02 page1 city layout 1

BRIEFLY 

India-China in naval 

‘confrontation’ 

New Delhi: An Indian naval 

ship got a measure of China’s 

blue water navy when it was 

confronted by a Chinese vessel 

on the disputed South 

China Sea. The incident 

occurred in July when the 

INS Airavat paid a friendly 

visit to the Vietnamese port 

of Nha Trang and was on its 

way to Hai Phong, its second 

port of call. It was challenged 

by a Chinese vessel. However, 

India has denied any confrontation. 

—P6 

Raja followed govt 

policy: TRAI 

New Delhi: The telecom regulatory 

authority of India on 

Thursday gave a muchneeded 

boost to jailed former 

telecom minister A Raja, 

when it said that Raja had 

followed government policy 

in the distribution of 2G 

spectrum allocation. It said it 

was not possible to 

determine the losses caused 

by Raja’s handling of licences 

in 2008. —Agencies 

Rajiv case: Centre 

skirts mercy plea row 

New Delhi: The Centre on 

Thursday avoided the controversy 

over the T N Assembly 

asking the President to 

reconsider the mercy pleas of 

Rajiv Gandhi's killers but said 

as long as the death sentence 

was legal, courts would continue 

to award it. —P6 

WEATHER 

High 

Low 

29.3 0 

c 

26.3 0 

c 

FORECAST 

High 

Low 

30 0 

c 

26 0 

c 

Rain 

5.1 mm 

Rain 

Cloudy Sky 

Sport 

Five-wicket haul for debutant 

Nathan Lyon takes five to dismiss Lanka for 105 

as Aussies take big lead in Galle P14 

This is perhaps the most appropriate match – 

the World’s Best Player in the World’s most Football 

Fanatic City. Lionel Messi and Kolkata, 

it seems at the moment, are made for each other. 

Kolkata’s projection as the world’s most football 

fanatic city may not be acceptable to all. But to push 

the age-old debate further, Messi, the biggest little 

boy of world football, probably at the peak of his 

career for his national team, takes centre stage against 

Venezuela in an International Friendly 

at the Salt Lake stadium on Friday. But it isn’t Messi 

alone. You have Gonzalzo Higuain, Sergei Aguero, 

KOLKATA FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2011 Pages 16+8+4 ` 2.50 

Messi Mania 

� Lionel Messi surrounded by fans, photographers and security outside Salt Lake stadium on Thursday —BP 

Javier Mascherano among others – the galaxy of stars 

which makes the Albicelestes the most 

glamourous (read marketable) team in the world. The 

prevalent sentiment in Kolkata, nevertheless, isn’t 

concentrated on all; rather Lionel Messi stays the 

cynosure of all eyes. And we haven’t yet spoken about 

the Venezuelan team. Messi, we all 

know, doesn’t love being surrounded by rivals on the 

field. But his first few hours in Kolkata have been a 

siege with security men shadowing him 

for obvious reasons. Fans only hope Friday 

will be different. — BP see pages 15,16 

Ramdev charged 

under Fema 

Rajesh Sinha 

New Delhi: The enforcement 

directorate on 

Thursday registered a foreign 

exchange violation 

case against Baba Ramdev. 

The ED reportedly found 

evidence of Ramdev and 

his trusts receiving financial 

aid from the USA, 

Britain and New Zealand. 

Sleuths are checking if his 

investments and transactions 

had followed RBI 

guidelines. 

The probe reportedly 

found foreign remittances 

and funds inflow. Action 

has now been taken under 

Foreign Exchange Man - 

agement Act (Fema). The 

probe seeks to check the 

transactions through vari- 

World 

A new film on pop icon Michael 

It will throw additional light on the unique facets of 

his personality and life P10 

ous Ramdev trusts. The ED 

had approached authorities 

in the UK, seeking 

financial details about an 

island in Scotland “gifted” 

to the yoga guru by a couple 

who are among his followers. 

The Little Cumbrae 

Island, off the fishing town 

of Largs in Scotland, serves 

as Ramdev’s overseas base 

and also as a wellness centre. 

The ED has asked the UK 

authorities to help it get 

inputs on funding-related 

aspects of the island. 

Ved Pratap Vaidik, a 

Baba aide, said: “The case 

timing is suspect. If the 

government had all this 

information, why didn’t it 

file the case earlier?” 

Food inflation at 

10.05pc; FM upset 

New Delhi: Food inflation 

entered the double-digit 

zone at 10.05 per cent for 

the week ended August 

20. It was at 9.8 per cent 

the previous week. 

Finance minister Pranab 

Mukherjee on Thursday 

called the rise “disturbing” 

and said the government 

would have to improve 

supply. Experts said RBI 

could go in for another 

rate hike. Onion price has 

more than doubled yearon-year. 

During the week 

under review, onion was 

57.01 per cent costlier. 

Fruits were 21.58 per cent 

costlier and vegetable 

prices rose 15.78 per cent. 

Food inflation was last in 

the double-digit zone in 

the week ended March 12, 

2011, when it was at the 

same level of 10.05 per 

cent. Mukherjee said food 

prices were rising because 

of supply bottlenecks. 

“Inflation is always a matter 

of concern and we shall 

have to ensure and 

improve the supply of food 

items,” he said. —Agencies 

Treat the poor 

for free, SC 

tells hospitals 

Two-judge top court Bench reminds 

appellant of ‘social responsibility’ 

Our Special Correspondent 

New Delhi: Delhi’s private 

hospitals which got state 

government land at concessional 

rates must now keep 

25 per cent of their outpatient 

department capacity 

as also 10 per cent of their 

in-patient department 

capacity for free treatment 

to the poor. 

Upholding a 2007 Delhi 

High Court judgment which 

had made it mandatory for 

all such hospitals to provide 

free treatment to the poor, a 

two-judge Supreme Court 

Bench of Justices RV 

Ravendran and AK Patnaik 

held on Thursday that these 

hospitals couldn’t anymore 

“wriggle out” of their social 

responsibility. 

Delhi has 37 private hospitals 

— almost all them superspecialty 

ones — which had 

received land at concessional 

rates. Only 27 of these have 

adhered to the high court 

directive. 

The rest appealed against 

it, saying providing free 

treatment to patients with 

cancer or those needing 

complex surgeries would be 

way beyond their means. 

Not convinced, the court 

said, “The bottom line is: 

poor patients are not to be 

charged.” It dismissed the 

hospitals’ appeal against 

mandatory free treatment. 

“Why did you (hospitals) 

take the land? You hand the 

land back to the government 

and purchase it somewhere 

else,” the Bench told the 

counsel for a hospital which 

pleaded that it wasn’t practical 

to provide free treatment 

to the poor in every case. 

“You want to wriggle out 

after signing the contract 

with the government while 

taking the land (at concessional 

rate),” the Bench said. 

It directed the Delhi government 

to discuss with these 

hospitals the guidelines on 

free high-cost health care to 

the poor. 

The 2007 HC order stipulates 

that poor patients “will 

be provided free admission, 

bed, medication, treatment, 

surgery facility, nursing 

facility and consumables 

and non-consumables. The 

hospitals charging any 

money from such patients 

shall be liable to be proceeded 

against in accordance 

with the law. Besides 

that, this would be treated 

as violation of the orders of 

the court”. 

Last week, the Supreme 

Court had sought an affidavit 

from the Delhi government 

on how 27 private hospitals 

were treating poor patients 

for free and wanted to know 

whether they were giving 

free medicines even for diseases 

like cancer. 

� Justice Soumitra Sen 

LC 

Justice Sen 

quits, sends 

letter to 

President 

Kolkata: Justice Soumitra Sen 

of Calcutta High Court 

resigned on Thursday, five 

days before his impeachment 

motion was to take up in the 

Lok Sabha. 

“I have put in my papers 

today,” Justice Sen, against 

whom the Rajya Sabha has 

approved an impeachment 

motion, said. 

“I have decided not to go to 

the Lok Sabha and instead put 

in my papers,” Sen, who was 

to have appeared before the 

Lok Sabha on September 5, 

said. 

“I have sent my resignation 

to President Pratibha Patil 

and a copy of it to the Lok 

Sabha Speaker,” Sen said. 

In his letter to the 

President, Justice Sen has said 

that since Rajya Sabha has 

decided in its wisdom that he 

should not continue as a 

judge, he is resigning and 

wants to live as a common 

citizen, his lawyer Subhash 

Bhattacharya said. 

The Rajya Sabha had on 

August 18 overwhelmingly 

approved the impeachment 

motion against Justice Sen. 

Justice Sen was held guilty 

of misappropriating `33.23 

lakh in a 1983 case. —PTI

2 

CITY 

BRIEFLY 

� A Ganesh idol in Kolkata 

on the occasion of 

Ganesh Chaturthi on 

Thursday — BP 

Woman hit by vehicle, 

hospitalised 

Kolkata: A female pedestrian, 

Anju Dutta, 65, was 

dashed by a south bound 

vehicle at Behala 

Shakerbazar on Thursday. 

She was taken to Vidyasagar 

hospital by a trauma care 

ambulance. Dutta, a resident 

of Santosh Roy Road, has 

injured her leg seriously. —BP 

Metro extends date of 

refunding smart cards 

Kolkata: Kolkata Metro 

Railway announced that the 

last date for refunding smart 

cards has been extended till 

September 30. In their 

release, they have decided to 

extend the date of refund of 

old smart cards, AFC multi 

ride tickets. Tickets are ought 

to be refunded within the 

stipulated period. —BP 

Woman knocked 

down by car 

Kolkata: Saraswati Devi, 65, 

was knocked down by a car 

near Sukanta Setu while she 

got down from a bus around 

11 in the morning on 

Thursday. The offending car 

could not be chased. Sarawati 

Devi, a resident of 

Vivekananda Road was taken 

to KPC Medical College & 

Hospital in serious 

condition. —BP 

Rally to affect traffic 

on Friday 

Kolkata: A rally comprising 

of more than 500 people will 

be taken out on Friday from 

Diamond Harbour Road to 

Tollygunge Circular Road.Due 

to the procession, traffic will 

be affected along the 

Ramtanu Lahiri Sarani, 

Sahapore Road, New Alipore 

crossing and Nolini Sarkar 

Avenue. The procession will 

start from 11 am. —BP 

Free power connection 

to BPL families 

Kolkata: Aiming to bring 

electricity to every house in 

Bengal within three years, 

the state government on 

Thursday announced free 

power for BPL families and 

basic connections to any person 

against payment of `379. 

Power minister Manish 

Gupta told the Assembly in a 

written statement that beneficiaries 

would not have to 

pay forinstallation of posts or 

infrastructure. Monitoring of 

the national rural electrification 

scheme Rajiv Gandhi 

Grameen Vidyutikaran 

Yojana would be done by 

MLAs, MPs and district magistrates, 

he said. —PTI 

City to see religious 

procession 

Kolkata: A religious procession 

comprising of 250 will 

be taken out from 27, Pollock 

Street and return here via 

Ezra Street, Canning Street, 

Brabourne Road and Tea 

Board on Friday. Another 

procession will be taken out 

from Rani Rashmoni Square 

and move along N C Street, 

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road. —BP 

QUOTE TALE 

We are ruling out heavy 

rainfall as a cause for the 

price hike. We are still 

investigating the matter, 

but one reason could be 

rumours of short supply 

—Rajesh Sinha 

additonal secretary, agricultural 

marketing department 

Top cop tells force to be on its toes 

As jurisdiction expands to include 17 new police stations 

Our Correspondent 

Kolkata: As the Kolkata 

Police added over 17 police 

stations in areas formerly 

under the South 24-Parganas 

police on Thursday, its chief 

RK Pachnanda had only one 

message for his men and 

women: maintain law and 

order, reduce the crime rate 

and manage the traffic system. 

Pachnanda visited the new 

police stations with other 

senior police officials, including 

special commissioner 

Shivaji Ghosh and joint commissioner 

of traffic Supratim 

Sarkar. 

According to senior police 

officials, one of the challenges 

of the new areas was 

the traffic congestion. There 

are many auto stands on 

most roads, creating problems 

for daily commuters 

and restricting their move- 


New jurisdiction 

The police stations in 

added areas taken over 

by Kolkata Police are: 

Behala, Thakurpukur, 

Parnasree, Haridevpur, 

Regent Park, Bansdroni, 

Patuli, Survey Park, 

Purba Jadavpur, 

Jadavpur, Kasba, 

Tiljala, Pragati Maidan, 

Rajabagan, Nadial, 

Garfa and Metiabruz 

ment. Unlike on city roads, 

the new areas have a lot of 

cycle rickshaws, rickshaw 

vans and motor fitted vans. 

The city police said handpulled 

rickshaws and vans 

were requested to avoid the 

main roads. 

After taking charge of the 

Pleasant days ahead 

for city: Met office 


Kolkata: The pleasant 

weather in the city, with 

alternating clouded and 

clear blue skies, cool breeze 

and occasional rain will 

continue for the next few 

days, according to the 

Alipore Meteorological 

office on Thursday. 

The Met office attributed 

the pleasant weather to the 

persistence of the monsoon 

trough over Gangetic West 

Bengal. 

“There has been a considerable 

amount of rainfall in 

the state, including the city, 

given the nature of the 

monsoon trough and other 

weather phenomenon associated 

with it,” said an 

Alipore Met department 

official. 

He said that for a trough 

to get stronger it had to persist 

in a region without any 

movement. With the trough 

persisting for a long period 

of time, it has its effect on 

the region in the form of 

rain, thus, bringing down 

the temperature. 

“At present, the trough is 

over Gangetic West Bengal 

and is persistent, causing 

sporadic rainfall across the 

state. This weather will continue 

to be pleasant as such 

weather formations are 

normal for this season of the 

year,” added the Met official. 

The Alipore met department 

said the monsoon 

trough was not the only factor 

responsible for the rains. 

When accompanied by 

cyclonic circulation and low 

pressure, the rain becomes 

more intense, it said. 

“This year, occasions of 

low pressure and cyclonic 

circulation have been more 

frequent along with a persistent 

monsoon trough 

over Gangetic West Bengal. 

This has resulted in widespread 

rain across the state,” 

the Met official said. 

In its forecast, the Met 

office said the skies over the 

city would generally be 

clouded along with few 

spells of thundershowers. 

“For the next 24 hours, 

this weather will continue 

and it will be mostly comfortable. 

There is no abnormality 

in the trough as the 

cyclonic circulation present 

over Orissa has moved 

away to Chhattisgarh, but it 

will have some effects 

on the weather,” said 

the met officer. 

Chief minister 

celebrates 

Ganesh Chaturthi 

Kolkata: The cries of ‘Ganapati Bappa Morya’ reverberated 

in the air. No, it was not a scene from Mumbai but a sight 

from the city itself. Like its western counterpart, the eastern 

metropolis also warmly invited Lord Ganesh to be its guest 

on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. 

And among those welcoming the divine guest was chief 

minister Mamata Banerjee, who was a special guest at the 

Maharashtra Mandal in south Kolkata. The chief minister 

paid her respects to the deity. It was her first visit to the mandal 

after assuming office. The chief minister never forgets to 

visit the Mandal every year on Ganesh Chaturthi. 

According to Pushpa Dhote, the secretary of Maharashtra 

Mandal, Banerjee has held several 

party meetings at the 

Mandal in the past. “We had 

formally invited her and sent 

an invitation letter to the 

Writers’ Buildings. She visits us 

every year during Ganesh 

Chaturthi and pays her 

respects. Her visit was eagerly 

expected this time too,” she 

said. 

Mamata Banerjee 

Thursday marked the first 

day of the Ganesh Chaturthi, 

which will be celebrated over the next 10 days by devotees 

across the city. Besides Maharashtrians, people from all communities 

came to worship the elephant god. The idol of 

Ganesha was commissioned from idol-makers of Kalighat 

on Wednesday night and was formally installed after the 

puja ceremony on Thursday. 

Besides the Maharashtra Mandal, there were other organisations 

which celebrated the festival. There were many people 

at Manicktala, Hazra and Palmer Bazar road who also celebrated 

the festival. 

“Lord Ganesha signifies wealth and prosperity and we celebrate 

the Ganesh festival so that he brings prosperity and 

blesses us with good luck. We decided to celebrate it despite 

the price hike,” said Hemant Dhavale, who had installed an 

idol at Hazra Road. 

There was a 30 per cent hike in the cost of Ganesha idols 

this time and around 1,000 idols were sold by the artisans of 

Kumartuli. According to the artisans at Kumartuli, the price 

of Ganesh idols rose due to the inflation, but, people across 

the city bought idols and prayed for the blessings of Ganesh. 

� R K Pachananda inaugrates Purba Jadavpur police 

station on thursday — Shyamal Chakroborty 

new areas, the Kolkata Police 

shifted many auto stands. 

The auto stands along NSC 

Bose Road, Taratala crossing, 

M G Road and other areas 

were moved to other areas. 

“This step was taken to 

make traffic smoother. There 

are no broad roads. So it was 


Kolkata: With laddoos being 

the favourite sweet of Lord 

Ganesh, sales of the delicious 

sweet were brisk on Thursday 

as people rushed to sweet 

shops and confectioners to 

buy the beloved sweet of 

Gajanan. 

Sweet shop owners said 

the sale of laddoos were at an 

all time high during the day. 

“The sale of laddoos witnessed 

a steep rise on the 

occasion of Ganesh Chathurti 

on Thursday. Numerous of 

customers have come and 

asked for the sweet in huge 

quantities on the occasion,” 

said Satish Sharma of 

Gangaur sweet shop. 

He said the shop sold only 

one type of the sweet priced 

at `340 per kilogramme. 

decided to curb autos, rickshaws 

and vans on the main 

roads,” said joint commissioner 

of police (headquarters) 

Jawed Shamim at 

Lalbazar. 

In another initiative, officers 

distributed leaflets 

among the residents of the 

Call for Peace 

“Every day, we sell around 10 

kilos of the sweet and today 

on the occasion of Ganesh 

Chathurthi the sales doubled,” 

added Sharma. The 

story was much the same at 

Ganguram, another confec- 

added areas to inform them 

of their new police stations. 

The 17 new police stations 

were created out of nine former 

South 24-Parganas 

police stations. 

However, many of the new 

police stations are not fully 

prepared to take charge, 

except for the Rajabagan 

police station. 

A few have been constructed 

with temporary 

materials and have no lockups 

as yet. Therefore, those 

arrested under the jurisdiction 

of those police stations 

will be taken to the central 

lock-up. 

“We are trying to solve the 

problem of added area police 

stations,” said Shamim. 

Pachnanda also held a 

separate meeting with all 

officers in-charge and other 

senior officers of the 17 

police stations for better 

policing of the new areas. 

� Anti-war rally organised by Sara Bharat Shanti O Sanghati Sanstha in kolkata 

on Thursday — Shyamal Chakroborty 

Sahid Minar to get fresh 

coat of paint & lights 

Our Special 

Correspondent 

Kolkata: The Sahid Minar, 

once the most prominent 

landmark in the city along 

with the Howrah bridge 

and a must-see for 

tourists, has now lost 

much of its sheen. Its 

gleaming white has paled 

and the lights around the 

dome have stopped burning. 

Chief minister Mamata 

Banerjee, who wants the 

city to be as beautiful as 

London, is keen to see that 

the pristine glory of the 

beautiful tower, a mixture 

of Syrian, Egyptian and 

Turkish schools of architecture, 

is restored. She 

wants the structure 

painted afresh and illumination 

revived. 

Public works department 

secretary A R 

Bardhan, who visited the 

Minar on Thursday, told 

journalists at the Writers’ 

Buildings that the state 

heritage commission 

would be consulted before 

the tower is given a fresh 

coat of paint. “It should be 

white including the dome 

so that it attracts light 

from the tall buildings 

overlooking it from the 

east,” he said. 

The dome had been 

painted red during the 

United Front regime in the 

Sixties when the then 

government rechristened 

it, too. It was previously 

known as the Ochterlony 

Monument and put up by 

the East India Company in 

1828 to mark the victory 

of Sir David Ochterlony in 

the 1814-16 Nepal campaign. 

Bardhan said the illumination 

was previously 

being provided by CESC. 

“We’ve to find out if they 

will resume it. Otherwise, 

the department will take 

upon the responsibility 

itself.” He said proper 

landscaping of the Sahid 

Minar’s surroundings 

would also be taken up to 

make it more attractive 

and ensure a cleaner environment. 

It was not immediately 

known whether tourists 

would be allowed to go up 

to the top by negotiating 

218 spiral steps. The 

authorities had clamped a 

ban on visitors’ going up 

to the top to take an aerial 

view of the city in the 

early Seventies following a 

suicide attempt. 

The secretary said a 

decision to reopen it to the 

public would be taken 

after consultations with 

the army and the Kolkata 

Police. 

Asked about the costs 

for the renovation initiative, 

the official said 

the question would 

come once the basic 

objectives had been identified 

and cleared 

for implementation. 

tioner. 

“People are flocking to the 

shop and asking for sweets in 

huge amounts. We have sold 

from 12 pieces to 70 pieces at 

a time on this occasion,” said 

Manish Chaurasia of 

Ganguram at Chowringee 

Road. Ganguram, which normally 

sells around 200-250 

pieces of laddoos every day, 

sold around 1,000 pieces of 

the sweet on Thursday. 

“The laddoo is used for various 

purposes on Ganesh 

Chathurthi. While few offer it 

as prasad to God, some gift a 

packet of the sweet to their 

family members. Out of all 

the sweets, this makes for a 

favourite,” said Gopal Sharma 

from Haldirams at 

Burrabazar. 

Sharma further said that 

there were primarily two 

types of laddoos — one variety 

made using vegetable oil 

and another made using 

ghee. “Although the laddoos 

made of ghee are costlier, 

they are the favourites,” 

added Sharma. 

Kolkata Friday September 2, 2011 

www.thebengalpost.com 

Private hospitals 

in a fix over apex 

court’s ruling 


Kolkata: Private hospitals 

find themselves in a fix 

over a Supreme Court ruling 

on Thursday, directing 

them to provide free treatment 

to people below the 

poverty line. 

The board of directors 

and the management of 

such hospitals in the city 

are yet to take a decision. 

Subhamoy Dutta 

Chaudhuri, the director of 

state health services, said 

that the court’s aim was to 

make scientific and proper 

health services accessible 

to all sections of the society. 

“The judgment by the 

Supreme Court was a bold 

step in this 

direction. We will formulate 

a detailed approach to 

the issue after studying 

the interpretation 

provided by our legal cell,” 

he said. 

While 

most of privatehospitals 

have 

special 

packages 

and offers for poor and BPL 

category patients, some 

are thinking of increasing 

such facilities. 

“We do have such packages, 

in which the people 

from the BPL category are 

given rebates. There are 

times when we have given 

them special discounts for 

their inability to pay,” said 

a spokesperson of Fortis 

hospitals. 

“We cannot comment 

on this recent ruling but 

will definitely take a stand 

after our management 

takes a decision,”the officer 

added. 

Private hospitals are 

� File photo of Shahid Minar 

Ladoo sales rise on Ganesh Chaturthi 

Supreme Court 

directed the 

private hospitals 

to provide free 

treatment to people 

below the 

poverty line 

FREE TREATMENT 

TO BPL PEOPLE 

taking their time to decide 

their stand as they are not 

sure about the details of 

the judgment. “We are not 

sure about the implication 

and what 

exactly the 

judgment 

says,” said 

Udayan 

Lahiri, CEO 

of Medica super specialty 

hospital. 

We will take a little bit 

of time to study and assess 

it. We are going through 

the details and we will 

decide our stand soon, he 

added. 

Hospitals such as 

Ruby and Peerless were 

also waiting to go through 

the judgment. 

“We’ve not decided 

what stand to take 

because it will take us 

time to go through the 

order’s details,” said 

Nivedita Ghosh, chief 

operating officer of 

Peerless Hospitals. 

Traders 

meet 

Bidhannagar 

chairperson 


Kolkata: Traders of two market 

areas located in 

Bidhannagar —Sukantanagar 

and Baisakhi — on Thursday 

submitted their complaints 

and suggestions to improve 

the complexes to municipality 

chairperson Krishna 

Chakraborty on Thursday. 

The executive members of 

the Baisakhi Bazaar Babsayi 

Samiti told Chakraborty that 

there were faults in the allotments 

at the newly constructed 

complex. The committee 

members from 

Sukantanagar complained 

that the market area had now 

become a shelter for criminals. 

“For the past three decades, 

we have had temporary sheds 

at the Baishakhi market. The 

new building was meant to 

give us permanent stalls. But, 

there are lot of loopholes in 

the way the allotted shops 

have been distributed,” said 

Tapan Saha, the secretary of 

the Baishakhi Bazaar Babsayi 

Samity. He said that around 

190 businessmen were promised 

proper relocation but the 

distribution of the shops did 

not match the profile of the 

business. 

“Many people selling vegetables 

or rations have been 

given shops on the upper tier, 

thus, hampering their business 

as customers miss the 

shops at their usual places. 

We have also not got the 

transfer of ownership for the 

shops hence, we are still 

under the label of temporary 

businessmen,” added Saha. 

Asim Guha, the secretary of 

ward 19 in Sukantanagar, 

raised the issue of criminals 

taking shelter in the market. 

The chairperson promised 

to look into their problems. “I 

will discuss the problems 

individually. There are many 

constraints faced by the 

municipality, the financial 

crunch being one of the 

biggest problems. We will fix 

all the problems,” she assured.


www.thebengalpost.com CITY 3 

CBI likely to probe Wakf scam 


Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata 

Banerjee asked for a CBI investigation 

into the alleged scam of property 

under the Wakf Board in the 

Assembly on Thursday. Her 

announcement came after former 

Left Front minister Abdur Rezzak 

Mollah requested her to launch a 

probe into the scam. 

Mollah requested Banerjee to look 

into the allegations of anomalies in 

the handover of Wakf properties 

across the state along with the money 

laundering. Wishing him “Double Eid 

Mubarak”, the chief minister made 

the announcement after the budget 

of the minorities welfare department 

was placed. 

“Since there is no opposition from 

the House and the agenda is one of 

those issues in our list of priorities, 

we will initiate a CBI probe into it,” 

she told Mollah. 

Banerjee pointed out that she had 

always wanted a conclusive detail 

from the investigation into this scam. 

“Nothing concrete came out and I 

even moved to the Supreme Court to 

file a public interest litigation. 

However, when you want an investigation, 

we’ll ask CBI to do it this time,” 

she said in reply to Mollah’s request. 

The Wakf Board looks after several 

religious properties, belonging to the 

Muslims, across the state. In 2008, 

No anomalies between 

GTA draft and Bill: Govt 


Kolkata: The state government on Thursday 

clarified that there were no anomalies 

between the Gorkhaland Territorial 

Administration (GTA) and the draft Bill, as 

alleged by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha 

(GJM) on Wednesday. 

Asked whether there 

were any anomalies 

between the GTA and the 

draft Bill, industry minister 

Partha Chatterjee told 

journalists after the 11th 

state Cabinet meeting: 

“Yes, all the points are 

there and they are the 

same.” He also said that a 

proposal for the GTA 

would be passed in the 

Assembly on Friday. 

Earlier in the day, GJM 

general secretary Roshan 

Giri had submitted a letter 

to chief secretary Samar 

Ghosh, pointing out the 

differences between the 

GTA and the draft Bill. He 

also met the chief minister 

over the issue. 

Chatterjee said the 

Cabinet had also agreed to 

hand over the investigation 

into the Wakf scam to 

the CBI. And, cief minister 

Mamata Banerjee 

declared her intention to 

do so in the Assembly. 

The minister further 

informed that the Cabinet 

also discussed the decision 

of the August 19 allparty 

meeting where it 

was decided that the state � Roshan Giri 

would be renamed 

Mamata 

apprises 

Governor 

of GTA Bill 

Sudarshana Mukherjee 

Kolkata: Chief minister 

Mamata Banerjee and industry 

minister Partha Chatter jee met 

Governor M K Narayanan on 

Thursday. Acc or ding to sources, 

Banerjee apprised Narayanan 

of the Gorkhaland issue with 

the Bill expected to be placed in 

the Assembly on Friday. 

A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha 

(GJM) delegation had pointed 

out certain anomalies in the 

Gorkhaland Territorial Agre - 

ement (GTA) and the draft Bill 

and sought changes. The 

Governor reportedly took 

interest in the proposed 

amendments to the GTA Bill. 

The CM sought to offer 

autonomy and financial assistance 

coupled with unrestricted 

support to a ruling 

party in the Darjeeling hills. 

The changes demanded by 

GJM stressed on greater economic 

independence and ethnicity 

for the new administrative 

set-up in the Hills. 

As constitutional guardian 

of the state, the Governor 

wanted to know how the government 

would resolve the 

differences. Sources further 

revealed that the Maoist crisis, 

which has been rearing its 

head through a spurt of recent 

incidents, also figured in the 

discussion. 

“It is our duty to apprise the 

Governor every 15 days, a routine 

the chief minister has formulated. 

We call it courtesy 

call. We had some relevant 

discussions, too. The GTA differences 

will be settled and 

there would not be any problems,” 

said Chatterjee. 

We plan to affiliate 10,000 madrasas but we’ll not give 

them any financial support. Our affiliation will help them 

get financial support from many other places, including 

the Centre 

—Mamata Banerjee, chief minister 

� Partha Chatterjee 

Paschimbanga. On whether the name would 

remain the same in English, he said the ways 

to implement the new name would be 

chalked out in the House. 

The Cabinet discussed reviving the 

Legislative Council in accordance with 

Article 169 of the Constitution. The issue had 

been on the chief minister’s agenda for some 

time now, Chatterjee 

said. 

The Cabinet also discussed 

the chief minister’s 

oft-repeated line 

that the government 

would have to work 

keeping farmers’ land 

and sentiments in mind. 

The chief minister said 

there would no longer be 

any forcible acquisition 

of land. Although the 

land Bill had not been 

passed yet, Banerjee has 

been fighting for it. 

“The Land Bill is taking 

its final shape. A discussion 

will be held at the 

12th Cabinet meeting on 

September 14 to finalise 

the provisions of the 

Bill,” said Chatterjee. 

The minister added 

that the enactment of 

the Bill would take place 

after the final discussion 

following the next 

Cabinet meeting. Apart 

from the main issues, 

subjects related to 

government employment 

were discussed at 

the meeting. However, 

no details about these 

discussions were 

mentioned. 

allegations were raised against some 

senior Left Front minister and leaders 

of misappropriating funds and handing 

over properties under the Wakf 

Board. While the Left administration 

had initiated a police investigation, 

nothing conclusive emerged. 

“We have several plans that would 

benefit the Muslim community. We 

plan to affiliate 10,000 madrasas. But 

we will not give them any financial 

support. Our affiliation will help 

them get financial support from 

many places, including the Centre,” 


Kolkata: The CPI(M) 

announced professor Nandini 

Mukherjee as its candidate for 

the Bhawanipore Assembly 

seat where she would be pitted 

against none other than 

chief minister Mamata 

Banerjee in the by-election on 

September 25. The result will 

be declared on September 28. 

A professor of computer 

science at Jadavpur University, 

Mukherjee has been associated 

with the party for a long 

time. She did her PhD from 

London after studying at the 

BE College in Shibpur. A member 

of the party’s Jadavpur 

unit, she is the wife of Biman 

Mukherjee, the registrar of 

her alma mater, known as 

Bengal Engineering and 

Science University at present. 

The other Assembly seat 

that will go to the polls also on 

September 25 is Basirhat 

Uttar. While the Bhawanipore 

constituency was vacated 

after PWD minister Subrata 

Bakshi resigned, the other 

constituency will have its byelection 

due to the death of 

sitting CPI(M) MLA Mostafa 

Bin Quasem. 

Although Bakshi will continue 

as PWD minister, he 

resigned from the Assembly 

and made way for Banerjee to 

contest from his seat. Quasem, 

69, had committed suicide on 

May 29 after jumping off a 

fourth-floor window of the 

MLA Hostel on Kyd Street. 

Preliminary investigation 

said the CM. 

Refuting comments by former 

chief minister Buddhadeb 

Bhattacharjee, she said madrasas do 

“not train terrorists but good human 

beings”. 

“Every year, the state government 

will provide 20,000 jobs to Muslims. 

The community has not received as 

much importance ever. There’s not a 

single road at Churulia named after 

poet Kaji Nazrul Islam even though 

he was born there,” Banerjee said. 

She further said that while the state 

government had been trying to do 

some work, the Left Front was busy 

creating problems. 

“The previous government has not 

done anything over the last 34 years. 

But we are here just for three months. 

They should be silent for the next 10 

years and let us work in our own 

flow,” said Banerjee. 

JU professor to take 

on Mamata in bypoll 

� Nandini Mukherjee 

revealed that a suicide note 

was found which established 

that Quasem had committed 

suicide. 

The CPI(M) announced 

Subid Ali Gazi, former president 

of Hasnabad panchayat, 

as its candidate for Basirhat 

Uttar. Gazi is also a member of 

the party’s North 24-Parganas 

district committee and enjoys 

a stronghold against heavyweight 

Gautam Deb. While 

the ruling Trinamool Congress 

seems confident of sailing 

through, it is a wait-andwatch 

situation for the 

CPI(M). 

