ULAN BATOR, May 17:
India today announced a USD one billion credit line to Mongolia for infrastructure development as they upgraded their ties to “Strategic Partnership” and agreed to deepen defence cooperation besides exploring potential for tie ups in areas like the civil nuclear sector.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Mongolia, the first ever by an Indian Premier, held wide- ranging discussions with his Mongolian counterpart Chimed Saikhanbileg and the two leaders pledged to take bilateral economic partnership to a new level.
“I am pleased to announce that India will provide a Line of Credit of USD one billion to support expansion of Mongolia’s economic capacity and infrastructure,” Modi said at a joint press interaction with Saikhanbileg at the State Palace here.
“Today, Mongolia is also an integral part of India’s Act East Policy,” he said. “The destinies of India and Mongolia are closely linked with the future of Asia Pacific region. We can work together to help advance peace, stability and prosperity in this region.”
After their talks, the two Prime Ministers signed a joint statement committing to further consolidate bilateral ties and upgrade the comprehensive partnership to “strategic partnership” and agreed to renew their Treaty of Friendly Relations and Cooperation.
The two sides inked 13 other pacts that includes one on enhancing cooperation in border guarding, policing and surveillance, air services, cyber security and new and renewable energy.
Stating that it was a great honour to be the first Prime Minister of India to visit Mangolia, Modi said, “It is a special privilege to come on the occasion of two important milestones that unite us – 25 years of democracy in Mongolia and 60 years of diplomatic relations between our two nations.”
“I was very pleased with my discussions with Prime Minister today. We have strong convergence of views on bilateral relations and our regional and international partnership,” he said.
“The agreements that we have just signed speak to the depth of the relationship. These cover economic relations, development partnership, defence and security, and people-to-people contacts,” the Prime Minister added.
Modi also called on President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj and discussed bilateral ties and issues of mutual interests.
India and Mongolia support the evolution of open, balanced and inclusive security architecture in the Asia Pacific region based on collected efforts, considering legitimate interests of all states of the region guided by respect for norms and principles of international law, the joint statement said.
Prime Minister Modi later addressed the State Great Hural, the Mongolian Parliament, which was specially convened today on a holiday for the first time for a foreign leader.
“Our security cooperation is growing. We can learn a great deal from each other. No one can doubt the well-known skills of Mongols! We are proud to conduct defence exercises together. And, I am pleased that we have signed agreements today to cooperate more closely on border security and cyber security,” he told the lawmakers.
He said India will also help establish a cyber security centre in Mongolia’s defence and security establishment.
Asia “is a continent that is expected to lead the world in the 21st century… Yet, this is also a region that lives on the uneasy edge of uncertainty, of unsettled questions, of unresolved disputes and of unforgotten memories,” he said.
In the joint statement, Modi and Saikhanbileg said the nature and spread of terrorism posed a threat to all humanity and required global resolve and cooperative measures of the world community without double standards or selectivity.
They agreed to direct concerned officials to work together for the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. They hoped that all safe havens and sanctuaries for terrorists will be wiped out without delay.
A treaty was inked by the two sides on the transfer of sentenced persons.
On economic cooperation, Modi and Saikhanbileg agreed to encourage development of equal and mutually beneficial trade, investment and economic cooperation, which is balanced, sustainable and leads to prosperity in both countries.
The two leaders agreed to encourage Indian companies to further explore cooperation opportunities in Mongolia’s mining sector through joint ventures and investment.
The Prime Minister said the convergence of Buddhism and democracy provided the two countries a path to build an Asia of peace and cooperation, harmony and equality. “This is a region that has woken up to its reality,” he said. (PTI)
India grants USD 1 bln credit to Mongolia;deepens defence ties
Sanjay’s hat-trick helps COA drub Hockey Patiala to lift 5th Sub Jr Hockey title
*Hockey Madhya Pradesh wins 3rd place
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, May 17: The 5th Sub Junior National Hockey Championship 2015 (Men) ‘B’ Division concluded today, with Chandigarh Olympic Association (COA) emerging as the title winner, defeating Hockey Patiala by 6-4 in the summit clash.
