Interviews for appointing about 300 teachers in JNU have started and the number of enrollments in MPhil and PhD programmes in the forthcoming academic session will be more than last year, the government said today. Responding to a Zero Hour mention in the Rajya Sabha by senior JD-U member Sharad Yadav, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said vacancies of lecturers in the SC/ST and physically challenged categories in JNU have not been filled for years.

 “Now the process and interviews have started. In a couple of months, 300 lecturers and professors would be appointed and if there were 970 MPhil and PhD students last year, then the number this year will be more,” he said.

Raising the issue, Yadav said students from rural and far-flung areas of the country come to JNU for studies.But the number of enrollments in MPhil and PhD courses have come down from 970 to 102 and as a result students are desperate. As members tried to raise questions following Javadekar's statement, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said “I have no reason to disbelieve what the Minister has said.”

JNU students have been agitating against the new admission policy at the varsity and had also gone on a day-long strike to protest the “massive seat cuts” in MPhil and PhD courses. The varsity released its prospectus last month suggesting seat cuts in the MPhil/PhD programmes across different courses in line with the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.

The Delhi High Court had dismissed the plea by some students challenging the JNU admission policy for MPhil and PhD courses, saying the UGC guidelines for these courses are binding on all varsities, paving the way for the university to begin its admission process.

Once bitten twice shy. Taking cue from incidents of drowning in the rivers and rivulets of the district, Kangra Police has launched a campaign to aware people, especially youngsters and tourists from venturing into rivers at vulnerable points that are prone to drowning incidents.

Officials say most of the times, it has been seen that youngsters and tourists fall for the lure of cool water in the summer season as they aren’t aware about the current of water at these vulnerable points.

Further, many local fairs and festivals fall in the summer season during which the youngsters skip such functions and accompanying elders to enjoy swimming in the rivers. It leads to incidents of drowning most of the times.

Superintendent of Police, Kangra, Sanjeev Gandhi said that the campaign was launched in the district after the death of two young boys in Jwali area was reported in February this year.

Five persons from the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab had drowned in a rivulet near Dehra in Kangra district in August last year while they were on pilgrimage of religious places in Una and Kangra district.

“It is for the first time that such intensive campaign has been launched in the district to prevent casualties in upcoming tourist season,” he said.

Gandhi said the Police have identified places susceptible for drowning on and along major rivers and rivulets in the district.

“We have placed signages at some places and efforts are on to place such posters at other vulnerable points in the district,” he said.

The Kangra Police will also depute a Constable or Home Guard at such vulnerable places to warn tourists and locals from venturing into the river at these points. “The Police personnel who would be stationed at vulnerable points, would be equipped with binoculars, red flags and whistle to warn tourists and locals from going into the river,” he said.

These signages would be multilingual (English and Hindi) and at some places in Punjabi as thousands of pilgrims visit the Kangra district every year to pay their obeisance at Shaktipeeth temples as Jawalaji, Chamunda and Brajeshwari Temples.

As the current of river varies during the Monsoon season and people who can’t resist the lure of swim in cool water during summers leads to casualties as they don’t have knowledge about the phenomenon.

The Kangra Police has also directed the Sub-Divisional Police Officers and DSPs to meet panchayat representatives, situated near such points and ask them to raise the issue during their meetings. “This would help in restraining youngsters at these places,” Sanjeev Gandhi said.

It is worthwhile to mention here that 50 persons had lost their lives due to drowning in Kangra district in 2016.

In the absence of proper policy, the future of staff hired under Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) – II under National Health Mission (NHM) project hangs in balance.

With no clarity, state of confusion prevails in this regard to their future prospects as they are made to serve the government institution in bits and pieces.

While the same scenario prevails in the entire country for the staff recruited under this project, in Himachal Pradesh, seven employees of RCH-II /NHM project at State Institute of Health and family Welfare (SIHFW) Parimahal, Shimla have been rendering their services for different tenures against eight sanctioned posts since the inception of project.

The funds or their salaries are allocated by the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW).

The posts include Consultant (Finance), Personal Assistant one each, two Consultants (research officer) and three Technical Assistants.

According to sources, the project has been extended for another year, accordingly as per the yearly basis extension.

While, the contract of these employees came to an end on March 31, however, towards closing of the March month, they were granted two months extension instead, leaving them in a quandary.

