VIJAYAWADA, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022; PAGES 12 `3

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VIJAYAWADA WEATHER

ALMANAC

Updated: March 2, 2022 5:00 PM

Forecast: Mostly sunnyTemp: 37

oc

Humidity: 42%Sunrise: 6:28 AMSunset: 6:18 PM

Month & Paksham:

Tithi: Pratipada: Mar 02 11:04 PM

to Mar 03 09:36 PM

Dwitiya: Mar 03 09:36 PM

to Mar 04 08:45 PM

Nakshatram:

Purva Bhadrapada: Mar 03 02:37 AM

to Mar 04 01:56 AM

Uttara Bhadrapada: Mar 04 01:56 AM

to Mar 05 01:51 AM

Rahukalam: 1:56 PM to 3:23 PM

Yamagandam: 6:36 AM to 8:04 AM

Varjyam: 11:30 AM to 01:06 PM

Gulika: 9:32 AM to 11:00 AM

Amritakalam: 06:10 PM to 07:43 PM

bhijit Muhurtham: 12:04 PM to

12:51 PM

TTOODDAAYY

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Both the Houses of the State legis-lature will meet for the Budget ses-sion on March 7. An official noti-fication in this regard was issued onWednesday.

State Legislature Secretary PBalakrishnamacharyulu issued thenotification on behalf of GovernorBiswabhushan Harichandan onWednesday. Following the practice,the Governor will address the jointsession on day one of the sessionand the House will adjourn for theday after the address.

The next day, the House will paytributes to Industries ministerMekapati Goutham Reddy, whopassed away recently, and will beadjourned for the day. It is learntthat the government is makingefforts to present the annual Budgeton March 11. While the government

wants to hold the Budget sessionsfor a minimum of 10 to 15 days, theBAC meeting will finalise the dura-tion.

Opposition leader and TDPchief N Chandrababu Naidu hadleft the Assembly in the last session

vowing to return to the House onlyas the chief minister. It is learnt,however, that his MLAs will attendthe Assembly to take on the gov-ernment.

Women’s Parliament tomorrowPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh Women’sCommission ChairpersonVasireddy Padma has said thatthe National Women’s Parliament(NWP) will be held in the Stateon March 4. Addressing a mediaconference on Thursday, theChairperson said that the eventwould be held on the premises ofAcharya Nagarjuna Universityfrom 9 am to 5 pm.

Vasireddy Padma said that theprogramme would be inaugurat-ed by Deputy Chief Ministerand Tribal Welfare MinisterPushpa Srivani. Women andChild Welfare Minister TanetiVanitha, MLA R K Roha,Vidadala R aj ini , Undaval l iSridevi and others will attend the

programme.She briefed on the main agen-

da of the programme that willfocus on women empowerment,girls' education, age of marriageof woman, gender equality,

enforcement of women laws,changes in the existing laws,women’s health, safety and pro-tection.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

In a bid for the safe repatriation ofthe stranded AP students inUkraine, the Andhra Pradesh Stategovernment on Wednesday decid-ed to send its representatives toPoland and Hungary to assist theofficials of the Ministry of ExternalAffairs and to bring them back toIndia safely.

In this regard, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has direct-ed the officials to send AP repre-sentatives to Romania andHungary for the safe repatriationprocess of the students and ease ofcoordination. To this effect, theState government has provideddetails of the students to the rep-resentatives. The AP representa-tives will assist the officials of theMinistry of External Affairs inbringing back the stranded stu-dents safely.

The AP government has alreadygiven the details of 680 studentsstudying in various Ukrainian uni-

versities to the officials of theMinistry of External Affairs.

The State government preparedthe data of the students studying invarious universities in Ukrainethrough the Ukrainian Embassy, IBstamping office and various privateeducational constituencies.

Meanwhile, based on the data,the Revenue officials and Tahsildarsvisited the houses of the strandedstudents and gathered completeinformation.

According to the information

given by the State officials, out ofthe 680 students from AndhraPradesh, who have registered theirnames, 75 have returned to theirhome towns safely till Wednesdayafternoon.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassyin Ukraine has issued an urgentadvisory requesting all its citizensto leave Kharkiv immediately andreach the settlements of Pesochin,Babaye and Bezlyudovka immedi-ately.

An Indian student was killed inshelling in Ukraine's Kharkivregion, while another student diedof a stroke in the war-torn coun-try. Chandan Jindal, a student inUkraine's Vinnytsia, lost his life dueto natural causes.

Soon after the war broke outbetween Russia and Ukraine onFebruary 24, all the universities inUkraine announced holidays andthe students immediately plannedto return to India safely.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The newly-appointed SpecialChief Secretary to the ChiefMinister, K S Jawahar Reddy, hasallocated work among the officersin the Chief Minister’s Office(CMO).

According to the orders issuedon Wednesday, Jawahar Reddywill look after the subjects ofGAD, Home, Revenue,Environment, Medical & Health,Law & Legislature, Industry &Commerce, Infrastructure &Investment, Government of IndiaCorrespondence, CMOEstablishment and residual sub-jects.

