Polling ter,” said a senior date Upendra Prasad.
to win as it leads to division unemployment that are trou-
of votes while the BJP has a bling the farmers and youth
the flock of poor people back
to its fold by announcing
mum voter turnout at 70.68%,
while the least turnout was
been posted.
The communally-sensitive
52% turnout.
All four seats fall
4/40 EC official. Nawada is witnessing a
Phase I is a test fight between two Bahubali
seats
committed vote bank. respectively. The BJP hopes minimum income support reported for Ghaziabad Lok seat of Muzaffarnagar is wit- in Left extremist- for the NDA in Bi- families -- LJP’s Chandan Ku-
Stakes are high for the to counter it by Rs 6,000 per (NYAY) scheme that promises Sabha seat where it stood at nessing a clash between RLD affected districts har as all four seats mar, brother of criminal-
BJP here, as three of its un- annum Kisan scheme under to ensure a minimum income 57.60%. The polling percent- chief Ajit Singh and Balyan. and heavy deployment of fell into their kitty in 2014. turned-politician Surajbhan
ion ministers -- V K Singh which marginal farmers of Rs. 12,000 per family to age in Meerut and Baghpat Fate of 3 Union ministers forces ensured smooth polls. While Aurangabad, Gaya and Singh, is up against Vibha
(Ghaziabad), Satyapal Singh have already received the 20% poorest. stood at 63 around 63.90 per sealed in phase-1 polls in Ut- Voters queued up outside Nawada were represented by Devi, wife of rape-accused
(Baghpat) and Mahesh Shar- first instalment of Rs 2,000. Poll officials said till 6 pm cent respectively. The voting tar Pradesh booths since early hours and BJP, Jamui was won by LJP MLA Rajballabh Yadav of RJD.

Alipurduars & Cooch Clashes mar polls in

Behar record fair poll AP; CM Naidu says
30% EVMs flawed
Arshad Ali tral forces on the ground and
correspondent@dnaindia.net national leaders boosting the
morale of cadre at several
Kolkata: Barring a few inci- public meetings. While both,
dents of minor ruling Trinamool DNA Correspondent
clashes, the poll pro- and rival NDA, are correspondent@dnaindia.net
cess of 17th Lok exuding the confi-
Sabha elections had dence of winning New Delhi: Elections in
been peaceful in two both seats, observ- Andhra Pradesh, where poll-
of the 42 Lok Sabha ers opine that the ing took place to 25 Lok Sab-
constituencies – West bengal mood on the polling ha seats and 175 Assembly
Cooch Behar and
Alipurduars. While 80.84 %
day is indicative of
a ‘decisive’ battle.
seats, saw clashes between
TDP and YSR Congress work-
Cooch Behar record- Polling Sanjay Basu, ad- ers, leading to the death of a
ed 80.11%, com-
pared to 82.81% in
2/42 ditional chief elec-
toral officer, said
TDP leader, S Bhaskar Reddy.
Technical glitches in Elec- Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu
seats
2014, Alipurduars Congress had com- tronic Voting Machines Naidu after casting his vote —PTI
marked 81.58% turn- plained of malprac- (EVMs) at some polling
out, compared to 83.18 in 2014. tice in 10 booths and BJP in booths as well as voter dele- men ransacked a polling sta-
The most important pat- 700 booths. Those were being tion cases marred the poll tion in Yelamanda village
tern noticed this time was of looked into and the CEO WB process. The state election and damaged the furniture.
the increased strength of is also trying to identify those officers have put the voting CM Chandrababu Naidu
BJP since the last general involved in the stray inci- percentage at 73 per cent. said ballot papers should be
elections, assurance of Cen- dents of EVM tampering. Additionally, in Guntakal, introduced because his infor-
former MLA and contesting mation was that 30% EVMs

Anger over Citizenship

candidate of Jana had glitches. “No
(anti-clockwise from Sena Party, Madhu- developed country
above) Women queue up sudan Gupta, is using EVMs as
to cast votes in Itanagar, smashed an EVM in they are prone to

Bill muted on poll day Arunachal Pradesh on

Thursday; sadhus show
their voter IDs as they
anger alleging that
party symbols were
not properly print- Andhra pradesh
manipulation. We
have hence been de-
manding that we
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
78.2% respectively. In the five
seats that went to the polls in
stand in a queue at a
booth in Haridwar (PTI);
ed on the ballot
unit. He was later 73 %
revert to the ballot
paper system,”
Assam, the turnout was 68%. Muslim voters make their arrested. In Eluru, Polling
Naidu told report-
New Delhi: While Citizenship Assam chief election offic-
Amendment Bill was the pri- er Mukesh Chandra Sahu told
way to a polling station at
Muzaffarnagar in UP 
a YSRCP worker
was seriously in-
25/25 ers after casting his
vote at a polling sta-
seats
mary issue in the reporters that while  — BB Yadav/DNA jured when TDP tion in Undavalli
run-up to the Lok there were reports workers allegedly village in state capi-
Sabha elections in of malfunctioning attacked him at a polling sta- tal region Amaravati.
eight states of the of EVMs from some tion. And in Jammalamadu- When Andhra chief elec-
Northeast, closer to booths and defective gu in Kadapa, tension pre- toral officer Gopal Krishna
the polling date, the
northeast
machines have been Your one vote will Today is the first phase I appeal vote for the Your vote is an vailed in Ponnathota village Dwivedi cast his vote in Tade-
anger seemed to replaced, the turn- as YSRCP and TDP workers palli, the VVPAT machine did
decide the future of of the process of Maha people’s interest and opportunity to choose
have died down. On
the first day of poll- 70
%
out is set to rise as
there were queues in this great nation. I Parivartan (big help make a a representative who
indulged in stone-throwing. not function. This is the first
In Narsaraopet constitu- time the general elections
polling
ing, 14 of the region’s poll booths at 5 pm. request each and every change). To make the government which can will espouse our causes ency in Guntur district, were held in Andhra Pradesh
25 parliamentary
seats went to polls.
14/25 “Around
VVPATS were re-
100
voter to come out and day historic, everyone make ‘sarvjan’ and fight our fights
YSRC leaders alleged TDP after it was bifurcated.
seats
As per data re- placed,” he said. vote. The power of should come out of (everyone) happy. in the Lok Sabha for
leased by the deputy While polling in
election commissioner at the five seats was going on, PM
end of the day, by 5 pm the Modi had two campaign rallies
democracy lies in your
single vote.
their home and
exercise right to vote.
Today, the nation is
calling you.
the next 5 years so
choose wisely. Ballot beats bullet in
2 J&K constituencies
voter turnout in the lone seats at Assam, prompting former —Amit Shah, —Akhilesh Yadav, —Mayawati, —Omar Abdullah,
that went to polls in Tripura CM Tarun Gogoi to complain
was 81.8%, in Sikkim 69%, Na- that this is a violation of the
BJP president Samajwadi Party president BSP president NC leader & J&K ex-CM
galand 78%, and in Manipur model code of conduct (MCC).
Ishfaq-ul-Hassan mulla in 2014 which came
h_ishfaq@dnaindia.net down to 34.61% in 2019.
This time around major
Cong’s Vikhe Patil ‘NaMo TV content row over namo Nizamabad’s long bjp pitches Srinagar: Democracy defeat- political parties replaced old
ed separatism on Thursday candidates with new faces to
at BJP cadre meet old speeches’ food packets list of candidates Gambhir in j&k when over 34.61% of voters woo the electorate. PDP re-
defied the boycott calls and placed 2015 winner of Baram-

S D
enior Maharashtra Congress
leader Radhakrishna Vikhe
Patil on Thursday attended a
meeting chaired by his son and
BJP candidate Sujay Vikhe Patil
to review preparations for
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s rally in Ahmednagar
Lok Sabha seat. The Congress
stalwart, who is currently the
A C
elhi Chief Electoral office had s polling got underway in Tel- ricketer-turned-politician Gau- exercised their ulla constituency
approved the logo of NaMo angana for 17 LS seats on tam Gambhir Thursday kept right to franchise in Muzaffar Baig with
TV, which the BJP said is a Thursday, Nizamabad has be- up his attack on former CMs the border district employee leader
part of NaMo app owned by it, come a cynosure of all eyes with Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba of Baramulla while and new entrant Ab-
but did not “certify” the content large number of candidates in the Mufti over statements in defence Jammu recorded a dul Qayoom Wani.
since it contained old speeches fray necessitating deployment of of Article 370, saying “this type of turnout as high as National Confer-
of Prime Minister Narendra as many as 12 EVMs in each politics will no longer be enter- 72.16% in phase-one. J&K ence too replaced
Modi, officials said. The EC on booth. “This is the first time in tained in the country”. Gambhir, Overall polling 2014 runner-up Sha-
Tuesday had asked the CEO’s of- the world where elections are con- who recently joined BJP, ad- percentage in the 57.31 % rif-ud-din Shariq
fice to inform whether the politi- ducted with such a large number dressed rallies in support of Un- two parliamentary polling with former speak-

Leader of Opposition in the
state Assembly, is likely to join
the saffron party in the pres-
ence of Modi at his rally on Fri-
day, sources close to him said.
Sujay Vikhe Patil, who was ear-
lier keen on being nominated by
the Congress from Ahmednagar
constituency, traditionally been
contested by its ally NCP, joined
the BJP last month.
S 2/6
cal contents were at any time
cleared by the certification com-
mittee. “The Delhi poll body ap-
proved the logo of NaMo TV but
the content that was submitted
for certification had old speeches
of the PM and it was felt that
since they have already been
aired, they did not require pre-
certification,” an official, privy
to the development, said.
ome security personnel on
election duty in Noida (UP)
were served meals in packets
labelled “Namo Foods”, trigger-
ing criticism from the opposition
even after the local police said
the packs only displayed the
name of food shop. The BSP Par-
ty said it has complained to the
EC. The packets were brought in
the boot of a hatchback.
of candidates using (such a large
number of) EVMs,” said Chief
Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar. In
fray are 185 candidates, including
178 farmers who wanted to sup-
port their demand for remunera-
tive price for turmeric and red
sorghum. Over 26,000 ballot Units,
2,200 control units and about
26,000 VVPATs are being used for
Nizamabad constituency.
ion Minister Jitendra Singh.
“From Kashmir to Kanyakumari,
India is one and the dream of hav-
ing separate PM (for J&K) will
never be fulfilled,” Gambhir said.
In a Twitter face-off with Mufti
over Article 370, Gambhir had
said, “This is India, not a blot like
you that it will disappear,” draw-
ing a sharp response from her
who later blocked him. —PTI
constituencies of er Mohommad Ak-
Jammu and Baram- bar Lone.
seats
ulla that went to A large queue
polls in phase one was seen outside the
was recorded at 57.31 %. polling booths in most of the
While Jammu surpassed places in the two constituen-
the 2014 turnout record of cies. Baring traces of boycott
69.24%, there was four per- in certain pockets there was
cent dip in Baramulla, com- huge enthusiasm among the
pared to 2014. Around 39.19 voters in Baramulla.
had cast their ballot in Bara-  Full reports: dnaindia.com
 06
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019
 opini n
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia

daily news & analysis

Politics is a male preserve
Between 1952 and 2019, only eight bills relating to women have been enacted out of 828 Acts passed

SC intervention
In a representative
democracy like In-
dia, politicians
and voters share a
It is time to reform the system of electoral bonds symbiotic rela-
tionship. The for-

T
he case against electoral bonds is getting more and more mer wish to be
strident. The Election Commission (EC), which has always elected and in ef-
taken a dim view of electoral bonds, has reinforced it fur- fect desire peoples’
Phalasha Nagpal votes. In return,
ther. It has told the Supreme Court that these bonds are a cause the voter also
of worry in a democracy because of the anonymity attached to wants the politicians to introduce poli-
the donors as well as the quantum of cash donated — both of cies that appease them.
which hamper the Commission’s push towards greater trans- India’s social fabric is such that wom-
parency. Most analysts believe that corruption in India is close- en have low personal agency and au-
ly linked to election-time funding. The Supreme Court is hear- tonomy. Therefore, a minuscule percent-
age of women contest elections and the
ing a PIL, which demands that if the bonds are to continue, female voters’ decision is highly reflec-
transparency of individual and corporate donors along with tive of the voting preferences of their
the amounts they donate need to be observed in the larger pub- male counterparts.
lic interest. The apex court is considering passing interim or- This creates conditions for a strong
ders on whether the sale of bonds needs to be stayed. If the bias against women and accordingly, the
court does pass an order, it is going to go down as a victory for issues faced by them rarely gather any
popular support.
those who are campaigning for greater political transparency. Once elected, these politicians, who
There are many things that can be said about electoral bonds, are mostly men, seek to naturally ad-
but nothing more damaging that the fact that they legalise ano- dress issues faced by men, thereby meet-
nymity. The only way to achieve openness is to publish the list ing their deal of the bargain.
of donors. Interestingly, in 2003, the then BJP-led NDA govern- So, election after election, male voters
ment took the first step towards cleansing the system when are likely to re-elect the same representa-
tives thereby sustaining this self-reinforc-
government companies and their foreign subsidiaries were ing cycle. This goes on to show that civil Women, who form over 49 per cent of India’s population, have a little more than 10 per cent say in national decision-making
kept out of political funding. Under the rules of the electoral liberties for women in India are abstract.
bonds system, the name of the donor is not disclosed. If in the On one hand, they have the right to Prohibition Act, 1961 and Protection of stands well evidenced and established.
business of electoral funding, no names are disclosed, it is a vote, but on the other, the conditions are Women from Domestic Violence Act, In economic terms, nearly half of In-
sure recipe for political corruption. Given the track record of unconducive for them to attain political 2005. None of the Acts passed pertain to dia’s demographic dividend is in a pre-
our political parties, when it comes to raising funds, to not per- power. Since Independence, the concern furthering the economic or political in- carious position due to the historical
of gender inequity in politics has con- terests of women. gaps in policies to address issues funda-
mit the names of donors to be made public is bound to raise tinued to fester. Since 1952 — the time As per surveys conducted in the pre- mental to women.
many questions. Just how opaque it can become was apparent of the first Lok Sabha — female repre- election period, of the women surveyed IMF research asserts that India’s
when a recent RTI reply came up with startling details. In a sentation has increased by merely about — the greatest issue for women in the GDP can be increased by as much as 27
span of two months — March and April 2019 — with elections six percentage points, virtually grazing upcoming elections was safety and per cent by providing a boost to female
looming large, electoral bonds worth Rs 1,176 crore were issued, the horizontal axis. crimes against women. labour force participation.
a whopping 60 per cent jump from the previous year. In 2018, It highlights that even today. Women, The irony is that 48 MPs and MLAs But the roots of gender inequality in
who form over 49 per cent of India’s today have declared crimes against politics run much deeper. Gender ine-
bonds worth Rs 1,056 crore were issued. In April, 2018, another population have a little more than 10 per women cases against them as reported quality translates into economic ine-
RTI exposé revealed that the EC had rebutted amendments in- cent say in national decision-making. by the Association for Democratic Re- With women assuming greater political quality, which in turn perpetuates po-
troduced in four Acts to facilitate the bonds — namely, the In- Such disproportionate female repre- forms. We as citizens stand to equally power, India’s policy would be more litical inequality.
come Tax Act, the RBI Act, the Representation of People Act sentation in turn affects policy and leg- share the blame. After all, how many of likely to address challenges plaguing The problem is grave because a politi-
(RPA) and the Companies Act — saying they suffer from huge islation. The gender of democratically- us educate ourselves about the back- women for decades. A person who can- cal system that does not deliver to a ma-
problems and are a ‘retrograde step’. Indications from several elected representatives naturally re- ground and qualifications of our repre- not take decisions at home can only jor proportion of its citizens i.e. women,
sponds more effectively to the views of sentatives before casting a vote in their dream of ever participating — let alone who constitute a near equal of the elec-
other quarters also suggest various anomalies. An SBI report, their own gender. favour? spear-heading — the national decision- torate, is not sustainable in the long-run.
for instance, has revealed that there is no demand for bonds of These inequalities are even more pro- As per the National Family Health making process. Eventually, faith in democracy and the
lower denominations, as 99.9 per cent of the total bonds were nounced given the mounting women’s Survey 2015-16, the percentage of wom- The Global Gender Gap report 2018 political system is likely to erode.
purchased in denominations of Rs 10 lakh and above. This is a issues in the economy — from sexual en with 10 or more years of schooling reiterates the co-relation between eco- Solutions to these problems need not
clear indication that corporations are purchasing these bonds, harassment to abysmally low female la- still stands at as low as 35.7 per cent, nomic and political inequality by show- be new-fangled. In the short-term, reser-
not the common man. With so many objections being raised by bour force participation, among others. with female literacy rates lagging fairly ing that the largest gender disparity vation for women in the Parliament and
The virtual absence of an alternative behind their male counterparts. observed globally exists in terms of po- Legislative Assemblies would be a good
constitutional bodies and individuals, the apex court has right- perspective creates serious gaps in gen- Inadequate infrastructure like safe litical empowerment of women at 77.1 start. But, as a long-term sustainable so-
ly decided to take a hand. It is time to review and reform the der equitable economic planning. No transportation, child care facilities, per cent followed by their economic par- lution, there is a need for women to free
electoral bond system itself. wonder that in the period between 1952 safety concerns and other gender-specif- ticipation and opportunity gap which themselves of shackles of gender ine-
to date, only eight ordinary bills relating ic constraints are also responsible for stands at 41.9 per cent. quality and thereby create an environ-
to women have been enacted — a paltry low female labour force participation - The same report places India at rank ment to assume a greater role in the

