March 22, 2016

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IN BRIEF 

Students forced to 

sit on floor and take 

board exams in AP 

Hyderabad: Students in a government 

school in Chittoor district 

of Andhra Pradesh were forced to sit 

on the floor and take their board examination. 

There were no benches, 

desk, fans or drinking water at some 

centres despite Rs 15,000 crore being 

allocated for school education in 

the 2015-16 state budget. 

While Global Positioning Systems 

are being used by the authorities to 

keep a tab on examination centres 

and ensure no malpractices take 

place, the officials failed to provide 

basic amenities to students at several 

schools. 

There are many schools in rural 

areas of Andhra Pradesh where 

there are no desks, benches, fans and 

drinking water. In the 2016-17 Budget 

about Rs 17,000 crore has been 

allocated for school education and 

improvement of infrastructure for 

the same. 

Intermediate board theory examinations 

started from March 2 in 

both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. 

Big B didn't charge 

fee for singing 

anthem, says CAB 

Kolkata : India’s cine megastar 

Amitabh Bachchan did not take any 

appearance fee for singing the national 

anthem in the India-Pakistan 

World Twenty 20 clash, confirmed 

a senior official of the Cricket Association 

of Bengal (CAB) on Sunday. 

India beat Pakistan by six wickets 

at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday 

night. A report in the social media 

claimed that the megastar had 

taken Rs.4 crore to sing the national 

anthem and be present for the gala 

pre-match ceremony where former 

cricketers were felicitated. 

Many fans reacted to the report 

with some questioning his patriotism. 

FORECAST 

Max 39 0 

Min 13 0 

Wind 16 (kmph) 

BOTTOM LINE 

M.Humidity 24 (%) 

MUMBAI 

21 March 2016 

Mumbai’s Deonar 

dumping ground was 

once again engulfed with 

fire on Saturday evening 

which intensified on Sunday 

and spread to around 

two-three kilometres. The 

situation is no better even 

now and the area can be 

seen under a thick layer 

of smog. 

The locals are facing 

a tough time and are 

cribbing the fact that the 

INDIAN COAST GUARD RESCUES 

BOAT OFF OKHA COAST 

New Delhi 


When the Congress managed 

to come to power in Uttarakhand 

in 2012, everybody was hoping 

that strongman of the party in the 

hill state, Harish Rawat, would be 

made the chief minister. The party 

high command in New Delhi 

shocked all of them by appointing 

a lightweight MP Vijay Bahuguna 

to the post of chief minister ignoring 

Rawat’s ‘legitimate’ claims. 

An angry Rawat refused to come 

out of his house in New Delhi for 

weeks. Finally, he was persuaded 

Third day and fire still raging 

Deonar fire envelops 

Mumbai with thick smog 

dumping ground being 

close to their residences 

makes them vulnerable to 

hazardous substances and 

diseases. 

Another local narrated 

his trouble telling how 

they are suffering breathing 

problem and that they 

Continued Pg-7... 

Volume-1, Issue-359 I Tuesday, 22 March, 2016 

Yechury denies VIP treatment at Airport 

New Delhi 


CPM leader Sitaram Yechury 

on Monday denied any 

special treatment by Air India 

officials when he boarded AI 

701, which left Kolkata airport 

after a delay of 14 hours. 

Asserting that no hospitality 

Press Release 

Press Conference 

Advertising 

Brand Building 

Media Relations 

Content 

THE 

to drop the claim and was elevated 

to the post of Union Water Resources 

minister. 

OF PROOF 

Congress MLAs stage walk 

out during budget session 

Patna 

gress MLAs and the toppling 


of a fovernment headed by 

Naharlagun : The sixday 

budget session of the 

Tuki. 

former chief minister Nabam 

Arunachal Pradesh Legislative 

Assembly began today, 

the Congress Party, state Par- 

Objecting to the walkout by 

but witnessed a walkout by 

liamentary Affairs Minister 

eight Congress legislators, including 

former ministers Tan- 

Kalikho Pul-led government 

Wanglin Lowangdong said the 

ga Bylaing and Tapang Taloh, 

is legal and constitutionally 

Nyamar Karbak, Techi Kaso, 

enjoys an absolute majority. 

Dikto Yekar, Karya Bagang, 

Speaker Wangki Lowang 

Mama Natung, Nikh Kamin. 

led members in paying rich 

Byaling, however, took part session illegal, as the Congress 

Party does not recognise The state has been witness ma for his invaluable services 

Court. 

tributes to former P.A. Sang- 

in the obituary reference for 

former Lok Sabha speaker it in the wake of it being sub to political upheaval that saw to the nation as Meghalaya 

P.A. Sangma, but termed the judice before the Supreme a clear division of 45 Con- 


'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' has no 

religious connotation: Naidu 

New Delhi 


he slogan is a way to salute the 

nation” 

New Delhi: Amid the brewing 

controversy over ‘Bharat Mata Ki 

Jai’ slogan, Union Parliamentary 

Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah 

Naidu on Monday asserted the slogan 

has no religious connotation 

and added that it was just a way to 

salute the motherland. 

“I wonder why this debate is 

going about ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. 

It is a commitment to the nation. 

When you say Bharat Mata Ki Jai, 

you are saying Jai to the nation. 

we are saluting our motherland,” 

Naidu said. 

“Bharat Mata Ki Jai has no religious 

connotation. It is salutation 

to the people. I want to make it 

very clear it is not simply saying 

the slogan. When you say ‘Jai Ho 

Bharat’ then people living in India 

should all be encouraged, they 

should all be given the needed support 

and their interests have to be 

taken care. By saying ‘Bharat 


Crisis Management 

New Delhi 


Prime Minister Narendra 

Modi, while laying 

down the foundation stone 

of Dr Ambedkar Memorial, 

praised Ambedkar and 

said that he was honoured 

to get the opportunity 

to share his thoughts on 

Ambedkar. 

Modi, in his speech, 

mentioned that he is the 

first PM ever to speak at 

the Ambedkar Memorial 

function. Expressing anguish 

over the recognition 

of such a great leader 

after 60 years of his 

Uttarakhand crisis: 

Congress's own making 

Social Media Management 

Price 3.00 I Pages 8 I SURAT I RNI NO : GUJENG/2015/63176 

death Modi said, “It took 

60 years for building a 

memorial of such a great 

leader as Ambedkar, who 

departed earth in 1956.” 

ANDRE FLETCHER UNSURE OF 

PLACE IN WEST INDIES SIDE DESPITE 

UNBEATEN 84 AGAINST SRI LANKA 

Ambedkar bigger than 

just a Dalit messiah: PM 

Mishandling of the devastating 

floods in Uttarakhand in 

2013 forced the high command 

to remove Bahuguna and appoint 

Rawat as the chief minister. Bahuguna 

reluctantly quit his post after 

some drama. 

What is now happening in Uttarakhand 

is Congress’s own making. 

It is now paying the price for 

making a political nobody Vijay 

Bahuguna a somebody in Uttarakhand 

politics completely overlooking 

Harish Rawat. An ungrateful 

Bahuguna has now joined 


Man tries to self immolate 

near CM house in TN 

Chennai 


A person attempted suicide near 

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s 

residence in Chennai on 

Monday. The person identified as 

Mohan belongs to Trichy and is an 

AIADMK worker. 

He tried to self immolate but was 

stopped by the police and taken 

away. The reason for his attempted 

suicide is not yet known but he had 

some financial dealings with another 

AIADMK worker. 

Tamil Nadu is in the midst of 

election campaign to elect a new 

was provided by Air India, the 

leader said that the airline has 

not understood how to work 

with the new Dreamliner fleet 

of planes. 

Speaking to reporters about 

what actually transpired on 

Monday morning on the delayed 

Air India flight, Yechury 


Fadnavis sends legal notice to 

Digvijaya for his ‘nepotism’ comment 

Mumbai 


Maharashtra Chief 

Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s 

lawyer Ganesh 

Sovani on Sunday sent a 

legal notice to Congress 

leader Digvijaya Singh 

for alleged ‘defamatory’ 

tweets. This came a day 

after Digvijaya Singh accused 

Fadnavis of ‘nepotism.’ 

Slum Rehabilitation 

Authority (SRA) in Mumbai, 

headed by Fadnavis, 

had asked its people to 

open accounts in Worli 

branch of Axis Bank for 

Calling Ambedkar bigger 

than being just the 

Messiah of Dalits, Modi 

called him a global leader 

and an inspiration of all 

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rent payment to eligible 

slum dwellers. Hitting 

at the same, Digvijaya 

Singh posted in a series 

of tweets that such an 

instruction was passed 

because Mrs Fadnavis is 

the vice-president of Axis 

Bank and termed it as 

“heights of nepotism.” 


who set up an example 

by working towards the 

upliftment of the downtrodden. 

He worked not 

only for the upliftment of 

Dalits, but anyone who 

was backward, including 

the women of Tata Birla 

families. 

In fact, when issue of 

equal rights to women 

came up, Baba Saheb was 

clear that if women don’t 

get equal rights he would 

not be a part of the ministry. 

Comparing Ambedkar 

with Martin Luther King, 


Assembly. The voting for the 

234-member Assembly will be on 

May 16 and results will be declared 

three days later. Although 234 

MLAs are elected in Tamil Nadu 

but there is a seat for the the Anglo-Indian 

community taking the 

total numbers of members to 235. 

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Tuesday, 22 March, 2016 

Gujarat short of more than 

13,000 primary teachers 

Indian Coast Guard Rescues Five Fishermen 

from Sinking Boat off Okha Coast 

Gujarat Based Captain 

of Hijacked Ship 

Rescued on 40th Day 

Ahmedabad 


A Gujarat based youth of 

Mumbai has been released on 

the 40th day after he was 

taken hostage for ransom off 

African coast following hijack 

of a vessel ‘Maximus’ at 

coast of Abidjan Ivory 

Coast. Rohan Ruparelia was 

taken hostage after his ship, 

with 10 other Indians on 

board, was seized by pirates 

off the Ivory Coast on 11 February. 

While 10 Indian crew 

members were rescued by the 

Nigerian Navy from the vessel 

Maximus on 19 February, 

Rohan was taken hostage by 

the pirates. It’s the third time 

in last five years that the ship 

has been hijacked in the Gulf 

of Guinea area. With this all 

Indian crew captured by pirates 

on MT Maximus have 

been released and they are 

on their way to India. The 

last hostage was Rohan 

Ruparalia. External Affairs 

Minister Smt Sushma Swaraj 

on twitter said: Merchant 

ship ‘Maximus’ with 11 Indian 

sailors was hijacked by 

pirates. On our request the 

ship was followed by Ghana 

and Nigerian Navy. We were 

able to rescue 10 Indian sailors 

with the help of Nigerian 

Navy. However, the Captain 

was taken away by the pirates. 

I am happy to inform 

the rescue of the 11th sailor 

Captain Rohan Ruparelia. 

Zankhana, Rohan’s sister 

thanked Sushma Swaraj 

and Ministry of External Affairs 

for their support. 

Sudoku 

The classic sudoku game Involves a grid of 81 

squares the grid is divided into nine blocks, each 

containing nine squares. The rules of the game are 

simple: each of the nine blocks has to contain 

all the numbers 1-9 within its squars Each number 

can only appear once in a row, column or box. 

Okha 


The Indian Coast Guard saved all the five 

fishermen from a fishing boat which sank off 

the Okha coast in Jamnagar district, Gujarat 

last night. 

The Wing Commander Abhisek Matiman 

said that during patrolling, Indian Coast Guard 

Ship Arinjay received a distress call from the 

Indian fishing boat Madhav Krushna, about 

110 kms off Okha, regarding heavy flooding 

due to ingress of sea water. 

The ICG ship immediately responded and 

move towards the distressed boat. On reaching, 

the fishing boat was taken alongside the 

ICG ship and all the five crew members of distressed 

boat were safely rescued aboard. 

ICG ship made all efforts to deflood the 

sea waters from the fishing boat, however, due 

to excess ingress and existing rough sea conditions, 

the fishing boat sank despite all efforts. 

The rescued fishermen were brought to 

Okha. The sank fish boat was registered at 

Porbandar. 

In the last one year, 49 people, including 

these five, have been rescued by the Indian 

Cost Guard in different operations off the 

Gujarat coast. 

Kalol Bandh 

Against ‘Love 

Jihad’ Passes 

Peacefully 

Ahmedabad 


A bandh in Kalol town 

near Ahmedabad was called 

by a right-wing outfit, 

passed off peacefully. A 

bandh was called following 

a clash between two groups 

over ‘love jihad’ last week. 

Kalol town Police Inspector 

V D Vala said that “We had 

set up police checkposts at 

strategic points and also 

increased patrolling across 

the town to ensure that no 

untoward incident takes 

place. The bandh passed 

peacefully.” The Bandh was 

called by ‘Hindu Hitrakshak 

Samiti’ in protest against the 

matter that they termed were 

efforts by youths of other 

community to commit ‘love 

jihad’. As per police, a girl 

had complained to her 

friends that she was being 

harassed, following which 

her friends beat up a youth 

from a group. In retaliation, 

the people of other group 

attacked them on the 

campus of Vakhariya 

College last Thursday. Both 

the groups had filed FIRs 

against each other under 

section 307 (attempt to 

murder) of IPC, Vala said. 