Secretary to the Chief MinisterSolomon Arokiaraj will look afterthe departments of Food and CivilSupplies, Education, iPanchayatRaj, Mines and Geology, IT andall welfare departments.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

As many as 7,500 representationshave been received with sugges-tions and advice from peopleacross the State as on Wednesdayon reorganisation of districts,said State Planning Secretary GVijay Kumar. Speaking to themedia persons here, he said thatThursday was the last day forreceiving suggestions from peo-ple and that they had receivedabout 4,500 representations fromVizianagaram district alone, fol-lowed by Krishna and Anantapur.

The Planning Secretary saidthat all district reviews would becompleted on Wednesday. After considering the sugges-tions from the people acrossAndhra Pradesh regardingaround 60 issues, a final decisionwill be taken by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Plot to kill Srinivas Goud foiled

Budget session tostart on March 7

AP govt to send representativesfor safe repatriation of students

7,500 representationsreceived on districtreorganisation

Work allocatedto CMO officials

K S Jawahar Reddy

PNS n SONBHADRA/GHAZIPUR

Prime Minister Narendra Modi onWednesday said India has beenable to evacuate its citizensfrom war-hit Ukrainebecause of its risingpower and assuredthe country that hisgovernment willleave no stoneunturned for the safereturn of all Indiansstranded there.

Addressing election ral-lies in Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadraand Ghazipur districts, Modi spokeof the government's rescue effortsin the wake of the Russian militaryoffensive against Ukraine and alsounderlined the need for India tobecome self-reliant.

"The dynasts question our vac-cine, they question our armedforces and make fun of 'Make inIndia'. Such people have shamed

the country and its people. Theycan't make India strong," he

said.Asserting that the coun-

try has made it a priorityto rescue all Indians stuckin Ukraine, Modi said, "Itis due to India's rising

strength that we are able tobring back stranded Indians

from Ukraine. Operation Gangahas been launched and I have sentfour ministers to oversee the evac-uation. "Our army and air forcehave also been deployed to rescueIndians in distress faster.

Will ensure safe return of Indians: PM

Leave Kharkiv forthwithNEW DELHI: In an urgentadvisory, the India embassy inUkraine on Wednesday asked allIndians stranded in Kharkiv toleave the conflict zoneimmediately. The embassy askedIndians to proceed to settlementsin Pesochin, Babaye andBezlyudovka as soon as possible."For their safety and security, theymust leave Kharkiv immediatelyrepeat immediately in the light ofthe detriorating situation. Theyshould proceed to Pesochin,Babaye and Bezlyudovka as soonas possible for their safety," theembassy said.

Many Indiansstuck at Kharkiv

DEEPIKA PASHAMn HYDERABAD

The world is now relaxing as Covidcases have declined all over theglobe. People are opting to goback to normal life and to travelaround the world with the time forsummer vacations nearing.

A survey conducted by LocalCircles indicates that 59 populationgroups are planning to travel in thenext three months.

As per the participants’ inputsthe survey says that only 12 per centpeople have made bookings.

With Omicron cases decreasing,enthusiasm for travel goes back to

what it was during the pre-Omicron days.

In a similar survey conducted byLocal Circles in December 2021, 58

per cent of respondents had saidthat they plan to travel in the nextthree months.

This percentage has increased byjust one per cent to 59 per cent inFebruary 2022, indicating that ascases of Omicron decline, the levelof enthusiasm for travel among thepublic is back to what it was dur-ing the pre-Omicron days.

Of those who plan to travelfrom March to May, the highestnumber is likely to visit family orfriends or undertake other miscel-laneous travel (non-holiday desti-nation travel).

Many planning to travel as corona cases decline

CM for fair probe: Sawang

NABARD projects10-pc growth in

agriculture creditfor Andhra

Pradesh

VIVEKA MURDER CASE

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Former DGP and APPSCChairman D Gautam Sawang hassaid that some reports surfaced onTuesday regarding his utterances onthe murder of former minister Y SVivekananda Reddy were categor-ical misrepresentation of facts andmisquotes made out of context.

There were reports that ChiefMinister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddyhad directed Kadapa MP Y SAvinash Reddy, one E CSurendranath Reddy andDevireddy Sivashankar Reddy tomeet him when he was the DGP.Gautam Sawang is said to have toldViveka’s daughter Dr NarreddySuneetha Reddy and her husbandNarreddy Rajasekhar Reddy, whenthey came to meet him inSeptember 2019, that the ChiefMinister referred to those threepersons as his 'two eyes'.

Sivasankar Reddy’sbail plea rejectedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

A Kadapa court on Wednesdayrejected the bail petition ofDevireddy Sivasankar Reddy,one of the accused in the sensa-tional murder case of formerminister Y S VivekanandaReddy. Sivasankar Reddy movedthe bail application citing ill-health and claiming that he wasbeing treated at a hospital.

However, the CBI, whileopposing the bail petition inthe court, said that SivasankarReddy was the fifth accused inthe case and there were chancesthat he may tamper with evi-dence and influence witnessesif he came out on bail.

PNS n HAVERI

The stranded Indian students arestill stuck at the nearest Railway sta-tion in Kharkiv in the war-tornUkraine where they had marchedby foot in the morning, a student'sfather said on Wednesday.

