General Bikram Singh headed for Sri Lanka to bolster bilateral military ties

NEW DELHI: Continuing with the upward trajectory in bilateral military ties with Sri Lanka, General Bikram Singh will be leaving for Colombo on Wednesday. Apart from top political and defence officials, the Army chief will also meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his four-day visit. Gen Singh will also be the chief guest at the passing out parade of the Sri Lankan Military Academy at Diyatalawa on December 22, apart from visiting other military establishments.

The last visit by the Indian Army chief to the island nation was in September 2010. The Indian government is trying to strike a fine balance between larger strategic considerations, in the backdrop of China making steady inroads into Sri Lanka, and domestic political considerations because discrimination against Sri Lankan Tamils by the majority Sinhalese in the island nation continues to be a hugely emotive issue in Tamil Nadu. Earlier this year, the UPA-II government had been forced to shift 27 Sri Lankan military personnel being trained at the Tambaram airbase near Chennai to neighbouring Karnataka after political parties in Tamil Nadu had kicked up a ruckus.

Though India trains soldiers from several countries, ranging from Maldives, Mauritius and Mongolia to Botswana, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the facilities extended to Sri Lanka are much more. Around 800 to 900 Sri Lankan military personnel are trained in different Indian military establishments every year. The Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, for instance, has even run 'special courses' to train hundreds of 'gentlemen cadets'' from Sri Lanka.

India has trained thousands of Sri Lankan personnel over the last several years at its military institutions ranging from Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte (Mizoram) to School of Artillery at Devlali (Maharashtra), apart from providing specialised naval courses in gunnery, navigation, communication and anti-submarine warfare. Even when the Sri Lankan forces were earlier battling the LTTE, India had provided some largely defensive military equipment like L-70 guns, battle-field surveillance radars, Indra-II radars and mine-protected vehicles to Sri Lanka.

The two nations had also cooperated in intelligence sharing and undertaken 'coordinated' naval patrolling. Continuing with this diplomatic and military engagement, India and Sri Lanka in September-November last year had also held their first major naval combat exercise SLINEX-11'' in six years, with a total of 16 warships off Trincomalee. The Indian Navy, in recent times, has also done hydrographic surveys and salvage operations for Sri Lanka.

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee


On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

Although the mountain is located on the nearside of the moon, there won't be any pictures because the area will be shadowed, according to a statement from NASA' Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Originally sent to map the moon's gravity field, Ebb and Flow join a long list of man-made objects that have succumbed to a deadly lunar attraction. Decades of exploration have left a trail of debris intentionally crashed, accidentally hurtled, or deliberately left on the moon's surface. Some notable examples include:

Ranger 4 - Part of NASA's first attempt to snap close-up pictures of the moon, the Ranger program did not start off well. Rangers 1 through 6 all failed, although Ranger 4, launched April 23, 1962, did make it as far as the moon. Sadly, onboard computer failures kept number 4 from sending back any pictures before it crashed. (See a map of all artifacts on the moon.)

Fallen astronaut statue - This 3.5-inch-tall aluminum figure commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died prior to the Apollo 15 mission. That crew left it behind in 1971, and NASA wasn't aware of what the astronauts had done until a post-flight press conference.

Lunar yard sale - Objects jettisoned by Apollo crews over the years include a television camera, earplugs, two "urine collection assemblies," and tools that include tongs and a hammer. Astronauts left them because they needed to shed weight in order to make it back to Earth on their remaining fuel supply, said archivist Colin Fries of the NASA History Program Office.

Luna 10 - A Soviet satellite that crashed after successfully orbiting the moon, Luna 10 was the first man-made object to orbit a celestial body other than Earth. Its Russian controllers had programmed it to broadcast the Communist anthem "Internationale" live to the Communist Party Congress on April 4, 1966. Worried that the live broadcast could fail, they decided to broadcast a recording of the satellite's test run the night before—a fact they revealed 30 years later.

Radio Astronomy Explorer B - The U.S. launched this enormous instrument, also known as Explorer 49, into a lunar orbit in 1973. At 600 feet (183 meters) across, it's the largest man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Researchers sent it into its lunar orbit so it could take measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy free from terrestrial radio interference. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 1977, and it's presumed to have crashed into the moon.

(Learn about lunar exploration.)


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Siblings of Sandy Hook Victims Face Survivor's Guilt













Six-year-old Arielle Pozner was in a classroom at Sandy Hook school when Adam Lanza burst into the school with his rifle and handguns. Her twin brother, Noah, was in a classroom down the hall.