Too little, too late

0.0096 per cent of the total 828 Acts
passed since then.
Most of these Acts passed are more
against historical social malpractices
The British regret over Jallianwala is politically correct like Commission of Sati, 1988, Dowry
which has declined from a paltry 26.8 per
cent down to 24.4 per cent in the previ-
ous decade, as per the World Bank.
This shows how gender inequality
translates into economic inequality.
123 of 149 countries in terms of share of nation’s economic and political
women in the Parliament. Therefore, the development.
correlation between low degree of eco- Author is with the Economic Advisory
nomic participation and the conse- Council to the Prime Minister.
quently low political representation Views expressed are personal

W
hen Colonel Reginald Dyer ordered a Gurkha contingent of
the British Indian Army to fire on an unarmed assembly
demanding independence on Baisakhi day in Amritsar’s
QUOTE HANGER slowburn
Jallianwala Bagh exactly 100 years ago, little could he have im-
agined that the storm he created would refuse to die down. A Neil deGrasse Tyson Raveena Tandon Monkeys with human brain genes a reality
century later, the British Prime Minister — who already has her @neiltyson @TandonRaveena
C
hinese scientists have implanted hu- man primates (excluding ape species)
hands full with contemporary issues such as the Brexit — has
We’ve produced the first- Left and right.Whom will man brain genes into monkeys, in a have the potential to provide important
now said in the Parliament that the massacre was a ‘shameful study intended to provide insights — and potentially unique — insights
scar’ in British Indian history. Nonetheless, she stopped short ever image of a supermassive Black you vote for ? Like i said,love the into the unique evolution of human in- into basic questions of what actually
of a formal apology as was sought by a cross-section of Parlia- Hole, 55-million light years away... election drama. Vote for the telligence. Researchers inserted human makes human unique,” the authors
versions of MCPH1, a gene that scien- wrote.
ment in previous debates. In a statement, marking the 100th humans catastrophically warming Earth candidates who YOU think,in tists believe plays a role in the develop-
anniversary of the massacre, which claimed 379 lives, she reiter- reality,done work. ment of the human brain, into 11 rhesus
ated the ‘regret’ already expressed by the British government.
It is also noteworthy to remember that Queen Elizabeth II, dur- Gautam Gambhir monkeys. They found the monkeys’
brains — like those of humans — took
French doc loses appeal
ing the course of her visit to Jallianwala Bagh in 1997, had said @GautamGambhir
Today I challenge our longer to develop, and the animals per- of ouster over euthanasia
that the incident “was a distressing example of our past history @MehboobaMufti, happy formed better in tests of short-term
top retail competitors to
T
with India”. Nonetheless, it does credit to the British for drawing memory as well as reaction time com- he European Court of Human Rights
to be blocked by a callous individual. pared to wild monkeys. has said that it had rejected an appeal
a line under an unsavoury chapter of the British-Indian history.
The Conservative MP who tabled the debate, opened proceedings At the time of writing this tweet there match our employee benefits However, the monkeys did not grow by a French doctor to be reinstated
bigger brains than the control group. The after he was barred from practising for
with a strong sentiment of ‘shame’ as he called on the British are 1,365,386,456 Indians. How will and our $15 minimum wage. test, the latest in a series of biomedical killing terminally-ill patients, a crime
government to apologise. “General Dyer was vigorously defend- you block them? Do it! Better yet, go experiments in China to have fuelled for which he was convicted in 2015. An
ed by — I say this with shame — the Conservative party, as well medical ethics debates, has already appeals court had handed Nicolas
as most of the military establishment.” So while the British to $16 and throw drawn ethical concerns, and comparisons Bonnemaison a suspended two-year sen-
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw with dystopian sci-fi Planet of the Apes. tence for deliberately poisoning an
government may not have apologised formally, a significant sec-
@kiranshaw the gauntlet back It was conducted by researchers at 86-year-old woman shortly after she was
tion of the British establishment has expressed its regrets. It
goes to the credit of India’s former colonial rulers to recall and Kudos to this man from at us the Kunming Institute of Zoology and
the Chinese Academy of Sciences, work-
admitted to a hospital in Bayonne,
where he worked. He was also suspected
regret an incident, about which memory in the country of its #Kerala who has used recyclable — Jeff Bezos, ing with US researchers at the Univer- of poisoning six other patients at the
occurrence is relatively rare. While some have described the waste, bottles, scrap metal, jute sacks Amazon, sity of North Carolina. “Our findings hospital in 2010 and 2011, but was acquit-
British action as “too little, too late”, the fact is that it is a guar- CEO demonstrated that transgenic nonhu- ted in those cases.
antee of sound Indo-UK bilateral political and economic ties. to build sustainable homes
send your feedback to editor@dnaindia.net

There is no anti-incumbency or grand alliance in Bengal

Electoral out- is a steadily shrinking political entity. ble entrepreneurial investments. have withheld censuring the ruling
comes in West Naturally, the TMC is not too concerned Perennial inter-party factional wran- TMC. Surely he knows that the TMC is
Bengal reveal that about anti-incumbency. gling, its attendant violence and inter- much more opposed to the BJP than it
anti-incumbency However, there is latent political op- mittent charges of corruption against is to the Congress.
is not a very big position to the TMC. The Congress, BJP, TMC leaders are negative attributes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP
factor. Unless a and CPI(M) would try to make a dent in However, the penchant for political president Amit Shah, and other party
major threshold TMC’s political vote base, but to the high-handedness among some of them, leaders have also attacked the TMC.
of unacceptability TMC’s satisfaction, there are no politi- often visible during the party’s first They are keen to highlight security
has been crossed cal alliances among any of the three stint, looks like having decelerated for issues like infiltration and the necessity
Ranajoy Sen and a viable politi- parties regarding seat-sharing. Talks of the moment. for a stable, coherent government at the
cal alternative ex- a possible alliance between the CPI(M) A fortnight ago, Rahul Gandhi cam- Centre. But Banerjee and other TMC
ists, a substantial section of the elector- and the Congress fell apart amid mutu- paigned at Chanchal in Malda district. leaders are ready with their repartees.
ate continues to support the dominant al discord. He ranted against the TMC. Whether he Any notable trend regarding the out-
political party. However the BJP, notwithstanding realises it or not, it would not be of come of the Lok Sabha elections is still
At present, the ruling Trinamool its negligible presence, could be a cause heritage, rejected charges of appease- cessfully initiated “Kanyashree”, which much help to Congress Party’s Bengal elusive, but most appraisals indicate
Congress (TMC) occupies that exalted of some worry for the TMC. With its ment, articulated at length the inviola- empowers the girl child through educa- unit. that the TMC has a relative political
position. pan-India presence and strong commit- bility of the rule of law, accorded high tion; for it, Banerjee’s government has There is grim irony in Gandhi’s criti- edge in its bastion.
Political temperatures have risen ment of its members, the BJP could priority to national security and taken also won a UN award. cism of the ruling TMC in West Bengal. If it manages to win a substantial
across the country and in West Bengal, throw a spanner in the TMC’s works. the narrative of holistic development to Farmers have been provided a meas- Apart from Amethi, Gandhi is also con- proportion of the state’s 42 parliamen-
the stakes could be among the highest. West Bengal Chief Minister and the heart of public discourse. ure of financial security in the event of testing from Wayanad in Kerala. That tary seats, its role could be crucial in
The BJP is striving for greater political TMC supreme leader Mamata Baner- To the TMC’s credit, it has presided flagging retail prices of agricultural state’s ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democrat- supporting a coalition government.
penetration of the state, even though its jee’s alleged appeasement of Muslims over improved conditions in rural Ben- products. The state’s food security sys- ic Front has interpreted it as a chal- Conversely, it could constructively
prevailing political heft in the state is is a major political issue for her oppo- gal. It has also helped provide better in- tem has been revamped. lenge to its candidate by Gandhi. In re- oppose another BJP-led NDA
negligible. nents, particularly the BJP. frastructural facilities: roads, electrici- Small-scale and medium scale enter- sponse, he has said that he would re- government.
The Congress Party, meanwhile, is in In a bid to introduce correctives, Ba- ty and drinking water to the villages. prises have been encouraged. Banerjee frain from politically attacking the LDF. Author is a columnist who specializes
an emaciated position. The Communist nerjee has spoken of her identification Plus, there have been social sector re- has repeatedly expressed her govern- If Gandhi can refrain from criticis- in South Asian politics, international
Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front with the best of Bengal’s culture and forms. The state government has suc- ment’s support for organised, accounta- ing the LDF in Kerala, then he could affairs and economics