"My son Amit along with hiscousin Suman and others somehowmanaged to reach the Railway sta-tion but is stuck there," VenkateshVaishyar told PTI.

The latest advisory issued by theEmbassy of India in Ukrainiancapital Kyiv asked students stuck atKharkiv Railway station to proceedby foot to Pisochyn, Babai andBeslyudivka by 6 pm on Wednesday.

"I have no clue what's happeningthere but he was stuck in KharkivRailway station. The first train tookwomen and girls and the second leftwith the Ukrainians.

The third has not arrived yetthough the advisory says everyonemust reach the three locations by 6 pmwhich indicates that something ter-rible may happen after 6 pm," he said.

Andhra among statesproducing maximumbiomedical wasteSNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

As Covid-19 has added a newstream of waste, Andhra Pradesh,along with Haryana, Uttarakhand,Chandigarh and Kerala, saw themaximum increase in biomedicalwaste due to the pandemic.

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AAMIR KHAN CRIED AGAIN, THIS TIMEAFTER WATCHING AMITABH'S JHUND

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan's highly anticipated film Jhundis all set to hit the theatres on Friday, March 4. Ahead of therelease, makers recently held a private screening attended

by the actor's <i>Thugs Of Hindostan</i> co-star Aamir Khan.After watching the film, the actor was left teary-eyed and heapedpraises for team <i>Jhund</i> for bringing together such a greatstory. In the video shared by T-Series, Aamir Khan can be seenwiping away his tears as he gives the film a standing ovation.Aamir said in the clip, "It has happened for the first time that afilm has received a standing ovation during a private screening.

PAKISTAN SUPER LEAGUE PROFITSHIGHEST IN TOURNAMENT'S HISTORY

The seventh season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL)culminated last Sunday. In the final, Lahore Qalandars defeatedMultan Sultans by 42 runs in front of their home crowd at the

Gaddafi Stadium. This was Lahore's first PSL triumph, having failedto qualify for the play-offs in five of the last six seasons. Followingthe conclusion of the tournament, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)chairman Ramiz Raja revealed the profits earned by the board andthe amount each PSL franchise earned during the competition. Theformer Pakistan skipper said that the profit jumped to 71% duringthe season, which is the most in the history of the tournament.

INDIAN RESTAURANT ‘SAATHIYA'TURNS INTO MAKESHIFT BUNKER

As a battle with invading Russian military rages overhead,the owner of an Indian restaurant in Kyiv has opened hisdoors for all those looking for shelter. Since Russia began

its invasion of Ukraine last Thursday, Manish Dave'srestaurant'Saathiya'has doubled as a makeshift bunker. Dave'seatery has given shelter to more than 130 people, according toa Washington Post report. Manish Dave told the media housethat he will continue to offer food and shelter to people for aslong as he can. In the past week, the streets of Ukraine'scapital Kyiv have been transformed into a war zone.

UN SAYS UKRAINE REFUGEE SURGESOON TO HIT 1 MILLION

The UN refugee agency says more than 874,000 people havefled Ukraine since Russia's invasion last week and thefigure is rising exponentially, putting it on track to cross the

1 million mark possibly within hours. UNHCR spokeswomanShabia Mantoo said Wednesday that people are continuing tostream into Ukraine's neighbouring countries to the west, withmore than 200,000 fleeing since Tuesday. A day earlier, Mantoohad cautioned that the outflows from Ukraine could make it thesource of the biggest refugee crisis this century eclipsing theone from Syria's war over the last decade.

SAITEJA BURRAn HYDERABAD

The Cyberabad Police has stum-bled upon a major plot to killExcise and Prohibition MinisterSrinivas Gowda and his broth-er Srikanth and arrested eightp ersons , a l l res idents ofMahabunagar, in this connec-tion.

According to CyberabadCommissioner of Police StephenRaveendra, the accused hadconspired with a XXX-basedsupari gang to commit the mur-ders, for which a Rs 15-croredeal was struck. Pending execu-tion of the plot, the accusedwere reportedly taking refuge atthe residence of Ravi, PA to for-mer MP Jitender Reddy, inDelhi.

The plot came to light follow-ing investigations into a bid tokill Farooq and Hyder Ali, whowere earlier approached byYadayya, Vishwanath and Nagrajfor weap ons . Yaday ya ,Vishwanath and Nagraj made abid to kill Farooq and Hyder Alion February 26, 2022 withknives. Having survived theattack, Farooq and Hyder Alilodged a complaint with thePetbasheerabad Police Station.The police then registered a caseunder Section 206 Crime No.146, Sections 307, 120B, 115 IPCand Section 25 1AB under theArms Act.

Farooq and Hyder Ali hadchecked into a lodge at Suchitraon February 23, 2022.

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UN adopts resolution deploringRussia's aggression against UkrainePNS n UNITED NATIONS

The 193-member UN GeneralAssembly on Wednesdayadopted a resolution thatstrongly deplored Russia'saggression against Ukraine,days after a similar resolutionwas vetoed by Russia in theSecurity Council on the esca-lating crisis between Moscowand Kyiv.