LGBT to hold pride celebrations today 


Kolkata: The LGBT pride celebrations will be 

held on Friday at Lincoln Room, American 

Center from 2 pm onwards. 

This year’s pride celebrations has an universal 

message—that all people are entitled to live with 

respect and dignity regardless of their sexual 

orientation or gender identity, and regardless of 

where they live. 

Pride gatherings are an opportunity to reject 

that shame and inequality, and to assert legitimate 

entitlement of each person to enjoy universal 

human rights.

4 

STATE 

BRIEFLY 

30-year-old hangs self 

in Barasat 

Barasat: A 30-year-old 

woman Saharaban Kouri Biwi 

was found hanging at her residence 

of Banshkul Gram 

Panchayat at Ashoknagar on 

Thursday morning. Her 11year-old 

son, Raju khan said 

that Saharaban had a fight 

with her husband over a 

petite issue. Next morning 

when the child found her 

hanging, he informed the 

neighbours and his family 

members. — BP 

19-year-old woman’s 

body found 

Basanti: A 19-year-old 

woman’s body was found at 

her house at Birinchibari village 

under Basanti police 

station on Thursday morning. 

Suchitra Mandal, who 

was married to Prashanta 

Mandal had died on Tuesday 

night. Though Prasanta had 

claimed it to be a suicide but 

Suchitra’s father Gopal Jana 

held Prasanta responsible 

her death. Gopal said that 

they were married just two 

months ago but Prasanta 

used to torture her physically 

and mentally for 

dowry. — BP 

4-year-old girl drowns 

in Barasat 

Barasat: A 4-year-old girl 

drowned in a pond at Chand - 

anpur in Barasat on Thursd - 

ay. Reportedly, Afroza Khatun 

was playing in an around the 

house on Wednesday afternoon 

after which she went 

missing. On Thursday, her 

body was found from the 

pond near her house. — BP 

Two boys drown 

in Ganga 

Barrackpore: Two boys 

drowned while bathing in 

the Ganga at Mondalpara, 

Ichhapur on Wednesday. 

After a night long search 

operation, the body of Rahul 

Harijan, 9, and Manish Singh, 

10, were recovered on Thu r - 

sday morning. However, two 

others are still missing. — BP 

Decomposed body 

found in Dubrajpur 

Dubrajpur: The decomposed 

body of a man was found in a 

house in Dubrajpur on Thu - 

rsday morning. Police broke 

in after neighbours compl - 

ained of a foul stench. The 

dead man was identified as 

Jainal Abedin, a 48-year-old 

who used to distribute tob - 

acco among bidi makers. — BP 

Husband kills woman 

at Naihati 

Naihati: A 35-year-old 

woman was allegedly burnt 

to death by her husband at 

Naihati on Wednesday night. 

The husband was also 

injured in the incident and 

was admitted to hospital. 

Police have detained a 

woman named Uma Saha, a 

beauty parlour owner, with 

whom the husband was 

allegedly involved in an illicit 

affair. — BP 

5 women 

among 7 

injured 

in clash 


Sashan: A clash between the 

supporters of the Trinamool 

Congress (TMC) and the 

CPI(M) left seven persons 

injured, including five 

women, at Khamar village in 

Barasat’s Sashan on Thursday. 

The injured have all been 

admitted to the Barasat subdivisional 

hospital. 

Reportedly, a gang of 

CPI(M)-backed goons, led by 

Satikul Islam, raided the 

house of Habibullah, a TMC 

worker, early in the morning. 

The villagers who tried to 

mediate in the clashes were 

seriously injured, too. 

“Satikul was thrown out of 

the TMC for indulging in illegal 

activities. So, he attacked 

us along along with other 

CPI(M) activists,” said TMC 

leader Matiyar Sapui. 

“Habibulla’s wife and his two 

daughters were also assa u l - 

ted by the culprits,” he added. 

The case is being investigated 

by the district police. 

Sushanta main conspirator: CID 


Kolkata: The criminal investigation 

department (CID), probing 

the Benachapra skeleton recovery 

case, is likely to charge former 

Left Front minister and 

prime accused Sushanta Ghosh 

as the main conspirator, along 

with three other senior party 

leaders of West Midnapore district. 

“We’re likely to submit the 

charge sheet in the Midnapore 

court by September 8. In it, we 

will mention Ghosh along with 

CPI(M) state committee member 

Tarun Roy, Tarit Khatua and 

Entaz Ali as conspirators and 

planners of the case,” said a senior 

CID officer. The CID took over 

the case on June 5 and as 

required, the charge sheet will 

be submitted within 90 days 

from the day of taking up the 

case, he added. 

According to sources, the 

charge sheet will state that 

around 50 people, including the 

CPI(M) leaders, were involved in 

the crime and the exact role 

played by each of the accused. 

Ghosh, Roy, Khatua and Ali did 

not just conspire but also 

directed others in committing 

the crime. Sushanta was present 

at the mango orchard at 

Daserbandh in Benachapra village, 

where bodies of the miss- 


Kolkata: The newly constituted 

task force to look into price rise 

and abnormally high prices of 

vegetables and other food 

products, on Thursday ruled 

out the ongoing floods in the 

state as the reason behind the 

increase. It also denied claims 

that the phenomenon was due 

to a shortfall in supply. 

The nine-member task force, 

which was appointed earlier 

this week by chief mnister 

Mamata Banerjee to probe the 


Howrah: The 500-year-old city witnessed a 

historic moment as the office of the commissioner 

of police was introduced in Howrah on 

September 1. Ajey Ranade took charge as 

police commissioner of the town. At a press 

conference, he said the commissionerate had 

been introduced to improve the law and order 

situation, control crime and ease traffic. It 

includes eight police stations — Bally, Liluah, 

Mali Panch Ghora, Golabari, Howrah, Shibpur, 

Jagacha and Bantra. The area covered is 98 sq 

km. 

There will be a joint police commissioner, 

six deputy commmissioners and several assistant 

commissioners looking after six divisions 

– the detective department, traffic, armed 

police, Special Branch, headquarters and 

police stations. There will be DCs in charge of 

north and south respectively, two additional 

DCs and 10 ACs for functioning of the 

Commissioneriat. The police commissioner 

also said 406 additonal posts had been created 

which would be absorbed in due course. The 

commissionerate would have a similar structure 

as the Kolkata Police. 

The main action area would be in traffic and 

crime control, said the police commissioner. 

There would be a DC(traffic) and a DC(headquarters). 

Six traffic guards and 13sub-guards 

would be formed and placed in charge of 

assistant commissioners. 

There would be six radio flying squads for 

quick response on 100 dial which will be 

manned for 24 hours. Two flying squads have 

already been deployed in the town. Two heavy 

radio flying squads would also be introduced, 

said Ranade. 

Two flying squads were seen on the day at 

Bangabasi crossing and Salkia Chowrasta 

crossing respectively. The police commissioner 

also said the eight police stations would 

Udayan Mukhopadhyay 

Nadia: One more deer succumbed 

to injury at the 

Bethuadahari wildlife sanctuary 

in Nadia district on 

Thursday. A group of youngsters 

had pelted stones at the 

protected territory meant for 

deer on Wednesday in which 

two were severely injured and 

one died during the day itself. 

The carcass has been sent for 

autopsy. Local sources, however, 

said there was a possibil- 

� Sushanta Ghosh 

ing Trinamool Congress workers 

were buried in September 2002. 

While investigating the case 

and reconstructing the crime, 

the CID sleuths have learnt that 

seven Trinamool Congress 

activists were shot dead at 

Dakshin Piyasala village by 

CPI(M) supporters and Ghosh’s 

trusted cadres Sona Ruidas and 

Shankar Shau. 

The bodies were then ferried 

to Benachapra on a bullock cart 

and party cadres, namely 

Biman Ghosh, Baidyanath 

Santra and Shanti Prachanda, 

were given the responsibility to 

decompose the bodies, said the 

reasons for the hike in prices, 

held its first meeting at the 

Kolkata Municipal Corporation. 

During the meeting, the task 

force discussed its findings and 

decided on taking strict measures 

against black marketeers 

and profiteers. 

Six of the task force’s nine 

members were present at the 

meeting, including agricultural 

marketing department additional 

secretary Rajesh Sinha, 

enforcement branch deputy 

commissioner Debabrata Das, 

enforcement branch deputy 

senior officer. 

Another party cadre dug up 

the trench at the orchard and 

Madan Santra dragged the bodies 

to the orchard from the bullock 

cart parked on the other 

side of the canal. The entire 

process was supervised by 

Sushanta’s brother Prasanta 

Ghosh. The Trinamool activists 

were first chased to Dakshin 

Piyasala by the CPI(M) cadres 

from Khetua near Keshpur, said 

the officer. 

Seven Trinamool activists 

were killed on September 22, 

2002, and next day, a complaint 

was lodged against the CPI(M) 

Task force on prices meets at KMC 

Howrah top cop outlines 

major policing overhaul 

superintendent Prabhat Ban - 

dhopadhya and KMC’s chief ma - 

nager, market, Bhaskar Ghosh. 

The task force members had 

visited various markets across 

the city as well as in the districts 

and noted down the 

prices, figuring out the reasons 

behind their rise. The team has 

already made seven to eight 

visits to not only the markets in 

the city but also the district 

markets. 

“We are ruling out the heavy 

rainfall that the state has 

received in the past few 

� Ajey Ranade, the police commissioner 

of Howrah — BP 

be divided into 17 police stations later for 

administrative reasons. 

The Howrah (rural) district police have been 

created with the remaining 11 police stations 

in rural areas. The previous police superintendent 

of Howrah, Rabindranath Mukherjee, has 

been appointed police superintendent (rural) 

of Howrah. 

ity of a few more deaths. 

The Bethuadahari authorities 

said nearly 30,000 people 

visited the place on 

Wednesday as it was a holiday 

for Eid. A group of youths 

entered the sanctuary around 

10 am and started throwing 

stones. Range officer Jyoti 

Prasad Guha Roy said the two 

deer might have been injured 

by the sharp fencing or some 

tree bark when they were 

being chased. “Search is on for 

the other injured deer,” said 

Guha Roy. 

Sources, however, deferred 

the official comment and said 

that there might be five 

deaths, including that of a 

ghariyal which could be due to 

food poisoning. The range officer 

said until and unless 

autopsy reports arrived, the 

exact reason for the deaths 

could not be cited. 

Local MLA Kalyan Khan visited 

the sanctuary on 

Wednesday and said a probe 

was necessary. 

leaders, including Ghosh. But the 

investigation could not be completed 

as the bodies were not 

found then. On June 4, this year, 

when five skeletons were 

unearthed from Daserbandh 

near Ghosh’s ancestral home, 

one Shyamal Acharya claimed 

that one of the skeletons was 

that of his father Ajay Acharya, 

who was killed on September 

22, 2002. Subsequently, a complaint 

was lodged with the 

police accusing 42 people, 

including the Ghosh brothers, 

Roy and others. 

So far, 10 people have been 

arrested, including Sushanta, 

Biman, Shanti and Madan. Other 

prime accused like Prashanta, 

Tarun, Tarit and Entaz are still at 

large. Moreover, Madan has 

agreed to turn government 

approver in the case and already 

recorded his statement before a 

judge in the Midnapore court 

under Section 164 CrPC. 

“We cannot give any time 

limit for submitting the charge 

sheet. We are still investigating 

it. Several points have been 

cleared and we are still working 

to get some more evidences. 

Though many of the conspirators 

are yet to be arrested, we are 

trying to submit the charge sheet 

as early as possible,” said K 

Jayaraman, CID deputy inspector-general 

(operations). 

months as a cause for the price 

hike. We are still investigating 

the matter, but one reason 

which could be the cause 

would be rumours of short supply, 

which led the retailers and 

the vendors to restrict the sale 

of such products, which in turn 

led to the rise,” said Sinha. 

The task force informed that 

districts had been notified that 

visits to the market would 

continue. 

The task force also decided to 

visit these markets, starting 

from Friday morning. 

Chandrashekhar Chatterjee 

Asansol: On the lines of the Delhi Police, the 

police commisionerate system has been 

introduced in West Bengal for the first time 

starting with the Asansol-Durgapur industrial 

belt from Thursday. The former inspector general 

of the counter intelligence force, Ajay 

Nanda, is the first commissioner to take 

charge. The decision has been taken in view of 

the crime trend in the industrial belt in the 

past few months. 

The new police commissioner, who had 

also served as police superintendant of 

Jalpaiguri and West Midnapore, took over the 

office earlier held by the additional police 

superintendent. He expected to curb crime by 

October 1. 

“The system has been started in 15 police 

stations which include nine in Asansol and six 

Gautam Paramanik 

� The office of police commissioner in Asansol — BP 

Purulia: State food minister Jyotipriyo 

Mullick declared the setting up of a 

five-member vigilance team in every 

district of the state to get rid of corruption 

in food supply and distribution. 

During his recent visit to Purulia on 

Thursday, he also sealed four godowns 

of Balarampur Thana Large Sized Cooperative 

Agricultural Marketing 

Society Limited due to some discrepancies 

noted here. 

The minister had reportedly 

received several complaints about the 

godowns here. On Thursday, he raided 

the godowns along with self-employment 

and self-help group minister 

Shantiram Mahato, state food director 

Joydeb Jana and district food controller, 

Sunoy Goswami. He noticed 

several discrepancies in the godowns 

and found the grain rotting here due to 

the leakage of rainwater from a hole in 

the roof. 

The minister ordered these 

godowns to be sealed and ordered a 

probe after the local residents alleged 

that the food materials from these 

godowns are smuggled to Jharkhand. 

Mullick then went to a ration card 

distribution centre at Bamundiha in 

Barabazar and spoke to the cardholders 

there. He also visited a rice mill in 

Purulia Block II and enquired about 

in Durgapur. Kaksa and Budbud in Durgapur 

are excluded. Asansol and Durgapur have 

been divided into three areas: east, west and 

central headed by a deputy commissioner. 

The commissionerate (east) includes 

Durgapur police station, Newtownship, 

Faridpur, Kokbhen, Pandev shwar and Andal. 

The commissionarate (west) includes Kulti, 

Hirapur, Salanpur, Barabani and Chittaranjan. 

The commissionerate (central) includes 

Asansol North and South, Jamuria and 

Raniganj,” said the new police commissioner. 

The ranks of the additional police superintendents 

of Asansol and Durgapur have been 

changed to deputy commissioners. The DSPs 

of Asansol and SDPO of Durgapur are now 

additional commissioners. A thousand more 

police officers will be employed including 80 

inspectors, 120 sub-inspectors and 40 female 

sub-inspectors. 



� State food minister Jyotipriyo Mullick at a godown in Purulia 

on Thursday — BP 

Food minister sets 

up vigilance teams 

to stop corruption 

Commissioner sets himself 

Sept deadline to curb crime 

Another injured deer dies in Bethuadahari sanctuary 

� The deer killed in Nadia — BP 

its functioning. 

“Already 63 tonne rice has been 

purchased for the district and another 

100 tonne will be bought. In the last 34 

years, the Left Front government had 

failed to supply food to the people of 

the state. We will not let that happen. 

We will make sure that everyone is fed 

and most importantly people from 

West Midnapore, Bankura, and Purulia 

in Jangalmahal. If everyone is fed properly, 

Maoists will no longer be active 

here,” said the minister. 

On Thursday evening, Mullick also 

held a meeting with the district 

administration and the district food 

officials at the Purulia circuit house. He 

also met the ration dealers here. 

The minister informed that the date 

for surrendering illegal ration cards 

had been extended to September 30. 

Thereafter, the food department will 

start its raids throughout the state. 

“The state government has to pay a 

subsidy of Rs70 crore every month in 

order to keep the food supply and distribution 

system going. So, if anyone is 

found guilty, strict action would be 

taken against him,” said the minister. 

On Friday, the food minister will 

visit Bankura to look into the state of 

affairs there and hold a meeting with 

the food officials, the district magistrate, 

the MLAs, the sub-divisional officers 

and block development officers. 

SUCI-CPM 

clash leaves 

two women 

injured 


Kultali: A clash took place 

between supporters of the 

SUCI and CPI(M) which left 

two women seriously injured 

in Mahishmari village under 

Kultali police station in South 

24-Parganas on Thursday. 

Aslima Sardar and Karima 

Gazi have been admitted to 

the Joynagar Gramin 

Hospital. 

Reportedly, post-election, 

11 families of SUCI supporters 

were rendered homeless. The 

SUCI has always won at 

Kultali. It was the first time 

when the CPI(M) had won 

here. 

“The CPI(M) supporters 

had been attacking SUCI 

members here for quite a 

long time,” said former 

Kultali MLA and SUCI leader 

Joykrishna Halder. 

“These people had 

returned to their homes on 

the occasion of Eid. However, 

CPI(M) supporters hurled 

bombs at them. Aslima was 

injured in the bomb blast and 

Karima was beaten up as she 

protested against the attackers,” 

he added. 

Additional superintendent 

of police, gramin, Kankar 

Prasad Barui, said that the 

police have already started a 

probe. A police picket has 

been deployed in the area.


www.thebengalpost.com STATE 5 

Mahasweta Devi meets Lepchas 

Community forum agitating in city since August 9 for representation in Assembly 


Siliguri: Lepchas campaigning for 

constitutional safeguards since 

August 9 gained a friend in eminent 

thinker-writer Mahasweta Devi on 

Thursday. The demonstrators, however, 

are distressed at being overlooked 

by the state government so 

far. 

“Despite her physical problems, 

Mahasweta Devi met the members of 

the demonstrating Indigenous 

Lepcha Tribal Association (ILTA) in 

Kolkata on Thursday. She sang three 

Tagore songs to cheer us up and 

returned convinced that we had a 

genuine problem. But, where is the 

state government?” said Lyangsong 

Tamsang Lepcha, the ILTA president 

and chief of the Lepcha council. 

ILTA members launched a stir in 

Kolkata on August 9 demanding a 

Lepcha development board/council, 

representation of the Lepcha community 

in the Assembly, Lok Sabha or 

Rajya Sabha and introduction of the 

Lepcha language from the primary to 

secondary levels at government 

BRIEFLY 

Ganga in spate 

threatens school 

Malda: After eroding land 

and destroying houses at 

Bhutni island in the district, 

the raging Ganga has now 

found a new target in the 

form of a local school. Only 

five feet separates the 

Munilatola primary school 

under Hiranandapur gram 

panchayat in the island from 

the waters of the furious 

river. The school authorities 

and teachers said there was 

no hope of saving the school, 

where 200 students 

study.—BP 

Today’s temperature 

City Max Min 

Siliguri 34 0 

Darjeeling 25 0 

Cooch Behar 35 0 

Jalpaiguri 34 0 

Kalimpong 27 0 

25 0 

19 0 

25 0 

25 0 

20 0 

*On centigrade scale 

� Writer Mahasweta Devi at a meeting with the Lepchas at Wellington 

Square on Thursday —Debabrota Biswas 

schools in the Hills. 

The organisation launched a similar 

agitation in Kalimpong on 

Thursday and the indication is that it 

would step up the movement in the 

coming days. 

The Lepcha society has a structured 

three-tier system called the Shezoom 

(council) and at the head is the 

Hreepun or chief. 

“We are indigenous to the region 

spanning from the Kanchenjungha to 

Tetulia (now in Bangladesh) and Elam 

(in east Nepal) to Bhutan. We call this 

area Mayel Lyang, which in Lepcha, 

means hidden eternal country. But, 

we are the marginalised lot in our 

own land, facing an existential crisis,” 

alleged Lepcha. 

“We cannot bring people from outside 

to play with the numbers since 

our concentration is in Bengal and 

Mob, police clash at Vidyasagar Setu 


Howrah: The toll plaza at Vidyasagar 

Setu became a battlefield on Thursday 

morning as violence erupted during a 

protest by residents of Kazipara area of 

Shibpur over shortage of drinking water, 

injuring six persons, including an RAF 

jawan. 

The residents of Kazipara, mainly from 

ward 40 and part of ward 39, began 

blocked the toll plaza. They said their 

area had been facing a drinking water 

shortage for the past three months. 

The situation had worsened in the 

past one month and residents complained 

that even during Ramadan and 

Eid, they did not have drinking water 

supply. 

After the toll plaza remained closed at 

both ends for an hour, the police tried to 

persuade the protesters to lift their 

blockade, but they refused. 

Following their refusal, the police 

decided to apply force to disburse the 

protesters and within a moment they 

began to pelt stones and throw bricks at 

the law enforcers. 

Faced with a violent mob, reinforcements, 

including Rapid Action Force personnel, 

were brought in from Kolkata 

and other areas of the district. 

The police and RAF then baton 

charged the protesters and fired tear gas 

to disburse them. Repeated clashes took 

place between the mob and security 

forces and at least six persons, including 

an RAF jawan, were injured. 

Among those injured was Seikh 

� The scene near the Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza where a clash broke out 

on Thursday—Dipankar Majumdar 

Mustafa, 66, a local resident of 

Mollapara, who alleged he was badly 

beaten up by the RAF. 

The protesters alleged that their 

repeated pleas to the administration to 

solve their water crisis fell on deaf ears. A 

local resident Md. Rashim Khan said: 

“We ran from pillar to post. We appealed 

to the councillor, mayor, corporation 

officials, MLA and MP, the district magistrate 

and even the superintendent of 

police. But no one did anything to ease 

Five held for carrying arms 


Malda: Five persons have been arrested in the 

district for allegedly carrying five pipeguns 

and a large number of cartridges and planning 

a dacoity. Musharraf Sk., Rintu Sk, Gaisu Sk, 

Tajimul Sk. and Madhu Haldar were arrested 

by the English Bazar police on Wednesday 

night when they had gathered at a mango 

orchard near the shrine of Piran-A-Pir. 

Police alleged they had assembled there to 

plan a dacoity. 

Police suspect that they had gathered there 

to rob the pilgrims who had come to the 

shrine, where many people come to offer 

prayers and donate money on Eid. They were 

produced in court on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, the district superintendent of 

police, Bhuban Chandra Mandal, said: “At least 

44 illegal weapons were recovered by the 

� The Malda SP displays pistols and 

cartridges seized from five dacoits in 

Malda on Thursday— Pankaj Ghosh 

English Bazaar police station this year, including 

17 in August itself. Fake currency with a 

face value of `43 lakh was also recovered this 

year, much of it by the English Bazar police 

station. Due to such an achievement, the 

police station will be given a reward.” 

CPRM seminar on 

Gorkhaland in city 


Darjeeling: The Communist 

Party of Revolutionary 

Marxists (CPRM) will continue 

with its agitations 

demanding a Gorkhaland 

with a seminar scheduled 

to be held in Kolkata on 

September 15. The CPRM 

had also held a ‘paydal 

yatra’ to Siliguri on August 

23 with the same demand 

along with organising various 

other programmes last 

month. 

“To spread the awareness 

of Gorkhaland, we will hold 

a seminar in Kolkata where 

we have invited many 

political parties from places 

like Kerala, Maharashtra, 

Punjab and also Bengal. 

Apart from the other political 

parties, we have also 

invited the Leftist parties as 

they are the ones that 

should understand why 

we are demanding 

Gorkhaland,” said CPRM 

president R B Rai while 

speaking about the seminar. 

“They will not agree to 

the idea of statehood. But 

we should discuss with 

them and make them 

understand our view on 

this,” he added. 

The CPRM had started its 

programme on Gorkhaland 

in Kalimpong from July 27 

where they had organised a 

blood donation camp in the 

name of martyrs, who had 

died in the Eighties agitation 

for Gorkhaland followed 

by a two-day dharna 

at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on 

August 11 and 12 over the 

same demand. 

The CPRM had also taken 

out a rally from Ghoom to 

Darjeeling on August 20 to 

observe Bhasha Divas. 

our problem. So, we had no way but to 

protest.” 

When contacted, Howrah mayor 

Mamata Jaiswal said: “The municipality 

is concerned about the problem there. 

Our engineers had visited the area for 

inspecting defects in the pipelines of 

water supply but they could not complete 

the work due to non-cooperation 

from locals. We can do the job only if the 

local residents cooperate with us. 

Otherwise things will remain the same.” 

Sikkim. Despite being a Scheduled 

Tribe, our people continue to remain 

marginalised under successive state 

governments, which is why we want 

a development council/board and 

representation in the Assembly, Lok 

Sabha or Rajya Sabha,” said ILTA coordinator 

N T Lepcha. 

“The representation to the 

Assembly, Parliament or Rajya Sabha 

is a political issue and might require 

some time. But we want the state 

government to introduce the Lepcha 

language in schools from the 2012 

academic session. The formation of a 

Lepcha board/council can also be 

done immediately,” said the ILTA 

president. 

Incidentally, the ILTA had boycotted 

the Assembly election alleging 

neglect by the Centre and the state 

government. Being a tribal body, it is 

affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya 

Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), 

which is a national apolitical platform 

of aboriginals. 

The ILTA chief, however, reserved 

his comment on his organisation’s 

association with the ABAVP. 

JIS students 

to fight cruelty 

on animals 


Kolkata: First-year students 

of JIS are slated to take up 

the cause of ethical treatment 

of animals. People for 

the Ethical Treatment of 

Animals (PETA) will be the 

social partner and the issue 

will be taken up jointly in an 

endeavour to educate the 

future generation to raise 

their voices against cruelty 

on animals. 

The effort will be marked 

by workshops on material 

science, metallurgy and 

speeches by eminent speakers 

and professors who, 

apart from instilling the love 

for animals amongst the students, 

would also educate 

them on various fields of 

education. 

The Bienvenido (Spanish 

for ‘welcome’) programme 

would also see the inauguration 

of the first college magazine, 

Reflections. 

First-year students would 

be given a hearty welcome 

by their seniors on the 

occasion. 

There will also be performances 

by college bands. 

Enough is enough: N Dinajpur officials 

Action force on the 

anvil to tackle 

highway blockades 


Raiganj: Frequent blockades 

of the two national highways 

passing through Raiganj have 

prompted the North Dinajpur 

district administration to 

think of raising an “action 

force” to tackle such protests. 

Political parties had 

assured at a meeting convened 

by the local administration 

two weeks ago that 

they would never disrupt traffic 

on NH-31 and NH-34 in 

the run-up to Durga Puja. But 

police said there have been 

five prolonged blockades on 

the highways in the past 

week, causing tremendous 

harassment to passengers of 

long-distance buses and daily 

commuters. “There is not 

enough force to clear the 

roads occupied by squatters. 

However, we are in talks with 

the district administration to 

raise an action force to stop 

blockades,” said Indra 

Chakraborty, the sub-divisional 

police officer of 

Islampur. 

According to the district 

administration, NH-31 links 

North Bengal to the Northeast 

while NH-34 connects South 

and North Bengal with Bihar 

and the rest of north India. 

Sajal Das, a resident of 

Kolkata and a private firm 

employee, said he had to 

travel regularly to towns like 

Malda, Raiganj and Siliguri on 

work. “I face frequent blockades 

in Islampur that hold us 

up for hours. Even after the 

blockades are lifted, it takes 

time for the traffic to normalise. 

I could have understood 

things better had 

demonstrations and blockades 

been announced in 

advance. But such spontaneous 

actions should be 

avoided,” he said. 

The business community, 

too, has complained about 

losses because of protests. 

Damodar Agarwala, a member 

of 

the Islampur Merchants’ 

Association, said disruptions 

often caused trucks laden 

with merchandise to stop for 

long periods, upsetting delivery 

schedules and deadlines. 

Agarwal added that blocking 

national highways is a 

non-bailable offence under 

the National Highway Act. 

� Traffic stalled on the NH-34 during a recent blockade 

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Disclaimer : The Bengal Post or any of its agents assume no responsibility for the 

authenticity or reliability of any advertisement published in this news paper. The 

advertisements carried in the newspaper are accepted on good faith.

6 

NATION 

BRIEFLY 

� Ranjit Sinha takes 

charge as the new ITBP 

director general in New 

Delhi on Thursday —PTI 

Nine killed in Jodhpur 

road accident 

Jodhpur: Nine persons, 

including three women and 

two children, were killed 

when the jeep they were 

travelling in collided with a 

truck on the Jodh pur –Jaisa - 

lmer highway on Thursday, 

police said. Five persons died 

on the spot whereas four 

others died on way to the 

hospital,” ASP Kesar Singh 

said. The injured have been 

admitted to Jodh pur hospital, 

he added. —PTI 

Pro-Bodoland faction 

stages protests in Assam 

Kokrajhar: Hundreds of supporters 

of the pro-talk faction 

of the National Demo - 

cratic Front of Bodoland - 

Progr essive (NDFB-P) on 

Thursday staged demonstrations 

in various parts of Ass - 

am and submitted a memorandum 

demanding a separate 

state. Protesters handed 

a memorandum to the distr - 

ict admi n i stration to be submitted 

later to the PM 

demanding a peaceful solution 

to the Bodo tangle. —PTI 

Ministry of home 

affairs now on Twitter 

New Delhi: After external 

affairs ministry, the ministry 

of home affairs has jumped 

onto the Twitter bandwagon 

and made it fully operational 

to provide regular updates. 

The Twitter account “mediamha” 

in the micro-blogging 

site started from Thursday. 

Though the Twitter account 

was launched in June, there 

were no regular updates 

except for an announcement 

of the appointment of R K 

Singh as the new home secretary. 

However, it is 

expected that the spokesperson 

would be posting tweets 

regularly from Thursday. —PTI 

R K Tiwari assumes 

charge as DGP in UP 

Lucknow: Senior IPS officer 

R K Tiwari assumed charge as 

DGP of UP late on Wedne - 

sday. Tiwari took over from 

Kara m veer Singh who retired 

on Wednesday. Tiwari will 

hold his post in addition to 

his present charge of DGP 

PAC. Official sources had 

hinted that Atul, another 

senior IPS officer, was set to 

become DGP. Tiwari, will 

hold the post of DGP for two 

to three mon ths. Thereafter, 

present special DGP, law and 

order, Brij Lal's way to the top 

post would be cleared. — BP 

Firm blames dengue 

for low output 

Bhubaneswar: Mahanadi 

Coalfields Ltd (MCL), one 

among Orissa’s eight staterun 

Coal India subsidiaries, 

has blamed dengue as one of 

the primary reasons responsible 

for its low output in 

August. MCL CMD A N Sahay 

said that coal production fell 

by 1.3 million tonne from last 

month’s production. Apart 

from a host of other reasons 

like heavy rain and strikes by 

contract workers, the mosquito-borne 

virus is blamed 

for reduced output. — BP 

BJP MLAs in Delhi 

Assembly suspended 

New Delhi: All the BJP MLAs 

in the Delhi Assembly were 

on Thursday suspended for 

thr ee days and marshalled 

out after they created a ruc - 

kus in the House dema nd ing 

a discussion on corruption. 

Twe nty-four MLAs, including 

Opposition leader V K Malh - 

otra, were marshalled out af - 

ter the House met for the se - 

c ond time during the day following 

a 30-minute adjo ur - 

nment forced by vociferous 

Opposition lawmakers.—PTI 

Pak troops violate ceasefire 

twice, three soldiers killed 

Srinagar/Islamabad: An Indian Junior 

Commissioned Officer (JCO) and three 

Pakistani soldiers were on Thursday 

killed in a heavy exchange of fire in the 

Keran sector of north Kashmir after 

ceasefire was violated from across the 

border, officials said. 

Pakistan violated the ceasefire twice 

in the Keran sector as Indian troops 

foiled an infiltration bid after exchanging 

fire with militants that left the JCO 

dead. "There were two ceasefire violations 

in the Keran sector of Kupwara di - 

s trict from across the Line of Control 

(LoC) since 8 pm on Wednesday," def - 

ence spokesman Lt Colonel J S Brar said. 

The JCO, who was killed, was identified 

by the army as Naib Subedar 

Gurdayal Singh. Brar said the first 

ceasefire violation took place at 8 pm on 

Wednesday and the firing from other 

side of the LoC continued for nearly 50 

minutes. The second ceasefire violation 

began at 11 am on Thursday and the 

exchange of fire was continuing till last 

reports came in, he said. 

Official sources said the Pakistani 

troops stationed at Saheli post opened 

unprovoked firing at the Shalapathri 

post on the Indian side of the LoC on 

Wednesday, leaving a soldier injured. 

The Pakistani troops used mortars and 

heavy weapons to target the Indian 

position, which retaliated. 

The ceasefire violations on Eid came 

after troops foiled an infiltration bid in 

the same area. 

Pakistani Army spo kesman Major 

General Athar Abbas told Geo News 

that three Pakistani soldiers were killed 

in the gunbattle. He claimed that Indian 

forces had fired across the border saying 

it was "unprovoked". 

He identified the soldiers as belong- 

ing to the irregular Mujahid battalion. 

Abbas said the soldiers had been moving 

between forward posts when they 

got lost in bad weather in the Neelam 

Valley. He said a meeting has been 

requested with local Indian commanders 

to investigate the violation. 

Reacting to the Pakistani Army's 

claim, Brar said there was no ceasefire 

violation from the Indian side on 

Tuesday night. "There was an infiltration 

bid by militants in the Keran sector 

which was foiled by our troops. We lost 

one JCO in the operation," Brar said. 