Noah Pozner was killed by Lanza, along with 19 other children at the school, and six adults. Arielle and other students' siblings survived.


"That's going to be incredibly difficult to cope with," said Dr. Jamie Howard, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute in New York. "It is not something we expect her to cope with today and be OK with tomorrow."


READ: Two Adult Survivors of Connecticut School Shooting Will be Key Witnesses


As the community of Newtown, Conn., begins to bury the young victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting today, the equally young siblings of those killed will only be starting to comprehend what happened to their brothers and sisters.


"Children this young do experience depression in a diagnosable way, they do experience post-traumatic stress disorder. Just because they're young, they don't escape the potential for real suffering," said Rahil Briggs, a child psychologist and professor at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.






Spencer Platt/Getty Images













President Obama on Newtown Shooting: 'We Must Change' Watch Video









Newtown Shooter's Former Babysitter 'Sick to My Stomach' Watch Video





Arielle and other survivor siblings could develop anxiety or other emotional reactions to their siblings' death, including "associative logic," where they associate their own actions with their sibling's death, Howard said.


"This is when two things happen, and (children) infer that one thing caused the other. (Arielle) may be at risk for that type of magical thinking, and that could be where survivor's guilt comes in. She may think she did something, but of course she didn't," Howard said.


CLICK HERE for photos from the shooting scene.


Children in families where one sibling has died sometimes struggle as their parents are overwhelmed by grief, Howard noted. When that death is traumatic, adults and children sometimes choose not to think about the person or the event to avoid pain.


Interested in How to Help Newtown Families?


"With traumatic grief, it's really important to talk about and think about the children that died, not to avoid talking and thinking about them because that interferes with grieving process, want their lives to be celebrated," Howard said.


Children may also have difficulty understanding why their deceased brother or sister is receiving so much, or so little, attention, according Briggs.


"I think one of the most challenging questions we can be faced with as parents is how to 'appropriately' remember a child that is gone. So much that can go wrong with that," Briggs said. "You have the child who is fortunate enough to escape, who thinks 'Why me? Why did my brother go?' But if you don't remember the sibling enough the child says 'it seems like we've forgotten my brother.'"


"They may even find themselves feeling jealous of all the attention the sibling seems to be receiving," Briggs said.


Parents and other adults in the family's support system need to be on alert, watching the child's behavior, she said. Children could show signs of withdrawing, or seeming spacy or in a daze. They could also seem jumpy or have difficulty concentrating in the wake of a traumatic event.


"For kids experiencing symptoms, and interfering with ability to go to school, they may be suffering from acute stress disorder, and there are good treatments," Howard said.






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Federal judges go to court over pay



The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in October ordered Congress to pay six federal judges years of back pay. Now, a group of federal judges is pushing a class-action lawsuit to ensure that all the other federal judges who missed out on ­cost-of-living increases get their due.

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Delhi rape highlights chronic women's safety issues in India






NEW DELHI: A weekend trip to the movies for a medical student in her twenties and her male friend ended in horrifying brutality on Sunday night.

She was harassed and then gang raped on a moving bus. Her friend tried to intervene but was beaten up with an iron rod. The two were later thrown from the vehicle, semi naked.

The woman is now in critical condition in a New Delhi hospital suffering from head injuries, cuts, as well as sexual assault wounds.

"Five to seven people started harassing her. The boy protested and made every effort to come to her aid, but some people caught hold of him. Then three to four people took her and gang raped her in the cabin of the bus," said D.K. Mishra, a relative of girl's male friend.

Whilst tragic and very disturbing, incidents such as this are becoming far too common in the Indian capital.

Reactions from politicians are also becoming increasingly similar.

Opposition politicians blamed the party in power for not doing enough to protect women, while the chief minister of Delhi said her government would do whatever it took to make sure such incidents do not happen again.

"The stringent actions required will be taken, not just in this incident but precautionary measures will also be taken to prevent such incidents from happening in the future," said Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit.

However that often-heard promise begins to sound hollow when the records of rape cases are analysed.

According to National Crime Records Bureau, 568 cases of rape were registered in New Delhi in 2011.

"If women are not safe here, then where ever in the country you can imagine a woman be safe? No parent can sleep in peace if this is the kind of situation which is developing in our capital," said Ranjana Kumari, Director of the Centre for Social Research.

