TIRUPATI � MONDAY � DECEMBER 14, 2020 � `7.
00 � PAGES 28 � ANANTAPUR EDITION
RTGS PAYMENT FACILITY NOW
AVAILABLE ROUND THE CLOCK
At midnight, India became one of the few countries to operate
the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) 24X7
CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI
Farmers prevented from proceeding along a highway on the Haryana-Rajasthan
border as they were marching to Delhi, in Rewari district on Sunday | SHEKHAR YADAV
Fear of illness makes people
avoid vegetables, vendors hit
P H A R E E S H @ Eluru
THE mystery illness, the ori-
gin of it is yet to be ascer-
tained, has left vegetable ven-
dors of Eluru in dire straits.
People of Eluru city and its
suburbs are reluctant to pur-
chase vegetables in general
and leafy vegetables in partic-
ular after the primary reports
found the presence of lead
and nickel in the blood sam-
ples of patients, which is at-
tributed to consumption of
water and vegetables. This is
in spite of the fact that all
kinds of vegetables arrive at
Eluru from other districts like
Krishna, Guntur and East Go-
davari. With people shying
away from buying vegetables,
the vendors, who faced the
brunt of lockdown, are incur-
ring huge losses.
“The prices of vegetables
have come down in the past
few days. The mystery illness
has created a sense of fear
among the public to consume
vegetables,” S Harish, a vege-
table vendor told TNIE.
The vegetable market, which
used to be crowded during
normal times, wore a deserted
look. Harish said he used to
buy vegetables worth `18,000
to `20,000 a day and his daily
business would be anywhere
between `25,000 and `30,000,
generating him a minimum
profit of `5,000. “Now, I stopped
buying vegetables in large
quantity from wholesale deal-
ers fearing losses,” he added.
“We are forced to dump leafy
vegetables or throw them to
cattle as there are no takers for
them,” a woman vendor from
neighbouring Tangellamudi,
who set her shop at the whole-
sale vegetable market in the
Basic amenities a far cry in remote hamlets of EG total footfalls in Southern Region
K V S A I L E N D R A @ Rajamahendravaram
GURTEDU, a tribal hamlet
which shot into news following
the kidnap of six government
officials by the erstwhile Peo-
ple’s War Group more than
three decades ago, is still
plagued by lack of road connec-
tivity and basic amenities.
In medical emergencies, trib-
als have to shift the patients on
cots to nearest plain areas as
ambulances cannot reach the
interior tribal hamlet in Y
Ramavaram mandal of Rampa-
chodavaram revenue division
due to lack of proper road con-
nectivity. Gurtedu, located 155
km away from Rajamahendra-
varam, has virtually no con-
nectivity with outside world.
Not just Gurtedu, some 40 ham-
lets under Gurtedu, Pathakota
and Boddugandi panchayats
face the same problems.
For any work related to gov-
A vegetable market looks empty in Eluru | PRASANT MADUGULA
People are not coming forward to purchase vegetables since the
outbreak of mystery illness in Eluru. We are forced to dump leafy
vegetables or throw them to cattle as there are no takers for them
Vendors
heart of the city, said.
Another young vendor V Sai
said, “People are not coming
forward to buy vegetables
since the outbreak of mystery
illness. Earlier, people from
neighbouring villages like Sri-
paru, Kankipadu and Pedda-
padu, who visit the city on
some work, used to buy vege-
tables at the market.’’
Sai said they procure leafy
vegetables from Guntur, Man-
galagiri and Bapatla, while
carrots, beetroot, cauliflower
and cabbage come from Vi-
jayawada. We buy them from
wholesale traders and sell the
vegetables by adding a little
margin, he added.
“By afternoon, we would
have sold all the leafy vegeta-
Vizag airport accounts for 1/4th of
TRIBAL WOES
A tribal patient being shifted on a cot to hospital in East Godavari district | EXPRESS
ernment schemes, the tribal
people have to go to Y Ramavar-
am, which is just 25 km away
from their hamlet. However,
they are forced to travel in a
bus for nearly 150 km to reach
the mandal headquarters due
to lack of direct connectivity.
The APSRTC runs a couple
WILL PROVIDE FLEXIBILITY FOR BUSINESSES: RBI
A round-the-clock RTGS facility is expected to provide a major push for
digital transactions in India. “It will provide extended flexibility to
businesses for effecting payments and will enable introduction of
additional settlement cycles in ancillary payment systems,” the central
bank said. It comes a year after NEFT facility was made available 24X7
Protestors block the Delhi-Jaipur highway
Day-long hunger strike today; Tomar meets Amit Shah; SC to hear plea against blocking of borders on Wednesday
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ New Delhi/Jaipur/Chandigarh
SECURITY was beefed up at
several border points in Delhi
on Sunday with the police de-
ploying more personnel and
placing multi-layered barri-
cades in the wake of the ongo-
ing farmers’ protest, which is
likely to further intensify in
the coming days.
As the protest entered Day
18, farmers reiterated their
plan to by and by block all ma-
bles that we buy from whole-
sale traders and go back to our
village. Now, it is past after-
noon and we are not able to
sell even half of the stock we
brought,” a woman vendor
from Tangellamudi said.
The people’s reluctance to
consume vegetables, brought
cheers to sellers of chicken,
meat, fish and other non-vege-
tarian food items, who have
already witnessed a boom in
sales due to the Covid-19 pan-
demic. “With the chicken pric-
es hovering between `200 and
`220 per kg, the demand for
eggs and fish has gone up. It is
a fact that there has been a rise
in our business since the out-
break of the mystery illness,’’
a chicken shop owner said.
of bus services up to Yadlakon-
da, which is 3 km from Gurtedu
and 8 km from Pathakota. If
one boards a bus, it will take
hours together to reach Y Ram-
avaram as it travels through
Maredumilli, Rampachodavar-
am, Gangavaram and Adda-
teegala in the Agency area.
jor highways intersecting Del-
hi. The Jaipur-Delhi highway
was blocked on Sunday, which
created an hours-long traffic
jam. Despite some effort to re-
open the route, the Jaipur-Del-
hi highway remained blocked
for most of the day and traffic
TOMAR BLAMES IT ON OPPOSITION PARTIES
Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday accused
Opposition parties of running a propaganda war against the new farm
laws, adding these legislations “may cause difficulty for some in the
short term” but will be beneficial in the long run
Classes for
7th students
from today
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
REGULAR classes for sev-
enth students in the State
will commence on Monday.
Earlier, the government,
which is reopening schools
in a graded manner due to
Covid-19, had announced
that the classes for sixth and
seventh students will resume
on December 14.
“We will take some more
time to start classes for sixth
students as the situation is
not completely under control
yet,” Education Minister A
Suresh told TNIE.
Sr IAS officer Srilakshmi inducted into AP cadre
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
Y Srilakshmi, a 1988 batch IAS
officer of Telangana cadre who
opted for Andhra Pradesh, has
been relieved
by the neighbouring State
government following an order
by the Central Administrative
Tribunal (CAT). She was wait-
ing for her transfer from Telan-
gana to AP for more than a
year.
The State government on Sat-
urday night issued a GO induct-
ing Srilakshmi into AP cadre.
Issuing the GO, Chief Secre-
NADDA
COVID-19 +VE, GOES INTO ISOLATION
The BJP president has gone into home isolation
on the advice of doctors. “My condition is
alright,” he tweeted on Sunday | P7
“The plight of tribals turns
worse during rainy season. If
we want to go to Kondamothalu
in Devipatnam mandal for any
emergency, we have to cross
River Godavari in country
boats which is dangerous,’’ I
Ramireddy, president of Agen-
cy Tribals Association, told
TNIE.
When contacted, Roads and
Buildings Divisional Engineer
Sai Venkata Lakshmi said `26
crore was sanctioned to lay
roads from Y Ramavaram to
Matam Bhimavaram, Potha-
varam and Gurtedu. For anoth-
er road from Maredumilli to
Gurtedu, `16 crore was also
sanctioned. Though funds were
sanctioned, with the villages
situated in dense forest, clear-
ances from the forest and envi-
ronment departments are nec-
essary. “Soon after getting the
clearances, road works will be
taken up,’’ she said.
‘BOOST FOR FINANCIAL MARKET OPERATIONS’
The RBI said the new facility will also enhance the operations of
■
India’s financial markets and international payments
■ RTGS is a digital transaction mechanism intended for large-value
instantaneous money transfers. At present, it handles about 6.35
lakh transactions daily, worth `4.17 lakh crore across 237 banks
was diverted near Behrod in as theatrics by his Punjab coun-
Rajasthan. Next up is a hunger terpart Amarinder Singh.
strike by farmers from 8 am to Near Shahjahanpur town on
5 pm on Monday. Not to be left the Rajasthan-Haryana border,
out, Delhi Chief Minister hundreds of farmers on Sun-
Arvind Kejriwal said he, too, day started a protest march to
will observe a day-long fast, Delhi, following a call by the
which was promptly described All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-
ordination Committee.
As for the Centre, Union min-
isters Narendra Singh Tomar
and Som Parkash held yet an-
other round of meeting with
home minister Amit Shah.
Sources said the government is
COW DONATION
TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy launches the Gudiko Gomata programme in Bengaluru on Sunday | EXPRESS
tary Nilam Sawhney said Sri- applied for transfer from Telan-
lakshmi reported to duty on gana to AP then itself. As her
December 10 and she was ad- application was not cleared for
mitted to duty in the State with quite a long time, Srilakshmi,
immediate effect ‘sub- along with YSRC Rajya
ject to confirmation’ of Sabha MP V Vijayasai
the Department of Per- Re d dy, m e t U n i o n
sonnel and Training Home Minister Amit
(DoPT). Shah in July last year.
Srilakshmi was al- Since then, she was
lotted to Telangana waiting for clearance
cadre after bifurcation of her application.
of the State. Soon after S u b s e q u e n t l y, s h e
YS Jagan Mohan Red- moved the CAT Bench
dy was sworn-in as the Chief in Hyderabad, which cleared
Minister, she met him in May her transfer last month.
last year, expressing her will- Senior IPS officer of Telan-
ingness to work in AP. She had gana cadre Stephen Ravindra
EXPRESS READ
TESTS
‘PFI leader financed journo’s Hathras trip’
Kochi: Campus Front of India (CFI) leader KA Rauf Sherif, who was
arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) from Thiruvananthapuram
on Saturday, funded the trip by Kerala journalist Sidhique Kappan and
two other Popular Front of India (PFI) activists to Hathras, ED said.
G JANARDHANA RAO now witnessing 42 flight
@ Visakhapatnam movements.
While 3,109 passengers ar-
VISAKHAPATNAM Interna- rived at the airport, 2,895 pas-
tional Airport on Saturday re- sengers departed from the air-
corded one fourth of footfalls port. He said it is a positive
of passengers in the Southern sign that passenger traffic is
region. Visakhapatnam air- aggressive in Vizag. He said
port recorded 6,004 footfalls on increasing passenger traffic is
Saturday, the highest since also levelling up the confi-
lockdown at the airport on a dence of passengers. Going by
single day. the present strength, it looks
Air port Director Raj like the pre-lockdown traffic
Kishore said the total footfalls will be reached even before
in all airports of Airports Au- March, he said.
thority of India (AAI) put to- New flights
gether in the Southern Region Meanwhile, SpiceJet has an-
is about 26,200, while Vizag nounced a new flight from Vi-
alone recorded almost one
four th of the passenger
traffic. THE ESSENTIAL CAMPUS DIGEST
WITH
The airport, which resumed THIS YOUR
with five arrivals and five de- ISSUE LIFE
COACH
partures after resumption of
air services post lockdown, is 28 PAGES, INCLUDING 16 OF edex (TABLOID)
`57.96L
AVERAGE TICKET SIZE FOR RTGS
IN NOVEMBER 2020
firm on not repealing the three
contentious farm sector reform
laws but is willing to make ad-
justments and continue talks
with farmers.
Meanwhile, the the Supreme
Court will on Wednesday hear
a plea seeking a direction to au-
thorities to evict the farmers,
saying commuters are facing
hardships as they have blocked
entry points into Delhi. Also,
the gatherings could result in a
spike in Covid-19 cases, the pe-
tition said.
also applied for his transfer to
AP and he too met Jagan last
year. Sources said Ravindra’s
application is also being pur-
sued by the DoPT and it may be
cleared in the coming days.
Srilakshmi faced CBI inquiry
for committing ‘irregularities’
in allotment of iron ore mines
to Obulapuram Mining Corpo-
ration (OMC) in Anantapur dis-
trict when she served as Secre-
tary, Mines and Geology, in the
erstwhile undivided AP. The
CBI charged Srilakshmi with
flouting norms in granting
mining leases to OMC belong-
ing to Gali Janardhan Reddy.
sakhapatnam to Hyderabad
from December 25.
The daily flight will depart
from Hyderabad at 10.30 am
and arrive in Vizag at 12.30
pm. In the return direction, it
will leave Vizag at 1 pm and
land in Hyderabad 2 pm.
The airport director said
SpiceJet resumed operations
from Vizag on December 6
with two flights to Bengaluru
and one flight to Kolkata. In-
diGo also launched a direct
flight to Vijayawada from De-
cember 1.
With the addition of Spice-
Jet flight to Hyderabad from
Vizag, the number of flight
movements will go up to 44—
22 arrivals and 22 departures.
The airport has registered a
16% rise in passenger traffic
in November with almost 1.40
lakh footfalls.