Chinese vessel confronts Indian naval ship 

Seema Guha 

New Delhi: The Chinese Navy’s growing 

assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region 

has resulted in face-offs with Japan and 

other countries. But for the first time, an 

Indian naval ship also got a measure of 

the China’s blue water navy when it was 

confronted by a Chinese vessel on the 

disputed South China Sea. 

The incident occurred in July when 

the INS Airavat paid a friendly visit to the 

Vietnamese port of Nha Trang and was 

on its way to Hai Phong, its second port 

of call. It was challenged by a Chinese 

vessel. However, India has denied any 

confrontation. The Chinese have also not 

commented on the incident. The alleged 

face-off was first reported by London’s 

Financial Times. After talking to the naval 

command, Indian authorities have given 

a much more prosaic explanation. 

The navy has confirmed that when 

the INS Airavat was sailing from Nha 

Trang to Hai Phong and was around 45 

nautical miles from the Vietnamese 

coast in the South China Sea, when it 

was contacted on an open radio channel 

by a caller identifying himself as the 

“Chinese Navy” and asserted: “You are 

entering Chinese waters.” 

No ship or aircraft was visible from the 

INS Airavat and there were no Chinese 

ships visible in the international waters. 

The Indian ship proceeded on her 

onward journey as scheduled.The international 

community has been noting 

with growing concern Beijing’s increasing 

assertiveness on both land and sea. 

The South China Sea which it claims 

as its own is also similarly regarded by 

Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan Malaysia and 

the Brunei. These claims and counterclaims 

have continued for decades, but 

Beijing now is much more aggressive in 

international waters. 

Not worried about China 

N-missiles: says air chief 

New Delhi: In the backdrop 

of US official reports suggesting 

that China was 

deploying nuclear-capable 

missiles along the borders 

with India, the Air Force on 

Thursday said it was not 

“worried” over these developments 

and has its own 

plans to deal with the issue. 

“These are all known, it is 

nothing that we are worried 

about. We have our own 

plans and we are moving 

ahead with our own plans. 

These are the realities we 

have to deal with,” air chief 

marshal NAK Browne told 

reporters on the sidelines of 

a CII event here. 

He was responding to a 

query on the US Pentagon 

reports suggesting that the 

Chinese People’s Liberation 

Army has deployed nuclear 

missiles along the borders. 

Asked that what could India 

learn from China in develop- 

� File photo of INS Airavat 

‘26/11 might 

have led to 

Indo-Pak 

nuclear war’ 

Washington: The 2008 Mum - 

bai terrorist attack by the 

banned Pakistani militant outfit 

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) alm - 

ost started a war between 

India and Pakistan that might 

have resulted in some kind of 

nuclear conflict, former US 

ambassador to India Timothy 

Roemer has said. 

Roemer, who served as the 

US ambassador to India from 

July 2009 to June 2011, however 

did not divulge any further 

details of his conclusion 

that 26/11 could have led to a 

nuclear war between the two 

South Asian neighbours. 

“Those attacks killed 177 

people in Mumbai two years 

ago. Six Americans were 

killed. And they almost started 

a war between Paki stan and 

India that might have resulted 

in some kind of a nuclear war. 

So this self-radicalisation issue 

is a critically important one,” 

Roemer said at a discussion 

on ‘Status of National Security 

and the Implementation of 

the 9/11 Commission’s 

Recomm endations’. 

The former US envoy said 

he feared a scenario in which a 

terrorist group gets hold of a 

nuclear weapon and an undetected 

self-radicalised or a cell 

in the United States. 

“We’re often asked a question, 

I think every one of us: 

What keeps you awake at 

night? And I would answer 

the question, two things: a terrorist 

group getting a nuclear 

weapon and a self-radicalized 

or a cell in the United States 

that is undetected and can pull 

off a catastrophic event here,” 

Roemer said. 

“Now, several months ago 

we had something that almost 

combined both. There was a 

person by the name of David 

Headley who was a terrorist 

living in Chicago who could 

travel between India, Pakistan 

and the United States seamlessly,” 

he said.—PTI 

JD(U) takes a dig at its NDA ally BJP for raising objections over J&K CM’s remarks on Afzal Guru 

Will not stop tweeting because of criticism: Omar 

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir chief 

minister Omar Abdullah, whose outspoken 

views on ‘Twitter’ have been 

much talked about, on Thursday said 

he would continue to use the microblogging 

site despite some hostile 

posts which included personal 

attacks against him. 

“Just in case anyone is under the 

mistaken impression that I’ve been 

bullied off Twitter — sorry, but here I 

am and I’m not going anywhere,” 

Omar said in a tweet. 

The chief minister, who has come 

under severe criticism from 

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party 

(PDP) leaders for “excessive” use of 

Twitter, was earlier forced to abandon 

blogging on his National 

Conference party’s official website 

due to abusive language and personal 

attacks against him by some people. 

He had significantly reduced posting 

comments on Twitter in July citing 

writer’s block and then in August 

due to the overwhelming coverage of 

the fast against corruption by 

Gandhian Anna Hazare. 

“Since nothing is happening in the 

� NAK Browne 

ing its indigenous aerospace 

industry, the IAF chief said, 

“One thing that one could 

learn from them is that they 

don’t attempt to do everything 

themselves.” 

“Once you start the 

research and development 

and then wait and wait, then 

world other than Anna and I refuse to 

tweet about Anna(.) ergo I can’t tweet 

about anything,” he wrote then. 

However, Omar announced his 

return to the blogosphere on Wedn - 

you make it the test-tube 

model, it takes you 20-30 

years (to finalise the project),” 

he said. Browne said 

that though India doesn’t 

have direct evidence, but 

“we still do know that 

despite all the sanctions and 

all other things, they (China) 

got a fair amount of technology 

from outside.” 

Browne said the Chinese 

were spending “a lot of 

money on R &D. In case of 

our PSUs, the existing levels 

are very low.” Asked about 

its plans to upgrade the 

Nyoma ALG into a fullfledged 

airfield, Browne said 

the proposal was with the 

Government. In the recent 

past, India has deployed its 

fighter aircraft including the 

frontline Su-30MKI in Ass - 

am and is in the process of 

upgrading its Advanced Lan - 

d ing Grounds in Ladakh and 

Arunachal Pradesh. —PTI 

� People greet Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah (R) 

on the second day of Eid in Srinagar on Thursday —PTI 



Rajiv case: Centre 

steers clear of mercy 

petition controversy 

New Delhi: The Centre on 

Thursday steered clear of the 

controversy over Tamil Nadu 

Assembly asking the Pres - 

ident to reconsider the mercy 

pleas of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers 

but said as long as death sentence 

is legal, courts will continue 

to award it. 

“Since there are court proceedings, 

I can’t comment on 

anything concerning the dec - 

ision taken by the President 

or the resolution passed by 

the Assembly,” home minister 

P Chidambaram told 

reporters here. 

He was responding to 

questions on the adoption of 

a resolution by the Tamil 

Nadu Assembly requesting 

President Pratibha Patil to 

reconsider the mercy petitions 

of Rajiv Gandhi assassination 

case convicts—Muru - 

gan, Santhan and Perarivalan 

and the Madras High Court’s 

order staying their execution 

for eight weeks. 

“No comment as the matter 

is pending in the court. I 

can’t comment on the 

response (to be give to the 

court by the home ministry) 

unless the ministry receives 

the notice of the court on the 

writ petition and the contents 

of the writ petition,” he said. 

Chidambaram said there 

have been precedents when 

people have moved courts 

after rejection of mercy petitions 

of death row convicts by 

the President. 

“Yes, there have been earlier 

cases where after the 

decision of the President, 

people have gone to the 

courts. People have gone to 

court in Assam, people have 

gone to court in Delhi 

recently. I am sure that in the 

past also there would be 

cases where people have 

gone to courts after the 

President’s decision,” he said. 

Asked about the relevance 

of death penalty, the home 

Holy Procession 

� P Chidambaram 

minister said it was a larger 

question which has to be 

debated in a separate forum. 

Chidambaram said: “As 

long as there is a death 

penalty, courts will impose 

death penalty in what they 

call the rarest of the rare 

cases. So, the courts have 

imposed death penalty and 

all the mercy petitions were 

the cases where death 

penalty was imposed. 

“The only cases that come 

to us are death penalty cases. 

So, whether death penalty 

should be in statute book or 

not, on that of course there 

are two views. But, at the 

moment, we are talking 

about administering the law,” 

he said. The home minister 

gave a detailed presentation 

on the mercy petitions of the 

death row convicts since the 

NDA regime and said when 

the Opposition was in power, 

14 mercy petitions were submitted 

to the President but 

not a single one was decided 

in those six years. 

Meanwhile, the daughter 

of Murugan, one of the three 

convicts on death row for 

their role in the killing of former 

Prime Minister Rajiv 

Gandhi, on Thursday appea - 

led to Congress President 

Sonia Gandhi to intervene 

and save her father's life.—PTI 

� Sikh devotees participate in a religious procession at Golden Temple in Amritsar on Thursday to mark the 407th 

anniversary of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib’s installation — PTI 

esday by tweeting “Talk about being 

back with a bang”. He was apparently 

referring to his tweets about Afzal 

Guru and the National Sports Deve - 

lopment Bill. 

Omar’s blogging has often generated 

controversies, including the latest 

row over his comments on the 

Tamil Nadu Assembly passing a resolution 

seeking mercy for three convicts 

in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case. 

In his controversial tweet, Omar 

had questioned the “muted” 

response to the TN Assembly’s resolution, 

asking if the reaction would 

have been the same if the Jammu and 

Kashmir legislature had passed a 

similar resolution for Parliament 

attack convict Afzal Guru. 

Meanwhile the JD(U) on Thursday 

took a dig at its NDA ally the BJP for 

raising objections over Omar 

Abdullah’s remarks on the issue of 

execution of Guru, asking why it had 

not raised eyebrows when the matter 

relating to Rajiv Gandhi’s killers had 

come up. “What Omar Abdullah is 

saying is correct. What is wrong in 

saying that there would have been an 

uproar if resolution had been passed 

on amnesty to Afzal Guru by the 

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly?” 

JD(U) spokesperson Shivanand 

Tiwari said. —PTI 

2G: ED detects Fema 

violation of `10K crore 

New Delhi: The Enforcement 

Directorate on Thursday told 

the Supreme Court that Fema 

violation of around ` 10,000 

crore has been committed by 

various telecom companies in 

2G scam and around 200 bank 

acco unts are under suspect. 

The ED, which filed a fresh status 

report in a sealed cover, 

said show cause notices have 

been issued to six telecom 

companies for alleged violation 

of Fema and attachment 

of property was initiated 

under the Prevention of Mon - 

ey Laun dering Act. 

"We are attaching properties 

and issuing show cause 

notices as an ongoing pro - 

cess," senior advocate K K 

Venugopal told a Bench of justices 

G S Singhvi and A K 

Ganguly. He said the probe 

into the money trail has led 

the ED to Cyprus, Channel 

Islands, Singapore, Mauritius 

and Switzerland. 

The investigation by the 

financial intelligence unit has 

revealed there are 200 bank 

accounts which are suspected 

to be connected with the 

scam. He, however, assured 

the court to complete the task 

within three months after the 

Bench expressed reservation 

for granting six mo nths' time. 

While placing the CBI's status 

report, Venu go pal said the 

probe has es t ablished that 

some tel ec om companies ha - 

ve set up front companies un - 

der a "cor p orate veil" to get 

spectrum. 

Meanwhile, the SC was on 

Thursday told by the CBI that it 

"may exa mine" the then fin - 

ance mi n i ster Jasw ant Singh 

over all eged wro ng doings in 

the co mmu nic ations ministry 

in the BJP-led NDA government.Ven 

ugopal said that the 

investigating agency "may 

examine" Singh, who hea ded 

the empowered GoM wh en 

Arun Shourie was the communications 

minister. —PTI


www.thebengalpost.com NATION 7 

BRIEFLY 

� Actor Priyanka Chopra 

interacting with a group 

of girls in Nanakpura, in 

Jaipur on Thursday —PTI 

Bhatta Parsaul case 

referred to state CID 

Lucknow: The UP government 

has referred the Bhatta 

Parsaul case to the state CID 

for investigation. The Natio - 

nal Commission for Sche - 

duled Castes in its report had 

said that in the May 7 incident 

which triggered a controversy, 

rape was committed 

there. The state government 

has denied there was 

any rape.—BP 

2 killed, 45 injured in 

Kashmir road mishaps 

Srinagar: Two Nepalese 

nationals, working as porters 

with the army, were killed 

and 45 others injured in road 

mishaps in Kashmir. The in - 

ci dent happened near Chani 

Gund in Kargil on Wednes - 

day. At least 22 others were 

injured in over a dozen road 

accidents across the Valley 

during Eid celebrations on 

Wednesday.— PTI 

Wife can maintain 

adult offspring: HC 

Mumbai: The Bombay High 

Court has held that an es - 

tranged wife can seek maintenance 

from her husband 

for and on behalf of her adult 

daughter or son so long as 

the offspring is dependent on 

her. The ruling was delivered 

on August 26 on an appeal 

filed by Vijaykumar Chawla, 

a businessman. —PTI 

No group set up to deal 

with media: PMO 

New Delhi: Prime Minister's 

Office on Thursday rubbished 

reports that Prime Minister 

Manmohan Singh has deci - 

ded to set up a group to deal 

with accountability issues 

related to the media. The iss - 

ue had come up at the Uni on 

Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 

with some ministers opining 

that media had not played a 

constructive role during the 

recent Anna Haz a re agitation 

and something needed to be 

done about it.—PTI 

Pak terrorists waiting 

to infiltrate LoC 

New Delhi: Several Pakistanbased 

terrorists are waiting 

at the launch pads across the 

Line of Control to cross over 

into Jammu and Kashmir, 

home ministry officials said 

on Thursday. “There is information 

that many terrorists 

are holed up in launching 

pads” Union home secretary 

R K Singh said. He was present 

at Union home minister P 

Chidambaram's press conference 

where the report card 

for the month of August was 

given.—PTI 

SC reserves order on 

black money probe 

New Delhi: The Supreme 

Court on Thursday reserved 

its orders on the maintainability 

of the Centre's plea for 

recall of its July 4 order appo - 

in ting an SIT to probe the 

black money issue. A Bench 

of justices Altamas Kabir and 

S S Nijjar said it would pass 

appropriate orders on the 

maintainability plea on Sep - 

tem ber 20. —PTI 

ISRO to launch satellite 

Megha-Tropiques 

Chennai: The Indian Space 

Research Organisation on 

Thursday said it planned to 

launch Megha-Tropiques, an 

advanced weather and climate 

satellite, on board the 

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle 

(PSLV) later this month. The 

satellite would be laun ched 

this month-end on board 

ISRO's workhorse PSLV from 

spaceport Sriharikota, ISRO 

chairman K Radha krishnan 

told reporters on the sidelines 

of a function.—PTI 

Masood murder: Cops to quiz BJP MP 

Bhopal/New Delhi: BJP MP 

Tarun Vijay will be questioned 

by Madhya Pradesh 

police in connection with 

the killing of RTI activist 

Shehla Masood in Bhopal 

last month. 

A police team from the 

state will soon visit New 

Delhi in this regard, the 

police said on Thursday. 

"Although it has been 

decided to question Vijay in 

connection with Shehla's 

murder, no date has been 

fixed for the visit of the 

police team to New Delhi," 

said Bhopal Range IG Vijay. 

Yadav Vijay, who is also 

spokesperson of BJP, said he 

was a "very good friend" of 

Masood and that he was 

ready to share with any 

probe agency whatever 

information he had. 

Masood was shot at when 

she was in her car in front of 

her residence in the posh 

Koh-e-Fiza locality in Bhopal 

on August 16 when she was 

just about to head to a rally 

that was part of Anna 

Hazare's campaign against 

corruption. 

The Rajya Sabha MP said 

he and Masood had regularly 

exchanged notes and 

demanded that the culprits 

should be "booked and 

hanged." 

"I think that the whole 

things got politicised. We 

stand by the family of Shehla 

and every right thinking 

Indian will stand by them," 

he said in New Delhi. 

"Whatever information 

we have, we will be providing 

to all the investigation 

agencies, because we are as 

much concerned to get justice 

for Shehla," he added. 

Congress leader Digvijay 

Singh demanded that the 

Masood case be handed over 

to CBI. "The way Masood has 

been killed is painful....Now 

that Tarun Vijay's name has 

cropped up, I believe the CM 

should hand over the case to 

Delhi HC dismisses petition on 

Lokpal, says time not ripe yet 

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on 

Thursday dismissed a plea seeking a 

direction to declare as unconstitutional 

the government's move to refer 

four versions of Lokpal bills to 

Parliament's standing committee for 

consideration, saying the stage has 

not yet come where it "will invoke 

judicial review". 

A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak 

Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna dismissed 

the plea saying that introduction 

of bills and having debate on 

them are basically parliamentary procedure. 

"When the fundamental 

rights of the petitioner have not been 

affected, Article 226 of the Consti - 

tution cannot be invoked. We do not 

see any merit in the plea," the Bench 

said. The court said, “The writ petition 

is without any legal foundation. We 

decline to entertain it and the same 

is dismissed." 

Appearing before the Bench, advocate 

Manohar Lal Sharma contended 

that the four bills, introduced by the 

government on Lokpal issue, are "all 

money bills" as the expenses for the 

office of the Lokpal will be drawn 

from the Consolidated Fund of India 

and the President’s permission was 

required for introducing such bills. He 

claimed that he had sought to know 

� Shehla Masood 

� Anna Hazare 

from the ministry of parliamentary 

affairs if the President's permission 

was taken to introduce the Bill, but he 

was denied the information. 

Countering the petitioner's argument, 

additional solicitor general A S 

Chandihoke told the court that the 

bills are not money bills and it was the 

discretion of the Speaker to decide as 

Festive Fervour 

the CBI," the Congress general 

secretary said. 

A communication from 

the Madhya Pradesh government 

seeking a CBI probe 

into the killing has already 

reached the Centre. MP BJP 

President Prabhat Jha told 

reporters that Vijay may 

have known Shehla but this 

itself was not enough to say 

that he was involved in her 

murder. 

Prabhat said the MP government 

has already ask ed 

the Centre to initiate a CBI 

inquiry into Shehla's murder. 

“I only want that the guilty 

are not spared and the innocent 

in the case are not punished," 

he said. 

Vijay said he had talked to 

Masood last on August 16, 

the day she was murdered in 

Bhopal."She was the campaigner 

and convenor for 

Madhya Pradesh for India 

Against Corruption. It is very 

sad," he said. 

Vijay admitted that he 

knew Masood well and her 

event management company 

had organised the programmes 

in different cities 

to whether a Bill is a money bill or not. 

The Bench was hearing a PIL which 

alleged that the government had followed 

an "unprecedented" unconstitutional 

procedure by having civil 

society members in the drafting 

panel. It said the Bill was introduced 

under pressure from civil society 

members and political parties. 

Meanwhile, shouts of 'Vande Mata - 

ram' greeted anti-corruption crusader 

Anna Hazare as he arrived at his home 

in Ralegan Siddharrived following his 

discharge from a Gurgaon hospital. 

“I am feeling well...recovering fast 

and am grateful to all who are wishing 

for my good health," Hazare, who 

is taking rest at the Bhakta Niwas in 

Padmavati temple at his native village. 

The 73-year-old Gandhian will 

take rest on Thursday and will interact 

with the people and the media on 

Friday his personal assistant said. 

A 'gram bhojan' has been organised 

for 10,000 people by the villagers on 

Friday in view to celebrate Anna's 

"victorious" return. 

The assistant said a meeting of 

Team Anna, including Arvind Kejriwal 

and Kiran Bedi, is scheduled on 

September 10 and 11 here to discuss 

the further course of action on the 

Lokpal Bill.—PTI 

� Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan along with his wife Satvasheela worships Lord Ganesha 

on Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai on Thursday 

on the occasion of the death 

and birth anniversaries of 

BJP ideologue Shyama 

Prasad Mookerjee. 

"Shehla Masood as an 

event manager and owner of 

Miracle Company had 

helped us and worked on 

several projects in Srinagar, 

Kolkata and New Delhi. We 

knew her. She was a brave 

RTI activist, a very good 

friend," he said. 

Vijay described Masood as 

a brave, strong activist 

whose murder has been 

politicised. He insisted that 

he would fight till the culprits 

are brought to book. 

"It (Shehla's murder) had 

hurt us very deepily. We 

knew her. We want justice 

for Shehla. Shehla's family is 

passing through a very difficult 

time. I think that the 

whole thing got politicised. 

We stand by the family of 

Shehla and every right 

thinking Indian will stand by 

them," Vijay said. He urged 

people close to Masood to 

come forward and share 

information with the investigating 

agencies. —PTI 

Anna’s protest 

undemocratic, 

says Tharoor 

at JNU 

New Delhi: Firing a salvo at Anna 

Hazare, former Union minister 

Shashi Tharoor has said how can 

a person "who never stood for 

elections" claim to be the voice of 

the people. Asserting that laws 

can be made only by Parliament, 

Tharoor, who is a first-time MP 

from Kerala, said: “We cannot 

have a small group of unelected 

people imposing their will on 

Parliament because in the long 

term the danger will be to you 

the people.” 

"I do not believe that we can 

conduct democracy either from 

Ramlila grounds or from television 

studios. Demo cracy must be 

conducted through both Houses 

of Parliament." The Congress MP 

said there are more than 500 

MPs and thousands of people's 

representatives in state assembles 

who have gone out to seek 

votes of people and have to preserve 

the support they have got. 

"If such people cannot claim to 

represent the people of India, but 

somebody else, who never stood 

for elections but has lots of television 

cameras around him and a 

few thousand people in a 

Maidan.... Will he be the voice of 

the people? Is that democracy?," 

he said addressing a gathering at 

Jawaharlal Nehru University on 

Wednesday night. 

While stating that arresting 

Hazare was a "mistake" and that 

no government can disagree 

with the cause of the Gandhian. 

Tharoor stressed that the "question 

is the means". "Saying that I 

will starve to death thereby 

potentially unleashing disruption 

violence and anarchy in the 

country unless you pass a Bill. Is 

that democracy? That is the 

question we have to ask," Tha r - 

oor said during a questionanswer 

session with students. 

The lawmaker, however, wondered 

what is the guarantee that 

Lokpal will "magically" be something 

different from other agencies, 

which were created to fight 

corruption. He at the same time 

made it clear he admired Hazare, 

who has an "exemplary record of 

service to the country". —PTI 

Paradigm shift in outlook needed to make society a better place for girls 

PM writes to CMs over skewed sex ratio 

New Delhi: Viewing with serious 

concern the declining sex ratio, 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 

has written to all chief ministers 

asking them act in a swift and concerted 

manner to check pre-natal 

sex determination which continues 

to be a "challenge" in most places. 

Singh has asked the chief ministers 

to provide personal leadership 

as he laid emphasis on spreading 

awareness on the issue by involving 

civil society, including religious and 

community leaders, besides political 

representatives as part of “policy 

and programmatic action” to end 

discrimination against females. 

The child sex ratio, measured as 

the number of girls between the 

ages of 0 and 6 years to 1,000 boys 

in the same age group, has declined 

from 927 to 914 in 2011 as per the 

provisional census 2011 data, he 

pointed out in his letter. 

“The disaggregated data for states 

and Union Territories (UT) reveal a 

picture that is even more alarming 

than the average child sex ratio for 

the country,” Singh said while highlighting 

the data of individual 

states. Asserting that discrimination 

and social prejudice against women 

needed to be tackled at all stages. 

He said: “We need strong action 

against pre-birth sex selection using 

modern diagnostic technologies 

and neglect of the girl child once 

she is born.” Noting that implementation 

of law on pre-natal sex determination 

"continues to be a challenge 

in most areas", he said "the 

need of the hour is to strengthen 

monitoring and inspection mechanisms 

for strict and effective 

implementation of the law by 

states and UTs." 

“I would earnestly request you to 

consider putting in place a concerted 

plan of action to strengthen 

the implementation of the PC (preconception) 

and PNDT (pre-natal 

sex determination) Act and involve 

all sections of society. 

In addition to strong implementation 

of the PC and PNDT Acts, 

there is a need to take a series 

of steps to make the society a 

better place for girls to be born, 

survive and prosper, the 

Prime Minister said. 

The sex ratio in some states has 

seen greater decline. Among these 

are Andhra Pradesh with an 18point 

drop, Chhattisgarh with an 

11-point drop and Bihar with a 9point 

decline.—PTI 

PM meets Cabinet on 

Gujarat Lokayukta 

New Delhi: Prime Minister 

Manmohan Singh on Thurs - 

day held a meeting with his 

senior Cabinet colleagues in 

the backdrop of the controversies 

surrounding the appointment 

of Lokayukta in BJPruled 

Gujarat. 

Singh held consultations 

with finance minister Pranab 

Mukherjee, home minister P 

Chidambaram, law minister 

Salman Khurshid and defence 

minister A K Antony for 80 

minutes at his residence. 

There was no official word 

on what transpired at the 

meeting. 

The meeting took place a 

day before BJP's scheduled 

meeting with President 

Pratibha Patil on Friday to 

press for the recall of state 

Governor Kamla Beniwal. 

The BJP has accused the 

Governor of appointing the 

Lokayukta in the state 

withoutconsulting the state 

government. 

Gujarat chief minister 

Narendra Modi on Thursday 

wrote to the Prime Minister 

demanding Governor Kamla 

Beniwal be recalled over her 

controversial appo int ment of 

Lokayukta bypassing the state 

government and annulment 

of the appointment of the 

Lokayukta. 

The Governor had appo - 

inted justice R A Mehta as 

Gujarat Lokayukta last week. 

The BJP has sought to make 

a big controversy out of the 

issue by disrupting the func- 

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tioning of both the Lok Sabha 

and the Rajya Sabha. Both 

Houses are likely to face disruption 

on Friday. 

Meanwhile, the Congress 

plans to counter the BJP's attack 

arguing that the law for the 

appointment of Lokayukta in 

Gujarat nowhere mentions that 

the Governor has to consult the 

Council of Ministers before 

making any appointment. 

The Congress also alleged 

the BJP was trying to create a 

controversy on the issue to 

deflect attention from chief 

minister Narendra Modi's 

“questionable deeds”.— PTI 

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8 

EDITORIAL 

Vol: 2, Issue: 65 

“So the people will 

pay the penalty for 

their kings’ presumption, 

who, by devising 

evil, turn justice from 

her path with 

tortuous speech.” 

—Hesiod 

(active between 750 and 

650 BCE) 

People’s leader 

Both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have faced historic 

assembly elections in 2011, ushering in new governments 

led by J. Jayalalithaa of the All-India Anna Dravida 

Munnetra Kazhagam and Mamata Banerjee of the All-India 

Trinamul Congress respectively. Yet, the manner in which 

the two chief ministers have functioned over the first 100 

days could not have been more different. It merits mentioning 

that both Ms Jayalalithaa and Ms Banerjee had practically 

sank into oblivion after the 2006 assembly elections, 

but both the doughty ladies bounced back phoenix-like to 

demolish their opponents this year. However, Ms 

Jayalalithaa’s victory has not sated her vendetta against the 

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). She has declared war 

on land grabbing by influential people. This has resulted in 

scores of arrests, including those of several former ministers 

of the DMK regime. Several schemes and projects of the 

DMK period have been either reversed or replaced. The 

scheme of distributing free television sets has been 

dropped, a new state secretariat-cum-assembly complex, 

built by the DMK, is to be converted into a hospital and a 

grassroots heath scheme has been redone. In contrast, Ms 

Banerjee has, commendably, turned 

swords to ploughshares. She has strictly 

prohibited a politics of revenge and has 

chosen to involve the opposition parties in 

the process of rebuilding the state. It is not 

as if Ms Jayalalithaa has shown no interest 

in governance; nor is it that the DMK does 

not merit a measure of punishment for its 

colossal corruption. But, then, the same 

can doubtless be said about most political parties in India. 

One is inclined to aver that Ms Banerjee’s eschewal of political 

vendetta and her single-minded focus on governance is 

more beneficial than Ms Jayalalithaa’s truculent modus 

operandi. 

In pursuing her pro-people goal, it may be mentioned 

here, Ms Banerjee has added yet another feather in her cap. 

The soaring prices of vegetables have recently deepened the 

woes of the common people. Ms Banerjee therefore decided 

to personally visit markets at Gariahat and Sealdah and also 

the Koley wholesale market for vegetables. There she found 

a considerable gap between the wholesale and retail prices 

of vegetables like aubergine, ridge gourd, okra and tomato. 

It is true that heavy rainfall has damaged vegetables grown 

in some areas. But that cannot entirely explain the great difference 

of price at the two ends of the farm-to-fork supply 

chain. In view of this, Ms Banerjee suspects that a group of 

middlemen are responsible for jacking up prices. To remedy 

this, the chief minister has constituted a task force to monitor 

the prices in vegetable markets. This is truly a pro-people 

gesture that the common buyer would appreciate. 

Row over death 

No civilised nation should defend capital punishment. 

However, the case of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, 

the three convicts on death row for helping to assassinate 

former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is different because it 

shows how sadly clunky executive and judicial procedure 

can be in this country. The three were convicted by the 

Supreme Court in 1999 and the Madras high court has now 

granted them an eight-week stay of execution. The three 

sought a presidential pardon after being sentenced. It is a sad 

commentary that it took Rashtrapati Bhavan close to 12 

years to decide to confirm the death sentence and deny 

clemency. Since so much time has elapsed, the counsel for 

the convicts have pleaded that their clients had undergone 

deep “mental agony”, which they indeed may have, and 

should be spared death. Their plea is that the death sentence 

be commuted to life imprisonment. If this is granted, one 

could be quite certain that the three will then seek discharge 

from prison on the grounds that they have already been in 

prison for 20 years since being committed, following the dastardly 

crime. 

Capital punishment is an unfortunate reality in India. Till 

the day capital punishment is banned, parliament should at 

least ensure that legal procedure relating to 

such momentous verdicts is made expeditious. 

It should lay down that the president 

must take a view on clemency pleas within 

a stipulated time so that there is no scope 

for absurdities to be entertained, as we are 

now witnessing in Tamil Nadu. Twelve 

years is long by any stretch of the imagination. 

In effect, the delay has been that of the 

Union home ministry, which has to advise Rashtrapati 

Bhavan on such matters. We do not know if Rashtrapati 

Bhavan made enquiries with the home ministry in this matter 

and in respect of other long-pending cases. The president 

cannot in such matters remain a passive recipient of advice. 

It is a great pity that political elements in Tamil Nadu have 

summoned parochial and communal grounds to intervene in 

this discussion. It is this that has given rise to the political 

sentiment that parties like the DMK and MDMK are seeking 

to irresponsibly spread. By implication, such elements are 

suggesting that the Tamil people were being sought to be 

penalised for the crime of killing a former Prime Minister. 

The passage of the resolution in the state assembly urging 

commuting of the Supreme Court verdict unfortunately 

invokes the same imagery. Under our law, individuals are 

charged with a crime, not their communities. If the matter is 

not allowed to rest on this premise, we will be opening an 

ugly can of worms. 

Back in Time 

Ms 

Banerjee’s 

politics has 

consistently 

been propeople 

Individuals 

are charged 

with a 

crime, not 

their communities 

On September 2, 1946, the 

Interim Government of India 

is formed from the newlyelected 

Constituent Assembly 

of India for the task of assisting 

the transition of India 

from British rule to independence. 

With Jawaharlal Nehru 

as Vice President, it remains 

in place until August 15, 1947. 



Time to give the gatekeeper the boot 

George Monbiot 

Who are the most ruthless capitalists 

in the western world? 

Whose monopolistic practices 

make Walmart look like a corner 

shop and Rupert Murdoch a socialist? 

You won’t guess the answer in 

a month of Sundays. While there 

are plenty of candidates, my vote 

goes not to the banks, the oil companies 

or the health insurers, but — 

wait for it — to academic publishers. 

Theirs might sound like a fusty 

and insignificant sector. It is anything 

but. Of all corporate scams, 

the racket they run is most urgently 

in need of referral to the competition 

authorities. 

Everyone claims to agree that 

people should be encouraged to 

understand science and other academic 

research. Without current 

knowledge, we cannot make coherent 

democratic decisions. But the 

publishers have slapped a padlock 

and a ‘keep out’ sign on the gates. 

You might resent Murdoch’s paywall 

policy, in which he charges £1 

for 24 hours of access to the Times 

and Sunday Times. But at least in 

that period you can read and 

download as many articles as you 

like. Reading a single article published 

by one of Elsevier’s journals 

will cost you $31.50. Springer 

charges €34.95, Wiley-Blackwell, 

$42. Read 10 and you pay 10 times. 

And the journals retain perpetual 

copyright. You want to read a letter 

printed in 1981? That’ll be $31.50. 

Of course, you could go into the 

library (if it still exists). But they too 

have been hit by cosmic fees. The 

average cost of an annual subscription 

to a chemistry journal is 

$3,792. Some journals cost $10,000 

a year or more to stock. The most 

expensive I’ve seen, Elsevier’s 

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, is 

$20,930. Though academic libraries 

have been frantically cutting subscriptions 

to make ends meet, journals 

now consume 65 per cent of 

their budgets, which means they 

have had to reduce the number of 

books they buy. Journal fees 

account for a significant component 

of universities’ costs, which 

are being passed to their students. 