Nobody has been arrested 

in this connection he told. 

Ahmedabad 


Ahmedabad, Mar 21 () Amid 

frequent allegations by Congress 

about deteriorating quality 

of education in Gujarat due 

to lack of teachers, the state 

government has admitted a 

shortfall of more than 13,000 

teachers in the state-run primary 

schools. 

As per the data tabled by 

the government in the Gujarat 

Assembly recently, a total of 

1,67,461 primary school teachers 

are working against the total 

sanctioned strength of 

1,80,601 teachers across the 

ACROSS 

1 to care for 

3. __ take care of another's children 

7. no 

8. you can hear with __ 

9. real dark brown 

10. conservative 

11. "we're in __ the belly of the beast" -Stephen 

Colbert 

13. bribes 

15. forward 

17. A wind instrument 

19. start of the alphabet 

20. perfect 

22. __ cat 

23. advertisements (abbr.) 

24. adages 

25. among 

DOWN 

well __ (erudite) .1 

tape, __, DVD .2 

subject of the movie "Word Play" .3 

disgusting .4 

beg to do something .5 

to burn .6 

plural of "nosh" .7 

ACROSS 

state. These figures indicate 

13,140 posts of primary teachers 

are still lying vacant in the 

state. The district-wise data has 

revealed that remote districts 

of Kutch and Banaskantha followed 

by tribal districts of 

Panchmahal and Dahod are the 

worst hit in terms of vacant 

posts of primary teachers. 

In Kutch, 2,724 posts are 

lying vacant while 1,741 posts 

are not filled up in 

Banaskantha. These districts 

were followed by Panchmahal, 

where 935 posts are vacant, 

and Dahod, where 912 teachers 

are not recruited yet. 

As per another set of data 

tabled in the Assembly by the 

BJP-led state government, 

there is a shortfall of more than 

2,400 teachers of mathematics 

and science subjects in upper 

primary schools (6 to 8 standard). 

The data suggested that 

the government is yet to recruit 

2,413 teachers who can teach 

maths and science subjects in 

government-run upper primary 

schools across the state. 

Banaskantha once again 

topped the charts with a shortfall 

of 404 teachers for the 

above subjects, followed by 

Gunmen had practice yard 

near Motera ashram: Cops 

Ahmedabad 


The crime branch team 

probing the murderous assaults 

on Lala Thakore and 

Raju Chandak, has come to 

learn that gunmen Kartik 

Haldar and Sanjay alias Sanju 

had used an isolated place 

near Asaram's ashram in 

Motera as a shooting range to 

check their skills and weapons. 

Soon after, they began to 

attack witnesses against 

Asaram and his son. Investigators 

said that in 2009, when 

the attacks on Chandak and 

Thakore were carried out, 

Asaram was not in jail, and 

hence they will verify whether 

cording to crime branch 

sources, Sanju, a resident of 

Malegaon in Maharashtra, 

bought a pistol in 2009 for the 

same purpose. "Both then 

went to an isolated place near 

the Asaram ashram in Motera 

and fired a few shots to check 

out their skills with the weapons," 

said a crime branch 

source. 

Police said Raju Chandak 

a former Asaram follower had 

spoken out against the alleged 

black magic rituals in the 

ashram, after the dead bodies 

of two kids Dipesh and 

Abhishek were recovered 

from the riverbed near the 

ashram in 2008. In December 

was driving the bike while 

Haldar had fired shots at 

Chandak. The next in line was 

Lala Thakore, who had a land 

dispute with Asaram Ashram. 

Sanju shot Thakore, while two 

others, including Haldar 

waited at the spot on a 

scooter," said a crime branch 

official. Meanwhile, after 

Haldar was produced in the 

court on completion of his 

police remand in firing on 

Lala Thakore, he was arrested 

again by SOG for the 

alleged attack on Raju 

Chandak. Gujarat police 

sources said they are hunting 

for two other Asaram followers 

who used to stay in 

he had instructed the killer 2009, Sanju and Haldar purchased 

Asaram's ashram in 

squad in person. Haldar, arrested 

recently by Gujarat police 

a used bike from the 

Walled City area and con- 

Ahmedabad, for their alleged 

involvement in the killing of 

from Raipur in ducted recce on Chandak, who key witness Amrut Prajapati 

Chhattisgarh, has allegedly 

confessed that K D Patel, another 

staunch follower of 

Asaram, had provided Rs1 

lakh to purchase weapons, 

said a senior police official. Acwas 

on top of their hit list. 

"The duo intercepted Chandak 

near Ranip and fired three 

shots at him. Fortunately 

Chandak escaped unhurt," 

added a police source. "Sanju 

at Rajkot in June 2014. 

"Haldar had fired the shots 

at Prajapati while two others 

waited outside Prajapati's 

clinic with bikes," added a 

crime branch official. 

World's largest wooden 

charkha nears completion 

Ahmedabad 


The world's largest 

wooden charkha is being 

given finishing touches 

within the premises of the 

Khadi Gramudyog Prayog 

Samiti campus near 

Sabarmati Ashram. This 

charkha, which weighs over 

four tonnes will be installed 

by the Khadi and Village 

Industries Commission 

(KVIC) at Delhi's international 

airport terminal 3 

departure - between gates 4 

and 5. The charkha is 9 

metres (27 ft) in length and 5 

metres (15 ft) high and 2.5 

meters in width. It is fully 

functional and has industry 

standard ball bearings that 

makes the spin wheel rotate 

even in mild breeze. The 

'charkha' symbolised India's 

self-reliance during Independence 

struggle, and 

continues to enjoy its 

relevance as a symbol. 

"We are giving finishing 

touches to the charkha and 

it will take a fortnight, before 

we install it at the airport. 

We are targeting the second 

week of April," said KVIC 

chairman V K Saxena. 

Sources claim that a 

special rope is being 

prepared to complete the 

charkha. Nearly 20 artisians 

of the Prayog Samiti were 

involved in the assembly of 

the charkha. "The Prayog 

Samiti artisans had taken 

close to 45 day to assemble 

the main structure. The 

project has been completed 

within time," says Saxena. 

what a cowboy uses .12 

stress .14 

FBI __ .15 

withered .16 

I Saw Three __ .17 

a steel tower (frequently used in races) .18 

what a musician makes .19 

a car runs on __ .21 

Panchmahal (382), Ahmedabad 

(230) and Dahod (203). 

The issue of vacant posts 

of primary teachers has been 

raised several times by Congress 

in and outside the Assembly, 

as the Opposition alleged 

that the government was 

not doing enough in this regard. 

While replying to a query 

in the House recently, Minister 

of State for Education, 

Nanu Vanani assured that 

though the government was 

facing difficulties in finding 

suitable candidates, these 

posts will be filled up at the 

earliest. 

Ex-CRPF man 

kills wife, 

two kids in 

Gujarat village 

Rajkot 


A retired personnel 

from Central Reserve Police 

Force (CRPF) shot dead his 

wife and two children on 

late Sunday night and then 

attempted suicide in 

Hirasar village in Chotila 

taluka of Surendranagar 

district. According to primary 

details, accused 

Bhupat Nakiya, 42, first 

shot dead his wife Daya 

Nakiya (36), daughter 

Simaran (16) and 10-yearold 

son Nitin when they 

were asleep. After killing 

three persons, he attempted 

suicide by using 

axe and was rushed to 

hospital. Chotila Police 

booked Bhupat Nakiya 

under various sections of 

Indian Penal Code including 

murder and launched 

probe. Initial probe suggests 

that Bhupat also 

wanted to commit suicide 

as he first fired from his licensed 

weapon on his 

hand and he used axe to 

hit his head. Bhupat 

Nakiya has been admitted 

into civil hospital in Rajkot 

and police is questioning 

him. "Primary details suggest 

that Bhupat took the 

extreme step due to domestic 

fight with his wife," 

said a police official. 

Accused of 

raping her, man 

marries 

woman on day 

jail term ended 

Ahmedabad 


Yusuf (name changed) 

spent two and a half years in 

jail after he was accused of 

raping a woman by her family. 

Lack of evidence eventually 

ensured he was released 

and holding no grudge, he 

married the same woman on 

the very same day. The woman's 

family even hosted a 

grand party. 

Hailing from Bihar, Yusuf 

came to Ahmedabad and 

found work in a factory 

owned by Rehanbhai (name 

changed). It is reported that 

it is here that Yusuf fell in love 

with Rehanbhai's daughter 

and had a physical relationship 

with her. Yusuf was 

asked by Rehanbhai to marry 

his daughter after he sought 

permission from his family in 

Bihar - a condition that made 

Yusuf flee to Mumbai. He was 

arrested in August of 2013 

after Rehanbhai accused him 

of raping his daughter. 

Yusuf's advocate - MA 

Sangram - said that Yusuf's 

parents had agreed to the 

marraige and he was eventually 

released by the POSCO 

court due to lack of evidence. 

It is reported that the woman 

- a minor - also agreed to the 

marriage and despite her age, 

she was eligible to marry as 

per Sharia law.

SOUTH GUJARAT 

Two remote villages go digital 

in Navsari district 

Navsari 


Two remote villages, Sultanpur 

and Pananj villages in Navsari 

district have gone digital in due 

to the efforts of the youths of the 

villages. Chirag Lad, youth from 

Panji village who prepared village 

website has studied information 

technology in agriculture. All 

the information about the crops 

in the village will be available on 

the net, reducing the distance between 

farmers and the experts. 

Farmers will be able to sell 

their produce online and those 

living abroad will be able to get 

the updates online. Villagers will 

be able to get the information 

Bardoli post-master 

commits suicide 

Bardoli 


A young post-master 

from Sarbhon village 

and residing at Bardoli 

committed suicide at 

Akoti village by hanging 

from a tree with a 

nylon rope. The reason 

for the suicide is believed 

to be persistent 

waist pain for a period 

of three years from 

IN BRIEF 

about the government schemes. 

Villagers will be able to get the 

information about the diseases in 

the crops. The villagers will be 

able to connect directly with the 

elected representatives of their 

now. 

Deceased Dharamsinh 

Parmar (26) went 

out of home on Saturday 

and was found 

hanging from a neem 

tree at a height of 20 

feet by a passers-by in 

the morning on Sunday. 

The deceased as sent 

for the post-mortem by 

the and a case was registered 

by the police. 

Bus rams acid tanker, 

spillage affects five 

Kim 


A Volvo bus rammed 

an acid tanker at the 

back near Nandav Patiya 

on national high way 

resulting in the spillage 

that affected the commuters 

nearby on Sunday 

morning. Volvo bus 

got auto-locked and the 

passengers were fished 

out of the bus by breaking 

the glass of the bus 

in which five passengers 

were injured. Injured 

were shifted to hospital 

by 108 ambulance. 

The Volvo bus was 

destined to Puna and 

started it’s journey 

from Ahmedabad and 

rammed the tanker 

with a bang. The tanker 

was headed to Hazira. 

Water from a tanker 

was used to lessen the 

effect of the acid on 

the road which created 

burning in the eyes. 

Kim 


A waste godown om 

Kim-Kudsad road was 

gutted in fire even as 

the fire fighters reached 

the spot three hours after 

the fire started in the 

morning on Sunday. 

The waste storage was 

in big quantity due to 

March ending which affects 

the sale reversely. 

The short-circuit as a reason 

for fire was ruled out 

as the main supply was 

switched off. The owner 

hailing form Uttar Pradesh 

state who reportedly sold 

his land in his native to 

start the trading sensed 

miscreants behind the fire. 

3 


constituency in the state and the 

centre to solve the problems of 

the villages. Chirag Lad wants 

Vapi : Fire broke out at Saravaiya chemical in Vapi GIDC sending 

his village to be joined with the 

the alarm around on Sunday. Fire team from Vapi town and GIDC rushed 

wi-fi to bring it nearer to include 

to douse it after one and a half hour of effort. The fire broke out in the 

it in the world. 

early afternoon damaging the goods and the building. No casualties were 

Repair shop gutted in fire Farm 

reported and 

labourer 

total damage 

electrocuted 

could not be ascertained. 

on the farm 

Bharuch 


A small shop doubling 

as welding and puncture 

work for automobile 

tyres was gutted in 

fire on Netrang Valia 

road on Saturday night. 

The fire is believed to 

have started in the midnight. 

Localites tried to 

douse the fire but in vain. 

Fire fighters from Zhaghadiya 

worked for about 

an hour to douse the fire. 

Short circuit causes fire in Vapi 

Vapi 


Fire started at 

a godown due to 

short-circuit in power 

generator in the morning 

scaring the localites 

in on Monday morning. 

Traders of nearby 

shops in te shopping 

centre tried to douse 

the fire but in vain. also caught fire but fire-brigade brought the 

Hay stock nearby the timely work by the situation out of danger. 