The General Assembly onWednesday voted to reaffirmits commitment to the sover-eignty, independence, unityand territorial integrity ofUkraine within its interna-tionally recognised bordersand "deplores in the strongestterms Russia's aggressionagainst Ukraine.

Nearly 100 UN MemberStates co-sponsored the reso-lution titled Aggression

Against Ukraine', includingAfghanistan, Canada, France,Germany, Ireland, Kuwait,Singapore, Turkey, Ukraine,the United Kingdom and theUnited States.

The resolution was adoptedwith 141 votes in favour, fiveMember States voting againstand 35 abstentions. The

General Assembly broke intoan applause as the resolutionwas adopted.

The UNGA resolution wassimilar to the one circulated inthe 15-nation Security Councillast Friday.

The UNSC resolution, whichreceived 11 votes in favourand three abstentions, was

blocked after permanent mem-ber Russia exercised its veto.

Following the failure of theCouncil to adopt the resolu-tion, the Security Councilvoted on Sunday again toconvene a rare "emergencyspecial session of the 193-member General Assemblyon the crisis.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Majority of Indians want 'highin style' warning labels on thefront of packaged food andbeverages that have excessivelevels of salt, sugar or fat, apan- India AIIMS study said.

The survey covered 2,025respondents out of which 93per cent said 'front of packlabel' (FOPL) on packagedfood will be helpful in convey-ing nutritional information.

Also, 40 per cent said warn-ing labels are quicker to under-stand and easy to recognisewhich in turn will help thembuy healthier food products.

The AIIMS study comes ata time when India is deliber-ating on an FOPL policy andpublic health experts across theworld are keenly watching thecountry's choice of labeldesign.

An FOPL is regarded as themost effective policy solutionwhich can inform consumersin an easy-to-understand man-ner about high levels of sugar,sodium and saturated fat thatmay be present in packagedfood and beverages and dis-courage their purchase.

Sanjay Rai, Professor,Community Medicine atAIIMS Delhi and president ofthe Indian Public HealthAssociation (IPHA), said,"People are ready to shift to

healthier decisions regardingpurchase of packaged andprocessed food and this per-ception study has shown thatwarning labels have the widestappeal."

"We are witnessing a world-wide tipping effect of diet-related non-communicablediseases. A momentous shift isrequired and if done in a sci-entific, evidence-based man-ner, FOPL can bring about thischange swiftly. I hope it canpositively inform the policyprocess that has already beeninitiated by the FSSAI and wecan take decisive steps in theright direction while adoptingan FOPL that is best for India,"he said.

Stressing on the need tochoose correctly and scientif-ically, Umesh Kapil, presi-dent of the EpidemiologicalFoundation of India, said the

FOPL can result in immediatepublic health benefits, whichis all the more reason whyIndia, which accounts for 25per cent of the global burdenof heart disease, cannot affordnot to get it right the first time.

More than eight countries,including Argentina, Brazil,Chile and Turkey, havealready adopted mandatoryFOPLs and are in the processof regulating all food andbeverages.

More than 5.8 millionIndians die every year fromNon-Communicable Diseases(NCDs) such as cancer, dia-betes, uncontrolled hyperten-sion, and cardiovascular dis-eases. By 2024, the diabeticpopulation of the country isestimated to hit almost 70 mil-lion and India is alreadyemerging as the obesity cap-ital of the world.

Most Indians want warninglabels on packaged foods

Budgetsession tostart on...Continued from Page 1

The Cabinet meeting is alsoscheduled to be held onMarch 7, after the House isadjourned for the day afterthe Governor’s address. Asthe Opposition parties havebeen targeting the govern-ment alleging that it hadbeen mismanaging thefinances of the State andpushing the State into a debttrap, Finance MinisterBuggana RajendranathReddy has to make a fine bal-ancing act while preparingthe Budget.

This budget is also impor-tant as the next polls are onlytwo years from now and theallocations will pave the wayfor the government’s func-tioning in the election

Many Indians stuck at Kharkiv...Continued from Page 1

Meanwhile, Harsha S G, elderbrother of Naveen S G whowas killed in shelling inKharkiv in Ukraine onTuesday morning, said, "Weare glad that everyone isreturning home alive but wewant to see his (Naveen) facebecause my parents want tosee him."

Naveen, a fourth year med-ical student in the KharkivMedical College ventured outof his bunker to get somefood, water and exchange cur-rency notes when he waskilled in the shelling.

According to him, the par-ents saw him six months agoand were not able to speak tohim due to poor connectivity.

"He used to speak to theparents two to three minutes.

I appeal to everyone thatwhen you are putting in somuch of efforts to bring thosewho were with him, please tryat the earliest to bring thedead body," an emotionalHarsha told reporters.

He said the officials havebeen telling him that the bodyis safely preserved in the mor-tuary in Kharkiv but there wasno word on bringing it toIndia.

Earlier in the day, ChiefMinister Basavaraj Bommaitold reporters in Bengaluruthat he will make sincereefforts to bring Naveen's bodyback to India.