Furthermore, as per an earlier notification, prior to the two month extension, the current posts have been trimmed to 5 from existing 8 sanctioned posts.

The RCH-II staff has taken up their grievances with the state health authorities as well as the Union Health Minister regarding continuation of services and revision of salary, however, nothing concrete has come forth.

One of the employees has been rendering his service for more than 15 years from different tenures, another has served for more than 5 years and three for three years for the state health services posted at SIHFW, Parimahal, Shimla. The salary of these employees has not been revised since 2009, when the last revision of salaries was done.

While, different policies are being made for all kinds of contractual staff who are working in different societies and also for the other contractual staff in the state, however, these employees of RCH-II/NHM Project do not fall under the preview of any policy framed by the state government as well as in the Central government, whether it is for contractual staff of societies or any other contractual staff.

“We are taking up the case with the state government,” said Health and Family Welfare Director Baldev Kumar.

RCH is a programme for mother and child. The first phase of RCH- I was launched in the year 1998 and second phase of RCH-II commenced from April 1, 2005. The main objective of the programme is to bring about the change mainly in the three critical health indicators reduce fertility total rate, infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio.

Community radio stations can now on relay AIR news and run advertisements of up to seven minutes, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore also said such stations can also run sponsored programmes of the Centre and the state governments.

Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, he said the financial grant for equipment has been increased from 50 per cent to 75 per cent of the total cost with a ceiling of Rs 7.5 lakh. For the North East, the grant has been increased to 90 per cent.

As of now, there are 206 community radio stations in the country.

Shimla does not attract them just for beauty or heritage. Curious of their ‘historical connect’ with this erstwhile summer capital of the British rule in India, the Britons come calling in Shimla even today to dig out their roots.

And Shimla too has kept this old link alive, with its municipality, one of the oldest in the country, preserving the birth and death records of the British since 1870 in perfect shape. Better still, there is move by the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) now to digitalise the entries spread on hundreds of registers in its shelves.

“Digitalisation of these more than century old records with the SMC will form part of the e-Governance project. The project, which will help the civic body to switch to on-line functioning, was stuck for some years. We have taken up the issue with National Informatics Centre (NIC) afresh,” Shimla Municipal Commissioner, Pankaj Rai told The Statesman.

Rai said this may take time, but will streamline the old records, reduce the time taken to search details and store them permanently.

The Rs.10.70 Crore e-Governance project, it learnt, hung fire for difference of opinion within the present SMC.

Even in the present system of manual search, the staff in the health wing of SMC, which maintains the birth and death records, said the British visitors are simply impressed, when they get the piece of their history (the birth or death certificate) in just Rs five per copy the same day. Many of them even click pictures of official records of their ancestors in registers for permanent impression.

Keen on searching their roots on ground as well as in written records, the British keep visiting Shimla round the year.

They go around, looking for records, British era buildings, houses, places and even the graves of their ancestors, who once lived here. (The graves, although are not in good shape now and inscriptions on them having faded with time).

“In England, the trend of tracing the family tree is catching up that brings many British families here. They come here to complete the documentation of their family history, taking cue from the diaries or other jottings by their ancestors in their possession," said Sumit Raj Vashisht, a heritage writer. Vashisht shared that a British national was here last year with a list of 35 elders and he moved around a lot to look for minute details.

A prominent visitor from Britain a couple of years ago was Sally Camps, great-granddaughter of Clement Attlee, who served as Britain’s prime minister from 1945 to 1951.

Sally, who came for her father John Keith Harwood’s birth certificate, got emotional as she saw entry of his birth dating 1926 in the SMC register preserved as such, said an SMC official.

Hoffenheim ended Bayern Munich's five-game winning streak after Andrej Kramaric scored the only goal of the game and Borussia Dortmund eased past Hamburger SV 3-0 in the 27th round of Bundesliga football action.

It was Hoffenheim who stopped Bayern Munich's run by reaping their first victory in 18 encounters between the two sides on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann's men staged a faultless performance against the German giants and dictated the pace in the first half.

Kramaric almost opened the scoring eight minutes into the game before Bayern goalkeeper Sven Ulreich was on guard to deny Nadiem Amiri his side's best chance following a one-on-one in the ninth minute.