Three bootleggers held, 

one declared wanted 

Vapi 


Mass marriage of 

1121 couples of Adiwasis 

will be held on 

2 April at Tutarkhed 

near Dharampur by 

the joint efforts of 

Lion’s club of Vapi 

and international human 

rights observers. 

. An estimated 38 

Waste 

godown 

gutted in fire 

Navsari 


Three women bootleggers 

were held and 

one more person was 

declared wanted as liquor 

stock worth Rs. 

49 thousand was confiscated 

at Borsi village 

near Jalalpore in Navsari 

district on Sunday. 

Jashoda Patel, Jyoti 

Tandel and Rekha 

Tandel, all living at 

Borsi village were arrested 

and Amtho 

Tandel was declared 

wanted in the case. 

Mass tribal marriage to 

be held by a Vapi trust 

thousand people will 

attend the ceremony. 

The marriage 

will be conducted 

with total expenditure 

of Rs. 1.75 crore. 

President of Lion’s 

club of Vapi stated,’ 

Donation by the guests 

will not be accepted. 

The mass marriage are 

held to ensure that tribal 

people do not have 

to spend big sums for 

the marriages. Earlier 

101,51 couples 

were married in mass 

marriage ceremony.” 

A bicycle, cupboard, 

coat, mattresses, 

wall clock, utensils 

and clothes will 

be among the things 

gifted to the couples. 

Man ran over by 

tanker, killed 

Bharuch touched the fencing of was seen lying on the 

21 March 2016 the farm at Sarai village fence by other labourers. 

A farm labourer who near Navsari. Deceased Police rushed to the spot 

went to water the sugar-cane 

farm in the a labourer on the farm of the deceased, Arvind 

Soma Halpati worked as of the accident as the son 

morning was electrocuted 

when his hand A live electrical wire plaint in this connection. 

owned by Kishor Patel. Halpati lodged a com- 

Yarn stock gutted at 

Mota Borsara storage 

Mangrol 


Yarn stock worth several 

lakh rupees was gutted 

when a major fire broke 

out in a godown at Mota 

Borasara near Mangrol in 

Surat district on Sunday. 

The fire started at 

around 1 am at Uma 

fabrics due to an electrical 

short-circuit. The 

fire and the fumes could 

be seen at a distance (SMC) rushed a team of 

of a few km from the one firefighter and two 

godown. However, no water tankers to Mota 

casualty was reported. 

Fire brigade of Surat 

Municipal Corporation 

Valsad 


Two women suffered 

injuries when a bus they 

were travelling in with 

52 other passengers 

slipped into a dry riverbed 

and overturned in 

Valsad on Dharampur 

road on Saturday. Mamta 

Shah of Vadodara and 

Kamla Manjwani of 

Gandhinagar were shifted 

to a hospital for treatment 

of their injuries. 

“Two persons suffered 

injuries in the accident. 

One of them has been discharged 

from the hospital. 

The bus driver has been 

booked for rash driving,” 

police said. The bus GJ- 

01-DD-6464 of Ahmedabad-based 

Gujarat Transport 

was returning from 

Nashik to Ahmedabad 

when it slipped into Vanki 

river at around 1.15am. 

The bus did not fall directly 

into the river but had 

Liquor worth Rs. 

23.28 lakh confiscated 

Borasra, which is on 

the outskirts of the city. 

“The fire had destroyed 

the stock of 

yarn in the godown by 

the time we reached 

there. It took us an hour 

to douse the fire,” a fire 

brigade official stated. 

2 injured as bus goes 

wayward in Valsad 

slipped into the riverbed 

at the start of the bridge, 

investigation revealed. 

Cops booked driver 

Shreeram Sonar for rash 

driving. He told police 

he lost control over the 

steering whee. Hence, he 

couldn’t stop the bus from 

slipping into riverbed. 

Mamta Shah and Kamla 

Manjwani didn’t suffer 

major injuries, police said, 

adding other passengers 

escaped with bruises. 

Worms found in midday 

school in Dolvan 

Jewellers in Bharuch to oppose the excise duty hike by the central government in 

the last budget recently. 

Navsari 


A tempo driver repairing 

the punctured 

tyre was killed after he 

was ran over by a tanker 

on Sunday. One more 

youth injured in the accident 

was admitted to 

Navsari Civil Hospital 

for the treatment. 

Deceased Manish Patel 

(30) and Jitu Nayaka 

were headed to Sardar 

market in Surat. Their 

vehicle got punctured at 

Ranodara village on 

national high way in the 

morning. While Manish 

died on the spot, Jitu 

Nayaka was admitted to 

hospital for the treatment. 

Ramesh Patel, uncle of 

the deceased lodged a police 

complaint at Navsari 

rural police station. 

Kamrej 

37444 liquor bottles 


worth more than 

A truck with liquor Rs. 23.28 and truck 

worth Rs. 23.28 lakh worth Rs. 10 lakh 

was confiscated by the was confiscated by 

patrol cops at Choryasi the police. A police 

toll plaza as driver and complaint was registered 

cleaner of the truck fled 

and driver-clean- 

the spot leaving behind er duo was declared 

the truck on Sunday. wanted in the case. 

Miscreants on bike thrash two 

Bilimora 


Four miscreants 

on two motorbikes 

thrashed uncle-nephew 

duo very badly in the 

evening on Saturday. 

Jatin Patel and his 

uncle subhashbhai 

were beaten with sticks 

by the miscreants on 

bikes who were creating 

commotion on the 

street by shouting and 

blaring horns while 

driving their vehicles 

on the village streets. 

A complaint was 

lodged against Mayur 

Patel, Jigar Patel, Jay 

Patel and Maroli resident 

Anis Patel. 

Vyara 


Villagers in Dolvan village 

complained to the Mamlatdar 

on Saturday after worms were 

found in the mid-day meal 

the previous day. The primary 

school run by the district 

panchayat has 251 students. 

The principal of the school 

complained to the Mamlatdar 

V. S. Khant who checked the 

grains and sealed the stock.


Changing J-K youth 

Security forces including para-military contingents in Jammu and 

Kashmir besides Army at the international border and Line of Control 

(LoC) are doing yeoman’s job to thwart the ill-designs of Pakistan 

trained militants. The militant training camps in Pakistan occupied 

Kashmir (POK) being aided and encouraged by ISI since Independence 

have created havoc in the valley and succeeded in creating 

ill-will among some hardcore sections of people with sympathetic 

attitude towards Pakistan and anti-national elements. Such 

people have proved to be thorns in India’s body politic. The multidirectional 

groups like those launching Safar-i-Azadi for independent 

Kashmir, pro-Pakistani elements and the silent section sitting 

on the fence can slide to any convenient side that keeps them in 

peace and profit. The adverse effect of all such activities has left the 

state disrupted and under-developed. Without blaming any dispensation 

in the past, certain decisions and apathetic attitude towards 

the Jammu and Kashmir tangle, many problems have cropped 

up which have led to communal disturbances leading to Kashmiri 

Pandits’ exodus from the valley in the 90s. Such situations misled 

the youth who grew up in an atmosphere which made them biased 

against India. The militancy, under such circumstances, got entrenched 

in the Valley which succeeded in creating anti-national 

feelings among them against the country. Despite all these pressures, 

India has shown enough patience while dealing with the prevalent 

situation in that state. Security forces including the state police 

have exhibited enough maturity in handling the anger among youth 

of the state which have been incited by the inimical elements. Today, 

by and by, the youth in the Valley have started realising the 

real situation in relation to their future and prosperity of the state. 

Militancy, despite repeated efforts of the militant groups from across 

the border and LoC to create dissension in Jammu and Kashmir, is 

on the wane. A large number of youth from the state are getting 

recruited in Army, para-military forces besides being in the state 

police. CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad while reviewing the 

passing out parade of 514 cadets of 96 and 97 batch of the paramilitary 

force at Recruit Training Centre (RTC) at Humhama said, “There 

will be attempts to provoke the youth but we will continue to try to 

get them into mainstream.” Since its inception in 1990, the RTC has 

trained 22,179 recruits by imparting intensive training on subjects 

concerned besides conditioning them to operate in different internal 

security situations. He was very positive while reviewing the 

situation, ‘‘We will counter militants’ attempts to provoke Kashmiri 

youths.’’ “We are working hand-in-hand with J&K police and we 

will control this problem,” Prasad said. He promised strong action 

against those crossing the Line of Control (LoC) and trying to disturb 

the unity of the country. There may be any situation in the 

state but terrorism has to end in the state and the youth of the state 

will realise their worth as a part of the Union. 

Dharamshala fallout 

India won in Kolkata but 

Himachal Pradesh lost it at 

Dharamshala.The shifting of T20 

World Cup match between India 

and Pakistan, slated for March 19, 

from Dhauladhar Stadium of 

Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh 

to Kolkata, may not be a big incident 

for some people in power but 

it was a big loss to the state in terms 

of credibility for maintaining law 

and order and providing security 

to the visitors. The assumed phantoms 

of protests by ex-servicemen 

and other anti-Pakistan elements, 

as if they are as great in numbers 

as the militant-incited stone-pelting 

crowds of valley, are lame excuses. 

If no violence took place in 

Kolkata, it would not have taken 

place in Dharamshala also as the 

Chief Minister has always been 

claiming that Himachalis are peaceloving 

people. Even the families of 

martyred soldiers would have liked 

to see the Pakistani team vanquished 

in their home ground. 

The Home Minister of India had 

offered to send Central forces to 

help the state law and order machinery 

maintain security there but 

the Chief Minister had declined it. 

No doubt, it’s the Chief Minister’s 

prerogative to take decision on 

SCRIPSI 

such situation to see what is good 

for the state and what is not. But the 

youth of that state have their own 

ideas on this decision which will certainly 

get reflected during the fastapproaching 

state assembly elections. 

There is no problem if it is an administrative 

decision. There may be 

some loss to the tourism sector and 

denial of possibilities to further exposure 

of the scenic beauty of the 

Kangra valley. But people can’t be 

stopped from smelling the political 

rate. There is possibility that shifting 

of the venue of India- Pakistan match 

from Dharamshala to Kolkata may 

prove to be a disadvantage to this 

ground and the decision-makers, and 

the IPL matches, as there were reports 

also, may not be held there, it will be 

a big monetary loss to the tourism 

and non-use of infrastructure created 

for this purpose. Apart from the political 

rivalry, Anurag Thakur is the 

BCCI secretary besides being a Lok 

Sabha MP from Hamirpur, and despite 

different opinions and arguments, 

he has played a major role in 

bringing cricket to the state in a big 

way. In such a situation who is going 

to gain may be a question of conjecture, 

but the situation will have its 

fallout. 

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real 

tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. 

- PLATO 

India seems to be in the middle of a counter-reformation 

The burden of proof 

Citizenship is a birthright; patriotism is an 

acquired attribute. None of us bawled "Bharat 

Mata ki jai" or "Jai Hind" in our cribs but we 

were, unconditionally, citizens of this country 

before we were continent and well before we 

learnt to think or act or walk or speak. This 

shouldn't need saying but in the present political 

climate, underlining the bl***ing obvious 

becomes a duty. Citizenship, in the jargon of 

medical insurance companies, is a pre-existing 

condition. Our rights as citizens cannot, should 

not, be taken away from us unless we break our 

republic's laws. It follows from this that citizenship 

and its attendant promise of life and liberty, 

cannot be subject to litmus tests of patriotism 

devised by political parties, celebrity nationalists, 

bureaucrats and gau rakshaks. But increasingly 

they are. Just the past week produced four 

examples of the way in which this birthright is 

being challenged by people who would argue 

that being law-abiding is not enough; Indians 

have to demonstrate that they are good citizens. 

The implication in each case is that if we aren't 

able or willing to perform designated patriotic 

exercises (or distance ourselves from unpatriotic 

ones) our standing as citizens, our rights, our 

liberties can legitimately be taken away from us. 

Let's discuss these four challenges in ascending 

order of awfulness. Anupam Kher, a distinguished 

actor who has recently acquired a reputation 

as the roving scourge of the politically 

correct, visited the Jawaharlal Nehru University's 

campus earlier this week to challenge the 

legitimacy of the post-bail political narrative first 

set out by Kanhaiya Kumar in his celebrated 

speech. In the question and answer session that 

followed Kher's speech, someone argued, in defence 

of JNU's student community, that the slogans 

shouted on that fateful evening, celebrating 

the imminent disintegration of India and denouncing 

those who had a hand in executing 

Afzal Guru, had been raised by outsiders. Kher's 

response was revealing. Did you, he asked, referring 

to JNU students in general, tear down the 

posters that celebrated Afzal Guru? No, you 

didn't. They remained stuck to the walls of university 

buildings for days. It was for Kher, a 

'gotcha' moment and it tells you everything that 

is important about the sarkari narrative on JNU. 

To be physically proximate to unpatriotic utterance 

calls your Indian bona fides into question. 

So the fact that JNU's students let those posters 

stay on JNU's walls was culpable in itself. For 

Kher, the university's students had been found 

wanting in Indianness. Instead of scraping the 

posters off the buildings as any passionate patriot 

would have done, they had lived with them. 