"I will speak to ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankarand the Indian Embassy inUkraine to get updates of theefforts to get Naveen's body.We will make a serious effort,"

Bommai said.According to him, the

Indian officials have intensi-fied their efforts to evacuatepeople stranded in Kharkiv,especially students.

Bommai said 26 aircraftwould be pressed into serviceto bring the stranded peopleback to India. The studentshave been asked to come fromdifferent directions.

Regarding compensation toNaveen's family, Bommai saidhis government can do any-thing but the priority rightnow is to bring the body toIndia.

"Whatever is in our handwe will do it. We will certain-ly give compensation. Thefamily is in pain. We have toget the body first for which wehave intensified our efforts,"he said.

AP govt to sendrepresentatives...Continued from Page 1

The Central governmenttook immediate measures torepatriate the students toIndia safely throughOperation Ganga.

The Central governmenthas deployed special flightsand till Wednesday, 2,500Indians have been evacuatedfrom Ukraine.

According to sources, thestranded students in Ukraineare in the grip of fear. Mostof them are facing severeproblems due to lack of foodand water.

The students on theEastern side of Ukraine arein deep crisis as it is the mainwar zone. Most of the time,

they are hiding in thebunkers and metro railwaystations for fear of shelling.Even there the localUkrainian citizens are hav-ing an upper hand.

Students in WesternUkraine have their own sadsaga as they have been wait-ing for days together at theUkrainian border to enterthe neighboring nation to geta flight back to India. Thestudents are facing humilia-tion as they are being ill-treated by the security forceson the border.

A few students were liter-ally kicked and pushed bythe security forces and thestudents had to silently bearthe ill-treatmen

Work allocated to CMO...Continued from Page 1

Another secretary to the ChiefMinister K Dhanunjaya Reddywill look after Finance andPlanning, Water Resources,Agriculture and AlliedSubjects, MA & UD & CRDA,Energy, Tourism, Marketing

and Cooperation.Additional Secretary to the

Chief Minister Revu MutyalaRaju will look after referencesfrom public representativeslike MLAs and MPs, Revenue,CMRF, Housing, Transport,Roads and Buildings, Labourand employment.

Will ensure safe return of Indians...Continued from Page 1

Today I also assure the peopleof the country that theGovernment of India will leaveno stone unturned for the safereturn of its citizens.''

Modi also targeted his rivals,accusing them of ignoring theproblems of the poor when inpower.

Sonbhadra and Ghazipurwill go to the polls in the lastphase on March 7.

Modi said the previous gov-ernments of "dynasts" exploitedthe natural resources of theSonbhadra region but never didanything for its development.

He told the gathering that ifthe "corrupt" become strong,they would again indulge in theloot of money sent by the Centrefor the welfare of the poor.

"We have made a scheme touse the development of DistrictMineral Fund to ensure that aportion of the earnings fromminerals of Sonbhadra is alsoused in the development of itspeople," he said and highlight-ed that Sonbhadra has beenincluded in the list of aspirationaldistricts. "

"Our government has alsohonoured great tribal leadersincluding Birsa Munda. Tentribal museums are also being setup," Modi said.

Earlier the MinimumSupport Price (MSP) used to begiven on only eight to 10 forestproducts. "Our government isgiving MSP on over 90 forestproducts. We have providedover 20 lakh plots of land to trib-al families,"' Prime MinisterModi said.

Sonbhadra has two assemblyconstituencies reserved for STs.

"The BJP focuses on thedevelopment of small farmers.Over Rs 350 crore have been

deposited in the bank accountof over 2 lakh families inSonbhadra district," the primeminister said.

Speaking at Ghazipur, Modiaccused the opposition partiesof turning a blind eye to theproblems faced by women."Thedynasts never realised the prob-lems of women but our govern-ment gave them free gas con-nection. Over 2.5 lakh free gasconnections under Ujjwalascheme have been given inGhazipur alone," he said.

The dynasts only focused ontaking money from the poor.The dynasts stole ration andmoney meant for the poor, he

alleged.On the other hand, "our gov-

ernment has done everything tospend the money for the devel-opment for the poor. In toughCOVID-19 times during the lasttwo years, we are providing freeration to 15 Crore people ofUttar Pradesh.

"The government is spendingRs 2.60 lakh crore on thisscheme across the country. If thesame work was to be done bythe dynasts they would havestolen all the money anddeprived the poor of foodgrains," he said.

Talking about COVID-19vaccination, Modi said that thegovernment is providing freevaccines. This has helped in thereopening of schools and busi-nesses again.

The prime minister said thatthe world is surprised by thespeed of the COVID-19 vacci-nation in the country.

"We have also focused on thedevelopment of small farmers.We have provided Ra 850 crorein accounts of 5 lakh marginalfarmers of Ghazipur. Thedynasts are looking to takeaway this money," said Modi.

Leave Kharkiv forthwith...Continued from Page 1

"Under all circumstances, theymust reach these settlementsby 1800 hours (Ukrainiantime) today," it said. Theadvisory did not specify wherethese places are but accordingto Google Maps, they appearto be on the outskirts of

Kharkiv.The advisory came amidraging fighting betweenRussian and Ukrainian forcesin Kharkiv. Naveen ShekarappaGyanagoudar, a fourth-yearmedical student at the KharkivNational Medical University,was killed in intense shellingin Kharkiv on Tuesday.