India's other major cities are not far behind. Entertainment and financial hub Mumbai is second on the list with 218 cases.

One also has to bear in mind that these numbers are just cases which are registered. Many more cases in the cities and throughout the country are never registered.

There are laws to protect the rights of women but rape case statistics point to a very disappointing lack of enforcement borne out of deep-rooted social attitudes.

- CNA/jc



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NDA's PM candidate should be from BJP: Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Monday said only a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader will be the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"A BJP leader will be the NDA's prime ministerial candidate," Nitish Kumar said here.

A day after the BJP ruled out the possibility of Nitish Kumar becoming the NDA's prime ministerial candidate, he said he was never a contender for the post.

Nitish Kumar refused to comment on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate.

Earlier, he and his party, the Janata Dal-United, had expressed strong reservations about Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

Nitish Kumar had said earlier that it would not take a minute for his party to break ties with the BJP if the latter projected Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

He had also objected to his photographs with Modi in newspaper advertisements during the BJP national executive meeting in Patna in June 2010.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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Newtown Victims: 'Hero' Teacher, Principal, 20 Kids





Twenty bright first graders with their entire lives ahead of them were gunned down on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Along with the students, the lives of six school staffers, including a devoted teacher and a proud principal, were lost. Click through to see the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School.






Noah Pozner and his twin sister celebrated their sixth birthdays on Nov. 20. His sister, Arielle, who was in another class, survived.


Pozner's uncle Alexis Haller told The Associated Press that he was "smart as a whip," gentle but with a rambunctious streak.


Haller told the AP that Pozner called Arielle his best friend.


"They were always playing together, they loved to do things together," Haller said. When his mother, a nurse, would tell him she loved him, he would answer, "Not as much as I love you, Mom."


Funeral services Pozner are planned for Monday.



Emilie Parker, the little girl with the blond hair and bright blue eyes, would have been one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman's bullets not claimed her life, her father said.


"My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that's the kind of kid she is," her father, Robbie Parker said as he fought back tears, telling the world about his "bright, creative and loving" daughter who was one of the 20 young victims in the Newtown, Conn., shooting.


"She always had something kind to say about anybody," her father said. "We find comfort reflecting on the incredible person Emilie was and how many lives she was able to touch."


Emilie was a budding artist who carried her markers and pencils everywhere. Her grandfather recently passed away and Emilie paid tribute to him by slipping a special card she had drawn into his casket, her father said.



WATCH: Emilie's father speaks about his daughter



Jack's funeral is scheduled to take place Monday.
Jack was a fan of New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who paid tribute to the 6-year-old during Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons.


Cruz honored Jack Sunday on his cleats, writing on them the words "Jack Pinto, My Hero."


"I also spoke to an older brother and he was distraught as well. I told him to stay strong and I was going to do whatever I can to honor him," Cruz said after the game. "He was fighting tears and could barely speak to me."
Cruz said he plans to give the gloves he wore during the game to the boy's family, and spend some time with them.


The family released a statement saying, Jack was an "inspiration to all those who knew him."


"Jack loved school, reading, wrestling, skiing and football. Most of all Jack loved to play with his friends and keep up with his big brother," said his family. "He had a wide smile that would simply light up the room and while we are all uncertain as to how we will ever cope without him, we choose to remember and celebrate his life. Not dwelling on the loss but instead on the gift that we were given and will forever cherish in our hearts forever."



Like most first graders, Jesse Lewis was excited for the holiday season. The 6-year-old, who was in Victoria Soto's class, couldn't wait to go to school on Friday because they were making gingerbread houses, and his father had planned to join them.



Victoria Soto, 27, one of the adult victims, loved being a teacher, her cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News' Chris Cuomo Friday. In fact, her first-grade students' safety was such a high priority that Soto reportedly lost her life protecting them.


"The family was informed that she was trying to shield, get her children into a closet and protect them from harm, and by doing that put herself between the gunman and the children," Wiltsie said. "And that's when she was tragically shot and killed.


"I'm very proud to have known Vicki," Wiltsie added. "Her life dream was to be a teacher. And her instincts kicked in when she saw there was harm coming to her students.


"It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children," he said. "And in our eyes, she is a hero."

Grace Audrey McDonnell, 7


"We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from so many people. Our daughter Grace was the love and light of our family. Words cannot adequately express our sense of loss."



As with so many, the ABC family has been touched directly by the tragedy in Sandy Hook.