02 TIRUPATI
Deputy CM Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas interacting with discharged patients at Turpu Veedhi in Eluru on Sunday | EXPRESS
No new cases of mystery
illness in Eluru: Alla Nani
Says med teams will continue to visit houses of patients everyday
TDP: Patients
discharged in
hasty manner
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
A three-member committee
formed by TDP visited the Elu-
ru district hospital and inter-
acted with patients of mystery
illness. It alleged that the gov-
ernment had discharged the
patients in a hasty manner be-
fore they completely recovered.
It also claimed that efforts to
address the situation are only
limited to statements, but the
ground reality is different.
The three-member commit-
tee comprising former minister
Nimmakayala Chinnarajappa
and MLCs Rajendraprasad and
P Ashok Babu visited the Eluru
district hospital and interacted
with patients and doctors. It
opined that water contamina-
tion could be a reason for the
mystery illness.
Speaking to mediapersons,
the panel members said the
government has utterly failed
in addressing the situation and
hastily discharged the patients
admitted to the hospital with
mystery illness symptoms.
They said that if the govern-
ment cannot afford treatment,
the TDP will provide the treat-
ment through NTR Trust.
P E T E R V I DA L
14 December: If you feel your energy rising then you might
th
be in touch with the lunar cycle, which is currently building up
towards a new set of lively alignments. Not everyone follows
the same patterns, for we’re all unique, but if you want
to increase your workload then you can be sure that
the stars are with you!
ARIES (Mar 21 - Apr. 20)
Some kind of past financial
misunderstanding could be
preying on your mind. You
are probably in something of a bind, for
the Sun urges you to take a riskgamble,
while simultaneously stacking the odds
against you. Play it safe until you have
worked out all the risks.
TAURUS (Apr. 21 - May 21)
You may be enthusiastic
about imminent domestic
changes, but partners might
be completely bemused as to your real
intentions. At the heart of the matter,
lies your need for emotional
commitment, and your willingness to
come up with the goods and fulfil
promises you have made in the past.
GEMINI (May 22 - June 21)
Personal events over the
next few days could give you
a completely different slant
on a private issue. Your perspective will
be challenged by partners whose
behaviour is defying all expectations.
Mind you, perhaps it’s about time that
your preconceptions were challenged!
CANCER (June 22 - July 23)
You don’t need to interpret
others’ unreliability as a sign
that you’re being let down.
After all, they might not even be
thinking about you! You should try to
see the larger pattern and you’ll realise
that changes in your plans will open up
welcome, fresh opportunities.
LEO (July 24 - Aug. 23)
The Moon’s presence in your
chart induces a
compassionate note, and
others may be struck by the depths of
your emotions. All that is required of
you is the determination and confidence
to show your feelings in public. That
shouldn’t be too much of a problem!
VIRGO (Aug. 24 - Sept. 23)
You’re passing through
one of your perfectionist
phases. You may set
yourself new, higher standards and
goals and, in typical fashion, attempt
to beat your own personal best.
If you wish, you may turn your
attention to private matters which have
been left on the shelf for far
too long. Delay no longer!
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
DEPUTY Chief Minister
(Health) Alla Kali Krishna
Srinivas (Nani) reiterated
that the situation in Eluru is
under control and medical ex-
perts are closely monitoring
the situation. “There are no
new cases of mystery illness
in Eluru,” he announced.
Once again, he visited the
houses of the mystery illness
patients, discharged from the
hospital on Sunday.
The minister visited the
houses of the discharged pa-
tients in Turpu Veedhi of
Eluru and enquired about
their health condition. Most
of them informed him that
they are normal and there
was no repeat of any symp-
toms. There were a few peo-
ple, who said they are still
feeling weak.
He said that the medical
teams will continue to visit
the houses of the mystery ill-
ness patients discharged from
the hospital everyday for
some more time. The minis-
ter distributed medicines and
605 of 612 patients discharged
Two patients undergoing treatment in Eluru district hospital were
discharged, but six patients in Vijayawada are still undergoing
treatment. “There were no new cases reported and as on today, we
do not have any cases of mystery illness undergoing treatment
here,” Eluru district hospital superintendent Dr AV Mohan said. Till
date, 612 people were hospitalised, of whom 605 have been
discharged. There was only one casualty, he added.
THE PHANTOM
LIBRA (Sept. 24 - Oct. 23)
Although it is in your nature
to give others a considerable HI AND LOIS
amount of leeway - too
much some would say - you may soon
be about to draw the line. Professional
colleagues and employers should realise
that they cannot get off scot-free, but
that they have to fulfil their
commitments.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22)
There’s a little celestial
tension, although not too
much! There are bound to be
a lot of bruised egos around, but other BEETLE BAILEY
people are not your responsibility. If you
allow them to blame you, or become
dependent on you, you will do neither
them nor yourself any favours.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 - Dec. 22)
You might have to take a
step back, but there is no
need to sacrifice your beliefs
or principles, although you should
accept some restraints. It’s all a matter
of where to draw the line. The question
is whether you can abandon an
arrangement without letting someone
down. BLONDIE
CAPRICORN (Dec. 23 - Jan. 20)
If you haven’t managed to
force others to honour their
financial obligations, it may
be too late. However, within a few days,
a welcome window of opportunity may
appear via a social connection. It might,
in fact, be a rival who comes up with the
best advice.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 21 - Feb. 19)
Sometimes wishes really can
come true. If you continue to LOCKHORNS
believe that this is a period
of truly unique opportunities for
advancement in both personal and
professional affairs, you will, in some
strange way, attract certain very
benevolent offers.
PISCES (Feb. 20 - Mar 20)
Mars and Jupiter are
combining to stiffen your
resolve. You have been too
tolerant, kind and accommodating, and
you may now play a rougher, tougher
game. At work, you may even have a
chance to go back and question
agreements which were never in your
best interests.
MONDAY 14 12 2020
� �
kits of essential commodities
from his own pocket. Each kit
of essential commodities in-
clude five kg of rice, one kg
each of red gram, oil, onions,
ivy gourd, snake gourd, cu-
cumber, coriander, masks,
medicines and ORS packets.
Discharged patients were ad-
vised to take the medicines
prescribed by the doctors and
rest till they are fully
recovered.
Stating that there are no
new cases reported in the city
and the situation is totally un-
der control, he directed the
officials to ensure there are
no cesspools of stagnant wa-
ter anywhere in the city. In-
specting the sewage canals,
he asked the officials to see
that sewage water does not
get stagnated. Giving a pa-
tient hearing to different
problems brought to his no-
tice by the locals, the minister
directed the officials con-
cerned to address their prob-
lems at the earliest.
“You all can call me or meet
me any time to get your prob-
lems resolved,” he told the
people.
DENNIS THE MENACE
EXPRESS READ
390 kg ganja worth
`30L seized, one held
Rajamahendravaram: Police
arrested one person and seized
390 kg ganja worth `30 lakh
and a lorry from his
possession. The accused was
identified as Devaraj, a driver
from Tamil Nadu. According to
Three Town CI K Durga Prasad,
the accused was transporting
ganja from Narsipatnam to
Chennai in a lorry. Devaraj was
sent to judicial remand. Police
launched a manhunt to nab
five other accused.
‘Demarcate plots
before December 20’
Rajamahendravaram: BC
Welfare Minister Ch
Venugopala Krishna directed
the officials to complete
demarcation of plots before
December 20. Sub-Collector
Anupama Anjali met the
minister and Rajanagaram
MLA Jakkampudi Raja and
briefed the progress of
demarcation of house sites.
The minister instructed the
officials to make arrangements
for distribution of house sites
to the poor on December 25.
Minister inaugurates
RPL Season 4
Rajamahendravaram:
Irrigation Minister P Anil
Kumar Yadav inaugurated
Rajamahendravaram Premier
League (RPL) Season 4 on
Sunday. The minister said that
24 teams from seven States
are taking part in the
tournament which will
conclude on December 21.
Rajamahendravaram MP
Margani Bharat said that a
cricket stadium will be set up
at Arts College grounds at a
cost of `25 crore.
Meet 11-year-old green activist Mahi from EG
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Kakinada
AN 11-year-old girl Adabala
Mahi from Yenugupalli in P
Gannavaram mandal of East
Godavari district has been
spreading awareness on con-
servation of environment. She
is studying class 6 at Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya.
Mahi won a prize in the
painting competition on ener-
gy conservation in 2019. Since
Test your number crunching
skill with our unique puzzle
SU DO KU
EASY
■ Fill in the grid
with digits in such
a manner that every
row, every column
and every 3X3 box
accommodates the
digits 1 to 9, without
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■ Each sudoku has a unique solution that can be
reached logically without guessing.
Saturday’s
`1.9 crore unaccounted cash seized
E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kurnool
POLICE arrested one person
and seized `1.9 crore unac-
counted cash from his posses-
sion at Panchalingala check-
post on the outskirts of Kurnool
on Saturday night. The arrest-
ed was identified as K Rama
Chowdary, a resident of
Maruthi Nagar in Anantapur.
According to Kurnool DSP
KV Mahesh, a police team com-
prising Special Enforcement
Bureau Circle Inspector Lak-
shmi Durgaiah and Kurnool
Karthika Masa Vishnu
Puja Deeksha concludes
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Tirumala
THE month-long fete of vratas
and pujas organised by TTD as
part of Karthika Masa Vishnu
Puja Deeksha concluded at Vas-
antha Mandapam inside Tiru-
mala temple on Sunday with
Dhanvantari puja on the auspi-
cious occasion of Dhanvantari
Jayanti. The puja was telecast
live on SVBC between 8.30 am
and 9.30 am.
Earlier, the Vaikhanasa Aga-
ma advisor Mohana Rangach-
aryulu explained the signifi-
cance of Dhanvantari puja. He
said that Dhanvantari, who
emerged during churning of
the ocean, is worshipped as
God of Medicine. The proces-
sional deities of Lord Malayap-
pa Swamy and His two Con-
sorts Sridevi and Bhudevi were
seated in the Vasantha Manda-
pam. The idol of Dhanvantari
was also seated facing the dei-
ties and special pujas were per-
then, she has been conducting
awareness programmes in
schools. Mahi’s father Adabala
Prasad says, “Mahi was never
interested in watching car-
toons or playing with toys like
kids of her age.” Mahi’s moth-
er Manju said even before she
won the prize, her daughter
used to highlight the need for
conserving water, avoid usage
of plastic etc., in plays and elo-
cution competitions. Mahi has
also motivated her sister Rama
Solutions to Saturday’s puzzle
ALMANAC TODAY
Monday: 14/12/2020 Year: Sarvari Aayanam: Dakshinayanam
Rutuvu: Sharad Masam: Karthika Paksham: Bahula Tithi: Amavashya 09.45 pm
Nakshatram: Jyeshtha 11.26 am Durmuhurtham: 12.24 pm - 01.08 pm
Varjyam: 06.44 am - 08.11 am Rahukaalam: 07.30 am - 09.00 am
When questioned by the police,
Rama said he is a real estate
agent and failed to produce val-
id documents. He said that the
cash belongs to realtor B Ran-
ganayakulu of Guntakal and
added that he was returning
the amount to the latter as a
land deal in Hyderabad got
cancelled.
taluk Circle Inspector G Ob- The seized cash was handed
ulesu conducted vehicle checks ove r t o t h e I n c o m e Ta x
near Panchalingala check-post. officials.
The police intercepted an RTC A case was registered and in-
bus and found `1.9 crore cash vestigation is on, the DSP
with one Rama Chowdary. said.
GRAND LAUNCH
Cow donation
programme
in Bengaluru
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Tirupati
TTD Chairman YV Subba
Reddy launched Gudiko Go-
mata programme in Ben-
galuru on Sunday.
Speaking on the occasion,
he said the TTD has started
formed. The programme in- this unique programme as
cluded Vishnu puja Sankalpam per the directions of Chief
and prayers to all Ashtadikpal- Minister YS Jagan Mohan
as and Navagraha. After the Reddy to save indigenous
Dhanvantari puja, Nivedana breeds of cows.
and Harathi, Kshama Prartha- “We have donated a cow
na and Mangalam were per- and a calf to temples in Vi-
formed heralding the conclu- jayawada, Kakinada, Hy-
sion of Karthika Masa Vishnu derabad and now in Ben-
puja. galuru. I appeal to all the
Additional Executive Officer donors to come forward to
AV Dharma Reddy, Srivari tem- donate cows to mutts, tem-
ple chief priests Venugopala ples, Veda patashalas etc.,
Deekshitulu and Krishna Sesh- he added.
achala Deekshitulu, religious Responding to his call, do-
s t a f f a n d o f f i c i a l s we re nors came forward to donate
present. 216 cows.
Chandrika, a class 4 student, to
par ticipate in awareness
programmes.
“We are proud of our daugh-
ter. She also creates awareness
on social media on the impor-
tance of conservation of natu-
ral resources,” she adds.
Mahi’s school principal J Ra-
mana has been very supportive
to her. Collector D Muralidhar
Reddy and SP Adnan Nayeem
Asmi have also appreciated the
efforts of Mahi.
CROSS WORD
ACROSS DOWN
1 Actors may be faced with it 2 Blame one put on the head
backstage (11) of Dean Swift (5)
9 Work put forward but not accepted (7) 3 Some chap seeking a place
10 Act it so as to be understood (5) in the church (4)
11 Double act now extinct (4) 4 The boy most likely to succeed (6)
12 His opinion is sure to be of some value (8) 5 Where barristers practise drinking (2,3,3)
14 God that is around for 6 Despoiled icon is restored
curative purposes (6) to a city of Cyprus (7)
16 Material mother makes on request (6) 7 A graphic description? (4,7)
18 Making contact and 8 Stockholder (11)
appealing to one’s sympathy (8) 13 Having responsibility in attack (2,6)
19 Piece of ice destined to give way (4) 15 Somehow grudged not
22 One understood in radio being fully conscious of events (7)
communications (5) 17 Such a yarn may produce a groan (6)
23 Doubter is disposed to be intrusive (7) 20 Give out centre part of
24 Yet they may be the product of text due for revision (5)
an active imagination (4,7) 21 Of concern to the listener (4)
SATURDAY’S SOLUTIONS
Across: 1 Cicero, 4 Triangle, 9 Narrow, 10 Cape Horn, 12 Rays, 13 Meaty, 14 Miss, 17 Cause o�ence,
20 Practice game, 23 Corn, 24 Amend, 25 Nest, 28 Enchants, 29 Cohere, 30 Midnight, 31 Rhesus.
Down: 1 Contract, 2 Carry out, 3 Room, 5 Read the signs, 6 Ages, 7 Gloria, 8 Ernest, 11 Perfect match,
15 Zebra, 16 Screw, 18 Careless, 19 Pertness, 21 Scream, 22 Traced, 26 Bari, 27 Loth.
 FALLING After 1.08 crore sample tests, at the rate of
2.02 lakh per million population, the

RATE overall coronavirus infection positivity rate

has fallen to 8 per cent, as on Sunday

03 TIRUPATI MONDAY 14 12 2020

� � newindianexpress com

District-wise break-up

District
New
cases
Total
cases
New
deaths
Total
deaths
Govt allows APTDC to take loans worth `142 cr
Anantapur 17 67,006 0 594 R I T I KA A RU N VA I S H A L I rily used to improve facilities “First in Krishna, East and At present, the Corporation
Chittoor 104 84,846 1 835 @ Vijayawada at the existing tourist destina- West Godavari, and Visakhap- is making an yearly profit of
tions. Several sites need better atnam, stores for handicraft `5 to `10 crore after all expen-
E Godavari 41 1,22,988 0 636 THE state government recent- c o n n e c t iv i t y, s a n i t a t i o n and handloom products will be ditures including the staff sal-
Guntur 69 73,944 1 675 ly gave nod to an APTDC’s pro- and accommodation facilities. built in villages. ary. Bhargav mentioned that
posal to secure bank loans So they will be our We are also planning to offer the goal is to take the profit up
Kadapa 12 54,641 0 454 worth `142 crore for develop- priority,” he said, renovation trips to these villages so that to `20 to `25 crore. “The loan
ment of the tourism sector. of the 36 Haritha Resorts and tourists can have a firsthand will be taken by the corpora-

1,08,30,990 8,75,531 506 4

Krishna 59 46,684 1 546
This is the first time in the hotels run by the APTDC is experience of the artisans’ tion and not by the govern-
Kurnool 28 60,404 0 487 country when a state govern- ment. So even if the govern-
Nellore 29 61,782 0 501 ment has agreed to take loans The money will be primarily used to improve facilities at the existing ments change, the works will
total samples tested total cases new cases deaths of this figure for development tourist destinations. Several sites need better connectivity, go on. We have also planned to
Prakasam 220 61,783 0 578 of the sector. sanitation and accommodation facilities keep certain tourist spots as
Srikakulam
Vizag
25
23
45,708
58,636
0
0
346
547 2,02,828
tests per million
7,057
TOTAL DEATHS
613
new recoveries
Sharing the details, AP Spe-
cial Chief Secretary (Tourism
and Culture) Rajat Bhargav
told TNIE that the cost of all
Rajat Bhargav, AP Special Chief Secretary (Tourism and Culture)

also part of the plan. life,” Bhargav added.

guarantees against the loan
amount. We can easily pay off
the loan amount and make
profits if we reach close to our
V’nagaram 13 40,867 1 238
planned projects is `202 crore. Also, a large chunk of the Water tourism is another as- goal.”

4,966 8,63,508 63,873

W Godavari 66 93,352 1 530 While the Andhra Pradesh total amount will be utilised to pect for which a handsome With regard to projects to be
Other States 0 2,461 0 0 Tourism Development Corpo- give impetus to eco-tourism amount will be dedicated. “We taken under public private
ration will take loans worth with the construction of eco- have a good coastline and sev- partnership model, he said the
From abroad 0 434 0 0 active cases total recoveries new samples tested `142 crore from banks, the re- resorts in Jagithpalli, Lambas- eral beaches across the state. corporation has approached
maining `60 crore will be spent ingini and Maredumulli. Fo- This gives us great scope to de- as many as 20 companies, of

Active cases below 5,000

from APTDC’s treasury. cus will also be given to rural velop water sports and beach which five have shown inter-
“The money will be prima- tourism development. tourism.” est in taking the talks further.

as 506 more test positive 2 KILLED, GIRL FALLS INTO RIVER

TRAFFIC JAM

Overall recoveries climb to 8.63L; state tests 63,873 samples in a day
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
ACTIVE coronavirus cases fell
below 5,000 to 4,966 as Andhra
Pradesh recorded 613 recover-
ies in the 24 hours ending Sun-
day 9 am.
According to the media bul-
letin released by the State Com-
mand Control Room, 63,873
samples were tested in the pe-
riod, out of which 506 returned
positive. The total number of
Covid-19 tests conducted so far
has crossed 1.08 crore.
Chittoor was the only district
where the single-day spike in
Covid-19 cases was over 100
even as nine districts reported
under 50 cases infections each,
with the lowest of 12 in
Kadapa. With 17 new cases, the
a g g re g at e i n A n a n t ap u r
Devotees in
Srisailam AFTER ROAD MISHAP IN NELLORE
breached 67,000. Vizianagaram district, which
throng temple EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Nellore
With the fresh additions, the reported a Covid-19 death after
overall recoveries has climbed a while, still stands at the bot- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE TWO persons died and a nine-
to 8.63 lakh at a time when all tom of the table in terms of @ Kurnool year-old girl fell into River
districts have less than 900 ac- overall fatalities. Swarnamukhi following an ac-
tive case with the highest of 884 Chittoor has reported the SRISAILAM temple wit- cident on Naidupeta-Venkata-
in Krishna district and the low- highest number of casualties nessed heavy rush on Sun- giri causeway on Saturday
est of 79 in Vizianagaram. (835) in the state. day as the holy month of night.
Meanwhile, four more pa- After 1.08 crore sample tests, Karthika is coming to an According to Naidupeta Cir-
tients succumbed to the virus at the rate of 2.02 lakh per mil- end. At least 70 thousand cle Inspector G Venugopal
in the period; Chittoor, Guntur, lion population, the overall in- devotees had darshan at Sri Reddy, the girl Pravallika is by saved Murali and Sujatha, and Sujatha to hospital and in-
Krishna and Vizianagaram re- fection positivity rate fell to 8 Bramarambha Mallikarju- the daughter of Mangalapuri but could not find the girl. The formed the police. Having
ported one casualty each. per cent. na Swamy temple ahead of Murali (30) and Sujatha (27) of family was returning home af- learnt about the mishap, the
the last Monday of Karthi- Naidupeta. The mishap took ter offering prayers at Sri Vi- Naidupeta CI, along with Sub-
ka month. place when the couple, along nayaka temple at Thimmaraju Inspectors D Venkateswar Rao
HIGHEST SINGLE-DAY SPIKE IN WEEKS IN KURNOOL The rush of devotees re- with their daughter, was cross- Kandriga village. and Balakrishnaiah and SDRF
Kurnool: The administration has alerted officials on the possible second sulted in a nearly 10-km ing the causeway on a bike, Two of the three friends, team, rushed to the spot and
wave of coronavirus in Kurnool as the district has again been registering traffic jam in Nallamala for- collided with a trio of drunken identified as Trinath (20) of took up search operation to
at least 20 new infections on an average. On Sunday, 28 people tested est ghat section. The jam friends coming on a bike from Ichchapuram and Sai (22) of trace the girl.
positive, the highest one-day spike in a couple of weeks, as against just could only be cleared by the behind. The trio work at Green Visakhapatnam died on the The CI said that their efforts
three on December 3. So far, 60,404 infections have emerged, and 487 evening. Temple EO KS Tech Company located at Me- spot and Naguru of Modugula- to trace the girl did not yield
deaths were reported in the district. DMHO said the focus is on Kurnool Rama Rao appealed to peo- nakuru village. palem escaped with minor results till Sunday evening
city, Nandyal and Adoni, which saw an aggressive spread of Covid in the ple to follow Covid-19 norms The girl along with her par- injuries. and they would continue the
initial months of the pandemic in the state. when they visit the temple. ents fell into the river. Passers- Passers-by shifted Murali search operation on Monday.

‘Online classes Policeman attacked with knife,

to go on till end
of academic yr’
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
REGULAR classes for students
of class 7 will begin on Monday.
Earlier the state government,
had announced that the classes
for the grades 6 and 7 pupils will
resume from December 14.
“We will take some more
time to start schools for class 6
students as the situation is not
completely under control yet.
Regular classes for all grades
will resume step by step,” Edu-
cation Minister Audimulapu
Suresh told TNIE. The class 7
students can still opt for online
classes even if the regular
classes begin on Monday. “The
online classes will go on till the
end of this academic year. Stu-
dents can only attend classes in
schools if they have their par-
ents’ consent.”
battling for life in West Godavari
E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Vijayawada
AN assistant sub-inspector (ASI) at-
tached to Veeravasaram police sta-
tion in West Godavari district was
severely injured after he was attacked
with knife by a group of men on Sun-
day evening.
The ASI was immediately rushed to
the Bhimavaram government
hospital where his condition
is said to be critical. Another
person was also injured in
the attack.
Responding to the incident,
Director General of Police
(DGP) D Gautam Sawang in-
structed West Godavari Superintend-
ent of Police Narayan Naik to arrest
the accused immediately and conduct
a detailed probe.
ASI P Parthasarathi was attacked
with a knife by one R Ajay Kumar and
his aides when the former was report-
edly attending a complaint by a per-
son that Ajay Kumar was trying to
attack him.
“The man who called the police had
taken Ajay Kumar’s land in the vil-
lage on lease and was not able to pay
rent regularly. Angered by this, Ajay
Kumar tried to take his crops from
the field despite the complainant
pleading for some more time.” West
Godavari SP Narayan Naik told
TNIE.
“Talks between two groups
turned into a heated argu-
ments and then into a scuffle.
Responding to the complain-
ant’s call, ASI Parthasarathi
rushed to the spot and was at-
tacked by Ajay Kumar and his
group while trying to control the
situation.”
Noticing the ASI in a pool of blood,
passersby alerted the police and ad-
mitted him to a local hospital. A case
was registered against the incident
and teams were formed to arrest the
accused and others who took part in
the scuffle.

EXPRESS
READ
Minister visits sick in
Nellore hospital
Nellore: Minister Mekapati
Goutham Reddy visited
Government General Hospital
in Nellore city and inquired
about the health condition of
agriculture workers who fell
sick after eating ‘stale food’.
Speaking to the media, the
ministers said 49 migrant
workers from West Bengal fill
sick on Friday evening; nine of
them were shifted to Nellore
GGH in critical condition.

5 gamblers arrested
near Vijayawada
Vijayawada: Nuzvid special
branch police arrested five
gamblers from a gambling
site on Sunday. Following an
input about gambling
activities, a special team from
Nuzvid special branch police
raided the location in Kudapa
village of Reddigudem
mandal. The police recovered
playing cards, stake money
amounting to `46,620 and
six mobile phones.
 REMARKS Condemning the comments of Velampalle Srinvias that the
govt will construct Dargas, BJYM district president
FLAYED K Srinivas Rao said the endowment minister making such
comments is unpardonable and demanded his resignation

04 TIRUPATI MONDAY 14 12 2020

� �

Bengal gram farmers bear brunt of cyclone

TIRUPATI BYPOLL

BJP warns of surgical

strikes on ‘vote-bank
Heavy rains damaged crop at initial stage itself and farmers are in a dilemma as to what crop to be cultivated
S G U R U S R I K A N T H @ Vijayawada still taking stock of the losses investment got washed away

politics’ of YSRC, TDP

THE Nivar cyclone, which
broke the back of farmers in
the State, has particularly
proved devastating for bengal
gram farmers. The cyclone
damaged the crop at the initial
stage itself and now with opti-
mum time for sowing elapsed,
farmers are in a dilemma as to
what crop to be cultivated as
an alternative.
Bengal gram is cultivated
during Rabi, mostly in Pra-
kasam and Kadapa districts
and this year, the target for cul-
tivation of the crop during
Rabi was 4.03 lakh hectares
and sowing was completed in
3.06 lakh hectares. However,
due to the Nivar cyclone, a sig-
nificant portion of the culti-
vated crop was damaged. Offi-
cials are now busy enumerating
the losses.
According to agriculture de-
partment officials, in Kadada
district, the crop was cultivat-
ed in 1.67 lakh hectares in 16
mandals of Badvel, Puliven-
dula, Kamalapuram, Kadapa
and Jammalamadugu assem-
bly constituencies. “We are
and a report will be submitted
to the State government in 2-3
days,” an agriculture depart-
ment official in Kadapa told
TNIE.
Investment for bengal gram
crop per acre was around
`15,000 with state government
providing seed at 80 per cent
subsidy in view of the crop
loss due to heavy rains during
Kharif. “We thought of recoup-
ing losses of Kharif, but unex-
pectedly Nivar affected our
fortunes and we lost the crop
we cultivated midway itself,”
rued KV Ramana Reddy, a
farmer from Badvel. He culti-
vated Bengal gram in six acres
investing `1 lakh.
Stating that there is no time
for recultivating the bengal
gram, he said they are think-
ing of cultivating vegetables
using water from borewells, as
groundwater has been re-
charged considerably. M Srini-
vasulu, another bengal gram
farmer from Muddanuru in
Kadapa district, said he suf-
fered losses in four acres. He
added that he is in a dilemma
as to what crop to be cultivated
in the Nivar cyclone,” rued
Subgrama Reddy from Yerra-
gondapalem mandal. He culti-
We thought of
vated the crop in four acres
recouping losses
of Kharif, but and with heavy losses, he is
unexpectedly looking forward to input sub- E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Tirupati
Nivar affected sidy to recoup some of the
our fortunes and losses. C Sreerama Murthy of RAJYA Sabha member and
we lost the crop NG Padu village, who returned BJP leader GVL Narasimha
we cultivated to bengal gram cultivation, Rao has said the voters in the
midway itself which he left due to lack of Tirupati Lok Sabha constitu-
KV Ramana Reddy, MSP and marketing problems, ency will carry out twin surgi-
a farmer from seeing good rains, was disap- cal strikes in the coming bypoll
Badvel pointed. However, he is not against the vote bank politics
FACING LOSSES ready to give up and decided to of both the YSRC and TDP.
continue with bengal gram in Stating that the BJP-Jana
Bengal gram Target for cultivation of the his 25 acres of land. Sena combine will announce
We expected a
good yield at the is cultivated crop during Rabi: 4.03 L ha According to agriculture ex- its candidate soon, he predicted
end of the during Rabi, perts, the extent of Rabi crops that the BJP’s streak of victory
mostly in Sowing was completed in 3.06
season. Heavy cultivated so far has been 1.5 in the State will begin with the
rains due to Nivar Prakasam lakh hectares, but due to Nivar
cyclone, a significant portion of lakh hectares less than what it Tirupati bypoll.
was unexpected and Kadapa was in the previous Rabi ses- Interacting with the media at TRS and AIMIM are working together
and they dashed districts the crop was damaged and doing religious politics in
sion, mostly due to heavy rains a private hotel here, he said,
our hopes Telangana. The situation is the same
and cyclones during October- “TRS and AIMIM are working
in AP where the YSRC and TDP are
C Sreerama Murthy In Prakasam, bengal gram was cultivated in November. Next two weeks together and doing religious competing with each other in playing
of NG Padu village around 20% of normal extent of 1.4 L hectares will determine to what extent politics in Telangana. The situ- vote bank politics
there will be a deficit in the ex- ation is the same here in And-
tent of cultivation during hra where the ruling YSR Con- GVL Narasimha Rao, BJP MP
or should he leave it fallow till is 1.4 lakh hectares. However, Rabi. gress party and Opposition
Kharif. In Prakasam district, 14,000 hectares of the crop was TDP are competing with each ments of Hindus”, he alleged
bengal gram was cultivated in reportedly lost and the enu- (With inputs from S Nagara- other in playing vote bank poli- that the growing attacks on
around 20 per cent of the nor- m e r at i o n i s s t i l l u n d e r ja Rao from Kadapa and IVNP tics. Twin surgical strikes are temples and Hindu religious in-
mal extent of the crop, which progress. “My nearly `1 lakh Prasad Babu from Ongole) required in Andhra Pradesh to stitutions were a clear case of
stop the vote bank politics of state-sponsored religious
these parties.” conversion.