7,500 representations...Continued from Page 1

A final notification on thereorganisation of districtswill be released by Marchend. Vijay Kumar said thatthe process of appointingofficials and employees to thenew districts would also becompleted.

He added that the officialshad conducted a field visit toseek suggestions from thepeople and to understandtheir pulse. The proposal forthe reorganisation of dis-tricts was welcomed by thepeople.

He said that of the 7,500representations, 4,500 werereceived from Vizianagaramdistrict followed by 2,800from Krishna. Of the 4,500representations fromVizianagaram, 4,000 wererelated to one mandal issue.He said they had ensured thateach district had at leastthree constituencies.

“Within a week, all the sug-gestions, advice and propos-als will be studied and theDistrict Collectors will sendthe reports to the State gov-ernment. A final call will betaken by the government bythe last week of March.Initially, OSDs will beappointed for the new dis-tricts,” said Vijay Kumar.

Sivasankar Reddy’s bail plea rejected...Continued from Page 1

The CBI’s counsel also saidthat in the confession state-ment, accused-turned-approver Sheik Dastagiri saidanother accused Yerra GangiReddy, who had led the mur-der attempt, told him thatSivasankar Reddy had offeredhim Rs 40 crore as supari forkilling Vivekananda Reddy.

The CBI also made animportant submission to thecourt that the investigationinto the case had reached a cru-cial stage and they were gettingready to arrest some importantpersons. At this stage, if givenbail, Sivasankar Reddy willinfluence the witnesses aftercoming out.

In his confessional state-ment, Dastagiri, in November,said that Yerra Gangi Reddyoffered him Rs 5 crore ‘supari’to kill Vivekananda Reddy.

Dastagiri said Gangi Reddytold him that Kadapa MP YSAvinash Reddy, YS Manohar

Reddy, YS Bhaskar Reddy andDevireddy Shankar Reddywere also involved in the con-

spiracy.“Yerra Gangi Reddy told me

in the presence of Y Sunil

Yadav and Gajjala UmaShankar Reddy that IfVivekananda Reddy was mur-dered, Shankar Reddy wouldgive him Rs 40 crore. GangiReddy offered to give me Rs 5crore from the amount if Ikilled Vivekananda Reddy,”Dastagiri said in his 164 (1)statement.

Differences eruptedbetween Vivekananda Reddyand Gangi Reddy afterViveka's defeat in the MLCelection. Vivekananda Reddycalled Gangi Reddy and oth-ers to his house and scoldedthem for deceiving him in theelection. Moreover, a majorland settlement was made byVivekananda Reddy in whichhe got Rs 8 crore. GangiReddy demanded his share inthe amount which Vivekarefused.

The money issue furtheraggravated the hosti litybetween Vivekananda Reddyand Gangi Reddy, Dastagirisaid in the statement.

Continued from Page 1

According to the data com-piled by the Delhi-basedCentre for Science andEnvironment (CSE), and pub-lished in its annual State ofIndia’s Environment 2022report that was released byUnion Environment MinisterBhupender Yadav on Tuesday,between June 2020 and June2021, Andhra Pradesh gener-ated around 2,877.5 tonnes ofbiomedical waste, whereas itwas only a meagre 15.1 tonnesduring the same period in2019-2020.

The CSE has sourced thedata from the Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest andClimate Change until July2021. According to thenorms, biomedical wastemeans any waste, which isgenerated during the diagno-sis, treatment or immunisa-tion of human beings or ani-mals or research activitiespertaining thereto or in theproduction or testing of bio-logical or in health camps,including the categories men-tioned in the schedule Iappended to the Biomedical

Waste Management Rules,2016.

In total, India generated55,117 tonnes of Covid-19biomedical waste from May 1,2020 to June 30, 2021. Thiswas in addition to the 614tonnes per day (tpd) of regu-lar biomedical waste genera-tion and put an additional 129tpd of biomedical waste perday, adding to the nationalbiomedical waste generationby 21 per cent.

Unlike earlier, biomedicalwaste is not just receivedfrom healthcare facilities(hcfs), pathological labs andother regular sources of bio-medical waste, but also athouseholds with home quar-antine facilities and makeshiftquarantine camps. Rural areashave also been hit where col-lection and disposal of thiswaste is non-existent.

According to ‘COVIDPollution: Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on GlobalPlastic Waste Footprint’ pub-lished in Cell Press, February2021, the world is discardingover 3,400 million single-useface masks or face shieldsevery day due to the pandem-

ic.As per another study

among the rivers in India,Godavari, which is the coun-try's second longest river andwhich joins Bay of Bengal inWest Godavari district inAndhra Pradesh, has con-tributed the highest misman-aged plastic waste (MMPW)generated due to Covid pan-demic to the global ocean.

While it is estimated thatmore than eight milliontonnes of pandemic-associat-ed plastic waste has beengenerated globally, as per astudy using a newly-devel-oped ocean plastic numericalmodel, more than 25,000tonnes entered the globalocean across the world.