Murdoch pays his journalists and 

editors, and his companies generate 

much of the content they use. 

Academic publishers charge vast fees to access research paid for 

by us. Down with the knowledge monopoly racketeers. 

But the academic publishers get 

their articles, their peer reviewing 

(vetting by other researchers) and 

even much of their editing for free. 

The material they publish was 

commissioned and funded not by 

them but by us, through government 

research grants and academic 

stipends. But to see it, we must pay 

again, and through the nose. 

The returns are astronomical: in 

the past financial year, for example, 

Elsevier’s operating profit margin 

was 36 per cent (£724 million on 

revenues of £2 billion). They result 

from a stranglehold on the market. 

Elsevier, Springer and Wiley, who 

have bought up many of their competitors, 

now publish 42 per cent of 

journal articles. 

More importantly, universities 

are locked into buying their products. 

Academic papers are published 

in only one place, and they 

have to be read by researchers trying 

to keep up with their subject. 

Demand is inelastic and competition 

non-existent, because differ- 

Afterthought 

ent journals can’t publish the same 

material. In many cases the publishers 

oblige the libraries to buy a 

large package of journals, whether 

or not they want them all. Perhaps 

it’s not surprising that one of the 

biggest crooks ever to have preyed 

upon the people of this country — 

Robert Maxwell — made much of 

his money through academic publishing. 

The publishers claim that they 

have to charge these fees as a result 

of the costs of production and distribution, 

and that they add value 

(in Springer’s words) because they 

“develop journal brands and maintain 

and improve the digital infrastructure 

which has revolutionised 

scientific communication in the 

past 15 years”. But an analysis by 

Deutsche Bank reaches different 

conclusions. “We believe the publisher 

adds relatively little value to 

the publishing process … if the 

process really were as complex, 

costly and value-added as the publishers 

protest that it is, 40 per cent 

margins wouldn’t be available.” Far 

from assisting the dissemination of 

research, the big publishers impede 

it, as their long turnaround times 

can delay the release of findings by 

a year or more. 

What we see here is pure rentier 

capitalism: monopolising a public 

resource then charging exorbitant 

fees to use it. Another term for it is 

economic parasitism. To obtain the 

knowledge for which we have 

already paid, we must surrender 

our feu to the lairds of learning. 

It’s bad enough for academics, it’s 

worse for the laity. I refer readers to 

peer-reviewed papers, on the principle 

that claims should be followed 

to their sources. The readers tell me 

that they can’t afford to judge for 

themselves whether or not I have 

represented the research fairly. 

Independent researchers who try to 

inform themselves about important 

scientific issues have to fork out 

thousands. This is a tax on education, 

a stifling of the public mind. It 

appears to contravene the universal 

Kurds must find a peaceful solution 

Kaya Genç 

The latest escalation of violence 

in Turkey is indicative of a new 

atmosphere of political unrest in 

the country. In the last month 

alone, 40 soldiers of the Turkish 

military forces have been killed by 

the Kurdistan Workers’ party 

(PKK) militants. The response to 

the attacks came in the form of air 

raids in northern Iraq. Targets in 

the Qandil mountains, Sinath- 

Haftanin, Hakurk and Gara were 

demolished by the three-day military 

operation last week. 

According to the military forces 

the operation was a success, with 

“the destruction of up to 100 

members of the PKK”. That is 

almost double the number of 

fatalities in Afghanistan in the 

same period of time. 

The political sphere in Turkey 

seems to have been gravely 

wounded this summer. And we 

should urgently rediscover ways 

in which we can dismantle this 

atmosphere of war. 

Over the course of the last 

decade, the ruling AK party has 

tried hard to change the official 

line on the Kurdish population. 

Unable to claim their linguistic 

and cultural rights, Kurds were for 

a long time refused their proper 

and ethnic names: the official etymology 

of the word ‘Kurd’, for 

example, used to be that it merely 

came from the sound made by 

boots on snow (‘Kart-Kurd’). At 

other times they were claimed to 

be the Turks of mountains, speaking 

in a strange, undecipherable 

dialect. Little acknowledgement 

was made of the fact that Turkey’s 

Kurds, who make up one fifth of 

the national population, have a 

distinct sense of their own cultural, 

religious and political identity, 

and that they have clashed 

with the policies of both the 

Ottoman empire and the modern 

Turkish nation state. 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government 

led the initiative to reform 

the debate over Kurdish identity. 

Following his “Kurdish opening” 

project, more and more politicians 

now talk openly about Turkey’s 

Kurds and their suppressed political 

rights. Erdogan’s government 

criticised Turkey’s age-old politics 

of nationalism and pointed to the 

failures of the modernising ideals 

behind the nation state. Instead of 

nationalism we were offered a 

discourse of Islamic tolerance and 

Kurds were invited to be pious citizens 

of the country that pledged 

never again to discriminate 

against them. 

However, Kurdish politicians in 

the Democratic Society party 

believed that the discrimination 

was far from being over: it just 

took a different shape. Following 

last June’s elections the independent 

Kurdish candidate Hatip Dicle 

was elected to parliament but was 

refused entry to Ankara because 

of a previous terror conviction. 

This resulted in a stalemate in 

Turkish politics — Kurdish politicians 

decided to protest against 

parliament. The conflict was further 

intensified by threats from 

the PKK’s radical branch, the 

Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), 

to attack tourist locations and 

destroy as many Turkish soldiers 

and civilians as possible. 

In this fragile state of affairs, 

Erdogan seems to be repeating the 

mistakes of his predecessors. He 

believes that the Turkish state 

apparatus is no longer an unjust 

and oppressive organisation, and 

that it will behave benevolently 

Parliament is the 

channel through 

which rights for Kurds 

can be secured and 

this era of political 

violence in Turkey 

can end 

and altruistically to all those who 

observes its rules. Turkey’s 

Kurdish population are not convinced. 

Erdogan needs to understand 

how his offerings of a tolerant 

but religiously ordered society 

might be unattractive to Kurdish 

people. 

Turkey’s Kurdish politicians, 

meanwhile, are not doing any better 

at improving the situation. Last 

weekend’s bombing of a tourist 

beach in Antalya attests to the 

desperate state of Kurdish militants 

and Kurdish politicians took 

pains not to condemn the use of 

political violence when it comes 

from the Kurdish militants. Antimilitarists 

and socialists who 

sided with the Democratic Society 

party are now irritated by their 

essentially religious and at times 

militarist discourse of martyrdom. 

Kurdish politicians don’t sound 

terribly secular when they talk 

about glorious operations of liberation 

(that is, suicide attacks) 

against the military that laid the 

foundations of the PKK movement. 

We should demand they go 

back to the parliament to fulfil 

their much-needed function of 

struggling for more political rights 

for the Kurds. This autumn will 

see the drafting of a new constitution: 

placing bombs under tourist 

beaches won’t help Kurdish rights 

in the future. Both state and terrorist 

violence should be opposed 

by an anti-militarist movement 

calling for mutual dismantling of 

arms. 

It is an appalling sight when 

politicians settle their disagreements 

at the expense of the lives 

of young soldiers. If Erdogan and 

his Kurdish counterparts want to 

leave a positive legacy, they need 

to put an end to this terrifying era 

of political violence. And the only 

means of achieving this will be by 

debating in the parliament buildings 

of Ankara, and not with 

adventures in the Quandil mountains. 

—The Guardian 

declaration of human rights, which 

says that “everyone has the right 

freely to … share in scientific 

advancement and its benefits”. 

Open-access publishing, despite 

its promise, and some excellent 

resources such as the Public Library 

of Science and the physics database 

arxiv.org, has failed to displace the 

monopolists. In 1998 the 

Economist, surveying the opportunities 

offered by electronic publishing, 

predicted that “the days of 40 

per cent profit margins may soon be 

as dead as Robert Maxwell”. But in 

2010 Elsevier’s operating profit 

margins were the same (36 per 

cent) as they were in 1998. 

The reason is that the big publishers 

have rounded up the journals 

with the highest academic impact 

factors, in which publication is 

essential for researchers trying to 

secure grants and advance their 

careers. You can start reading openaccess 

journals, but you can’t stop 

reading the closed ones. 

Government bodies, with a few 

exceptions, have failed to confront 

them. The National Institutes of 

Health in the US oblige anyone taking 

their grants to put their papers 

in an open-access archive. But 

Research Councils UK, whose statement 

on public access is a masterpiece 

of meaningless waffle, relies 

on “the assumption that publishers 

will maintain the spirit of their current 

policies”. You bet they will. 

In the short term, governments 

should refer the academic publishers 

to their competition watchdogs, 

and insist that all papers arising 

from publicly funded research are 

placed in a free public database. In 

the longer term, they should work 

with researchers to cut out the middleman 

altogether, creating — along 

the lines proposed by Björn Brembs 

of Berlin’s Freie Universität — a single 

global archive of academic literature 

and data. Peer-review would 

be overseen by an independent 

body. It could be funded by the 

library budgets which are currently 

being diverted into the hands of privateers. 

The knowledge monopoly is as 

unwarranted and anachronistic as 

the corn laws. Let’s throw off these 

parasitic overlords and liberate the 

research that belongs to us. 

—The Guardian 

World Window 

As the killings mount in Syria, the US 

and its allies are not the only ones 

declaring their revulsion. A number of 

President Bashar al-Assad’s longtime 

apologists have decided that they can 

no longer stand mute. Over the weekend, 

the Arab League finally urged Syria 

to “end the spilling of blood and follow 

the way of reason before it is too late.” 

Foreign ministers agreed to send the 

group’s secretary general, Nabil el- 

Araby, to Damascus with proposals to 

end the conflict. According to Al Jazeera, 

those include holding presidential elections, 

withdrawing the army from 

cities, releasing political prisoners and 

forming a national unity government. 

Set aside the obvious fact that Arab 

League members are not strong on 

democracy. They are right to worry that 

Mr. Assad’s murderous behaviour could 

destabilize the region by fomenting allout 

civil war between Syria’s ruling 

minority Alawites, a Shiite subgroup, 

and the majority Sunnis. Even Iran, in 

the height of hypocrisy, is urging 

Damascus to be more ‘patient’ with its 

people — a sign that it, too, is worried 

about the instability spreading. 

The Arab League can certainly give it 

a try, but Mr. Assad has promised 

reforms before and kept on killing. On 

Tuesday, his forces killed at least seven 

people as protesters left mosques after 

prayers at the end of Ramadan. The 

Arab League needs to impose tough 

sanctions, now. 

Turkey is also speaking out — but not 

as clearly or forcefully as it should. On 

Sunday, President Abdullah Gul said he 

had “lost confidence” in the Syrian government, 

but Prime Minister Recep 

Tayyip Erdogan was still giving Mr. 

Assad a lifeline by exhorting him to “listen 

to people’s demands.” The Obama 

administration has frozen all Syrian 

government assets here and banned 

American citizens and corporations 

from doing any business with 

Damascus. But Washington has limited 

leverage. The European Union, a major 

importer of Syrian oil, could have a far 

greater impact. The Europeans ann - 

ounced last week that they would 

impose new sanctions, but members 

are still squabbling over details. An oil 

embargo is essential, but sanctions 

should also be imposed on Syrian 

banks and energy and telecommunications 

companies. 

And Mr. Assad still has a few, far 

too powerful, protectors. Russia and 

China, along with India, Brazil and 

South Africa, are blocking a United 

Nations Security Council resolution 

that could impose broad international 

sanctions on Damascus. Their complicity 

is shameful.


www.thebengalpost.com OP-ED 9 

1 

2 

A billion words 

Cities are built on the 

backs of poor labourers, 

yet their toil has seldom 

been rewarded. 

Debasish Bhaduri 

captures the faceless of 

Kolkata who live and die 

in acute poverty 

Sudhir Venkatesh 

Nothing stirs up the American policymaking 

community like talking 

about crime. This is understandable 

when crime skyrockets, but anxiety 

levels have remained high even as 

America’s crime rate has descended to 

its lowest level in 40 years. Scholars 

and wonks rush so quickly to claim 

credit — as quickly as they seek refuge 

to avoid blame — that getting to the 

core of the problem is not so easy. But 

when you leave aside the politicking, 

you find that it’s actually more important 

to understand community respon - 

ses to crime, rather than to figure out 

exactly how or why crime persists. 

But fads are not easy to ignore. 

Consider the latest intellectual fashion 

that links imprisonment with reductions 

in crime rates. Simple enough in 

principle, but is it truthful (or just 

A city that refuses to wake up to its poverty 

Karl Marx had once said, “Capital 

comes dripping from head to toe, 

from every pore, with blood and dirt.” 

The urban jungle, ruthless in its disposition 

towards labourers and indifferent 

to human suffering, is the cradle of 

exploitation. It’s the same picture in all 

the cities of the world down the ages. 

Kolkata, the city with a heart, toes the 

same line. What is often termed as 

development is a thinly disguised 

attempt to maximise profits at the cost 

of cheap human labour. And, it’s not 

going to change, at least not in foresee- 

able future. 

These photographs pay tribute to the 

human machines. 

1. On Central Avenue, opposite 

Mahajati Sadan, some van pullers of the 

city and lorry drivers from across the 

country sleep blissfully. They even have 

a couple of stray dogs for company. 

2. These are Gujaratis who trade in 

old clothes collected from the rich and 

the middle-class. They assemble in 

front of Liberty Cinema and sleep on the 

footpath for a couple of hours. Around 

2.30 am their clients, the city’s poor, 

Plunging crime graph in the US 

‘truthy’)? The chief proponent, besides 

US police and sheriff associations, is 

public policy Professor James Wilson, 

who argues that lengthier penal sent - 

en ces keeps potential criminals beh ind 

bars. 

In the other corner, groups like the 

Sentencing Project beg to differ, with 

some nifty statistics to prove their 

point — for example, that the states 

where imprisonment was below the 

national average experienced the 

greatest drops in crime. It would be 

silly to ignore the positive effects of 

incarceration — some offenders do 

tend to transgress repeatedly over the 

life course, so keeping them off the 

streets is smart. 

But, it is equally foolhardy to think 

that incarceration is the always best 

answer. Canada, for instan ce, has much 

lower incarceration rates than the US, 

yet its crime rate is also low. 

AFP 

Empowering citizens to effectively respond to crime is the best bet 

8 

3 4 5 

The problem is making generalisations 

across all crimes and across all US 

cities and states. Criminologists still 

really don’t understand why Chicago’s 

youth homicide rate went through the 

roof last year, while New York’s stayed 

at a near-historic low. My colleague, 

Freakonomics economist Steven Levitt, 

shows that changing drug habits can 

affect some crimes but not others: 

homicides dropped after the early 

1990s as crack became less popular, but 

other crimes did not. 

Instead of studying why crime 

occurs, we should instead be looking at 

the capacity of communities to take 

action against it. Local public safety 

depends on the locals who can respond 

to criminal and delinquent acts before 

they destroy the social fabric. No region 

in America is free from social problems, 

but communities differ widely in terms 

of the capacity among citizens to 

respond. Recent research suggests that 

rather than fighting criminals directly, 

it may be as advantageous to help communities 

fight against crime. As we 

champion our favourite deterrents — 

prisons on the right, job growth on the 

left, we may want to remember that an 

active citizenry, able to defend itself, is 

a proven ingredient for ensuring public 

safety. 

Tracey Meares, Yale University's 

renowned legal scholar, has demonstrated 

the power of ‘take back the 

night’ vigils and protests for warding off 

criminals, especially when religious 

leaders lead the crusade and bring poli - 

ce aboard. Social scientists at Harvard 

argue that the best predictor for low 

crime rates is the “collectively efficacious” 

behaviour of residents — a fancy 

phrase that refers to the ability of 

neighbours to work together when 

things go awry. And David Kennedy has 

start coming in to buy these clothes. 

Transactions go on till 5.30 am. before 

the city wakes up to its morning chores. 

3. At night on Howrah Bridge it is 

easy to spot these people pushing carts 

with heavy iron pipes. Their job is to 

deliver goods from Bajrang Bali, the 

steel market in Salkia, to different parts 

of Kolkata. 

4. Van drivers, rickshawpullers and 

porters who supply clay from the 

Ganges to the artisans in Kumartuli 

have only bare concrete as their bed. 

Their workplace is their resting place. 

shown proven results with his “Cease - 

fire” programme, which focuses on 

issuing real threats to criminals, with 

consequences that are delivered swift ly. 

Such efforts fall under a large 

umbrella called ‘community policing’, 

which took off in the 1990s — and in 

Europe, the decade after. President 

Clinton helped cities hire 100,000 cops. 

Urban mayors from Chicago to Seattle 

to New York built local coalitions of residents, 

businesspersons, clergy, school 

principals and other so-called ‘stakeholders’ 

who could respond to crime 

before it spiralled out of control. 

The power of such coalition-style 

policing lies in the phalanx of crime 

fighters that confronts local criminals: 

not only do the perps feel the weight of 

the law around them, but they come to 

believe that law enforcement is sincere 

when it threatens to lock up criminals. 

In short, truth in advertising has proven 

to be an excellent deterrent to crime. 

But ‘community policing’ is subject 

to interpretation — and not surprisingly, 

left and right differ in predictable 

ways. Advocates of gun rights are quick 

to call for the need for relaxed weapons 

laws, while those on the left want community 

organisations to become even 

more empowered with federal funding 

and services. 

Don't expect any of these debates to 

get settled soon. Instead, I’d recommend 

a simple exercise when the next 

theory about crime rates makes headlines. 

Ask yourself, what do communities 

do when crime occurs? Can they 

act ‘efficaciously’? Or are they held 

host age by gangs, car thieves, vandals 

and other criminals? We may never 

understand with great precision what 

causes crime, but we can always 

empower citizens to respond when it 

occurs. —The Guardian 

7 

6 

5. The tea and foodstall owners in the 

Poddar Court area have little option but 

to turn the footpaths into bedrooms. 

They live and procreate in the open, 

while their children grow up amid filth 

and squalor. 

6. Nearly hundred rickshawpullers 

ferrying people in central Kolkata have 

the roadside as their homes. On Surya 

Sen street these Bihari migrants, who 

had come to the city long ago in search 

of a livelihood, can barely make ends 

meet. Even the dreams of prosperity 

have eluded them. 

7 & 8. They are from Gosaba, Satjalia, 

Kumirmari villages of the Sunderbans. 

Their homes have been devastated by 

cyclone Aila. They come to the city to 

work as porters in Howrah haat. They 

return to their villages on Tuesday, 

each earning about `400 for three days 

of back-breaking labour. While in the 

city they sleep on the open road, next 

to the Howrah post office. The district 

magistrate’s bungalow is a stone’s 

throw away. If a speeding vehicle ever 

loses control, it will be the end for 

scores of these people. 

The Guatemala scar 

Hugh O’Shaughnessy 

The commission call ed 

in by President 

Obama to investigate 

American involvement 

in the deliberate infection 

of Guatemalans 

with sexually transmitted 

diseases has repor - 

ted its interim findings. 

The case concerns 5,500 

Guatemalans who were 

the subject of ‘medical 

research’ that took place 

with US collaboration 

between 1946 and 1948: 

1,300 were deliberately 

exposed to sexually tran - 

s mitted diseases such as 

syphilis, gonorrhoea or 

chancroid. 

Dr Amy Gutmann, a US 

university president who 

led the investigation, said 

some of the staff inv - 

olved were ‘grie vously 

wrong’ and ‘mor ally culpable 

to various degrees’. 

I note however that the 

implication that some 

were not ‘grievously 

wrong’ and others were 

only partially guil ty. 

To be frank, the 

labours of President 

Obama’s commission 

and Dr Gutmann’s carefully 

nuanced statement 

would be laughable if 

they were not so insulting. 

They appear a sort of 

political legerdemain 

that, by offering a confession 

to one crime, is 

seeking to divert attention 

and escape responsibility 

for an infinitely 

greater one. 

What happened with 

the syphilitic atrocity 

between 1946 and 1948 

was as nothing when 

compared with the US 

involvement in cataclysmic 

genocide of 

200,000 people visited 

on Guatemala — and 

particularly on the May - 

ans and other indigenous 

peoples — when 

that country was under 

the heel of military dictatorships 

fostered, enc - 

ouraged and supported 

by Washington. 

According to the rep - 

ort of the commission 

for historical clarification 

(CHC), set up under 

the Oslo accord on Gua - 

temala in 1994 with the 

involvement of the EU, 

Mexico and the US to 

investigate — but not to 

judge — the atrocities, 

this was rooted in the 

overthrow of the constitutionally 

elected government 

of President 

Jacobo Arbenz by conservative 

military in 

1954. 

The coup d’etat 

enjoyed the active and 

now fully acknowledged 

co-operation of the CIA. 

Washington was enga - 

ged in the cold war, and 

US anti-communism, 

backed by a misnamed 

‘national security doctrine’, 

received firm support 

from the Guate - 

malan right-wing. 

This took the form of 

“reinforcing the national 

intelligence apparatus 

and … training the officer 

corps in counterinsurgency 

techniques, 

key factors which had 

significant bearing on 

human rights violations 

during the armed confrontation”. 

It was mixed up with 

“anti-reformist, then 

anti-democratic policies, 

culminating in criminal 

counterinsurgency”. 

The Guatemalan military 

then waged a war of 

annihilation against tho - 

se they considered enemies 

whom they termed 

“insurgents”, a term that 

has reappeared in the 

context of the western 

invasion of Iraq and 

Afghanistan. 

The CHC found that 

insurgent actions produced 

a mere three per 

cent of the human rights 

violations and acts of 

violence perpetrated 

against men, women 

and children, including 

five per cent of the arbitrary 

executions and two 

per cent of forced disappearances. 

It was the 

western-supported military 

who bathed in the 

blood of fellow citizens. 

—The Guardian

10 

BRIEFLY 

WORLD 

� China’s Red Eagle air 

demonstration team 

makes its debut at the 

First Aviation Open Day 

in Changchun—AFP 

Gorkhas bear brunt of 

UK defence spending cut 

London/Kathmandu: Britain 

is to sack another 150 

Gorkha soldiers as part of 

government's drive to reduce 

men-under-arms and the 

move has raised hackles in 

Nepal, the home of the 

fabled fighters. —PTI 

Strauss-Kahn leaves 

Washington home 

Washington: Dominique 

Strauss-Kahn on Thursday 

left his Washington home, 

believed to be en route to 

France via New York, one 

week after sexual assault 

charges were sensationally 

dropped against the former 

IMF chief. —AFP 

Famine situation to 

worsen in Somalia: UN 

Nairobi: Food will be 

increasingly scarce in 

famine-struck southern 

Somalia until next year's harvest, 

the head of the United 

Nations refugee agency said 

on Thursday.—Reuters 

Seven killed by WWII 

bomb in Myanmar 

Yangon: Seven people died 

when World War II bomb 

exploded in western Myanmar. 

The accident took place on 

Wednesday. “We think the old 

bomb was left over from World 

War II. We have no idea how 

many of them are left buried,” 

an official said.—AFP 

Nepal Maoists hand 

over weapons 

Kathmandu: The Maoist 

party in Nepal on Thursday 

handed over the keys of its 

armed wing's arsenal to a 

special committee, a significant 

move that is expected to 

boost the peace process. —PTI 

Gunmen kill seven in 

Pakistan 

Islamabad: At least seven 

people were killed on 

Thursday in Pakistan’s 

restive Kurram Agency when 

unidentified gunmen opened 

fire on a passenger bus, officials 

said. —PTI 

WikiLeaks may release 

unredacted US cables 

London: WikiLeaks is conducting 

an online poll of its 

Twitter followers to decide 

whether the whistleblowing 

site should publish in full its 

unredacted cache of US 

diplomatic cables.—Guardian 

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Gaddafi vows to turn Libya into hell 

Fugitive leader was 

speaking on the 

anniversary of 

1969 military coup 

Tripoli: A defiant Muammar Gaddafi 

issued his latest apocalyptic statement, 

urging his surrounded followers 

to “keep fighting” and promising 

to turn Libya “into a hell” , even as 

Libya's new interim rulers met world 

leaders to discuss reshaping a nation 

torn by 42 years of one-man rule and 

six months of war. 

“Let it be a long battle. We will 

fight from place to place, from town 

to town, from valley to valley, from 

mountain to mountain.Libya will 

turn into a hell. How can the Libyan 

people surrender?” Gaddafi said in a 

message broadcast on Arab satellite 

television channels. 

“If Libya goes up in flames, who 

will be able to govern it? Let it burn. 

They don't want to rule Libya. They 

cannot rule it as long as we are 

armed. We are still armed. We will 

fight in every valley, in every street, in 

every oasis, and every town.” 

The fugitive leader was speaking 

Colombo: Hundreds of Tamil 

Tiger guerrillas would continue 

to be held in jail and the outfit 

remain banned under the new 

terrorism regulations to be 

promulgated in Sri Lanka. 

Four new regulations under 

the Prevention of Terrorism Act 

(PTA) have been sent to the 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa for 

approval to provide legal cover 

to deal with the LTTE, including 

its proscription as the nearly 30year-long 

state of emergency 

ended on Wednesday. 

Attorney General Mohan Peiris 

said the President is to promulgate 

the fresh regulations, which 

will allow the continued proscription 

of the LTTE and its charity 

London: A new film on Michael 

Jackson is set to reveal the many different 

facets of his personality and 

how his family coped during his 

molestation trial in 2005. 

Michael Jackson: The Life 

of an Icon, directed by 

Andrew Eastel and 

produced by 

Michael's close 

childhood friend 

David Gest, involves 

interviews with more 

than 50 of his closest 

friends and family 

members during his 

molestation trial in 

2005, reported 

Contactmusic. 

Along with a 

rare interview 

with Michael's 

eldest sister 

Atasi Enterprise - to 

contact for new friends. 

Ph:7797007288/8768223357. 

PF629 

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� A Libyan man stands in front of a Tripoli wall covered with pro-rebellion graffiti on Wednesday—AFP 

on the anniversary of the military 

coup that toppled King Idris and 

brought him to power in 1969 when 

he was a 27-year-old army captain. 

The message gives no clue where 

Gaddafi might be hiding, or even if he 

is still inside the country. There is 

continuing speculation that he is in 

or near Bani Walid, 150kms southeast 

of Tripoli, where he was 

allegedly spotted last Friday. 

Alternatively some believe he has 

fled further to the southern desert 

town of Sabha, 750 kilometres from 

the capital. 

All three fugitives are wanted by 

the International Criminal Court for 

alleged crimes against humanity. 

LEGAL NOTICE 

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Abdel Majid Mlegta, coordinator of 

the Tripoli military operations room, 

said “someone we trust” had said 

Gaddafi had fled to Bani Walid, 150 

km southeast of the capital, three 

days after Tripoli fell. 

An Algerian newspaper said 

Gaddafi was in the border town of 

Ghadamis and had tried to call 

Algerian President Abdelaziz 

Bouteflika to appeal for refuge. 

Bouteflika would not take the call, 

even though Algeria gave sanctuary 

to Gaddafi's wife and three of his 

children when they crossed the border 

on Monday. 

The NTC, trying to mop up pro- 

Gaddafi forces, extended by a week a 

Sri Lanka to announce new 

regulations to deal with LTTE 

New regulations 

would mean that an 

estimated 1,200 Tamil 

Tiger cadres would 

continue to languish 

in jails. 

organisation, Tamil Rehabilitation 

Organisation (TRO). The rest of the 

regulations will cover the detention 

of the LTTE suspects and 

rehabilitation of the LTTE cadres 

who surrendered. 

The new tough terror regulations 

would mean that an estimated 

1,200 Tamil Tiger cadres, 

who were to be released from 

detention would continue to 

languish in jails.Unless the new 

regulations are promulgated, 

the proscriptions of the LTTE 

and TRO will become annulled 

with the lifting of emergency. 

The country has been under a 

state of emergency since 1983, 

when the LTTE under its late 

commander Velupillai 

Prabhakaran was posing a 

threat to the country's government 

and forces. With the government 

entering the 

Norwegian backed peace talks 

with the LTTE, the state of emergency 

was lifted in 2002 only to 

be re-imposed in August 2005 

when the LTTE carried out the 

murder of the foreign minister 

Lakshman Kadirgamar. —PTI 

It has interviews of his closest friends and family 

New film to chronicle 

the life and times of MJ 

Rebbie, where she speaks about his 

difficult relationship with their father 

Joe, the movie will also provide insight 

into the singer's early years with the 

Jackson 5, his solo career and his life 

up to his sudden death in June 2009. 

“Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon 

is a truly remarkable film that captures 

the true character, wit and sensitivity 

of my son. Producer David Gest 

takes you on an emotional roller 

coaster that will bring people to tears 

as well as really understand who the 

man behind the music was and is,” 

Michael's mother Katherine said. 

“I have tried to show Michael in a 

truly unique light. I have spent the 

past fifteen months travelling the 

world interviewing people who were 

most important in his life. I believe 

this film will entertain and educate in 

equal measures about who the real 

Michael Jackson was,” said Gest. —PTI 

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Saturday deadline for the surrender 

of the coastal city of Sirte, Gaddafi's 

birthplace, and other hold-out towns. 

“That means there's progress in 

the negotiations,” said Mohammed 

Zawawi, an NTC spokesman in the 

eastern city of Benghazi. "We're not 

in a rush to get in to Sirte. It has no 

economic importance and we're not 

going to lose casualties for it. We can 

cut supplies and wait, even more 

than a week.” 

The extension follows a peace 

feeler from one of Gaddafi's sons, 

Saadi, on Wednesday, even though it 

was contradicted by his elder brother 

Saif al-Islam and, now, by his father 

himself. —Agencies 

Hurricane Irene 

a major federal 

disaster: Obama 

New York: Barack Obama has 

declared Hurricane Irene a “major federal 

disaster” in states across the eastern 

US, freeing relief funds for what is 

likely to be one of the costliest natural 

disasters in American history. 

Obama acted as people struggled 

with severe flooding in states along 

the east coast from North Carolina 

going north. The designation means 

government money can be used for 

temporary housing and home repairs. 

The president earlier signed emergency 

declarations for other states 

including Puerto Rico and Vermont, 

where heavy flooding has destroyed 

roads and left 13 towns surrounded by 

water. 

New Jersey's governor, Chris 

Christie, called on the president to 

designate his heavily flooded state a 

disaster funds recipient. Thous-ands 

of people were evacuated in cities 

along the Passaic river, which has 

flooded towns along its banks. 

Meanwhile, tropical storm Katia 

strengthened into a hurricane over the 

Atlantic on Wednesday.—Agencies 

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Halder Electronics 

A-11, Room No.- 27 

Nadia - 741235. 

Mob: 98362 77205, 

93325 33904. 

9.00 am to 2.00 pm and 

5.30 pm to 10.00 pm on 

all days except 

Tuesdays. 

Paris: US secretary of state 

Hillary Clinton said on 

Thursday that Libya's interim 

leaders should be given the 

country's United Nations seat 

but they should also work 

with their former foes. 

Addressing a meeting of 

world powers on Libya, 

Clinton also said that the Nato 

military campaign which 

supported the uprising 

against Muammar Gaddafi 

should carry on as long as 

cvilians are under threat, 

despite his overthrow. 

Clinton said foreign governments 

would watch 

closely to make sure the 

National Transition Council 

(NTC) holds to its promises to 

establish a fair democracy. 

United Nations sanctions 

on Libya should start to be 

lifted in a responsible way 

and the new leaders awarded 

Libya's UN seat, she said. 

“The work does not end 

Halisahar 

M/S Speed Travel 

Network 

(Media Division) 

81, Railway Boundary Road, 

Halisahar, 

P.O- Nabanagar. 

24 Parganas (North), 

Pin- 743136 

Phone No.: (033) 2502-2304 

98831-23123 94323-83782 

Durgapur 

Korak Marketing 

C/o Sougata Dasgupta 

1A/2, Suniti Chatterjee Path 

Non-company City 

Centre 

Durgapur-16 

Mobile - 

9475752617/8653803642 

Time: 10 a.m to 7 p.m 



Interim leaders 

should get UN 

seat, says Clinton 

World is my Stage 

� Italian actor Vittoria Puccini arrives at the 68th Venice International Film Festival —AFP 

with the end of an oppressive 

regime,” Clinton told the 

“Friends of Libya” conference 

hosted by France and Britain. 

Libya’s new leaders gathered 

with their foreign allies 

in Paris to coordinate political 

and economic reconstruction. 

Some participants will 

also be jostling for a share in 

postwar contracts in the 

wealthy North African oil and 

gas producer. Russia recognised 

the NTC before the conference 

opened. 

Given sensitivities among 

Muslims after Western military 

operations in Iraq and 

Afghanistan, British Prime 

Minister David Cameron was 

at pains to stress that Libyans 

were in charge of their own 

fate: “This is not being 

dropped out of a Nato aeroplane, 

this is being delivered 

by the Libyan people,” he 

said. “It is their revolution, it 

is their change.”—Reuters 

Mussolini had ‘affair’ 

with Italy’s last queen 

Rome: Not much has 

stayed secret about the 

tumultuous private life 

of Benito Mussolini. 