This inertness, was a kind of complicity. Citizens 

have to prove themselves. Citizenship, in Kher's 

view of the world, isn't a birthright; it's a kind of 

probation and you only truly belong when you 

learn to perform your patriotism. But Kher, despite 

his proximity to the ruling dispensation, is a 

private citizen. His opinions don't formally represent 

the view of the State. It's a much more serious 

business when the National Council for Promotion 

of Urdu Language circulates a form to writers 

in Urdu, asking them to certify that their books - 

novels, short stories, plays, poems, memoirs etc - 

contain nothing that is critical of the policies of the 

government or the interest of the nation. The 

NCPUL encourages literary production in Urdu by 

buying books in bulk, and according to the Indian 

Express, this new form is meant to put Urdu writers 

on notice "...that in case of a breach, the NCPUL 

can take legal action against the author and take 

back the monetary assistance". The NCPUL is a 

government organization and it answers to the 

ministry of human resource development. The decision 

to get Urdu writers to sign on to this form 

was taken last year. It is, on the face of it, extraordinary 

that the government of India should ask writers 

to guarantee that their books contain nothing 

that is against "the policies of the government" or 

"the interest of the nation" or that is likely to cause 

"disharmony of any sort between different classes 

of the country". It is bad enough that a government 

should ask writers to self-attest that their 

novels and poems and essays are utterly conformist 

and docile, but it is particularly worrying when 

writers in a particular language, Urdu, who happen 

to be overwhelmingly Muslim, are singled out to 

sign this humiliating undertaking. The NCPUL director's 

justification is breathtaking in its candour. 

"Since we do not have the manpower to scrutinise 

every single line of each book, this form helps us 

place the onus on the authors." The onus for 

what? Are Urdu writers, in the opinion of the 

NCPUL and the HRD ministry, in the habit of cobbling 

anti-national and communally inflammatory 

material into their work? Curiously, the equivalent 

policy of the National Council for Promotion 

of Sindhi Language contains no such stipulation. 

The lesson to take away from this seems to be 

that some citizens are allowed to take their patriotism 

for granted while the patriotism of others 

(in this case, writers in Urdu) needs formal selfattestation. 

This bullying enthusiasm for applying 

loyalty tests to law abiding citizens reached a 

new low when the Maharashtra assembly unanimously 

voted to suspend Waris Pathan, on the 

charge of disrespecting the country. Pathan's 

'crime' was refusing to say "Bharat Mata ki jai" 

when a Bharatiya Janata Party member of parliament 

insisted that he recite this slogan. The Nationalist 

Congress Party and the Congress joined 

the BJP in asking for Pathan's suspension and 

the Speaker caved in to their demand despite 

the fact that Pathan had done nothing to warrant 

suspension in terms of the assembly's own 

rules. Pathan's willingness to say "Jai Hind" as 

an alternative invocation of the nation was disregarded. 

Pathan was following the lead of his 

party leader, Asaduddin Owaisi, who had announced 

a few days earlier that nothing would 

make him say "Bharat Mata ki jai" It is one thing 

to criticize Owaisi's declaration as a form of political 

grandstanding (as Javed Akhtar did in 

Parliament); it is quite another to suspend a 

democratically elected member of the legislative 

assembly for refusing to jump through 

political hoops at the behest of hostile fellow 

legislators. In a country in which MLAs have 

been known to hold up proceedings, throw furniture 

about and even assault each other, to 

punish an MLA for not saying something, for 

refusing to mouth a slogan that he felt was contrary 

to his religious principles, is truly 

Kafkaesque. The rights of citizenship, the rules 

of representative government are being cynically 

bent to accommodate a bullying jingoism. 

My last example is a hideous tragedy. A man 

and a 12-year-old boy taking oxen to a cattle 

market were lynched in a village in Jharkhand 

and hung from a tree. They happen to be Muslim. 

The five men arrested in connection with 

these murders happen to be Hindus. One of 

the five happens to be connected to a cowprotection 

society. The superintendent of police 

in charge of the case thinks that, prima facie, 

this is a case of cattle looting gone wrong, but 

he is also investigating other possibilities including 

ideological motives related to gau 

raksha. On social media some right-wing commentators 

favour 'personal enmity' as the likelier 

explanation. They could be right but all of 

us should be deeply worried about the manner 

of this lynching. If this was a violent robbery 

that just happened to end in murder, why were 

the victims, one of them just a boy, left hanging 

on a tree? A hanging isn't just a murder, it is 

a kind of execution. When two Muslims in the 

cattle trade are lynched in this demonstrative 

way, it is reasonable to wonder if a message is 

intended. Jharkhand is a state ruled by the BJP. 

Unlike the lynching in Dadri, this one happened 

on its watch. This doesn't mean that Mohammad 

Majloom and Inayatullah Khan are exhibits A 

and B in some indictment of the BJP's Jharkhand 

government. We don't have to argue complicity 

to point out that Narendra Modi's regime, which 

Arun Shourie mocked as the UPA plus a cow, 

has consistently dog-whistled about cow protection. 

Local party workers, MLAs, MPs, ministers, 

chief ministers said vile and temporising 

things after the Dadri lynching. The BJP has 

consistently equivocated in the aftermath of gaurakshak 

violence; it should surprise no one if it 

turns out that Mohammad Majloom and 

Inayatullah Khan were lynched because their 

killers felt a sense of ideological impunity. 

Real progress or display ? 

Many people feel that Chandigarh life is better than Patiala life. Some of our friends 

have advised us to move to Chandigarh, or at least buy a small house or flat there. 

Sometimes I feel that we are creating more 

showpieces for display rather than having real 

development. I think real development takes 

into consideration priorities of the society and 

it tries to address needs of the majority of the 

population. On the other hand, showpieces 

serve the interests for small elite; those are 

mainly for showing off and really do not serve 

any other purpose for the majority of the 

population. For clarifying my point, I will give 

two examples; developing Chandigarh and 

opting for a bullet train. First, I want to clarify 

my feelings about Chandigarh. I really like to 

go to Chandigarh and I have to go to 

Chandigarh very frequently whenever I get a 

chance to visit Chandigarh. I have many 

friends there. Still, I always question myself if 

developing a city like Chandigarh shows that 

we are following a model of centralised development 

rather than decentralising the development? 

One sees so much construction going 

about Chandigarh (Mohali, Zirakpur, Kharar, 

Landran, Dera Bassi, and even up to Banur) 

that it looks more than the rest of Punjab 

combined. On the top of that we are developing 

a new city, New Chandigarh. Compared to 

Chandigarh, the other cities of Punjab like 

Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala are 

falling behind, particularly Amritsar. One may 

say that Ludhiana was just declared a smart city 

and Chandigarh was not. I feel that the main 

reason for this is that Ludhiana has still some 

accumulated capital left from the days when its 

industry was booming. Probably, Ludhiana still 

has more money than the other cities of Punjab. I 

also want to make it clear that I think that for all 

practical purposes, Chandigarh is still a part of 

Punjab even though it is different politically and 

administratively. Whenever I am in Chandigarh, I 

do not feel that I am not in Punjab. Amritsar used 

to be the biggest city of Punjab (after Lahore). In 

1947, Amritsar had the largest population in 

Punjab, followed by Jalandhar and Ludhiana. 

Now, Ludhiana is the largest city of Punjab. I am 

not sure if Jalandhar has more population than 

Amritsar now. Amritsar can be called the religious 

and the 

spiritual centre of Punjab. Even today, more 

tourists come to Amritsar than any other city in 

Punjab. Amritsar has been developed to provide 

some facilities to the tourists yet, overall, 

Amritsar seems to be lagging behind in development 

and its infrastructure is outdated. I feel very 

sad about this. Patiala is another important 

traditional city of Punjab. Patiala is often called 

the cultural hub of Punjab. However, compared to 

Chandigarh, Patiala seems to be also losing its 

old glory. I have vivid memories of Patiala when I 

was 5-7 years old. I felt Patiala was better than 

any other city in Punjab or even in India wherever 

I had a chance to go. One of my doctor friends, 

who just died and who was born in Patiala and 

lived all his life here, maintained a strong 

feeling that Patiala was the best city to live in 

the world. I can give you the example of how 

the people of Patiala used to feel about their 

city compared to Chandigarh. In 1956, PEPSU 

(Patiala and the East Punjab State Union) was 

merged with Punjab. The capitol shifted from 

Patiala to Punjab. Most of the employees 

whose offices were shifted to Chandigarh 

continued to live in Patiala and used to 

commute from Patiala to Chandigarh. Even in 

1971, when I went to the US, the majority of 

people of Patiala continued to have the feeling 

that their city was better than Chandigarh. 

However, everything has changed now. Many 

people feel that Chandigarh life is better than 

Patiala life. Some people have shifted from 

Patiala to Chandigarh. Some of our friends 

have advised us to move to Chandigarh, or at 

least buy a small house or flat (condominium) 

there. It is not just the big cities, but the quality 

of life has deteriorated even in the smaller 

cities. Last month, I went to Barnala to present 

a paper. The venue was in the heart of the city. 

This part of the city is very congested. On the 

top of that, the railway crossing was closed 

because a train was passing. It made the bad 

situation worse and showed the poor and 

outdated infrastructure of our cities. I felt that 

instead of developing Chandigarh and New 

Chandigarh, maybe we would have been better 

off by improving the existing cities of Punjab. 

Starting a bullet train is a similar issue of 

developing for the sake of prestige and 

showing off rather than meeting the needs of 

the society. We are going to have bullet train 

connecting Mumbai to Ahmedabad. The 

Japanese are going to help us in this project. I 

heard that the Chinese were also approached 

for this project. However, they advised us that 

we will be better off spending that money in 

upgrading the existing railway infrastructure in 

India. This can increase the average speed of 

our trains from about 100 km an hour to about 

200 km an hour; computerise all of our stations, 

signals and crossings; and make our trains 

safer and better. Instead of that, we chose to 

have literally one track where the bullet train 

train can run at the speed of 300 km per hour. 

THE NATIONAL DAWN Printed, Published and Owned by Vikramrao Sanas and Printed at Taptilok Publication, 152-153, Shree Ram Industrial Estate, Pandesara, Surat (Gujarat) and Published at – S : 30, Kanaknidhi 

Complex, Opp. Gandhi Smruti Bhavan, Nanpura, Surat – 395 001 (Gujarat) Editor – Vikramrao Sanas is responsible for the news published in PRB ACT.


Home loans, deposit rates set to decline from April 1 on revision 

Mumbai 


Banks are likely to announce revised 

interest rates, starting April 1, which will 

lower the amount one earns on deposits 

and make home and car loans cheaper. 

“There is a possibility that interest 

rates will be revised as the new loan pricing 

norms kicks in from April 1. In addition, 

the cut in small savings rate by government 

will bring down the bank deposit 

rate,” a chief executive of a large public 

sector lender told The Hindu, adding that 

he banks' asset liability committee 

(ALCO) will meet this week to review 

rates. A top official from another public 

sector bank said, lenders may wait till the 

monetary policy review, due on 5 April, 

to take a call on rates. The market expects 

the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut 

interest rate by at least 25 bps. A long 

standing demand by the banks has finally 

been met by the government which lowered 

the interest rate of small savings 

scheme last Friday. The interest reduction 

is various schemes was anywhere 

between 60 and 130 bps. 

Banks have been stating that due to 

Sensex pops above 25k mark, 

jumps 145 points on Asian leads 

Mumbai 


On similar lines, the 

NSE Nifty was trading 34 

points, or 0.44 per cent, 

higher at 7,638.35. The 

benchmark BSE Sensex regained 

the 25,000-mark by 

surging over 145 points in 

early session on Monday, 

mostly driven by widespread 

buying by investors 

as well as foreign 

funds amid firm Asian 

cues. The 30-share index 

surged 145.45 points, or 

0.58 per cent, to 25,098.19 

points with all sectoral indices 

led by consumer durables, 

FMCG, banking and 

realty, trading in the positive 

zone, rising by up to 

1.65 per cent. The gauge 

gained 275.37 points in the 

previous session on Friday 

as foreign funds continued 

to pump in money 

amid a firm global trend on 

the dovish stance of the US 

Federal Reserve. On similar 

lines, the NSE Nifty was 

trading 34 points, or 0.44 

per cent, higher at 

7,638.35. 

Brokers said continued 

buying by investors and 

inflows by foreign funds, 

coupled with a firm trend 

at other Asian markets, 

helped market mood improve. 

Among other Asian 

markets, Hong Kong’s 

Hang Seng was up by 0.26 

per cent in early trade on 

Monday while Japanese 

financial markets are 

closed for a public holiday. 

The Shanghai Composite 

index was quoting 1.96 per 

cent higher in initial hours. 

The US Dow Jones Industrial 

Average ended 

0.69 per cent higher in Friday’s 

trade. 

SEBI widens Mallya probe, 

finds prima-facie lapses 

competition from small savings scheme 

they were not able to reduce their deposit 

rate further. 