Studies point out that ‘pan-demic plastics’ are floodingoceans. According to a studybased on a hydrological modelthat was recently published inthe journal ‘Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences’of the USA, River Godavaridischarged at least 27 tonnesof MMPW, which are singleuse plastics such as facemasks, PPE kits, gloves andface shields.

Women’s Parliament...Continued from

Representative of the govern-ment and various NGOs havebeen invited to the pro-gramme, she said.

Padma said that a largenumber of women from eco-nomic, social, political, edu-cational, sports, media,industrial, film and art fieldswil l attend NWP. Sheexplained that they wouldpass resolutions on all issuesrelated to women whichwould be submitted to the

Central and State govern-ments in the form of reports.Over 500 delegates from allgovernment departments,women employees, universi-ties, colleges, students ofKasturba girls’ schools andother NGOs are expected toattend the event.

Women's Commissionmembers Gajjala Lakshmi,Karri Jayashree, GaddamUma, B Vinita, Shaik RukiaBegum and Secretary Shailajawere present at the mediaconference.

Many planning...Continued from

If the responses given by respon-dents are aggregated in the orderof preferences, 52 per cent areplanning to visit family andfriends, 38 per cent are planningother trips and 22 per cent planto go to holiday destinations.Some of them are planning toundertake multiple types of trips.The findings of the survey indi-cate positive growth for tourism,travel and the economy in gener-al. However, those travelling mustfollow the Covid protocol asOmicron subtype BA.2 H78Y isstill spreading around the world.

CM for fair probe: Sawang...Continued from Page 1

Let me clarify that in the firstplace, the above three per-sons never came to meet mein connection with the case,while I was the DGP. Further,regarding the reference of'two eyes', the Chief Ministerindeed stated to me that thefamilies of the late Y SVivekananda Reddy and Y SAvinash Reddy were like'two eyes' for him and that hewanted me to ensure that theinvestigation should be donethoroughly, fairly and metic-ulously until the truthemerges. And the same wasconveyed by me to the cou-ple when they visited me inSeptember 2019,” Sawang

said in a statement onWednesday.

“The Chief Ministeralways insisted that free, fairand impartial investigationsare carried out while detect-ing this case, by bringing outthe truth and booking theculprits and at the sametime, also ensuring that noinnocent persons were madeto suffer,” he added.

“Further, even during thecourse of court delibera-tions, he had instructed thatall materials and facts beplaced before the court andif the court directs a CBIinvestigation, the same maybe complied with, so that jus-tice was not only done, butalso seen to be done.

Andhra among states producing

maximum biomedical...

Continued from Page 1

According to the police,Yadayya, Vishwanath andNagraj had come toHyderabad f romMahabubnagar specificallyfor 'eliminating' Farooqand Haider Al i onFebruary 25, 2022.

Investigations into thiscase uncovered the plot tokill the Minister and hisbrother.

The t r io andRaghavendra Raju akaRaghu, the mastermind,Munnur Ravi and MadhuSoodhan Raju were takingrefuge in Delhi. All of themwere arrested and shifted toHyderabad.

Plot to kill...

vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | MARCH 3, 2022

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Vice-President of India MVenkaiah Naidu has releaseda CD on ‘Jagannathashtakam’,containing songs praising theglory of Lord Jagannath andhighlighting the Jagannathphilosophy, brought out byPrasenjit Harichandan, chair-man of Divine Capsule, aspiritual organisation, andthe son of BiswabhusanHarichandan, Governor ofAndhra Pradesh.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Venkaiah Naidu saidthat the Jagannath philoso-phy was a synthesis of alldifferent cultural trends andreligious ideologies of ourcountry and that theJagannath culture did notdiscriminate devotees onthe basis of caste, creed orreligion, which was the rea-

son for its popularity acrossthe world. He further saidthat in the present day situ-ation of increasing materi-alism and social tensionsacross the world, promotingspirituality was the need ofthe hour and stressed on theneed to carry forward the

spiritual heritage of ourcountry. The Vice-Presidentrecalled thatJagannathashtakam was ren-dered by Jagadguru AdiSankaracharya, in the praiseof Lord Jagannath, duringhis visit to Puri.

Naidu complimented

Prasenjit Harichandan forhis efforts in bringing outthe CD, singer SureshWadekar and music directorJagyan Dash, for their cre-ative composition of thespiritual songs.

Prasenjit Harichandansaid that he was able to bring

out the CD with the divinesupport of Lord Jagannathand that listening to thosesongs would enlighten peo-ple and provide inner peaceand happiness. Several emi-nent persons from Odishaalso participated in the pro-gramme.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chadalwada Nagarani, direc-tor of the AP Handloom &Textiles, has said that theNational HandloomExhibition will be held atVijayawada from March 4 to18. The 15-day exhibition willbe organised at A-PlusConvention Centre inVijayawada.

The programme, organisedin collaboration with theUnion Ministry of Textiles, isaimed at promoting and devel-oping the sector, said the direc-tor.