That is apart from the 

true nature of his relationship 

with the 

woman who was to be 

Italy's last queen, 

Marie-José of Belgium. 

Mussolini's mistress, 

Claretta Petacci, 

claimed in her diary 

that in 1937 the then 

princess and wife of 

the heir to the throne 

tried and failed to 

seduce the dictator at a 

beach resort near 

Rome.But Marie-José 

may have been more 

successful than her 

rival suspected, if evidence 

that emerged on Wednesday is 

to be believed. 

In a letter reproduced by the weekly 

magazine Oggi, Mussolini's son 

Romano quotes his mother as saying 

that there was a “brief 

period of intimate 

romantic relations 

between my father 

and the then princess 

of Piedmont”. 

A letter written by 

Mussolini's youngest 

son in 1971 to Antonio 

Terzi, reads: “I can 

confirm in all good 

faith that the romantic 

and political relations 

between Marie- 

José and my father 

were often talked 

about at home, and I 

can tell you with honesty 

that my mother 

(albeit with understandablereservations) 

was always 

pretty explicit: there 

was a brief period of intimate romantic 

relations between my father and 

the then Princess of Piedmont that 

was then I believe interrupted at the 

instance of my father.” —Guardian 

� Mussolini and Queen 

Marie-José of Italy 

Shantipur 

Maa Basanti Motor 

Training School 

C/o Tapen Roy 

80, C.R Das Road 

(Near Bara bazar) 

P.O - Shantipur, 

Dist. - Nadia 

Mobile - 9434302527/ 

9233168059 

Park Circus 

Hallderson & Co. 

60, Dr Sundari Mohan 

Avenue, 

Kolkata - 700014. 

Ph: (033) 22897675/ 

7900, 22866089. 

Mobile: 9831076449, 

Fax: (033) 22847953 

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on all days 

except Sundays.


www.thebengalpost.com TODAY 11 

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FOX HISTORY & 

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at 21.00 on WB 

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� Watch Sanskaar Laxmi 

at 22.30 on Zee TV 

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Source: Indian Meteorological Department 

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12.00: Tagori 


Abalambane 

16.30: Rupasi Dohai Tomar 

19.00: Rakkhak Jakhon Bhakkak 


Abalambane 

22.00: Aahat Special 

� Watch Charitraheen 

at 19.00 

on Akash Bangla 

ETV BANGLA 

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ZEE BANGLA 

18.30: Agni Pariksha 

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20.00: Kanakanjali 

21.00: Saat Pake Bandha 

21.30: SaReGaMaPa Li’l Champs 

2011 

23.00: Erao Shatru 

AKASH BANGLA 

14.00: Akash Superhit Matinee - 

Agni Pariksha 

18.30: Radhuni/ Cookery Show 

19.00: Charitraheen 

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21.30: Exclusive Akash 

22.00: Biswa Barta 

KNOWLEDGE 

DISCOVERY 

SCIENCE 

14.30: Breaking Point 

16.30: More Industrial 

Revelations Europe 

18.00: Through the 

Wormhole with 

Morgan Freeman 

19.00: The New Inventors 

19.30: Weird or What? 

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22.00: Food Detectives 

23.00: Through the 

Wormhole with 

Morgan Freeman 

Hospital/Nursing Home 

NATIONAL 

GEOGRAPHIC 

Amri(Dhakuria) - 

24612526/2626 

Amri ( Saltlake)- 23357710 

Amri Clinic (Southern Avenue)- 

24644594/95/4948 

Anandalok - 23592931 

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23202122/23203040, 

Emergency: 1066 

Apollo Clinic: 24815741/42 , 

222837407/08/09 

Assembly Of God Church- 

22294676,22294853, 22294892 

Aurobindo Seva Kendra- 

24733601 

Bc Roy Hospital For Children - 

23528101/9740 

Belle Vue - 22472321/6925/7437 

Bm Birla Heart Research 

Center24567777/7890/70019,24 

567890,245678004 

Calcutta Medical College And 

Hospital - 224149012 

Howrah General Hospital - 

22604738-39/5695/2813 

Kothari Medical Center - 

24567049-52 

Oxygen 

Boc- 9831277777 

Sarin Brothers-Bd Market, Salt 

Lake -23373091 

Blood 

Central Blood Bank - 23510619 

Lifecare Medical Services - 

22444940 

� Watch US Open 2011 

at 20.30 on Ten Sports 

STAR SPORTS 

10.00: Barclays Premier League 

2011/12 

12.00: Champions League 

Twenty20 2009 Highlights 

14.00: FIM Motocross World 

Championship 2011 

17.00: Mobil 1 The Grid 

18.00 TNA Sikander 

20.00: Gp3 Series 2011 

21.00: Score Tonight 

22.30: Laureus Spirit of Sport 



NEO SPORTS 

7.00: Chilli Factor 

8.30: Weekend Kick Off 

10.30: Rugby World Cup 07 

12.30: Telebrand - Sky Star 

13.00: NASCAR 2011 Highlights 

14.00: BWF World Badminton 

Championship 2011 

19.00: Best of WTA Tour 

20.00: Flykingfisher Winning Post 

21.00: Rugby World Cup 07 

23.00: Bundesliga Highlights 

STAR CRICKET 

8.00: Road to the Final 



12.00: Best of CL T20 

12.30: Natwest Series 2002 

14.00: Caribbean T20 2011 H/ls 

15.00: Sri Lanka tour of England 

2011 Highlights 

16.00: Indian Premier League 


18.00: Sri Lanka tour of England 


23.00: India Victorious 

TEN SPORTS 

4.30: US Open 2011 

9.30: FIFA: Futbol Mundial 

10.00: Goalfest 

10.30: US Open Tennis Highlights 

11.30: WWE: Smackdown 

13.20: Pakistan Tour of Zimbabwe 

2011 

17.30: US Open Tennis Highlights 

18.30: WWE: Smackdown 

20.30: US Open 2011 

13.00: Jailed Abroad 

14.00: Engineering 

Connections 

15.30: Seconds from Disaster 

16.00: Dog Whisperer 

17.00: Dangerous Encounters 

18.00: Super Cat 

19.00: Nat Geo Amazing! 

19.30: Nat Geo Rush 

20.00: I Didn’t Know That 

20.30: Caught in the Act 

21.00: Dog Whisperer 

22.00: Nat Geo Rush 

22.30: Dangerous Encounters 

ANIMAL 

PLANET 

Haemophelia Society - 2416 

3739 

Bhoruka Blood Bank - 

22339619/8092 

Ambulance 

Amri - 65500000/23202147 

/23202122 

Apollo Gleneagles Hospital - 

1066 

Arambagh General Hospital - 

953211255095 

Asia Rescue Medical Services - 

9831008900/9830365276/393 

Aswini Nagar Ch. & Welfare 

Society - 24112323/28673030 

Bandhab Sangha - 26624682 

Barasat Citizen Forum - 

25525595 

Basudebpur Five Star Club 

26797315 

Bharat Relief Society - 

22342670/22359952 

B.M Birla Heart Research 

Centrwe - 24567777 

Calcutta Medical Research 

Institute Critical Care 

Ambulance - 9836490247 

Care And Cure Nursing Home 

95343-2568374 

Curewell Mobile Clinic - 

22942202/0760 

Dakshin Behala Auto Sangha 

Dhanwantary Ambulance 

Services (Shambhunath Pandit 

Street) - 24547941/9830584845 

(Diamond Harbour Road) - 

24495168/9331254856 

Kmc Control Room 

2286/1212/4 

STAR NEWS 

13.00: Predation! 

14.00: Austin Stevens 

Adventures 

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18.00: Wild South America 

19.00: Blackjack-High Stakes 

20.00: Fooled By Nature 

20.30: Planet Wild 

21.00: The Crocodile Hunter 

22.00: Deadliest Catch 

23.00: Untamed & Uncut 

17.00: 24 Ghante 24 Reporter 

17.30: Shh Suna Hai 

18.00: Khabar Din Bhar 

18.30: Reality Report 

19.00: Aaj Ki Baat 

19.30: Balle Balle 

20.00: Fatafat 

20.30: 8.30 Special 

21.00: 9 PM Report 

22.00: Sheela, Shagun, Meenakshi 

23.30: Mumbai Live 

TIMES NOW 

16.00: News Now 

18.00: 6 PM 

18.30: Live Report 

19.00: Primetime 

19.30: The Game 

20.00: News Now at 8 

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NDTV 24X7 

13.00: Luchtime News 

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15.30: Night Out 

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18.00: 6 PM Prime 

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20.00: Tonight at 8 

21.00: India Decides @ 9 pm 

21.30: Politically Incorrect 

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23.00: News 

23.30: Night Out 

CNN 

13.00: The Best of Back Story 

13.30: World Business Today 

15.00: Talk Asia 

15.30: World One 

16.30: Piers Morgan Tonight 

17.30: News Stream 

18.30: World Business Today 

19.30: International Desk 

20.30: The Brief 

21.00: World Sport 

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22.30: International Desk 

23.30: Quest Means Business 

BBC WORLD NEWS 

14.30: BBC World News 

15.00: World Business Report 

16.30: GMT with George Alagiah 

17.30: BBC World News 


18.30: Impact 

19.00: World One 


20.30: World Have Your Say 

21.30: The Hub with Nick 

Gowing 

23.30: World News Today with 

Zeinab Badawi 

Pathology Labs 

Mp Birla Eye Clinic - 22817780 

Medinova 24661780/0708/3651 

Nightingale - 22827255 

/7669/7263 

Roy&Tribedi - 22268789/6643 

Tropical Labortory - 26675580 

Wockhardt Medical Centre - 

24754320 

Latenight Chemists - 

Dhanwantary - 24495594 

Chemist Corner (Behala) - 

24780334 

Jibandeep(Hazra) - 24550926 

Nandan Medical Hall(Salt-Lake) 

-23581732/9617 

Nursing Bureau 

Swasti - 247448881 

Sanjivani - 23607881/8785 

Saha Nursing Center -24838830 

Mobile Cardiac Unit 

Dreamland Nursing Home – 

25553216 

Divine Nursing Home – 

23502761 

Rameshwara Nursing Home – 

23374247 

Marwari Relief Society – Indian 

Association 

Eye Bank 

International Eye Bank - 

23585758 

Howrah Lions Eye Bank- 

26602015 

Susrut Eye Hospital - 23580201 

Anandalok Netralaya - 

23592931 

Disha(Prova) Eye Bank - 

CARTOON NETWORK 

7.00: What’s New, Scooby-Doo? 

8.00: Tom & Jerry Kids Show 

9.00: Krishna and Balaram 

18.00: Bal Hanuman III 

19.00: Richie Rich 

19.30: Looney Tunes Show 

21.00: Billy, Mandy aur Life Mein 

Haddi 

21.30: Courage the Cowardly Dog 

22.00: Beyblady Metal Fusion 

23.00: Justice League Unlimited 

POGO 

8.30: Galli Galli Sim Sim 

9.00: Bob the Builder Marathon 

13.00: Mr Bean: The Animated 

Series 

14.00: Chhota Bheem Marathon 

17.30: Soori Poori 

18.00: Chhota Bheem Marathon 

20.00: Mr Bean: The Animated 

Series 

21.00: Hagemaru 

22.00: Bob the Builder Marathon 

HUNGAMA 

10.00: Shinchan 

10.30: Kiteretsu 

14.30: Doraemon 

15.30: Kya Bakra Hai 

16.00: Chor Police 


17.00: Kiteretsu 

17.30: Shinchan 

20.30: Hero Bhakti Hi Shakti Hai 


DISNEY CHANNEL 

8.00: Jake and the Neverland 

Pirates 

8.30: Fish Hooks 

9.00: Phineas and Ferb 

11.00: Jake and the Neverland 

Pirates 

11.30: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 

12.00: The Cat in the Hat Knows a 

Lot About That! 






� Watch Nat Geo Amazing! at 19.00 

on National Geographic 

Helpline 22143230/3024 

25933737 

Medical College -22413853 

Electricity 

CESC Fault Reporting Center – 

Central/South 1912, North 

23500928, 

North Suburban 25537581, 

Howrah 26669161/62, 

Serampore 26524585, 

West Suburban 23591896 

Wbseb Emergency 

23591896 

Railways 

Howrah Station - (Old 

Complex) 1310/1331/1332, 

26387412/35422581, (New 

Complex) 26382217 

Sealdah – 23503535/3537 

Reservation Enquiry – 138 

Recorded Information – 

1331/1332 

Passport Office 

2554893, 2554762, 2254084 

Airlines 

�Watch Richie Rich 

at 19.00 

on Cartoon Network 

International 

Air India – 22822356/6012/ 

9831 

Aeroflot - 22823765/9861 

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Kuwait Airways – 22474495 

Royal Brunei – 

22292092/4464/7112/ 

7105/2092 

Biman Bangladesh – 

22292843/2844, 22497309, 

25118787 

British Airways – 9831377470 

Druk Air – 22402419, 

22805365, 22470050 

Klm – 22403151/1636, 

25118329/8330 

Lufthansa – 22299365/69 

Qatar Airways – 

22298363/8370, 22208371 

Qantas – 22470718, 22400930, 

22807777 

Royal Jordanian – 24745091/94 

Royal Nepal – 22888534/8549 

Singapore Airlines – 22809898 

Swissair – 

22884643/0291/4644 

Thai Airways – 22801630/35 

Gmg Airlines – 29592569, 

30969077 

Domestic 

Indian Airlines Helpline 

Number – 1407 (Toll Free 

Helpline), From Landlines – 

16001801407, Enquiry Manual 

Airport – 25119637 

Enquiry Manual Airlines House 

– 22114433 

Tele Check In Airport – 

25119633/25118564 

Air Deccan – 08039008888(Toll 

Free), 9831677008 

Jet Airways – 

22922277/2237/2214/2813 

Air Sahara – 

22822786/8969/9075 

Airport Enquiry – 

International: 25118787, 

Domestic: 25118787 

Police 

STAR GOLD 

2.05: Arjun; 5.00: Telemall; 

6.00: Police Force; 8.30: 

Mela; 12.15: Tere Sang; 

15.15: Kurukshetra; 17.50: 

Garv: Pride and Honour; 

21.00: Jaan 

B4U MOVIES 

Udaan; 8:00: Khilona; 12.00: 

Soch; 16.00: Shree Krishna 

Bhakt Narsee; 20:00: 2022 

Tsunami 

ZEE CINEMA 

1.10: Aghaaz; 4.00: Yuvvraaj; 

7.15: Purana Mandir; 10.00: 

Dildaar; 13.30: Prem Rog; 

17.20: Main Prem Ki Diwani 

Hoon; 21.15: Andhaa Kanoon 

SET MAX 

3.30: Aandhi; 6.30: Bawarchi; 

9.30: Virasat; 13.30: Beta; 

17.30: Ek Ajnabee; 21.00: Rab 

Ne Bana Di Jodi 

Lalbazar Control Room 

MOVIES ON TV 

� Watch Miss Congeniality 

at 21.00 on Movies Now 

STAR MOVIES 

11.50: Predator; 13.50: 

Underworld: Rise of the 

Lycans; 15.35: The Bourne 

Ultimatum; 21.00: Death 

Race; 23.30: Broken Arrow 

MOVIES NOW 

12.15: The Glimmer Man; 

14.15: Meet the Spartans; 

16.45: Boxer From Shantung; 

18.15: Fallen; 21.00: Miss 

Congeniality 

HBO 

10.50: Mildred Pierce; 14.10: 

Transporter 3; 18.40: Nancy 

McPhee and the Big Bang; 

21.00: The Hangover ; 22.50: 

Crocodile 

SONY PIX 

10.25: So Close; 12.30: 

Dracula; 16.50: The First 

Daughter; 21.00: DOV: Dead 

or Alive; 23.00: Dracula 

� Watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi 

at 21.00 on Set Max 

PBX 22505000 

Jorabagan 22184094, 

22700428 

Butolla 25557599, 25335579 

Burrabaazar 22687554, 22683802 

Posta 22595606, 5536 

Jorashanko 22697279, 

Colleges 

Jadavpur University – 24735508 

Shyamaprasad College – 24555242 

South City College – 24406689 

Ballygunge Science College – 

24753680 

Lady Brabourne College – 

22448120 

Jogmaya Devi College – 22555242 

Car Problem 

Automobile Association 

Of Eastern India – 

24755131/3, 

Breakdown Services – 

24755131, 24768810 

Exide Battery Mobile 

Helpline – 

22844564/570 

Women’s Hostels 

City Working Women’s Hostel – 

65/C Ramakant Bose Street 

Shabari Ladies Hostel – 40, Mg 

Road 

Animal Helpline 

Compassionate Crusaders – 

24647030, 22104365 

Wildlife Control Room – 30958798

12 

BRIEFLY 

Anil Ambani to lead 

India-China CEO forum 

New Delhi: Prime Minister 

Manmohan Singh has 

cleared the names of corporate 

leaders of the Indian side 

for the India-China CEOs 

forum and the side would be 

led by ADAG chairman Anil 

Ambani. — PTI 

Maruti to start ops of 

2nd Manesar plant 

New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki 

India said it might start operations 

of the second plant in 

the Manesar unit within next 

two days, thereby advancing 

it by almost a month. — PTI 

Growth to slow down 

to 7pc: Deloitte 

New Delhi: India’s economic 

growth could slow down to 7 

per cent in the current fiscal 

as investment activity is 

likely to be reduced in the 

present high interest rate 

regime, consultancy firm 

Deloitte said. — PTI 

Anil Chaudhary 

appointed SAIL director 

Kolkata: Anil Kumar 

Chaudhary, 50, has taken 

charge as director (finance) 

of Steel Authority of India 

(SAIL). Prior to this, he was 

executive director (finance & 

accounts) at the company’s 

Bokaro Steel Plant. — BP 

METRO opens 

Ludhiana store 

Kolkata: METRO Cash & 

Carry India, on Thursday, 

launched its Ludhiana 

wholesale distribution centre, 

which will be a one-stopshop 

to meet all the needs of 

business customers in 

Punjab. — BP 

Nayak assumes charge 

as PGCIL CMD 

New Delhi: R N Nayak has 

taken charge as the chairman 

and managing director of 

Power Grid Corporation of 

India (PGCIL). — PTI 

Videocon d2h reaches 

4 million subscribers 

Kolkata: Just 8 months after 

securing its first two million 

customers, Videocon d2h, a 

provider of direct-to-home 

services in India, has reached 

four million subscribers. — BP 

Bazaar Kolkata unveils 

new scheme 

Kolkata: Bazaar Kolkata has 

launched the ‘Sone Pe 

Suhaaga’ scheme that gives 

customers a chance to win a 

wide range of gifts while 

shopping. This offer is valid 

till October 3, 2011. — BP 

Arise India holds 

dealers’ meet 

Kolkata: Arise India, a manufacturer 

of inverters, batteries, 

gas & electric geysers, 

pumps and R.O. systems, 

organised its dealers’ meet 

on August 25. Managing 

director Avinash Jain was 

present on the occasion. — BP 

Tata Photon on 

Rev B launched 

BUSINESS 

Kolkata: Tata Teleservices 

has unveiled Tata Photon on 

Rev B, the latest addition to 

the Photon family, on the 

CDMA platform. — BP 

Food inflation in double digits 

New Delhi: After a gap of 

over five months, food inflation 

entered the doubledigit 

zone at 10.05 per cent 

for the week ended August 

20, with finance minister 

Pranab Mukherjee describing 

the trend as “disturbing” 

and experts saying the 

Reserve Bank might go in for 

another rate hike. 

The weekly food inflation, 

measured by wholesale 

price index (WPI), went up 

from 9.80 per cent on 

account of expensive onion, 

vegetables, fruits and protein-based 

items. 

The last time food inflation 

crossed 10 per cent was 

in the week ended March 

12. “Food inflation has gone 

up... This is really disturbing. 

We shall have to ensure and 

remove the supply con- 

straints on food items,” 

Mukherjee said. 

As per the official data 

released on Thursday, prices 

of onion soared by 57.01 per 

cent year-on-year and 

potato rose by 13.31 per 

cent during the week under 

review. 

Fruits became dearer by 

21.58 per cent and vegetables 

by 15.78 on an annual 

basis. 

Prices of protein-rich 

items, egg, meat and fish 

were up 12.62 per cent 

while milk and cereals 

became dearer by 9.22 per 

cent and 4.64 per cent, 

respectively. 

Attributing the jump in 

food inflation to seasonal 

factors, experts opined it 

could again force the 

Reserve Bank to hike inter- 

Power Packed 

est rate during its mid-quarter 

monetary policy review 

scheduled on September 16. 

“With headline inflation 

remaining well above 9 per 

cent, we expect the RBI to 

raise key policy rates by 25 

basis points at its next midquarterly 

review,” Crisil 

chief economist D K Joshi 

said. Food items constitute 

about 14 per cent to the 

WPI. 

Joshi said seasonal factors 

like supply problems due to 

heavy rainfall in parts of the 

country are pushing up the 

� (L to R) MTS India president & CEO Vsevolod Rozanov, Qualcomm India & 

South Asia president Avneesh Agrawal and CDMA Development Group chief 

operating officer James Person during the launch of MBlaze Ultra in 

New Delhi on Thursday — PTI 

LIC east targets `6,700 cr 

first premium in 2011-12 

Our Bureau 

Kolkata: Braving its way up 

to hold on its commanding 

market share in the life 

insurance market in eastern 

India, Life Insurance 

Corporation’s (LIC) eastern 

zone is gunning for a 24 per 

cent growth in the first premium 

income in the current 

fiscal at `6,700 crore. 

Last year, while the set 

target was `5400 crore, the 

zone was able to collect 

`5200 crore. 

Addressing the media on 

LIC’s 55th anniversary, 

zonal manager, S K Roy said, 

“Till mid-August, we have 

garnered `1115 crore of new 

business premium, which is 

less than around `1,800 

crore mopped up 

during the corresponding 

period of the previous 

year”. 

Asked on whether the 

zone could achieve its budgeted 

target this year, Roy 

said, “Definitely, the main 

business picks up during 

the fourth quarter and we 

are confident of achieving 

it. Last year was exceptional 

as significant sales happened 

and three of the popular 

plans including Wealth 

Plus and Market Plus 1 

closed down.” 

“We have a good bouquet 

of 50-odd products and the 

market is responding well 

to both the unit-linked and 

non unit-linked plans. Our 

approach will be to have a 

balanced view of both traditional 

and linked plans”, he 

added. 

It would be interesting to 

see how the leading life 

major strategises to garner 

the budgeted growth this 

year. Moreover, with the 

volatility in the stock market, 

many policy holders 

may choose to close their 

policies (the initial ulips 

which have three years as 

the lock-in period). This 

may have some impact on 

the renewal premium in 

general of most life insurance 

companies. 

Meanwhile on the operations 

side, LIC is close to 

completing its digitisation 

by end of October. 

LIC eastern office will 

take the opportunity of the 

LIC week to reach out to 

people with their various 

CSR activities in the form of 

blood donation camps, 

health check-ups for 

women and children 

among others. 

Europe rejects call for more capital 

Frankfurt: European bankers 

and politicians jumped to 

defend the region’s banks on 

Thursday, rejecting an 

International Monetary Fund 

(IMF) estimate that they need 

200 billion euros ($290 billion) 

in new capital to reflect 

sovereign debt losses. 

IMF chief Christine 

Lagarde’s call on Saturday for 

mandatory capitalisation of 

European banks to prevent a 

world recession has reignited 

a debate over whether they 

have raised sufficient capital 

to withstand a severe 

downturn. 

The clash highlights 

diverging views about the 

underlying safety of the 

European banking system. 

The IMF and the International 

Accounting Standards Board 

(IASB) have both voiced concerns, 

while European regulators, 

politicians and banking 

associations argue that banks 

have a sufficient capital cushion 

to cope with market turbulence 

and worries over 

sovereign debt after several 

rounds of capital raising 

across the continent. 

The IMF had estimated 

European banks could face a 

capital shortfall of 200 billion 

euros, a figure rejected by 

� LIC zonal manager S K Roy in Kolkata on Thursday 

— Prabir Bhattacharya 

European bankers and policymakers, 

sources said. 

The IMF figure is much 

higher than estimates of 

banks’ capital needs following 

stress tests in July. 

J P Morgan has estimated 

that based on the stress test 

data, European banks showed 

a capital deficit of 80 billion 

euros, with the UK banks 

needing 25 billion euros, 

French banks 20 billion euros 

and German lenders 14 billion 

euros. 

The European Commission 

reiterated it saw no need for 

drastic action since the publication 

of the stress test 

results, echoing comments 

made by the European 

Banking Authority on 

Tuesday. 

“Our analysis of the situation 

hasn’t changed. It is in 

fact shared by the member 

states. We did have an indepth 

discussion when the 

results of the stress tests for 

banks were presented and 

there is no reason to change it 

now,” European Commission 

spokesman Amadeu Altafaj 

told a regular briefing. 

The bank stress tests did 

not factor in the impact of a 

significant drop in the value 

of sovereign debt. — Reuters 

food inflation. 

He, however, said as monsoon 

has been good so far, 

prices of vegetables may 

come down in coming days. 

Planning Commission 

deputy chairman Montek 

Singh Ahluwalia also said 

seasonal factors are pushing 

up inflation. 

“Inflation is a worry... If 

you see the data, last year at 

this time food prices went 

down and then rose again. 

So, I would not be surprised 

if prices rise a little bit,” 

Ahluwalia said. 

Overall, primary articles 

recorded 12.93 per cent 

inflation for the week ended 

August 20, up from 12.40 

per cent in the previous 

week. Primary articles have 

a share of over 20 per cent 

in the WPI. — PTI 

IBM to buy 

Algorithmics 

for $387m 

Bangalore: IT major IBM on 

Thursday said it has agreed to 

acquire Toronto-based risk 

analytics firm Algorithmics 

for $387 million (about 

`1,750 crore). 

The acquisition is subject to 

applicable regulatory clearances 

and other customary 

closing conditions. With the 

closing of this acquisition, 

approximately 900 

Algorithmics employees will 

join IBM’s software group, the 

IT giant said in a statement. 

“Combining Algorithmics’ 

expertise with IBM’s deep 

analytics portfolio will allow 

clients to take a holistic appr - 

oach to managing risk and 

responding to economic 

change across their enterprises,” 

IBM general manager 

(business analytics) Rob 

Ashe said. 

Risk analytics, software, 

content and advisory services 

of Algorithmics, a member of 

Fitch Group, are used by banking, 

investment and insurance 

businesses to help assess risk, 

address regulatory requirements 

and make more 

insightful business decisions. 

Algorithmics’ risk analytics, 

software and services combined 

with IBM’s acquisition 

of OpenPages and recent 

investments in predictive 

analytics will provide clients 

with the broadest range of 

business analytics solutions, 

IBM said. 

More than 350 clients, 

including 25 of the top 30 

banks and more than twothirds 

of the leading insurers, 

use Algorithmics’ analytics 

software and advisory services, 

IBM said. The clients 

include The Allianz Group, 

BlueCrest, HSBC, Nedbank, 

Nomura, Societe Generale, 

and Scotia Capital. 

“Combining Algorithmics’ 

thought leadership, technology, 

content and services 

with IBM’s globally recognised 

analytics business 

will help a broader group of 

clients improve their 

business performance based 

on a deeper understanding 

of risk,” Algorithmics president 

and COO Michael Zerbs 

said. — PTI 



Car sales see decline 

as the big three slide 

Toyota, GM, Ford, Honda buck trend, 2-wheeler sales up 

New Delhi: Domestic car sales in August hit 

road bumps with the three big automakers — 

Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai Motor India 

and Tata Motors — posting a decline in their 

monthly numbers. 

Amid tough market conditions because of 

high interest rates and fuel prices, sales got 

further hurt for Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) 

due to the ongoing labour issues at its 

Manesar plant, affecting production. MSI said 

it recorded sales of 77,086 units in the 

domestic market last month, a 16.82 per cent 

fall from 92,674 units in August 2010. 

Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) said its sales 

declined 6.7 per cent to 26,677 units in 

August from 28,601 units in the same month 

last year. “The market continues to be tough 

and there is no sign of recovery in the immediate 

future. The rising fuel prices and interest 

rates have been instrumental in this sluggish 

market trend,” HMIL director (marketing 

and sales) Arvind Saxena said. 

Homegrown auto major Tata Motors’ total 

passenger vehicles sales in the domestic 

market stood at 16,829 units in August, a fall 

of 33.25 per cent from 25,212 units in the 

same month last year. Sales of Nano stood at 

1,202 units, down 85 per cent, the company 

said. 

Some other manufacturers, including 

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) and General 

Motors India, reported an increase in sales on 

the back of new models. TKM said its August 

sales zoomed 83.82 per cent to 11,693 units, 

Exports jump 82pc 

to $29 bn in July 

New Delhi: Exports surged 

by 81.79 per cent to $29.3 billion 

in July despite uncertain 

economic conditions in the 

US and Europe. Shipments 

stood at $16.14 billion in the 

year-ago period. 

Imports too jumped 51.5 

per cent to $40.4 billion in 

July against 26.6 billion in 

the same period last year, 

leaving a trade deficit of $11 

billion, the commerce ministry 

said in a statement on 

Thursday. 

Engineering, petroleum 

products and gems and jewelery 

exports were worth 

$8.7 billion, $4.6 billion and 

$3.5 billion, respectively, the 

statement said. 

Oil imports were valued at 

$11.44 billion, an increase of 

37.02 per cent over the same 

period last year. Non-oil 

imports too grew 58.12 per 

cent to $28.98 billion from 

$18.32 billion in July 2010. 

Overseas shipments in 

June this year were worth 

$29.2 billion, a robust 

growth of 46.4 per cent yearon-year. 

Imports too grew by 

42.4 per cent to $36.9 billion. 

However, commerce secretary 

Rahul Khullar had 

recently said the high export 

growth rate is unlikely to 

sustain in coming months 

due to uncertainty in the US 

and European economies. 

“Exports have done well... 

But my sense is that it (high 

export growth) is not going 

to sustain. It is simply not 

sustainable. We should see 

August-September growth 

rates slipping.” 

Uncertain economic con- 

Fieo warns of 

slowdown 

Making a Point 

The umbrella body of 

exports, Federation of 

Indian Export Organ - 

isations (Fieo) has hailed 

the robust export numbers 

for July but cautioned 

that the industry might 

not be able to sustain high 

growth in the face of 

global uncertainties and 

rising interest rates in the 

domestic context. “The 

growth of 81 per cent in 

exports, on a not-so-low 

base of July 2010, is unh - 

eard of in the recent history,” 

Fieo president 

Ramu S Deora said in a 

statement. He cautioned 

about the challenges in 

view of global developments 

which cannot be 

ignored as they will have 

serious bearings on 

exports in next 2 quarters. 

ditions in the US and Europe 

are likely to hit global 

demand. Together, these 

countries account for about 

35 per cent of Indian exports. 

During the April-July 

period, exports grew by 

53.98 per cent to $108.34 billion 

from $70.36 billion during 

the corresponding period 

previous year. 

During the first four 

months of the fiscal, imports 

grew by 40 per cent to $151 

billion. The trade deficit during 

the period stood at $42.6 

billion. — PTI 

driven by a robust demand for utility vehicle 

Innova and its latest products, Etios’ and Liva. 

General Motors India posted a growth of 14 

per cent at 9,050 units, led by good response 

for Chevrolet Beat Diesel. 

Mahindra & Mahindra said its domestic 

sales rose by 31.09 per cent at 35,756 units 

during the month compared to 27,275 units 

in the year-ago period. 

Ford India said its overall sales grew 9 per 

cent at 8,914 units, benefitting from new 

Fiesta and compact car Figo. 

Volkswagen said it sold 6,091 units in India 

during the month, a growth of 72 per cent 

over the same month last year. 

Honda Siel Cars India reported a 25 per 

cent growth in August at 6,907 units. 

In the two-wheeler segment, market 

leader Hero MotoCorp reported 18.61 per 

cent jump in its total sales for August at 

5,03,654 units. TVS Motor Company also 

posted a 14 per cent growth in sales to 

1,94,898 units, while India Yamaha Motor 

reported a 29.64 per cent increase in total 

sales to 39,490 units. 

Shyam Group 

seeks coal 

support 


Burdwan: Shyam Group of 

Industries wants coal support 

from the government in order 

to complete the first phase of 

its plant at Jamuria in the 

Burdwan district of West 

Bengal. 

“Coal is the basic raw material 

for any steel plant, at 

present we procure coal from 

the Trans Damodar coal mine, 

but it can only supply 10 per 

cent of our requirement, 

however we are expecting 

things to shape up by 

November 2011,” said 

Bhushan Agarwal, vice-chairman 

& managing director, 

Shyam Group, here on 

Thursday. Its annual coal 

requirement is around 3 million 

tonne. 

The company has already 

invested about `700 crore in 

the first phase and aims to 

complete it by 2013. “The 

total investment for the phase 

will be around `1500 crore 

and around 30 per cent of the 

funding will come from 

equity and the balance from 

debt,” said Aggarwal. The 

company targets to finish the 

entire project by 2016. 

Production capacity after 

the first phase will be 3.5 lakh 

tonne. It will produce around 

1.1 million tonne once the 

entire project is over. 