Vol 12 n Issue No. 157 RNI: GUJENG/2007/22424. Printed and Published by Prashant Saxena on behalf of Diligent Media Corporation ltd. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Press, Survey No.148 P, Nagdevta Mandir, Changodar, Bavla Highway, Sanand, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Published at Diligent Media Corporation
Limited, Venus Atlantis Building, Unit No. 201 to 208, 2nd Floor, 100 Feet Road, Prahladnagar, Satellite, Ahmedabad 380015. Phone: 079 4060 2000. Editor: Deepak Lokhande Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act.
 w rld
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
in brief
Tiny sweat bees seen in the
patient’s eye —AFP
Four live bees
removed from
woman’s eye
Seoul: Four “sweat
bees” that had been liv-
ing in a Taiwanese wom-
an’s eye were removed
by a doctor who de-
scribed his surprise at
finding a “leg with hair,
protruding from the eye-
lid”. The tiny insects,
which are just three mil-
imetres (one-tenth of an
inch) long, were discov-
ered after the woman --
known only as Ms Ho --
sought treatment for an
itchy and swollen left
eye, Dr Horng Chi-ting
said. “I think the Halicti-
dae mistook the eyelid
for an armpit,” he said,
using another name for
“sweat bees” that are at-
tracted to sweat, adding
it could be the first case
of its kind worldwide.
N Korea urges
‘telling blow’
against sanctions
Seoul: North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un has
struck a defiant note
over his failed summit
with US President Don-
ald Trump in Hanoi and
insisted Pyongyang
would overcome the ef-
fect of sanctions, state
media reported Thurs-
day. The remarks were
Kim’s first official com-
ment on the North’s po-
sition since talks on de-
nuclearisation with
Washington broke down
in Vietnam in February,
in part over Pyongyang’s
demands for immediate
sanctions relief. Trump
was set to host South Ko-
rean President Moon
Jae-in at the White
House later on Thurs-
day, seeking to rekindle
dialogue with the North.
Russian MPs okay controversial
bill restricting internet traffic
Moscow: Russian lawmakers
on Thursday approved a bill
that would allow Moscow to cut
the country’s internet traffic
from foreign servers, in a key
second reading paving the way
for legislation that activists
fear is a step towards online
isolation.
Critics call the bill a form of
“digital slavery,” that threat-
ens censorship and possibly a
sealed network similar to that
in North Korea.
It is set to take effect on No-
vember 1 once it formally be-
comes law.
The proposed measures
would create technology to
monitor internet routing and
steer Russian internet traffic
away from foreign servers, os-
tensibly to prevent a foreign
country from shutting it down.
Lawmakers in the State
Duma, parliament’s lower
house, voted 320 to 15 to pass
the bill.
Authors of the initiative say
Russia must ensure the secu-
S Korean court orders
easing of abortion ban
Seoul: In a major reversal,
South Korea’s Constitutional
Court on Thursday ordered the
easing of the country’s dec-
ades-old ban on most abor-
tions, one of the strictest in the
developed world.
Abortions have been largely
illegal in South Korea since
1953, though convictions for
violating the restrictions are
rare. Still, the illegality of
abortions forces women to
seek out unauthorised and of-
ten expensive procedures to
end their pregnancies, creat-
ing a social stigma that makes
them feel like criminals.
The court’s nine-justice
panel said that the parliament
must map out legislation to
ease the current regulations by
the end of 2020. It said the cur-
rent abortion law was incom-
patible with the constitution
and would be repealed if par-
liament fails to come up with
new legislation by then. The
ruling is final and cannot be
appealed, court officials said,
but current regulations will
remain in effect until they are
May defends Brexit
delay, told to resign
UK PM seeks agreement with Labour as European
Union gives her a Halloween deadline of October 31
London: British Prime Minis-
ter Theresa May defended her
decision to delay Brexit and
seek a compromise exit plan
with the opposition Labour
Party as one angry lawmaker
from her own party stood up in
parliament on Thursday and
asked her to resign.
The European Union has
agreed to delay Brexit by up to
six months to October 31 while
May seeks an agreement with
Labour that she hopes will help
get her three-times rejected
exit deal approved by parlia-
ment.
“This is not the normal way
of British politics ... Reaching
an agreement will not be easy,
because to be successful it will
require both sides to make
compromises,” May told par-
liament. May agreed the delay
in the early hours of the morn-
ing at an EU summit in Brus-
sels, ending the risk that Brit-
ain would leave the bloc with-
out a deal on Friday but provid-
ing little new information on
how she will resolve the coun-
try’s biggest political crisis in
more than 70 years.
Sterling traders were left
scratching their heads about
whether the British currency
should rise or fall.
But her statement on the
decision to delay Britain’s EU
exit for a second time brought
angry reaction from hardlin-
ers who want to leave the EU as
soon as possible.
Arch eurosceptic Bill Cash
described it as “abject surren-
der”. “Does she also accept
that the Withdrawal Agree-
ment undermines our democ-
racy, the constitutional basis
of Northern Ireland, our right
to govern ourselves, control
over our laws and undermines
our national interest? Will she
resign?” he said.
May retorted: “I think you
know the answer to that.”
A man walks past a poster at an Internet devices shop in St Petersburg,
Russia on Thursday —AP
rity of its networks after US
President Donald Trump un-
veiled a new American cyber-
security strategy last year that
said Russia had carried out
cyber attacks with impunity.
The legislation has been
dubbed the “sovereign inter-
net” bill by Russian media.
Critics say implementing
the measures would be expen-
South Korean women’s rights
activists during a rally against the
abortion ban outside the court in
Seoul on Thursday —AFP
replaced or repealed.
An easing of the law could
open up the door to more abor-
tions for social and economic
reasons. Current exceptions to
the law only allow abortions
when a woman is pregnant
through rape or incest, when a
pregnancy seriously jeopard-
izes her health, or when she or
her male partner has certain
diseases. A woman in South
Korea can be punished with up
to one year in prison for having
an illegal abortion, and a doc-
tor can get up to two years in
prison for performing an unau-
thorised abortion. —AP
PM Theresa May updates MPs on Brexit following her attendance at the EU
Summit, in the House of Commons in London on Thursday —AFP
Macron plays hard ball at EU debate
Brussels: French President
Emmanuel Macron’s drive
for a swift end to EU’s long-
running, slow-moving Brex-
it crisis divided a summit
that finally granted Britain
another delay in leaving the
bloc. Over a dinner of scal-
lops and cod, 27 European
leaders wrangled between a
long-game strategy and Ma-
cron’s desire to put pressure
on PM Theresa May by keep-
ing any delay short.
Macron was happy to play
hard ball to ensure that Brit-
ain doesn’t disrupt the EU
on its way out the door. Some
pro-Brexit lawmakers in
Britain have suggested they
could make trouble for the
bloc if they stay. “The key for
us is to remain grouped to-
May said nothing was more
pressing or vital than deliver-
ing Brexit, and emphasised
that she wanted Britain to rat-
ify an exit deal as quickly as
possible to avoid taking part in
European Parliament elec-
tions on May 23.
sive and give vast censorship
powers to the government’s
new traffic monitoring centre.
Thousands of people rallied
last month against this and
other bills that critics say aim
at restricting information and
communication online.
Last month President
Vladimir Putin signed contro-
versial laws that allow courts
gether,” Macron said. “We
have a European renais-
sance to lead. We don’t want
the Brexit problem to block
us on this point.”
As Wednesday night
ebbed into the wee hours of
Thursday, Macron stood his
ground, insisting on a short-
er delay than Tusk and most
other EU nations wanted. .
“We had a very intensive
debate,” was how German
Chancellor Angela Merkel
characterized the summit.
Hanging tough in Brus-
sels could also pay domestic
political dividends for Ma-
cron, projecting strength at
a time when he is weakened
by yellow vest protesters at
home.
 —AP
Opposition Labour Party
leader Jeremy Corbyn, with
whom May is trying to negoti-
ate a compromise on the shape
of Britain’s long-term relation-
ship with the EU, was critical
of the need for further delay.
—Reuters
no discussion
„„Internet activist Artyom
Kozlyuk, who coordinates
the Roscomsvoboda anti-
censorship organisation,
said the bill had been
sailing through parliament
“very quickly” despite pleas
from the public and the
communications industry
to pause and have a
proper discussion
„„While it would be
technically difficult to
completely cut off Russia
from the world wide web,
if the bill passes, “it will
create serious economic
risks for the industry and
for the country,” Kozlyuk
said
to fine and briefly jail people
for showing disrespect towards
authorities, and block media
for publishing “fake news”.
—AFP
07
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019 I daily news & analysis
Ex-pope blames sex abuse on sexual revolution
Vatican City: Pope emeritus Some theologians were
Benedict XVI on Thursday
‘absence of god’ quick to criticise Benedict’s
blamed the Catholic clerical The 91-year-old said analysis of the causes of
sex abuse scandals on the paedophilia “reached such clerical paedophilia.
1960s sexual revolution and a proportions” because of “It does not address struc-
collapse in faith in the West. the “absence of God”. tural issues that abetted abuse
The ex-pope, who retired cover-up, or Benedict’s own
Some theologians
in 2013, said responsibility criticised Benedict XVI’s contested 24-year role as head
for the crises rocking the Ro-
man Catholic Church glob-
analysis of the causes of
clerical paedophilia
of the Vatican’s powerful doc-
trinal office,” Vatican expert
ally from Australia to Europe Pope Benedict XVI —Reuters Joshua McElwee wrote in the
lay with the fight for an “all-
out sexual freedom, one in a 6,000-word essay for tion of priests in those years
National Catholic Reporter.
The German ex-pope said
which no longer admitted Klerusblatt, a German and the very high number of the sexual revolution also led
any norms”. monthly magazine for clergy. laicisations” or priests leav- to the “establishment” in
“Part of the physiognomy Benedict, who was the ing the Church. various seminaries of “ho-
of the Revolution of ‘68 was first pontiff to resign in al- The 91-year-old said pae- mosexual cliques... which
that paedophilia was then most 600 years, said the di- dophilia “reached such pro- acted more or less openly and
also diagnosed as allowed rect consequence was the portions” because of the “ab- significantly changed the cli-
and appropriate,” he wrote “collapse of the next genera- sence of God”. mate”. —AFP
Sudan army topples
veteran leader Bashir
Khartoum: Sudan’s army
ousted veteran president
Omar al-Bashir Thursday, but
protestors against his iron-
fisted rule swiftly rejected a
“coup” by the military and
vowed to keep up their demon-
strations.
In a sombre televised ad-
dress, Defence Minister Awad
Ibnouf announced “the top-
pling of the regime” and said
Bashir had been detained in Omar al-Bashir —AFP
“a secure place”, bringing an
end to his three-decade rule. back the same faces and the
A transitional military same institutions which our
council will replace the presi- people rose against.”—AFP
dent for two years, he said,
adding that the country’s bor-
ders and airspace would be
shut until further notice.
But in a warning to pro-
testors, he also imposed a
night-time curfew from 10
pm to 4 am.
Bashir, who swept to power
in a 1989 coup, was one of Af-
rica’s longest-serving presi-
dents. He is wanted by the In-
ternational Criminal Court
on charges of genocide and
war crimes.
But organisers of the pro-
tests, which first erupted in
December, rejected the army’s
move and vowed to keep up
their campaign until the whole
regime was swept aside.
“The people do not want a
transitional military coun-
cil,” said Alaa Salah, who be-
came an icon of the protest
movement after a video of her
leading demonstrators’
chants outside army head-
quarters went viral.
“Change will not happen
with Bashir’s entire regime
hoodwinking Sudanese civil-
ians through a military coup,”
she tweeted.
“We want a civilian council
to head the transition.”
The protestors’ Alliance
for Freedom and Change said
the regime had “conducted a
military coup by bringing
tenders &
Notices
12
Friday
April
2019
ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
Sensex
38607.01 21.66 p
Gold 10 gram 31762.00
US $ 68.93 0.19 q
news in numbers
moneyedit
Govt action is
key to telecom
PSUs’ survival
O
nce the jewels of India’s
telecom story, state-run
telecom firms BSNL
and MTNL are struggling
to meet their day-to-day
expenses, including the
main cost of their employ-
ees, which run into huge
numbers compared to
their private sector peers.
Their woes mainly stem
from the fact that they were
unable to shed the employ-
ee flab, despite rapid chang-
es in technologies. Lack of
network expansion also
needs to be blamed.
The problems have not
occurred overnight. The
government was well
aware of the difficulties.
The proposal for volun-
tary retirement scheme
(VRS) and a possible
merger between the two
has been hanging fire for
the last seven-eight years.
A VRS scheme – around
Rs 8,000 crore for both --
will be critical to the func-
tioning of both as employ-
ee expenditure stands at
around 99% of revenues
of MTNL and 50-55% of
revenues of BSNL.
The PSUs also lag their
peers in 4G services, de-
spite mobile users latch-
ing on to the new technol-
ogy rapidly. Both the
firms do not have any 4G
spectrum and are await-
ing government nod for
allotment via an equity
infusion. This would
mean another Rs 12,000-
13,000 crore infusion of
funds for both firms
through bonds.
Unless immediate cor-
rective steps are taken,
the survival of both PSUs
is a big question mark.
ST smart
BBB for more
autonomy to PSBs
The Banks Board Bu-
reau (BBB), the apex
body for selection of
whole-time directors of
state-owned lenders, has
made a case for giving
complete autonomy to
banks to decide organi-
sational structure for
better efficiency. The
BBB headed by former
DoPT secretary B P
Sharma also suggested
revamping credit gov-
ernance architecture in
nationalised banks to re-
inforce efforts to mini-
mise credit costs and en-
hance the efficiency of
credit allocation. In its
activity report for Octo-
ber 2018 to March 2019,
the Board also recom-
mended incentivisation
scheme linked to perfor-
mance.
India drives silver
consumption
The world consumed
1,033.5 million ounces in
2018, up from 998.4 mil-
lion ounces in 2017, ac-
cording to the Silver In-
stitute’s World Silver
Survey 2019, prepared by
GFMS analysts at Refini-
tiv. Driving the increase
was India, where high
gold prices spurred
many consumers and in-
vestors to switch to
cheaper silver, analyst
Johann Wiebe said. In-
dia’s consumption of sil-
ver jewellery jumped
16% to 76.5 million ounc-
es in 2018, which along
with a rise in the United
States helped to push up
overall jewellery de-
mand by 4% to 212.5 mil-
lion ounces. Purchases
of silver investment bars
in India, meanwhile,
surged by 160% to 69.4
million ounces, lifting
global bar and coin in-
vestment by 20% to 181.2
million ounces, Wiebe
said.
Nifty
11596.70 12.40 p
136.00 q
EURO 77.65 0.28 q
$4.38 billion - India’s sugar mills owe to 50 million cane farmers, said a Reuters report
Cancels int’l flights, grounds 10 planes; Goyal pledges 26% stake, may participate in bidding
Jet Air fast running out of fuel
Shahkar Abidi
a_shahakar@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: With no clarity on
interim fund infusion by the
lenders, Jet Airways is now
left with just 15 aircraft in its
fleet. Ten more plane were
grounded on Thursday due
to non-payment of dues to
lessors.
And with the airline not
even having enough funds to
refuel its planes, staying
afloat will become more chal-
lenging for the airline, which
until December had 119 air-
craft in its fleet, said a
source.
In the past eight days, In-
dian Oil Corporation (IOC),
the supplier of jet fuel to the
carrier, has thrice discontin-
ued the supply.
These developments have
led sector regulator Directo-
rate General of Civil Avia-
tion (DGCA) to seek a report
from Jet Airways’s manage-
ment. As per the Indian avia-
tion rules, an airline can fly
internationally only if it has
over 20 aircraft in its fleet.
According to civil avia-
tion secretary Pradeep Singh
Kharola, the government
will review Jet’s eligibility
for international operations.
Jet has suspended its in-
ternational operations until
Friday morning or further
Singh bros diverted
funds, says Daiichi
New Delhi: Japanese firm
Daiichi Sankyo told the Su-
preme Court Thursday that
former Ranbaxy promot-
ers, Malvinder and Shivin-
der Singh who owe it Rs
4,000 crore, have diverted
funds despite several or-
ders asking them to main-
tain their stakes in Fortis
Healthcare Ltd.
A bench comprising
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi
and Justices Deepak Gupta
and Sanjiv Khanna reserved
order on Daiichi’s contempt
plea against the former Ran-
baxy promoters and others.
Senior advocate F S Nari-
man, appearing for Daiichi,
alleged that the Singh broth-
ers diverted funds despite
several orders by the Su-
preme Court to maintain
their stake in Fortis Health-
care Ltd.
He said that they reduced
their stakes in Fortis Health-
care Holding from more
than 40% on August 11,
2017 to less than 1%
now.
The apex court
had earlier ex-
pressed displeas-
ure at the replies
of Malvinder and
Shivinder to its di-
rective to submit a
plan for paying Rs
4,000 crore
to Dai-
Malvinder Singh
Ad convention
Mindshare tops Media Abby on Day 1 of Goafest
Pradyuman Maheshwari
Goa: Leading agency Mind-
share of the GroupM net-
work bagged the Media
Agency of the Year title on
Day 1 of Goafest 2019. Mind-
share bagged four golds of
the 19 golds presented. There
were a total of 62 metals
awarded this year as against
38 presented last year.
Madison Media was
ranked second, followed
by IPG Mediabrand agen-
cies Initiative Media and
Lodestar UM at No.3 and
No.4 respectively. Carat, a
division of Dentsu Agency
Network, was placed fifth.
Also presented on the first
day of the three-day an-
nual celebration of adver-
tising and media was the
Publisher Abby. The first
Silver kg 37235.00 400.00 q
British pound 90.16 0.30 q
15
Aircraft left in Jet’s fleet
20
Planes a
carrier needs to have
to fly internationally, as
per Indian aviation rules
119
Jet’s fleet until December
notice. It also services to and
from the East and Northeast
regions.
Meanwhile, the lenders
led by State Bank of India
held a meeting on Thursday
to discuss the issues regard-
ing the infusion of emergen-
cy funding to the airline.
The airline’s founder Nar-
Contempt plea
„„SC reserved order on
Daiichi’s contempt plea
against former Ranbaxy
promoters and others
„„It had expressed
displeasure at the replies
of the borthers to its
directive to submit a plan
for paying Daiichi
ichi Sankyo, as awarded by
a Singapore tribunal.
It had threatened to send
them to jail if found that
they have violated the apex
court’s order.
On March 14, the Su-
preme Court asked them to
submit a concrete plan for
paying Rs 4,000 crore to Dai-
ichi Sankyo as directed by a
Singapore tribunal and had
asked them to consult their
accountants as also financial
and legal advisors and
apprise it by today.
The bench con-
sidered the sub-
missions of the
lawyers repre-
senting Malvin-
der and Shivin-
der on their
plans to give
money for honour-
ing the arbitral
a w a r d .
—PTI
Agency bags four of the 19 golds presented. A total of 62 metals were awarded this year
half of the day began with
singer Shaan performing
live and reminiscing some
of his advertising jingle
days. This was followed by
an industry conclave and
later the Abby awards
presentation.
Speaking about Goafest
2019, Ashish Bhasin, presi-
dent of Advertising Agen-
cies Association of India
(AAAI) said, “Over the last
few years, we have seen the
growth in participation
with lines blurring be-
tween the media and crea-
tive disciplines. At Goafest
2019, on the back of an ex-
clusive list of speakers and
artists, we have seen a sus-
tained registration of
about 2000 delegates, while
Abby Awards have seen
2700 entries this year.”
FTSE 100
7421.91 3.66 q
Brent Crude
Up to
75%
Stake the
lenders are
offering in Jet
April 12 April 30
The deadline
to submit EoIs
Deadline for submitting
binding bids
esh Goyal, pledged 26% of
his stake as security to Pun-
jab National Bank, accord-
ing to a regulatory filing.
The pledge was created on
April 4 as “security for exist-
ing/new borrowings taken
by Jet Airways.”
On Wednesday, the bank-
ers for the third time extend-
Essel Group
says focused
on repayment
resolution
DNA Money Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Multifaceted busi-
ness conglomerate Essel
Group on Thursday said it is
focused towards saving the
loss of public money and ar-
riving at the repayment reso-
lution for each and every
lender.
Essel Group wishes to fur-
ther highlight the point that
Kotak Mahindra AMC is also
a part of the consortium of
lenders with whom an ar-
rangement has been
achieved, it said in a state-
ment. As per the arrange-
ment with the lenders, a
resolution for the repayment
will be achieved by Septem-
ber 2019, it said. Essel Group
is confident to complete the
repayment towards each and
every lender, it said.
The group also said it can-
not comment on the arrange-
ment between Kotak Mahin-
dra AMC and its investors.
“As a responsible con-
glomerate, with a legacy of
over 90 years, Essel Group
remains committed to
achieve the resolution by the
mentioned timeline, with a
sole objective of saving the
loss of public money and the