As a result, the cost of funds were 

not coming down and hence lending rates 

could not be lowered. “We welcome Government’s 

decision, as SBI has been arguing 

for long-time that the transmission 

of monetary policy easing has not happened 

due to high small savings rates,” 

said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economic 

Adviser, SBI. The Reserve Bank 

Rupee gains 

2 paise 

against dollar, 

equities help 

Mumbai 


Forex dealers said dollar’s 

weakness against 

other currencies overseas 

supported the rupee. The 

rupee rose 2 paise to 66.48 

against the dollar at the 

Interbank Foreign Exchange 

market in early trade 

on Monday, extending its 

winning spell for the fourth 

straight day, on increased 

selling of the U.S. currency 

by exporters and banks 

amid sustained foreign fund 

inflows. Forex dealers said 

dollar’s weakness against 

other currencies overseas 

supported the rupee. Besides, 

a higher opening in 

the domestic equity market 

influenced the rupee 

uptrend, they said. 

Clearly, as banks 

reduce deposit rates, 

the cost of funds is 

likely to come down 

Banks on 4-day 

holiday from Thursday 

New Delhi 


IDBI Bank may be 

closed for an extra day if the 

strike call given by a section 

of officers and employees 

of the bank on March 

28 (Monday) materialises. 

Customers won’t be able to 

conduct bank transactions 

at branches for 4 days in a 

row this week as all banks 

will be closed from Thursday, 

although the lenders 

assure that they will fully 

load ATMs for meeting 

people’s cash needs. 

Thursday will be a holiday 

for celebrating the Holi festival, 

followed by Good Friday 

and the weekend. 

Banks are closed on second 

and fourth Saturdays 

every month. Hence, 4 continuous 

offs for the bank 

employees. 

Banks are trying to ensure 

that ATMs remain operational 

during these days 

so that people don’t have 

any cash problem, a senior 

public sector bank official 

said. They are trying to put 

higher denomination notes 

in ATM machines to ensure 

meeting the cash demand, 

the official added. IDBI 

Bank may be closed for an 

extra day if the strike call 

given by a section of officers 

and employees of the 

bank on March 28 (Monday) 

materialises. The staffers, 

belonging to the All 

India Bank Employees Association 

(AIBEA) and All 

India Bank Officers Association 

(AIBOA), have 

given the strike call to protest 

against the government 

move to privatise 

IDBI Bank. The government 

owns around 80 per 

cent stake in the bank. In 

Budget 2016—17, Finance 

Minister Arun Jaitley had 

said the government was 

open to bringing down its 

stake in IDBI Bank to below 

50 per cent. 

of India has been prodding banks to cut 

lending rates in line with the reduction in 

policy interest rate. While RBI has reduced 

repo rate by 125 bps since January 

2015, which now stands at 6.75 per cent , 

banks’ lending rate reduction was only 

70 bps. “RBI has reduced rates by 125 

bps to a four-and-a-half-year low of 6.75 

per cent while banks have transmitted up 

to 70 bps in their base rate. This is because 

high rates on small savings 

schemes make banks’ fixed deposits uncompetitive 

and in turn do not allow 

banks to reduce the cost of funds,” Mr. 

Ghosh said. The cut in small savings rate 

now gives more room to banks to reduce 

their deposit rates. For example, the rate 

for one-year term deposit under the small 

savings scheme was reduced to 7.1 per 

cent from 8.4 per cent. 

Govt. decision puts question 

mark over Anrak future 

Visakhapatnam 


The State Cabinet’s 

decision to repeal GO Ms 

2007 to source bauxite ore. 

The refinery with a capacity 

of 1.5 million tonne 

was already been built 

vested Rs. 6,300 crore on 

the project and further 

have plans to start a 

smelter, power plant and a 

ment was forced to cancel 

the GO,” Samata founder 

Rebbapragada Ravi said. 

Observers say to keep the 

No 97 issued on November 

three years ago at captive jetty with total in- 

Rachapalle refinery run- 

5, 2015 has put a big Rachapalle in vestment of Rs.15,000 ning, now AAL has to 

question mark over the future 

of Anrak Aluminium 

Ltd (AAL). 

While civil society activists’ 

term the decision as 

a triumph of vox populi, a 

senior official of AAL said 

it would send wrong signals 

to the investors. AAL, 

a joint venture of Penna 

Cements and Ras-Al- 

Khaimah, a tiny country in 

United Arab Emirates, 

signed MoU with the then 

Congress government in 

Makavarapalem mandal, 

about 90 km from here. AP 

Mineral Development Corporation 

committed to supply 

bauxite ore from 

Chintapalle and Jerrela 

blocks in the scheduled 

areas as part of MoU. 

The GO Ms No 97 

granted permission by the 

Forest Department to 

transfer the mining blocks 

to APMDC for digging 

bauxite ore in the forest 

area. “We have already in- 

crore. Of our Rs.6,300- 

crore investment, Rs.3,000 

crore we have borrowed 

from banks,” a senior AAL 

official told The Hindu 

when his comments were 

sought on their future. 

However, those who 

fought against bauxite 

mining hailed the decision 

saying it should have been 

done long ago. “Because 

of sustained pressure by 

the tribal people and the 

civil society, the governsource 

raw material from 

Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and 

Jharkhand like Londonlisted 

Vedanta Resources 

Ltd for its Lanjigarh refinery 

in Odisha. 

After Odisha cancelled 

MoU to supply bauxite ore 

from Niyamgiri following 

overwhelming opposition 

from Dongria Kondh 

tribals, Vedanta had to run 

the refinery by sourcing 

raw material from outside 

at reduced capacity. 

Apple starts busy week with new iPhone launch 

New Delhi 


Finding prima facie 

evidence of non-compliance 

to various norms, 

including those on 

insider trading and 

corporate governance, 

the Securities Exchange 

Board of India (SEBI) has 

widened its probe into 

the dealings of Vijay 

Mallya-headed UB 

Group. This includes the 

group’s own shares and 

those with UK-based 

Diageo and other foreign 

players. The capital 

markets watchdog may 

also seek information 

from other regulators in 

India and abroad, as also 

from the stock exchanges, 

even as it seeks 

to de-clog the complex 

transactions Mallya had 

entered into, including 

sale of stake and transfer 

of rights in his various 

group companies. Details 

and clarifications have 

also been sought from all 

the parties concerned, 

including the present and 

erstwhile UB Group firms, 

as well as the foreign 

companies with whom 

Mallya had dealt with for 

sale of controlling stake 

in United Spirits Ltd., to 

Diageo, a senior official 

said. SEBI began looking 

into Mallya-Diageo 

transactions last month, 

soon after the liquor 

baron inked a Rs. 515- 

crore ‘sweetheart deal’ 

to exit United Spirits, 

suspecting possible 

violations of corporate 

governance and other 

norms. Regulatory 

sources said that SEBI 

had found prima-facie 

evidence of noncompliance 

to various 

transactions, while 

stepping up its cooperation 

with other regulators 

and agencies that 

are separately looking 

into alleged violations in 

relation to the massive 

loans taken by the 

erstwhile Kingfisher 

Airlines of UB Group. A 

huge controversy 

erupted after Mallya left 

India within days of his 

‘exit deal’ with Diageo, 

which has already paid 

more than half of the 

total amount due to the 

businessman. Detailed 

queries sent to Mallya, 

including about his 

possible return to India 

and the prima-facie 

evidence found by 

SEBI, did not elicit any 

response. 

Arun Jaitley defends 

small savings rate cut 

New Dlelhi 


Faced with a fresh outcry 

over the decision to 

lower returns on small savings 

schemes, days after he 

rolled back the budget proposal 

to tax EPF savings, 

Finance Minister Arun 

Jaitley said the economy 

needs lower interest rates to 

become more efficient and 

high deposit rates would 

keep it “sluggish.” “Interest 

rates had risen a lot, so the 

cost of borrowing for the 

government and others was 

high, but now they have 

come down. The way the 

economy is moving, we cannot 

have a situation where 

lending rates are going 

down but deposit rates remain 

high,” he said on Sunday. 

“Both rates are linked. 

To make the economy more 

efficient rather than sluggish, 

the country has to 

move towards lower interest 

rates in both,” he added. 

The Minister pointed out 

that interest rates on small 

savings schemes are determined 

by the market based 

on an old formula, and subsequently 

bolstered by the 

government. “It’s formuladriven… 

and now this is 

going to be revised every 

quarter (to align it with the 

market),” he said. The government 

announced new interest 

rates on small savings 

instruments on Friday, 

slashing the returns on Public 

Provident Fund savings 

from 8.7 per cent to 8.1 per 

cent and one year post office 

deposits from 8.4 per 

cent to 7.1 per cent. 

San Francisco 


Apple is kicking off a 

busy week- Today the giant 

tech company will 

host reporters and analysts 

at its Silicon Valley 

headquarters for a product 

launch event. On 

Tuesday, its lawyers will 

square off with authorities 

in federal court over the 

FBI’s demand for help 

unlocking a San 

Bernardino killer’s 

encrypted iPhone. 

The tech giant’s dispute 

with the government 

has commanded headlines 

for weeks, but it may 

get scant mention at the 

company’s product event. 

Instead, CEO Tim Cook is 

expected to show off 

some new additions to the 

current family of iPhone 

and iPad devices at Monday’s 

gathering. Apple 

could use a lift. The 

iPhone sales are levelling 

off, after surging last year 

to record levels that made 

Apple, the world’s biggest 

company, by stock market 

value. And many are wondering 

if Mr. Cook can 

come up with another big 

hit. 

Even though Mr. Cook 

has been outspoken 

about his opposition to a 

judge’s order compelling 

Apple to write software 

that overrides iPhone security 

features, tech analysts 

say he probably 

won’t risk overshadowing 

the company’s products 

by discussing the case at 

Monday’s event. While 

Apple has been mum 

about its plans, several 

analysts expect the company 

will introduce an 

Nine plants rejoin 

grid after auction 

New Delhi 


Nine stranded gas-based power generation plants 

were able to secure gas supply following a reverse e- 

auction process conducted on Sunday. The companies 

include Dabhol, GMR, GVK, Lanco and Gama. “The 

government is delighted to announce the revival of nine 

stranded gas-based power generation plants with an 

installed capacity of 5,942 MW which have successfully 

bid through a transparent and competitive reverse 

e-auction process,” according to a release issued by 

the government, following the auction. These plants 

would generate 6.79 billion units of electricity which 

will be supplied at or below Rs. 4.70 per unit to the 

purchaser discoms during the period from April 1, 2016 

to September 30, 2016. The auction, conducted by staterun 

MSTC for re-gasified natural gas (R-LNG), resulted 

in bids at a premium of up to three paise per unit, which 

would result in an estimated savings of Rs. 18.29 crore 

to the government’s Power System Development Fund. 

Previously, an e-auction was held on March 15, 2016, 

wherebidders participated in a reverse e-bidding process 

with a per unit PSDF ceiling price of Rs. 0.41 per 

unit, according to the release. However, the bidders did 

not get an opportunity to bid below Rs. 0.00 per unit, as 

option for the same was not built in. 

upgrade to its older, fourinch 

iPhone 5S aimed at 

consumers who haven’t 

sprung for the biggerscreen 

iPhone 6 models 

that Apple introduced 

over the last two years. 

The new phone may come 

with features like Apple 

Pay and the company’s 

fastest processor, which 

have previously been of- 

Mumbai 


Over 3 lakh jewellers 

from more than 300 associations 

kept their establishments 

closed across 

the country since March 2. 

Jewellery stocks on Monday 

rose sharply by up to 8 

per cent after jewellers 

called off their 18-day old 

strike demanding rollback 

of proposed excise duty on 

non-silver jewellery. Shares 

of Shree Ganesh Jewellery 

House jumped 7.85 per 

cent, Gitanjali Gems 

zoomed 6.62 per cent, 

Tribhovandas Bhimji 

Zaveri surged 5.56 per cent, 

PC Jeweller climbed 5.3 per 

cent and Titan Company 

rose 2.1 per cent on BSE. 

Jewellers on Saturday 

called off their 18-day old 

fered only on versions of 

the iPhone 6. Also read: 

What the online chatter is 

on Apple’s upcoming announcement 

Analysts 

and tech blogs say Apple 

also may unveil a new 

model of the iPad Pro, 

which the company introduced 

last year with several 

features like a detachable 

keyboard and stylus 

designed for business users. 

A four-inch iPhone 

isn’t likely to see the kind 

of blockbuster demand 

that Apple enjoyed with 

its large-screen iPhone 6 

and 6S models, according 

to several financial analysts, 

but it could help 

Apple boost overall sales. 

The smaller phone might 

also draw some additional 

users into the market for 

Apple’s online services, 

including Apple Music, 

strike demanding rollback of 

proposed excise duty on 

non-silver jewellery after 

government assured them 

that there will be no harassment 

by excise officials. Over 

3 lakh jewellers from more 

than 300 associations kept 

their establishments closed 

across the country since 

Apple Pay and the highly 

profitable mobile App 

Store. While shoppers 

bought a record 74.8 million 

iPhones in the final 

three months of 2015, Apple 

has signalled demand 

in the current three-month 

period will fall short of the 

61 million iPhones sold in 

the January-March quarter 

last year. 