HRF sees police bid to implicate its leader in case
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
THE Human Rights Forum
condemned the attempts of the
police to implicate K Jayasree,
AP State vice-president of the
federation, in a criminal case
Ganta goes on patently absurd charges
and project her as a person as-
mittee members, said the con-
tents of the ‘confession’ that
incriminate her are pure fic-
tion. “We strongly condemn
and reject these insidious at-
tempts by the police to frame
human rights activists.
Frankly, these tiring old
methods of suppress-
ing dissent need to be
towards their redressal. Often,
her activism has been directed
at exposing the failures of the
government, whether of the
TDP or the current ruling dis-
pensation, they added.
Jayasree has campaigned
against mining for ura-
nium by the Uranium
Corporation of India
“It is this legitimate activ-
ism that the police are now try-
ing to scuttle by seeking to im-
plicate her in a criminal case.
We feel obtaining a concocted
‘confession’ from an accused
in another case alleging a con-
nection with the Maoists is the
first step in that direction. It is
evident that the police are
He also found fault with the
stand of both the parties in the
name of secularism in the sui-
cide of Salaam family of
Nandyal.
He accused the YSRC govern-
ment of conducting religious
campaigns by allowing such
celebrations at police stations
and demanded action against
those responsible for the inci-
dent. “Have you ever seen a
State government giving li-
cense to celebrate Christmas in
“By depositing TTD funds in
private banks, the YSRC gov-
ernment is trying to raise loans
and divert temple funds for oth-
er purposes,” he alleged.
The YSRC and TDP in its pre-
vious term had done nothing
for the state, he said and added
it was the BJP-led Centre which
pumped in several crores of ru-
pees for the development of the
State. However, the two region-
al parties were trying to claim
credit for it, he alleged.

into active sociated with and working at

the behest of the proscribed
dismissed with the
contempt they de-
Ltd at Thummalapalli
of Kadapa district
seeking to project her and the
HRF as Maoists,” they said.
police stations? How can the
YSR Congress do this? Have we
The BJP leader dared the
YSRC and TDP to come for a de-

mode again
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Visakhapatnam
AFTER a long hiatus,
for mer minister Ganta
Srinivasa Rao chaired a
TDP meeting at his resi-
dence here on Sunday.
Srinivasa Rao has been
maintaining a stoic silence
for quite some time and re-
mained aloof from the par-
ty meetings, fuelling specu-
lation that he might switch
loyalties. Since he was elect-
ed to the Assembly in 2019,
the speculations were rife
about his joining the BJP
first and later YSRC. He
even did not attend the
meeting attended by party
president N Chandrababu
Naidu. However, putting all
speculations to rest, the
MLA convened the party co-
ordination meeting with
party councillor candidates
and ward leaders.
Vizag Lok Sabha constitu-
ency president Palla Srini-
vas, party State organising
secretary Lodagala Krishna
and others attended the
meeting. Speaking at the
meeting, Ganta stressed the
need for strengthening the
party in the north constitu-
ency. He asked Palla Srini-
vas to form party commit-
tees in all wards. He said
they would visit all wards
and take up various issues
and problems faced by peo-
ple in the constituency.
Maoist party based on a ‘con-
fession’ statement by an ac-
cused in a case registered un-
der the UAPA and Sedition, at
Piduguralla of Guntur
district.
In a press release, VS Krish-
na and S Jeevan Kumar, HRF
(AP&TS) coordination com-
National Energy Conservation Week
in State from December 14 to 20
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Vijayawada
CHIEF Secretary Nilam Sawh-
ney has directed all the district
collectors to take a proactive
role and ensure involvement
of all the stakeholders up to
the grossroot level to make the
National Energy Conservation
Week 2020 a grand success in
the State.
The State government is go-
ing to organise the National
Energy Conservation Week
from December 14 to 20 and,
for the first time, the govern-
ment has announced ‘AP State
Energy Conservation Awards’
to recognise excellence in en-
ergy conservation and energy
efficiency in various sectors in
the State.
The Chief Secretary, also
chairperson of AP State En-
ergy Conservation Mission
(APSECM), wrote a letter to all
the district collectors and said
that the State government had
attached high priority for en-
serve; they have no
place in the civilized and
democratic society we as-
pire to be,” they said.
Jayasree, a founding mem-
ber of the HRF and resident of
Proddatur in Kadapa district,
has consistently highlighted
rights violations and worked
ergy efficiency and took sev-
eral important decisions re-
cently to take forward energy
efficiency movement in a mis-
sion mode in the State.
She had issued a GO, direct-
ing all heads of departments
and district collectors to set up
energy conservation cells in
all government departments
within a month and issued an-
other one on AP Energy Con-
servation Building Code to im-
plement energy efficiency in
the building sector.
Now focus is on creating
awareness among the general
public, government depart-
ments and private sector on
the importance of energy effi-
ciency, which helps to reduce
while pointing out how They reiterated that the HRF ever seen Dussehra celebra- bate before the by-election to
the mining is poisoning is not an appendage of either tions held at police stations?” t h e T i r u p at i L o k S ab h a
the land and depleting the Maoists or any other politi- he questioned, while saying constituency.
groundwater tables. She also cal party. “We are a rights or- that it is the responsibility of He also found fault with both
stood by Gandikota project dis- ganisation seeking to perpetu- both parties to answer these the parties for their double
placed and highlighted the ate a human rights culture in questions before the Tirupati standard on farm laws, which
manner in which hundreds of societ,” they asserted and de- by-election. is intended to enable the farm-
families were left in the lurch manded that the police desist Lashing out at the State gov- ers to have access to a free and
by successive governments. from these attempts. ernment for “hurting the senti- transparent market.
energy demand, promotes en-
ergy security, economic devel-
opment, lower the expenditure
on energy even from house-
hold to State economy level
and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
While briefing the Chief
Secretary on various energy
efficiency initiatives, Energy
Secretary Srikant Nagulapalli
said that the State has imple-
mented UJALA scheme (LED
bulb distribution scheme),
LED street lighting program,
Perform, Achieve and Trade
(PAT) scheme to save energy in
industries, Energy Conserva-
tion Building Code (ECBC),
retrofitting of energy efficient
pump sets in rural water sup-
ply schemes and agricultural
sector, energy efficiency meas-
ures in schools, courts and
other departments with the
support of BEE. These
schemes are estimated to
achieve annual savings over
2932 MU worth around `2,014
SAFE DISTANCE
crore of monetary savings. Monkeys sitting in front of Kapileswara Swamy Temple in Tirupati on Sunday I MADHAV K

THE POSTIVE SIDE EXPRESS READ

Heavy rains from Aug fill irrigation projects across State to brim
Jagan to visit Polavaram
project site today
Vijayawada: All arrangements are
in place for Chief Minister YS
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE basin in the state saw abun- System, 6,057.39 TMC was Jagan Mohan Reddy’s visit to
@ Vijayawada dant water inflow and So- from rains and 5,876.42 TMC Polavaram project site on
masila reservoir was filled to was in form of inflows from Monday. During his visit, the Chief
THOUGH heavy rains from brim and Kandaleru reser- other States. Inflows in Penna Minister will take stock of the
August to October and again voir, which caters to the river were 331.84 TMC at So- works at spillway, spill channel
in November under Niavar drinking water needs of masila. Rains that lashed dif- and hold a review meeting with
and Burevi cyclones have Chennai and Tirupati cities, ferent parts of Rayalaseema, officials and contractors. It will be
caused distress to the farm- accumulated 60 TMC of wa- saw several of the river’s trib- the Chief Minister’s third visit to
ing community, they filled the ter, which is a record utaries including Kun- the project site.
irrigation projects across the high in last five years. du, Chitravathi, Pa-
State to the brim and even re- “We are confident pagni, Bahuda, Govt ignoring plight of
charged the ground-water ta- that water levels in Jayamangali, Cheyy- Amaravati farmers
WATER AUDIT DATA (FROM JUNE 1 TO DECEMBER 13) ble considerably. various major and ur, Pincha in spate.
As per the State water audit minor projects and Current water lev- Vijayawada: TDP leader Yanamala
11,933.81 TMC 1,024.24 TMC 343.83 TMC 4,828.89 TMC 31.89 TMC
Industry
from June 1 to December 13
this year, the State received
tanks in Pennar basin
will be sufficient to ad-
els in major reservoirs
in Penna basin includ-
Ramakrishnudu lambasted the
State government for ignoring the
Total water inflows Water storage level Reservoirs River outflow 11,933.81 TMC of water from dress the needs of irrigation ing Somasila, Gandikota, plight of Amaravati farmers. He
52.44 TMC
described Amaravati farmers’
6,057.39 TMC 146.32 TMC 10,911.67 TMC 1,143.27 TMC Domestic both rainfall and flood water and drinking water for next Kandaleru, Chitravati, PABR,
from upstream of different two years,” an official from Mylavaram, put together is agitation, which reached 361st
1,743.34 rivers. At present, the storage the irrigation department in 100.5 TMC and if the minor ir- day on Sunday, as historic. “TDP
Rainfall Groundwater Total water outflow Total consumption
TMC Surface levels in the State including Nellore told TNIE. rigation projects and tanks made Amaravati backbone of AP,

5,876.42 TMC 479.03 TMC 3,191.55 TMC 1,058.94 TMC

and groundwater and soil mois- As per data from Andhra are also taken into account but YSRC government broke that
subsurface ture is 1,024.24 TMC. Pradesh Water Resources In- the water storage levels in the backbone, paralysing the entire
Inflows from other states Soil Moisture Evapotranspiration Irrigation outflow For the first time, Pennar formation & Management basin would be more. state,” he said.
 JUMPING In what may come as yet another major jolt to TRS,
BC Welfare Minister Gangula Kamalakar’s supporter
SHIP and former Karimnagar deputy mayor Guggillapu
Ramesh is likely to join BJP very soon

05 TIRUPATI MONDAY 14 12 2020

� �

Telangana to fill 50k posts soon

KCR announces notifications will be issued to fill vacant posts in various departments
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Hyderabad
BEFORE long, jobs would be
raining in Hyderabad. Chief
Minister K Chandrasekhar
Rao on Sunday announced
VIOLENCE
126 arrested in
Wistron Corp
ernment departments. Incidentally, the Telangana Chakrapani are: C.Vittal, B.
rampage case
“There about 50,000 vacan- State Public Service Commis- Chandravathi and Mohd Ma-
cies in the State in several de- sion (TSPSC), the principal teenuddin Quadri on comple- V V E L AY U D H A M @ Kolar
partments. We have to agency for recruit- tion of six years of their
fill them up. Teachers ment to vacancies in term. SENIOR Police Officers includ-
and police have to be the state gover n- According to sources, the ac- ing Additional DGP (Law and
recruited in thou- ment, ironically will tual strength of the commis- Order) Pratap Reddy, Central

Five killed as car jumps

that notifications would be is- sands. Collect details soon have a number sion is 11 including the chair- Range Inspector General of Po-
sued shortly to fill posts re- about the vacant posts of vacancies in man. Five members have lice Semanth Kumar Singh and
maining vacant in various de- in teachers, police and itself. already retired, leaving the Kolar Superintendent of Police
partments, including those of other departments. After its chairman chairman and five others as on Karthick Reddy visited Wistron

signal, rams into tipper teachers and policemen, which

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE techie working with Tech Ma-
@ Hyderabad hindra, Chinta Manohar(23)
an Animation designer, Kol-
IN a ghastly road accident at luru Pavan Kumar(24) and
are in thousands.
The Chief Minister asked
Chief Secretary Somesh Ku-
mar to make an assessment of
the vacancies in all State gov-
EXPRESS READ
Calculate how many
employees are needed
in each department. After get-
ting the number of vacant
posts, notifications to fill them
should be issued,” KCR said.
Ghanta Chakrapani
and three more mem-
bers retire on December 17,
the commission will be left
with two members. The three
members retiring along with
date. It looks as though the CM
would have to fill the vacancy
of the chairman and other
members first before recruit-
ing 50,000 posts in the state
government.
Corporation, Narasapura of
Kolar on Sunday.
The Senior officers visited
the places and inspected the
damages caused to the corpora-
tion during the alleged ram-
page by the workers of the Wis-
tron Corporation on the wee

KCR forms sub-panel for registrations

Wipro Circle at Gachibowli in
Hyderabad’s IT Corridor, five
youngsters travelling in a car
were killed when they jumped
a red signal and crashed into
a speeding tipper in the early
hours of Sunday.
The accident happened at
the Wipro circle and the car
came in the way of the tipper,
police said.
Four of the five passengers
in the car died on the spot
while the fifth breathed his
last while undergoing treat-
ment in a hospital.
The victims are identified
as Katragadda Santosh(25), a
Nagisetty Roshan(23), both
working in private firms and
Pappu Bhardawaj(20).
The victims belong to dif-
ferent par ts of Andhra
Pradesh and were staying at a
hostel in Madhapur.
R Srinivas, Inspector Gachi-
bowli police said that a case
of death due to accident(340A
IPC) has been registered.
Police tested the tipper
driver for drunken driving,
but he was found negative. He
is in possession of a valid
driving license and the vehi-
cle also has all valid
documents.
Counselling for LLB,
LLM courses today
Hyderabad: The first phase
counselling for admissions
into LLB and LLM courses via
the TS LAWCET and TS
PGLCET will begin on Monday.
Counselling will commence
three-year LLB courses, five-
year LLB integrated and two-
year LLM courses. A total of
3,969 seats are available in
LLB three-year course, 1,280
seats in LLB five-year course
and 620 seats in LLM.
R P R I D H V I R A J @ Hyderabad
ON the eve of commencement
of registrations of non-agri-
cultural properties, Chief
Minister K Chandrasekhar
Rao constituted a Cabinet sub-
committee, headed by Roads
and Buildings Minister Vemu-
la Prashanth Reddy, to come
up with suggestions to make
the process of registrations
not only transparent but also
without any scope for
corruption.
After the green signal from
the Telangana High Court that
registration of non-agricul-
ture property could be done in
the conventional manner,
pending disposal of a case be-
fore it which raised the con-
cerns over the protection of
one’s Aadhaar details on Dha-
rani website, the State govern-
ment commenced slot booking
for registrations on Friday
while the actual process of
registrations will begin on
Monday.
The registration of the non-
agricultural properties has re-
mained suspended since Sep-
tember 8 which has caused
agony to those who are in an
emerg ency to sell their
properties.
The Chief Minister had ex-
pressed his satisfaction over
the way agricultural proper-
ties are being registered
through Dharani portal.
hours of Saturday, sources to
the paper said even the Wistron
officials who were present,
shown the places where more
damages were caused and ex-
plained about the incident.
Kolar Superintendent of Po-
lice Karthick Reddy said so far
128 persons who are all workers
of the corporation were arrest-
ed in connection with the inci-
dent, he said totally four cases
has been registered, among
that three on the complaint of
Wistron Corporation and an-
other by the police for obstruct-
ing them from doing their
service.

IIT-M under lockdown as Covid cases spike History created in Council

S V K R I S H N A C H A I TA N YA @ Chennai
THE Indian Institute of Tech-
nology, Madras (IIT-M) has
been placed under temporary
lockdown after a major out-
break of Covid-19 cases in the
campus.
According to health
authorities, as many as
71 fresh cases of infec-
tion were reported
from the campus in the
last two weeks, of which,
66 were students, four staff
from the mess and one from the
resident quarters.
The single highest spike was
recorded on Sunday with an-
other 32 cases being added to
the tally, and the number is
likely to go up in the next cou-
ple of days with the State gov-
ernment instructing the insti-
tute to test all the students on
the campus.
IIT-M issued an official circu-
lar, informing of the shutdown
of all departments and facili-
ties with immediate
effect.
The circular, a copy
of which was accessed
by Express, says: “In
view of the recent spike
in Covid cases in the
hostel sector, it has been
decided to shut down all de-
partments, centres and the li-
brary immediately, until fur-
ther notice. All faculty, staff,
project staff and research
scholars will work from home
until such time.”
E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru
The circular added: “All stu- FACT FILE
dents, scholars and project THE Karnataka Legislative Council has created
staff staying on campus are ad- 71 cases were history by reconvening for the first time after being
vised strictly to confine them- reported from adjourned sine die.
selves to their hostel rooms and the campus in After Council Chairman Prathap Chandra Shetty
maintain social distance at all the last two adjourned the House on Thursday, ruling party
times for their own safety.” weeks members have appealed to Governor Vajubhai Vala
The circular also asked those Single highest and convinced him to hold the session again on
presenting with symptoms to spike was Tuesday. The standoff in the Council is mainly be-
get in touch with the IIT-M hos- recorded on cause of the decision of the ruling party, which is
pital authorities, immediately. Sunday with 32 in majority in the House for the first time, to move
As per official data, there are cases a no-confidence motion against the Chairman.
nine student hostels and one
A total of 774
guest house from which cases
students
have been reported. A total of
currently reside
774 students are currently re-
in the campus
siding at the campus, of which,
samples were collected from A circular
408 students, as on date. Krish- informed the
na hostel reported the maxi- shutdown of all
mum number of cases (22), fol- departments in
lowed by 20 from Jamuna. the campus
 Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a
free government; when this support is taken
away, the constitution of a free society is Benjamin
dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins Franklin

06 TIRUPATI, MONDAY 14 12 2020

� �

A glaring omission from the WHO’s health system building

INDIAN EXPRESS IS NOT AN blocks was the community. It was perceived as a passive
INDUSTRY. IT IS A MISSION. recipient of the health system’s services and not part of it

CO-CREATING
— Ramnath Goenka

POLITICS OF VIOLENCE HEALTH WITH

PUSHING BENGAL DOWN COMMUNITIES
A DANGEROUS SLOPE

T
he stoning of BJP chief J P Nadda’s con-
voy in West Bengal by alleged Trinamool
goons and its brazening by Chief Minister DR K SRINATH Cardiologist, epidemiologist and
Mamata Banerjee are indicators of the REDDY President, PHFI. Views are personal
politics of violence the state continues to AMIT BANDRE
practice. Even if one were to go by her claim