One of the young victims, Catherine Hubbard, is the niece of an ABC News employee.


Here is a statement from the family:
"We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy.


"We appreciate the overwhelming support from our community that we have received over the past 24 hours.
"We also wish to express our gratitude for all of the emergency responders who responded to this tragic incident as well as the teachers and staff of Sandy Hook School. Our local police and fire departments and the other agencies who are working on this continuing investigation have been incredible.


"We also want to recognize outstanding work of The Connecticut State Police who have been supporting us from the very beginning of this ordeal and continue to provide unwavering support to our family.


"We have no further statement to make at this time and ask that we be afforded the opportunity to grieve with our friends and family.


"We ask that you continue to pray for us and the other families who have experienced loss in this tragedy.


"Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard"



Hochsprung became principal of Sandy Hook in recent years and by all accounts, was devoted to the students and teachers at her school.


"When we had our orientation, you could tell she loved her job," Brenda Lediski, a parent, told ABC News by phone.


Kristin Larson, a former PTA secretary, told the Boston Globe that Hochsprung was "always enthusiastic, always smiling, always game to do anything."


"When I saw her at the beginning of the school year, she was hugging everyone," Larson said.


The terrifying moment Hochsprung came into contact with the gunman were heard over the school intercom and may have saved lives.


It's not clear whether the intercom was turned on purposefully to alert the school's staff to the menace or whether the intercom was on for morning announcements.


Either way, it caught the initial moments of Adam Lanza's lethal fury and gave teachers and others life saving moments to lock their doors and try to hide their children.

Mary Sherlach, School Psychologist


Sherlach had been a school psychologist at Sandy Hook since August of 1994 and had experience working on committees devoted to school safety, according to her website.


Sherlach and her husband, Bill, had been married for 31 years and have two adult daughters.


"I truly enjoy working with the SHS staff, parents and children," she wrote. "And am always ready to assist in problem solving , intervention and prevention."


Her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz, said Sherlach felt she was "doing God's work by helping children."



Lauren Rousseau worked as a substitute teacher before landing a full time position this year at Sandy Hook Elementary School. For the 30-year-old, it was a dream job.


"We will miss her terribly," Lauren's mother, Teresa Rousseau , told the Delaware County Times. "And will take comfort knowing that she had achieved that dream."



The 6-year-old was just learning the rosary and would lead the family in grace every night before dinner, the New Haven Register reported. Her favorite colors were pink and purple. She leaves behind a 3-year-old brother.


Her family released a statement describing Olivia as "creative" and a fan of craft projects and art class. She was a patient big sister to 3-year old Brayden and would lead Grace each evening at the dinner table, according to her father, Brian.


"Olivia was smart, bubbly, and unbelievably entertaining. Her physical loss will be felt every day by those who loved her most, but her sparkly spirit will live on," the statement read.



D'Avino was a behavioral therapist who had only recently started working at Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to Lissa Lovetere, a friend who is handling her funeral planned for Friday.


D'Avino's boyfriend, Anthony Cerritelli, planned to ask her to marry him on Christmas Eve, Lovetere told The Associated Press.


Police told her family that she shielded one of the students during the rampage, Lovetere told the AP.



Jessica's parents, Rich and Krista Rekos, released a statement describing their daughter's love of horses. When she turned 10, they promised, she could have a horse of her own. For Christmas, she asked Santa for new cowgirl boots and hat.


"She devoted her free time to watching horse movies, reading horse books, drawing horses, and writing stories about horses," her family said in the statement.


The family described Jessica as "a creative, beautiful little girl who loved playing with her little brothers, Travis and Shane.


"We cannot imagine our life without her. We are mourning her loss, sharing our beautiful memories we have of her, and trying to help her brother Travis understand why he can't play with his best friend," they said.



The 6-year-old, with her beaming smile, was the daughter of a jazz musician. She sang in a home video with her brother, who was also at Sandy Hook Elementary School during the massacre.


The girl's grandmother, Elba Marquez, told The Associated Press the family moved to Connecticut just two months ago, drawn from Canada, in part, by Sandy Hook's sterling reputation. The grandmother's brother, Jorge Marquez, is mayor of a Puerto Rican town.



Charlotte's parents, Joann and Joel, had lived in Newtown for four or five years, Joann's brother John Hagen, of Nisswa, Minn., told Newsday.


"She was going to go some places in this world," Hagen told the newspaper. "This little girl could light up the room for anyone."