Even with new features, 

analysts say the 4- 

inch iPhone should sell at 

a lower price than the 

larger models, which list at 

$549 or more. That means 

it may appeal to some 

shoppers, especially in 

overseas markets, who 

want a premium phone at 

lower cost. It may also 

draw interest from owners 

of older iPhone 5 models 

who find the larger models 

unwieldy. 

Jewellery stocks glitter 

as 18-day strike ends 

March 2 after Finance Minister 

Arun Jaitley in the 

budget for 2016-17 announced 

one per cent excise 

duty on non-silver 

jewellery. The 18-day long 

strike by jewellers is estimated 

to have caused loss 

of Rs. 60,000-70,000 crore 

to the industry.


How Katrina Kaif avoided 

talking about Ranbir Kapoor 

Katrina Kaif seems 

is in no mood to talk 

about RanbirKapoor 

Katrina Kaif seems is in 

no mood to talk about 

RanbirKapur anymore. 

While the latter had no 

qualms in mentioning 

how Katrina had 

worked whole-heartedly 

on JaggaJasoos, the 

actress smartly avoided 

talking about 

RanbirKapoor, her 

leading man from the 

film. At an awards 

function held on 

Sunday (March 20) 

when we asked Katrina 

how excited she was to 

be back with Ranbir 

again on screen, the 

pretty actress completely 

sidestepped our 

main question and 

preferred talking about 

director AnuragBasu 

instead of her alleged 

ex. Here’s what Katrina 

said. “JaggaJasoos has 

been on the floors for 

sometime now and I 

think AnuragBasu is 

one of the most exciting 

directors we have in the 

film industry and I am 

super excited for 

JaggaJasoos and 

hopefully it will be very 

soon.” And before 

anybody could ask her 

anything more, Katrina 

hurried off after waving 

a quick good-bye. 

Rani Mukerji makes 

her first appearance post 

Adira’s birth, see pic 

Actress Rani Mukerji, 

who got married to filmmaker 

Aditya Chopra in 

2014 gave birth to baby girl 

Adira on December 9, 2015. 

The actress has not been 

seen in public ever since 

she gave birth to her 

daughter. Rani finally 

made a public appearance 

while making it to a party. 

She made her first appearance 

post her delivery on 

March 19 as she attended 

Karan Johar’s mother 

Rani Mukerji 

made her first 

appearance 

post her 

delivery on 

March 19 as 

she attended 

Karan Johar's 

mother 

HirooJohar's 

birthday. 

HirooJohar’s birthday on 

that day. Her picture sitting 

in a car while arriving at the 

venue was shared by her 

fan club on Twitter. The actress, 

who has worked in 

movies like No One Killed 

Jessica and Mardaani 

looked plump as she is just 

a four months old mother. 

Rani has been best 

friends with Karan Johar 

ever since she started her 

career. She was rumoured 

to be dating director/producer 

Aditya Chopra for a 

couple of years but was 

tightlipped about her relationship 

until she got married 

to him in a low key affair. 

The news of her pregnancy 

was broken by her 

friend PreityZinta on 

Instagram when she 

shared a picture with her 

and wrote, “Never seen 

Rani look so beautiful as 

she did on #Diwalinight 

#glow #pregnantdoll 

friends #fun #awwwww.” 

Want my mother to do next 

film with me: Sooraj Pancholi 

SoorajPancholi, who 

made his acting debut with 

"Hero", says he wants to 

work with his mother and 

actress ZarinaWahab for 

his next film. Actor 

SoorajPancholi, who made 

his acting debut with superstar 

Salman Khan production 

“Hero”, says he 

wants to work with his 

mother and veteran actress 

ZarinaWahab for his next 

film. 

The 25-year-old, who 

has been awarded with the 

Best Debut Actor (male) at 

the second edition at the 

Times Of India Film 

Awards (TOIFA), has already 

shared screen space 

with his father 

AdityaPancholi in his first 

film, which also starred 

debutante actress 

AthiyaShetty. “I wanted 

her (ZarinaWahab) to do 

my next film with me. I have 

asked her if she (would 

work in my next)…she said 

that if she has time, she will 

see,” said Sooraj, who was 

seen wearing a black suit 

paired with a crisp white 

shirt and a bow at the 

event’s red carpet. 

Sooraj was seen sharing 

screen space with actress 

Jacqueline Fernandez 

for a music video “GF BF”, 

which garnered over 15 

million views on Youtube. 

The actor said he was overwhelmed 

by the response 

and “hopes to do more 

songs”. “I hope I do a lot 

of songs because that’s 

when I perform and get 

money,” Sooraj quipped. 

There were reports that the 

“Hero” star has been roped 

in for a film with T-Series. 

Asked if he has signed on 

the dotted lines for T-series, 

Soraj said: “We are still 

talking about it…nothing is 

confirmed.” When do his 

fans see him onscreen 

next? “Hopefully this year 

end,” said the actor. 

Malaika Arora Khan opts for silence over divorce rumours 

MalaikaArora Khan 

walked at AIFW 2016 and 

when she was asked about 

the media reports about 

her personal life, she refused 

to comment. 

It was a “Mein 

chuprahungi” moment for 

actress MalaikaArora 

Khan as she decided to 

stay mum over rumours of 

divorce from producer 

husband Arbaaz Khan. 

The actress walked for 

designer MandiraWirk at 

the ongoing Amazon India 

Fashion Week 

(AIFW) winter-festive 

2016 and when IANS 

asked her about the media 

reports about her personal 

life, she refused to 

comment. 

Wirk presented a collection 

titled “Romancing 

Rococo” on the fourth day 

of the fashion gala that is 

taking place at Jawaharlal 

Nehru Stadium here. 

“The Rococo movement 

emerged as a rebellion 

against the rigidity of 

Baroque designs and its 

hallmark was a quiet grandeur 

that was far from 

opulent or overbearing. 

My collection captures 

this exact sentiment and 

strives to bring forth elegance 

that is, at no point, 

over the top or gimmicky,” 

said the designer. 

Asked what made her 

look at Malaika as her 

muse this time, Wirk told 

IANS: “The designs depicts 

18th century art and 

architecture and talks 

about curves and asymmetric 

designs so who can 

you have better than the 

curvaceous body of my 

friend Malaika.” 

Even Malaika was excited 

walking the runway 

and said that she would 

love to associate with 

Wirk for her fashion label 

titled “The Closet Label”. 

“My line is easy, affordable 

and comfortable 

so i would love to have 

designer friends,” Malaika 

told IANS. 

It is strange, surreal: AthiyaShetty 

on being Bollywood’s fashionista 

Singing is 

in Chopra 

blood, says 

Parineeti 

Chopra 

Actress Parineeti Chopra, 

who is gearing up for her next 

film “MeriPyaariBindu” in which 

she has lent her voice for the first 

time, says singing runs in her 

family genes. The 27-year-old, 

who was co-hosting the TOIFA’s 

main gala on Friday, added that 

her cousin and Bollywood 

actress Priyanka Chopra, who 

has already impressed the 

audience with her vocal prowess 

by lending voice to songs like 

“Dildhadakne do” from the movie 

ZoyaAkhtar’s directorial 

“DilDhadakne Do”, and her 

family were “really excited” after 

knowing that she is getting a 

chance to sing professionally. 

“Actually everyone in my 

family was excited because 

everyone knows that we all sing. 

I think it’s in our blood to sing. I 

think it’s in Chopra blood to sing 

so they were very happy that I 

was getting to do it professionally 

finally,” said Parineeti, when 

asked about the reaction by 

Priyanka and her family about her 

singing in the film. 

The “Ishaqzaade” actress will 

be seen essaying an aspiring 

singer in Maneesh Sharma 

production “MeriPyaariBindu”, 

which is directed by debutant 

Akshay Roy. In the film, she will 

be seen romancing actor 

AyushmannKhurrana. 

Asked if she would be 

working on singles like Priyanka, 

who worked on singles like “In 

my city” ft. Will.i.am and “Exotic” 

ft. Pittbull, Parineeti said: “No. 

AthiyaShetty said, "It has always been a strange 

and surreal feeling because I have never made 

an effort to try and be that person." 

She is just one film old, but is already 

making waves in the tinsel town for her 

acting skills as well as fashion and style 

quotient. Actress AthiyaShetty says the 

tag of Bollywood’s fashionista comes 

with a “strange and surreal feeling”. 

Athiya, who is daughter of SunielShetty, 

added that she has never made an attempt 

to “be that person”. When IANS asked 

her about how it feels to be known as one 

of the fashionable actresses from the 

younger brigade, she said: “It has always 

been a strange and surreal feeling because 

I have never made an effort to try and be 

that person.” “I think I have to obviously 

thank my stylist (Ami Patel), who has most 

importantly given me my personality 

through my dressing and I think that is 

what really important.” Sharing her fashion 

fundas, Athiya said the key to being 

stylish is to be comfortable with “whatever 

you are wearing”. “You have to be 

yourself, you have to be comfortable in 

your own skin and in your body type and 

"I think it's in Chopra 

blood to sing so they 

were very happy that I 

was getting to do it 

professionally finally," 

Parineeti Chopra said. 

Right now I am going to do some music in 

films and then I will see.” 

kind of own whatever you are wearing no 

matter what it is,” she added. Athiya, who 

is the brand ambassador of Maybelline 

New York, turned muse for designer 

NamrataJoshipura for the beauty brand’s 

show at the fourth day of Amazon India 

Fashion Week (AIFW) Autumn-Winter 

2016 on Saturday here. The five-day fashion 

gala is taking place at the Jawaharlal 

Nehru Stadium here. The actress, who 

stepped into showbiz alongside actor 

AdityaPancholi’s son Sooraj in superstar 

Salman Khan’s co-production venture 

“Her” last year, has walked the ramp for 

several fashion shows, but Athiya asserts 

that she is “always nervous before walking 

on the ramp”. “I am thinking about 

thousand things but I think once you get 

on the ramp and you see the people cheering 

for you, you automatically get a sense 

of energy in front of the live audience,” 

she shared. Athiya had a pre-show shoot 

in the national capital, and she says that it 

was a nice experience. 

It’s a delight to 

have Shah Rukh 

Khan in my 

film: Aanand L Rai 

Aanand L Rai has not worked with any Bollywood 

biggies in past, but now when he has superstar Shah 

Rukh Khan on board for his next project, the filmmaker 

is thrilled and all geared up for it. The 44-year-old director, 

who is riding high on the success of his two 

consecutive films- “Raanjhanaa” and “Tanu Weds 

Manu: Returns,” was all praise for SRK. “He is a gutsy 

actor. He always takes challenges. It is a delight to 

have him in the film. We both have liking for each 

other. We want to work together and we are on that 

process. “Shah Rukh is a very intelligent man. He 

makes you feel so important and responsible so it is 

fun to work with him. He was very happy to hear the 

story,” Rai told PTI. The 50-year-old “Dilwale” star will 

be seen essaying the role of a dwarf in the interesting 

love story and the director is planning to serve a decent 

dose of songs in the film. “It (story) sounds it is just 

about dwarf but it is much more than that. It is a much 

taller film. It is a very entertaining and interesting love 

story. I will be fool if I have Shah Rukh Khan in my film 

and have no romance and songs,” he said. The filmmaker 

is yet to finalise the lead actress for the movie. 

Apart from direction, Rai is excited about his upcoming 

projects as a producer. “We have ‘Nil BatteySannata’ 

with SwaraBhaskar, ‘Happy BhaagJayegi’ starring 

AbhayDeol and Diana Penty and ‘Manmarziyan’ with 

AyushmannKhurrana and BhumiPednekar. All three are 

interesting films and I am excited about it. This is the 

kind of cinema I want to be involved with as a producer. 

I am enjoying the process,” he added. 

Aanand L Rai is thrilled 

to have Shah Rukh Khan 

on board for his next project 

and all geared up for it.

SPORTS 

Andre Fletcher unsure of place in West Indies 

side despite unbeaten 84 against Sri Lanka 

KOLKATA 


West Indies star performer 

Andre Fletcher, who made an 

unbeaten 84 in their win over 

Sri Lanka, on Sunday said he is 

still unsure of getting picked for 

the next match in the ICC World 

Twenty20. 

“I cannot answer that (whether 

you are expecting to open for 

the team for good). I can’t even 

say whether I will play the next 

game. I am keeping my fingers 

crossed,” he told reporters. 

Fletcher, filling in for injured 

Chris Gayle, played a career-defining 

unbeaten knock to help 

West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 

seven wickets in a Super 10 

match. 

Asked about the side’s chances 

of lifting the cup for the second 

time, Fletcher said if they continue 

with the winning streak, they 

would lift it again. “Before the 

World Cup, we knew what we are 

capable of. We know the strength 

of our team. We always back ourselves 

to win the World Cup. It 

was good to see two wins under 

our belt. So, once we get to the 

semifinal we take it from there 

into the final. For sure once we 

continue to play cricket we are 

accustomed playing, we would 

lift the cup for the second time,” 

he said. 