As the match progressed, Bayern seemed to gain more and more control, but it was the hosts who broke the deadlock as Andrej Kramaric hammered home Mats Hummels' clearance from 18 meters in the 21st minute.

The Bundesliga front-runners remained unimpressed and kept it bowling, while Hoffenheim remained dangerous on the counterattack. Kerem Demirbay should have doubled the lead but Ulreich defused the effort from close range in the 41st minute.

Bayern almost restored parity just before the break but Robert Lewandowski only managed to rattle the woodwork from five meters after a cross from Kingsley Coman.

After the restart, Carlo Ancelotti's men piled on the pressure and pressed the hosts into defence. However, Bayern remained unable to overcome Hoffenheim custodian Oliver Baumann, who denied Lewandowski and Franck Ribery promising opportunities in the closing period.

With the result, Hoffenheim tightened their third place spot in the standings after beating Bayern for the first time in their history. The Bundesliga leaders remain atop the standings with 65 points and a 13-point advantage over runners-up Leipzig.

Fourth-placed Borussia Dortmund is close on Hoffenheim's heels after the BVB downed Hamburg with one early and two late goals to ensure their 14th win of the season.

Thomas Tuchel's men caught a bright start on home soil as Gonzalo Castro opened the scoring with 13 minutes played after curling home a free kick into the top right corner from 20 meters.

Dortmund created a number of opportunities, but Rene Adler denied Aubameyang several chances to extend the lead. Meanwhile, Filip Kostic and Bobby Wood worked out opportunities at the other end of the pitch.

Nevertheless, the hosts cut a better figure in front of the goal area as Aubameyang outpaced Albin Ekdal in a square pass into the path of Shinji Kagawa, who tapped in at the far post in the 81st minute.

Dortmund gained momentum in the closing period and rounded off the game with a third goal when Aubameyang utilised Kagawa's through ball to round Hamburg goalie Rene Adler for the 25th goal of the season.

With the victory, Dortmund remain on fourth place, one point adrift of third. Hamburg sit on 14th place and in striking distance of the relegation zone.

Elsewhere, Bremen secured their third win in a row after crushing Schalke 3-0 while Cologne edged Eintracht Frankfurt, who are still waiting for a win after five games.

Over 45,000 people have been arrested in a year in Bihar for violating the liquor prohibition law imposed by the Janata Dal-United government.

Bihar has acted tough against those violating the law on total ban on liquor in the state, Excise and Prohibition Minister Abdul Jalil Mastan said on Wednesday.

"At least 45,033 people were arrested for violating the new law and over 44,000 of them were sent to jail during the last one year," Mastan said.

Bihar has witnessed a complete ban on alcohol since April 2016. The ban completes one year on April 5.

According to Mastan, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has repeatedly made clear his commitment to implement a total ban on liquor in the state.

"The concerned law enforcement agencies have been directed to act tough against those violating the law," he said.

According to a state Excise and Prohibition Department official, police have raided 2,18,722 locations and seized over Rs.50 crore liquor, including Rs.41 crore of foreign liquor, in the last one year.

According to a police report, 40,413 cases were registered in connection with the violation of law.

"We have seized 3,13,187 litre of desi liquor, 47,161 litre spirit, 52,53,334 litre foreign liquor, 11,371 litre beer, 628 quintal mahua, and 1,07,320 raw liquor," the report said.

Police said most of those arrested were released on bail. But nearly 5,000 people are still in jail.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron clashed over Europe as the presidential candidates went head-to-head in the second live TV debate.

Macron on Tuesday said Le Pen's nationalist proposals amounted to "economic warfare", BBC reported.

She was also accused by the right of not being tough enough on France's membership of the European Union. Francois Fillon said that France needed Europe when up against the US and China.

Le Pen, leader of the National Front (FN) party, promised to restore control of France's borders and scrap the euro, or else hold a referendum on EU membership.

Speaking alongside 10 other candidates as things got a little heated in the second of three televised French presidential election debates, Le Pen said her presidency would improve the lives of French citizens.

Macron, the frontrunner, accused Le Pen of lying, and said that "nationalism is war".

"You are saying the same lies that we've heard from your father for 40 years," he said.