I
that it was the fallout of intra-BJP rivalry, the n 2007, the WHO listed six building in relation to the health system? delivery of health services. Wom- between the formal and informal pact of chemical pollutants is first
attack showed a complete failure of the law- blocks of the health system: service Community-based organisations en’s self-help groups in Uttar health workforce will become in- noticed by the community, as is the
delivery; health workforce; medical working in health and other devel- Pradesh helped reduce neonatal creasingly blurred. rise of substance abuse. More accu-
and- order mechanism under her watch as chief
products, vaccines and technolo- opmental sectors are an obvious and maternal mortality through Community-based monitoring of rate information on availability of
minister. As there was no indication of shock gies; information; financing; and component. Other voluntary health education, behaviour change health programmes has been shown health personnel, drugs and emer-
or remorse, Amit Shah’s ministry summoned leadership/governance. Though groups, whether women’s self-help and monitoring in the community, to greatly enhance performance gency services is better obtained
three senior officials from Bengal to Delhi to fix somewhat arbitrary in their defini- groups or youth associations, can after training provided by public and impact through real-world feed- from the community than from
accountability. When she promptly spiked it, tions, these building blocks became also be effective contributors to health experts. Throughout the back, corrective advice and asser- health department records.
showing her trademark combative side, the very popular for analysing the ca- health programmes. Other social, AIDS pandemic, those living with tion of accountability. In Thailand, Multi-sectoral action, in domains
pacity and performance of health religious and political groups too the infection received care from a National Health Assembly annu- that profoundly impact health but
Modi government sought redeployment of
systems across the world. can take up the health agenda for families and community volunteers. ally convenes with community rep- lie outside the conventional con-
three senior Bengal police officers on Central One glaring omission from this advocacy and action. Even the in- Persons with diabetes practise and resentatives, government agencies struct of the health system, can
deputation, a fiat she cannot refuse as the Cen- list was the community. It appeared formal networks of people that op- greatly benefit from self-monitoring and health experts to review per- also be catalysed, supported and
tre’s word is final on such matters. The three that the community was being per- erate at the neighbourhood or fam- and care, often with family support. formance of health programmes, speeded up through community ac-
were in charge of security during Nadda’s trip, ceived as a passive recipient and ily level contribute to community Persons with disabilities or mental identify unmet needs and chart the tion. Convergence of many health
so we know who is wielding the long stick. beneficiary of services provided by dynamics for health. health challenges get maximum course for the year ahead. In Brazil, and development programmes
The attack is reminiscent of lumpen ele- the organised health system and Behaviour change for health is a care and support from families and municipal councils conduct month- takes place at the community level.
was not part of it. The fact that critical component of many public the local community. None of these ly monitoring. In some parts of In- With increased awareness of the
ments ruling the streets during the erstwhile members of the community, indi- health programmes. Whether it is fit into the enumeration of the for- dia too, community-based NGOs health impact of water, sanitation,
Left Front government in the state, from whom vidually and collectively, contribute uptake of polio immunisation in mal health workforce. Yet, as tech- and panchayats have enhanced the nutrition and food systems, pollu-
Mamata wrested power. She also learned to mir- to the creation of health was lost in children, not smoking in public nology-enabled primary care ex- quality of health services through tion and climate change, and by re-
ror their tactics to stay in power. With state polls this mechanistic model. The func- places or wearing of face masks in tends across many areas of health monitoring. Apart from appraising lating education of girls to family
around the corner, her grip is being severely tioning of the health system, even Covid-19 times, the community’s and institutional care yields space the level and quality of service pro- health, transport systems to road
tested by a resurgent BJP. Both parties have as described by the WHO, is greatly willing acceptance of a health advi- to home-based care, the distinction vision, community monitoring also accidents and technology to local
dependent on the role played by sory is dependent on information brings a rights perspective and vigi- health priorities, the community
been allegedly indulging in bloodsport for some
people’s attitudes and actions that flow and changing health beliefs lantly protects the interests of vul- can set the demand for coherent
time now, finishing off rival cadre in remote set the demand for and acceptance within it. While celebrity role mod- nerable and marginalised groups. multi-sectoral policies and actions
villages in their turf war, as had happened ear- of services. More important, people els have appeal on mass media, it is The community can also func- that enable and not erode health. As
lier in Kerala with defectors. Yet, there was no too provide health services to them- the local community network that tion as an alert health information the WHO rightly calls for primary
crackdown, creating the impression that the selves, families, friends and others. breaks down pockets of resistance. system. In an infectious disease healthcare-led universal coverage,
The fact that members of
violence had tacit government blessings. That dynamic construct was lost in Even for combating fear and stigma outbreak, early warnings can come it is also time to unfurl the flag of
the Lego model of the health sys- during pandemic time, the local in- the community, individually and from the community. Even reports people-partnered public health.
One common streak between Mamata and collectively, contribute to healthcare
tem, which appeared to perceive the fluencers have a major role to play. of unusual deaths among animals (Dr Reddy is the author of Make
the Modi-led BJP is their ruthless pursuit of community as an outsider. Members of the community also was lost in this mechanistic model may raise the red flag of a potential Health in India: Reaching a Billion
power. That’s what has made the BJP a mean Who constitutes the community, play a part in efficient and equitable zoonotic spread to humans. The im- Plus) (ksrinath.reddy@phfi.org)
election machine and Mamata the loud, can-
tankerous bully. During her first shot at chief
ministership, she saw Maoist influence in eve-
ry corner. That antagonism has since shifted to
the BJP and the Hyderabad election outcome
possibly added to her unease. Her hopes of
JUDICIAL OVERREACH & RESTRAINTS ON FREEDOM OF PRESS
leading the UPA one day are also fading as the unless the citizens are well in- and establishments. Though the commissioner, told an online news
wily Sharad Pawar’s candidature is being formed on all sides of the issues, in HC’s order was stayed by the Su- portal that the HC’s orders are
tossed around. And the highly expensive image respect of which they are called preme Court in 2007 itself, it took “against the rule of law, core text of
makeover and strategy shift she tried to do by upon to express their views. One- the apex court 10 years to give a final freedom of expression under 19(1)
VIJAYASAI MP, YSRCP Parliamentary Party Leader sided information, disinformation, verdict on the issue. and 19(2)”. He said the courts have
hiring consultant Prashant Kishor are yet to REDDY V and National General Secretary misinformation and non-informa- More recently, in 2017, the Orissa such powers according to a few past
show results. Does the mercurial Didi at all re- tion all equally create an unin- High Court in the High Court Bar judgments, but facts on the ground
alise that political violence in the long run will formed citizenry, which makes de- Association v. State of Odisha & do not justify the invocation of such

B
be counterproductive? efore we discuss the judicial over-
reach into freedom of speech and
expression, which is a constitution-
CAN’T GLOSS OVER al right, let us pause to recall that
the Constitution is a document that
IMPENDING NBFC CRISIS starts with “We the people” and
ends with “ in our Constituent As-
like in the US, where the freedom of
press is guarded by the First
Amendment to the US Constitu-
tion, the same finds no mention in
the Indian Constitution. Freedom
of press in India is considered an
extension of Article 19(1) of the
mocracy a farce...”
Additionally, the Indian judiciary
has, on several occasions, been cel-
ebrated for its activism where it has
played a proactive role in dispens-
ing social justice. But time and
again, the thin line between judicial
Ors put prior restraints on the me-
dia from reporting on a case. In Feb-
ruary 2017, a woman inspector who
had visited the High Court alleged
that a few advocates misbehaved
with her on the premises of the
court. Soon after the incident, a pe-
extraordinary powers and such a
restriction was judicial censorship.
The SC in Sahara vs SEBI (2012)
held that the court can grant pre-
ventive relief on balancing the right
to free trial and a free press. Such
temporary restraint was granted by

I
sembly this day of November 1949
ndia’s shadow banking sector or non-banking do hereby adopt, enact and give to
financial companies (NBFCs) continue to be ourselves this Constitution .…”,
stressed. This has ramifications not only for meaning that it is the people who
the sector but will affect the nation’s economic gave themselves this Constitution.
recovery. Several major finance firms have col- It is the people who, in the democ-
lapsed in the recent past including IL&FS, racy called India, have given them-
selves the right to unequivocally
whose bankruptcy is still sending shivers down
express themselves if they feel pas-
Indian finance’s spine. An alarmed RBI is keep- sionately about an issue. Then is it
ing a close watch on the most important shadow not mandatory that the three organs
banks to check for signs of distress and has im- of the government, while trying to
posed strict conditions for dividend distribu- maintain a system of checks and
tion, which will see most of them unable to give balances, do not lose sight of the fact
that they are answerable to the peo-
any pay-outs to stockholders this year.
ple? Can they indulge in a game of
More shadow bank collapses could under- one-upmanship and lose sight of
mine faith in our financial marketplace and see the fact that they are here to serve
further tightening of credit, especially for small the interests of the people?
businesses, which depend on NBFCs for their Though there are no definite pro-
funding needs. Ratings agency CRISIL esti- visions acknowledging the separa-
mates that stressed assets for the sector as on tion of powers in an absolute form,
the Constitution has embraced the
September 2020 stood at `1.6-1.8 lakh crore or up principle in an implied manner. Ac-
to 7.5% of the assets managed by our NBFCs. cording to the doctrine of separa-
This is likely to rise considerably once the loan tion of powers followed, the legisla-
moratoriums are wound down. While 2021 is ture, executive and the judiciary all
expected to be a year of recovery, it is also likely have separate functions that are
to be a year when weaker corporates, hit by maintained via a system of checks
and balances to avoid overreach.
Covid, start reneging on loan repayments. As
What, then, is the role of the
most NBFCs statutorily cannot raise money on fourth pillar, the media? It acts as a
their own and depend on banks for funds that watchdog of the three organs. Un-
they on-lend, fears about their health will see
that tap drying up. Banks themselves are going
through great stress due to Covid. India’s depos-
it-taking banks are expected to see their bad
loans rise to 12.5% by next March and will need Demands unreasonable
generous dollops of equity injections to be able The farmer’s agitation is being hijacked by
to meet capital adequacy norms. vested interests. While the government’s
Under the circumstances, the RBI and gov- written assurances on MSP as well as the
ernment will have to take stock of the steps other amendments proposed indicate its
needed to resuscitate not only the banking sec- intention to address the issue, the single-
point demand for repeal of laws passed
tor but also the less organised shadow banking by Parliament and the targeting of toll
one. Extended moratoriums, a revolving fund plazas are unreasonable. At this rate, the
for capital injection and forced consolidations protestors will lose public sympathy.
to strengthen the sector are some of the ideas R Sriramprasad, Bengaluru
that financial thinkers and the government
Political violence in Bengal
have been toying with. The better ideas among
It has become a Herculean task for the
them need to be quickly fleshed out and imple-
BJP cadre to work in Bengal and do the
mented if India’s financial sector is to be saved groundwork for the Assembly polls as TMC
from the ignominy of more collapses that cause workers are indulging in political violence.
panic in the marketplace in the coming years. Haribandhu Panigrahi, Tarbha
Constitution, thus making it a bone
of contention for a long time. Free-
dom of speech in India is subject to
restrictions under which it is cur-
tailed for protecting the “sovereign-
ty and integrity of India, the secu-
rity of the State, friendly relations
with foreign States, public order,
preserving decency, preserving mo-
rality, in relation to contempt of
court, defamation or incitement of
an offence”.
The Supreme Court, in Romesh
Thapar v. State of Madras, first rec-
ognised the essence of freedom of
speech in the efficient functioning
of democratic institutions. It ob-
served that “Freedom of speech
and of the press lay at the founda-
tion of all democratic organisa-
tions, for without free political dis-
cussion no public education, so
essential for the proper functioning
of the process of popular govern-
ment, is possible”.
Similarly, in Union of India v. As-
sociation of Democratic Reforms,
the apex court noted: “True democ-
racy cannot exist unless all citizens
have a right to participate in the af-
fairs of the polity of the country.
The right to participate in the af-
fairs of the country is meaningless
Learn from T’gana CM
It is good to see the Telangana CM meeting
the PM and other Central ministers for
the sake of the state despite political
differences after the heated GHMC polls.
KCR’s example should be followed by
leaders of other non-BJP ruled states.
The Centre should also allot funds due to
states irrespective of the party in power.
T Kailash Ditya, Hyderabad
Fight against terror
The PM’s support to France in eliminating
terrorism is a welcome move. India can
negotiate and make appropriate pacts
with secular countries to fight against
religious extremism.
Cicily Thomas, Muvattupuzha
activism and judicial overreach has
constantly been blurred by High
Courts across states, severely im-
pacting the freedom of press. Even
with several judgments by the apex
court to act as a guiding light, in-
stances of judicial overreach have
been occurring frequently.
For instance, in 2007, the Delhi
High Court sentenced the Editor, a
journalist, printer, publisher and
cartoonist of Mid Day newspaper to
four months in jail for carrying a
‘scandalous’ report and cartoon of
former Chief Justice of India Y K
Sabharwal. The newspaper in a se-
ries of reports alleged that the sons
of the then-recently retired chief
justice used his office to profit from
a sealing drive ordered in Delhi by
their father against several shops
There is no denying that the media should
cover sensitive cases in a responsible manner.
However, infringing on the freedom of the
press and putting a lid on the mere reportage
of issues is a disservice to the citizens
iPhone factory rampage
The destruction of computers, vehicles
and furniture by many employees at the
Wistron Corporation’s manufacturing unit
in Kolar cannot be justified under any
circumstance. Workers, while asserting
their rights, should realise that the
factory’s existence will only help them.
P R V Raja, Pandalam
Violation of poll code
The announcement of the Kerala CM that
the Covid vaccine will be provided free of
cost to all in the state, while local body
polls are going on, is a violation of the
Model Code of Conduct. The EC should
have taken immediate action.
M T Thomas, Peruva
tition was filed by the Orissa HC
Bar Association to stop the media
from reporting on the issue claim-
ing that the media was only report-
ing the woman inspector’s version
of the story without checking facts
of the case. The advocates were able
to receive a prior restraint on the
argument that “... the entire inci-
dent has been scandalised to the
detriment of the reputation of the
lawyers community and in case
such reporting is not stopped by an
interim direction of this Court, the
reporting by the Print and Elec-
tronic Media (on the case) would
bring down the reputation of the
institution as a whole and the pub-
lic at large will lose faith in the High
Court, which is the highest body of
the State Judiciary and regarded as
a temple of justice.”
The Andhra Pradesh High
Court’s recent gag order on the me-
dia from reporting on the Amara-
vati land deal case is also a clear
instance of judicial overreach. This
order was delivered within hours of
the FIR being lodged, highlighting
the chaos created when the judici-
ary oversteps its powers.
M Sridhar Acharyulu, a legal ex-
pert and former central information
Accusations baseless
This is with reference to Proxy war
between Iran and Israel heats up (Dec 7).
The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of
Iran in New Delhi wishes to strongly reject
the accusations raised in that article
against Iran’s role in the 2012 New Delhi
incident; the said allegations are in the
line of the Israeli regime’s “false flag”
strategy to play the martyr and divert
the attention of the world public opinion
from its atrocities against the oppressed
people of Palestine and assassination of
prominent personalities of other countries
including Iran. Further, on the writer’s
reference to Iran’s nuclear programme,
the Embassy would like to draw attention
to the fact that the IAEA has confirmed
the apex court in the Sahara case,
perceiving a real and substantial
risk of prejudice to the administra-
tion of justice. But the question of
prejudicing the trial process will not
arise in this particular issue as the
case is at the stage of an FIR, said K
Nageshwar, a professor of mass
communication and journalism in
Osmania University, Hyderabad.
There is no denying that the me-
dia should cover sensitive cases in a
responsible manner and must in all
instances avoid media trials. How-
ever, infringing on the freedom of
the press and putting a lid on the
mere reportage of issues is a dis-
service to the citizens. The issue is
of a serious nature because the ju-
diciary acts as the recourse of jus-
tice for orders passed by the execu-
tive and the legislature, but what
happens when it infringes on the
freedom of speech and expression
of the citizens?
The ground reality remains that
the world’s largest democracy can-
not afford to have instances of judi-
cial overreach, especially on the
freedom of press. If not safeguarded
properly, its curtailment could lead
to destruction of democracy.
(venumbaka.vr@sansad.nic.in)
in 15 consecutive reports that Iran has
fully complied with the JCPOA. Therefore,
since the IAEA is the sole authority to
conduct such monitoring and verification,
the claims against the peaceful nuclear
programme of Iran, a responsible member
of NPT, have no credibility.
Embassy of the Islamic
Republic of Iran in New Delhi
Chola-era governance
PM Modi highlighted the Chola-era
Uthiramerur inscription and prevalence
of grassroots democracy more than 10
centuries ago. The spirit of democracy is
still in full bloom in India much to the
astonishment of Western countries.
R Pichumani, Kumbakonam

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS

Chairman of the Board: Manoj Kumar Sonthalia Editor: G S Vasu Resident Editor (Andhra Pradesh) T Kalyan Chakravarthy * Published by R K Jhunjhunwala on behalf of Express Publications (Madurai) Private Limited, at 4th Floor, No. V, MM Complex, Opp. More super Market, AIR Bypass Road, Tirupati - 517 502. and printed by him at Sakshi Press, Survey No.2/4, Kotha palem Village, Renigunta Mandal,
Tirupati Revenue Division, Chittor District - 517 520 Tirupati: Vol. 06, No. 296. RNI Reg. No. APENG/2015/64463. Phone: 0877-2238202, Fax: 0877-2239005. *Responsible for selection of Newsunder the PRB Act. Copyright: Express Publications (Madurai) Private Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner, electronic or otherwise, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited.