Daniel was the youngest of three children, his family said in a statement. The family described Daniel as "fearless in the pursuit of happiness in life."


"Words really cannot express what a special boy Daniel was. Such a light. Always smiling, unfailingly polite, incredibly affectionate, fair and so thoughtful towards others, imaginative in play, both intelligent and articulate in conversation: in all, a constant source of laughter and joy," the family said.



Josephine's father, Bob, said Sunday that the family will be releasing a statement soon.



"You couldn't think of a better child," neighbor Kevin Grimes told The Associated Press.


Grimes told the AP that he was recently speaking with Chase and the little boy was telling him about winning his first mini-triathlon.



James' mother, Cindy, is a native of Sherrill, N.Y.


"It's a terrible tragedy, and we're a tight community," Mayor William Vineall told the Utica Observer-Dispatch. "Everybody will be there for them, and our thoughts and prayers are there for them," he added.

Victims of Sandy Hook Shooting


As more information and images emerge of the victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in coming days, here are the names of the other students and staffers killed:


Madeleine Hsu, 6


Dylan Hockley, 6


Anne Marie Murphy, 52


Caroline Previdi, 6


Avielle Richman, 6


Benjamin Wheeler, 6


Allison Wyatt, 6


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Russia police say anti-Putin protesters freed






MOSCOW: Russian police said on Sunday they had released some 40 people detained during a banned protest against Vladimir Putin, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Braving freezing cold and the threat of heavy fines, hundreds of people defied the authorities on Saturday to gather at Moscow's Lubyanka Square, the seat of the FSB security services, to mark one year since the start of unprecedented anti-Putin protests triggered by fraud-tainted parliamentary polls last December.

Police said around 40 people had been detained at the rally, including star anti-corruption blogger Navalny; Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of leftist group the Left Front; Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Putin's late mentor Anatoly Sobchak; and well-known activist Ilya Yashin.

"All those detained have been released," a Moscow police spokesman told AFP on Sunday, declining to provide any other details.

The opposition had originally planned a march through the city centre, but for the first time since the start of the anti-Putin protests, organisers were unable to get permission from city authorities.

On the eve of the planned event, they urged their supporters to simply show up at Lubyanka Square.

Authorities said that because the rally was unauthorised, its participants would face the threat of jail or fines of up to 300,000 rubles (US$9,700), nearly equal to the annual average salary in Russia.

According to police, 700 people showed up, over 300 of them journalists and bloggers. Participants say a few thousand poured into the square, many of them with flowers they laid at a monument to victims of Stalin-era purges.

Udaltsov said some 5,000 were in attendance.

Observers say the opposition movement is struggling to maintain momentum in the face of the authorities' tough crackdown on dissenters since Putin's return to the Kremlin in May and internal divisions between liberals, leftists and nationalists.

Up to 120,000 people gathered near the Kremlin walls at the peak of the protests last winter.

While some observers said Saturday's rally proved that many people were undeterred by the threat of heavy fines, others called it a disappointment and a blow to the opposition movement.

"The rally was an absolute mistake," political observer Yulia Latynina said on Echo of Moscow radio.

The opposition, she said, had taken unnecessary risks by urging people to show up at the unauthorised rally and was fortunate that the protest had not ended in violent clashes.

Scores of activists are facing jail time for taking part in May 6 protests on the eve of Putin's inauguration for his third term as president.

- AFP/xq



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Akhilesh sticks to opposition to quota in job reservations

BULANDSHAHR (UP): Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav today stuck to Samajwadi Party's stand opposing quota in job promotions for SC/STs and also FDI in multi-brand retail.

On the issue of extending support to Government on FDI in insurance and other planned economic reforms, Yadav said the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and its national leadership will take a decision when they are taken up for consideration.

"Our party has different view," Yadav told reporters when asked why it was not supporting the Constitutional Amendment Bill for job quota reservation. He was speaking on the sidelines of 3rd anniversary of Vidyagyan School here

On FDI in retail, Samajwadi party, a key outside supporter of UPA, has said it is not in favour of this measure.

"We will accept FDI in any other field. We do not favour FDI in retails because businesses of lot of people is connected with it," Yadav said.

When asked about SP extending support to the Government on FDI in insurance and other economic legislations, Yadav said, "We will consider them. Netaji and national leadership of party will decide on which issue and what kind of support should be rendered."

On unemployment allowance in the state, the Chief Minister said, "everything has been identified. We will soon get money transferred in account."

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