repayment of each and every
lender,” it said.
Industry mavens at the first day of the annual advertising fest
Media Abby 2019
Rank Agency Gold Silver Bronze Total metals Total points
1 Mindshare 4 6 4 14 84
2 Madison Media 3 1 7 11 58
3 Initiative Media 2 1 4 7 38
4 Lodestar UM 2 1 2 5 30
5 Carat 1 2 0 3 20
Nikkei 225
21711.38 23.81 p
$/barrel 71.23 0.68 p
UAE dirham 18.79 0.05 q
ed the timeline to submit the
Expression of Interest (EoIs)
to April 12 to give more play-
ers adequate time to partici-
pate.
Air Canada, AirAsia, Eti-
had Airways and Vistara
have made enquiries on the
bidding process for taking
over up to 75% stake in the
airline. Some of the inves-
tors want to come as a con-
sortium to share the cost of
taking over Jet.
Bank credit grows 13.24% in 2018-19
Mumbai: Banks closed fis-
cal 2019 with robust disbur-
sals that rose in double-dig-
its for the second year in a
row, after the sub-5% in fis-
cal 2017, which was the low-
est in five decades.
According to the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) data re-
leased Thursday, bank credit
rose 13.24% to Rs 97.67 lakh
crore for the fortnight to
March 29, while deposits grew
by 10.03% to Rs 125.72 lakh
crore during the same period.
This is the second con-
secutive double-digit credit
growth after the same had
declined to 4.54% in fiscal
2017 at Rs 78.41 lakh crore,
which was the lowest since
Nine states to raise `9,800 cr
Mumbai: Nine state govern-
ments, including Maharash-
tra, Rajasthan and Tamil
Nadu, will raise Rs 9,800
crore by selling securities on
April 15, the Reserve Bank
said Thursday.
The auction will be con-
ducted on the Reserve Bank
of India Core Banking Solu-
tion (E-Kuber) system, it
added. “...State Governments
have offered to sell securities
by way of auction for an aggre-
gate amount of Rs 9,800 crore
(Face Value),” the central bank
said in a notification.
Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan,
and Maharashtra would auc-
Naresh Goyal
Sources said that even
Goyal is expected to make
bidding on Friday. The bind-
ing bids have to be submitted
by April 30, 2019.
The resolution plan to res-
cue the airline could not be
signed after the Supreme
Court struck down the Feb-
ruary 12 circular of Reserve
Bank of India (RBI). Bankers
have planned the conversion
of debt into equity at Re 1, as
prescribed in this circular.
Bank credit growth
YoY in %
15.5
14.3
13.1
13.24
11.9
10.40
10.7
9.5
Jan 5, 18 Mar 29, 19
1963.
In the year-ago fortnight,
deposits were at Rs 114.26
lakh crore and advances at
Rs 86.25 lakh crore, accord-
ing to the RBI data.
tion securities worth Rs 2,000
crore each, followed by Tel-
angana (Rs 1,500 crore) and
Gujarat (Rs 1,000 crore).
Punjab would be selling
securities of Rs 600 crore and
Kerala Rs 500 crore. Goa and
Shashi Sinha, Chair of
the Awards Governing
Council, on participation in
this year’s Abby awards,
said, “Abby Awards contin-
ues to be the gold standard
in creative and media
awards. In today’s scenario,
creativity is no longer lim-
ited to creative agencies
only. We are also increas-
ingly seeing it coming from
other industries such as
digital, PR, analytics, etc.
This trend is evident in the
diversity of participants
and winners witnessed in
the Abby Awards.”
Nakul Chopra, chairman
- Goafest 2019, said, “Democ-
ratisation is a trend sweep-
ing through the industry
and we are proud of Goafest
2019 being an integral part
of this change. It has been
RVNL third PSU
to flop on bourses
Sumit Moitra
m_sumit@dnaindia.net
Kolkata: Railway Vikas
Nigam Ltd (RVNL) on Thurs-
day became the third public
sector company seeing a
tepid market listing since
October. MSTC and Garden
Reach Shipbuilders failed to
make a stellar impact on the
bourses and are trading be-
low their issue prices.
RVNL listed at Rs 19, the
upper end of the price band,
on Thursday and remained
there the whole day.
Garden Reach Shipbuild-
ers, which makes defence
ships and vessels, got listed
at 12% discount in October at
Rs 104. Six months later, it
trades at Rs 99.
MSTC, which auctions all
sorts of things for the govern-
ment, including coal blocks
and PSU lands, got listed on
March 29 at Rs 111, a 7.5% to
its issue price of Rs 120. It
rules at the same price after
13 days.
For both MSTC and Gar-
den Reach, subscription pe-
riods had to be extended for
getting fully subscribed.
Investors shouldn’t expect
much appreciation at the
time of listing and instead
look at the long-term for PSU
stocks, believes Jagannad-
ham Thunuguntla, head of
research (wealth) at Cen-
fortune Reversal
„„This is the
second consecutive
double-digit credit growth
after it declined to 4.54%
in fiscal 2017
„„Deposits grew by
10.03% to Rs 125.72
lakh crore during the
fortnight to March 29
In FY17, aggregate depos-
its in the banking system
grew a mere 6.7% in 2017-18,
while credit grew still lower
at 4.54%, the lowest since fis-
cal 1963.
Nagaland plan to raise Rs 100
crore each.
The Reserve Bank of In-
dia further said it will deter-
mine the maximum yield/
minimum price at which
bids will be accepted.
Securities will be issued
for a minimum nominal
amount of Rs 10,000 and mul-
tiples of Rs 10,000 thereafter.
The state government se-
curities will bear interest at
the rates determined by RBI
at the auctions. For the new
securities, interest will be
paid half yearly on October
16 and April 16 of each year
till maturity. —PTI
our endeavour to drive in-
clusivity, irrespective of
size and without the limita-
tion of cost and opportuni-
ty.” According to Vikram
Sakhuja, president, The Ad-
vertising Club, there has
been an attempt to rational-
ise categories and getting an
eminent jury. “This has led
to a higher participation
with around 15% more agen-
cies entering their work this
year,” he said.
Speaking about the Abby
Awards, veteran indus-
tryperson Ramesh Narayan
said, “The Abby Awards are
the Oscars of the Indian ad-
vertising industry. Saluting
creativity is really impor-
tant because that’s what de-
fines us as an industry.”
–By arrangement with
MxMIndia
Rail Vikas Nigam
Intra-day share price on BSE in `
p0.05 pts p0.26 % chg
19.80
Issue price 19.00
19.55
19.30
19.05
19.00 19.05
18.80
18.55
9:15 am Apr 11, 19 15:30 pm
Lacklustre show
„„RVNL listed at Rs
19, the upper end of the
price band, on Thursday
and remained there the
whole day
„„Garden Reach
Shipbuilders, which
makes defence ships
and vessels, got listed
at 12% discount in
October at Rs 104
trum Broking. “Recent IPOs
of public sector companies
are basically long-term sto-
ries and many of these com-
panies are reasonably valued
offering long-term opportu-
nities to investors. These
shouldn’t be seen from the
perspective of listing gains
alone,” Thunuguntla said.
Bank deposit growth fell
to a five-decade low in the
year to March 2017 as demon-
etisation bonanza withered.
It can be noted that during
November-December 2016,
banks received Rs a whop-
ping 15.28 lakh crore as peo-
ple deposited high denomina-
tion currency notes that were
withdrawn from circulation
on November 8. As a result,
aggregate deposits in the fis-
cal ended March 2017 grew
15.8% to Rs 108 lakh crore.
In the previous fortnight
to March 15, 2019 credit de-
mand had grown by 14.46%
to Rs 95.53 lakh crore while
deposits increased by 10.03%
to Rs 122.26 lakh crore. —PTI
FM discusses
India economic
reforms with
investors in US
New York: Finance minis-
ter Arun Jaitley has dis-
cussed India’s economic re-
forms and outlook for the
future as he addressed inves-
tors here.
India’s Consulate General
in New York tweeted Wednes-
day that since his arrival in
the city, Jaitley “held a series
of roundtables with the in-
vestors community of New
York on India’s economic re-
forms and vision for the fu-
ture. Investors are bullish on
India. Jaitley is visiting the
US to attend the IMF-World
Bank meeting in Washington
from April 12 to 14.
Jaitley addressed an in-
teractive session jointly or-
ganized by industry cham-
ber FICCI, the Indian Consu-
late in New York and the
US-India Strategic Partner-
ship Forum.
“When we do reforms,
we have to make sure that
benefit reaches last man in
the queue,” a tweet by FIC-
CI said, citing the finance
minister as saying at the
interactive session, attend-
ed by MasterCard CEO
Ajay Banga among other
top business executives and
investors.
Another tweet by Ficci
said that Jaitley told the in-
teractive session that get-
ting bank accounts for all,
providing 99% of popula-
tion with access to toilets,
modern approach of cook-
ing, rural road connectivity,
house for all were part of
the efforts towards social
reforms. —PTI
 c mpanies
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
Tanla acquires
Karix Mobile for
Deal
Street `340 crore
Tanla Solutions Ltd completed the acquisition of
100% shareholding of Karix Mobile Pvt Ltd and its
wholly owned subsidiary Unicel Technologies Pvt Ltd
from Banyan Investments Ltd, a company owned by
funds affiliated with GSO Capital Partners, for ap-
proximately Rs 340 Crore. Post-acquisition, the share-
holdings (on a fully diluted basis) of Tanla would be;
Promoters: 31.2%, and GSO: 14.6%. Tanla announces
the appointment of Alex Howell (managing director
at GSO) as observer on Tanla’s Board.
L&T buys TIDCO
stake in arm
Infrastructure giant
Larsen & Toubro (L&T)
Thursday said it has
purchased Tamil Nadu
Industrial Development
Corporation Ltd’s
(TIDCO) 3% stake in its
subsidiary L&T
Shipbuilding Ltd for Rs
32.74 crore. “The
company has purchased
the entire stake held by
Tamil Nadu Industrial
Development
Corporation Ltd (TIDCO)
in L&T Shipbuilding Ltd
(LTSB), a subsidiary
company, on April 10,
2019. TIDCO held 3%
stake in LTSB,” L&T said
in a BSE filing.
In brief
BLUE STAR
Share price on BSE in `
776.70
683.05 695
Apr 2, 18 Apr 11, 19
Blue Star to
double capacity
Air-conditioning and
refrigeration major
Blue Star Thrusday said
with the commissioning
of its proposed plant in
Andhra its capacity will
doubel to 10 lakh units
per annum by 2022. The
company is building a
Rs 180-crore plant at Sri
City in Andhra, the
work on which will
begin in 2021 and will be
completed by 2022. The
Mumbai-based company
currently has an annual
capacity of 5 lakh units
at its Sirmaur,
Himachal plant. Blue
Star will be producing 5
lakh ACs per annum
from this new plant and
with that total capacity
will be enhanced to 10
lakh units.
Lupin gets nod for
testosterone gel
Drug firm Lupin
Thursday said it has
received nod from the
US health regulator to
market its testosterone
gel used for treating low
or no testosterone in
men due to certain
medical conditions. The
company has received
approval from the
United States Food and
Drug Administration
(USFDA) to market its
generic testosterone gel,
1.62 per cent (20.25
mg/1.25 g pump
actuation), Lupin said
in a statement. The
company’s product is a
generic version of
AbbVie Inc’s AndroGel
1.62 per cent, it added.
As per IQVIA MAT
December 2018 data,
AndroGel had annual
sales of around USD 893
million in the US
market, Lupin said.
IDBI Bank lowers
rates by 5 bps
Following its larger
rivals, LIC-owned IDBI
Bank has reduced its
lending rates by 5 basis
points for most of the
tenors, effective Friday.
The new one-year
marginal cost of funds-
based lending rate
(MCLR), to which most
of the loan pricing is
based on, has been
reduced to 9%, the bank
said in a statement
Thursday. The revised
six month and two-year
MCLR now stand at
8.60% and 9.25%,
respectively. The bank
has reduced its one-
month lending rate by
10 basis points to 8.15%.
On Tuesday, State Bank
had lowered its lending
rate by 5 basis points.
Tribeca ties up
for Noida project
Realty firm Tribeca has
tied up with Logix
group to develop a
mixed-use project in
Noida with an
investment of Rs 250
crore. The project,
located adjacent to
Logix City Centre
mall, will have a total
developable area of 5
lakh sq ft, including
2 lakh sq ft each for
retail and office
space. The remaining
one lakh sq ft will be
serviced apartments.
Anarock Capital was
the advisor to this
collaboration.
825
760
630
565
500
Luxury sports car maker Porsche’s 911 range of cars at their launch at Buddh International circuit in Greater
Noida on Thursday. The 911 Carrera S is priced at Rs 1.82 crore while 911 Carrera S Cabriolet is tagged at
Rs 1.99 crore
Cairn India CEO ‘Olive Crowns have come a long way’
Sudhir Mathur quits
New Delhi: Cairn India
chief executive Sudhir Ma-
thur has resigned from the
company, the fourth CEO to
quit the firm since it was
taken over by mining bil-
lionaire Anil Agarwal-led
Vedanta Group seven years
back.
Along with Mathur, Pan-
kaj Kalra, the chief finan-
cial officer of Cairn India,
which is now a part of Ve-
danta Ltd after its merger
with the parent, has also re-
signed, sources privy to the
development said.
Mathur resigned about a
month back and his resigna-
tion was made public only
last week, the sources said.
He is currently serving no-
tice period which is techni-
cally up to May-end, but may
leave the company by the
end of April.
Kalra quit a couple of
months back.
Prior to these resignations,
Suniti Bhat, director Oil &
Gas and Member Executive
Committee at the company,
comment Fifteen companies have raised more than $5.5 billion in IPOs on US exchanges in the past three weeks
2019 turning out to be the year of billior-dollar IPOs
Elizabeth Fournier
If you thought the past few
weeks were a busy time for
US initial public offerings,
just wait for the next wave of
listings. Since the federal
commission that oversees
IPOs reopened after the par-
tial U.S. government shut-
down stymied activity at the
start of the year, companies
have rushed to join the pub-
lic markets.
Fifteen companies raised
more than $5.5 billion in
IPOs on US exchanges in the
past three weeks, more than
three times the total raised
by 22 companies in the first
11 weeks of the year, accord-
ing to data compiled by
Bloomberg.
DoT seeks bank guarantee
from Airtel for TTSL merger
As per proposed deal, Airtel will absorb Tata Tele’s ops in 19 circles
New Delhi: The Department
of Telecom has given ap-
proval for the merger of Tata
Teleservices (TTSL) with
Bharti Airtel, subject to the
condition that the Sunil
Bharti Mittal-led firm fur-
nishes Rs 7,200 crore worth
bank guarantee, a govern-
ment official said.
On April 9, telecom minis-
ter Manoj Sinha gave a con-
ditional nod for the merger,
the official said.
Subsequent to the minis-
ter’s approval, the official
said that DoT has asked
Airtel to furnish bank
guarantee totalling Rs 7,200
crore.
“Both companies also
need to submit undertaking
on matter related to court
cases before merger is taken
on record,” the official said.
The merger will be taken
on record after Airtel sub-
mits bank guarantee of
about Rs 6,000 crore for one-
time spectrum charges and
another Rs 1,200 crore for the
riding 911
Sudhir Mathur
resigned about six months
back which was followed by
the firm’s chief internal audit
and risk assurance director
Arup Chakraborty quitting
the company.
A company spokesperson
confirming the resignations
said: “Such movements in
management are part of
natural evolution in any or-
ganization, and are in line
with career aspirations and
personal priorities of indi-
viduals.Mathur, 58, joined
Cairn India in January 2013
and was named interim CEO
when Mayank Ashar re-
signed as the CEO in May
2016. —PTI
That amount is likely to
be eclipsed several times
over in the next month as
high-profile tech startups in-
cluding Uber Technologies
Inc, Pinterest Inc and Zoom
Video Communications Inc
join the unicorns -- private
companies valued at more
7,200cr 6,000
talking
` `
Airtel told to furnish bank
point
guarantee
spectrum that would be ac-
quired from TTSL.
There is also a “very
small amount” of dues that
has to be cleared by TTSL
before consummation of the
deal, another official said.
As part of the proposed
agreement, Airtel will ab-
sorb Tata consumer mobile
business (CMB) operations
in 19 telecom circles (17 un-
der TTSL and 2 under Tata
Teleservices (Maharashtra)
Ltd ). It also agreed to take
over a small portion of the
unpaid spectrum liability of
Tata.
The merger will bolster
Airtel’s spectrum pool with
significant additional 178.5
MHz spectrum in 1800, 2100
and 850 MHz bands, all wide-
T
he ninth edition of the
prestigious IAA Olive
Crown Awards is all set
to be presented at a glit-
tering ceremony in
Mumbai next week.
Ramesh Narayan, vice-pres-
ident, International Advertis-
ing Association (IAA) Global
and the immediate past presi-
dent of the IAA India chapter,
in an interview with
DNA Money, shares
details about how the
award came about, it’s
objective and so on.
„„ Could you briefly
tell us about the
objective of the Ol-
ive Crown Awards?
Instituted nine years ago, the
Olive Crown Awards concep-
tualised by the IAA serves
twin objectives. Firstly, the
environmental concerns us
all and it’s a very urgent
thing that we seem to be ig-
noring. The second objective
is that the communications
industry would also be seen
in the right way as one that
actually cares. To have these
twin objectives met, the first
Asian awards that recognis-
es and celebrates excellence
than $1 billion -- dashing to
market.
Uber, which is seeking to
raise about $10 billion, could
publicly file its IPO docu-
ments as soon as Thursday,
people familiar with the mat-
ter have said. It’ll be the first
chance for detail-hungry po-
Airtel told to furnish for one-time
spectrum charges
ly used for 4G.
The proposed merger will
include transfer of all the
customers and assets of Tata
CMB to Airtel.
For the December 2018
quarter, Tata Teleservices
(Maharashtra) had reported
narrowing of losses to Rs
409.42 crore.
The company had posted
PSB share in MSME credit falls
Mumbai: Despite the many
a policy thrust on helping
small businesses like the
Mudra and 59 seconds loan
schemes, the share of the
state-run banks in loan dis-
bursals to the MSME seg-
ment has plunged to 39% in
December 2018 from a high
58% five years ago, says a re-
port.
According to a report by
the Small Industries Devel-
opment Bank of India (Sid-
bi), the government’s spe-
cialised vehicle to uplift the
sector, and credit informa-
tion company Transunion
Cibil, the plunge is due to the
asset quality woes plaguing
the state-run banks.
And the loss of the state-
run banks has been the gain
of private sector banks and
non-banking financiers,
which in the meanwhile,
in communicating sustaina-
bility was launched.
As time went by we tied
up with the Asian Federa-
tion of Advertising Associa-
tions (AFAA) and made this
as a pan Asian award. We
have a separate category for
international and India spe-
cific awards. Most of the
larger agencies have submit-
ted their entries this time
and a lot of good
work has gone into
it. The Olive Crowns
are also run as a
cause, so no entry fee
is charged and we never
haveaticketforthisevent
andit’sbyinvitationonly.
„„ How are the entries for
the award looking like
this year?
This year now, the jury found
that the quality of entries for
the award was definitely of a
higher standard. And it was
a very difficult decision
awarding the Olive Crowns
this year. Also, we were
heartened to see that the en-
tries for the Corporate Social
Crusader – it’s a separate
award – where companies
that have done significant
tential investors to look at
hundreds of pages of in-
depth information on the
ride-sharing giant’s business
plans. Add to that the $3 bil-
lion that other companies,
including Pinterest and
Zoom, are seeking to raise in
the next 30 days, and it’s
clear that the 2019 IPO tsu-
nami is on its way.
Levi Strauss & Co. started
the IPO flood in March with
its $623 million offering, fol-
lowed closely by Uber rival
Lyft Inc., which raised $2.34
billion. Bank-backed
Tradeweb Markets Inc
topped $1 billion in its IPO
on April 3, rounding out the
trio of the year’s biggest list-
ings worldwide -- so far -- as
well as in the US.
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019 I daily news & analysis
1,200cr
cr ` Depending on the vari-
Spectrum to be
acquired from TTSL
a Rs 480.75 crore loss after
tax in the October-December
2017 quarter, Tata Teleser-
vices (Maharashtra) said in
a BSE filing.
Revenue from operations
came in at Rs 305.43 crore for
the said quarter, which is
about 27 per cent lower than
Rs 418.38 crore in the corre-
sponding period previous
year.
“The accumulated losses
of the company as of De-
cember 31, 2018 have exceed-
ed its paid-up capital and
reserves. The company has
incurred net loss during the
quarter ended December 31,
2018 and the company’s cur-
rent liabilities exceed its
current assets as at that
date,” it said.—PTI
grew at a much faster clip,
leading to an increase in their
market share to 33% in De-
cember 2018 from 22% in De-
cember 2013, and up to 21%
from 13%, respectively.
The report did not quan-
tify the credit disbursals in
absolute terms though.
It can be noted that the
government has been giving
a lot of focus to the MSME
Over the years, we have seen a mixed bag of
entries. We have one slot of smaller or the
not so well-known agencies entering smaller
work also. But this time all major agencies have entered
work in the area of environ-
ment can submit their en-
tries. So all together, I think
that the Olive Crowns have
come a long way and we are
very happy about that.
„„The participation is
largely from established
players. Are there any en-
tries from newer agencies
too?
Over the years, we have seen
Not all of them are thriv-
ing. While Levi Strauss and
Tradeweb are trading well
above their IPO prices, Lyft
has slipped in its two weeks
as a public company. Shares
closed at a record low of
$60.12 on Wednesday, well
below the $72 per share IPO
price.
Still, even Uber’s listing,
likely to start trading in May,
could be only the leading
edge of the surge to come.
Others considering going
public include Slack Tech-
nologies Inc, Postmates Inc.,
Palantir Technologies Inc.
and Airbnb Inc. In Europe,
where activity has been
shaky, the drought is break-
ing. Three IPOs are set to
price in April that could
09
Maruti hikes prices
of Alto by `23,000
New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki
India (MSI) Thursday hiked
the prices of its popular
model Alto K10 across the
country following the addi-
tion of various safety fea-
tures and the hatchback will