Hockey Madhya Pradesh secured the third position after a hard fought battle against Dadra & Nagar Haveli Hockey Association which concluded with a shoot-out phase 5-3 (2-2) in favour of Hockey Madhya Pradesh.
Earlier, in the final match, Chandigarh Olympic Association outplayed Hockey Patiala by 6-4 with the help of Sanjay’s spectacular hat-trick. Chandigarh controlled the match from the first minute and earned a penalty corner in 2nd minute of the match.
Sanjay took the shot and hit it hard into the goal-box for his team’s first goal. Sabjodh Singh extended the lead by 2-0 in the 5th minute when he sneaked into opponent’s half and scored a brilliant goal.
After conceding two goals, Patiala counter attacked on Chandigarh’s half in the 18th minute as Prateek Sharma led the attack from the front. He dribbled-past the Chandigarh’s defenders and sent the ball into the nets to score the first goal for his team. Chandigarh charged back and earned another penalty corner in 24th minute, which was perfectly converted by Jaspreet Singh. His team-mate Sanjay increased the lead by 4-1, when he entered the D with his surprising speed and scored another spectacular goal. Patiala kept-on attacking on their opponents and tried to create maximum opportunities to score goals. They managed to earn a penalty stroke in 41st minute, which was effectively converted by Harinder Singh for their second goal. However in the 45th minute, Chandigarh earned another penalty corner and Mandeep converted it with his superb skills. His team-mate Sanjay stroke back again in the 50th minute and scored the 6th goal for his team. Trailing by 2-6, Patiala pushed themselves harder to level the score-line and they continued attacking game. In 52nd minute, they earned a penalty stroke, which was converted by the specialist Harinder with an ease. After a nail-biting tussle in the last minutes, they earned a penalty corner in the 66th minute, which was converted by Prince to score their fourth goal. With the marvellous team-work and aggressive strategies, Chandigarh Olympic Association defeated Hockey Patiala by 6-4 and won the championship.
Earlier in the day, the hard line clash between Hockey Madhya Pradesh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Hockey Association was a neck to neck competition ending with a shoot-out phase in favour of Hockey Madhya Pradesh with (5-3).
Minister for Social Welfare and Forest, Bali Bhagat was the chief guest on the valedictory, who distributed prizes among the winners and runners-up teams. He was accompanied by a galaxy of dignitaries present on the occasion including SM Sahai, ADGP Armed and working president of the Association; Devinder Batra, chairman Batra Group; Danesh Rana, IGP Jammu; Shakeel Beig, DIG Jammu, SS Wazir, Ex. ADGP and Ranjeet Kalra, member BCCI and J&K State Sports Council.
RCB through to play-offs after match called off
Bangalore, May 17:
Royal Challengers Bangalore today entered the play-offs of the Indian Premier League season eight after their last league match against Delhi Daredevils was called off due to heavy rains.
In a rain-interrupted game, another round of heavy downpour stopped the proceedings in the second over of RCB’s run-chase when they were two for no loss while chasing 188 for victory here at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Finally the penultimate round robin league encounter of the IPL cricket tournament was called off at 7:35 pm, handing the Bangalore outfit a place in the play-offs with 16 points.
Earlier, put in to bat, Quinton de Kock’s early blitzkrieg and solid batting from captain JP Duminy propelled Delhi Daredevils to a competitive 187 for five.
When DD batted, De Kock hit nine fours and three sixes during his 39-ball-69 while Duminy decorated his 43-ball unbeaten innings of 67 with four boundaries and three huge hits over the fence.
De Kock and Duminy’s exhilarating strokeplay enthralled the spectators to their delight.
If De Kock’s innings was all about splendid batsmanship, Duminy’s was elegance personified.