Asked whom they fancy to 

meet in the final if they qualify, 

Fletcher said, “It doesn’t matter 

who comes. We have played everybody. 

Who so ever the opponent 

is, we would play them in 

our style.” 

Asked about the mood in the 

camp, Fletcher said it would be 

good if they win all the matches 

going into the knockout stage and 

were treating each match as final. 

“We have a great team spirit 

and are playing in unison. We 

have to continue that momentum 

and try not to get complacent. 

We are playing each game as finals. 

We want to play as hard as 

possible and once we could win 

all four it will be good for us,” 

Fletcher said. 

He also said he was grateful for 

the opportunity he got in place of 

Gayle. 

“I grabbed the opportunity to 

bat and I’m grateful for that. I am 

happy that I did the job for the 

team,” he said. 

Replying to a query, Fletcher 

said he wanted to watch Gayle bat 

from the other end and wouldn’t 

admit that the spectators wanted 

to see his back, making way for 

the mighty West Indian to walk 

into the middle to entertain them. 

“I wouldn’t say the crowd 

wanted me to get out. You know 

Chris will always be Chris. He 

is a great T20 batsman and everybody 

wants to see him bat. In 

fact, I also wanted to see him bat 

from the other end,” he said. 

New Zealand 


It was a grey Sunday morning and a 

cool breeze was blowing across the Punjab 

Cricket Association (PCA) stadium. 

New Zealand appeared to have brought 

bad weather along as they climbed down 

to Mohali from the mountains in Dharamsala 

after their second win on the trot. 

It was a light practice session that began 

with a game of sepak takraw. Since no 

net was available, they did what New 

Zealand players do: improvise. They got 

hold of a row of conjoined dugout seats 

and placed it in the middle of their makeshift 

court on the ground. 

Innovation and adaptability are the 

twin hallmarks of New Zealand cricket. 

Perhaps, when you are geographically 

cut off from the rest of the world, you 

learn to make full use of the limited resources 

at your disposal. The aforementioned 

sepak takraw example is a decidedly 

unremarkable one, but the mere 

fact that one bothers to notice this quirky 

trifle is because you expect them to do 


7 

ICC World Twenty20: New Zealand 

take the odd way out to even things up 

different things so very often. 

And by far in the ongoing World T20, 

they haven’t disappointed. 

In their opening match against India at 

the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on March 

15, the team wore black bands around 

their arms in the memory of Martin 

Crowe, the Blackcaps great who passed 

away earlier this month. The gesture, 

though great, was lost on most as the 

bands were almost indiscernible on their 

black sleeves. However, New Zealand’s 

ultimate tribute to their former skipper 

was the brave and tactically innovative 

captaincy of Kane Williamson that was 

reminiscent of Crowe giving the new 

ball to off-spinner Dipak Patel at the 

1992 World Cup, and it was lost on none. 

Novak Djokovic, Victoria Azarenka cruise to easy title wins at Indian Wells 

california 


Novak Djokovic rolled past Milos Raonic 

6-2, 6-0 to win the BNP Paribas Open 

for a record fifth time, while improving to 

22-1 in matches this year. It was the Serb’s 

third consecutive title in the California 

desert, breaking a tie with four-time champion 

Roger Federer, who lost to Djokovic 

the past two years in the final and skipped 

this year because of a knee injury. 

The women’s final was equally one-sided. 

Victoria Azarenka defeated error-prone 

Serena Williams 6-4, 6-4, returning Azarenka 

to the world’s top 10 for the first 

time since August 2014. 

Djokovic needed an hour, 17 minutes to 

dispatch Raonic, whose big serve got broken 

five times. The 25-year-old 

Canadian served just four aces and had 

27 unforced errors. His first serve averaged 

128 mph – much faster than Djokovic’s 

111 mph – but he connected on only 

55 percent. The Serb landed 68 percent of 

his first serves and was never broken. 

Clearly the crowd favorite, Williams 

gave fans little to cheer about on an unseasonable 

32 degrees celsius day while 

making 33 unforced errors. After getting 

broken to trail 3-0 in the second set, Williams 

returned to her seat and smashed her 

racket. 

Trailing 5-1, Williams won three straight 

games and held two break points on Azarenka’s 

serve in the last game. But 

Williams ended the match with three 

straight errors. 

“Just unexpected nerves maybe. I definitely 

didn’t expect to be on that stage 

again,” said Williams, who was back at 

Indian Wells after ending her 14-year 

boycott last year. 

It was Azarenka’s first victory over the 

top-ranked Williams since the Cincinnati 

final in August 2013. She will 

move up seven spots to No. 8 in the 

WTA Tour rankings on Monday. 

Azarenka, who won here in 2012, hit 

just 10 winners and had 20 unforced errors 

in the 2-hour match. She connected on 60 

percent of her first serves and broke Williams’ 

serve three times. Williams converted 

just 1 of 12 break chances. 

“I have to go for it,” Azarenka said. 

“She’s not a type of player that if you’re 

going to play safe she’s going to give it 

to you or she’s going to miss. You really 

have to go out there and take away because 

there is nothing coming easy.” 

The crowd, including Queen Latifah, 

was eager to support Williams. One fan 

held up a sign reading, “Go Serena. We 

straight outta Compton,” in a nod to the 

gang-infested Los Angeles suburb where 

the Williams sisters learned to play 

tennis. 

Williams was bidding to become the 

first woman to win three titles at Indian 

Wells, where she won in 1999 and 2001. 

After getting booed heavily while beating 

Kim Clijsters for her last title here, she 

vowed never to return. That year the 

Williams sisters were supposed to meet 

in a semifinal, but Venus withdrew shortly 

before the match with a knee injury. 

The crowd reacted harshly and their father 

Richard said he heard racial taunts. 

“Obviously the last time I was there was 

probably the worst moment of my whole 

career. Not probably. Sure,” Williams 

said. “To be back out there, which I never 

thought I would be, was really different 

and special. I was overwhelmed with emotions 

and nerves.” 

Williams’ low-key persona was in direct 

contrast to her usual fist-pumping and 

screams of “Come on!” She hit just 22 

winners. 

Azarenka and Williams met for the 21st 

time in their careers, with Williams now 

owning a 17-4 edge. The only player 

she has faced more in her career is her 

older sister, who watched grim-faced from 

a box after losing early in her return to Indian 

Wells for the first time since 2001. 

“It was so great for our sport to see them 

both here,” Azarenka said. 

Williams was warmly welcomed back 

last year only to withdraw with a knee 

injury before her semifinal. She got emotional 

while accepting the runner-up trophy, 

tears welling in her eyes, after tournament 

officials thanked her and Venus for 

ending their boycotts. 

“Thank you so much for the cheers,” 

Williams said. “I can’t tell you how much 

it means to me.” 

Williams playfully stuck out her tongue 

as she walked past Azarenka posing with 

the winner’s crystal trophy on her 

way off the court. 

Over on the men’s side of things, 

28-year-old Serb broke his out-of-sorts 

opponent twice in the first set and three 

times in the second to wrap up victory in 

one hour 17 minutes. 

Australian Open champion Djokovic 

tied Rafa Nadal with a record-equalling 

27th ATP Masters 1000 crown. 

Djokovic, who beat long-time rival Nadal 

7-6(5), 6-2 in the semi-finals, also maintained 

his perfect record against Raonic as 

he won their sixth career meeting. 

“Best match of the tournament for me 

today and probably the worst for Milos,” 

Djokovic, an 11-time grand slam singles 

champion, told ESPN after the trophy presentation. 

“He was not feeling his best and 

I wish him a speedy recovery. He just told 

me that he might have injured the same 

part of the leg as he did at the Australian 

Open, which took him off the tour for a 

month.” 

The Canadian was sidelined in February 

because of a groin injury that helped end 

his run in the semi-finals of the Australian 

Open, where he lost to Andy Murray in 

five sets. 

“It’s sad to have the finals like this in 

one way but I played a great tournament. 

I’ve got to be happy with what I’ve done 

from my side today,” said Djokovic, who 

improved his career record at Indian Wells 

to 46-6. 

“Every time he would miss the first 

serve, I was on top of the second serve. I 

was not allowing him to control the pace 

from the baseline, I moved him around the 

court. Tactically, I did everything right.” 

As courtside temperatures soared, 

Djokovic broke an erratic Raonic in the 

first and third games of the match as he 

breezed through the opening set in 43 minutes. 

After leaving the court for medical treatment, 

Raonic returned for the second set 

and was broken again in the first game 

when he netted a backhand, and also in the 

third after he blasted a backhand long. 

Clearly well short of his best form, Raonic 

saved two break points in the fifth before 

failing to hold and Djokovic comfortably 

sealed the win in the sixth when his 

opponent netted a forehand service return. 

Continued from Page-1 

Congress MLA 

chief minister, union 

minister and Lok 

Sabha speaker, and 

particularly strengthening 

parliamentary 

democracy. 

Lowang termed 

Sangma as a veteran 

leader who had entered 

the gallery of who’s 

who of national politics, 

Chief Minister 

Kalikho Pul recalled 

Sangma’s political career 

as a true nationalist 

and the first tribal, 

Christian and person 

from yje north east to 

rise to such coveted 

posts. The house stood 

in silence for a minute 

to pay its respect to the 

departed soul. 

Pul introduced the 

Arunachal Pradesh 

Tourism (Trade Registration 

and Regulation) 

Bill, 2016 and 

the Arunachal Pradesh 

Right to Public Services 

Bill, 2016 without 

any financial involvement. 

The Right 

to Public Services 

Bill reflects the commitment 

of the government 

of Arunachal 

Pradesh to serve the 

masses in a transparent 

manner and make 

public servants accountable, 

while the 

Tourism Bill would ensure 

the growth of the 

sector, providing jobs 

and enriching the state 

coffer. 

Besides transacting 

other business, Speaker 

Lowang announced 

that Tage Taki, Tumke 

Bagra, P D Sona and 

Phoshum 

Khimhun 

would be the panel of 

chairmen before adjourning 

the house for 

the day. 

Fadnavis sends 

In response to this, 

Maharashtra CM’s 

lawyer has now sent 

a legal notice to Congress 

general secretary 

seeking an apology 

within two weeks, failing 

of which will lead 

to further legal proceedings. 

Maharashtra CM’s 

office has issued a 

clarification mentioning 

that Fadnavis’ wife 

works in the corporate 

section of the lower 

Parel branch of Axis 

Bank in Central Mumbai 

and that she has no 

targets to complete. 

Fadnavis has also 

mentioned clearly that 

if the allegations are 

not retracted, then he 

will file a defamation 

case against Digvijaya 

Singh. 

‘Bharat Mata 

Mata Ki Jai’, we reiterate 

our commitment 

to the fellow citizens 

of the country,” he 

added. 

AIMIM leader Asaduddin 

Owaisi had 

stirred a hornet’s nest 

by rejecting RSS chief 

Mohan Bhagwat’s suggestion 

that the young 

generation be taught 

patriotic slogans like 

‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ 

stating that he won’t 

chant the slogan “even 

if a knife is put to his 

throat”. 

“I don’t chant that 

slogan. What are you 

going to do Bhagwat 

sahab?” Owaisi said at 

a public rally in Latur. 

Leaders of various 

political parties, including 

the BJP and 

Congress, have condemned 

Owaisi’s 

stance. 

Ambedkar bigger 

Modi said that Baba 

Saheb was as iconic 

as Martin Luther who 

worked for the betterment 

of the oppressed. 

While speaking on 

reservations of Dalits, 

Tribals and marginalised 

communities, 

Modi said that it is 

their right which nobody 

can snatch from 

them. 

“In order to understand 

Baba Saheb, one 

needs to be sensitive 

towards the society 

and have faith in the 

great leader,” PM Modi 

said while highlighting 

Ambedkar’s concern 

towards the society. 

Uttarakhand crisis 

hands with the 

Bharatiya Janata Party 

(BJP) to topple the 

same Congress government 

he headed 

just two years ago. A 

shocked Congress has 

now sacked his son Saket 

Bahuguna from the 

party. 

Vijay Bahuguna, 

son of former Uttar 

Pradesh chief minister 

HN Bahuguna, is a 

late entrant to politics. 

He was a judge at the 

Bombay High Court 

who quit under mysterious 

circumstances 

in the 1990s. He won 

a Lok Sabha by-poll 

from Tehri-Garhwal in 

2007 and repeated the 

feat in 2009. Using his 

high command connections, 

he snatched the 

chief minister’s chair 

away from Rawat. The 

decision of the high 

command to impose 

Bahuguna had upset a 

lot of Congress MLAs 

in the state. Some of 

them were camping at 

Rawat’s house in New 

Delhi demanding that 

Bahuguna be removed 

and Rawat should be 

made chief minister. 

Their demands fell on 

deaf ears of the party 

bosses. 