be costlier by up to Rs 23,000
in Delhi-NCR.
ant, the ex-showroom price
in Delhi and NCR region
shall vary from Rs 3.65 lakh
to Rs 4.44 lakh. For the rest
of the country, the revised
price range is Rs 3.75 lakh
to Rs 4.54 lakh, the compa-
ny said.
The new prices are effec-
tive immediately from
Thursday, it added.
The high-selling model
now comes with various
safety features like ABS
(anti-lock braking system)
with EBD (electronic brake
force distribution), driver
airbag, reverse parking sen-
sor, seed alert system and
driver and co-driver seat
belt reminder.
While the company did
not specify the increase in
prices, industry sources said
the hike will range from Rs
15,000 to Rs 23,000 in the Del-
hi-NCR market.
weak exposure
„„PSBs share in loan
disbursals to the MSME
segment has plunged to
39% in December 2018
„„Overall credit to
the MSME segment
grew 19.3% per annum
during the five years
ending December 2018
segment through schemes
like Mudra and another one
under which loans are passed
in just 59 seconds, which was
launched by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi last year
with much fanfare.
The massive fall in the
credit share of state-run
banks is striking as normal-
ly, government schemes are
driven on the back of state-
a mixed bag of entries. We
have one slot of the smaller or
the not so well-known agen-
cies entering smaller work
also. But this time all the ma-
jor agencies have entered. I
think it only because, it’s an
acknowledgement of the fact
that there is good work hap-
pening around the country
across large corporate and
across categories. And it’s a
very welcome trend.
„„So how many entries
have been submitted this
time around?
We have over 230 entries this
year. It’s a good number
given the fact that it’s a very
niche award. There are 14
categories spanning across
print, television and digital.
Then we also have the Green
brand of the year, champion
of the year categories
among others.
raise a total of more than
$5.7 billion. Network Inter-
national Holdings Ltd surged
in London trading Wednes-
day after raising 1.1 billion
pounds ($1.4 billion) in the
biggest listing in Europe this
year. Fellow payments firm
Nexi SpA could raise as
much as 2.2 billion euros
($2.5 billion) in an IPO ex-
pected to price on Thursday,
while Stadler Rail AG is
seeking as much as $1.4 bil-
lion this week.
In total, as much as $80
billion could be raised in US
IPOs alone this year, double
the yearly average since
1999, Goldman Sachs Group
Inc predicted in November
—- an estimate that may
prove low. — Bloomberg
adding features
„„Ex-showroom price
in Delhi and NCR region
shall vary from Rs 3.65
lakh to Rs 4.44 lakh
„„For the rest of the
country, the revised price
range is Rs 3.75 lakh to
Rs 4.54 lakh
The auto major last month
launched an updated version
of its multi purpose vehicle
Eeco with various safety fea-
tures, including reverse
parking assist and co-driver
seat belt reminder as stand-
ard fitment.
As a result, the price of
the model has gone up in the
range of Rs 400 to Rs 23,000
across variants. Earlier this
month, MSI had increased
prices by up to Rs 689 across
models. —PTI
run banks.
“Going forward, we expect
that state-run banks would
be able to claw back some of
their lost share as they come
out of the prompt corrective
action (PCA) framework of
the Reserve Bank,” the re-
port said Thursday.
The PCA is the special
provision wherein the Re-
serve Bank restricts a lend-
er’s activities due to various
reasons including high non-
performing assets.
The overall credit to the
MSME segment grew 19.3%
per annum during the five
years ending December 2018,
the report said.
Managing director and
chief executive of Transun-
ion Cibil Satish Pillai said
growth of this magnitude
needs to be monitored care-
fully. —PTI
75 BSE 500
cos can pay
`1.1 L cr to
shareholders
Mumbai: As much as 75
cash-rich companies in the
BSE 500 index can distribute
a whopping Rs 1.1 lakh crore
to their shareholders as divi-
dend or buyback, finds an
industry report.
The findings by advisory
firm Institutional Investor
Advisory Services India
(Iias), is based on FY18 finan-
cial statements of the BSE
500 companies.
In its 2018 study, based on
FY17 financials, the proxy
advisory firm has identified
92 companies that can pay
incremental dividends of Rs
34,000 crore.
“This Rs 1.1 lakh crore
equals the aggregate post-tax
profit reported by 75 compa-
nies and is in addition to the
Rs 62,100 crore they had paid
out in FY18 as dividend,” the
report said.
The excess cash, if dis-
tributed, translates to a me-
dian dividend yield to
5.2%, significantly higher
than the current 1.4%, it
said.
Five of these 75 compa-
nies, are sitting on much ex-
cess cash it translates into an
additional dividend yield of
over 15%--Indian Energy Ex-
change, MOIL, Multi-Com-
modity Exchange of India,
Bhel and Godfrey Philips, it
said.
The 75 companies can re-
turn a median of 49% of
their total cash and cash
equivalents to their share-
holders.
There are nine firms that
can distribute over 75% of
their FY18 on-balance-sheet
cash, which are Abbott, Sym-
phony, Lal Pathlabs, Bajaj
Consumer Care, Godfrey
Phillips, Honeywell Automa-
tion, Bata, Pfizer and Hindu-
stan Zinc.
Of the 75 companies, just
five companies aggregate
over 50% of the total incre-
mental distributable cash of
Rs 1.1 trillion. These are Hin-
dustan Zinc, ITC, Wipro,
TCS, Bajaj Auto. —PTI
 12
Friday
April
2019
Ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
MOTOR SPORT
sounds a warning ahead of the 1,000th Grand
Prix in Shanghai on Sunday, saying he is fo-
cused only on victory, adding: “I’m not one for
special days like this.”
CRICKET Former pacer Raju Kulkarni and offie Kiran Mokashi resign from the Cricket Improvement Committee of Mumbai Cricket Association
BALL GAME
Nabi backs
Afghan spinners
to shine at WC
Mohammad Nabi said
Afghanistan’s spinners
would be a handful at the
cricket World Cup after
their experiences playing
in England and in the
IPL. The 34-year-old bat-
ting all-rounder will form
a potent spin attack with
Rashid Khan and Mujeeb
Ur Rahman at the World
Cup. “Ours is a good com-
bination because Rashid
and Mujeeb are wicket-
taking bowlers and I am
more defensive, bowling
a lot of dot balls,” Nabi,
who plays for Sunrisers
Hyderabad, said. “The
IPL helps a lot,” Nabi
said. “If you play these
kind of pressure games
before the World Cup it
will help a lot in the tour-
nament against top oppo-
sition teams.”
IPL made me
grow: Goswami
Shreevats Goswami is
yet to get a game this IPL
but the Sunrisers Hy-
derabad wicketkeeper
feels the overall experi-
ence in the cash-rich
league has helped him to
grow as a person. The
29-year-old cricketer
made his IPL debut for
RCB over a decade ago.
“The (overall IPL) expe-
rience has been amazing.
Apart from cricketing ex-
perience, it has made me
grow as a person. Speak-
ing to legends of the
game, being involved in
the team meeting have
made me grow in life. It
has helped me to have a
right discipline and all
those things have helped
me,” Goswami, a mem-
ber of the Virat Kohli-led
India U-19 team in 2008
U-19 World Cup, said.
on the tube
(All Live)
CRICKET: Star Sports 1, 2,
1 Hindi: 20:00 IPL, KKR
vs DC
FOOTBALL: Star Sports 3:
00:00 (Sat) Bundesliga,
Nurnberg FC vs Schalke
04, Star Sports Select
2: 00:30 (Sat) Premier
League, Leicester vs
Newcastle
1 the defending champions.
2
3 Match No. 26, Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Send in your answers to
sportsdna@gmail.com. Names
of the first 10 winners will be
published tomorrow
‘Smith, Warner got away with murder’
Melbourne: The Australian
duo of Steve Smith and David
Warner “got away with mur-
der” and should have been
banned for two years for their
roles in the ball-tempering
scandal, feels West Indies
pace legend Curtly Ambrose.
Former captain Smith and
his deputy Warner were
handed a one-year ban by
Cricket Australia for their
role in trying to rough up one
side of the ball with sandpa-
per during the third Test
against South Africa at Cape
Lewis Hamilton
Dhoni loses cool, wins tie
CSK seal thriller but Captain Cool walks on to field to argue with umpire in dramatic final over
Match No. 25
DNA Correspondent
sports@dnaindia.net
Jaipur: The Sawai Mansingh
Stadium erupted in joy and
the Rajasthan Royals players
celebrated wildly after Ben
Stokes took a stunning catch
that brought back memories
of Jonty Rhodes to dismiss
Kedar Jadhav off Jofra Arch-
er. It reduced Chennai Super
Kings to 24/4 in a chase of
152.
But that was the last of the
joys for the hosts as CSK cap-
tain Mahendra Singh Dhoni
walked into the crease. Dhoni
(58) along with Ambati Ray-
udu (57) starred in their
team’s four-wicket win over
Rajasthan Royals as the visi-
tors achieved the target off
the last bowl with southpaw
Mitchell Santner smashing a
six off Stokes.
There was plenty of dra-
ma in the last over as CSK
needed 18 from it. Ravindra
Jadeja started off with a six
before Stokes cleaned up the
main batsman Dhoni with a
yorker at a crucial juncture
on the third ball.
Dhoni lost his cool in the
next ball when a waist-high
no-ball rewarded earlier by
umpire Ulhas Gandhe was
overruled by Bruce Oxenford
at square leg. The Captain
Cool could not hold back his
emotions and entered the
field fuming to argue with the
two umpires before the two
sent him back.
The argument had no
bearing on the result as Sant-
ner sealed the game with a
six when CSK needed two off
the last ball. Needing 152 to
win, Chennai had a terrible
start to their chase before
Dhoni and Rayudu resur-
rected the innings with a 95-
run stand for the fifth wicket.
Earlier, CSK produced yet
another disciplined bowling
effort to restrict Rajasthan to
a modest 151 for seven.
Save Jos Buttler (23 off 10
balls) at the top of the order,
none of other Royals bats-
men looked the part as Dho-
ni’s immaculate reading of
the track once again helped
Left-arm spin duo Ravin-
dra Jadeja (2/20 in 4 overs)
and Mitchell Santner (1/25 in
4 overs) checked the run-flow
as Royals batsmen were al-
ways playing a catch-up
game.
smiles all around
Yuvraj Singh takes selfie with children from NGOs and his Mumbai Indians
team-mates at an event in Mumbai on Thursday as part of Reliance
Foundation’s Education and Sports For All initiative —Salman Ansari/DNA
Town in March last year.
The two are currently play-
ing in the IPL after their ban
period ended on March 29.
While Smith and Warner
are trying to get their place
back in the Australian squad
for this year’s World Cup and
Ashes tour, Ambrose feels
they should have been
banned for one more year.
“When you break the law
like that you should be pun-
ished,” Ambrose, only one of
the 15 bowlers in history to
record more than 400 Test
FOOTBALL
tion suspends Atletico Madrid striker Diego
Costa for 8 matches. He was sent off in Atletico’s
loss to Barca on Saturday for crude insult towards
referee Gil Manzano. He’ll miss rest of the season
CSK captain MS Dhoni in a punishing mood during his match-winning 58 against RR in Jaipur on Thursday —PTI
Dhoni (7) argues with umpires and RR bowler Ben Stokes (L) during the
last over of their IPL match in Jaipur on Thursday —BCCI
Even Imran Tahir (0/28 in
4 overs), who went fora few
more runs compared to the
other two spinners, ended
with decent enough figures.
Royals skipper Ajinkya
wickets, told Fox Sports.
“I honestly thought they
got away with murder. A year
was a little bit (lenient). I
would have said two years
just to send a message be-
cause it was stupid really.”
The 55-year-old from Anti-
gua, however, hoped that the
duo “go to the World Cup”. “I
believe they will never do it
again. I just hope that all of
Australia supports them and I
hope that they go to the World
Cup because they’ll make the
team stronger.” —PTI
Spanish Football Federa-
Rahane (14 off 11) failed once
again with seamer Deepak
Chahar (2/33 in 4 overs) trap-
ping him leg before. Buttler
belted Shardul Thakur (2/44
in 4 overs) for a few bounda-
I know how to stop Russell in World Cup: Kuldeep
Match No. 26
Kolkata: Andre Russell has
shown signs of weakness
against the turning ball, feels
Kuldeep Yadav, insisting he
has enough tricks up his
sleeves to outwit the West In-
dian in the World Cup.
Russell has been a picture
of consistency for Kolkata
Knight Riders, amassing 257
runs from just 121 balls with
a stunning ball striking rate
of 212.39 in this IPL.
However, his KKR team-
mate Yadav said he has found
a chink in Russell’s armour
which he will look to exploit
during the May 30-July 14
showpiece event.
“He has some problems
facing a turning ball. If the
ball is turning, then he has a
weakness,” the 24-year-old
said.
“It’s not just this, I’ve dif-
ferent plans to unleash
against him in the World
Cup. I know how to stop him
and I’m very clear in my
mind,” he added.
He has been sharing the
dressing room with Russell
but Yadav conceded that he
has never bowled to him at
the nets. “He does not take
chance against spinners.
He’s a terror for pacers. And
HOW THEY STAND
TEAM M W L T P NRR
CSK 7 6 1 0 12 0.299
KKR 6 4 2 0 8 0.614
MI 6 4 2 0 8 0.290
KXIP 7 4 3 0 8 -0.057
SRH 6 3 3 0 6 0.810
DC 6 3 3 0 6 0.131
RR 6 1 5 0 2 -0.725
RCB 6 0 6 0 0 -1.453
ries before he mistiming one
which was easily caught by
Ambati Rayudu.
Once Buttler was gone,
Royals lost the momentum as
wickets fell at regular imter-
vals. Steve Smith struggled
once again as he slog-swept
Jadeja to deep mid-wicket
only to find Rayudu.
 —With PTI inputs
KKR
Live on Star Sports 1, 2, 1 Hindi, 8pm
Can Rabada stop Russell in his own yard?
KKR: Kolkata have
signed uncapped Aus-
tralian Matt Kelly for
injured Anrich Nortje.
KKR will seek to avenge
1st leg loss in Super Over.
Heavily dependent
on Andre Russell
Andre
Russell
Swashbuckling Andre Russell’s big-hitting prowess will be pitted
against Kagiso Rabada’s inch-perfect yorkers. Rabada won the bat-
tle in Super Over, yorking Russell in the first leg. Can he do it again?
Played: 22, KKR: 13, DC: 9
Pitch Report: Fairly
good for batting. Pacers
get good purchase here
7
Punter Point:
KKR: 8/11,
CDC: 11/10
I’ve never bowled him at the
nets. You are always under
pressure when you’re hit for
two sixes in a row,” he said.
“It’s important how you
comeback. All it takes is one
10
SCOREBOARD
RR vs CSK, Match No. 25, Venue: Sawai
Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur; Toss: CSK, elect to bowl
RR R B 4/6 SR
A Rahane lbw b Chahar 14 11 3/0 127.27 Mumbai Indians’ stand-in captain Kieron Pollard single-handedly won the
J Buttler c Rayudu b Thakur 23 10 4/1 230.00 match for his team against KXIP on Wednesday —Hemant Padalkar/DNA
S Samson c (sub) b Santner 6 6 1/0 100.00
S Smith c Rayudu b Jadeja 15 22 1/0 68.18
Pollard adds his
R Tripathi c Jadhav b Jadeja 10 12 1/0 83.33
B Stokes b Chahar 28 26 1/0 107.69
R Parag c Dhoni b Thakur 16 14 2/0 114.28
J Archer (not out) 13 12 1/0 108.33
S Gopal (not out)
Extras (LB1, W6)
19 7 2/1 271.42
7
Total (for 7 wkts, 20 ov) 151 (7.55 runs per over)
Fall of wickets: 1-31 (Rahane, 2.5 ov), 2-47 (Buttler, 3.4
own bit to IPL’s
Caribbean flavour
ov), 3-53 (Samson, 5.2 ov), 4-69 (Tripathi, 8.5 ov), 5-78
(Smith, 10.5 ov), 6-103 (Parag, 14.6 ov), 7-126 (Stokes,
18.2 ov)
Bowling: D Chahar 4-0-33-2 , M Santner 4-0-25-1 (W5), S
Thakur 4-0-44-2 (W1), R Jadeja 4-0-20-2, I Tahir 4-0-28-0 Taus Rizvi to put runs on the board.
r_taus@dnaindia.net “There’s people there who
CSK (target 152) R B 4/6 SR
have the job to select and let’s
S Watson b Kulkarni 0 4 0/0 0.00 Mumbai: A joke has been see how that goes. As I said,
du Plessis c Tripathi b Unadkat 7 10 0/0 70.00 viral on social media that the I’m 31-years-old, Chris Gayle
S Raina (run out) 4 4 1/0 100.00 Indian Premier League is still playing, he’s 39, and
A Rayudu c Gopal b Stokes 57 47 2/3 121.27 should actually be called he’s whacking it all around.”
K Jadhav c Stokes b Archer 1 6 0/0 16.66 West Indian Premier League. So with so much talent on
MS Dhoni b Stokes 58 43 2/3 134.88 The joke is in reference to tal- display in IPL, can West In-
R Jadeja (not out) 9 4 0/1 225.00 ented cricketers’ — Kieron dies count themselves as one
M Santner (not out) 10 3 0/1 333.33 Pollard, Chris Gayle and An- of the favourites in the
Extras (LB5, W3, NB1) 9 dre Russell — from the Carib- World Cup?
Total (for 6 wkts, 20 ov) 155 (7.75 runs per over) bean dominating the show. “Yeah, of course, you can
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Watson, 0.4 ov), 2-5 (Raina, 1.5 ov), On Wednesday night, say that. But again, as I said
3-15 (du Plessis, 3.6 ov), 4-24 (Jadhav, 5.5 ov), 5-119 Mumbai Indians’ Pollard that’s why there’s people...we
(Rayudu, 17.4 ov), 6-144 (Dhoni, 19.3 ov) joined the Caribbean party have a new chairman of se-
Bowling: D Kulkarni 3-1-14-1, J Unadkat 3-0-23-1, J Archer when he produced a spell- lectors (Robert Haynes is set
4-1-19-1, R Parag 3-0-24-0, S Gopal 4-0-31-0, B Stokes binding knock of 83 (31b, 3x4, to get that post), there’s a new
3-0-39-2 (W3, NB1) 10x6) that turned the game on president of the cricket
Result: CSK win by 4 wickets its head against Kings XI board, and as I said you take
Man of the match: MS Dhoni Punjab at the Wankhede Sta- it as it comes.
dium. He guided hosts to a Before this knock and last
Orange cap three-wicket win.
Asked, after his match-
year, Pollard’s inconsistency
was being questioned by
David Warner winning performance, about many. The MI management
(SRH) the West Indian domination also released the dashing
in the IPL, Pollard said: “We batsman before buying him
349 runs
know what we can do and I
think Chris batted superbly. A
back at the auction. Did he
ever think about it?
KL Rahul (KXIP)  317 fellow West Indian is Russell... “Last year, you might not
Jonny Bairstow (SRH)  263 he’s smacking the ball and it’s have been asking me that
great to see the way he’s hit- question. Yes, I scored runs
ting the ball and Narine. tonight so all sorts of ques-
Purple cap “These guys are having a tions will come but for me
Kagiso Rabada good tournament and again, it’s just about enjoying
(DC)
when your mind is free, you cricket and doing my best
just go out and enjoy cricket. with my god-given talent,”
11 wickets You don’t think about much
because there are a lot of
opinions, there are a lot of
said Pollard.
“It is what it is. 2018 is
gone and obviously when you
Deepak Chahar (CSK) 10
things, but it’s people as close are losing, people tend to
Imran Tahir (CSK) 9
to you and what they think have all sort of opinions.
matters.” Even people who have not
n zone Pollard has not been part played he game or people
100
No. of wickets of the West Indies cricket set who have played have opin-
Ravindra Jadeja has up in the last three years and ions, you can’t stop them
taken in IPL, the first with changes in the WICB set from that.
left-arm spinner to the milestone. up there are chances he “I’m a cricketer, 31 years
He is followed by Pragyan Ojha might get a look in before the of age and have a lot of crick-
(89), Axar Patel (64) and Shakib Al World Cup. The Trinidad- et left in me. People who are
Hasan (58) born is positive of his return close to me have backed me,
to international cricket. that’s most important. It did
22
No. of fifties MS Dhoni “Every time I get the op- not work last year, but last
has notched portunity to play, I want to do year is gone.
up in IPL my best. There has been a lot “We have life, we need to
of turmoil in West Indies get up in the morning, the
cricket over the last couple of sun rises in the east and set
Six meter years. We have seen in the
last couple of weeks there’s a
in the west. There are better
things than winning or los-
change.” Pollard was one of ing. It’s a matter of me com-
13 0 4 the players blacklisted. “The
most I can do every time I
step on the cricket field is try
ing out enjoying game and
that’s what I am doing,” said
Pollard.
VS DC
spinner said he is happy with
his performance and he has
matured as a cricketer.
“If I’m not getting wickets
it does not mean I’m not
bowling well. Now I play as a
matured cricketer and think
more about the team. Even as
DC: Pace bowling has been I’m not taking wickets, my
Team their strength with Kagiso
News Rabada leading the way economy rate is tight,” he
pointed out.
Ganguly will sit
with 11 wickets. Seamer
Harshal Patel has been ruled
“I feel in this IPL batsmen
are not attacking me so
in DC dug out
out of the remainder of the IPL much. The batsmen are no Kolkata: Facing conflict
owing to a fracture in his
more hitting big shots of interest allegations,
right hand
against me. I’m conceding Delhi Capitals advisor
three-four boundaries in Sourav Ganguly was
Key Kagiso every match which means seen conducting the
contest Rabada batsmen are trying to play team’s training session
safe barring one match and made it clear that he’d
against Delhi. sit in the visitors’ dugout
“It’s such a format, you against KKR on Friday.
may have a bad day where Sporting the DC jersey,
you’re hit for runs. I’m not a Ganguly, who is also the
magician who will do well in president of Cricket As-
every match. You cannot say sociation of Bengal, ar-
Weather Report: An afternoon I will take so many wickets,” rived at Eden Gardens
thunderstorm is forecast. he said. before the team and in-
Evening is expected to be The 24-year-old from Kan- spected the pitch. He was
cloudy pur went on to cite the exam- later seen in a lengthy dis-
Watchability quotient: (1-3: Forget it;
ple of his fellow India spin- cussion with team head
4-7: If there is nothing else to watch;
ner Yuzvendra Chahal, who coach Ricky Ponting who
8 and above: try not to miss it)
has taken nine wickets from said at the press confer-
six matches but his team ence that they may go for
ball to get the batsman out. Royal Challengers Bangalore an all pace attack against
You can assess a player’s are yet to win a match. KKR. Ponting also spoke
character by that.” Yadav will have a role to very high of Ganguly and
Yadav has so far taken just play when KKR takes on Del- said he is very passionate
three wickets from six hi Capitals at the Eden Gar- about the DC. —PTI
matches but the India wrist dens on Friday. —PTI
 sP rt
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
11
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019 I daily news & analysis