Le Pen, who also came under attack from conservative candidate Fillon, retorted: "You shouldn't pretend to be something new when you are speaking like fossils that are at least 50 years old."

Meanwhile, nationalist right-wing outsider Francois Asselineau said he was "the only true candidate of Frexit", and promised to trigger Article 50 — the process to start the country's divorce from the EU — immediately if he were to win power.

The debate was extended to include the six minor candidates, so inevitably it is on them that water-cooler conversation is going to focus.

On Jean Lasalle — "son of a shepherd, brother of a shepherd" — with his impenetrable Pyrenean accent; on Francois Asselineau with his "Frexit" obsession; on the rival Trotskyites Philippe Poutou and Nathalie Arthaud with their rousing calls to punish the bosses.

According to the BBC, after a while there were really only two people — Francois Fillon and Emmanuel Macron — defending the way things are.

Everyone else — from Marine Le Pen to the uber-Gaullist Nicolas Dupont Aignan to the firebrand of the left Jean-Luc Melenchon (as brilliant as ever on stage) — wants the rules of Europe and the economy totally rewritten.

Turning the topic to security, Le Pen said that France had become a "university for jihadists", prompting angry interruptions from the left-wing candidates.

Most polls suggest that Le Pen and Macron will face each other in the two-candidate run-off for presidency on May 7.

However, Tuesday's debate gave Fillon, 63, an opportunity to close the gap on the leaders.

Fillon was the frontrunner in the campaign until he was hit by the "fake jobs" scandal and placed under formal investigation.

He is accused of paying hundreds of thousands of euros to his family for work they did not do.

He was trailing third in the first round, according to polls, a position which would eliminate him from the race.
 

Motion poster of actor NTR's Jai Lava Kusa –– in which he plays a triple role — was unveiled on Wednesday on the occasion of Rama Navami.

"Wishing everyone Sri Rama Navami. Here is the motion poster of Jai Lava Kusa," NTR tweeted.

The motion poster officially unveils the film's title.

Directed by Bobby, the film also features Raashi Khanna as one of the leading ladies.

Nivetha Thomas is rumoured to be the second leading lady.

Jai, Lava and Kusa are the names of NTR's characters in the film.

The project is being bankrolled by NTR's brother Kalyanram.

Well-known international make-up artist Vance Hartwell, popular for his work in films such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Shutter Island, has been roped in by the makers to take care of the look of one of NTR's characters.

"NTR plays three characters in the film, and Hartwell has been roped in to specially take care of his look for one role. He has been flown down from Los Angeles to take the measurement for a facial mask. This is the first time in his career that NTR will be seen using prosthetic," a source from the film's unit had earlier told.

Devi Sri Prasad has been roped in to compose music.

Zayn Malik has got a new tattoo, which appears to be the initials of his recently released single Still Got Time.

The 24-year-old singer took to Instagram, where he shared a black-and-white picture showing off his new ink.

The tattoo reads “SGT,” with “2 4 17” inscribed below.

Although the photograph does not have a caption, SGT is the acronym of Still Got Time.

The number series resembles the British format for the date April 2, which was seemingly the day he got the tattoo.

Malik dropped the new single on March 23, on which he collaborated with rapper PartyNextDoor. The song is the first track from his upcoming LP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted the Assam government for starting the 'Gunotsav', a programme to improve quality of school education in the state.

Modi, in a tweet said: "Best wishes to the Assam Government on the start of Gunotsav. I am sure this effort will improve education standards across the state."

"Gunotsav is a great initiative to gauge the quality of learning. Teachers and students will greatly benefit from this," Modi added.

Gunotsav is a quality improvement programme where external evaluators are deputed to the schools for conducting external evaluation of students.

Earlier during the day, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Education Minister of Assam, in a tweet said: "1st phase of Assam Gunotsav launched today (Wednesday). In next three days it will cover 9.11 lakh students in eight districts."

Students in the districts of Barpeta, Chirang, Dibrugarh, Hailakandi, Kamrup Metro, West Karbi Aanglong, Lakhimpur, Morigaon will be evaluated under Gunotsav.

Gunotsav, originally a Gujarat government initiative, was adopted by Sarbananda Sonowal-led Bharatiya Janata Party government of Assam.