Shyam Group expects a 

year-on-year growth of 20 

per cent. 

“We are also going to set up 

plants in Bihar, Guwahati and 

Siliguri for which the total 

investment is around `1,200 

crore,” said Aggarwal. 

� Paul Bulcke (second from left), CEO of Nestle SA, shows a product to Swiss economy minister Johann 

Schneider-Ammann (second from right) and Kurt Schmidt (R), head of Nestle nutrition, after the 

inauguration of a new production unit in Konolfingen near Bern on Thursday — Reuters


www.thebengalpost.com BUSINESS 13 

Bids soon to deconstruct Santaldih units 

Madhumita Mookerji 

Kolkata: West Bengal Power Development 

Corporation (WBPDCL) will soon float tenders 

seeking proposals for deconstruction of 

its existing four units of 80 mega watt (MW) 

each at Santaldih to make space for the construction 

of a single 800-MW super-critical 

power plant. 

A highly placed source in the West Bengal 

power department told The Bengal Post: “We 

will float tenders in one or two months, seeking 

proposals for the deconstruction of the 

four units.” 

The source also said work on construction 

of the new thermal power project is not 

likely to start before at least one year. 

Though WBPDCL had been exploring 

options of squeezing in a second unit, the 

amount of land that will be available will 

only allow for a single unit at Santaldih. “The 

decommissioning of the four units, along 

with some additional land at WBPDCL’s disposal 

will add up to around 500 acres, where 

only one, 800 MW unit will be possible,” said 

the source. 

It will take around one year to empty out 

the space through the deconstruction 

process. Hence, construction work on the 

800-MW unit is not likely to start at least 

before one year. 

WBPDCL is open to various formats – public-private 

partnership, joint venture or even 

a lease model, where an investor can put in 

his money, set up the project and then exit 

after 25 years. The sources said any model is 

suitable as long as it is done efficiently with 

the least possible cost. 

Planning Ahead 

� Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia (R) and PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan 

releasing a report on efficient management of public expenditure, in New Delhi, on Thursday — PTI 

OVL to invest 

$1.5 billion 

in Iraqi oil 

block 

New Delhi: ONGC Videsh, 

the overseas arm of stateowned 

Oil and Natural Gas 

Corp (ONGC), is likely to 

invest over $1.5 billion in an 

Iraqi oil block that was 

awarded to it by the erstwhile 

Saddam Hussein 

regime. 

“We are nearing finality on 

the contract for the block-8. 

It is likely to be signed in the 

next six months,” an official 

said. 

Block-8, located in the 

western desert in southern 

Iraq bordering Saudi Arabia 

and Kuwait, was awarded to 

OVL in November 2000 by 

the Saddam Hussein government. 

However, the government 

formed after the US 

invasion of Iraq, sought renegotiation 

of the contract 

which has now been concluded. 

The current regime had 

initially agreed to sign a production 

sharing contract 

(PSC), where OVL would 

have got ownership of oil it 

produced from Block-8. But 

the success of post-war 

licensing rounds, where 

global majors committed to 

develop oilfields for a small 

fee, has seen Baghdad 

change track and offer a 

service contract to OVL. 

The block already has 

a discovery and is estimated 

to hold 645 million barrels 

of in-place reserves, of 

which 54 million are 

recoverable, the official 

said, adding OVL has committed 

investing $86 million 

in two phases of exploration 

and $1.45 billion in development 

of the reserves thereafter. 

The agreement will be a 

service contract wherein 

OVL will be paid about 18 per 

cent rate of return on its 

investment. 

The company holds 

100 per cent interest in the 

block. 

“We are currently agreeing 

on finer details of the contract,” 

he said. 

The exploration and development 

contract for Block-8 

was signed by OVL and Oil 

Exploration Company of Iraq 

on November 28, 2000, in 

New Delhi. — PTI 

IT attrition to decline 

despite low wage hike 

Kailash Rajwadkar 

Mumbai: Employees of IT 

companies, who use to hop, 

skip and jump from one 

organisation to another, may 

have to restrain themselves 

in the next two years despite 

a lower hike in salaries. 

“Attrition rates are 

expected to fall in FY12.We 

do not expect a double-digit 

salary hike in FY13 by Indian 

IT vendors,” said Karan 

Taurani, an analyst with 

Khandwala Securities. 

This will, however, provide 

a cushion to the EBIT (earnings 

before interest and tax) 

margin of the companies. 

“We expect a lower wage 

hike for employees in FY13 

as the demand in FY12 and 

FY13 is not expected to be as 

strong as in FY11,” Taurani 

said. 

In the past few years, 

higher attrition was wit- 

Factories falter as orders fade 

London/Singapore: Factory activity 

worldwide stalled last month as new 

orders tumbled, a series of surveys 

showed on Thursday, heightening fears 

that the global economy may be heading 

for another recession. 

The purchasing managers’ indexes 

showed manufacturing activity contracted 

in the euro zone for the first 

time in almost two years in August, a 

similar trend had been witnessed in 

South Korea and Taiwan earlier. 

Britain’s manufacturing sector 

shrank at its fastest pace in over two 

years, hurt by a sharp drop in demand 

for exports. 

Although China’s official PMI 

increased slightly, its first rise since 

March, it also showed the effects of 

slowing demand in Europe and the US. 

HSBC’s PMI figure for China, which 

relies heavily on private companies 

than the large state-owned enterprises 

that dominate the government’s PMI 

report, showed factory activity contracted 

for a second consecutive month. 

“The key thing they show is that we 

are not out of the woods. The 

economies are very vulnerable to any 

shock which at this moment in time 

there are a few of,” said Jeavon Lolay at 

Lloyds Banking Group. 

“What is happening in the euro zone 

is very important and in the US growth 

has weakened markedly in the last two 

nessed primarily on the back 

of high demand for laterals 

(experienced employees) as 

a large number of transformational 

deals were signed 

by Indian IT vendors. Higher 

demand for discretionary IT 

spend also pushed attrition 

rates. “As a result, going forward, 

we expect attrition to 

dip in near term on the back 

of a moderate growth environment 

and lower demand 

for laterals,” Taurani said. 

“In 2010, there was no 

wage hike as companies 

were recovering from the 

global economic turmoil in 

the preceding year. Hence, 

the hike in 2011 was after a 

gap of one year. As things 

consolidate, wages are likely 

to see a process of stabilisation,” 

said Arun Jain, chairman 

and CEO, Polaris 

Software Lab. 

Attrition surged in 2011 

despite a high salary hike 

quarters. There is a risk of a return to 

recession.” 

Markit’s euro zone manufacturing 

PMI fell to 49.0 in August from 50.4 in 

July, revised down from a preliminary 

49.7, the first time since September 

2009 that the index for the sector, 

which drove a large part of the bloc’s 

recovery, has fallen below the 50 mark 

that divides growth from contraction. 

In a worrying sign for policymakers, 

the slowdown appears to be spreading. 

German factories, which have been 

supporting growth in the bloc, eased off 

the accelerator and French manufacturing 

contracted for the first time since 

July 2009. 

Around `4,400 crore of investment will be 

required for a single 800-MW unit, computed 

at the rate of `5.5 crore per mega watt. 

Where the controversial Katwa power 

given by all the top tier 

Indian IT vendors since 

demand had witnessed an 

uptick, analysts said. 

In the April-June period, 

Tata Consultancy Services 

witnessed an attrition rate of 

14.8 per cent compared with 

14.4 per cent in the preceding 

quarter. 

As fears of an economic 

slowdown grows, 

Khandwala Securities has 

cut its revenue estimates for 

2011-12 and 2012-13 by 5 

per cent and 10 per cent, 

respectively, for top IT vendors. 

The company, however, 

maintains a positive outlook 

for the IT sector. 

In August, the Bombay 

Stock Exchange IT index was 

down 13.6 per cent while the 

Sensex was down 9.2 per 

cent. The IT index has been 

witnessing a fall since S&P 

downgraded the US credit 

rating. 

Factory activity worldwide 

stalled last month as new 

orders tumbled, stoking 

fears of another recession 

WBPDCL is open to various 

formats – public-private 

partnership, joint venture 

or even a lease model 

JSPL open to 

buy-outs to 

“The West’s deteriorating growth 

outlook is becoming an increasingly 

heavy burden to bear,” said Donna 

Kwok, an economist with HSBC, which 

sponsors PMI reports in many Asian 

countries. 

Weak growth in the US and Europe 

has revived worries they will slip back 

into recession, which would deal a 

heavy blow to Asia’s export-driven 

economies. 

Most advanced economies have 

already cut interest rates to near zero, 

and with government finances constrained, 

policymakers have limited 

options for spurring stronger growth. 

The European Central Bank, the 

Federal Reserve and the Bank of 

England are all seen retaining their 

ultra-loose monetary policy for at least 

another year. That leaves the big emerging 

economies as the best hope for 

propping up global growth but they are 

also struggling. 

Brazil’s central bank slashed its key 

interest rate to 12 per cent from 12.5 per 

cent on Wednesday in a shock decision 

that it said reflects a mounting global 

slowdown as well as weaker growth in 

Latin America’s largest economy. 

“Asian growth is set to slow more 

sharply than most expect over the coming 

months,” Credit Suisse economist 

Robert Prior-Wandesforde wrote in a 

note to clients. — Reuters 

project is concerned, the source said no decision 

has been taken yet on the additional 500 

acres that NTPC requires for setting up the 

project. 

NTPC, the country’s largest power producer, 

is slated to develop the 1,600-MW 

(800X2) thermal power plant at Katwa but it 

has made it clear that it will go ahead only 

after the entire quantum of land required for 

the project is in place. 

At present, around 600 acres are in possession 

of the West Bengal Power Development 

Corporation (WBPDC). However, about an 

additional 500 acres are required, for which 

talks are on with the state government. The 

source said: “No decision has been taken on 

the additional land but there’s an option that 

NTPC itself could procure this additional 

quantum.” 

R-Cap, Nippon to 

drive growth explore tie-up 

Mumbai/Tokyo: Expanding 

New Delhi: Naveen Jindalled 

Jindal Steel and Power 

(JSPL) on Thursday said it is 

not averse to acquisitions to 

drive growth even as its 

$10.9-billion capacity expansion 

plans are underway. 

“Lot of expansions are 

going on. However, we are 

open to right kind of steel 

plant for acquisition,” deputy 

managing director Sushil 

Maroo said when asked 

whether JSPL would follow 

suit of subsidiary Jindal 

Power, which has recently 

evinced interest for acquisition 

in generation space. 

Maroo, however, declined 

to divulge if JSPL was currently 

considering any steel 

plant acquisition or has it 

any war-chest ready for 

making such a move. 

JSPL was approached by 

the then Ispat Industries of 

Mittals, but it turned down 

the offer when Naveen’s 

elder brother Sajjan started 

making serious efforts to buy 

the firm. 

JSPL had acquired Shadeed 

Iron and Steel of Oman last 

year. The company has also 

got development rights for El 

Mutun Iron Ore Reserves in 

Bolivia, which has around 20 

billion tonne reserve. 

JSPL plans to set up a 1.7 

mtpa steel plant in that 

country. 

JSPL operates a 3 mtpa 

plant at Raigarh in 

Chhattisgarh. — PTI 

Sony eyes 30pc turnover growth 


Kolkata: Sony India, a major 

player in the consumer electronics 

market, is aiming at a 

30 per cent growth in 

turnover in 2011-12. It also 

expects to notch up business 

worth around `2,000 crore 

in the festive season with 

nearly `245 crore likely to 

come from the eastern 

region. 

“We expect our turnover 

to grow 30 per cent, at 

around `7,000 crore in the 

current fiscal from `5,500 

crore last year,” Sunil Nayyar, 

its partnership with Nippon 

Life, Reliance Capital on 

Thursday signed a deal for 

exploring stake sale in its 

mutual fund and other businesses 

to the Japanese major, 

to which it has already sold 

26 per cent equity in the life 

insurance venture. 

A memorandum of understanding 

(MoU) was signed 

on Thursday in Tokyo 

between Reliance Capital (R- 

Cap) chairman Anil Ambani 

and Nippon Life president 

Yoshinobu Tsutsui for 

strengthening the business 

relationship between the 

two companies. 

Earlier this year, Nippon 

Life had signed a definitive 

agreement for acquiring a 26 

per cent stake in Reliance 

Life Insurance for `3,062 

crore. The deal is currently 

awaiting regulatory and 

other approvals. 

The MoU would entail 

Nippon Life evaluating various 

collaboration opportunities, 

including strategic partnership, 

across all Reliance 

Capital-promoted financial 

businesses, including mutual 

fund, the company said in a 

statement. 

After signing the MoU, 

Anil Ambani said, “Nippon 

Life has already agreed to be 

our partner in the life insurance 

business, and we see 

great potential to work 

together across our other 

senior general manager, 

sales, Sony India, said. 

“Our national sales target 

during the festive season 

(August-October) is around 

`2,000 crore, which will be a 

growth of 35 per cent over 

last year. With Durga Puja 

round the corner, we hope to 

garner sales of `245 crore 

from the eastern region, a 48 

per cent growth over the corresponding 

period last year,” 

Nayyar said, adding that 

Durga Puja contributes 

nearly 35 per cent of the 

company’s total sales from 

the eastern region. 

financial services businesses.” 

Nippon Life’s Yoshinobu 

Tsutsui said, “We are 

delighted to have an opportunity 

to expand our relationship 

with Reliance, one 

of the most respected business 

groups in India.” 

Nippon Life is a 122-yearold 

Fortune 100 company, 

ranked as the seventh largest 

life insurer in the world and 

the single-largest private life 

insurer in Asia and Japan. 

Its deal with Reliance Life 

pegged the total valuation of 

the Indian insurer at about 

`11,500 crore ($2.6 billion). 

In addition to life insurance, 

R-Cap, the financial 

services arm of Anil Ambaniled 

conglomerate, has interest 

in an array of financial 

sector businesses. 

These include mutual 

funds, general insurance, 

commercial finance, broking, 

investment banking, wealth 

management, distribution of 

financial products, 

exchanges, private equity, 

asset reconstruction, among 

other financial services. — PTI 

The company has laid out 

a sales plan for the eastern 

market, which contributes 

nearly 12 per cent to its overall 

sales. It plans to sell 

around 60,000 units of 

LCDs/LEDs, 70,000 units of 

cameras and 15,000 units of 

laptops in the eastern region 

during the festivities. 

With brands like Bravia, 

Cyber-shot and Vaio under 

its umbrella, Sony has a market 

share of 40 per cent, 45 

per cent and 15 per cent in 

the TVs, cameras and laptop 

segments, which it plans to 

take up to 45 per cent, 47 per 

Face Value 

Oil retailers 

slash jet 

fuel prices 

New Delhi: For the second 

time in a month, stateowned 

oil firms on Thursday 

cut prices of jet fuel, or 

ATF, in line with softening 

of rates in the international 

markets. 

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) 

prices at Delhi’s T3 airport 

was cut by `429 per kilolitre 

(kl), or 0.75 per cent, to 

`56,260 per kl, an official of 

Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s 

largest fuel retailer, said. 

Prior to this, the companies 

on August 16 cut jet fuel 

rates by `1,156 per kl or 

about 2 per cent. 

Jet fuel makes up for 40 

per cent of an airlines’ operating 

cost. 

ATF in Mumbai, home to 

the nation’s busiest airport, 

will cost `446 per kl less at 

`56,978 per kl from 

Thursday as against the old 

price of `57,424 per kl. 

No comment could be 

immediately obtained from 

airlines on the impact of the 

price reduction on passenger 

fares. 

ATF prices vary from airport 

to airport, depending on 

the local sales tax or VAT. 

IOC and its sister public 

sector retailers, Hindustan 

Petroleum Corp (HPCL) and 

Bharat Petroleum Corp 

(BPCL), revise jet fuel prices 

on the 1st and 16th of every 

month, based on the average 

international price in the 

preceding fortnight. — PTI 

cent and 20 per cent, respectively, 

during this peak 

period. 

“Over the same period last 

year, from the eastern region 

alone we expect a growth of 

88 per cent in LCDs/LEDs, 62 

per cent in cameras and a 

100 per cent growth in laptops,” 

Nayyar added. 

The company has 

increased its marketing 

investment towards abovethe-line 

(ATL) and belowthe-line 

(BTL) activities during 

Durga Puja to `15 crore 

compared with `11 crore 

spent last year. 

� A model poses with Sony Tablet P (R) and S at a promotional event in Tokyo, on 

Thursday. Sony’s new tablet computers failed to excite gadget reviewers and 

analysts who criticised the pricing and quality of the devices, underscoring the 

battle Sony faces regaining its consumer electronics crown — Reuters

14 

SPORT 

Short 

Takes 

India can rise to 

No. 2 in rankings 

Dubai: They have lost the tag 

of the No. 1 Test team but 

injury-ravaged world champions 

India can climb to second 

in the ICC ODI rankings if 

they manage to beat England 

4-1 or better in the upcoming 

five-match series starting 

on Saturday. 

Claudius hospitalised 

with abdominal pain 

Kolkata: Hockey Olympian 

Leslie Claudius has been 

admitted to a city hospital 

with severe abdominal pain 

on Thursday. However, the 

doctors said the 84-year-old’s 

condition is stable. 

Bagchi gifts tickets to 

U-19 squad 

Kolkata: The Prayag United 

football secretary, Avik 

Bagchi, has given tickets for 

the coveted Argentina- 

Venezuela friendly to all 

members of the club’s U-19 

squad. 

Robinho out of Brazil’s 

friendly with Ghana 

Rio de Janeiro: AC Milan forward 

Robinho has been withdrawn 

from the Brazil squad 

to face Ghana in a friendly in 

London next week because of 

a groin injury, the Brazilian 

Football Confederation (CBF) 

said on Wednesday. “Milan’s 

medical department sent the 

Brazilian national team’s 

medical department the tests 

that show the player’s injury,” 

CBF said in a statement on its 

website www.cbf.com.br. 

Zaragoza buy Portugal 

striker Postiga 

Lisbon: La Liga team Real 

Zaragoza signed Portugal 

striker Helder Postiga from 

Sporting for one million 

euros ($1.44 million) on 

Wednesday. The Portuguese 

club also said the transfer fee 

could double. 

Atletico take Brazilian 

Diego on loan 

Madrid: Atletico Madrid have 

agreed to sign Brazil playmaker 

Diego on loan from 

VfL Wolfsburg, the Spanish 

club said on Wednesday. The 

26-year-old made his name 

during a three-year spell with 

Werder Bremen before 

Juventus bought him in 2009. 

Das wins bronze in 

taekwondo 

Kolkata: Class XI student 

Probal Das won bronze medal 

in the U-78kg category for 

Bengal in the 31st National 

Taekwondo Championship at 

Harivansh Tana Bhagat Indoor 

Stadium in Ranchi from 

August 25-28. It was organised 

by the Jharkhand 

Taekwondo Association under 

the aegis of Taekwondo 

Federation of India. 

Aditi beats Smriti 

to title 

Bangalore: Amateur Aditi 

Ashok made up for her loss in 

the first leg, beating veteran 

Smriti Mehra on the first playoff 

hole to win the third and 

final leg of Southern Swing in 

the Hero Women’s Profess - 

ional Golf Tour on Thursday. 

Ghana cleared to take 

part in 2012 Games 

Berlin: Ghana has been 

cleared to compete in next 

year’s London Olympics after 

the government took steps to 

amend a controversial sports 

law, the International Olympic 

Committee said on Thursday. 

Top seed Sinha ousted 

by Prabodh 

Chennai: Karnataka’s Suraj R 

Prabodh put paid to the aspirations 

of top seed Vishwesh 

Sinha of Punjab 7-5, 6-3 to 

progress to the boys’ semi-final 

of the Adidas MCC National 

Junior Clay Court tennis championship 

here on Thursday. 

Verma, Sindhu 

inducted in squad 

Mumbai: Sameer Verma, a silver 

medallist at the Asian 

Junior Championships, and P 

V Sindhu have been named in 

the 7-boy and 6-girl squad for 

the World Junior Badminton 

Championships in October. 

— Our Correspondent & Agencies 

England remain unbeaten 

Manchester: There was no 

end to India’s misery in what 

has turned out to be an 

abysmal tour of England as 

they went down by six wickets 

in their one off Twenty20 

International, paying the 

price for yet another stunning 

batting collapse here. 

Debutant Ajinkya Rahane 

shone with the bat with a 39ball 

61 but the Indians lost 

nine wickets in the final eight 

overs to be restricted to 165 in 

19.3 overs. The visitors rode 

Eoin Morgan’s quickfire 49 to 

chase down the target in 19.3 

overs on Wednesday. 

Morgan, who struck 49 off 

27 balls, was the hero of 

England’s chase, striking 

seven fours and a six while 

Ravi Bopara chipped in with a 

useful 31 to ensure that the 

hosts maintained their dominance 

over the hapless visitors. 

Morgan put on 73 runs 

for the fourth wicket with 

Bopara off only 49 balls to 

lead England to a comprehensive 

victory despite Rahane’s 

61 off 39 balls. Jade Dernbach 

(4/22) and captain Stuart 

Broad (2/37) helped the hosts 

with a flurry of wickets as the 

visitors scored only 61 runs, 

losing nine wickets in the final 

eight overs. 

Thirty-three of these runs 

were scored by Suresh Raina, 

who marked Tim Bresnan and 

Broad for special attention, 

smashing them for three sixes, 

as he took only 19 balls for his 

cameo. The hosts, who won 

the Test series 4-0, gave 

Indians a lesson in Twenty20 

cricket as well, scoring their 

runs with a mix of defence and 

attack. The visitors, in contrast, 

appeared to play to the gallery 

and largely got their runs in 

fours and sixes — as many as 

92 of 165 came off boundaries. 

England lost debutant Alex 

Hales (0) to Praveen Kumar 

off only the second ball of the 

innings but the experienced 

Kevin Pietersen gave impetus 

to the innings with a strokefilled 

33 off 23 balls with five 

fours. Pietersen and opener 

Craig Kieswetter (18) guided 

England to 54 for one in the 

Powerplay but then the hosts 

lost both of them in the space 

of three runs to bring the 

match back on an even keel. 

Kieswetter offered a simple 

catch at short cover and 

Pietersen was stumped off 

the first ball by Virat Kohli. 

Morgan then seized back 

the initiative with 17 runs off 

Rohit Sharma in the ninth 

over of the innings, slamming 

the part-time off-spinner for 

two fours and a massive six 

over mid-on. England were 

90 for three at the end of the 

10th over. They took two balls 

more than India did for their 

Zimbabweans ride 

Mawoyo’s 82 n.o. 

Bulawayo: Rookie opener 

Tinotenda Mawoyo produced 

a masterclass in concentration 

as Zimbabwe reached 245 for 

four at the close of the first day 

of the one-off Test against 

Pakistan at Queens Sports Club 

here on Thursday. 

Mawoyo, playing in only his 

second Test, batted right 

through the day, scoring an 

unbeaten and unruffled 82 — 

his maiden half-century — 

after occupying the crease for 

six hours and 21 minutes. He 

faced 213 balls and struck 10 

fours. He also figured in three 

significant partnerships as 

Zimbabwe looked to carry on 

where they left off when they 

beat Bangladesh in Harare last 

month. But all of the 

Zimbabwe batsmen had to 

contend with a box full of 

tricks from Pakistan off-spinner 

Saeed Ajmal, who took 

three of the four wickets to fall 

as the home batsmen struggled 

to pick his doosra. 

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul 

Haq made the contentious 

decision to bowl first after winning 

the toss. He pointed to 

some green on the pitch and 

100 runs — 68 balls to India’s 

66 balls. Morgan played a 

sensible knock but departed 

unhappily as he believed 

Rohit Sharma at point hadn’t 

caught him cleanly off Munaf 

Patel. But after Morgan 

departed at 134 for four in the 

16th over, the hosts needed 

just 32 off 29 balls. Bopara 

and Samit Patel (25) then ran 

briskly between the wickets 

and hit the odd boundaries to 

bring the equation to 13 from 

the final two overs. 

Munaf Patel bowled the 

penultimate over, a brilliant 

effort as he conceded only 

three runs from the over. 

Needing 10 off the final over, 

bowled by Vinay Kumar, the 

first delivery was a wide and 

the next three were hit for 

fours by Patel as England 

reached home with three 

balls to spare. 

Earlier, the young Rahane 

announced himself onto 

international stage in blazing 

style and Raina exacted his 

revenge. The Mumbai opener 

had the packed stands in raptures 

as he produced almost 

every stroke in the book to 

rattle up 61 off 39 balls with 

eight fours in his maiden 

innings in international 

cricket. Brought in as replacement 

of Virender Sehwag earlier 

this week, Rahane gave 

India a quick start of 39 from 

four-odd overs with Parthiv 

Patel (10) and reached his 

half-century off only 29 balls 

with as many as eight fours. 

England’s pace trio of 

Bresnan, Jade Dernbach and 

captain Broad tried to intimidate 

the young right-hander 

with short-pitched deliveries 

but nearly every such attempt 

was met with a ferocious pull 

or hook by the right-hander. 

Patel got the innings going 

with a good-looking backfoot 

drive through covers off 

Bresnan, but thereafter, 

Rahane took over and hit 

boundaries at will. He began 

with a lofted cut over covers 

off Dernbach and then twice 

pulled short deliveries from 

Bresnan and Broad. — PTI 



Lyon king tames 

Lankan lions 

Galle: Unheralded Australian 

debutant Nathan Lyon took a 

stunning five for 34, including 

a wicket off his first ball as the 

Sri Lankan batsmen capitulated 

in the dramatic first Test 

in Galle on Thursday. 

Sixteen wickets fell on the 

dusty, deteriorating track during 

an eventful second day’s 

play which ended with the 

tourists enjoying a commanding 

lead of 283 runs with four 

wickets in hand. Seamer 

Shane Watson claimed three 

wickets in 10 balls and 

another newcomer Trent 

Copeland struck in his first 

over as Australia, restricted to 

273 on the first day, skittled 

Sri Lanka out for 105 by tea. 

In the second innings, the 

Australians also found runs 

hard to come by, collapsing to 

115 for six when bad light 

forced stumps to be drawn. 

The tourists lost Watson first 

ball and former captain Ricky 

Ponting for four, before skipper 

Michael Clarke (60) and 

Michael Hussey (15) put on 49 

for the fourth wicket. Left-arm 

spinner Rangana Herath 

spiced up the contest further 

when he removed both batsmen 

in two balls and dismissed 

Brad Haddin in his 

next over as Australia slipped 

from 110/3 to 112/6. Usman 

Khawaja was unbeaten on two 

and Mitchell Johnson on three 

as Australia look to turn the 

screws on the hosts when play 

resumes on Friday. Opener 

Tharanga Paranavitana’s 29 

was Sri Lanka’s top score as 

the last seven wickets fell for 

just 18 runs. 

Off-spinner Lyon never 

looked back after removing 

Kumar Sangakkara with his 

first delivery in Test cricket — 

the first Australian in 117 years 

to achieve the feat. Brought on 

after the morning drinks 

break, the 23-year-old had 

Sangakkara edging the first 

USA mine gold in Daegu, Britain get off mark 

Daegu: The USA flexed their muscles at 

the world athletics championships on 

Thursday, harvesting three of the six titles 

on offer, while Britain finally won an elusive 

gold medal in Daegu. 

Kenya extended their dominance of the 

men’s steeplechase and celebrated with 

some joyous theatrics on the track afterwards 

and double-amputee Oscar 

Pistorius produced another momentous 

achievement, Lashinda Demus in the 400 

metres hurdles, 1,500 metres runner Jenny 

Simpson and high jumper Jesse Williams 

lifted the USA to the top of the medals 

table on a glittering night for the 

Americans. 

Although Simpson’s winning time of 

four minutes 05.40 seconds was the slowest 

to win a world title, her triumph left 

her euphoric. She crossed the line wideeyed 

and holding her head after leading 

home Britain’s Hannah England and 

Spaniard Natalia Rodriguez. 

“I am supposed to say I am not surprised,” 

Simpson said. “All I can say is that 

a dream has come true. Absolutely there 

will be a big celebration tonight — I guess I 

will not sleep for the next (few) nights.” 

Demus ran 52.47 seconds in the 400 

metres hurdles, beating defending champion 

Melaine Walker of Jamaica into silver 

with Russian Natalya Antyukh bronze. 

� England’s Jade Dernbach celebrates 

the dismissal of India’s M S Dhoni 

during the Twenty20 match 

at Old Trafford on Wednesday. — AFP 

said he was not afraid to bat 

last but local wisdom suggests 

that the pitch will be flat and 

slow — most captains prefer to 

bat first to put up a big score. It 

also meant Misbah pitched his 

own very green attack in at the 

deep end. With Zimbabwe 

making tentative steps back 

into Test, Pakistan have also 

used the tour to blood some 

new players — including opening 

bowlers Aizaz Cheema and 

Junaid Khan, who are both 

making their Test debuts. — AFP 

Scoreboard 

Zimbabwe 

First innings 

T Mawoyo batting 82 

V Sibanda st Akmal b Ajmal 45 

H Masakadza b Ajmal 11 

B Taylor lbw Ajmal 10 

T Taibu c Akmal b Sohail 44 

C Ervine batting 38 

Extras: (b-2, lb-11, nb-2) 15 

Total: (for 4 wkts in 90 overs) 245 

Fall of wkts: 1/71, 2/91, 3/111, 

4/176 

Bowling: Sohail 17-7-42-1, 

Cheema 15-7-48-0, Junaid 21- 

12-39-0, Ajmal 29-6-75-3, 

Hafeez 8-1-28-0 

Luka qualifies for 

800m semi-finals 

Daegu (South Korea): India’s Tintu 

Luka made it to the women’s 800m 

semi-finals but shot putter Om 

Prakash Karhana was eliminated in 

the qualifying round of the World 

Athletics Championships here on 

Thursday. Luka clocked 2:01.89 to 

finish sixth in heat number four, 

which was enough for her to make it 

to Friday’s semi-finals. The 21-yearold 

prodigy of legendary P T Usha 

has a personal best timing of 1:59.17 

which she recorded last year during 

the VTB Continental Cup. — PTI 

Williams completed a hattrick of golds for 

the USA when he won the men’s high 

jump with his first attempt at 2.35 metres, 

the first USA gold in the event in 20 years. 

“We have a great team, with fantastic 

talented athletes and they know how to do 

well at the big dance,” USA coach Vin 

Lananna told reporters. 

In the last race on Thursday, Welsh 400 

metres hurdler Dai Greene broke the 

drought for a British track-and-field team 

who will be relieved to have finally got off 

the mark less than a year before their 

nation will expect them to deliver as 

Olympic hosts. “I’m just overwhelmed, I 

cannot believe it happened to me,” Greene 

told reporters. “I’m so happy with this victory 

as now I’m No. 1 in the world.” 

Pistorius, who runs on carbon prosthetics 

after his lower legs were amputated as 

a baby, is redefining athletic achievement 

at these championships and, in the scorching 

day session, led his 4x400 metres 

South African teammates to the final and a 

national record. “It is unbelievable to be 

one of four names on a list to run a 

national record,” the jubilant ‘Blade 

Runner’ told reporters. 

Pride, too, was written all over the face 

of Ezekiel Kemboi who streaked to gold 

in the 3,000 metres steeplechase before 

setting off on a lap of hip-wiggling, 

gyrating celebrations. Kenyans have now 

won nine of the 13 world steeplechase 

titles. “I am happy to have won,” Kemboi 

said, though his smile made the words 

redundant. “My friend Usain Bolt was 

not in the final and couldn’t dance so I 

had to do it for Usain.” 

Compatriot Brimin Kipruto won silver 

with a bitter Mahiedine Mekhissi- 

Benabbad bronze, the Frenchman 

believing Kipruto had unfairly denied 

him second place. — Reuters 

Scoreboard 

India 

P Patel c Broad b Dernbach 10 

A Rahane c Dernbach b Broad 61 

R Dravid c Morgan b Bopara 31 

V Kohli c K’wetter b Broad 4 

R Sharma st K’wetter b Swann 1 

S Raina c Broad b Bresnan 33 

M S Dhoni c Hales b Dernbach 8 

R Ashwin run out 4 

P Kumar b Dernbach 1 

R V Kumar not out 2 

M Patel c K’wetter b Dernbach 0 

Extras: (lb-7, w-3) 10 

Total: (in 19.4 overs) 165 

Fall of wkts: 1/39, 2/104, 3/106, 

4/108, 5/117, 6/158, 7/162, 8/162, 

9/165 

Bowling: Bresnan 4-0-33-1, 

Dern bach 3.4-0-22-4, Broad 4-0- 

37-2, Patel 3-0-34-0, Swann 4-0- 

28-1, Bopara 1-0-4-1 

England 

A Hales lbw Praveen 0 

C K’wetter c Raina b Vinay 18 

K Pietersen st Dhoni b Kohli 33 

E Morgan c Rohit b Munaf 49 

R Bopara not out 31 

S Patel not out 25 

Extras: (lb-7, w-6) 13 

Total: (for 4 wkts in 19.3 overs)166 

Fall of wkts: 1/0, 2/58, 3/61, 

4/134 

Bowling: Praveen 4-0-27-1, 

Vinay 3.3-0-35-0, Patel 4-0-25-2, 

Ashwin 4-0-37-0, Kohli 3-0-22-1 

Rohit 1-0-16-0 

MoM: Jade Dernbach 

Federer cruises, Venus quits 

New York: Third seed Roger 

Federer rolled into the third 

round of the US Open on 

Thursday with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 

rout of Israel’s Dudi Sela in 1 

hour 17 minutes. 