07 TIRUPATI
Social activist Medha Patkar (mic in hand) and Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav along with farmers at Rajasthan-Haryana border in Rewari district on Sunday; farmers and union leaders during the march on the highway; women on a sit-in after being stopped from moving ahead to Delhi | SHEKHAR YADAV
‘REPEALING AGRI LAWS WILL SET BAD PRECEDENT’
Constitutional experts say any government cannot yield to mobs in a democracy, add crowds will take over Parliament if such demand is accepted under pressure
SA N A S H A K I L @ New Delhi
ACCEPTING the demands of
the farmers to repeal the three
farm laws could set a bad prec-
edent, averred legal and consti-
tutional experts who pointed
out that legislations have never
been repealed within days of
being passed by Parliament
in the history of post-Independ-
ent India.
“The same procedure which
applies to amendment also ap-
plies to repealing laws. A new
law has to be brought in for
both the purpose. Repealing
laws soon after they have been
passed by both houses of Par-
liament would be unprecedent-
ed and extremely unusual,”
said noted constitutional ex-
pert Subhash Kashyap.
He added that many laws
have been repealed but only af-
ter hundred or two hundred
years after being promulgated.
“What has been decided by the
elected representatives cannot
be undone by a crowd. This is a
democracy not a mobocracy
and the government will not be
worth its salt if it passes a law
today and repeals it tomorrow
under pressure. It will set a
very bad precedent. Instead of
parliament making laws, crowd
will make laws.”
The agitaing farmers have
announced that nothing less
than the repeal of the three ag-
riculture laws would be accept-
able to them.
Former member of the Law
Commission, S Sivakumar said
the demand of repealing the re-
cently enacted laws should not
be considered in isolation. He
said that it needs to be looked at
in a broader context. “We can-
not think of repealing these
Electoral bonds flowed during 2019 LS polls: Report Gender imbalance:
K U M A R V I K R A M @ New Delhi
WHILE the debate over political
funding via electoral bonds con-
tinues, an analysis of such
bonds sold and redeemed in the
past two-and-a-half years shows
political parties received maxi-
mum donation during the 2019
Lok Sabha polls.
A total of 12,773 electoral
bonds worth `64,092.68 cr were
purchased between March 2018
and October 2020. Of the total
value, maximum 55.79% was of
the electoral bonds purchased
in March and April 2019, a pe-
India to stock ammunition
for 15-day intense war
M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi
THE defence forces will now
stock weapons and ammuni-
tions for a 15-day intense war
instead of 10 days.
Sanction for the move
comes at a time Indian and
Chinese troops have been
locked in a tense, prolonged
standoff along the LAC in
eastern Ladakh and the gov-
ernment has been talking of
enhancing the preparedness
for fighting a two-front war.
Confirming the change, a
senior Army officer said, “We
have been mandated to en-
hance our critical stocks to 15
(I) levels instead of 10 (I).”
It will take some time, how-
ever, to raising the reserves to
the required levels as a
number of items will have to
be procured from the interna-
tional market.
MONDAY 14 12 2020
� �
laws in isolation. We need to
take the broader view. This will
set a very bad example. Differ-
ent sets of people can raise dif-
ferent demands then. Other
laws can also be repealed in a
similar way then,” Sivakumar
s a i d , e ch o i n g K a s hyap ’s
observations.
The judiciary also intervenes
in instances when provisions
of the laws are seen to be affect-
ing the constitutional struc-
ture, he said. “When Parlia-
ment is not in session, as is the
case at present, an ordinance
can be brought to make amend-
ments. The governments have
repealed obsolete laws but ordi-
nances are usually not brought
for repealing the laws.”
Not surprisingly, a senior law
ministry official said the gov-
ernment is already willing to
make amendments to address
the concerns of the farmers.
Additionally, the government
could also give further clarifi-
cations when it notifies rules
for the three laws that were
passed in September.
A farmer sits with a placard after being stopped by Haryana police | SHEKHAR YADAV
riod when the general elections
took place, a report by Associa-
tion for Democratic Reforms
(ADR) revealed.
The highest 4,681 electoral
bonds worth `2,256.37 cr(34.75%)
were purchased during April
2019, followed by 2,742 bonds
worth `1,365.69 cr (21.03%) in
March 2019 and 1,187 bonds
worth `822.26 cr (12.66%) in May
last year. In October, the month
which saw Bihar polls, 321 bonds
wor th `282.29 cr were
purchased.
The analysis found that of a
total of 12,773 electoral bonds
The armed forces keep an
ever-ready stock of weapons
and ammunitions, War Wast-
age Reserve (WWR), for an all-
out ‘intense’ war.
Lt-Gen (Retd) VK Chaturve-
di said at one point of time,
the forces had to stock weap-
ons and ammunitions for 40
days, which was later changed
to 10 days owing to storage is-
sues and also changing nature
of war. However, a review was
initiated by former defence
minister Manohar Parrikar.
“Post-Uri attack, WWR audit
was done under Parrikar to
spruce up the stock to the
right level,” Lt Gen Chaturve-
di. “With time, indigenous
manufacturing of ammuni-
tion has also improved along
with the storage capability.”
The WWR is decided as per
the experience of the previous
wars and threat perceptions.
Randeep Singh Surjewala @rssurjewala
TWEETS
OF THE Dushyant Chautala withdraw support to the
Khattar government instead of doing politics to
DAY be photographed
GANDHI STATUE VANDALISED IN US
A group of Khalistani separatists has desecrated Mahatma
Gandhi’s statue outside the Indian embassy in Washington
during a demonstration by Sikh-Americans in support of farmers
protesting against the recently enacted agriculture laws in India.
Sikhs from in and around Greater Washington DC area, Maryland
and Virginia, along with many from other states like New York,
New Jersey, on Saturday undertook a car rally to the Indian
embassy. However, the peaceful protest was hijacked by the
separatist Sikhs. During the protest, many of them jumped on
the Gandhi statue and pasted a poster over it.
SENIOR IPS OFFICER ‘TUKDE TUKDE GANG
RESIGNS IN PUNJAB WILL FACE ACTION’
Punjab DIG (Prisons) Union Minister Ravi Shankar
Lakhminder Singh Jakhar Prasad said stern action will
resigned from service in be taken against the ‘Tukde
support of farmers Tukde Gang’ trying to take
protesting against three new advantage of farm agitation.
farm laws. Jakhar said he Prasad said the protesters
tendered his resignation on are saying that they will not
Saturday, but government is withdraw until the laws are
yet to accept it. He has also withdrawn. “We would like to
offered to deposit three say that Modi government
months of salary of notice respects farmers but would
period and other arrears as like to make it clear that
well, so that he can be stern action will be taken
relieved at the earliest. against ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’.”
Madhya Pradesh uses new Act to ensure correct prices
E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bhopal
THE BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh
has become perhaps the first
state in India to initiate action
under the one of the three new
agri laws, the Farmers (Em-
powerment and Protection)
Agreement on Price Assurance
and Farm Services Act.
In Pipariya block of Hoshang-
abad district, many paddy
farmers had entered into con-
tract with Fortune Rice Limit-
ed in June, as per which the
BONDS WORTH `282 CR SOLD BEFORE BIHAR POLL
As many as 321 bonds worth `282.29 cr were purchased during the last
sale period in October 2020, the month of the Bihar assembly polls.
Mumbai recorded the maximum (by value) sale of 3042 bonds worth
`2022.964 cr, followed by 3566 bonds in Kolkata
sold, 5,981 (46.83%) were in the nation of `1 cr and 969 bonds of
denomination of `1 crore while `10 lakh each were sold.
4,943 (38.70%) were in the de- In terms of value, Mumbai
nomination of `10 lakh. The witnessed the maximum sale of
highest number of bonds (2,058) 3,042 bonds worth `2,022.964 cre
in the denomination of `1 cr (31.16% of the total sale value),
and 1,914 bonds in the denomi- followed by 3,566 bonds worth
nation of `10 lakh were pur- `1,491.708 cr (22.98%) in Kolkata
chased in April 2019. In March and 1,696 bonds worth `952.62 cr
2019, 1,264 bonds in the denomi- (14.67%) in New Delhi. Hydera-
India’s rise will evoke its own reactions:EAM
E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi
INDIA’S rise will evoke its own
come. Delivering the second
Manohar Parrikar memorial
lecture, Jaishankar said as In-
reactions and responses, and dia expands its global interests
there will be attempts to dilute and reach, there is an even
the country’s influence and more compelling case to focus
limit its interests, External Af- on its hard power.
fairs Minister S Jaishankar “The national secu-
said on Sunday. rity challenges faced
In a veiled reference to Paki- by this rising India are
stan, he said India continues to obviously also going to
face “perennial problems” like be different. At one lev-
cross-border terrorism and the el, some of the more
national security challenges perennial problems
would be different in times to associated with our
Nadda tests positive for Covid
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi
BJP president JP Nadda on
Sunday announced that he has
tested positive for Covid and
has isolated himself at home.
Nadda tweeted that he got the
test done after experiencing
some initial symptoms and
Sitaram Yechury @SitaramYechury
35 lakh jobs were lost in November. Real income de-
clined in 95% of households. PR of this government
churns out fresh lies every day
RSS economic wing asks Modi govt to
ensure remunerative price to farmers
E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi
AMID the ongoing farmers’
protests, RSS’ Swadeshi Jagran
Manch urged the government
to ensure remunerative price to
farmers under the law.
In its annual all-India meet-
ing, the SJM passed resolu-
tions demanding that
nexus of MNCs and In-
dian business houses,
which will be detrimen-
tal to not only a very
large population engaged
in multi brand retail in the
shape of local stores, manufac-
turers in the micro and small
industry sector as well as to the
consumers at large, should not
be allowed to operate in India.
Though many political par-
ties and farm organisations are
opposing new farm legisla-
company promised to purchase
their produce at highest pre-
vailing market price.
But with the paddy prices
now peaking up to `2,950 per
quintal, the company officials
went incommunicado.
Subsequently, two farmers
wrote to the SDM in Pipariya
on December 10 seeking action
under the new contract farm-
The company officials switched off their phones on December 9,
leaving the farmers no option, but to approach us for action under the
new contract farming law — Nitin Taale, Pipariya SDM
bad and Bhubaneswar account-
ed for 13.34% and 5.45%, respec-
tively, of the total value of bonds
sold. The remaining 12 cities in-
cluding Gandhinagar, Bengalu-
ru and Chennai accounted for
purchase of 2,074 bonds worth
`805.26 cr.
Highest number of bonds
(1,932) in the denomination of
`1 crore were also purchased in
Mumbai. The ADR has been
pushing for scrapping electoral
funding through bonds saying
the opaqueness of the system
infringes on citizens’ ‘right
to know’.
national consolidation and de-
velopment will continue.”
“In particular, a long-stand-
ing political rivalry is today ex-
pressed as sustained cross-bor-
der terrorism by a neighbour,”
he said.
Jaiashnkhar made a men-
tion of the Parliament attack,
adding that “in some other
cases, activities of insur-
gent groups need to be
continuously moni-
tored and neutral-
ised.” PTI inputs
added that his health is fine.
In his tweet in Hindi, the BJP
chief asked everyone who has
come in contact with him in the
past few days to get tested.
Besides his party colleagues,
West Bengal chief minister
Mamata Banerjee also wished
him a speedy recovery.
tions, the Manch believes that
the government’s intention in
bringing new agricultural Acts
is good. “However, there are
some amendments needed to
overcome the drawbacks in the
Acts, plug the shortcomings
and allay the fears and doubts
about the new bills. The
intention of ‘The
Fa r m e r s P ro d u c e
Trade and Commerce
(Promotion and Fa-
cilitation) Bill, 2020’ is
seemingly that farm-
ers get the right price for
their produce in the absence
of intermediaries,” it said.
The SJM said there is a doubt
in this regard that in the ab-
sence of ‘mandi fee’, buyers
will be naturally encouraged to
buy out of the APMC markets.
In such a situation, the APMC
ing law. “On December, 10 sev-
eral farmers reported that they
had entered into an agreement
with Fortune, as per which the
company had promised to buy
their produce at the prevailing
highest price in the mandi plus
`50 bonus. But the company of-
ficials switched of f their
phones on December 9, leaving
the farmers no option, but to
None of HCs have
woman judge in lead
K A N U S A R D A @ New Delhi
WITH the retirement of Chief
Justice of Jammu & Kashmir
and Ladakh High Court Jus-
tice Gita Mittal, Indian judici-
ary is once again male domi-
nated as all the 26 high courts
across the country are headed
by men.
At present there are only
two woman judges in the Su-
preme Court out of the sanc-
tioned strength of 34 judges in
total. Since its inception only
eight woman judges have been
appointed to the apex court.
In high courts too, woman
representation is minuscule.
Across 26 high courts, there
are only 82 woman judges out
of the total 1,079 judges.
The Madras High Court has
the most woman judges in the
country with 13 judges, fol-
lowed by the Punjab and Har-
yana High Court, which has
11 woman judges.
There are eight woman
judges each in Delhi and Bom-
bay HCs while there is only
one woman judge each in
Gauhati, Himachal Pradesh,
J a m m u a n d K a s h m i r,
Jharkhand, Rajasthan and
Sikkim high courts.
The high courts of Manipur,
Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura,
Telangana and Uttarakhand
have no sitting woman
judges.
Earlier this year, in a writ-
ten reply to a question in the
Lok Sabha, Union Minister
for Law and Justice Ravi
P. Chidambaram @PChidambaram_IN
Ministers have described the protesters against the
Farm Laws as Khalistanis; agents of Pakistan and
China; Maoists; and, the latest, tukde tukde gang
mandis will no longer be gener-
ally preferred by private play-
ers; and thus farmers will also
be forced to sell outside the
APMC Mandis.
In such a situation, the Man-
ch feels, big procurement com-
panies may exploit the farmers.
It will be appropriate that when
laws are being made and pur-
chases are being allowed out-
side the APMC markets, mini-
mum support price (MSP) is
guaranteed to the farmer and
purchases below it are declared
illegal. Not only the govern-
ment, should private parties
also be barred to buy at less
than MSP, it said.
If one large entity or a few
companies dominate, the
Sangh’s economic wing said, the
bargaining power of the poor
farmers will be badly affected.
approach us for action under
the new contract farming law,”
Pipariya SDM Nitin Taale told
this newspaper.
A notice was issued to the
company and a conciliation
board was constituted. On the
Board’s recommendation, the
administration directed the
company to start buying the
paddy at `2,950 per quintal plus
`50 bonus. “Now, the company
has started the process of buy-
ing paddy at `3,000 per quin-
tal,” the SDM informed.
EIGHT WOMEN
SUPREME COURT
JUDGES SINCE 1950
Justice Fathima Beevi
Justice Sujatha Manohar,
Justice Ruma Pal
Justice Gyan Sudha Misra
Justice Ranjana Prakash
Desai
Justice R Banumathi
Justice Indu Malhotra
Justice Indira Banerjee
Shankar Prasad had said the
details of the woman judges
in tribunals are not main-
tained centrally as they are
administered by different
ministries or departments of
the government.
Attor ney General KK
Venugopal recently batted for
more woman judges. He cited
skewed gender disparity in
designation of lawyers as sen-
ior advocates. There are only
17 women senior advocates in
the top court, as compared to
403 men. Meanwhile, in the
Delhi HC, there are only eight
women designated as seniors
while 229 are men. In the Bom-
bay HC, there are 157 male
senior advocates and only six
women senior lawyers.
In September, the govern-
ment had said that there are
are only two women judges in
the Supreme Court and 78 in
various high courts