Hearing petitions challenging the privacy of WhatsApp messages, the Supreme Court on Wednesday set up a five-judge constitution bench to hear the case. The bench will hear the matter on April 18.

On January 17, the top court had sent notice to the Centre, telecom regulator TRAI, WhatsApp and Facebook over a petition challenging the privacy of WhatsApp messages.

The plea challenged the messaging service provider’s decision to share 160 million Indian users’ data with Facebook and requested to frame a privacy policy for social media networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp.

WhatsApp was originally launched as a messaging application in 2010. At the time of its launch, WhatsApp did not allow sharing of users’ data. However, after it was bought over by Facebook in 2014, the company announced sweeping changes in its privacy policy.

(With inputs from agencies)

Actress Susan Sarandon has blamed her publicist for spreading Julia Roberts feud rumours 20 years ago.

The actress took to Twitter to squash one of the biggest feud rumours that surrounded her over two decades.

The two actresses starred together in the 1998 film Stepmom where speculation evolved that they did not like each other.

“Press printed that Julia and I hated each other during Stepmom. Found out it was my PR person creating rumours. #FeudFX,” Sarandon wrote.

The post comes a month after the premiere of the Ryan Murphy's FX series “Feud”. The series follows legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and portrays what really happened during their feud on the set of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

Sarandon plays Davis, while Lange plays Crawford, and though their characters may not get along in the show, the two women are quite good friends.

The AAP in Goa has accused the Manohar Parrikar government of being lax in tackling the situation which arose in the tourist state following the SC order banning sale of liquor along highways.

We express grave concern over the laxity with which the state government is dealing with the alarming situation which has risen out of the Supreme Court ruling on liquor outlets along highways," AAP leader Elvis Gomes told reporters here on Tuesday.

Both the government and the Opposition in Goa miserably failed to gauge the seriousness of the issue throughout the two-year-long proceedings in the Supreme Court, he added.

"Why did Goa not present its case like Sikkim and Meghalaya did, and seek exemptions and special provisions for Goa ?," Gomes asked.

The AAP has demanded that the Goa government work towards getting state highways de-notified wherever legally feasible.

National highways where by-pass roads are already commissioned, those portions should also be de-notified," he felt.

Gomes said in the meantime, the office of Advocate General of Goa and State Law Department be instructed to work on approaching the SC with Goa's special case citing the 105-km coastline and 33 per cent forest cover of the state to seek exemption and/or reduction in the buffer zone adjoining the highways.

Chief Minister Parrikar had on Tuesday said that his government was contemplating approaching the SC for proper clarification (on the order), and possibly seek some special consideration for the tourist state.

He said that following the SC order pronounced on March 31, around 1,000 out of 3,000-odd outlets (in Goa) that were facing closure got a respite but the problem persists for the remaining 2,000 vends.

The apex court on March 31 modified its order banning liquor vends within 500 metres on national and state highways, reducing the distance to 220 metres in areas having a population of up to 20,000.

However, a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, had made it clear that its December 15, 2016 order banning such vends within 500 metres of highways shall remain operative for areas other than specified in the latest order.

Former India batsman Virender Sehwag on Tuesday said he would allow Kings XI Punjab players to play aggressive cricket during season 10 of the Indian Premier League.

Sehwag is the director (cricket operations) for the Kings XI Punjab.

"We are not worried about victory or defeat. I will allow my players to play aggressive cricket (in the IPL)," he told reporters here after unveiling the team's jersey.

"The players of Kings XI Punjab would play fearlessly like I have played," quipped the right-handed batsman.

Sehwag also confirmed that pacer Ishant Sharma, who was not picked by any of the franchises in the IPL auction, is now associated with his team.

"It's a pleasure to inform that Ishant (Sharma) is now picked up by Kings XI. I have an old rapport with him as we played together in Indian team," he said.

To a question, Sehwag said "IPL was known as the game of batsmen but half of the matches in IPL were won due to bowlers, who stopped the batsmen from scoring. So, we have picked Ishant Sharma in place of Murli Vijay to sharpen our bowling attack." 

Expressing hope that performance of the team would be better, Sehwag said some players are in good form unlike the last session.

"We have good batsmen like Martin Guptill, Glenn Maxwell, Eoin Morgan, Darren Sammy and David Miller. If any two of these batsman perform then we can easily win the match," he added.