Federer was not quite on 

top of his game during the 

marquee match on Arthur 

Ashe, logging 26 unforced 

errors, most of which 

occurred during his return 

games and were very out of 

character for one of the best 

player in tennis history. 

Despite an off-day, the box 

score proves that even when 

facing a not-so-perfect 

Federer, one must have a perfect 

match. Federer will next 

face either No. 27 Marin Cilic 

of Croatia or Bernard Tomic of 

Austria in the third round. 

The US Open witnessed a 

major shock without a ball 

being struck in anger on 

Wednesday when Venus 

Williams quit the tournament 

after revealing she was suffering 

from an illness that could 

threaten her tennis future. The 

two-time champion told officials 

of her withdrawal from 

the tournament less than an 

hour before she was due to 

face Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 

� Roger Federer during his US Open match 

at Flushing Meadows on Wednesday. — AFP 

in the second round. Then she 

dropped the bombshell, 

revealing for the first time 

exactly what had kept her 

recent playing time down to a 

bare minimum. 

Meanwhile, a dark cloud 

appeared over Jelena 

Jankovic’s chances to win her 

first Grand Slam title when the 

world No. 11 injured her back 

during a second-round victory 

over Jelena Dokic at the US 

Open on Thursday. The 2008 

US Open finalist received 

medical attention several 

times during the match but 

still managed to advance with 

a 6-3, 6-4 triumph at the 

National Tennis Center. “I hurt 

it in the first set,” said Jankovic. 

“I felt a little restricted when I 

was hitting my serves and 

especially when I had to bend 

down when I was waiting to 

return her serves.” 

Andy Murray, Britain’s 

perennial major hope, made a 

bright start to his campaign 

while Argentina’s Juan Martin 

Del Potro enjoyed a successful 

return to Flushing 

Meadows two years after his 

stunning title success. 

However, three seeded 

women made early exits at 

the hands of lower-ranked 

players. Marion Bartoli, 

Dominika Cibulkova and 

Yanina Wickmayer all 

departed while the only 

male seed to lose was 

Nicolas Almagro of Spain, 

although sixth seed Robin 

Soderling pulled out because 

of injury. — Agencies 

� South Africa’s 

Oscar Pistorius starts 

the men’s 4x400 metres 

relay heats in Daegu 

on Wednesday. — AFP 

ball towards the slips where 

Clarke dived to his left to take a 

low catch. Lyon, who served 

on the Adelaide Oval ground 

staff until a year ago, then ran 

through the tail to justify his 

much-criticised selection for 

the tour after just four firstclass 

matches. He is the 14th 

bowler to take a wicket with 

his first ball in Tests. — AFP 

Scoreboard 

Australia 

First innings 273 

Sri Lanka 

First innings 

T P’vitana lbw Watson 29 

T Dilshan c Ponting b Copeland 4 

K S’kara c Clarke b Lyon 10 

M J’dene run out 11 

T S’weera lbw Watson 26 

P J’dene lbw Watson 0 

A Mathews b Lyon 5 

S Randiv c Ponting b Lyon 9 

R Herath c Johnson b Lyon 0 

S Lakmal not out 2 

C W’gedara c & b Lyon 1 

Extras: (lb-4, w-1, nb-3) 8 

Total: (in 50 overs) 105 

Fall of wkts: 1/4, 2/24, 3/44, 

4/87, 5/87, 6/88, 7/100, 8/100, 

9/103 

Bowling: Harris 8-5-6-0, Cope - 

land 12-3-24-1, Johnson 9-1-26- 

0, Lyon 15-3-34-5, Watson 6-1- 

11-3 

Australia 

Second innings 

S Watson c S’weera b W’gedara0 

P Hughes lbw Dilshan 28 

R Ponting c Herath b Lakmal 4 

M Clarke c Prasanna b Herath 60 

M Hussey c Tharanga b Herath15 

U Khawaja batting 2 

B Haddin c Mahela b Herath 0 

M Johnson batting 3 

Extras: (lb-2, nb-1) 3 

Total: (for 6 wkts in 33.5 overs)115 

Fall of wkts: 1/0, 2/5, 3/61, 

4/110, 5/110, 6/112 

Bowling: W’gedara 3-3-0-1, 

Lakmal 5-2-18-1, Herath 12.5-0- 

51-3, Randiv 8-2-22-0, Dilshan 

5-0-22-1 

Indian GP 

circuit gets 

Whiting’s 

thumbs up 


New Delhi: The Buddh 

International Circuit, which 

will be hosting India’s 

maiden Formula One race, 

got the thumbs up from 

Formula One race director 

Charlie Whiting on Saturday, 

for hosting the inaugural 

Indian Grand Prix in October. 

Whiting spent six hours 

on the 5.14km circuit in 

Greater Noida, on the outskirts 

of the capital, with 

officials of the Federation of 

Motor Sports Clubs of India 

(FMSCI), the apex body of 

motorsports in the country, 

and race promoters Jaypee 

Sports International. 

Whiting’s visit was part of 

the homologation of the circuit. 

He inspected the track 

and other technical areas 

and appeared happy with 

the progress of the work. The 

final certification by FIA 

(International Automobile 

Federation), a common practice 

for new circuits, will 

happen a week prior to the 

race. 

FMSCI president Vicky 

Chandhok, was at the track 

alongside Whiting, said the 

Englishman was pleased 

with the progress made 

since his last visit. 

“We spent around six 

hours at the track and he 

was satisfied. Though this 

was a routine inspection, the 

track has been cleared for 

the race. The progress of 

work exceeded his expectations. 

There won’t be any 

further changes on the track 

and the tarmac has also 

been laid,” Chandhok said of 

the track, which has been 

designed to promote overtaking. 

JPSI officials were also 

happy after the inspection. 

“Whiting checked the state 

of track services, kerbs, runoff 

area, fencing area and 

martial’s post besides 

inspecting the medical facilities, 

the team and the pit 

building. 

“The work in and around 

the track will continue in full 

swing and we should complete 

everything by the end 

of this month,” the promoters 

said in a statement.


www.thebengalpost.com SPORT 15 

In the shadow of a revolution 

� Venezuela players during a practice session at the Salt Lake stadium on Thursday. — Aditi Saha 

Arindam Basu 

Kolkata: Like almost every other Latin 

American country, Venezuela is an 

ether box to this part of the world but 

for its coups, political turmoil and 

communist socialist movement that 

has given it an enigmatic charm. But 

in the shadow of the guns, football has 

grown over the last decade to challenge 

its destiny much like Simon 

Bolivar who scripted Venezuela’s rise 

to sovereignty. 

“Much is not like what it seems 

from outside Venezuela. The last 

decade under Chavez has seen a lot of 

things. He has changed it all—now we 

have eight stars not seven on our flag; 

the horse doesn’t look right anymore, 

it looks left and the Constitution has 

been re-written and amended a few 

times over,” said an amused Manuel 

Llorens, Venezuelan national team 

psychologist, to The Bengal Post. 

Economic crisis in the 1980s and 

1990s led to a political crisis which 

saw hundreds dead in the Caracazo 

riots of 1989, two attempted coups in 

1992 and the impeachment of 

President Carlos Andrés Pérez for corruption 

in 1993. Coup leader Hugo 

Chávez was pardoned in March 1994 

by president Rafael Caldera, with a 

clean slate and his political rights 

intact. A collapse in confidence in the 

existing parties saw Chávez elected 

Zabaleta, Gutierrez for Messi era 


national side. For the last few years, it's at the Kolkata airport. People were cheer- 

not just about Brazil, Argentina and ing us from the very instance, which was 

Kolkata: Crown Prince of world football Uruguay but even players from simply amazing.” 

Lionel Messi may often be criticised for Venezuela, Paraguay and Chile have “However, our focus is now on the 

not showing the same spark when he made it to Europe, which only show that game. It's all about starting from the 

dons the Argentina jersey, but team- footballing standard in South America scratch and get the team back to proper 

mates midfielder Jonas Gutierrez and has increased by leaps and bounds,” shape. The journey which begins tomor- 

defender Pablo Zabaleta feel that the Zabaleta said. 

row is important for us and our new 

Argentine superstar gives his 100 per Argentina and England may have manager (Alejandro Sabella)," said the 

cent while representing his nation. shared a love-hate relationship since Newcastle United footballer. 

“Messi tries more than his best when he Diego Maradona's “Hand of God” goal Gutierrez also revealed that their 0-4 

plays for Argentina. But you can't compare during the quarterfinals of the 1986 blanking at the hands of Germany in the 

playing for Barca and playing for your World Cup between the two countries World Cup was still difficult to over- 

country. Those are two different aspects. but Zabaleta said he was yet to face any come."We were improving game after 

But the best thing is to leave Messi in the problem in his stint with the Manchester game but World Cup is such a difficult 

position he is most comfortable with," City. "I've been playing in England for last tournament that just one hiccup could 

both Gutierrez and Zabaleta, said. four years and honestly I've always felt bring an end to your campaign. This is 

The defender, who was part of the that the Englishmen have given me the what the World Cup is all about. Still 

2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal win- respect I deserve. Also I can speak decent today we find it quite difficult to digest 

ning side, said their International friendly English so chances of me facing any prob- the defeat," he admitted. 

match against Venezuela will mark the lem is little less," he said. 

Both New Castle United and Argentina 

road to World Cup 2014 in Brazil. “The Argentine midfielder Jonas Gutierrez may be in a team building mode but 

journey starts tomorrow. I will try to do added: "It's an all new experience which Gutierrez said playing for one's country 

my best to cement my place in the we had witnessed as soon as we landed was different from that of a club. 

Messi mania 

grips Arrows 

Kolkata: Lionel Messi stays 

the best in the world at the 

moment, a role model for all 

budding footballers. And 

amidst the VVIPs, corporate 

honchos, Bollywood celebrities 

and the innumerable 

fans, India’s U-23 footballers 

have been losing sleep for 

quite some time now, all for 

that glimpse of the superstar 

from the stands. 

Pailan Arrows striker C S 

Sabeeth, who with his deft 

feints and sudden burst of 

speed was the discovery of 

the last edition of the I- 

League, feels: “It’s a dream 

come true. I’m excited. When 

you get to watch the world’s 

best footballer in action, that 

too in your own backyard, 

you ought to be excited. I feel 

this will prompt other big 

teams to turn their attention 

to the city. The madness for 

the sport in Kolkata knows 

no bounds.” 

“He’s such a small chap. But 

look how he shields the ball 

from all,” quipped Shilton 

D’Silva, Pailan Arrows midfielder. 

“I have just 90 minutes 

and it’s a lifetime opportunity 

for me. I will try to gauge from 

the stands as to how he manages 

to keep the ball at his feet 

all the time.” The pre-season 

training for Pailan Arrows has 

just begun. — IBNS 

President in 1998, and the subsequent 

launch of a "Bolivarian Revolution", 

beginning with a 1999 Constituent 

Assembly to write a new Constitution 

of Venezuela. 

Much like the rugged northern 

mountains of the nation, football 

went through the trials and tribulations 

of a nation that swayed between 

dictatorship and democracy. Finally it 

ARGENTINA 

Goalkeepers: Sergio SQUADS 

VENEZUELA 

Goalkeepers: Rafael 

Romero, Estaban 

Romo, Renny Vega, 

Andrada, Mariano Andujar. 

Daniel Hern andez. 

Defenders: Martin Demichelis, Defenders: Andres Tunez, Oswaldo 

Federico Fernandez, Nicolas Vizcarrondo, Cesar Gonzalez, 

Burdisso, Nicolas Otamendi, Pablo Roberto Rosales, Rolf Feltscher, 

Zabaleta, Nicolas Pareja, Marcos Fernando Amorebieta, Rohel 

Rojo. 

Briceno, Josef Martinez 

Midfielders: Midfielders: 

Angel di Franco Sig - 

Maria, Javier nor elli, Jos - 

Mas cherano, m ar Zamb - 

Ever Banega, ra no, Tomas 

Ricardo Ri n con, Yoh - 

Alvarez, Fabian Rinaudo, Jonas an d ry Orozco, Raul Gonzalez, 

Gutierrez, Javier Pastore, Luis Gabriel Cichero, Frank Fel tscher, 

Gonzalez, Jose Sosa. 

Julio Alvarez, Luis Manuel 

Forwards: Gonzalo Higuain, Lionel Seijas. 

Messi, Eduardo Salvio, Sergio Forwards: Nicolas Fedor, Salomon 

Aguero. 

Rondon, Mario Rondon. 

Coach: Alejandro Sabella. 

Coach: Cesar Farias. 

Match Commissioner: Col Goutam Kar 

Referee: A Rowan 

Assistant Referees: Biplab Poddar, Dinesh Nair and Franky Fernandes 

Fourth Official: Pratap Singh 

Kick-off: 7 p.m. 

was in the 90s that two coaches 

brought about a silent revolution in 

football that saw the la Vinitinto rise 

up the world soccer ladder. 

“The first was Serbian Ratomir 

Djukovic and then Argentine Jose 

Omar Pastoriza who changed the 

entire football system of the nation,” 

said Nestor Beaumont, team’s media 

manager. 

“They were integral in setting up a 

youth system for Venezuela. They 

believed in the philosophy of bringing 

a change not only at the players’ level 

but also at the coach and support staff 

level. They wanted young enterprising 

people in football and Cesar Farias 

is a product of this system. He began 

coaching as early as 23 and by 25 he 

was the assistant coach of Nino who 

was handling the national youth 

side,” Manuel added. 

Chavas was a passionate baseball 

player and his interest in sports had 

only helped the team. “The President 

is always interested in what the 

national team was doing. He comes to 

see our team play whenever he can. 

And we are happy that we have been 

able to unite the whole nation under 

one game. They believe in the jersey 

and we get inspiration from them,” 

national coach Cesar Farias said. 

Venezuela was the host of Copa 

America in 2007 and Chavas built 

eight new stadiums and made the old 

existing one brand new. It was a huge 

boost to football in that country. 

“Till 2003 the Venezuelans did not 

follow their country’s football. They 

preferred watching Spanish, Brazilian 

and Argentine leagues. But for the first 

time in 2006 during the World Cup 

qualifiers, Venezuelans wore a T-shirt 

with half Brazil and half Venezuela’s 

flags. But now they wear Venezuela’s 

jersey,” Manuel said. 

He said that they did not mind 

being treated as underdogs. “We have 

turned adversity and ignorance into 

our strengths. That is a huge plus for 

us. We have used it to inspire our 

boys and make them play better. 

They have become ambitious. Now is 

the time for the team to rise,” a proud 

Manuel said. 

A youth system and a sincere scouting 

mixed with complete faith in a 

young audacious coach has seen the 

country rise the soccer ladder steadily 

and now is the time for them to prosper 

like the wide plains of central 

Venezuela. Maybe Friday will be the 

beginning. 

Congress not divided: Maken 


New Delhi: Under fire in the 

cabinet from his party colleagues, 

sports minister Ajay 

Maken maintained on 

Thursday that the Congress 

party is not divided over the 

proposed national sports 

development bill, it is only 

debating it. 

Maken had fierce opposition 

in the cabinet on the bill. 

The cabinet rejected the bill 

on Tuesday and the sports 

minister was asked to revise 

the bill, which will be tabled 

again in the winter session of 

the parliament. Maken has 

also been accused by his party 

colleague Rajeev Shukla, who 

is also the vice-president of 

the Board of Control for 

Cricket in India, of being ignorant 

about the ground realities. 

The minister refused to 

comment on Shukla’s statement 

and iterated that the bill 

was not intended at curbing 

the autonomy of the sports 

federations. Maken said he is 

prepared to tweak the bill 

somewhat without compromising 

on its basic structure. 

“Limiting the age and 

tenure for the office-bearers 

doesn’t amount to curbing 

autonomy neither by having 

25 per cent representation for 

sportspersons in the executive 

committee of the sports 

federations or by coming 

under the RTI. I am ready to 

leave out some clauses to 

help the sports federations,” 

said Maken, at the headquarters 

of the Sports Authority of 

India (SAI). Asked whether 

leaving out some clauses 

amounts to a compromise, 

Maken said “at no cost was 

the sports ministry going to 

compromise with the basic 

structure of the bill.” 

He also said that the ministry 

will start working on 

the bill once it receives the 

minutes of the cabinet meeting 

held on Tuesday. Maken 

also said that 25 per cent of 

reservation in sports federations 

will help in efficient 

management.

16 

SPORT 



Teams ready to play hard ball 

Arindam Basu 

Kolkata: The Argentina and 

Venezuela tie set to unfold at 

the Salt Lake stadium on 

Friday evening will be 

viewed, perceived and played 

at three different levels. For 

the majority of the 1.2 million 

people who will flock the 

ground it will be the twinkle 

footed Lionel Messi and his 

attendant stars who will hog 

the limelight. Even before the 

players have set foot on the 

ground, the soccer crazy city 

has already dreamt up 

another emphatic victory for 

Argentina. 

However, the match as perceived 

by the two rival 

coaches is very different. For 

Alejandro Sabella it is the first 

step to the glory heights at 

the Macarena Stadium in 

Brazil in 2014. For Cesar Farias 

it is a collective stock checking 

of the arsenal in his 

armoury and a stage 

rehearsal for the official 

World cup qualifier match on 

October 14. At the third level 

the match will be a battle for 

establishing Lionel Messi’s 

supremacy as the boss of the 

La Albiceleste, while for La 

Vinotinto it is trying out a 

whole new combination with 

as many as five new players 

being included into the side. 

After their debacle in Copa 

America where they have 

been champions 14 times but 

failed to get past quarterfinals 

this time in July, 

Argentina are in process of 

rebuilding their side under 

Sabella with an eye on 2014 

World Cup. The former 

Estudiantes coach, who has 

taken over the reins of the 

national team after the dismissal 

of Sergio Batista, has 

already shown his eagerness 

to begin on a winning note. 

"This is my first game in 

command of the team. It's 

very important to make a 

good beginning. Winning will 

give us confidence. Yes this is 

the beginning of a long trip 

ahead and hope it finishes 

with qualification to the 

� Lionel Messi in action at the Salt Lake stadium 

on Thursday. — Aditi Saha 

World Cup," Sabella said. 

Messi is in the prime form 

of his career in FC Barcelona 

and notwithstanding the criticism 

over his dip in performance 

when he dons Argentina 

jersey, he will be the cynosure 

of all eyes. There is also the 

Real Madrid duo of Angel Di 

Maria and Gonzalo Higuain, 

besides Barcelona’s Javier 

Mascherano who will be seen 

in action. 

In Copa America under 

Batista, a 4-3-3 formation 

was employed, but with 

Sabella saying that he wants 

to give Messi a free hand it is 

most likely that he will have a 

creative midfield around him 

much like the Bracelona formation 

helping him to move 

freely forward. 

Three Argentina players — 

Lisandro Lopez, Cristian 

Ansaldi and Ezequiel Garay — 

have been ruled out of 

Friday’s match after suffering 

injury blows while playing for 

their respective clubs, but 

Sabella has enough ammunition 

to make a winning start. 

What is most notable is how 

the team is churning around 

the Messi mania. “Messi tries 

more than his best when he 

plays for Argentina. But you 

can't compare playing for 

Barca and playing for your 

country. Those are two different 

aspects. But the best thing 

is to leave Messi in the posi- 

tion he is most comfortable 

with,” Pablo Zabaleta 

said.“Our focus is now on the 

game. It's all about starting 

from the scratch and get the 

team back to proper shape. 

The journey which begins 

tomorrow (Friday) is important 

for us and our new manager 

(Alejandro Sabella)," 

Jonas Gutierrez insisted. 

Venezuela has come without 

their captain Juan Arango. 

In his absence mercurial midfielder 

Tomas Rincon will don 

the captain’s hat. Besides this 

the Venezuela side may also 

try out five new players. 

“They are Venezuelans by 

birth, but have grown up in 

Europe and played there. 

They have expressed their 

desire to play for Venezuela 

now. Some of them will be 

tried out in the next few 

matches to see how they fit 

into the squad. Theyu will 

only add depth to the squad,” 

said Manual Llorenz, team 

psychologist. 

The players in question are 

Fernando Amorevieta 

(Athletico Bilbao), Andres 

Tunez (Celta), Frank Fletcher 

(Grasshopper), Raul Gonzalez 

(Apollon Limassol) and 

Josmar Zombrano (Club 

Deportivo Tenerife). 

For Cesar Farias the game is 

only a part of Venezuelan 

upsurge in world football that 

has seen them rise from 

below 200 to 44 in world 

ranking in a span of 10 years. 

The Copa America semisfinalists 

are “serious” about 

the game and they shall 

ensure that Lionel Messi 

doesn’t create problems for 

them. “Messi is undoubtedly 

a great player but football is a 

team game so we would look 

to play a team game on 

Friday. This match maybe 

called a friendly but it is actually 

a very serious game as it 

is not only about planning 

and preparation for the 

World Cup qualifiers but also 

about our prestige back 

home,” said César Farías. 

“I think the gap is narrowing 

between teams in South 

America so if we play well, we 

will have a good chance of 

reaching the 2014 World Cup. 

We are the underdogs for 

sure but we believe in our 

abilities. We respect 

Argentina as they are a quality 

side but would still try to 

win the game,” he said. 

The turf could well be an 

issue on Friday and even 

more so with the met office 

predicting some sharp showers. 

The Argentine team has 

expressed their inexperience 

of playing on artificial turf. 

“Frankly we have not played 

on artificial turf. We are not 

very comfortable. But we 

have to adapt,” Sabella said. 

But that should not be a case 

for Venezuela. 

“We recently played on 

artificial turf against 

Colombia in New York and 

against Mexico in Las Vegas. 

We also have some grounds 

back in Venezuela which have 

artificial turf so we have 

experience of playing in such 

surface,” he said. 

Below the façade of a 

friendly the undercurrents of 

competition and one-upmanship 

is quite palpable in both 

the ranks and file. While 

Argentina are undoubtedly 

the heavyweights on paper, 

don’t be surprised if the toast 

at the end of the match 

tomorrow (Friday) is deep 

burgundy. 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

2nd September, 2011 at 7 P.M. 

LIVE & EXCLUSIVE 

�� 

Presenting Sponsors Associate Sponsors 

Radio Partner 

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455, Diamond Harbour Road, 2nd Floor, Kolkata – 700 034, P. S. : Behala, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, Editor: Sudipta Sen, Managing Editor: Gautam Chaudhuri, Group CEO: Kunal Ghosh. RNI. No. WBENG/2010/34223


www.thebengalpost.com SPORT I 

Let’s dance with the happy prince 

Sudeshna Ghosh 

Kolkata: You may have to scale the same potholes on your way 

to office, wait for the same number of minutes for your conveyance 

or once again be delayed for your destination by the 

ever-increasing traffic. Yet it is a great day to be in the City of 

Joy. Pop icons like Bryan Adams or rock-n-roll legends like The 

Metallica may overlook the city on their list of concert venues 

or a certain Angelina Jolie may warn her good friend Johnny 

Depp against shooting in these parts but the crown prince of 

world football — Lionel Andres “Leo” Messi — is in the city to 

erase the petty grievances and mesmerise us with his football 

skills. 

Battered by India’s World Cup-winning cricket team’s dismal 

performance in the Test series in England and coupled 

with our senior footballers’ very poor show against Trinidad & 

Tobago and Guyana on their Caribbean tour, people here can 

find solace in being witness to the football artistry between 

two of the best Latin American teams in the world — Argentina 

and Venezuela. 

When Messi, along with his Argentine compatriots and 

Venezuelan rivals, takes the field at the Salt Lake stadium on 

Friday, holding hands of kids from an NGO, he will be the object of 

admiration for 80,000 eager fans — including top-notch celebrities 

from all over the country like Ranbir Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, 

Dino Morea as well as a huge number of local who’s who. 

Vital Stats 

Full Name: Luis Lionel Andrés “Leo” Messi 

Date of Birth: June 24, 1987 

Home Town: Rosario, Argentina 

Nationality: Argentina and Spain 

Height: 5ft 7inch 

Weight: 67 kg 

Position: Striker/ Winger 

Clubs: Newell’s Old Boys (1995-2000); Barcelona 

‘B’ (2004-05); Barcelona FC (2000-2004, 2005-) 

Team: Argentina U-20, Argentina U-23, Argentina 

Senior Team 

Debut (for Argentina): June 2004 (in a friendly 

against Paraguay) 

Club Honours: La Liga (2004-05, 2005-06, 2008- 

09, 2009-10, 2010-11); Copa del Rey (2008-09); 

Supercopa de Espana (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 

2011); Uefa Champions League (2005-06, 2008- 

09, 2010-11); Uefa Super Cup (2009, 2011); Fifa 

Club World Cup (2009) 

Country Honours: Fifa U-20 World 

Cup (2005); Olympic Gold (2008) 

Individual Honours: Fifa Ballon 

d’Or (2010); Ballon d’Or (2009); 

Fifa World Player of the Year (2009); Fifa Team of 

the Year (2008, 2009, 2010); U-21 European 

Footballer of the Year (2007); La Liga Player of 

the Year (2009, 2010, 2011); La Liga Top 

Goalscorer (2010); Copa del Rey top 

goalscorer (2011); La Liga Foreign 

Player of the Year (2007, 2009, 2010); 

La Liga Ibero-American Player of the 

Year (2007, 2009, 2010, 2011); 

European Golden Shoe (2010); Uefa 

Champions League Top Goalscorer 

(2009, 2010, 2011); Uefa Best Player in 

Europe (2011); Uefa Club Footballer of 

the Year (2009); Uefa Champions 

League Forward of the Year (2009); 

Uefa Champions League Final ‘Man 

of the Match’ (2011); Uefa Team of 

the Year (2008, 2009, 2010); 

Footballer of the Year of 

Argentina (2005, 2007, 2008, 

2009, 2010); Fifa U-20 World 

Cup Player of the Tournament 

(2005); Fifa U-20 World Cup 

Top Goalscorer (2005); Copa 

América Young Player of the 

Tournament (2007); 

World Footballer of the 

Year (2009); World 

Football Young Player of 

the Year (2006, 2007, 

2008); Fifa Club World 

Cup Golden Ball (2009); 

Uefa Best Goal of the Year 

(2007) 

However, even a few months back, it would have looked 

nothing less than a miracle to imagine that the Argentine protégé, 

just like his icon Diego Maradona, would oblige the lovers 

of the game by working his magical feet in the football-crazy 

city of ours. In fact, Messi’s visit, in certain ways, is more mesmerising 

than Maradona’s 2008 engagement as we have a 

chance to experience his genius at a time when the 24-year-old 

is at the top of his game. 

Born on June 24, 1987 in the small town of Rosario in 

Argentina, Messi has risen to the zenith of world football in a 

comparatively small frame of time. The 5’7” striker, who 

moved to Barcelona from his local club — Newell’s Old Boys — 

in 2000 after the European club promised him treatment for 

“growth hormone deficiency”, made his debut for the 

Barcelona B team in 2004-05 and, in no time, became the 

team’s youngest footballer to score a League goal. And then, 

more and more honours followed along with a place in the premier 

Barcelona team, the latest being the inaugural Uefa Best 

Player in Europe award last Thursday, finishing ahead of 

Barcelona teammate Xavi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Messi, who has been likened to the legendary Maradona, 

even by the God of football himself, has won five La Liga titles, 

three Champions League titles with Barca, scoring in two of 

those finals, against Manchester United in both 2009 and 2011. 

Yet the undeniable fact is that Messi simply does not score 

as prolifically for his country as he does for Barcelona. Stats 

indicate that his goal-to-minute ratio for the Spanish giants 

worked out to be, almost precisely, a goal per game in 2010- 

11, as the Catalans collected the La Liga and Champions 

League titles. 

The striker arrived at 53 goals in all competitions after netting 

47 times in 53 appearances in 2009-10, and a further 38 in 

51 in his triplete-winning season of 2008-09 at Barcelona. 

Since Pep Guardiola’s arrival at Camp Nou, Messi has been simply 

insatiable in front of the goal. 

The same cannot be said for his spells under a variety of 

coaches for Argentina. From World Cup 2006 in Germany, 

where he was used sparingly by Jose Pekerman, until 

Argentina’s fresh failure at this year’s home Copa America 2011, 

Messi’s average in major competitions is over 500 minutes, and 

significantly, his last tournament strike was his wondrous lob 

against Mexico in the 2007 Copa America semi-final. Two 

showpiece events, with the attacker barely missing a minute, 

have passed since without the net being rippled. 

So, the significance of this friendly to Messi, if not on the 

euphoric plane of the spectators at the Salt Lake stadium, is 

well enough for us to expect that the wonder boy will not miss 

this opportunity to show semblance of his form at Barca, but 

this time for his country. This may not be the first time that 

Kolkata will host celebrity football stars as football legends like 

Pele, Maradona, Branco, Romario, Diego Forlan and Oliver Kahn 

have played friendlies in the city. But this time around, the 

stakes are even higher not just for the striker, who will also 

captain his side, but a variety of people as it may just prove to 

be the highest-grossing match in India. 

The organisers — Celebrity Management Group — have sold 

the broadcasting rights for crores of rupees. ESPN has bought 

the rights for South Asia, Eurodata for Africa and the rest of Asia 

and Swiss-based Kentaro has bought the rights for Europe, 

North and South America with live telecast in 150 countries. 

The organisers expect $2.5 million (`11-12 crore) from ticket 

sales with huge interest from cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, 

Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Trivandrum and Goa. They 

have also sold eight corporate boxes for `7.5 lakh each with 

bookings by corporates like UB Group, film stars and other 

celebrities. 

However, a stray match like this cannot change the pathetic 

condition of the game in our country. But what any football 

lover will hope for is that “Leo” Messi will inspire some kids in 

the Friday crowd to take Indian football to a respectable position 

on the international stage. 

10 things you need to know 

about Argentine Wonder Boy 

� Messi shares his birthplace with Che Guevara. Both 

were born in Rosanio 

� Now 5 feet 7”, doctors say if he did not receive 

growth hormones his growth would have stopped at 

4 feet 7“ 

� His nickname is La Pulga Atomica (The Atomic Flea) 

� He is also called Maradonita, while Spanish press has 

christened him Messidona 

� He never watches his highlights on television 

� His two cousins Maxi Biancucchi (Mexican side Conz 

Azni) and Emanuel Biancucchi (German side TSV 1860 

Munchen) play football too 

� A life size choco idol weighing 115 kg was made of 

Messi this Easter at a Catalonian bakery 

� Messi’s favourite music genre are Samba and Cumbi 

� He grew up playing for Pro Evolution Soccer and now 

features on their cover 

� He was announced Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF 

in 2010

II 

SPORT 

Sourav Modak 

A 

rgentina, the name is inseparable 

from the most 

famous sport — football. 

And whenever we think of football, 

we can’t help thinking about 

Lionel Messi, who is considered to 

be the finest player of the current 

generation, may be a few notches 

ahead of another great in making, 

Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. 

At the same time, the Messi 

who is famous all over the world 

is the one in Barcelona colours, 

not in blue and whites — the 

Argentina jersey. There is a reason 

behind that. Many theories have 

been put forth by experts and 

supporters worldwide behind 

Messi’s inability to replicate his 

club-level success in the 

Argentina shirt. 

Whatever be the reason, it will 

be unjust for the other players in 

the Argentine squad — which will 

arrive in Kolkata on Monday to 

play the Fifa friendly against Latin 

American rivals Venezuela at the 

Salt Lake stadium on September 2 

— if we don’t pay them the attention 

they deserve, treating them 

just as teammates of the wonder 

boy of world football. 

The next big name in Argentine 

football after Messi is definitely 

Carlos Tevez. However, the 

Manchester City forward has been 

overlooked by recently-appointed 

Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella 

for the two friendlies in Kolkata 

and Dhaka (on September 6 

against Nigeria). Sabella has 

declared a squad mainly consisting 

players plying their trade in 

Europe. Tevez’s exclusion may 

have been disappointing but 

Kolkatans will still get to see some 

excellent players like Sergio 

Aguero, Angel di Maria, Gonzalo 

Higuain, Javier Mascherano, 

Martin Demichelis, Pablo 

Zabaleta, Jonas Gutierrez. 

Currently ranked ninth in Fifa 

rankings, Argentina’s fate will 

largely depend on Tevez’s City 

teammate Aguero and the Real 

Madrid duo — Higuain and Di 

Maria. While Messi has found the 

back of the net 17 times in 60 

appearances for the national 

team, Aguero’s scoring rate is 

quite high at 13 goals from 30 

matches. 

Married to Maradona’s 

youngest daughter Giannina, 23year-old 

Aguero is a centre forward 

but can operate from behind 

as he often did for his Atletico 

Madrid teammate Diego Forlan. A 

stocky footballer, Aguero is characterised 

by strength, agility and 

acceleration, which make him a 

dangerous weapon in the attacking 

third. 