08 TIRUPATI
Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal and UPPL president Pramod Boro during an alliance meeting in Guwahati on Sunday | PTI
BJP dumps ally, picks new
one to rule Bodo council
Despite its state cabinet ally BPF winning maximum seats in
autonomus council polls, BJP joins hands with another outfit
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Guwahati
THE BJP in Assam on Sunday
chose a new ally over the old
one to rule the autonomous
Bodoland Territorial Council
(BTC). As it went to the BTC
elections, the BJP had ditched
old ally Bodoland People’s
Front (BPF) and forged a tacit
alliance with the United Peo-
ple’s Party Liberal (UPPL).
The BPF and BJP, both alli-
ance partners in the state gov-
ernment, had contested the
BTC election separately. The
elections threw up a fractured
mandate with the BPF emerg-
ing as the single-largest party,
winning 17 of the council’s 40
seats. The BJP won nine seats
and the UPPL 12. One seat each
went to the Congress and the
Gana Suraksha Party (GSP).
After the results were de-
clared late Saturday night,
rebel leader-turned-BPF chief
Hagrama Mohilary had sought
ASSAM
Religious edu
centres run by
govt to be shut
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Guwahati
THE Assam cabinet on Sunday
approved a proposal to shut
down all government-run ma-
drassas and Sanskrit tols (San-
skrit-learning centres) in the
state.
The state’s Parliamentary
Affairs Minister, Chandra Mo-
han Patowary, told media per-
sons that a Bill to this effect
would be tabled in the winter
session of the assembly begin-
ning on December 28.
“The cabinet decided that
the existing laws pertaining to
madrassas and
Sanskrit tols
will be
scrapped,” he
said.
In February
this year, the
state’s BJP-led
coalition government had tak-
en a decision on closing down
the state-run madrassas and
Sanskrit tols citing that “reli-
gious teachings cannot be im-
parted with government funds
in a secular country”.
Education and Finance Min-
ister Himanta Biswa Sarma
had then said these madrassas
and Sanskrit tols would be
converted to schools.
Assam has over 1,500 ma-
drassas - 614 of them run by
the state. Of the around 600
Sanskrit tols, some 100 are
state-run. The government
spents over `250 crore annu-
ally to run them.
DM names girl child of poor woman after herself
A poor woman’s third girl child was named after a woman IAS officer in
Sitamarhi. District Magistrate Abhilasha Kumari saw the woman sitting with
her newborn girl at the government hospital. The woman told the DM with a
sad tone that she had given birth to a third girl child. Abhilasha Kumari then
told the woman how girls were excelling in various fields. Having heard this,
the woman reuqested the DM to name her kid. The DM then named girl
‘Abhilasha’ after her own name. A baby kit was also gifted to the woman.
MONDAY 14 12 2020
� �
the BJP’s support to form the
council but the latter decided
to back the UPPL which is
headed by former student lead-
er Pramod Bodo. The GSP, led
by Kokrajhar MP and former
insurgent leader Naba Kumar
Sarnia, will be the third entity
in the coalition.
Pramod Bodo has been
named as the BTC’s next Chief
Executive Member (CEM). His
deputy will be from the BJP.
“My cabinet collea gue
Himanta Biswa Sarma has al-
ready said the UPPL, BJP and
Allies in state govt
face each other
The BPF and BJP, both
alliance partners in the
state government, had
contested the BTC election
separately. The BPF has
three ministers in the BJP-
led coalition government in
the state
Baghel’s turn to play the Ram card
E J A Z K A I S E R @ Raipur
EVEN as the BJP bagged all
credits for finding a solution
to the contentious Ram Jan-
mabhoomi issue and starting
the construction of Ram tem-
ple in Ayodhya, the ruling
Congress in Chhattisgarh is
leaving no stones unturned to
make sure that the saffron
camp won’t gain political divi-
dends in the state by using
Lord Ram’s name.
The move, spearheaded by
Chief Minister Bhupesh
Baghel, will see the govern-
ment organising a mega event
at Chandkhuri, the birth
place of Ram’s mother, Mata
Kaushalya, to mark the com-
pletion of two years of Con-
gress government in the state,
on December 17.
To turn the event into a
grand occasion, a decision
been taken to organise two
separate motorbike rallies —
Out-of-the-box idea turns discarded TV sets into comfy homes for stray dogs
P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati
IT is often called an idiot box,
but a television set can have
smart uses. A smart animal
lover in Assam’s Sivasagar
town has created makeshift
kennels for the strays by pick-
ing up cases of old and unused
TV sets. He wants to make sure
the dogs do not suffer out in the
cold.
“The pets enjoy all comforts
but the stray dogs suffer from
lack of food and shelter. I
the GSP will together form the
council. Pramod Bodo will be
the CEM and his deputy will
be from the BJP,” Chief Minis-
ter Sarbananda Sonowal said.
He expressed happiness that
the elections were “peaceful
and democratic” with the over-
whelming participation of
people.
The BJP and the BPF had
fought each other all through-
out election campaign despite
both being constituents in the
state’s coalition government
along with the Asom Gana
Parishad. The BPF has three
ministers in the Sarbananda
Sonowal-led coalition govern-
ment in the state. The BPF was
pilloried by its rivals for al-
leged large-scale corruption.
It ruled the BTC ever since
its creation in 2003 as a politi-
cal solution to the Bodo agita-
tion for a separate state. The
BTC administers four districts
such as Kokrajhar, Chirang,
Baksa and Udalguri.
one from Sukma and another
leaving from Korea — besides
flagging off a ‘Tourism Rath’
that will cover 1,400-km route
of ‘Ram Van Gaman Path’
(Ramayana footprint in the
state) and culminate at the
maternal home of Lord Ram
on December 17. Chandkhuri,
about 30 km from Raipur, is
the place where the state gov-
ernment has already begun
creating a magnificent temple
of Mata Kaushalya at a cost
of `15.78 crore.
The Congress-led govern-
ment this year executed its
concept plan on developing
key locations which are be-
lieved to lie along the route of
My government has
envisioned Ram-Rajya as
conceived by Mahatma
Gandhi, where there is
equality, compassion and
brotherhood
Bhupesh Baghel, CM
thought I should do something
for them in whatever little way
possible. This led to creation of
the shelters,” the kennels’ cre-
ator, Abhijit Dowarah, told this
newspaper.
The 32-year-old developed a
liking for dogs after his broth-
er had brought home a puppy a
few years ago. Prior to creating
Baator Ghor (street home for
the dogs), he ventured out sev-
eral nights to see how they
live.
On learning about his initia-
PATNA DIARY
Anti-child labour campaign begins in Gaya district
A month-long campaign — from November 26 to December 25 — is being carried
out in Bihar’s Gaya to free the district from child labour. The campaign is lead by
none other than the survivors of child-trafficking, under the joint banner of the
Centre-DIRECT and the district Child Protection unit. The child volunteers are
motivating people and encouraging the survivors to make life better without
falling again into the trap of child labour. Suresh Kumar, director of the Centre
-DIRECT, said that lives of over 500 child labour survivors are being rebuilt by the
organisation in Gaya. The district has highest number of child labourers in the
state and the traffickers hound around such children even after their rescue.
H I G H W AY O P E N S
The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was open for
one-way traffic, while the Mughal road connecting the
twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri with south Kashmir
remained closed for the sixth consecutive day on Sunday
Shah’s visit to raise the poll heat further
E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kolkata
DURING his two-day Bengal
visit this week, Union Home
Minister Amit Shah would up
the ante against Trinamool
Congress over the attack on
BJP’s national president JP
Nadda’s motorcade and lay
stress on the ‘’breakdown’’ of
law and order in the state, a ma-
jor plank of the party’s cam-
paign in the upcoming assem-
bly elections.
Shah is likely to visit Visva
Bharati University at San-
tiniketan in Birbhum district
and hold a roadshow in the
TMC’s stronghold.
Sources in the Bengal BJP
said Shah might address a rally
in Bongaon, the area with high
TRP SCAM: REPUBLIC
TV CEO ARRESTED
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
@ Mumbai
THE Mumbai Police on Sun-
day arrested Republic Media
Network’s CEO Vikas Khan-
chandani in connection with
the alleged Television Rat-
ing Points (TRP) rig-
ging scam.
Khanchandani was
arrested from his res-
idence here by the po-
lice’s Crime Intelli-
gence Unit (CIU), said a
police officer. In the after-
noon, he was produced before
a magistrate’s court which re-
manded him in police custody
till December 15.
Even though the police
sought 14-day remand of
Khanchandani, for interroga-
Lord Ram’s 14 years of exile.
“My government has envi-
sioned Ram-Rajya as con-
ceived by Mahatma Gandhi,
where there is equality, com-
passion and brotherhood. We
will make Lord Ram’s mater-
nal home Chandkhuri as rev-
erent and imposing as any
place in the mythological
tales,” affir med Bhupesh
Baghel in an attempt to send
out a message that he is not
lesser to anyone in promoting
Lord Ram’s image.
Meanwhile, the BJP took a
jibe at the government’s move,
saying that only now the Con-
gress realised the existence of
Lord Ram.
“The Congress also under-
stands that without the bless-
ings of Shri Ram, they cannot
progress. It’s a good sign and
the Lord should further give
them (Congressmen) wis-
dom,” said BJP MLA Brijmo-
han Agrawal.
‘HOME’ MAKER
Locals know Dowarah as an “innovator” who turns scrap into utility items | EXPRESS
RAJESH K THAKUR
Our correspondent
in Bihar
rkthajipur@gmail.com
117
FOUND DUMPED IN THANE
VOTER ID’S DIST OF MAHARASHTRA
concentration of Hindu Bang-
ladeshi refugees who belong to
Matua religious sect, where
Chief Minister Mamata Ban-
erjee had addressed a ral-
ly last week to woo the
electorates. Matuas, in
2019 Lok Sabha elec-
tions, shifted their po-
litical allegiance to the
BJP from the ruling
TMC.
The BJP bagged two Lok Sab-
ha seats, Bongaon and Rana-
ghat, where concentration of
VIJAYVARGIYA WANTS CENTRAL FORCES IN STATE
Claiming that Mamata Banerjee is “banking on violence” to return to
power, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Sunday
said central forces should be deployed immediately in West Bengal to
put an end to the prevailing atmosphere of political violence
tion, the court granted only
two days of custody.
The police began investi-
gating the alleged scam after
ratings agency Broadcast Au-
dience Research Council
(BARC) filed a complaint
about rigging of TRP by
some channels. TRP,
measured by record-
ing the viewership
data at sample house-
holds, is crucial for at-
tracting adver tise-
ments. It was alleged
that some of these families
were being bribed to tune into
certain channels to ramp up
their TRP. In the charge sheet
filed recently, the police had
named Fakt Marathi, Maha
Movie and Republic TV in
connection with the scam.
EXPRESS READ
Woman judge of HC
bench dies of Covid
Bhopal: Justice Vandana
Kasrekar, the lone woman
judge of the Indore Bench of
Madhya Pradesh High Court,
died due to Covid-related
complications at a private
hospital in Indore on Sunday
morning. Besides being Covid
positive, the woman judge
was also suffering from
chronic kidney disease.
CM to launch new job
scheme in Jharkhand
Ranchi: CM Hemant Soren, on
completion of one year in
office on December 29, is
likely to launch an
employment generation
scheme to provide loans up
to ‘25 lakh to unemployed
youth belonging to ST, SC,
OBC and minority
communities to launch their
own start-ups.
Crash course for poor &
meritorious students
In a move to help the economically
backward students appearing for
Bihar state board exams, the
Vaishali district administration has
kicked off a crash course for 2020-
21 academic year. Vaishali District
Magistrate Udita Singh who
inaugurated the programme at
Government Town High School said
that the move will support
meritorious and poor students of
class 10 at a time when regular
classes were not held due to Covid-
induced lockdowns. She said that
teachers will give free classes to
class 10students by maintaining
social distance and other safety
protocols.
INDIA Max Min Max Min
Ahmedabad 28 14 Mumbai 29 24
Bhopal 23 15 Panaji 32 24
Jaipur 23 12 Patna 24 13
Amritsar 19 3 Lucknow 22 11
Chennai 30 23 Port Blair 30 26
Kolkata 27 19 Imphal 24 9
Srinagar 8 -5 Chandigarh 22 7
Hindu refugee electorate is said Shah’s visit must be seen
high, by promising to imple- in the context of the attack on
ment the contentious Citizen- Nadda’s convoy in Diamond
ship (Amendment) Act and Harbour. “The attack on our
give them citizenship. party’s national president not
Since the act is yet to be only gave us political mileage,
implemented, the saf- but it will also secure electoral
fron camp is feeling dividend,’’ said a BJP leader.
that there is discontent The saffron camp is gearing
among the Hindu refu- up to portray the attack on
gee voters in the region, Nadda’s motorcade as a reflec-
and Shah’s Bongaon visit is tion of lawlessness. Meanwhile,
said to be a move to retain the the state BJP has launched an
vote-bank. outreach drive by issuing ‘job
BJP Bengal functionaries assurance card’ to youth. “Our
workers will meet atleast 75
lakh unemployed youths. We
will give them word that their
issue will be given first priority
once the BJP will come to pow-
er in Bengal,’’ said party’s vice
president Mukul Roy.
Passengers of the capsized boat being rescued in Dal Lake, Srinagar | ZAHOOR PUNJABI
Spotlight on boat capsize
amid peaceful DDC polls
F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar taking out the boat rally in the
intense cold, former chief min-
THE sixth phase of District De- ister and National Conference
velopment Council elections in vice-president Omar Abdullah
Jammu and Kashmir on Sun- tweeted, “I’m glad to hear they
day witnessed 51.51 per cent are all OK because the water
polling, the second highest vot- must have been freezing cold.
er turnout so far in the eight- It’s a strange time to be cam-
phase polls. paigning on the Dal
While people partic- 52 per cent Lake, especially when
ipated enthusiastically turnout you consider there are
despite severe cold in no elections in Srina-
the Valley and some Sixth phase of gar at the moment.”
DDC polls on
hilly areas of Jammu, State Election Com-
a boat carrying BJP Sunday missioner K K Sharma
activists during the witnessed 52 per said polling for 31 DDC
party’s boat rally led cent polling, the seats — 14 in Kashmir
by Union Minister An- second highest and 17 in Jammu —
urag Thakur capsized voter turnout so passed off peacefully.
in the Dal Lake in Sri- far in the eight- While Jammu saw
nagar. Two BJP work- phase polls 68.56 per cent turnout,
ers including a wom- the Valley recorded
an, a boatman and three video 31.55 per cent polling. In Jam-
journalists were rescued by the mu, Poonch recorded the high-
locals, SDRF personnel and est voting percentage of 76.78
policemen. per cent while the lowest turn-
Besides Thakur, BJP’s na- out of 60.95 per cent was in
tional spokesperson Shahna- Kathua. In Kashmir, the high-
waz Hussain and J&K in-charge est voter turnout of 58.45 per
Tarun Chug were also present cent was in Ganderbal while
in the boat rally. the lowest 4.60 per cent polling
Taking a dig at the BJP for was registered in Shopian.
tive, some like-minded people, There were seven old TV sets
including a vet, joined him in lying at my two-room residence
the cause. The locals know in Sivasagar’s Phukan Nagar. I
Dowarah as an “innovator” thought if I can turn these into
who turns scrap into utility the stray dogs’ shelters, they
items. Earlier, he created a cer- can beat the winter chill,”
tain type of torch for the safety Dowarah, who is a graduate,
of women and a “gadget” for said.
hand sanitisation during the Sivasagar Additional Dis-
pandemic. trict Magistrate Al Azhar Ali,
“Over the past five years, I who was present when the
have created some 50 utility shelters were put in place on
items from scrap. So, people December 4, lavished praise on
don’t throw away old and un- Dowarah. “This is a wonderful
used stuff but give them to me. initiative,” he said.
Eight-day-long film-making workshop for children
Under the joint aegis of UNICEF and the Patna’s Kilkari, the talents of children
from economically backward families were explored during an eight-day-long
Kilkari Film Production Workshop at Bal Bhawan in Darbhanga district from
December 2 to 9. Jyoti Parihar, director of Kilkari, said the children were taught
the light and sound combinations, behind-the-scenes music, backstage
dialogue in cinema and other techniques of film making by experts. The
participants made short- videos without editing through mobile on important
subjects. Aryan Kumar and Priyeshwara Bharti taught basic skills of editing.
 Jan 10
Beijing 18 7 SNY Los Angeles 31 18 SNY
Colombo 30 26 TDS Melbourne 24 13 LC
Dhaka 34 25 LC Moscow 15 9 LR
GLOBAL Dubai 37 25 SNY New York 13 13 HR
WEATHER Houston 33 21 LC Singapore 32 26 TDS
Germany’s partial lockdown will last till LR: Light Rain HR: Heavy Rain Istanbul 24 17 LC Toronto 16 11 LC
Jan 10, with schools and many shops shut TDS: Thundershower LC: Light Cloud SNY: Sunny London 12 9 LR Washington 19 15 LR

09 TIRUPATI MONDAY 14 12 2020

� �

Exhausted Brexit negotiators extend talks

Neither side wants to take the blame for a chaotic no-deal divorce; British businesses clamour for compromise

LONDON alar m with increasing

WHAT A NO-DEAL BREXIT urgency.
WOULD LOOK LIKE FOR U.K.
TEETERING on the brink of a European Council President
no-deal Brexit departure, Brit- � The UK government has Charles Michel warned there
ain and the EU stepped back acknowledged a chaotic exit is could not be a deal “at any
from the void Sunday and likely to bring gridlock at Britain’s price, no. What we want is a
agreed to continue trade talks, ports, temporary shortages of good deal, a deal that respects
although both downplayed the some goods and price increases for these principles of economic
chances of success. staple foodstuff fair play.”
British PM Boris Johnson 10-40% tariffs “Negotiations need to have a
and EU Commission President Tariffs will be applied to many U.K. purpose,” said Fabian Zuleeg Supporters of US President Donald Trump participate in the “Million MAGA
Ursula von der Leyen ditched a goods, including 10% on cars and of the EPC think tank. “We just March” to protest the outcome of the 2020 election in Washington, DC | AFP

4 stabbed, 1 shot
self-imposed deadline and more than 40% on lamb spent another 4-5 days not mov-
promised to “go the extra mile” ing forward, so adding more
to clinch a post-Brexit trade days doesn’t really help.” He
agreement that would avert But their leaders failed to said the extension of talks just

after pro-Trump
New Year’s chaos and costs for present visible progress on any seems an indication “that nei-
cross-border commerce. of the outstanding issues of ther side wants to be blamed for
“Where there’s life, there’s fair-competition rules, mecha- no deal.”
hope,” said Johnson, offering nisms for resolving future dis- While both sides want a deal,

little else as rationale to keep
on with talks that have strug-
gled to make headway for most
of the year and need to be fin-
ished before Jan. 1, when the
transition period for Britain,
which left the EU last January,
ends.
With hundreds of thousands
of jobs and tens of billions in
trade at stake, von der Leyen
A file image of Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen | AFP
said after her phone call with
Johnson that “we both think it
is responsible at this point in
time to go the extra mile.”
All this, she added, “despite
the exhaustion after almost a
year of negotiations and de-
spite the fact that deadlines
rallies in US cities
putes and fishing rights. they have different views of
Johnson said the “most like- what it entails. The EU fears
ly” outcome was that the two Britain will slash social and en-
have been missed over and sides wouldn’t reach a deal and vironmental standards and
over.” would trade on World Trade Or- pump state money into UK in-
UK and EU negotiators were ganization terms, with the tar- dustries, becoming a low-regu-
still talking at EU headquarters iffs and barriers that would lation economic rival on the WASHINGTON sands of red-hatted protesters
on Sunday, with less than three bring. Johnson insists the UK bloc’s doorstep, so is demand- filled Washington’s streets to
weeks to go until the U.K. leaves will still “prosper mightily” on ing strict “level playing field” FOUR people were stabbed support the president, unde-
the economic embrace of the those terms but British busi- guarantees in exchange for ac- and one shot as rallies back- terred by the US Supreme
27-nation bloc. nesses have been sounding the cess to its market. AP ing President Donald Trump’s Court’s rejection on Friday of
baseless claims of election what may have been his last
fraud led to clashes in major chance to over tur n the
US cities on Saturday. results.

Af Taliban chief brought life A S I A M AT T E R S Scuffles broke out in

many places between
rally-goers and coun-
Similar events took
place in Olympia, At-

insurance before being killed

ISLAMABAD
SLAIN Afghan Taliban chief
Mullah Akhtar Mansour pur-
chased a life insurance policy
using a fake identity in Paki-
stan and paid Rs 3 lakh in pre-
mium before being killed in a
US drone attack, according to a
media report on Sunday.
Mansour, who was killed in a
US drone strike along the Paki-
stan-Iran border on May 21,
2016, assumed the leadership of
the Taliban in July 2015, replac-
ing its founder and the one-eyed
reclusive long-time spiritual
head Mullah Mohammad Omar
who died in 2013.
The details about the insur-
ance policy were revealed dur-
ing the hearing of a terror
funding case against him and
his absconding accomplices on
Saturday.
The insurance company pro-
vided this information to an
Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in
Karachi during the hearing of
lanta and St. Paul,
ter-protesters who Minnesota, as well as
PAKISTAN AFGHANISTAN turned up to criticize in smaller towns in
the president, who Nebraska, Alabama
Govt raises its vaccine Scores of militants lost the November 3 and elsewhere.
budget to $250 million killed in Taliban bastion election to Democrat Demonstrators at
Pakistan has increased its Dozens of Taliban fighters Joe Biden but is yet the DC rally -- notice-
funds allocation for were killed in fierce to concede. I believe there is a ably smaller than a
purchasing COVID-19 overnight fighting Washington State big injustice being similar protest last
vaccines amid a surge in between Afghan forces Police said in a tweet done to the month -- told AFP
the coronavirus. Dr. and militants who late Saturday that a American people they were steadfast
Nausheen Hamid, attacked multiple shooting had taken in their support for
Dell Quick, a regular
parliamentary secretary for checkpoints in the place after clashes the embattled
at Trump’s political
National Health Services, insurgent bastion of near the capitol president.
rallies, as he
Chief of Afghanistan Taliban Mullah says the budget for the Kandahar, officials said building in Olympia, brandished a flag “We’re not gonna
Akhtar Mansour | AP vaccines has been Sunday. Taliban militants and that a suspect defending gun rights give up,” said Luke
enhanced to $250 million. MALAYSIA had been detained. Wilson, a sixty-some-
attacked checkpoints in
the case registered against Earlier, the government had five districts surrounding In the US capital, thing protester who
set aside $150 million.
Record seizure of $26 million
Mansour and his accomplices worth of methamphetamine the city of Kandahar, DC Fire and EMS Department had come all the way from the
by the Federal Investigation Pakistan recorded 3,369 communications chief Doug western state of Idaho.
Malaysia’s coastguard has made which Afghan forces
Agency (FIA) last year, Dawn new cases of the virus and Buchanan told AFP that four Protesters offered no short-
its largest ever seizure of countered with heavy air
news reported. 72 new deaths on Saturday. people had been stabbed and age of explanations for the
methamphetamine, a top official and ground assaults, the
It emerged during the inves- were now hospitalized “with poll results, even though they
said on Sunday, seizing 2.12 ministry of defence said in
tigation that the Taliban leader Bomb blast near police serious injuries.” The New have been affirmed by state
tonnes of the drug disguised as a statement. The security
and his accomplices were in- stations wounds 23 York Times reported that 23 election officials -- several of
tea in a shipment believed to forces repulsed the attack,
volved in generating funds for had been arrested throughout them Republican -- and by
A roadside bomb exploded have come from Myanmar. killing 51 terrorists and
terrorist activities through the the day. There was no indica- judges in several key states.
purchase of properties on the near a police station in the Coastguard chief Zubil Mat Som wounding nine,” the tion of whether any of the Every state has now certi-
basis of ‘forged identities’ Pakistani garrison city of said the drugs found on a boat in ministry said, without victims had been involved in fied the results, giving Biden
He had purchased five prop- Rawalpindi on Sunday, northern Penang state were offering details of any the protests, on either side of 306 votes in the Electoral Col-
erties including plots and hous- wounding at least 23 worth around 105.9 ringgit. A casualties among the divide. lege to Trump’s 232. Electors
es, estimated to be valued at people, police said. local trafficker was arrested. government forces. The day had begun with a are to formally cast their
$1,99,812 in Karachi. PTI festive atmosphere as thou- votes on Monday. AFP

EXPRESS READ

Virus overruns worker dorms of glove factories Bahrain approves Covid

vaccine made in China
KUALA LUMPUR But in interviews with AFP, the United States banned the Quarter of company’s Bahrain said Sunday it approved
the South Asian migrants import of some of its gloves workforce infected the use of a Chinese coronavirus
BANGLADESHI mig rant working flat out to make the over allegations of forced la- vaccine, following its earlier
More than 5,000 workers of
worker Sheikh Kibria recalls gloves -- who typically earn bour earlier this year. approval of a vaccine made by
Malaysia’s Top Glove have tested
with horror the filthy, over- around $300 a month -- The infections also Pfizer and its German partner
positive after the outbreak at an
crowded dormitory where he described appalling prompted factory clo- BioNTech. Separately, Kuwait has
industrial area housing factories
was housed by the world’s big- living conditions, in sures and look set to granted emergency use for the
and dormitories.
gest rubber glove manufactur- cramped dormitories have an impact on glo- Pfizer vaccine. Bahrain’s state-run
er when a coronavirus out- where up to 25 people bal supply. news agency said the Sinopharm
break erupted and infected sleep in bunk beds in a Top Glove, which it operates in Malaysia. vaccine would be available in the
thousands. single room. commands about a quar- Authorities are planning le- island kingdom off the coast of
Malaysia’s Top Glove saw Some claim the company ter of the world’s market, gal action against the compa- Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. It
profits soar, and its stock price did not do enough to protect has warned of delays to deliv- ny over poor worker accom- offered few details though on
jump as much as 400 percent them despite repeated warn- eries and rising prices. modation, which could result study results of the vaccine, in line
People visit Nagoya castle in Nagoya, central Japan, on Sunday. The country was this year as countries world- ings. The scandal has added to As cases spiralled, the gov- in heavy fines. with the United Arab Emirates,
praised for quelling the outbreak in autumn, but is now seeing a second wave | AP wide rushed to buy PPE as the growing pressure on the firm, ernment ordered 28 Top Glove The firm can produce 90 bil- which last week announced the

Japan, S Korea set new

pandemic intensified. already under scrutiny after factories to close, out of the 41 lion gloves a year. AFP vaccine was 86% effective.

daily Covid case records How people spend their time 400 students in Nigeria go
Chart on what people aged 15-64 do with their time in different nations, calculated in average minutes per day
Personal care missing after armed assault
Source: OECD, Our World in Data. Figures from surveys conducted between 2009 & 2016, or the earliest figures available.