United fight, falter

Hot on Heels

Pinki, Sakshi
assure India 2
boxing medals
Commonwealth Games
bronze medallist Pinki
Rani (51kg) and reigning
youth world champion
Sakshi (57kg) assured In-
dia of two more medals
at the Cologne Boxing
World Cup by entering
the semifinals on Thurs-
day. Continuing her im-
peccable form, the India
Open gold medallist
Pinki Rani put up yet an-
other dominating perfor-
mance to blank Thai-
land’s Phunsang Cahi-
ranchaya 5-0 in the quar-
terfinal bout.

India complete
4-0 series win
The Indian women’s
hockey team beat Malay-
sia by a solitary goal to
complete a 4-0 win in the
five-match bilateral se-
ries in Kuala Lumpur on
Thursday. It was Navjot
Kaur’s fine field goal in
the 35th minute and a
good defensive display
that helped India win.
India did well to create
scoring opportunities
with substantial circle
entries but could not
convert enough chances.

Minerva get nod
for Kalinga use
Minerva Punjab FC
heaved a sigh of relief af-
ter the Odisha govern-
ment granted them per-
mission to use Bhubane-
swar’s Kalinga Stadium
for their AFC Cup home
match on May 1, and said
they are “not shutting
shop” for now. Minerva
had earlier alleged that
on the All India Football
Federation’s insistence,
the Odisha government
had withdrawn permis-
sion to use the stadium
against Manang Marshy-
angdi Club of Nepal for
the Group E match.
Mithali stuns top
Manchester United’s Scott McTominay (2R) tackles for the ball with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (C) during their Champions League first leg quarterfinal at Old Trafford in Manchester on Wednesday —Reuters
Red Devils turn
to physicality to The PSG performance gives us hope and
Did you
know?
‘On different level’,
CR7 scores key goal
belief we can do it, but we are playing n Manchester
thwart Barca but against the favourites. It will be a bigger United have lost
4 of their past 6
achievement winning that one because
lose on own goal
Champions League Armsterdam: Juventus movement is different to eve-
with the history of Barcelona, they are home games, as
coach Massimiliano Allegri ryone else’s, there’s nothing
not used to losing at home but we many as in their hailed star striker Cristiano you can do about it,” Allegri
Manchester: Lionel Messi Manchester United’s David de Gea (L) can do it previous 71 at Ronaldo as being in a class told Sky Sport Italia.
first felt the thud of Chris looks on as a shot from Barcelona’s Luis Old Trafford in the of his own after he bagged a “He is a player who just
Smalling’s shoulder into his Suarez hits United’s Luke Shaw (2R) for —Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, precious away goal in their has a different technique
competition
back. Then the Manchester an own goal —AFP Manchester United manager 1-1 Champions League quar- than the others.”
n United have
United defender’s flailing
right arm
N ZONE failed to register
terfinal draw at Ajax on
Wednesday.
Ajax piled on the pressure
at the Johann Cruyff Arena,
MATCH STATS
8 3
swiped across No. of own goals No. of consecutive home Champions League a shot on goal Ronaldo put Juventus in going close on a number of
Messi’s face, Manchester United have knockout games United have lost, the first in a Champions front on the stroke of half- occasions before Douglas
and blood scored in Champions time it has ever happened United Barcelona League game at Old time with a diving header to Costa nearly delivered a late
poured from League, more than any Trafford for the first take his record goal tally in sucker punch for Juve when
33% Possession 67%

4
seed Tanaya the Barcelona other team in the history of the No. of times Barcelona have beaten United in time since 2005 the competition he struck the woodwork.
Mumbai’s unseeded forward’s 10 Shots 6 to 125, only for Their spectacular come-
competition Champions League, with each of them com-
Mithali Surana put up nose. 0 Shots on target 3 n United will have winger Da- back from a 2-1 first-leg
ing in a different stadium

6
an amazing show to out- Already trailing against a Barcelona have ended a to be the first team vid Neres to home defeat to Real Ma-
2 Corners 4

smart top seed Tanaya M
Parakh and advance to
the semifinals of the Ot-
ters Club Vedanta
Squash Open in Mum-
bai. Meanwhile, Aish-
warya Khubchandani
continued her fine run
by advancing to the U-19
and women’s semifinals
with straight game victo-
ries over her opponents
Rewa Bharma and Niki-
ta Agarwal, respectively.
dominating Barcelona side,
United had to resort to physi-
cality after 30 minutes to try to
thwart the five-time European
champions on Wednesday.
It helped prevent any fur-
ther damage to the scoreline,
as Barcelona won the first leg
of their quarterfinal 1-0 after
United defender Luke Shaw
unwittingly helped Luis Su-
arez’s header into the net in
5
6-game winless run on the No. of games out of their past 7 Barcelona to win at Barca in level almost drid with a thumping 4-1
road in European knockout have won away from home against English 16 Fouls 11 30 matches stretch- immediately win at the Santiago Berna-
games stretching back to 2016 opponents in Champions League (D1 L1) ing back to 2013 after half- beu in the previous round
time to put showed that the tie is far
the tie on a from over. “It’s a good
the 12th minute. Barcelona’s goal — initial- “It was a great header Stopwatch knife edge result because we
An equaliser never looked ly flagged for offside before from Luis,” Barcelona coach ahead of next scored away
likely, though, with United being awarded via a video Ernesto Valverde said. “He Manchester United 0 lost to week’s return leg from home,
failing to register a shot on review — came during an ex- was fighting for every cause. Barcelona 1 (Shaw 12-og) in Turin. the tie is still
goal in a Champions League hilarating spell when the He was getting stuck into the Ajax 1 (Neres 46) drew with “Ronaldo showed open,” add-
game at Old Trafford for the visitors’ possession exceeded defenders, trying to work re- Juventus 1 (Ronaldo 45) that he is on a different ed Allegri.
first time since 2005. 80 pe rcent. ally hard.” —AP level. His timing and —AFP