Kings XI Punjab

was at the bottom of the table last season having eight points in 14 matches.

Asked about it, Sehwag said "Now we can't go down anymore. Now, we can go up. If our players would perform, our team would reach in the play off." 

In this IPL, Holkar Stadium is also the home ground for Kings XI Punjab as three matches will be played in the city.

Sehwag said the matches at the Holkar stadium would be high scoring ones as it was a small stadium.

He said his team would love to play the matches with five bowlers.

A chain of islands that once existed in the Bay of Bengal now lies buried under water, according to a new study by Indian oceanographers.

If this long island chain that stretched from north to south had not been swallowed by the sea, it could have offered a natural barrier against tsunamis like the one that killed thousands in 2004, they say.

These islands had existed during the Late Cretaceous age — about 68 to 80 million years ago, according to their report in the journal Current Science.

Currently they lie as a "ridge" buried beneath the enormously thick sediment discharged by the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems.

The ridge, known as Eighty-five East Ridge — so named because it runs nearly parallel to the 85 degree east longitude — extends north-south for about 2,500 km from the Mahanadi Basin in the north Bay of Bengal to the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount in the equatorial Indian Ocean.

That part of the ridge in the Bay of Bengal that once hosted the islands "is completely buried under the Bengal Fan sediments," says the report by KS Krishna at the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa and his co-workers.

According to the authors, "In spite of more than three decades of research carried out by scientists from different countries, the origin of the ridge still remains a conundrum." In their research, they studied the seismic structure of the ridge.

Their study showed that at the time of ridge emplacement about 80 million years ago, the ocean floor was around four kilometres below sea level and about 500 to 1,000 metres of the ridge summit existed above sea level.

The researchers say their study has provided strong evidence to indicate that the ridge peak remained above sea level as an island for a short period during the Late Cretaceous age before it subsided "due to thermal subsidence and volcanic load".

It may have taken about 6 to 12 million years for all the peaks of the ridge to subside below the sea level, says the report. "The processes of thermal subsidence and sedimentation load together placed the island chain below the sea level, and then below the thick pile of Bengal Fan sediments."

In conclusion, the authors say that "the 85 deg. E Ridge remained as a series of island mounts with variable reliefs in the middle of the Bay of Bengal during the Late Cretaceous and got completely submerged below the sea level around 68 million years ago".

"In case such submergence had not happened, the 85 deg.E Ridge would have remained an island chain analogous to present day Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean and Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean," they say.

"Then it would have acted as a 'natural geo-wall' protecting mainland India from devastating tsunami waves generated near the Sunda subduction zone."

Now, an important question. Did India lose additional land part under her territory?

"The answer," the authors say, "is probably an unfortunate yes."

Contending that the removal of manager Arsene Wenger might not help Arsenal solve its problems, the London football club's former defender Gael Clichy insists that the Frenchman is still the right person for the job.

Arsenal, yet to win an English Premier League (EPL) title since the 2003-04 season, are currently sixth in the standings. They are seven points outside the top four with 10 games remaining.

They are already out of the UEFA Champions League after being hammered by Bayern Munich in the pre-quarterfinal (10-2 on aggregate).

This has led to several fans and critics demanding the removal of Frenchman Wenger, who has been coaching Arsenal since 1996.

"The manager does not really deserve what he is getting. I can understand because football is free for everybody to have opinions so you cannot stop that. And you cannot only think about the past because it is also about the present. But I don't think many managers could have done what he has in the last 10 years," Clichy, who currently plays for Manchester City, was quoted as saying by espnfc.

"You always want something new when you are used to something and what you get is probably most of the time not better than what you have, so you have to be careful what you wish for," the 31-year-old, who played for Arsenal between 2003 and 2011, added.

"I'm not going to get into any detail but I do believe he is the right man. He has been the right man for so many years and I am listening to what people are saying. If the club is spending more money and they have the players they need, then perhaps Wenger is the perfect man. If you take him off and you bring someone else with the same structure, would he be better? Would he do better? I'm not sure."

Clichy, who was part of Arsenal's last EPL winning team in 2004, warned that a change may not be as beneficial for the club as it is expected to be.

"It's not for me to say if it's in the right hands or not but I do believe what he has done in the past is amazing," the French international said.