While De Kock blazed to his half-century in 30 balls, Duminy paced his innings splendidly and completed his half-century in 35 deliveries.
A decent opening stand of 55 earlier was provided by openers De Kock and Shreyas Iyer (20 off 18 balls). Iyer was guilty of not getting to a big score after getting his eye in.
After the departure of Iyer, De Kock and Duminy combined forces to take the total to 110 in 11.2 balls at the packed Chinnaswamy stadium.
RCB skipper Virat Kohli made right bowling changes and reaped rewards. Harshal Patel snapped up the wickets of Iyer and Kedar Jadhav (0) while giving away 30 runs in four overs, while the other two wickets were claimed by leggie Yuzuvendra Chahal, who claimed the wickets of De Kock and an out-of-form Yuvraj Singh (11).
Initially, left-handed De Kock was the more aggressive of the two openers as he blazed through lifting the ball with great force on the leg side and cutting and driving in front of the wickets for exquisite boundaries.
The diminutive South African batsman struck David Weise for a six and two boundaries off successive balls in ninth over of the innings.
Later in the 11th over, De Kock got couple of more sixes and a four in one from Ashoke Dinda. (PTI)
Afghan military captain gets Indian hands in transplant
KOCHI, May 17:
A 30-year-old Afghan military captain from Kandahar, who lost his hands while defusing mines in the war-torn country, now has two Indian hands – thanks to a successful transplant carried out an institute here.
Abdul Rahim lost both his hands during demining operations in Kandahar three years ago. His will be perhaps the first case of twin-hand transplant on any citizen in Afghanistan.
Abdul Rahim approached Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences four months ago, after scouting for hand transplant in several countries. The donor was a 54-year-old brain dead accident victim from Kerala.
The transplant was carried out in a marathon surgical procedure lasting for almost 15 hours with more than 20 surgeons and eight anaesthetics participating in it last month.
“Rahim has regained considerable amount of function of both his hands using them for day-to-day activities. He will need intensive physiotherapy for another 9 to 10 months, for which he will have to stay back in Kochi,” said Subramania Iyer, Professor and Head of the Plastic Surgery department.
“Each hand required connecting two bones, two arteries, four veins and about 14 tendons. The immune suppressant drugs were started before the start of the surgery and continued after it,” he said.
Prem Nair, Medical Director of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre said, the family of the accident victim was counselled for the donation and they agreed after confirming that the hands will be replaced by prosthetic limbs to reduce deformity of the dead.
The hospital authorities claimed the second successful double hands transplant carried out at AIMS is yet another milestone in organ transplant in the country.
The first such transplant in the country was also done four months ago at the Kochi-based hospital and the recipient, 30-year-old Manu is progressing extremely well, doing all routine activities, they said. (PTI)
Arun Sharma launches Cong membership drive
Excelsior Correspondent
VIJAYPUR, May 17: Senior Congress leader Arun Sharma today launched the party membership drive in Vijaypur Assembly constituency and enrolled a number of people of different age group in the Congress fold.
Mr Sharma distributed the membership slips among the party delegates and asked them to approach the people at booth level for making them aware to join the Congress party. He stressed that the Congress was the only party in India which can provide justice to the poor and down trodden people.
“The Congress party believe in secularism and overall development of all people, irrespective of caste, creed, religion and region,” he said and highlighted the contribution of Congress leaders in national building.
Other who were present on the occasion, included Bishember Singh Slathia, Capt Bholla Ram, Darshan Singh, Dr Ram Murti, Rajesh Kumar, Gulshan Lal, Dr Chhajju Ram, Hem Raj, Dev Raj, Parvinder Singh and Omkar Singh.
Contractual lecturers demand continuation of services
Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, May 17: A meeting of district unit of All J&K Contractual Lecturers’ Association was held at Bhagat Singh Park, where the participants pressed the Government to allow them to continue their services.