Between 2012 and 

2014, Bahuguna managed 

to run the state 

with the help of a 

small coterie opposed 

to Rawat. Known as an 

arm chair politician, 

he was never close to 

the masses like Rawat. 

When flood of the 

century hit Garhwal 

region in June 2013, 

Vijay Bahuguna was 

spending time in New 

Delhi. He returned to 

Dehradun only after 

media made it a big 

issue calling him an 

insensitive chief minister. 

A few months ahead 

of the 2014 Lok Sabha 

elections, Rawat was 

sent to Uttarakhand 

as chief minister. But, 

he did not have much 

time to put the house 

in order to win some 

seats. Expectedly, the 

Congress lost all five 

Lok Sabha seats it had 

swept in 2009. 

Instead of backing 

the party that made him 

somebody, 

Bahuguna 

has now turned against 

it. Nobody is shedding 

tears for the Congress 

high command. Finally, 

you reap what you 

sow. 

Yechury denies 

said, “I had to go 

back to party office 

and had dinner there. I 

had to wait at the airport 

till my party car 

came to pick me. There 

were 4 seats in another 

international flight 

which I volunteered to 

be given to Pakistan 

travelers as they had 

to catch a connecting 

international flight. I 

was booked in a flight 

on Monday morning, 

this is the real story. “ 

The leader also recalled 

other instances 

of the airlines’ apathy. 

“I was witness to two 

other instances where 

I had to get down 

from the flight. I got 

down and along with 

me there was Pakistan 

High Commissioner 

and there were other 

guests from Pakistan 

who had come to see 

the match at Eden Gardens 

on Saturday. 

Earlier, national aviation 

carrier Air India 

responded on the 14- 

hour delay of Kolkata-New 

Delhi AI 701 

by blaming the delay 

on a technical glitch in 

the first aircraft. 

Air India issued a 

statement on Monday 

claiming that it provided 

hotel accommodation 

to stranded passengers, 

adding that 

they were accommodated 

in another flight 

on Monday morning. 

However, passengers 

on board AI 701 confirmed 

to IBNLive that 

no hotel accommodation 

was provided by 

the airline. In fact, the 

passengers were not 

even deplaned till 10 

pm on Sunday, even as 

the scheduled departure 

of the flight was 

5:30 pm. 

All the passengers 

were deplaned at 10 

pm and were transported 

to the terminal 

where there was no Air 

India official to attend 

them. Agitated passengers 

protested for two 

hours against the apathy 

of the airlines. 

Air India 701 finally 

landed in Delhi at 8:55 

am on Monday morning, 

close to 14 hours 

after its scheduled arrival. 

However, Pakistan 

High 

Commissioner 

Abdul Basit, who was 

also aboard the flight, 

was shifted onto a different 

plane and flew 

to Delhi along with 50 

other passengers on 

Sunday evening itself. 

Deonar fire 

living so near to the 

dumping ground reduces 

all the possibilities 

of breathing in 

fresh air. 

People have expressed 

their anguish 

and have urged the 

government to look 

into the matter immediately. 

This is the second 

time that fire has broken 

in Deonar dumping 

ground. Another such 

massive fire broke out 

on January 27 in the 

dumping yard, which 

was brought under 

control after seven 

days of round the clock 

fire-fighting.

8 SURAT 


Surat Railway all set to get Wifi coverage 

Surat 

areas. He also ordered crowd, due to which local 


station heads to make a commuters faces hassle in 

The western railway 

survey to shift the location 

of luxurious toilets RPF officers are also not 

getting tickets. Moreover, 

is all set to set up a wifi 

coverage in 12 selected 

stations around the 

which are about to be deployed on the station to 

made at front door of Surat 

Railway Station. He MR Mallek police in- 

maintain crowd. 

western region including 

Surat, with the help of 

said, “it’s indeed a proud spector of Railway police 

has kept a proposal 

Google. The information 

moment for citizens and 

was conveyed to the apex 

railway department that to get a connectivity of 

authorities of Station by 

the city’s railway station 

has been awarded nearby railway stations, 

CCTV cameras in the 

Shailendra Kumar, Manager 

of western railway, 

the cleanest station, and which can help them to 

during his visit on Surat 

now it our duty to make trace criminals. He has 

railway station. 

the city to remain on the demanded more 40 cameras 

in the station prem- 

On Sunday, Zonal Manager 

Shailendra Kumar 

same position. During his 

visit to Udhna railway ises. Railway department 

was on Surat Railway 

station he informed CMI have made an estimation 

station for a private trip 

to send a daily report of to install at least 32 cameras 

on Udhna Railway 

and took meeting with 

total ticket sold. He made 

Rakesh Shah member of 

this decision on request station. In conversation 

Yatru Seva Samithi, Ajay 

of people about increase with inspector Mallek, 

Rai member of ZRUCC, 

in crowd of passengers Kumar also discussed on 

Chotu Patil DRUCC. In 

towards the issues like sale of liquor 

and fire incidents in 

his meeting he informed 

North India. These trains 

, with the help of Google 

are filled with highest the yards. 

western railway is all set mained present on this 

to start a wifi network on occasion, took the opportunity 

and complained 

12 stations of the western 

zone, which includes, various issues they have 

Andheri, Boriwali, Surat, been facing, which included 

dripping of toi- 

Udhna, Navsari, Billimora, 

Valsad, Udvada, let water on commuters 

Nandurbar and Vapi. The passing under the railway 

project has been initiated bridges. Kumar talked on 

at Mumbai railway station 

and soon be launched way department will soon commuting 

it and assured that Rail- 

in Surat The members of cover the railway tracks 

different committee re- 

which are open at passage 

Qureshis extend support to 

demand for cow as nat’l animal 

Surat/Ahmedabad 

port the demand that cow 


be declared the national 

At a time when cow protectors 

animal. It helps avoid concide 

are attempting suiflict 

between communities. 

demanding national 

Everybody should respect 

animal status for the cows, 

sentiments of other communities 

the Qureshi community in 

attached to the 

Surat, largely involved in 

cow.” 

running slaughter houses, 

“Since there is ban on 

has come forward in support 

cow slaughter in Guja- 

of the demand. 

rat we have been creating 

On Saturday, the 

awareness among the community 

members of the Qureshi 

to respect the law 

community along with Qureshi community comes from other cattle rearing and support the cause. The 

members of the Bhartiya days after eight persons attempted 

communities who allege community now supports 

Gauraksha Manch (BGM) 

suicide in Rajkot that cow meat was being the cause,” said Dharmesh 

submitted a memorandum resulting in death of one. transported from slaughter Gami, president of BGM. 

to district collector office Many owners had joined houses. Such false information 

“It helps when support 

demanding that cow be the rally from city’s Limbayat 

results in the en- 

comes from within Mus- 

declared a national animal. 

area where majority tire meat stock being sent lim community. Majority 

They also demonstrated of the slaughter houses are to forensic laboratory for of slaughter houses have 

outside the collector’s office 

located. 

checking. 

stopped the illegal activity 

with banners and plac- 

According to sources, Amin Qureshi, Surat and this demand will create 

ards. 

the Qureshi community president of the Qureshi further awareness,” added 

The support of the faces lot of harassment community, said, “We sup- 

Gami. 

Messages mocking the authenticity of Survey 

Mobile phone, 3 sim cards 

found in Lajpore jail 

Work on proposed Outer 

Ring Road to gather pace 

Surat 


Work on the proposed Outer 

Ring Road in Surat will gather 

speed as town planning department 

of state government has 

approved 10 of the 11 town planning 

schemes for the development 

of roads. Now the SPV (special 

purpose vehicle) floated for the 

purpose will begin infrastructure 

planning. It will also start taking 

possession of the lands marked for 

the purpose. 

The SPV floated for this Rs 

5,000 crore project is named Urban 

Ring Development Company 

(URDC). It will begin acquiring 

land for the construction of roads 

and actual work on ground is likely 

to begin before monsoon. 

Municipal commissioner Milind 

Torwane, who is also chairman 

of Surat Urban Development 

Surat 


A mobile phone and 

three sim cards were 

recovered from Lajpore 

Central Jain (LCJ), Surat 

during a checking 

carried out by a special 

prison squad from 

Ahmedabad upon specific 

information here 

on Friday. 

The mobile phone 

was found buried in the 

ground. Its IMEI number 

strip had been removed. 

Police will send 

the phone to the Forensic 

Science Laboratory 

(FSL) shortly to find 

out its IMEI number 

and then about the calls 

made through it. The 

three sim cards were 

found at different locations 

in the jail. Police 

have approached mobile 

phone companies asking 

them to provide call details. 

“We will find out 

IMEI number of the 

phone which is being 

sent to FSL and call details 

of the sim cards. 

A police complaint was 

filed after the recovery 

by the jail squad,” said 

A P Brahmbhatt, PSI at 

Sachin. The police complaint 

was lodged by B 

K Behlim of the special 

prison squad, which has 

been raiding LCJ at regular 

intervals. 

Authority (SUDA) said, “The 

time has come for actual work on 

ground to begin.” 

For a 66-km Outer Ring Road to 

be completed with the existing 37- 

km portion, new roads of 29 km 

length will be developed. Majority 

of these portion runs through 

the agricultural areas. Eight town 

planning schemes of SUDA and 

three of Surat Municipal Corporation 

(SMC), prepared on 500 meters 

on both sides of the proposed 

200 feet road will see a development 

pattern that will be different 

from the city. 

Here four floor space index 

(FSI) will be given to developers 

and as a result they would be able 

to build 70-meter tall residential 

towers on both sides of this proposed 

Outer Ring Road. 

The financial model of this road 

is set up in such a way that sale 

of FSI or land for development is 

likely to generate Rs 10,000 crore 

and the infrastructure for Outer 

Ring Road would cost Rs 5,000 

crore. 

This road would serve basically 

three major purposes of providing 

a bypass to industries at Hazira, 

link residential and commercial 

localities of Surat and Navsari and 

handle heavy traffic meant for Hazira. 

Surat 


Surat railway station’s 

selection as the country’s 

cleanest station as per 

the survey conducted by 

Indian Railways has surprised 

many in the Diamond 

City. Social media 

is flooded with messages 

mocking the authenticity 

of the survey conducted 

by the IRCTC and a private 

agency. 

Users on social media 

described the survey as 

a joke. They have been 

talking widely on the 

leaking railway underpasses 

at Sahara Darwaja, 

Delhi Gate and Varachha 

and the presence of rodents 

on railway tracks. 

Surat Railway Station 

Development-Citizen Forum, 

a group created on 

Facebook having more 

than 30,000 members, is 

flooded with messages 

from people from different 

walks of life. 

Sanjay Jain, a group 

member, says, “It is a tactic 

of Railway ministry to 

woo residents of Surat. 

We are not getting what 

we have been demanding 

for the last many years. 

The yearly turnover at 

railway station is pegged 

at Rs400 crore, yet there 

is no stoppage for trains 

like Duronto, Sampark 

Kranti and Trivandrum 

Rajdhani. There is no reservation 

quota for Surat.” 

Another member, Raju 

Patel says, “This is just 

a blunder. Please do 

not promote such news, 

which has no reality on 

ground.” 

Yet another member, 

Linesh Shah, says, “It 

seems railway minister 

is mocking the people of 

this city. There are other 

stations, which are far 

better in terms of cleanliness. 

I have seen Katra 

railway station and 

it could probably be the 

country’s mostcleanest.” 

“Congratulations Surat. 

But we pray to Prabhuji 

that we don’t want 

awards but stoppages of 

premium trains, enough 

quota as per traffic and 

DRM office. Surat should 

not only receive awards 

but excel in services too,” 

member Satyesh Vaniawala 

said. 

Meanwhile, the cleanest 

railway station tag has 

made the job of railway 

station authorities much 

more difficult. Perhaps 

this is why for the last 

two days, station authorities 

have intensified the 

cleanliness operation at 

the railway platforms. 

Spots that used to remain 

unclean and filthy until a 

few days ago have been 

spruced up for now. 

Goods/equipment worth lakhs gutted 

in two separate Industrial fire incidents 

Pic : Jaydeep Bhatt 

Holi revelries began in Surat from Monday. Students of Gurukul school participating in a drum march 

within the school campus. 

Surat 


Goods and equipments worth 

lakhs of rupees burnt in two incidents 

of Industrial fire in different 

areas of Surat district in the 

wee hours today. 

Fire control office today said 

that a major fire broke out in a 

dyeing mill in the GIDC area 

near Mota Borsara under Mangrol 

taluka of Surat district. 

Four fire fighting vehicles could 

control the fire after four hours 

of operation but equipment and 

textile material worth lakhs of 

rupees was burnt and damaged in 

the incident. 

The other such incident took 

place almost an hour after the 

midnight in a yarn waste godown 

situated beside Kim-Kudasad 

road near Kim town. The 

blaze was so strong that the godown 

burnt completely. 

The exact reason behind both 

the incidents was being investigated 

though prima facie electric 

short-circuit is being held responsible 

for the incidents. 

No casualty has been reported 

in the fire mishaps.

March 22, 2016

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