Blazers lock up
No. 3 seed
Rookie Anfernee Simons
scored a career-high 37
points in his first start
of the season and the
Portland Trail Blazers
secured the No. 3 seed in
the Western Conference
with a dramatic 136-131
victory over the Sacra-
mento Kings using just
six players. The Blazers
have won 14 of 17 games
en route to their sixth
straight trip to the play-
offs. Portland will open
the postseason against
the Oklahoma.
Debutant Harding among early leaders Sindhu breaks little sweat to enter
Augusta: As many as five
players were sharing the
early lead at two-under as the
morning starters crossed the
halfway mark of the first
round at the Augusta Nation-
al here on Thursday.
Debutant South African
Justin Harding, who made it
to the top-50 of the world to
earn an invite and sneak into
the Masters draw, had two
birdies in first three holes
and he was 2-under through
11 holes.
Also at two-under was Aar-
on Wise, playing with Hard-
ing; South African Branden
Grace through nine; China’s
Li Haotong and Spain’s Jon
Rahm were both two-under
through four and Patton
Kizzire landed the first eagle
by holing a 70-footer chip from
off the green on second.
Tiger Woods birdied the
par-5 second to be one-under
through four, while Rory
McIlroy, a hot favourite this
year, was even par with a bo-
gey on first and birdie on
third, but only a par on Par-5
second.
Thus far no player had
gone better than two-under at
any stage.
Amateur Takumi Kanaya
started birdie-birdie, while
Dane Lucas Bjerregaard,
who had stunned Tiger
Woods at the World Golf
Championships matchplay
last month, also opened with
two birdies in first three
holes. They fell back to even
par and one-under later as
the round progressed. —AFP
Justin Harding plays from second
tee in Augusta on Thursday —AFP
QF; Saina, Srikanth survive scare
Singapore: The Indian trio
of PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal
and Kidambi Srikanth con-
tinued their impressive run
and progressed to the singles
quarterfinals of the USD
355,000 Singapore Open here
on Thursday.
The fourth-seeded Sindhu,
a Rio Games silver medallist,
took 39 minutes to get the bet-
ter of world No. 22 Mia Blich-
feldt 21-13 21-19, her second
straight win over the Dane.
World No. 6 Sindhu will
next face China’s Cai Yanyan,
a 2017 World Junior Champi-
onships bronze medallist.
Sixth seed Srikanth sur-
vived a scare in the second
game before overcoming Den-
mark’s Hans-Kristian Sol-
berg Vittinghus 21-12 23-21,
setting up a meeting with top
seed Japan’s Kento Mamota,
who ended HS Prannoy’s
campaign with a straight
game victory.
Sixth seed Saina had to
work hard in her bid to
avenge a Malaysia Open first-
round loss to Pornpawee Cho-
chuwong before pulling off a
thrilling 21-16 18-21 21-19 win
over the Thai shuttler in the
second round.
While Saina was plotting
the downfall of Chochuwong,
her husband and fellow shut-
tler Parupalli Kashyap was
locked in a fierce battle with
reigning Olympic champion,
Chen Long of China, before
losing 9-21 21-15 16-21 to the
fourth seeded Chinese. —PTI
 12
Friday
April
2019
Ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan are busy promoting Kalank and that’s seeing
high them collect a lot of air miles. The duo was snapped at the Mumbai airport
as they headed to Jaipur for promotions of the Abhishek Varman directorial.
fliers While Alia looked casual chic in a powder pink gown with and a blazer, Varun
opted for a printed shirt. He jumped the rails while posing for the paps.
Ashwini Sawant/DNA
Salman Khan
Maybe there is something
people see that I don’t.
Anyway, what they look for in a
hero is a mystery. The audience
wants to spend money to see my
films on screen, they watch them on
satellite television also and they
want to see me in my shows. I
don’t know yeh kab tak
chalega, but jab tak chal
raha hai, my idea is to
give my best, no matter
what problems I go
through, physically or
mentally
I have come across so many talented
musicians on social media platforms. I
wanted to come up with an idea that will enable
me to connect with them. I have named this
property — Jam Sessions. It’s basically about
artistes jamming with each other
Ayushmann Khurrana
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‘I’M NOT FOR KISSING
AND NUDITY IN FILMS’ Bollywood’s Number One hero Salman Khan talks about the
kind of cinema he wishes to be associated with
Meena Iyer
S
alman Khan
makes his
superstardom
look so easy.
His approach
to media
interactions appear
cavalier. You only hear
people talking about
how he arrives late
and how his coterie
gets bigger each day;
almost isolating him
from the ‘real’ world.
Yet, when you
meet the man him-
self, his conversation
only veers around
being focussed, being
real and, of course,
being human. You
come back thinking,
‘Yaar, perceptions
were all wrong. Salman
definitely walks the talk.’
Over to SK:
l Once, you seemed the least
celebrated of the three Khans
— Aamir, Shah Rukh and you.
Now, you’re the biggest. Have you
ever given this a thought?
Not really. By the grace of God,
the films that I’m choosing have
done well. But it is not as if
Aamir or Shah Rukh are choosing
bad or worse films. There are
times when the movies I’ve cho-
sen, to the best of my knowledge,
haven’t worked. And then one
film works and you’re back. SRK
is a legend, as is Aamir. A bad
movie here or there
may happen,
but they will
always come
back.
Actually,
tension toh
mera hai.
Aamir
Shah Rukh Khan Aamir Khan
Ayushmann’s looking Akhtar siblings quell
for artistes to jam with rumours about Don 3
Musicians across India can participate in a contest on social
media for an opportunity to collaborate with the actor
B
esides being an actor,
Ayushmann Khurrana is a
composer and singer, too.
The multi-talented personal-
ity has crooned for his movies as
well as singles. The AndhaDhun
actor, who now wants to connect
with his fans
over music, is
launching a
social media
contest that
will see him
give amateur
artistes an
opportunity to
jam with him.
Ayush-
mann
reveals, “I
wanted to
do some-
thing
that
com-
bines the
power
of
and SRK know their craft. I’ve
heard people saying they’re not
so sure about me (laughs)!
l Stop kidding, what are you tense
about?
My thing is that I’m surviving
on mediocre talent and luck.
Actually, I don’t know what I’m
surviving on, but I’m surviving.
Mere ups and downs toh hote
rahenge. By the grace of God,
hamari fan following itni tagdi
hai. There’s also Akki (Akshay
Kumar), Hrithik (Roshan) and
Ajay (Devgn).
Then, there are the new boys
— Tiger (Shroff),
Ranveer (Singh) and
Varun (Dhawan).
Everyone is so good
that all of us will also
have to, you know, be
on our toes.
l All the stalwarts have
stuck with you. Sooraj
Barjatya wants you,
Sanjay Leela Bhansali,
Sajid Nadiadwala and
Aditya Chopra have you.
Surely, you must be
doing something correct
because these guys
couldn’t have chosen
wrong.
Like I said, luck hai,
destiny hai. Maybe
there is something
they see that I don’t.
Anyway, what they With Katrina Kaif in Bharat
look for in a hero is a
mystery. The audience
wants to spend money
to see my films on screen, they
watch them on satellite
television also and they want to
see me in my shows. I don’t know
yeh kab tak chalega, but jab tak
chal raha hai, my idea is to
give my best, no matter what
problems I go through,
physically or mentally.
Agar humko yeh formula
pata hota, ki kya karne se kya
chalega, then what should I say?
We would be taking everything
for granted. We thought that
Tubelight (same combination of
Kabir Khan and me) will be a
beautiful film, after our much-
appreciated superhit, Bajrangi
Bhaijaan (2015). But for an
Eid release, the public wanted
to see something happy. In
Tubelight, they all cried. They
music and social media. I have
come across so many talented
musicians on social media
platforms and I wanted to come up
with an idea that will enable me to
connect with them. I have named
this property — Jam Sessions. It’s
basically about artistes jamming
with each other.”
The actor-singer admits that
music has always been his first
love. Hence, this project is very
close to his heart. “I intend to
connect with as many artistes as
possible. I have partnered with
Facebook for this activity as the
platform has an incredible reach,”
he adds.
Shedding light on how people
can get make a pitch to collaborate
with him, he says, “The contest is
not just limited to singers, whoev-
er wants to connect with me, will
just have to send me an unedited
video of them singing or playing
any musical instrument. Once the
contest culminates, I will connect
with a few winners and we will
make some music together.”
The Badhaai Ho star is excited
to meet and jam with diverse
performers from across India.
“Through this process, I hope to
present some incredible artistes
and beautiful music,” he signs off.
After
were like, ‘What the hell! Eid
kharaab kar diya!” (laughs). They
went into depression. Today,
when the film comes on digital
and satellite, people love it and
wonder why it didn’t work. It did
a business of over `110 crores in
the domestic market alone. So,
even my ‘flops’ notch numbers.
Bahuton ki filmein utni bhi
nahin chali. So, I’m fortunate that
itni badi hit film bhi flop maani
jaati hai. I’m grateful for the
blessings.
l How ambitious are you for
Salman Khan Films?
Ambitious, I can’t say. But one
thing is clear in my mind. I just
want to make clean, entertaining
films. I’m constantly wondering
if I’m doing the right thing or
the wrong thing because there
are bizarre trends today. The
kind of films that are being
made (especially some of the
stuff jo web pe aa raha hai) are
shocking! I can’t even watch the
stuff, but people are watching it.
I understand that is also private
viewing, phone pe, laptop pe.
Akele dekhne mein bhi humko
thoda aisa lagta hai ki yeh kya ho
raha hai. Because hamari
upbringing hai, parents hain...
after our first film, we moved
straight into the Barjatya family
zone.
Abhi bhi when a kissing scene
Farhan Akhtar
to act in movies. She auditioned
After our first film, for us, three to four times and I
we moved straight liked her. I will need lawyers in
my life (laughs), but Pranutan’s
into the Barjatya family calling was films.
zone. Abhi bhi when a
kissing scene comes on l Next, you will launch your
bodyguard, Shera’s son?
screen, we’re all Yes, after them (Pranutan and
Zaheer Iqbal), it’s Tiger, Shera’s
awkward. See it son. He’s been working hard for
whichever way you want, his debut. Once he is as good or
but I will put my heft better than some of the existing
boys, we’ll start.
behind clean cinema
l Newcomers have it tough today,
don’t they?
comes on screen, we’re all You have to take into account
awkward. See it whichever way that the boys have to dance and
you want, but I will put my heft do action better than the existing
behind clean cinema. heroes. Otherwise, they will find
So, instead of ones and twos it hard. Hamare time mein, it was
coming in to watch movies, I’d comparatively easier; yet, we
rather want our banner to have found even that difficult. But now,
films where people know they will it’s actually very tough. Today,
have the naughtiness, humour, you have got to be better than the
action and romance, but all of us existing actors. It requires a lot of
can watch them together. That’s time, hard work, patience and
what I want to keep it to. Aur agar dedication, which all these guys
koi picture ‘A’ rated hogi, then it have shown. Then, of course, it
will be because of action. I’m not depends on the movie, the vibe of
for kissing and nudity in films at it, the acceptance of fans and
all. movie-goers. As I said earlier,
what they see in the hero, no one
l Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! knows. Sometimes, the film
completes 25 years this August. doesn’t do well, but the hero is
How does that feel? accepted. And sometimes, the
With Madhuri Dixit in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!
I swear it feels like yesterday. movie does very well, but the hero
Pranutan (Bahl), my latest is not accepted.
protégée from Notebook, was
born in front of us. I worked with Speaking of your films, you have
her mother in Saajan (1991), and two releases lined up this year.
with her father, Mohnish (Bahl), Yes, this year, I’ll have
in so many films. Suddenly, she Bharat on Eid and Dabangg 3 in
was all grown up and wanted to December. Next Eid, Inshallah
be a lawyer. Then I got a call from
Monya (Mohnish) that she wanted
(God willing), we’ll have
Inshallah (smiles).
I
n the last few years, Farhan Akhtar
has been quizzed several times about
the third instalment of his success-
ful franchise Don, each time he’s
made an appearance in front of the me-
dia. In the last few weeks, numerous
stories have been doing the rounds. 
While a report claimed that Shah
Rukh Khan has opted out of the film
and Ranveer Singh has been brought
on board as replacement, another
stated that this time, it won’t be Farhan
but his sister Zoya Akhtar who will
helm Don 3. Amid all this confusion,
when we spoke to Farhan, he finally
broke his silence on the matter.
The Rock On 2 hero told us, “I am a
bit tired of speaking about Don 3. This
news doesn’t come from me. I don’t
start and end it. People can happily say
what they want to and amuse them-
selves. When I have something to say, I
will say it. There is nothing to hide.”
Earlier, Zoya rubbished the rumours
of Ranveer stepping into SRK’s shoes
for Don 3 and told a leading entertain-
ment website that it was ‘absolute
nonsense.’
Priyanka Chopra and
Shah Rukh Khan in Don 2
Zoya Akhtar
 After
Etc daily news & analysis
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019

Photos: Yogen Shah

13 Ashwini Sawant/DNA

AS/DNA
booked!
Sushant Singh
Rajput was
spotted attending
a book launch in
the city.

high
fliers Disha Patani Janhvi Kapoor
Alia Bhatt and
Varun Dhawan are
busy promoting Kalank
and that’s seeing them
girls about town
Anushka Sharma, Disha Patani and Janhvi Kapoor had a busy
collect a lot of air
Wednesday. While Anushka visited a clinic, Disha was seen
miles as well.
at a social do. Janhvi, dressed in a bright pink ensemble, kept
Alia Bhatt Varun Dhawan Anushka Sharma her daily date with the gym.
Sushant Singh Rajput

pick your brain crossword hidato Baby Blues

Down 18 Present
1 ___ up : starter (4)
enthused or 19 Ran contra-
elated ? (6) band (8)
2 Reword (8) 20 Country, once
3 Water-jug (4) Basutoland
4 Capable of (7)
being healed 21 Sarcastic (7)
(7) 24 Mrs in Mar-
5 Lauder of seille (3)
cosmetics (5) 25 “All for Love”
6 Modify the playwright (6)
text (4) 26 Muse of
7 Disconcert (7) poetry (5)
12 Cereal plant 29 Insensible The Pajama Dairies
(3) state (4)
14 Line about 30 Alone (4)
which a rota-
tion occurs
(4)

Across 15 A side issue (3) 27 Prince of Russian opera (4)

1 3.26 light years (6) 16 Of an axis (5) 28 Witch (9)
5 Dutch commune (3) 17 Subatomic particle (5) 31 Worked hard (6)
8 Wimp (4) 20 Large Scale Integration, abbr. 32 Not us (4) The goal of Hidato is to fill the grid
9 Food shop (4) (3) 33 Hard work (4) with consecutive numbers that
10 Pungent condiment (6) 22 2010 in Roman numerals (3) 34 Fuss (3) connect horizontally, vertically, or
23 Farmyard birds (5) 35 Rope barrier (6) diagonally from first to the last
11 What a philatelist may even
24 Laila’s counterpart (5) number in the grid. The first and last
pay a fortune for ? (4,5)
13 Jaguarundi (4) 26 Cassowary’s cousin (3) numbers of a puzzle and some other Tina’s Grove
numbers are already filled in.

spellathon How good is your vocabulary? Spell out sudoku

as many words of four or more letters
as you can from the letters in today’s To solve a Sudoku
diagram. In making a word, each letter puzzle, every digit
must be used only once and each word must appear once
must contain the letter in the centre. in: Each of the
There should be at least one nine-letter vertical columns;
word! Plurals, foreign words, and Each of the
proper nouns do not qualify. horizontal rows;
Rate yourself Each of the boxes.
03 Average; 04 Good; 05 Wow!

Tinkersons
crossword
solutions

sudoku
hidato

ADJACENCY, candy, decay, deny, dyne

spellathon

Marjorie Orr
Your year ahead will be upbeat, filled with grand plans and enthusiastic schemes, though you’ll need to wait your chance before putting them into
IF IT’S YOUR action. Hard work and heavy responsibilities will get in the way for a few months, which you won’t be able to duck. You’ll take time out to focus on
BIRTHDAY TODAY family matters from mid-year. Then success will sweep you up in a sea of confidence from the year end with praise flooding in.

ARIES TAURUS GEMINI CANCER LEO VIRGO

Mar 21 - Apr 20
You may be right but are you
being persuasive? If you can
really communicate your
sense of vision and uplift
companions then all will work well. If you
come across as self-righteous they may
back away. So think through your
approach before you launch in. It will be
important to step back from time to time
to make up your mind what is that is
going to be good for you in the long term.
Planning is the name of the game.
Apr 21 - May 20
Mercury is at odds with
Jupiter so you may go slightly
over the top. It will boost your
confidence but could make
you unrealistic. Run with your enthusiasm
but have a care you’re not expecting
miracles. You want good, stable
relationships both at work and at home
today. You are not making unrealistic
demands of other people and neither are
they of you. So it will be a good time to
discuss any problems that come up.
May 21 - June 21
Look to see what glum face
around, you can crack into a
smile. There’s a lovely balance
around today, which means
whichever direction you usually lean
evens up a little. If you are often a little bit
frivolous, indulgent and can’t settle down
to the chores, this is the time you get real.
Or if you are normally gloomy, push aside
fun and just do what you have to do, then
today you will positively blossom with
good humour.
June 22 - July 23
You may be prophetic today in
a tiny way, getting a glimpse of
a possibility of something to
come. But don’t run away with
the idea that you can always trust your
hunches. Not all of them turn out as you
expect. Luckily, the practical influences
around today will mean you tackle work
projects in a fashion that brings positive
results. They’re good for creative tasks as
well, because you can turn your dreams
into reality make your talents work for you.
July 24 - August 23
There is a whiff of something
rather over-expansive in the air
at the moment, which could
make you think there’s nothing
you can’t do. You will be able to push your
fears to one side and say what you have
been hiding away. You may need to sit
down with loved ones to work out the
rules and regulations of your relationship.
There needs to be a way of sorting things
out so that misunderstandings do not
occur in future.
Aug 24 - Sep 23
You will be racing around at top
speed today. Try not to fall into
the trap of thinking that you are
always right and everyone else
wrong. Later on, you will be able to do
whatever your conscience tells you without
feeling too deprived. There are days when
duty takes precedence over indulgence and
this is one of them. Your love life may be a
bit more restrained at the moment but it
will bounce back to warmer climes very
quickly.

LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES

Write to Sept 24 - October 22 Oct 23 - November 22 Nov 23 - Dec 22 Dec 23 - Jan 20 Jan 21 - Feb 19 Feb20 - March 20
Marjorie You want to bounce mates into If you can stay flexible and Your mind is rattling with You can look ahead at the Your mood will be very upbeat Jupiter around at the moment
Orr better humour. You’re feeling open-minded then your ideas, which you spout in all moment and see a really rosy today but perhaps none too has more enthusiasm than
good so everyone else needs relationships will go with a directions. There may be no glow on the horizon. Your practical. Pushing yourself to common sense. It can cause
with your
to be the same. Just do it with swing. But Jupiter around can concrete decision coming out optimism is very high but you think through the practical problems if you bite off more
queries at good humour and sprinkle a few make you sound uppity. Don’t over blow of it all, but if you don’t start the process consequences of your actions seems too than you can chew, which may be the case
need to check out that it isn’t a mirage.
afterhrs@ compliments around. There’s nothing your prospects or promise the earth. Just with vigour then you won’t have the right Being a Pollyanna and thinking everything much effort. But think of the effort today. Just cut back what you think you
dnaindia. worse than a joker when others are feeling cut back a little. This is not a day for ingredients when it does come to making is going to be wonderful, is morale involved later if you have committed can do. If you can get the balance right
net gloomy. You will handle both the frivolous overspending. You will not mind pushing firm commitments. In love relationships, boosting but it is not helpful. This is a time yourself to more than you want in a few your business-like charm will win the day.
www. side of your life, and the more serious, aside frivolities and indulgences to get on you could feel a little separated. It’s just a to deal with other people with a little dignity days time. You will be very diplomatic Especially with friends and work colleagues
star4cast. self-disciplined side, giving them both equal with the things that are really important. By slight coolness in the air, perhaps because and restraint. Older people especially will around work situations. You have that as you sit down to discuss longer term
com weight. Maybe you do feel unappreciated the day’s end you should be able to polish duty comes before pleasure. Do whatever appreciate your straightforward kindness slight sense of reserve that other people plans and future projects with tact and
but you have no intention of letting it show. your halo and feel very virtuous indeed. your immediate situation demands. and concern for their practical needs. sometimes feel is quite attractive. firmness.