The meeting was presided over by district vice-president of the association, Kanchan Bala and was attended by a large number of contractual lecturers.
While speaking on the occasion, Kanchan Bala said that despite serving the Education Department for more than 12 years, Government used to pay deaf ears to their demands. She said that in the year 2010, Government had framed a policy called Civil Services Special Provisions Act 2010 for the regularization of all the ad-hoc, contractual and consolidated employees after seven years of service, but they have been debarred from their rights till date.
Kanchan said that even after the instruction issued by the Education Minister, Naeem Akhtar, the contractual lecturers have not been continued on the same posts, though the termination order issued by the Government is not applicable on them, as they were appointed before the passing of the Civil Services Special Provisions Act 2010.
Alleging that neither they have been regularized nor their salaries enhanced till date, Kanchan appealed the Government to look into the matter seriously and consider them for regularization, and till then they be allowed to continue.
Telemedicine project to help treat wounded Navy personnel on ships
NEW DELHI, May 17:
Treating severely wounded personnel on board Indian Navy ships will be easier now as specialists sitting far away can advise the best possible treatment through video-conferencing via India’s military satellite ‘Rukmini’.
The Government has recently sanctioned a Rs 61.59-crore telemedicine project for the Navy.
“It would bring a revolutionary change in attending to severely injured patients in remote locations where a specialist is not available,” a senior Navy official said.
Explaining the concept, he said while a doctor and a medical team is always on board when a ship sails out, specialists are available mainly on the bases.
“At present, if there is an accident and a person is severely injured, he is stabilised and taken by air to the command hospital or is transferred to a bigger ship if one is available.
“With telemedicine, a super specialists like a neurosurgeon can see the reports and other details on his computer and give step by step directions to the general doctor on board via video conferencing,” the official said.
The Navy at present has 133 ships, over 200 aircraft and 13 submarines. The force has a strength of 600 doctors, of which specialists would be around 300 and super-specialists around 100.
While doctors are on board the ships, the specialist and super-specialists are mostly based on land. The Navy currently has three medical facilities on land.
The main is INS Ashwini in Mumbai which has the status of a Command Hospital. The other two are INS Sanjivani in Kerala and INS Kalyani in Visakhapatnam.
“Telemedicine would be facilitated through Rukmini,” Navy sources said. (PTI)
Gujjars demand legal safeguard for tribal courts
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 17: Gujjar and Bakerwal communities of Jammu and Kashmir have appealed to the lawmakers to provide a legal safeguard to their tribal courts known as ‘Jirgas’ by introducing an Act at national and State level.
“We have written a letter, signed by Tribal dignitaries, to the Union Law Minister urging him to preserve and protect the tribal courts,” Dr Javid Rahi, Secretary of the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation (TRCF) said.
He said that “Jirgas” which are active in mountainous ranges of Northwestern Himalaya and were time tested and aged old traditional law institutions, will become extinct if steps were not taken to safe them under legal framework.
“We wrote to Union Law Ministry and informed it that this oldest popular system of justice is facing multi-dimensional threats from all sides and this tradition needs immediate legal recognitions otherwise it will become extinct in next few decades,” he said.
He said the TRCF made an appeal to the Union Law Minister for enactment of an Act to protect Jirgas in Jammu and Kashmir and other Northwestern States in the country where Gujjars resides.
The letter further reads that lakhs of Gujjar-Bakerwals in Jammu and Kashmir and other Northwestern States still believe and practice traditional Jirga system headed by ‘Muqadams’, an elderly tribal which takes decisions on various issues by consensus.
Some Gujjar women called “Mahries” also head Jirgas in some remotest pockets of the state, the letter read.
It further reads that these tribal courts are effective, powerful, prompt, inexpensive and available at doorsteps but lack legal sanctity.
Due to unavailability of legal protections, the Gujjar- Bakerwal Jirgas are unable to interfere into criminal cases but they decide almost all other major ticklish disputes, including lands and assets issues, family disputes, theft cases or other issues related to the tribes, the letter read.