TOKYO, SEOUL Japan issued a nonbinding Eating & drinking

state of emergency in the Education Other unpaid work House work
Seeing friends Other Total leisure
Japan’s daily coronavirus cases spring and has survived earlier Paid work In school & study Sleep Care work, volunteering & shopping TV & Radio leisure LAGOS authorities to ascertain the ac-
have exceeded 3,000 for the first infection peaks without a lock- China 315 mins 9 hours 2 mins 56 123 52 100 127 78 228 mins tual number of the missing
time while the government de- down. Experts say the ongoing Mexico 320 mins 8 hours 19 mins 84 202 58 77 66 44 62 172 mins HUNDREDS of Nigerian stu- and/or kidnapped students,”
lays stricter measures for fear resurgence in the dry and cold South Korea 288 mins 7 hours 51 mins 70 89 90 117 102 42 114 258 mins dents are missing after gunmen said Isah.
of hurting the economy ahead season would be a bigger Austria 280 mins 8 hours 18 mins 65 145 55 79 109 82 101 292 mins attacked a secondary school in “Search parties are working
of the holiday season. challenge. India 272 mins 8 hours 48 mins 44 160 75 84 61 73 119 253 mins the country’s northwestern with a view to find or rescue the
The 3,030 new cases, includ- South Korea has set another Canada 269 mins 8 hours 40 mins 44 139 52 65 109 53 116 278 mins Katsina state, police have missing students,” he said.
ing 621 in Tokyo, took Japan’s record for its daily coronavirus Portugal 259 mins 8 hours 26 mins 52 176 58 112 114 44 83 278 mins confirmed. A resident of the town,
national tally to 177,287 with tally with 1,030, as authorities USA 251 mins 8 hours 48 mins 96 112 57 63 148 44 100 292 mins The Government Science Mansur Bello, told The AP that
2,562 deaths, the Health Minis- struggle to suppress the virus’s New Zealand 241 mins 8 hours 46 mins 89 134 42 80 124 69 100 301 mins Secondary School in Kankara the attackers took some of the
try said Sunday. spread. Sunday saw the UK 241 mins 8 hours 28 mins 95 133 58 79 133 47 120 305 mins was attacked Friday night by a students away.
Ireland 231 mins 8 hours 11 mins 132 118 42 75 85 49 178 312 mins
Experts say serious cases including two large group of bandits who The military, supported by
Poland 229 mins 8 hours 29 mins 77 160 57 91 122 45 119 286 mins
cases are on the rise deaths that raised the shot “with AK 47 rifles,” airpower, has located the
Germany 224 mins 8 hours 18 mins 71 141 55 95 118 61 152 331 mins
around the country, national caseload to Katsina State police bandits’ enclave in Zan-
Netherlands 218 mins 8 hours 23 mins 68 133 65 114 113 73 130 316 mins
putting an extra bur- 42,766 with 580 Turkey 217 mins 8 hours 35 mins 88 138 50 118 124 68 94 286 mins spokesman Gambo Isah go/Paula forest in the
den on hospitals and fatalities. Norway 201 mins 8 hours 12 mins 100 103 56 79 129 57 183 369 mins said in a statement. Kankara area, and there
affecting the daily medi- About 80% of the new Denmark 200 mins 8 hours 9 mins 73 154 52 119 123 81 124 328 mins Police engaged the at- have been exchanges of
cal treatment for other pa- cases were found in the Finland 200 mins 8 hours 28 mins 104 136 52 81 118 55 158 331 mins tackers “in a gun duel gunfire in an ongoing
tients. They urged authorities densely populated Seoul area, Belgium 194 mins 8 hours 33 mins 52 149 53 99 131 50 158 339 mins which gave (some of) the operation, said President
to take measures such as sus- where authorities have shut Greece 187 mins 8 hours 20 mins 45 141 57 128 137 56 148 341 mins students the opportunity to Muhammadu Buhari, ac-
pending long trips and request- nightclubs and other high-risk Spain 176 mins 8 hours 36 mins 45 141 51 126 129 51 136 316 mins scale the fence of the school cording to a statement issued
ing stores to close early. venues, banned late-night din- France 170 mins 8 hours 33 mins 39 151 107 133 114 55 124 293 mins and run for safety,” Isah said. by presidential spokesman,
Recent media surveys show ing and taken other steps to Italy 149 mins 8 hours 33 mins 70 162 68 127 104 65 154 323 mins About 400 students are miss- Garba Shehu.
support ratings for the govern- slow the spread. But such meas- ing, while 200 are accounted for, ”Our prayers are with the
ment of Prime Minister Yoshi- ures have shown little effect. People generally spend most of their time South Koreans sleep the least (in the chart Isah said. The school is believed families of the students, the
hide Suga have dropped about PM Chung Sye-kyun said Sat- working and sleeping, with the remaining time above), while people in India and US sleep an t o h ave m o r e t h a n 6 0 0 school authorities and the in-
20 points from around 70% dur- urday his government may going into housework & shopping, eating and hour more on average. When it comes to work, students. jured,” said the president’s
ing his first three months in of- have to enforce its highest-level leisure. But there are important differences in the Chinese and Mexicans spend twice as much “The police, Nigerian Army, statement. The statement did
fice amid public discontent social distancing rules if the these activities across countries time on that than Italians and the French and Nigerian Air Force are not say if any student has been
over his virus handling. virus doesn’t slow down. AP working closely with the school rescued. AP
 `1.4 lakh cr
was the net inflow from foreign
portfolio investors into the
Indian equity markets for the
current year—an all-time high

10 TIRUPATI MONDAY 14 12 2020

� � newindianexpress com

WHY
RAJAS KELKAR
MONEY-WISE

T SMALL CAPS:
HIS year, you have
managed to save more

SMALL IN SIZE, BIG

than you usually do. It

INVESTING
is by no means a small
achievement. Like

ON RISK & RETURN

this column men-
tioned earlier, you can
build on this achievement in

IN ‘GOOD’ I
the New Year.
Investing starts when you N the month of March this an AUM of `9,323 crore and
consistently manage to save year, the Indian equity mar- was launched in April 2008. Its
each month. The direction of ket in general, and Small Cap 3-year CAGR has been around
your investments provide the stocks in particular, ap- 0.5 per cent while its 1-year re-

necessary equity or debt capi-
tal that entrepreneurs and
businesses need to expand.
And jobs help in the consump-
tion needed for growth.
Increasingly, a lot of smart
investors are looking for ‘good’
MATTERS
peared headed for a complete turn has been around 15 per
rout. As we approach the end cent. This fund invests largely
of the calendar year, the mar- in stocks from sectors like
kets have recovered hand- services, chemicals, and
somely and so have many healthcare.
Small Cap stocks. SBI Small Cap fund was
ESG factors ascertain long-term In the Mutual Fund space, launched in September 2009

reasons to invest. A few weeks
ago, Ashok Kumar, a fellow col-
umnist on this page, wrote
about the rush for Environ-
mental, Social and Govern-
ance, or ESG, funds. He rightly
said that ESG investing trans-
lates into sustainable and so-
cially responsible investments.
As an investor, you may like to
back businesses that follow
such policies. A lot of domestic
mutual funds are rushing with
thematic funds that allow in-
vestors to do ESG investing.
Before you jump into that,
the policy around reporting on
ESG policies by businesses are
evolving. There are no stand-
ard rules on the way that com-
panies would disclose their
strategy towards the environ-
ment, sustainability, and
governance.
The latest Reserve Bank of
India annual report has a box
item on the topic. It explains
that the ESG factors ascertain
the long-term sustainability of
firms in the face of environ-
mental vulnerabilities. These
include climate change risks.
It mainly dwells on aspects like
rising insurance claims due to
a surge in natural disasters
and assets going bad for bor-
sustainability of firms amidst
environmental vulnerabilities
rowers. The financial system is
vulnerable as a result.
The RBI calls for an appro-
priate global framework to
identify, assess, and manage fi-
nancial risks arising out of cli-
mate risk. But businesses are
already talking about it in their
annual reports. Hindustan
Unilever mentions the word
‘sustainability’ 30 times in its
latest annual report. ICICI
Bank mentions ‘ESG’ at least
eight times. Most big business-
es are steadily devising ESG
strategies at the Board level to
ensure that they continue to
remain attractive to investors.
Who invests in these funds?
Large pension funds and fam-
ily offices have begun to look at
ESG investing actively. Accord-
ing to global bank UBS’ family
office report for 2020 released
earlier this year, the share of
ESG investing is likely to be 35
per cent of overall assets un-
der management. Family of-
fices are a set up where rich
people create professional
fund-management
teams. “ESG integra-
tion is catching up, as
families look to more than dou-
ble their allocations to 19 per
cent, from 9 per cent today,” the
UBS report said.
Global Family Offices man-
age $10 trillion in assets and
invest around the world in
multiple asset classes like real
estate, commodity, stock
markets, art, and other val-
uables. Successful people
like Infosys founder N R Naray-
an Murthy, for instance, have
set up family offices that man-
age their family fortune.
Pension funds around the
world manage close to $20 tril-
lion in assets. As more and
more institutional investors
put ESG as criteria for invest-
ing, that could encourage busi-
nesses to become more respon-
sible. Many of these investors
are activists, and they get com-
panies to do the right thing.
Stock exchanges have also
created indices that include
companies meeting the ESG
AMIT BANDRE
Small-Cap Funds, as the name and has an AUM of `6,202
suggests, invest a major por- crore. The 3-year CAGR for
tion of their investible corpus this fund has been around 6
into equity or equity-related per cent while its 1-year re-
instruments of small-cap turn has been around 27.5 per
companies. The Securities cent respectively. This fund in-
and Exchange Board of India vests in stocks across sectors
els. The (SEBI) defines small-cap com- like engineering, construc-
country is panies as those tion, and FMCG.
also commit- ranked below the Nippon India
ted to generating 40 250th place in Small Cap Fund
per cent of its electricity terms of market has an AUM of
through non-conventional en- capitalisation. Ac- `10,398 crore and
criteria. The ergy sources. In India, nearly cording to SEBI, was launched in
MSCI Emerg- half of the emissions are due small-cap schemes September 2010.
ing Market ESG to coal-based thermal power need to invest at Its 3-year CAGR is
index has consist- generation plants and compa- least 65 per cent of around 2.5 per cent
ently done better than nies in the cement sectors. their total assets FINANCIAL while its 1-year re-
the standard MSCI
Emerging Market index. “ESG
Take state-owned National
Thermal Power Corporation,
in such firms.
It is important
ADVICE turn is around 26
per cent. This fund
funds globally as well as in In- India’s largest thermal power for investors to be ASHOK KUMAR has higher alloca-
dia have outperformed in the producer making 62,000 Mega- cognizant of the heads LKW-India. tions in stocks
recent Covid-19 pandemic in- watts of power each year. The fact that small-cap He can be across sectors
duced fall and subsequent re- company has committed to funds carry a high reached at such as chemicals
covery,” observes stockbroking level of risk. Even ceolotus@hotmail.com
generate 30 per cent of that ca- and engineering.
firm ICICI Securities. pacity through non-conven- the slightest vola- When one stud-
In the future, investors are tional means by 2030, accord- tility in the market can have a ies the year-wise performance
increasingly likely to evaluate ing to one report by CLSA, a huge impact on the share pric- of these and most other Small
businesses based on their com- foreign securities firm. The es of small-cap companies. Cap Funds available it be-
mitment to the environment, company has also decided not Let us now turn the spotlight comes evident that investors
social and governance rules. It to buy new land for coal plants. on a few Small Cap funds with hoping for a linear or steady
is important to note that India And it has outperformed the a track record of at least 8 performance are bound to be
is a signatory to the Paris Cli- Nifty index since the an- years and an AUM in excess disappointed. Historical evi-
mate Change Agreement. India nouncement a month ago. of `5,000 crore. dence indicates that the trick
wants to reduce carbon emis- (The author is editor-in-chief DSP Small Cap Fund was here lies in steadily investing
sions to a third below 2005 lev- at www.moneyminute.in) launched in June 2007 and has in these funds, preferably via
an AUM of `5,791 crore. Its the SIP route and awaiting at

IRDAI moots standard personal accident cover

E N S ECO N O M I C B U R EAU @ New Delhi
HAVE you been confused
while opting to make a person-
al accident insurance claim?
Well, India’s insurance sector
regulator last week proposed a
standard personal accident in-
surance product to get settle
tial disablement due to acci-
dents. The standard product
will need to be offered with a
policy term of one year and
also cover expenses towards
hospitalisation.
The IRDAI’s proposal place
the minimum sum in-
sured at `2.5 lakh and a
on death of the insured person
due to an injury sustained in
an accident during the policy
period, provided that the in-
sured person’s death occurs
within 12 months from the
date of the accident.
Also, the sum insured
should be increased by
April 1, it has informed all in-
surance companies that it will
make it mandatory to sell the
product.
“Every general and stan-
dalone health insurer, who has
been issued a certificate of
registration to transact gen-
eral and/or health insurance
3-year CAGR has been around least two uptick years before
1.6 per cent while its 1-year re- realizing rewards offered for
turn has been around 34 per one’s patience.
cent. This fund invests largely Hence, one must opt for
in stocks from the chemicals, small-cap funds only if one
healthcare, and automobiles has a higher-than-normal risk
segment. tolerance, as well as the abili-
HDFC Small Cap Fund has ty to play the waiting game.
TODAY’S STOCK PICK
BHARAT ELECTRONICS With its existing vast base of in-house

US Fed interest this confusion.

The Insurance regulator In-
maximum sum in-
sured at `1 crore. Be-
five per cent for each
claim-free policy year-
business, shall mandatorily
offer this product,” said the
Current Price
manufacturing, BHE is on a strong
footing to capitalize on the Atma

rate decision, surance Regulatory and Devel-

opment Authority of India
macro data to
(IRDAI) has uploaded a draft
of this proposal and has
sought comments from stake-
yond that, however,
insurers can also offer
such products on their
own and can use the same
name for the product if all
provided that the poli-
cy is renewed without
a break-subject to maxi-
mum of 50 per cent of the
draft guidelines issued by the
IRDAI.
All the stakeholders are ex-
pected to give their sugges-
A130 Bharat initiative in the defense sector.
A record high order book would also
provide strong support towards such
Target Price an attainment. We forecast revenue/
EBITDA/PAT CAGR of 11%/7%/8%

drive markets holders by December 18. Ac-

E N S E C O N O M I C B U R E A U @New Delhi
INDIA’S stock exchanges and
their indices are likely to take
their cues from global develop-
ments over this week, say ex-
perts. In particular, stock mar-
kets in the country are expected
cording to the draft, this stand-
ard product should have basic
mandatory covers offering
protection against death, per-
manent disablement, or par-
Pandemic offers many
terms and conditions remain
the same, IRDAI said.
Regarding basic covers, the
IRDAI has proposed that ben-
efit equal to 100 per cent of
sum insured shall be payable
sum insured. If a claim is
made in any particular year,
the cumulative bonus accrued
may be reduced at the same
rate at which it has accrued.
Since the regulator is aim-
ing to launch the product by
Round-the-clock RTGS facility
tions and feedback by Decem-
ber 18, after which the IRDAI
will come up with final policy
guidelines. The IRDAI had
initiated a similar move to
standardize health and term
insurance policies earlier.
EXPRESS READ
RBI to set up Automated
A114.65 over FY20-23E. The valuations are
attractive despite having RoE/RoCE of
Disclaimer: The views and recommen-
~17%/18%, dividend yield of ~3.5%
dations made above are that of the and FCF yield of 5-7%.
individual analyst or broking
company, and not that of TNIE. — Motilal Oswal Securities Limited
EPFO likely to credit 8.5%

financial lessons for

to track macroeconomic data rolled out from today Banknote Processing Centre interest on EPF for FY20 by Dec
announcements and the US
Federal Reserve’s decision on New Delhi: The Real Time Gross Settlement New Delhi: With a view to effectively deal New Delhi: EPFO is likely to credit 8.5 per

interest rates in the country.
“This week, domestic mar-
kets will be waiting for major
data points like inflation and
import-export updates. The
trend in global markets will be
guided by developments in
Brexit deal talks and updates
on the expected US stimulus
package,” said Vinod Nair,
head (research) at Geojit Fi-
nancial Services.
Meanwhile, Siddhar tha
Khemka, head (retail research)
at Motilal Oswal Financial
Services, said, “The overall
trend of the market remains
positive as it is showing resil-
ience on the back of abundant
liquidity, positive develop-
ments on the vaccine front and
signs of economic recovery.”
He added that the market may
consolidate at these levels for
some time given stalemate in
US stimulus and concerns over
a probable no-deal Brexit talk.
“Indications are in favour of
some consolidation in the in-
dex and it would be healthy for
the markets,” Ajit Mishra,
vice-president (research) of
Religare Broking Ltd, said.
Binod Modi, head (strategy)
at Reliance Securities, said,
“Any possible no-deal Brexit
may be a near-term headwind
for the markets ahead of the
December 31 deadline.” He
added that given persistent do-
vish tone of global central
bankers, “FPI flows should re-
main benign in subsequent pe-
riod”. The BSE Sensex had
risen 1,019.46 points (2.26%)
during the last week.
millennials: Experts
System for high-value transactions will with increasing circulation of banknotes, the cent interest for 2019-20 in accounts of
become available round-the-clock from RBI has decided to set up an Automated around six crore subscribers in one go by the
00:30 hours Monday, making India one of Banknote Processing Centre (ABPC) in Jaipur end of December, PTI reported quoting
the few countries to operate the system for receipt, storage and dispatch of currency sources. “The Ministry of Finance ratification
24X7. RTGS presently handles 6.35 lakh notes. It will also process banknotes from is likely in few days. Thus, interest is likely to
eration, as is keeping an ade-
E N S E CO N O M I C B U R E AU @New Delhi transactions daily worth `4.17 lakh crore. currency chests (CCs) and bank branches. be credited by this month,” the source said.
quate corpus in fixed deposits
THE pandemic has taught peo- if such funds are available. In-
ple about the need to maintain vesting in gold has also be- SECURING THE FUTURE
emergency corpus funds. Cov- come easier and more conven-
id-driven job losses, sudden ient with the arrival of digital
and sharp salary cuts, and gold. If small amounts can be
health emergencies run ram- saved every month, then a sys-
Achieving long-term wealth creation goals
pant, and many—millennials tematic investment plan (SIP)
in particular—have been in a mutual fund, or even a re- E N S E C O N O M I C B U R E A U @ New Delhi tain lock-in period on your as- Realising the full potential of
forced to realise the value of curring deposit in a bank, can sets is always beneficial. compounding requires an ear-
putting away money for a be good investment options. INDIVIDUAL financial well- ly start, and a regular alloca-
rainy day. However, SIPs and being has long been critical for
Income planning for crisis tion of a fixed portion of funds
According to finan- recurring deposits a secure life, especially when it An important lesson that the at frequent intervals towards
cial experts TNIE only gain adequate comes to dealing with crises. pandemic has taught us is the that instrument. The power of
spoke to, millenials traction and accumu- Long-term wealth creation necessity of contingency plan- compounding also insulates
should ensure that Youngsters, late sufficient re- thus becomes pivotal to secur- ning and the adverse conse- your funds to a large extent
they derive this les- usually in the tur ns if the pay- ing financial independence quences of being financially from the temporary effects of
son from the Covid-19 initial days of their ments/investments and mitigating risks. Prudent ill-prepared to meet sudden market movements and keeps
experience. “Young- career, believe in are made as steadily financial planning is also criti- emergencies. It must be kept in you from resorting to any pan-
sters, usually in the living in the cal for meeting critical life mind that emergencies—med- ic selling of stocks, making
as possible.
moment and keep
initial days of their their savings and Financial experts goals such as children’s educa- continue to be considered an ical, financial, natural disas- withdrawals, during a market
career, believe in the investment plans point out that insur- tion, wedding, and retirement unworthy purchase, with the ters or pandemics—strike correction or upon a decline in
‘live in the moment’ for later. This is ance policies can plans among others. 5-year lock-in period seen as a without notice and we must ac- returns.
theory and keep their incorrect. also serve as an As Indians wake up to the drawback. However, new-age count for those events when
savings and invest- equally important fi- fact that long-term wealth cre- Ulips are, in fact, a comprehen- planning finances.
Retirement planning
ment plans for later. S Vijay Kumar, nancial safety net— ation and protection is critical, sive solution for medium-term We rarely assign enough im-
This is incorrect. The Wealth manager
another lesson driven many are urgently re-evaluat- financial goals like child finan-
Power of compounding portance on retirement plan-
c o r o n av i r u s h a s home by the pandem- ing their long-term portfolios. cial planning. For such goals, When planning for the longer ning—a life goal which needs
proved how important savings ic. “Insurance not only helps Speaking to TNIE , Anup this lock in period is critical to time horizon, power of com- planning from a much earlier
are,” said S Vijay Kumar, a one to be better prepared for Seth, Chief Retail Officer, Edel- instil financial discipline and pounding plays a crucial role age. A good thumb rule to fol-
wealth manager. exigencies, but also guaran- weiss Tokio Life Insurance ensure that the customer does in multiplying your money. low is to create resources that
These experts also say that tees long term benefits,” point- shared the four most impor- not end up tinkering with the Simply put, compounding is offer at least 75-80 per cent of
millennials should waste no ed out Shalini Agarwal, a fi- tant things to consider for long- funds to fulfil short-ter m the cumulative interest earned your income so that you can
time in chalking out their n a n c i a l p l a n n e r. Yo u n g term wealth creation: needs. What we often forget is on your money and the inter- continue to enjoy a similar
budget and expenses, and fo- investors, she adds, should re- that customer requirements as est accrued. It helps mitigate standard of living during your
cussing on creating assets—in duce their dependency on
Liquidity isn’t always good well as degree of financial dis- the adverse impact of inflation non-working years. Income so-
low-risk investment options to credit cards and avoid credit Liquidity has been considered cipline varies from person to on wealth erosion and its ben- lutions offered by life insurers
start with. Gold, they say, is purchases as much as possible a critical marker for evaluat- person. One might be tempted efits are directly proportional are an ideal method of plan-
generally a stable and safe in- since these only increase one’s ing any financial product. For to encash the asset for insig- to the holding period of your ning for retirement with an ad-
vestment for the younger gen- liabilities. instance, unit-linked plans nificant expenses and so, a cer- long-term savings instrument. ditional mortality protection.
 Verstappen ends season
Max Verstappen claimed his second win of the season and the 10th of his
career on Sunday when he drove to a clinical victory for Red Bull in a
pedestrian season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Verstappen eased home
with clinical triumph 15.976 seconds clear of Valtteri Bottas and 18.415 ahead of seven-time
champion Lewis Hamilton.