14 www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
snapshot
Pak PM can’t
interfere in our
polls: Owaisi
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi
We have free and
1 fair elections unlike
in Pakistan where
the electoral process is
controlled by their Army and
intelligence agency, ISI. I
condemn the statement of
Imran Khan. He has no right
to interfere in the electoral
process of India.
He comes from a
2 country where the
electoral process is
controlled by their Army and
ISI. We have free and fair
elections. It is wrong on part
of Imran Khan to say that
he wants Narendra Modi as
Prime Minister of India so
that Kashmir issue can be
solved. I would like to re-
mind him that Kashmir is not
anybody’s private property
Kashmir is an integral
3 part of India. Kashmir
is our heart. It is cor-
rect that there is a lot to do
in Kashmir, in which Modi
has failed. But the PM has
tried to portray himself as a
victim of Opposition parties
and Pakistan, and that they
don’t want to see him as PM
But now Imran Khan
4 is himself saying
that the Pakistan
establishment, that is ISI,
wants Modi as PM. I request
the people of India to ensure
that we do not allow Imran
Khan’s wish to get fulfilled.
People will come out and
decide who should lead our
great nation
Blast targets polling party, 2 police commandos hurt
Gadchiroli: Two police com-
mandos were injured in a
blast triggered by Naxals,
while escorting a polling
party in Maharashtra’s Gad-
chiroli district on Thursday.
The blast was the second
in the day and third since
Wednesday, police said.
The injured commandos
were from Maharashtra po-
lice’s C-60 force, an official
said. The blast was triggered
using an Improvised Explo-
CBI court directs Deepak
Talwar’s wife to join probe
New Delhi: A Special CBI
court on Thursday directed
Deepa Talwar, wife of corpo-
rate lobbyist Deepak Talwar,
to join investigation within
two weeks while hearing the
anticipatory bail plea filed by
her in connection with a
money laundering case.
The direction from the
Special CBI Judge Santosh
Snehi Mann came after the
Enforcement Directorate is-
sued a notice to Deepa asking
her to join the probe. Howev-
er, the court directed ED that
no coercive steps would be
taken against her till then.
During the course of hear-
looking forward women are able to travel abroad, pursue their education and careers
‘Saudi never funds extremist madrassas or mosques’
S
audi Ambassador to In-
dia HE Saud bin Mo-
hammed Al-Saty is in
Mumbai on an official
visit. Yogesh Pawar
speaks to him about
watching the world’s biggest
election, gender rights in
KSA, the emergent Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia(KSA) — Qa-
tar dynamic, the Khashoggi
case and LGBTQIA rights
„„ India’s embarking on
the world’s biggest elec-
tion. How keenly are these
being watched by KSA?
Since I took charge in 2012,
this is the second election I
am seeing. There is consider-
able interest in the Indian
elections in the KSA. After
all, India is the world’s larg-
The debris will decay in a few
weeks. That’s how the whole A-SAT
mission was planned.... the DRDO
is also focussing on small arms like
carbines
— G Satheesh Reddy, DRDO Chairman
Assange tried to access ‘Traffic pollution caused
asthma in 3.5L children’
secret govt data, says US
Calls him a conspirator, claims he wanted to access classified info in 2010
Washington: The US prose-
cutors said on Thursday they
had charged Julian Assange,
founder of the WikiLeaks
website, with conspiracy in
trying to access a classified
US government computer
with former Army intelli-
gence analyst Chelsea Man-
ning in 2010.
Assange, arrested by Brit-
ish police in London and car-
ried out of Ecuador’s embas-
sy there, faces a maximum
penalty of five years in pris-
on on the American charges,
the US. Justice Department
said. His London arrest paved
the way for his possible extra-
dition to the United States.
Assange’s indictment aro-
se from a long-running crim-
inal investigation dating
back to the administration of
former President Barack
Obama. It was triggered in
part by the publication by
WikiLeaks in 2010 of hun-
dreds of thousands of U.S.
military reports about the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
and American diplomatic
communications.
The Justice Department
said Assange, 47, was arrest-
ed pursuant to the U.S./UK
Extradition Treaty, and ac-
cused him of involvement in
one of the largest compro-
mises of classified informa-
tion in the history of the
United States.
The indictment said that
Assange in March 2010 en-
gaged in a conspiracy to as-
sist Manning in cracking a
password stored on US De-
partment of Defense comput-
ers connected to the Secret
Internet Protocol Network
(SIPRNet), a US government
network used for classified
Deepak Talwar
ing, Enforcement Directo-
rate’s counsel, Special Public
Prosecutor (SPP) DP Singh,
contended that Deepa was
evading probe.
While strongly opposing
the claims of the prosecu-
est democracy.
„„ Charges of Saudi money
funding import of extreme
Wahabbi Islam to India
are often thrown around
during campaigning...
It will be inappropriate to
react to individual comments
made during election cam-
paigning. We are with India
on its concerns about secu-
rity. Irrespective of the dis-
pensation in power we work
closely with the governments
before donating any money to
anybody. It is a complete
falsehood KSA funds extrem-
ist madrassas/mosques. Indi-
viduals too are banned from
giving to any charity outside
the KSA.
„„ Whether letting women
documents and communica-
tions. He was charged with
conspiracy to commit com-
puter intrusion.
The department said Man-
ning had access to the com-
puters as an intelligence ana-
lyst and was using them to
download classified records
to transmit to WikiLeaks.
Cracking the password
would have enabled Manning
to log on to the computers
under a username other than
her own, making it more dif-
ficult for investigators to de-
termine the source of the il-
legal disclosures, the depart-
ment said.
The Obama administra-
tion decided not to prosecute
WikiLeaks on the grounds
that the work of WikiLeaks
was too similar to journalis-
tic activities protected by the
US Constitution’s First
Amendment. — AFP
Another attack
Naxalites attacked
security forces in Chhatt-
isgarh’s Narayanpur
district on Thursday. One
Naxalite was neutralised
while one STF Constable
sustained injuries.
At around 04:15 pm,
Naxals attacked while
the security forces were
retreating from duty. —PTI
tion, Deepa’s counsel Tan-
veer Ahmad Mir argued in
the court that she will join
the investigation.
Last week, Deepa had ap-
proached the Special CBI
court seeking anticipatory
bail on the apprehension that
if she comes to India to join
the probe in the case, she
might be arrested.
Earlier on March 30, the
ED filed a charge-sheet before
a special CBI court against
Deepak Talwar in connection
with a money laundering
case and also named his son
Aditya Talwar as an accused
in the case. —ANI
Saud bin Mohammed Al-Saty
this isn’t the end...
‘contesting and fighting,’ says
assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson
The factual
allegations against
Mr Assange boil down to
encouraging a source to
provide him information
and taking efforts to
protect the identity of that
source. Journalists
around the world should
be deeply troubled by
these unprecedented
criminal charges
Barry Pollack, UK lawyer
Assange ‘not a hero’:
British foreign secy
London: WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange “is no hero”,
British Foreign Secretary
Jeremy Hunt said on Thurs-
day following his arrest at the
Ecuadorian embassy in Lon-
don. “What is not acceptable
is for someone to escape fac-
ing justice and he had tried to
do that for a very long time
and that is why he is no hero,”
Hunt said.
“He has hidden from the
truth for years and years and
it is right that his future
should be decided in the Brit-
ish judicial system,” he add-
ed. Assange had been living at
Ecuador’s embassy in Lon-
don’s plush Knightsbridge
sive Device (IED), police said.
The blast took place near
Hetri village in Etapalli
tehsil when the polling party
was returning to the district
headquarters after the voting
was over, said a police offi-
cial. As the team reached Par-
salgondi area, the IED was
triggered and two C-60 com-
mandos were seriously in-
jured, he said.
Earlier in the morning,
Naxals triggered an IED blast
Elephants and people play with water as part of celebrations for the water festival of Songkran, which marks the
start of the Thai New Year in Ayutthaya, Thailand on Thursday — REUTERS
drive/opening movie thea-
tres, the KSA is seeing
sweeping changes?
Following a special decree,
women are now permitted to
get licences and hence drive.
Overall there are efforts at
improving work opportuni-
ties for women across sec-
tors. Saudi women are in-
charge at immigration desks,
airline counters, hotels, shop-
ping centres and so on. Both
our stock market and our
largest bank are currently
headed by women. We have a
woman Minister of Labour
and a new woman deputy
minister in the Ministry of
Commerce was also appoint-
ed last week. The world’s
largest women’s university -
It’s not
my thing.
I know there is
something
having to do
with Julian
Assange. It’s
not my deal in
life. WikiLeaks,
I love
WikiLeaks
Donald Trump,
US President
district since 2012 when he
sought refuge there after be-
ing accused of sexual assault
in Sweden. The Metropolitan
Police said it arrested As-
sange for breaching his bail
conditions dating back to that
period, and that he is also be-
ing held over an extradition
request from the US.
There he faces a serious
case linked to the publication
of classified US defence mate-
rial. Hunt hailed his arrested
as “the result of years of care-
ful diplomacy” with Ecuador
and praised the country’s
President Lenin Moreno as
having made “a courageous
decision” to allow it. — AFP
near a polling booth in
Waghezari area, 150 metres
from a polling booth, in the
district. Nobody was injured
in that blast. On Wednesday,
Naxals denoted an IED at
Gatta Jambia village in Eta-
palli tehsil when a polling
party was heading for a poll-
ing station. A CRPF jawan
was injured. Gadchiroli was
among the seven seats in Ma-
harashtra where polling took
place Thursday. — PTI
jumbo joy
Princess Nourah Bint Abdul-
rahman University, Riyadh -
is totally managed and run by
women. In fact KSA has ap-
pointed its first woman am-
bassador to the US. Princess
Reema bint Bandar two
weeks ago.
„„ But women still have to
be accompanied by a male
‘guardian’ or have their
authorisation to board a
flight.
That’s changing. Many
women are being able to trav-
el abroad and pursue educa-
tion and careers abroad. We
would like to see that grow.
Only day before yesterday I
met three Saudi women who
are living here in Mumbai
which they feel is their home.
second
front
page
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 12, 2019 I daily news & analysis
Washington: Traffic-related
pollution caused asthma
among 350,000 children in In-
dia in 2015, second only to
China, according to a Lancet
study unveiled Thursday that
analysed 194 countries and
125 major cities worldwide.
The first global estimates
of their kind published in
The Lancet Planetary Health
journal suggest that more
than one in ten childhood
asthma cases could be linked
to traffic-related air pollution
every year. With 92 per cent
of cases developing in areas
that have traffic pollution lev-
els below the World Health
Organization (WHO) guide-
line level, the researcher sug-
gest that this limit may need
to be reviewed.
“Nitrogen dioxide pollu-
tion appears to be a substan-
tial risk factor for childhood
asthma incidence in both de-
veloped and developing coun-
tries, especially in urban ar-
eas,” said Susan Anenberg
from George Washington
University, US.
“Our findings suggest that
the World Health Organiza-
tion guideline for annual av-
erage NO2 concentrations
Approve composition of green
crackers by May 15: SC to govt
New Delhi: The Supreme
Court Thursday directed the
Centre to approve the compo-
sition of green crackers after
it is formulated by PESO so
as to enable their manufac-
turing. It allowed the fire-
cracker manufacturers to
apply for approvals from the
concerned authorities after
Petroleum and Explosive
Safety organization (PESO)
approves the new formula-
tion of fireworks by April 30.
A bench of Justices S A
Bobde, M Shantanagoudar
and Indira Banerjee said that
after PESO finalises the new
formulation of fireworks, an
approval of Union of India
should also be taken so that
Improved formulations: PESO to SC
PESO told the SC on March 5 that it has finalised “im-
proved formulations” for making green firecrackers and
product approvals will be given to the manufacturers sub-
sequently. The court was earlier informed that joint work
was undertaken by CSIR, NEERI, and other fireworks
manufacturers related to production of firecrackers.
Of course, we are a tradition-
ally conservative society just
like you are. Family values
and tradition are very dear to
us. We respect our customs,
our faith and our way of life.
But we have to acknowledge
women and their need for
change. Today they are not
only demanding it but often
driving change too.
„„ There’s a big focus on
infrastructure...
Yes. Upgrading of existing
airports, the creation of new
ones is on the anvil. A whole
new tourist-cross border city
Neom is being built in the far
north-west Tabuk province
on the Egyptian and Jorda-
nian borders.
Full report: www.dnaindia.com
NO2, the major component to
cause pollution, is formed from
fossil fuel combustion, and
traffic emissions
might need to be revisited,
and that traffic emissions
should be a target to mitigate
exposure,” Anenberg said.
“Our study indicates that
policy initiatives to alleviate
traffic-related air pollution
can lead to improvements in
children’s health and also re-
duce greenhouse gas emis-
sions,” said lead author Ploy
Achakulwisut from George
Washington University.
Traffic-related air pollu-
tion may result in asthma
development as pollutants
may cause damage to the air-
manufacturing can start.
“Any licensed manufac-
turer may apply for requisite
approval in accordance with
the relevant rules and orders.
This order shall be subject to
such orders after the PESO
has granted the approval.
The Ministry of Environ-
ment, Forest and climate
Amazon workers
are now listening to
what you tell Alexa
A
mazon.com has employed
thousands of people to
help improve Alexa digital
assistant that gives a boost to
its line of Echo speakers. The
system listens to voice re-
cordings captured in Echo
owners’ homes and offices,
transcribes and feeds it back
to the software. The reason?
It eliminates gaps in Alexa’s
understanding of human
speech and help it better re-
spond to commands.
Alexa knows where
exactly humans err
The Alexa voice review pro-
cess highlights the often-
overlooked human role in
training software algorithms.
Alexa “lives in the cloud and
is always getting smarter,”
says Amazon. However, like
many software tools built to
learn, humans are doing
some of the teaching. A team
of team comprises contrac-
tors and full-time employees
— including many in India
— signed nondisclosure
agreements barring them
from speaking publicly about
the programme.
Parsing audio clips
The team works with each
reviewer parsing as many as
1,000 audio clips per shift.
The data is mined from the
surroundngs. The team uses
internal chat rooms to share
files when they need help
parsing a muddled word.
Amazon says it has proce-
dures to follow when they
hear something distressing.
Throwing caution
n Globally, there are 170 fresh
cases of traffic pollution-
related asthma per 100,000
children every year
n 13% of childhood asthma
cases diagnosed each year are
linked to traffic pollution
n Kuwait has the highest rate
of traffic pollution-related
childhood asthma with 550
cases per 100,000 children
each year, followed by the UAE
at 460 per 100,000
ways, leading to inflamma-
tion that triggers asthma in
genetically predisposed chil-
dren. The researchers used
NO2 as a surrogate for the
traffic pollution mixture to
focus specifically on the ef-
fects of traffic pollution on
childhood asthma develop-
ment. NO2 is just one compo-
nent of air pollution, which
is made up of many pollut-
ants (including particulate
matter, ozone, carbon monox-
ide), which are known to have
numerous adverse effects on
health. — PTI
Change may file a report be-
fore this Court...,” the bench
said. It clarified that these
orders will be operating till
further orders and do no cre-
ate any equity in favour of
anybody. It listed the matter
for further hearing in August
2019. The apex court was
hearing pleas of firecracker
manufacturers including the
Tamil Nadu Fireworks and
Amorces Manufacturers’ As-
sociation seeking permission
to make of firecrackers.
They contended that they
should be allowed to manu-
facture firecrackers with
Barium substitute which is
Barium nitrate claiming that
this would reduce the pollu-
tion to the extent of about 25
to 30 per cent. The bench,
however did not agree with
the contention saying it is not
inclined to allow this because
the matter is still under con-
sideration of the PESO which
has agreed to look into the
best formulation that may be
permissible for manufacture
of firecrackers. —PTI
Records snatches
of audio for words
Consumers bought 78
million smart speakers
last year, according to re-
searcher Canalys. Mil-
lions more use voice soft-
ware to interact with
digital assistants on their
smartphones. Alexa soft-
ware is designed to con-
tinuously record snatch-
es of audio, listening for
a word. That’s “Alexa” by
default, but people can
change it to “Echo” or
“computer.”
Speech recognition
Amazon doesn’t explicitly
say humans are listening to
recordings of some conversa-
tions picked up by Alexa. “We
use your requests to Alexa to
train our speech recognition
and natural language under-
standing systems,” the com-
pany says. In Alexa’s privacy
settings, the company gives
users the option of disabling
the use of their voice record-
ings for developing new fea-
tures. — Bloomberg