The next big star is Real Madrid 

striker Higuain, who enjoys a 50 

per cent scoring rate in light blue 

shirt with eight goals in 16 

appearances.In an equally successful 

club career, Higuain has 

scored 77 goals from 166 appearances 

for Real so far. Because of his 

excellent skill and scoring rate, 

Real have retained the 23-yearold 

since 2007 and in June 2010, 

extended his contract till 2016. 

Higuain was inducted into the 

senior national team for the 

2010 World Cup qualifiers by the 

then coach Diego Maradona. He 

became only the third Argentine 

to score an international hattrick 

in Argentina’s 4-1 win over 

South Korea in their second 

group league match of the 2010 

World Cup. 

Real Madrid winger Di Maria, 

another big name on Argentina’s 

roster, is known for being really 

quick on the left flank and one of 

the best dribbler right now. 

Mainly known for his ability to 

assist strikers, Di Maria has 

improved his goal-scoring abilities 

as well, scoring nine goals in 

53 matches in his debut season 

(2010-11) with Real. 

Zabaleta, the 26-year-old fullback, 

is another player to look at, 

who has become a favourite of 

Manchester City fans with his 

dependable performance since 

coming to the Premier League 

club in the summer of 2008. 

Barcelona midfielder 

Mascherano and Malaga centreback 

Demichelis are also important 

to Sabella’s scheme of things 

as they will add experience to the 

mainly young squad selected for 

the two friendlies in Asia. 

While the former Liverpool 

player Mascherano has been a 

tried and tested name in the 

Argentine midfield since his 

debut in July 2003 in a friendly 

against Uruguay, 30-year-old 

Demichelis has also been quite 

a familiar name with 33 

appearances. 

If Sabella can bring out the best 

from the Higuains, Di Marias and 

Agueros, that will not only help 

Argentina to attain the desired 

level of performance they can 

reach but also bring the best out of 

Messi. 

The European footballer of the 

year is at his best when he is free 

from pressure to perform. That is 

what happens in Barcelona when 

he plays alongside Andres Iniesta, 

Xavi Hernandez, David Villa and 

Pedro. Equally good at scoring and 

assisting, Messi creates quality 

moves for Villa and Pedro apart 

from receiving good passes from 

Iniesta and Xavi at Barca. Sabella 

needs to find that kind of a combination 

for Messi. So there is life 

beyond Messi in the current 

Argentina squad but coach Sabella 

has to look after them properly. 



Messi not Argentina’s only star 

Argentina’s fate will 

largely depend on 

Tevez’s City 

teammate Aguero 

and the Real 

Madrid duo — 

Higuain and 

Di Maria 

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RETAIL 

Column Contact 

Partha : 9830557648, 

Saumik : 9038414135 / 9051950365 

� Gonzalo Higuain (top) and Sergio Aguero 

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on good faith.


www.thebengalpost.com SPORT III 

The rising stars on the 

Latin American sky 


T 

he country is famous for 

its president Hugo 

Chavez. It is also known 

for its rich culture and heritage. 

But interestingly, the 

sporting world knows 

Venezuela for a different reason. 

This economically backward 

nation has produced a 

successful football team. 

Having performed well in 

the recently-concluded Copa 

America, the football world 

has found a whole new reason 

to celebrate. 

Over the years, they have 

made it clear that Latin 

American football is not all 

about Argentina and Brazil. 

With some brilliant performance 

in the 2011 Copa Ame - 

rica, the Venezuelans have 

proved their worth. 

In the Copa, the red and 

whites gave some tough times 

to their opponents. At a time 

when all eyes were on Lionel 

Messi, Neymar et al, a handful 

of youngsters took Venezuela 

to the semi-finals. 

Even somebody as great as 

Pele were all praise for Chav - 

ez’s country. In an interview 

to a TV channel, the legend 

admitted that coach Cesar 

Farias had indeed done a great 

job with his young brigade. 

“They were just excellent. I 

never thought they would 

reach the semi-finals. They 

were more aggressive than 

Brazil and Argentina,” Pele 

had said. 

As a matter of fact, after 

Farias took over as the coach, 

things really started to change 

for the La Vinotintos. 

The team played well in 

the practice ties ahead of 

Copa America, and were able 

to put up a great show 

against biggies like Brazil, 

Argentina and Chile. 

The coach, however, dedicated 

the Copa America success 

to the president. Chavez, 

he said, motivated the boys. 

“The boys are really hard 

working, and they consider 

Chavez as their role model. 

He has helped them in every 

possible way. We are proud to 

represent Venezuela,” coach 

� Juan Arango 

Farias had said in an interview 

right after the Copa 

America. 

This is the secret of their 

success. Once considered an 

economically backward na - 

tion, Venezuela is now trying 

to make a mark on world 

stage in every walk of life. 

While most of their senior 

players play for renowned 

clubs like River Plate, Getafe 

and Malaga, the Venezuela 

Football Federation (FVF) has 

also taken special efforts to 

dev elop football among the 

youth. Having set up a few 

residential academies, the 

federation is hoping to be able 

to spot talents. 

It has been learnt that FVF 

has decided to field a young 

side and still hope to be able 

to put up a good show against 

some of the biggest stars of 

world football. 

Under the captaincy of Juan 

Arango, the Venezuelans will 

look to set the stage on fire. 

Having a medley of experience 

and youth, the team will 

look to put up a strong fight 

against the neighbouring 

country. 

With the world busy talking 

about Messi, Aguero and 

others, the Venezuelans will 

start off as the underdogs. 

Most of the players feel this 

would be a boon for them. In a 

microblogging website, captain 

Arango had clearly 

pointed out that his team will 

try to take advantage of the 

inexperience of Argentina. 

After the Copa debacle, this 

will be the first Fifa friendly 

for Messi & Co., that, too in the 

subcontinent. 

Weather will be a factor. So 

will be the ground conditions 

at the Salt Lake stadium but 

the Venezuelan team are all 

set to take up the challenge. 

“We are ready. This will be 

an interesting outing for the 

folks. We are really looking 

forward to play Argentina in 

India,” Arango wrote on his 

web page. 

It would indeed be a great 

opportunity for the City of Joy 

to witness an enthralling 

friendly between the two 

arch-rivals!

IV 


www.thebengalpost.com

Diganta Guha 

Known to make sensible 

comedies, it was his directorial 

debut Bheja Fry that 

brought director Sagar Ballary to 

the limelight and now he is ready 

with his latest venture Hum Tum 

Shabana that hits the theatres on 

September 23. PostScript caught up 

with the filmmaker for a chat. 

Excerpts: 

You have given two hits in Bheja 

Fry and Bheja Fry 2. Do you feel 

the pressure now that Hum Tum 

Shabana is slated to release 

soon? 

Obviously the pressure is 

mounting, but I am not letting it 

get to me. With Bheja Fry 2 expectations 

were very high as I had to 

recreate the Bheja Fry magic and 

improve upon it. Besides, a lot of 

money was at stake. So, there was 

more pressure. For Hum Tum 

Shabana I was much more relaxed. 

In fact, with Kachcha Limboo and 

Hum Tum Shabana I am trying to 

move away from Bheja Fry. 

But you are still known as the 

Bheja Fry director, isn’t it? 

Well, I am really lucky on this 

front that I am identified with 

such a film. I enjoy the tag. But as I 

said before I am trying to move 

away from that. Hum Tum Shabana 

is a full-fledged masala entertainer. 

It’s total madness. But it’s 

not an illogical comedy. It has a 

certain sensibility to it. I have consciously 

moved away from the 

kind of films I have made in the 

past. The casting is unusual too, 

with Tusshar (Kapoor) and Shreyas 

(Talpade) on board. I am very 

happy with the end product and 

so are my producers. 

Tell us more about the film. 

It’s a romantic comedy. The first 

half is about this beauty pageant. 

But the second half gets into the 

niches of greedy underworld. 

There are five songs in the film 

and lots of interesting sequences. 

And yes there is an item song . We 

have used crazy camera angles. 

There is a certain sensuality about 

the film. I have not held myself 

back in Hum Tum Shabana. I have 

delved into a subject which I have 

never explored before. The film 

has lovely music composed by 

Sachin-Jigar. And the songs are 

already a hit. It’s a charming film, 

nonetheless. 

Tell us something about how 

Tusshar came on board. 

Tusshar and I were discussing 

another film that didn’t work out. 

And then the script of Hum Tum 

Shabana came across. I asked 

Tusshar if he would like to do it 

and he complied. We have become 

very good friends. It was a delight 

working with him. Tusshar needs 

good directors. I remember him in 

Khakee. Look at his performance in 

the film because there was Raj 

Kumar Santoshi who used 

Tusshar’s talents to the hilt. 

‘One day I want to 

make a tear jerker’ 

Tusshar responds well to the 

director’s requirements. 

And what about Shreyas and 

Minissha? 

Shreyas is a master performer. 

He is tremendously gifted and has 

great energy level. He is always 

active on the sets even when he is 

through with his scenes. He is 

always there to give suggestions. 

In Golmaal he was loud and garish 

because the script demanded so. 

He would surprise many with this 

film. In Hum Tum Shabana he takes 

his talent to a different level. 

Minissha has improved a lot with 

time. She is very sincere and hard 

working. The way she has transformed 

her image from a simple 

girl in Yahaan to the sex bomb in 

Kidnap. I remember while we were 

shooting for Hum Tum Shabana, 

people were singing Mausam awesome 

from Kidnap. And look at 

Bachna Ae Haseeno. She stood her 

ground despite the presence of big 

stars. 

How do you see the future of 

comedies? 

It’s a great time to make good 

Tollywood is opting for more and more unusual onscreen pairing p4 & p5 

Director Sagar 

Ballary wants 

to move away 

from Bheja Fry 

with his latest 

offering Hum 

Tum Shabana 

films. And comedies will always 

be there. There’s so much of stress 

in our lives that we all want to 

watch fun films. They work as a 

stress buster. And comedies will 

make people forget all their worries. 

Who are your favourite comedians? 

My favourite comedians are 

Charlie Chaplin, Kishore Kumar 

and Vinay Pathak. Yes, I am placing 

Vinay in this category. He has a 

lot of energy and has all the qualities 

of a great comedian. 

Will you ever make an action 

film? 

Why not? I want to try out different 

genres. I have a film on bank 

robbery and another comedy lined 

up. But no matter which genre I 

venture into, my films will always 

have a comic touch. However, one 

day I want to make a tear jerker. 

Friday September 2, 2011 

Catch the latest buzz from the telly-world p6

2 MIXED BAG 


ART 

On canvas 

Group exhibition by artists 

Pradip Pradhan, Runi Misra 

Banerjee, Pradip Maiti and 

Saktipada Jana 

Venue: Academy of Fine Arts 

Date: Till September 7 

Time: 3pm - 8pm 

We Are 10 

A group exhibition of sculptures 

by Prabir Roy and paintings by 

Moloy Karmakar, Soumen Saha, 

Ranajit Haldar, Snehangshu 

Das, Dibasis Maity, Nilkanta 

Mondal, Soumendranath Roy, 

Shrabani Roy and Samir Das 




I Have a Face of What I’m Not 

A solo installation art exhibition 

by Adip Dutta 

Venue: Experimenter, 

Hindustan Road 



Retrospective 

Delhi Art Gallery presents an 

exhibition of paintings, puppets 

and books by mid-20th century 

artist Chittaprosad 

Venue: Birla Academy of Art 

and Culture 



Visual Means 

Artists include Akbar 

Padamsee, Tapas Konar, Gogi 

Saroj Pal, Achuthan Kudallur, 

Amitava Dhar, RM Palaniappan, 

Rini Dhumal, Yusuf, RB 

bhaskaran, Shekhar Roy, Sunil 

De, Gopi Gajwani, Faiza Huma, 

Shridhar Iyer, Vilas Shinde, 

Jinsook Shinde and Yogesh 

Rawal 

FATE LINE 

Aries: The social animal in you 

is most active today, leading 

you to devote more hours on 

social projects. You may also 

have to balance work along with it. 

Note: The evening can bring surprises. Be 

prepared. 

Taurus: You have a strong 

opinion on things related to 

your area of interest. People 

around you may look up to you 

for advice. 

Note: Have an open mind. Your optimism 

may be appreciated. 

Gemini: You may have some 

wacky ways of dealing with 

things but you cannot express 

it to others. Present a sober self 

to others. 

Note: Try and complete your pending 

projects today. 

Work by Chittaprosad at Birla Academy of Art and Culture 

Venue: ECA, Anandpur 


Time: 11am - 7pm 

Ceramic Art 

Celebrations of moods and 

emotions in ceramics with artists 

Abhay Pandit, Aditi Saraogi, Arun 

Mukutti, Ashis Chowdhury, BR 

Pundit, Chirayu Sinha, Devi lal 

Pattider, Deepali Daroz, Falguni 

Bhatt, G Raghu, Jaiita Man Singh 

and many more 

Venue: Gallery Sanskriti, 5C 

Alipore Park Road 



Transformations 

A selection of paintings from 

north, south, east and west of 

India. On display are works of 

Avijit Dutta, Akhilesh, Asit 

Pathak, Bhagat Singh, Fawad 

Tamkanat, Laxman Aelay, 

Narsimhulu Kandi, Partha Shaw, 

Prakash Karmakar, Ramesh 

Gorjala, S Harshavardhan, 

Sanjay Bhattacharya, Shipra 

Bhattacharya, Subramaniam 

Gopalsamy and Sudip Roy 

Venue: Genesis Art Gallery 



Richness of Indian History 

An exhibition by Pentagon — a 

group of 60 artists 




BOOKS 

Cancer: Today, you might have 

to deal with a big group of people 

without much preparation. 

You may still manage to tide 

over the situation. 

Note: This may be the right time to plan a 

vacation with family and friends. 

Leo: A family gathering may 

keep you busy. You may have 

to address the problems of 

elders as you deal with them. 

Your ideas will be appreciated. 

Note: You get success in whatever work you 

set out to do. 

Virgo: You may be spending 

lavishly on your friends and 

loved ones. Watch out as the 

expenses may exceed your 

budget. 

Note: If you are feeling stressed then take 

care for it rather than brood. 

Shiva Triology 

Amish Tripathi will launch his 

next book The Secret of the Nagas 

Venue: Starmark, South City Mall 

Date: September 5 

Time: 6:30pm 

FOOD 

Traditional Hilsa 

Hilsa festival with 

Western, Oriental and 

Nouveau preperations 

Venue: The Bridge, The 

Park 


Time: Lunch and 

dinner 

DRAMA 

Festival 

The British Council 

presents Annual Inter- 

School Drama Festival 

2011 semi finals 

Venue: Kala Kunj 



FESTIVAL 

Art Festival 2011 

The festival aims at creating 

new opportunities 

for artists 

Venue: Gallerie 52d, 

Hindustan Park 

Date: September 10 - 

30 

Time: 12pm - 7:30pm 

QUIZ 

On Heritage 

Grand Finale of heritage 

quiz 

Venue: Gyan Manch 


Time: 9:30am onwards 

Libra: Your ability to react to 

situations quickly can win you 

many a battle. You are likely 

to be torn between tradition 

and modernity. 

Note: Relax with family at home. You may 

be overstressing yourself. 

Scorpio: There might be 

change of work schedule today. 

Deal with it as it comes and do 

not panic. You are methodical 

in your approach. 

Note: You may be longing to be loved and 

cared for today. 

Sagittarius: Close relationships 

may take up most of your time 

as you deal with emotional 

issues. Friends may chip in 

with help. 

Note: A picnic in the afternoon may be 

planned today. 

PERFORMANCE 

Rising Tonnes 

Hosted by Calcutta 

Classical Guitar 

Society, there will be 

performances by Pt. 

Debojyoti Bose and Pt. 

Subhankar Banerjee 

Venue: 9A, Ho Chi 

Minh Sarani 


Time: 7:30pm 

SEMINAR 

On a vacation 

Indian Chamber of 

Commerce organises 

travel and tourism fair 

Venue: Hyatt Regency 


Time: 10am onwards 

EXHIBITION 

Style File 

Toontooni is holding 

an exhibition of exclusive 

sarees and kantha 

items 

Venue: 10, Satyen 

Dutta Road 

Date: Till September 

12 


The Rustic and the 

Royal 

Raja S Biswas’s saree 

collection 

Venue: 4B, Bondel 

Road 

Date: September 2-3 


Puja Fashion 

A wide range of sarees, 

silver and eco-friendly 

jewellery and hand 

printed stoles to 

choose from 

Venue: Kamala, 

Rabindranath Tagore 

Centre, Ho Chi Minh 

Sarani 



In Search of 

Solitude 

An exhibition of black 

and white photographs 

by Varun 

Gupta 

Venue: Ganges Art 

Gallery, Jatin Das 

Road 

Date: September 5 - 

17 

Time: 7:30pm 

NIGHTOUT 

Music Mania 

Experience hip house 

and Bollywood with 

India’s celebrated DJ 

Aqeel 

Venue: Underground, 

The HHI 


Time: 9pm onwards 

All those who wish 

events to be included 

in this column write 

not less than a week 

ahead to: MIXED BAG 

The Bengal Post 

DN 23,Sector V, Saltlake 

Kolkata — 700091 

Email: 

mixedbagbp@gmail.com 

Capricorn: Travel may be on 

the cards. You may have to plan 

it hurriedly. But take care not 

to miss out on important 

documents. 

Note: You may not be feeling confident 

about a project, don’t hesitate to say it. 

Aquarius: This may be the 

time when you expect support 

from your friends and people 

close to you. You may be feeling 

important today. 

Note: Keep open your communication lines 

as they may prove helpful. 

Pisces: You may be feeling 

powerful and energised after a 

motivational course. Use your 

wisdom to choose your friends. 

Note: You may attend a religious ceremony 

in the family.

ARCHIE 

RUGRATS 

QUIZ — KEANU REEVES 

1. Where was the Canadian actor born? 

2. His central role in which play won him 

international acclaim? 

3. How many step fathers did he have? 

4. In which sport did Keanu excel in school 

and dreamt of becoming a professional? 

5. Which disability affected him in his 

childhood? 

6. At what age did he begin his acting 

career? 

7. Which was his first Hollywood film? 

8. Which film established him as a A-list 

Hollywood star? 

9. For which grunge band did he play bass 

guitar? 

10. Which film is he planning to direct and 

has written the script for? 

DAILY CROSSWORD 

ACROSS 

1. Car grill cover 

4. Ugly cut 

8. Parboil 

13. Look like 

14. Hairy Himalayan 

15. Shire of "Rocky" 

16. Popular cookie 

17. Cell content 

19. Except 

21. __ Wiedersehen 

22. "Buenos __, Senor!" 

23. Some scouts 

25. Huge amount 

27. Pressed onward 

31. Snake charmer's 

attire 

35. Game opener 

36. Wiser 

38. Ernest or Julio 

39. Speakeasy risk 

41. Farm machine 

43. Weigh, as evidence 

44. "__ vincit amor" 

46. Lawsuit cause 

48. Never, to 

Wolfgang 

49. Cruise stop 

51. On the payroll 

53. Mascara target 

55. By heart 

56. Feng __ 

59. Sense organ 

61. Came to an end 

65. Baskets 

68. Went headlong 

69. Poet Ginsberg 

70. Wind catcher 

71. Idyllic spot 

72. Cutting edge 

73. Vehicle on runners 

74. Made tracks 

DOWN 

1. Swiss capital 

2. Movie spool 

3. It often splits 

4. Unregistered cruiser 

(2 wds.) 

5. __ Lingus 

6. Ancient colonnade 

7. Mooch from (2 wds.) 

8. Indy 500 sponsor 

9. Volcanic craters 

10. Tien Shan range 

11. Hartman or Bonet 

12. River tamers 

13. Worthless coin 

18. Never heard __ __ 

20. Heirs, often 

24. "Blume in Love" lead 

26. Wheel nut 

27. Jet parking 

28. Pulitzer category 

29. Leaf ribs 

30. Reuben sellers 

32. Thin pancakes 

33. Michael Caine role 

34. Observed 

37. Steel rod 

40. Had no taste for 

42. Secured anew 

45. Battery size 

47. Past the deadline 

50. Tech-support caller 

52. Bookworm 

54. Chicago Black __ 

56. Mop 

57. Incline 

58. Bruins 

60. Stir up 

62. Fizzy beverage 

63. Regular 

64. Cozy room 

66. Flight dir. 

67. Country addr. 

Answers:- 

1. Beirut, Lebanon 

2. Hamlet 

3. Four 

4. Hockey 

5. Dyslexia 

6. Nine 

7. Youngblood 

8. Speed 

9. Dogstar 

10. Man of Tai Chi 

SUDOKU 

MIXED BAG 3 


YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

4 K FACTOR 


Tanushree 

Sudipta 

Indraneil 

Srijit 

WACKY pairs on 

Supreeta Singh 

At this moment, the one defining 

word to describe the mood 

in Bengal is ‘change’. If one of 

the greatest forces in the state, 

politics is celebrating its new found 

freedom, how can the other one, entertainment 

remain far behind? Tollywood 

too is riding high on positive developments 

and one of the clear signs is casting 

of new faces and using unlikely 

actors as lead pairs. 

Neelakshi Roy of Orion 

Entertainment, whose recent film 

Chaplin has a fresh cast, says, “There is 

no guidebook or formula on casting. It’s 

an art like music or painting.” 

Till recently, commercial films in 

Tollywood would only boast of a 

Prosenjit, Dev, Koel, Jeet, Rahul, 

Priyanka and few others. While they 

still continue to enjoy stardom and produce 

super-hits, in the last couple of 

years a whole slew of films have intro- 

Rachita 

Fresh faces and unusual casting 

boost and making it 

duced the changing dynamics in the 

industry. From Autograph (Indraniel 

Sengupta-Nandana Dev Sen-Prosenjit 

Chatterjee), Pa Ma Ga Re Sa (Reshmi 

Ghosh-Rohit Roy-Gauri Karnik), Notobor 

Not Out (Raima Sen-Prakash Mustafa) to 

the newly released, Icche (Samadarshi- 

Sohini Sengupta), Ranjana Ami Ar 

Ashbona (Anjan Dutt-Parno Mitra), Iti 

Mrinalini (Aparna Sen-Priyanshu 

Chatterjee), Uro Chithi (Indraniel- 

Sreelekha Mitra-Tanusree) and Chaplin 

(Rudranil Ghosh-Rachita-Srijit 

Mukherjee) — Tollywood is experimenting 

with the starcast in lead roles like 

never before. 

Director Srijit Mukherjee of Autograph 

fame says, “A well-known pair has a settled 

chemistry. But after sometime, it 

becomes monotonous watching them. 

Since familiarity breeds contempt, we 

need to see other actors too. There is a 

risk involved in the sense there is no 

prior record of the chemistry, but that’s 

a challenge worth taking.” 

Rituparna

Payel 

is giving Tollywood a much-needed 

a force to reckon with 

Bengali SCREEN 

Thanks to a fresh crop of producers, 

directors and scriptwriters, Tollywood is 

pushing its boundary of the tried and the 

tested. For example, in films mentioned 

earlier, script was the king that determined 

who would be cast in which role. 

Manu Malhotra of Phoenix Cinemas Pvt 

Ltd whose Uro Chithi is a hit says, “We felt 

that the actors should fit the character 

and should not look like a forced arrangement. 

We needed someone to portray the 

character of a mature mother and wife 

who has had no time to look after herself. 

Sreelekha perfectly fitted the description. 

Even getting Sudipta-Rudranil and 

Locket-Biswanath together was a casting 

coup.” 

But this does not mean that Dev or Koel 

are losing popularity. It just shows that 

rather than banking on mere star value, 

author-backed roles are gaining more 

acceptance. 

Manu says, “I may cast Jeet and 

Srabonti in my film. That’s not the issue. 

But we we also want to churn out films 

for a different kind of audience too.” 

That is another factor of determining 

the change — the rise of multiplex crowd. 

While that category of audience always 

existed but specific films to please them 

were not made. Talking about changing 

trends, Arijit Dutta of Priya Entertainment 

says, “A typical commercial film requires 

good music, dance and good promotion. 

But we are now seeing a new genre of 

films that are more urban and sleek. It 

indicates that Tollywood has matured. 

Earlier, artistes who would feature as 

fourth or lower in the list are now up as 

the first or the second.” 

In the coming months, Tollywood will 

witness the release of more films with 

fresh casting. To name a handful, there is 

Sanghamitra Chowdhury’s Someday, 

Somewhere (Pauli Dam-Shaheb), Subrata 

Sen’s Nondinee (Mir-Swastika-Dibyendu), 

Birsa Dasgupta’s Jodi Bolo Hyan 

(Parambrata-Paayel), Agnidev Chatterjee’s 

Charulata 2011 (Rituparna-Samadarshi) 

and others. 

Parambrata 

Reshmi 

Sreelekha 

Parambrata 

K FACTOR 5 


Parno 

Swastika

6 TELEVISION 


It’s time to go the Balle Balle way 

9X Music Group recently launched 9X Tashan, superhit Punjabi music channel, 

which will feature interesting animated characters and a spate of superhit 

Punjabi songs. 9X Tashan is targeted at free-spirited Punjabi viewers who take 

pride in everything Punjabi — from food to culture, to clothes and of course music. 

The great Maratha on television 

Colors finally forays into the genre of historical drama with the launch of their 

bi-weekly weekend show Veer Shivaji, starting tonight. The show is not merely 

a chronological presentation of historiocal facts, but also promises to treat the 

viewers to many lesser known facets of Shivaji’s life and times. 

Beware! Pranksters on the loose 

Big CBS Love is all set to launch their crazy new show Benidorm Pranksters this month. 

Benidorm Pranksters is a hilarious hidden camera show starring seven senior citizens 

who roam around the streets with the sole motive to pull some fast ones on the young 

crowd. If you are game for the wacky and the bizzare, this is your show. 

Tap your feet with Imran and Katrina 

It was one special evening for the participants of Zee TV’s Sa re ga ma pa Lil Champs when 

the stars of the much awaited film Mere Brother ki Dulhan, Katrina Kaif, Imran Khan and 

Ali Zafar visited the sets. It got only better when the three chose to take the stage. 

Sonakshi’s life served on a platter 

This time it is Sonakshi Sinha’s life on offer on UTV Star’s Live my Life. Sonakshi’s die-hard 

fan Priyanka, will get to live her life for one whole day, from eating her special breakfast 

to meeting her first director to choosing the jewellery for her next shoot, she does it all. 

The icing on the cake in a sumptuous meal and conversation with the star herself.

Pics: Yogen Shah 

Aamir Khan Imran Khan 

General VK Singh 

We spotted General VK Singh and 

Parikshit Sahani at a party that was 

held in honour of General VK Singh 

who is the senior most infantry 

officer of the Indian Army. 

Parikshit Sahani 

Actors Aamir Khan and Imran Khan 

were seen coming back after reading 

Eid namaz. Aamir wished his fans 

and hoped everyone would be 

savouring biryani and sevai. 

Salman Khan 

Sreyas Talpade with wife Deepti 

Suhana Khan Shah Rukh Khan 

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan celebrated 

Eid-ul-Fitr lavishly at his Bandra 

residence Mannat. We caught a 

glimpse of his daughter Suhana and 

the superstar himself after Eid namaz. 

We met Salman Khan at the airport, completely guarded by his bodyguards. 

Looks like even the Bodyguard needs protection! 

Actor Sreyas Talpade and his wife Deepti posed for photographs as they returned 

home with their idol of Ganesha on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi. 

MUMBAI WRAP 7 

Vinay Pathak and Sadia Siddiqui 


Rajat Kapoor and Vinay Pathak 

team up together in Praveen 

Kumar's comedy Jo Dooba So Paar: 

It's Love In Bihaar. We snapped the 

two along with Sadia Siddiqui 

while shooting on the sets of the 

film. 

Rajat Kapoor

8 BUZZING NOW 


From simpleton to sexy 

siren, Vidya goes ooh la la! 

A still from The Dirty Picture 

The actress on playing Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture 

She is at her boldest ever in The Dirty Picture, 

but actress Vidya Balan says she never felt 

uncomfortable while shooting for the film as 

she was in the trusted hands of director Milan 

Luthria. “I have never enjoyed being a woman 

more than I did while shooting for The Dirty 

Picture. Earlier on, I wasn't uncomfortable 

doing bold scenes because I wasn’t in trusted 

hands,” said Vidya. The actress, reprises the 

role of the late southern siren Silk Smitha’s 

rise and fall as a glamourous star. On asking 

her about her rapport with Naseeruddin Shah 

the actress who has teamed up with the veteran 

actor earlier in Ishqiya says, “I have 

worked with Naseer before but this time it 

was easier. I was less nervous.” On asking her 

about her experience on working with 

Bollywood’s serial kisser Emraan, with whom 

she has locked lips in the film also, she says, “I 

was wondering how it would be with Emraan. 

It was fun.” 

So forget the bespectacled Radhika of the 

Hum Paanch series, the demure Lalita of 

Parineeta or even the rustic Krishna of Ishqiya. 

An evolved Vidya Balan will be seen painting 

The Dirty Picture red with her killer pout, sultry 

dance, deep cleavage and her bold stance, 

leaving you singing and sighing ‘Ooh la la!’ 

with Bappi Lahiri’s spicy rendition of ‘Tu Hai 

Meri Fantasy...’. 

Producer Ekta Kapoor says, “I would be surprised 

if I don't get unbelievable critical 

acclaim for Dirty Picture and a national award 

for my actress, Vidya Balan.” 

So now, the Munnis and the Sheilas of 

Bollywood can take a backseat because this 

sexy 33-year-old (even with her not so washboard 

abs) might just become every man's 

fantasy with her titillating moves, curvaceous 

frame, playfulness, and sensuous ways with 

Naseeruddin Shah, Tusshar Kapoor and 

Emraan Hashmi. 

With its in-the-face dialogues, the trailer 

itself might leave many gasping like when 

Vidya tells Tusshar, “Mujhe jo chahiye uska 

mazza raat ko hee aata hai.” 

It's been six years since Vidya made her 

Bollywood debut with Parineeta, but in the 

short period, the actress showed her fearless 

streak by doing roles that are as different as 

chalk and cheese like Krishna in Ishqiya and Dr 

Vidya in Paa. 

Her choice of unconventional scripts with 

experimental roles that challenge the actor in 

her has continued to set an example of what it 

takes to strike the right balance between commercial 

and parallel cinema. 

Her performance in Guru as a multiple sclerosis 

patient may have been short, but it didn't 

go unnoticed. Her films Salaam-e-Ishq, Heyy 

Babyy and Kismet Konnection may not have 

done much to boost her film career, but Vidya 

remained dauntless. 

She atunned the audience with her dancing 

skills in Bhool Bhulaiya’s Ami je tomar. For a 

brief period, her choice of dresses were the 

talk of the town. She was much criticised but 

Vidya kept to her work. She returned as the 

single mother in Paa and her high-voltage performance 

shut the wagging tongues. 

Then came No One Killed Jessica that saw her 

in a completely different avatar. Based on the 

real-life Jessica Lall murder case, the film saw 

her as a grieving sister who runs from pillar to 

post to get justice for her dead sister. 

After entertaining viewers with her plain 

Jane look, Vidya has now picked up a contrasting 

role in The Dirty Picture. She oozes oomph 

like never before and one wonders if the 

movie will be Vidya’s next stepping stone to 

her ever-rising success story. 

Directed by Milan Luthria, the film releases 

on December 2, Silk Smitha's birth anniversary. 

— IANS 

Weisz and Craig may try 

for a baby 

Actress Rachel Weisz, 

who tied the knot with 

‘James Bond’ actor Daniel 

Craig in a surprise low-key 

ceremony, says they may try 

for another baby in near 

future. The 41-year-old 

already has a five-year-old 

son with former partner 

Darren Aronofsky. “Oh, I 

wouldn’t make [a baby] just 

for the sake of giving my son 

a sibling. But ... You never 

know,” contactmusic.com 

quoted her as saying. The 

couple will be seen together 

in upcoming horror movie 

Dream House. — IANS 

The real Salman revealed 

What happens when 

two close friends 

from the industry sit down 

to chat about all the possible 

things under the roof? 

The two get chattier as 

Preity and Salman spoke 

their hearts out on Up Close 

and Personal with PZ. 

Salman got groovy on the 

episode and even posed for 

a make believe film poster 

titled Pyaar Mein Band 

Bajega Halu Halu where 

Salman was dressed a 

‘band baaja walah’ and she 

was dressed as a ‘Dulhan.’ 

Shraddha Kapoor loves 

adventure 

When you think of 

Bollywood babes going 

on holiday, you imagine them 

sitting by the pool, sun bathing 

and just having a luxurious 

time. But hottie, Shraddha 

Kapoor, who gained fame with 

Luv ka the End and Teen Patti, is 

an adventurous type. We 

recently heard that 

Shraddha went off to 

Maldives for some scuba 

diving. The question 

does Shraddha have 

what it takes to take 

up adventure sports? 

“I feel like I was transported 

out of earth, 

seen crustaceans, fish, 

coral with colors and 

forms like I could 

never have imagined. 

It was an overwhelming 

sight, 

very hard to swallow 

and fully 

understand. 

Hmmm... we are 

sure there are 

more good things 

to be seen of you 

Shraddha.

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