Kashmir goldmine of unexplored tourism potential: Akhtar
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 17: Reiterating the commitment of the Government to promote the unexplored tourist destinations in Jammu and Kashmir, Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar has said J&K’s tourism potential has immense scope for growth and the same would be fully harnessed through multifaceted approach.
Addressing an impressive gathering of dignitaries at “J&K Travel Mart-2015” being organized by the Tourism Department at SKICC here, the Minister said the Government will focus on the promotion of eco-tourism, village tourism, adventure tourism and heritage tourism, which have remained unexplored. He said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has already expressed his commitment to promote all the unexplored areas of tourism potential across the State and a roadmap for the same has already been given shape.
Seeking help of all stakeholders to make Jammu and Kashmir the most preferred tourism destination, the Minister said the Government will create conducive environment for all categories of tourist players. He said the Chief Minister himself visited Mumbai to invite the film makers to re-invent Kashmir for shooting, for which the Government will facilitate them fully. He said Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Sonamarg and Yousmarg are the world famous tourist destinations, which will be further equipped with high-end tourism infrastructure.
Referring to the unexplored potential of Srinagar city, Naeem said that Srinagar is the goldmine of unexplored heritage tourism where age old shrines of sufi saints are existing in their original form. The Government will focus on developing heritage, village, adventure and eco-tourism with the active involvement of local people. The move will attract large number of tourists from various parts of the world, which will give a boost to the economic activities as also generate job opportunities, said the Minister.
He called upon the Department of Tourism to make constant efforts to organize such events which provide opportunities to the stakeholders to exchange their ideas on the promotion of tourism and filling the gaps. He hoped that a large number of tourists will visit Jammu and Kashmir this year in the changed environment.
Director Tourism, Kashmir, Farooq Shah deliberated on the initiatives which the Government has taken for promotion of tourism.
Bihar Assembly polls possible in Sept-Oct: CEC
NEW DELHI, May 17:
Assembly elections in Bihar, where BJP is set for a battle against a united Janata Parivar, are likely to be held sometime in September-October when extensive central forces and a reworked expenditure monitoring system will be deployed to curb money and muscle power.
The electoral rolls will be ready on July 31, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said, terming the polls in Bihar as “mother of all elections”.
Going by precedents, the election timings would be somewhere in September or October, he said, adding they are yet to begin the process on finalising a schedule.
He said the EC will have to take into account weather conditions, festivals, exams, holidays, heavy monsoon, heavy rains and floods before arriving at exact schedule.
Zaidi also refused to go into the number of phases in which the assembly polls will be held.
“Abuse of money is a big problem in Bihar. Therefore, this time we are going in for more systematic efforts. Certain legal amendments are yet to come from the Law Ministry. But within our powers, we have launched expenditure monitoring,” Zaidi said in an interview.
He said the EC has undertaken mapping of all constituencies of Bihar into three categories. Where EC finds maximum sensitivity, it plans to deploy central police forces “well in time.”
“…We will identify this time persons who serve as a channel for distributing bribe or for distribution of liquor, distribution of gifts. This assessment is still going on and we hope to come up with a re-strategised expenditure monitoring which we will roll out at an appropriate time,” he said.
The Commission would be using voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) in 36 of the 243 assembly constituencies. The CEC said the number of such constituencies could increase.
VVPAT is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. An EVM will have a small attachment to it which after pressing the button for a desired candidate, will print that name on a paper. It will be stored inside the machine and can be used in case of any controversy over the final result.
Considering left-wing extremism that affects parts of the state, he said an assessment of central paramilitary forces is also going on.
“Because this is a stand alone election, I hope sufficient, adequate paramilitary forces will be made available. We will come out with a strategy on this.”
Asked if he could specify the number of personnel in terms of companies, Zaidi said at an appropriate time the Commission will come out with a number. (PTI)