11 TIRUPATI MONDAY 14 12 2020

� � newindianexpress com

Season short, format shortest

STARTING TROUBLE

Race against time for

Maharashtra troika BCCI announces T20 championship from Jan 10 in six cities, decision on other tournaments later

F I R O Z M I R Z A @ Chennai
THE BCCI on Sunday said it
will start the domestic season
with Syed Mushtaq Ali Tro-
phy T20s, from January 10-31.
This is good news for the state
units and players, who were
eagerly waiting to return to
action after a long break cau-
sed by the pandemic. But that
is not the case with three as-
sociations from Maharashtra,
who face an uphill task of
starting from scratch if they
wish to field their teams
in the tour nament.
Maharashtra is
among the states wo-
rst-hit by the virus
outbreak. The state
government has not
yet allowed ou tdoor
sporting activities. The
nounced, we have to sort
things out quickly. As of now,
no relaxation has been an-
nounced in the state. So there
is a possibility that our team
will start training after reach-
ing the designated centre on
January 2,” Riyaz Bagwan,
secretary of the Maharashtra
unit, told this daily.
The BCCI will host the T20s
in six cities in bio-secure
hubs. Teams have been told to
reach their respective venues
by January 2. Vidarbha
Cricket Association
(VCA) also has meet-
ings lined up in the
next few days to chart
the course of action.
“We’ ll consult all
stakeholders before
drawing a plan,” said
Anand Jaiswal, Vidarbha
V E N K ATA K R I S H N A B @ Chennai
THE BCCI has informed its af-
filiates that the 2020/21 domes-
tic season will start with the
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20
championship. Whether there
will be more tournaments, will
be decided later. In an email to
the state units on Sunday, board
secretary Jay Shah said the T20
tournament will be played from
January 10-31.
The event will be staged in
six cities under bio-secure envi-
ronments. The associations of
Tamil Nadu and Bengal are
confirmed as hosts for now.
Andhra and Karnataka have
also received communication
from BCCI in this regard. A fi-
nal call is yet to be taken. Sourc-
es in BCCI indicated that Vado-
dara, Chandigarh/Mohali will
most likely be the other venues.
While these units confirmed
they have made their interests
known to the BCCI, they are
awaiting confirmation. There
are indications that groups will
not be formed on a zonal
basis.
The BCCI decided to
prioritise Mushtaq Ali
T20s based on feedback
from the state units.
Shah had sought their
opinion on the domestic
season. They were given four
options — A) Syed Mushtaq Ali
T20s B) Ranji Trophy C) Syed
Mushtaq Ali & Ranji Trophy D)
Syed Mushtaq Ali & Vijay Haz-
are Trophy.
Because of the pandemic and
complications in creating a bio-
secure bubble, almost 95 per
cent of units picked the options
with T20s.
“After having gone through
your responses and in accord-
ance with the feedback re-
ceived, I am pleased to inform
you that BCCI is planning
to start the domestic sea-
son 2020-21 with the
scheduling of the T20
tour nament for the
Syed Mushtaq Ali Tro-
phy. By Saturday, Janu-
ary 2, 2021, teams will
have to assemble in their re-
spective hub. From Sunday,
January 10, the tournament
will start and the final will be
played on January 31,” Shah
wrote in his letter, accessed by
this newspaper.
As reported earlier, each city
BCCI will subsequently seek feedback
from the members on organising
any other domestic tournament after
the group stage of Syed Mushtaq
Ali trophy.
Jay Shah, BCCI secretary
will host six teams, but there
could be a slight change in the
composition of groups. The
units were under the belief that
each group would have teams
from the same zone as it would
limit travel. But that might not
be the case as the BCCI might
form the groups based on a
draw of lots.
There is also a possibility
that there won’t be any home
advantage. Even though these
are exceptional times, the BCCI
wants to ensure a level-playing
field. As result, a host associa-
tion will have to send its team
to another city. For example,
Tamil Nadu have been told they
will play their group matches
in Kolkata. The Tamil Nadu
Cricket Association will most
likely have a selection commit-
tee meeting on December 16.
With regards to Vijay Hazare
and Ranji Trophy, the state
units believe a clear picture
will emerge after the group
stage of the T20s. “BCCI will
subsequently seek feedback
from the members on organis-
ing any other domestic tourna-
ment after the group stage of
Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy,”
Shah’s letter stated.

Adelaide probables
three associations — Mum- Cricket Asociation
bai, Maharashtra, Vidarbha
— have not been able to do
president.
The situation is more com-
EXPRESS READ
Units missing
Honda Erula Racing New Zealand in sight

comfortable with in poll list hope

anything. From Physical con-
ditioning, net practice to se-
lecting teams, everything has
to be done in 20-odd days. Till
now, they are not allowed to
train outdoors as a team. This
m a ke s t h e i r t a s k eve n
tougher.
“We have a meeting on Mon-
day to discuss this. Now that
the dates have been an-
plicated as far as Mumbai
Cricket Association is conce-
rned. It has interviewed can-
didates for the coach’s post,
but could not proceed with the
process due to circumstances.
A few members are not happy
with the current dispensati-
on, accusing it of favouritism.
Amid the turmoil, they now
have a tough task.
marks its dominance
CHENNAI: The curtain went down
on Sunday at MMRT with final
day of 2020 Indian National
Motorcycle Racing Championship
Marking their dominance, ENEOS
Honda Erula Racing team now
leads the ProStock 165cc class of
with total seven podiums.
of innings victory
WELLINGTON: West Indies captain
Jason Holder held off a venomous
New Zealand attack as the
tourists survived to be 244/6 at
stumps on Day 3 of the second
Test here. They require a further
85 runs with four wickets rema-
ining to make Kiwis bat again.
to be included
bounce and colour
AT R E Y O M U K H O PA D H YAY @ Chennai
UNABLE to send names of rep-
V E N K ATA K R I S H N A B @ Chennai resentatives on time and com-
munication problem are rea-
HANUMA Vihari believes playing with the pink ball and sons why six state units
getting used to bounce in Australia are the biggest takeaways — Punjab, Odisha, Rajasthan,

Big win, costly loss & dull draw
Real won again, the two Manchester clubs played a snooze fest, Everton
halted Chelsea’s unbeaten run and Dortmund lost by four goals. Here’s a round-up of
European football action...
DEFENDERS DOMINATE DERBY
The match promised goals but
Manchester United and Manchester
City couldn’t have been more
cautious in their approach.
Attackers doubled up as auxiliary
defenders as the coaches went
with a ‘must not lose’ attitude. The
end result? 0-0.
EVERTON PRICK CHELSEA’S RUN
Everton handed the Blues their first
defeat after a 17-match unbeaten
streak stretching all the way to Sep
20. The run had prompted people to
view Chelsea as contenders but the
1-0 defeat shows they still have
some way to go to before enter-
taining such notions. Gylfi Sigurds-
son’s penalty conversion did the job
Crystal Palace’s
Cheikhou for Everton. Chelsea are fourth with
22 points, Everton seventh on 20.
Kouyate (L)
REAL SOAR IN LA LIGA
Zinedine Zidane has made
escaping an art form. On Saturday
night, his team scored two past
Atletico, while managing a clean
sheet in the Madrid derby.
Casemiro and Dani Carvajal
scored. Considering Atletico had
only let in two in the league till
then, it was a masterclass. They
are now third with 23 points.
DORTMUND HIT FOR FIVE
At home, Dortmund were
expected to prevail. But they lost
1-5 to VfB Stuttgart as they
conceded four unanswered
second-half goals. Dortmund slip
to fifth amid news that coach
Lucien Favre has been sacked.
Worrying times. Bayern Munich
were held 1-1 by Union Berlin.
for India from the two practice matches. India head to Ad-
elaide on Monday to begin preparations for the first Test
starting on December 17. Though there was victory in sight
J&K, Tripura, Meghalaya —
are missing in the draft elec-
toral list prepared for the BC-
at the Sydney Cricket Ground against Australia A, Indians CI’s annual general meeting on
didn’t really push themselves on Sunday as they appeared December 24. Unless changes
more keen on giving Jas- are made in the final list, which
prit Bumrah and Moham- is expected after December 14
med Shami short spells. after examination of objec-
The two bowled 13 overs tions, these associations will
each. not be able to vote.
Australia A batsmen Ben Elections will be held for a
M c D e r m o t t a n d Ja ck post of vice-president and two
Wildermuth thwarted In- members of the IPL Governing
dia’s hopes with well-made Council. The draft list released
centuries, but that by electoral officer AK Joti
shouldn’t dent the visitors’ (former Chief Election Com-
confidence going into the missioner) contains names of
first Test, which will be a representatives from 28 associ-
day/night affair. For start- ations. The number of full me-
ers, if they were thinking mbers of BCCI is 34. It is to be
of playing four pacers in seen if the electoral officer al-
Adelaide — they didn’t lows changes in the list. Acco-
field a spinner at SCG — rding to a notice issued by him,
they would have got a real- 3 pm, December 11, was the
ity check. Though they ran deadline for sending names.
through Australia A in the Officials of Punjab and J&K
first innings under lights, said their associations had
on Sunday the story was completed the process in time
different. After making ear- and sounded surprised that
ly inroads through Shami their names are missing. Odis-

12
and Tottenham and Mohammed Siraj, the Hanuma Vihari ha, Tripura and Meghalaya
Hotspur’s Harry Kane and Son EPL: Everton 1-0 La Liga: Real Bundesliga: Dortmund bowlers didn’t make much said they were late in sending
Harry Kane vie Heung-Min have now SELECT Chelsea, Man United 2-0 Atletico, 1-5 Stuttgart, Union impact once the ball got old. At times the attack looked one- the names. Calls to the secre-
for the ball on combined for 12 goals in the RESULTS 0-0 Man City, Palace Getafe 0-1 Berlin 1-1 Bayern, RB dimensional, which means India might still play Ravic- t a r y o f R a j a s t h a n we n t
Premier League this season. 1-1 Tottenham Sevilla Leipzig 2-0 Werder handran Ashwin at the Adelaide Oval, which has hosted four unanswered.
day/night Tests. Nathan Lyon is the lone spinner to take five “I was out of town and my of-
wickets in an innings in those, but he has 18 wickets. fice didn’t inform me of the no-

Ashwin shines A G E N C I E S @ Coimbatore way here on Sunday.

Datta cashed in on the chanc-
based on protests and official
observation, for Saturday’s fi-
From a batting point of view, Indians would go into the
Adelaide Test more accustomed to the pink ball, having
tice of the electoral officer. So I
sent the name of our represent-

in National
CHENNAI’S Ashwin Datta es that came his way to seal the nal race, which Datta won. But, played three days of good cricket, which exposed them to ative on December 12. I have
(Dark Don Racing) and Kotta- top position in two races of the the revised result saw him batting under lights. “Getting practice with the pink ball just spoken to the BCCI president
yam’s Amir Sayed (MSport) national championship class placed 12th and declared Saro- before the day-night Test is ideal for us. I think we played (Sourav Ganguly), who said the

Racing C’ship signed off with a double win

each in the 23rd JK Tyre – FM-
SCI National Racing Champi-
onship at the Kari Motor Speed-
for Formula LGB4 cars. But it
wasn’t a great start to the day
for the youngster from Chennai
as the placings had changed,
sh as the eventual winner.
That did not deter Datta who
drove clean to win an incident-
free first race in the morning.
against a decent opposition in both games. The challenge
with the pink ball is during the twilight and when the flood-
lights are on. It does a little bit in the air and off the wicket.
matter is up to the electoral of-
ficer,” said Tripura Cricket As-
sociation president Manik
That is the challenge we have realised as a team,” he said. Saha.

NEUFC, Chennaiyin
play goalless draw
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

DESPITE a flurry of chances, the Indian Super League

match between Chennaiyin FC and NorthEast United
FC at the Tilak Maidan Stadium in Goa on Sunday end-
ed in a goalless draw. Both the teams shared one point
each.
The most presentable chance came in the second half
for both sides but Lallianzuala Chhangte and Idrissa
Sylla failed to put the ball in the back of the net.
The draw means Chennaiyin remain eighth with five
points from as many games. They have now gone four
games without a win. NorthEast climbed to second with
10 points from six games and they also kept their un-
beaten run intact.
Both teams tried hard, however, the de-
fenders stood strong and not many oppor-
tunities presented itself in the first half.
The second half was a much more action-
packed affair with two moments which
could have changed the outcome of the
game.
In the 60th minute, Chennai’s Jakub Sylvestr trapped
the ball, turned and fired one on target which the op-
position keeper did well to parry. The ball broke to the
path of Chhangte who blazed it over the bar with the
entire goal at his mercy.
Substitute Anirudh Thapa came on and was lively
and that will bode well in the coming matches for the
two-time champions. �������������������
The next gilt-edged chance fell NorthEast’s way in the
66th minute. Rochharzela slipped in an inch-perfect All the news. ����������������
�����������������������
through ball to Sylla. With only the onrushing keeper
to beat, Sylla’s flicked shot off balance went wide of the In just a click.
goal. Log to www.newindianexpress.com

12 TIRUPATI
PROMISES GET BIGGER TO CURB CO2
ENVIRONMENT
O
n the fifth anniversary
of the landmark Paris
climate accord, US
president-elect Joe Bi-
den vowed to rejoin
the accord on the first
day of his presidency.
The anniversary was also
marked by other countries an-
nouncing greater efforts to cut
greenhouse gas emissions that
fuel global warming. Here’s a
look at what transpired...
What took place on
Saturday?
An online gathering of over 70
nations jointly hosted by Brit-
ain, France, Chile and the UN.
It was to celebrate the fifth an-
niversary of the Paris accords.
The White House did not par-
ticipate in it but, Joe Biden, the
incoming President, vowed to
get the US back in it during his
first day in office next month.
Covid-19 vaccine roll-out begins in US
HEALTH
THE first trucks carrying a
Covid-19 vaccine for wide-
spread use in the United States
were set to pull out of a Michi-
gan manufacturing plant on
Sunday, with the shots that are
critical to stopping the nation’s
coronavirus outbreak destined
to reach states a day later.
An assembly line of workers
began in the early morning
hours pulling doses out of a
freezer, boxing the vaccine and
loading the units onto pallets so
they could be placed on trucks
at a Pfizer plant in Michigan.
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What did Biden say?
“I’ll immediately start working
with my counterparts around
the world to do all that we pos-
sibly can, including by conven-
ing the leaders of major econo-
mies for a climate summit
within my first 100 days in of-
fice.” He has targetted to bring
US emissions to net zero by
2050. US’ rejoining of the ac-
cord has since been welcomed,
with UN calling it ‘a very im-
portant signal’ towards meet-
ing the goals set during the 2015
summit.
What were some of the
initiatives announced?
Members of the European Un-
ion reached an agreement to
change their existing targets
from 40% to 55% compared
with 1990 levels by 2030. How-
ever, activists said EU could
have aimed for a higher ceiling.
Shipments of the vaccine will
set in motion the biggest vacci-
nation effort in American his-
tory. Initially, about 3 million
doses were expected to be sent
out, and the priority is health
care workers and nursing home
residents as infections, hospi-
talizations and deaths soar in
the US. With numbers likely to
get worse over the holidays, the
vaccine is offering a bright spot
in the fight against the pandem-
ic that’s killed nearly 300,000
Americans.
Federal officials say the first
shipments of Pfizer’s vaccine
will be staggered, arriving in
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A fountain in the Omonoia square in Athens is illuminated in green light to mark the
fifth anniversary of the Paris climate accord | AFP
China, the world’s biggest emit-
ter, which has set itself a net
zero emission target by 2060,
said ‘unilateralism will lead us
nowhere’. It was a veiled refer-
ence to discussions in the EU to
impose tariffs on goods import-
ed from countries that have less
145 distribution centres on
Monday, with an additional 425
sites getting shipments on
Tuesday, and the remaining 66
on Wednesday. The vaccine, co-
developed by German partner
BioNTech, is being doled out
based on each state’s adult
population.
The vaccine is heading to
hospitals that can store it at ex-
tremely low temperatures —
about 94 degrees below zero.
Pfizer is using containers with
dry ice and GPS-enabled sen-
sors to ensure each shipment
stays colder than the weather
in Antarctica.
Over 70 countries
2C
participated in
Saturday’s
virtual meet-up
stringent emissions standards
than the 27-nation bloc.
Did India take part?
PM Narendra Modi addressed
the gathering. He said India is
well set to exceed the expecta-
tions agreed during the sum-
FACT OF THE MATTER
Moon rock on its
way to China
SPACE SCIENCE
BEIJING: A Chinese space
capsule bringing back the
first moon rocks has begun
its return to Earth. The
Chang’e 5 lunar probe left
the moon’s orbit on Sunday
morning. The mission had
collected about 2 kilograms
(4.4 pounds) of samples. The
return capsule is expected to
land in northern China in
the Inner Mongolia region
after a three-day journey.
Sri Lanka has recorded the highest number of elephant deaths in the world due to human-
elephant conflicts, according to a media report. The island nation’s Committee on Public
Accounts (COPA) had ordered a special audit into the human-elephant conflict by renowned
elephant expert Dr Prithviraj Fernando, the head of the Centre for Conservation and Research.
The Paris accord set a target
O to cap global warming to
well under 20C by the end of
the century.
mit in Paris. He also stated that
the country has reduced emis-
sion intensity by over 21% over
2005 levels. “To all my fellow
residents of this planet, I make
a solemn pledge today,” he said.
“Centennial India will not only
meet its own targets, but will
also exceed expectations.”
Is there going to be a report
card soon?
The 189 countries that signed
the Paris accords are required
to submit their updated targets
to the UN by the end of the year.
But, because of the pandemic,
this event has been postponed.
It will now be held in Glasgow
next November.
Spacecraft aborts
passenger test trip
SPACE SCIENCE
WASHINGTON: Virgin Ga-
lactic’s passenger aircraft
SpaceShipTwo has aborted a
test flight after a technical
malfunction, with the two
pilots returning to Earth
safely. Richard Branson’s
space tourism company,
which is preparing for com-
mercial flights next year,
was testing its customer cab-
in, horizontal stabilizers
and flight controls.
newindianexpress com
Govt study notes rise in
obesity among children
HEALTH Sheila Vir, a public health nu-
trition expert and founder di-
THE latest National Family rector of Public Health Nutri-
Health Survey (NFHS) has tion and Development Centre,
found a drastic rise in obesity said: “We have a double bur-
among children under five den of under-nutrition, mal-
years of age in 20 of the 22 nutrition and over-nutrition
states where the study was occurring together. So, I think
conducted, with experts what to feed a child is what we
attributing it to lack of are going wrong in.”
p hy s i c a l a c t iv i t y a n d In view of the pandemic,
unhealthy food habits. she also raised concern over
According to the NHFS-5, the rise in obesity. “There
several states and UTs, includ- might be an increase in obes-
ing Maharashtra, Gujarat, ity among children in view of
Mizoram, Tripura, Lakshad- Covid-19 pandemic as after
weep, Jammu and Kashmir, closure of schools, there was
and Ladakh, have lack of physical ac-
registered increase tivity among chil-
in the percentage of dren and even in
obesity among chil- adults in some cas-
dren below five years We have a burden es,” she said. Dr
of age in comparison of undernutrition, Khan Amir Maroof,
to NFHS-4 conducted malnutrition and Professor at Depart-
between 2015 and overnutrition ment of Community
2016. Only Goa, together. So, I Medicine, University
think what to
Dadra and Nagar
feed a child is
College of Medical
Haveli, and Daman Sciences and GTB
and Diu registered a
drop in the number
what we are
going wrong in Hospital termed the
rise in obesity a
of overweight chil-
dren under five years
Sheila Vir, health
nutrition expert
“very disturbing
sign”.
of a g e, the data “Obesity is a mani-
showed. festation of what is changing
About 13.4 per cent children in our environment. Of late,
under the age of five were we see trends which increase
found to be obese in Ladakh the risk. Factors, such as con-
which was highest among the sumption of junk foods, poor
22 states and UTs surveyed. It complementary feeding and
was followed by Lakshadweep lack of outdoor activity may
(10.5 per cent), Mizoram (10 be the reason,” he said. The
per cent), Jammu and Kash- results of 17 states and five
mir and Sikkim (9.6 per cent UTs have been released now
each). in phase-one.
Experts have attributed the The phase-two results cov-
rise in obesity to unhealthy ering other states will be re-
food choices and lack of phys- leased next year, the health
ical activities among children. ministry said.