She said that handloomunions and weavers organ-ised domestic marketing

events to sell their productsand latest designs directly tothe consumers, tailored to cur-rent market trends. About 90apex handloom societies, pri-mary weavers’ societies and

award winners in the sectorfrom all over the country willdisplay their products at theexpo.

On the other hand, theAndhra Pradesh governmenthas been crediting nearly Rs600 crore per annum to eachhandloom worker throughYSR Netanna Nestam schemefor the past three years so thatthey can modernise theirlooms, create new designs andlatest trend garments.

APCO Chairman ChMohana Rao said that Apcohandlooms products wouldbe exhibited at the show withthe newly-designed range ofgarments with special dis-count on Apco garments.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy released theState Focus Paper (SFP) 2022-23 prepared by the NationalBank for Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD) atthe State Credit Seminar onWednesday.

As per NABARD’s focuspaper, Andhra Pradesh’s agri-credit growth is projected at 10per cent increase, with the netvaluation at 1.71 lakh crore ascompared to the Centre’s nineper cent increase. In fact, as perNABARD’s report, the Statesaw an increase in agri revenueby 4.16 per cent during Covid-19. During the seminar, theChief Minister said that therole of NABARD and otherbanks was quite prominent inthe economic and social devel-opment of the State by assist-ing various government initia-tives, especially in strengthen-ing of rural economy duringCovid. Despite the pandemic,agriculture sector achieved agrowth rate of 4.16 per cent, hesaid, and added that the gov-ernment aimed at makingAndhra Pradesh a leadingState in the field of agriculture.

Elaborating on the govern-ment’s initiatives that are beingimplemented for the farmerswelfare, he said that the gov-ernment was assisting farmersright from seed to sale, throughRBKs and even compensatingthem during losses. The ChiefMinister said that revolution-ary steps had been taken in thefield of agriculture by introduc-ing e-cropping at village leveland agri labs in all rural con-stituencies, besides establishing

infrastructural facilities likegodowns, cold storages, pro-cessing? units at the parliamen-tary constituency level.

Stating that all these initia-tives would add value to crops,he urged NABARD to providerequired assistance in the agri-culture sector.

Further, he stated that thegovernment was taking mea-sures in strengthening cooper-ative banks and societies bybringing transparent policies,

where banking correspon-dents at RBKs would be actingas liaison to banks and soci-eties. In addition to these, theChief Minister emphasised onusing the latest technology inagriculture and said thatdrones would be introduced inRBKs and shall be managed byimparting skills at the villagelevel. Also, he said that 16 newmedical colleges were beingconstructed, besides develop-ing 11 existing medical col-

leges under the Nadu-Neduinitiative.

“On the education front,English medium has beenintroduced in all governmentschools, bilingual textbookshave been made available forthe convenience of students,”said the Chief Minister, addingthat the government was giv-ing a new makeover to all gov-ernment schools with qualityinfrastructure.

He said that special focuswas laid on providing qualityeducation, as today’s childrenwould play a key role instrengthening the rural econ-omy by bringing in the latesttechnology to develop the vil-lages in the coming days.

He also stated that effortswere being made to providesafe drinking water to thosevillages suffering from fluoro-sis and working to preventdrought conditions inRayalaseema region by com-pleting all the proposed pro-jects.

In order to change the liveli-hoods of the fishermen com-munity, the State governmentwas setting up harbors, portsand fish landing centres,where the works had already

begun.Meanwhile, NABARD

Chair man ChintalaGovindarajulu said thatNABARD prioritised estab-lishing agricultural infrastruc-ture and hailed the initiativestaken by Jagan Mohan Reddyto develop the cooperativesector in the State.

He said that they were pro-viding large-scale loans for thecreation of infrastructure likegodowns, cold storage, customhiring centres within the soci-eties in the State.

He also stressed the need toset up a State cooperativetraining institute and statedthat cooperative banks wouldwork professionally, if thestaff got promoted on thebasis of merit in the examina-tions conducted by this insti-tution.

Going into the details, hesaid that Rs 58,000 crore wasgiven to Dwacra communitiesacross the country, of whichRs 22,000 crore was given toAndhra Pradesh andTelangana alone. He statedthat 100 percent repaymentwas being made towards thezero-interest loan scheme inthe State.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

YSRCP MLA ThopadurthiPrakash Reddy has lashed outat the TDP for politically con-spiring against Chief MinisterY S Jagan Mohan Reddy andspreading false propagandaover former minister Y SVivekananda Reddy’s murder.He also expressed doubt thatTDP chief Nara ChandrababuNaidu might have a role in thecase and demanded a probe inthat direction.

Speaking to media personsat the party central office hereon Wednesday, the MLA saidthat TDP had been trying toproject that the family mem-bers of Y S Jagan MohanReddy were involved inViveka's murder and ques-tioned what the special inves-tigation team found out inthree months of investigationduring the TDP regime.

Referring to Yerra GangiReddy's confession state-ment, the MLA said the ' toppeople' at that time were thethen Chief Minister NaraChandrababu Naidu and thethen minister AdinaraynaReddy and added that theCBI should focus on them.

He said VivekanandaReddy lost in MLC electionsbecause of Naidu,Adinarayna Reddy andBtech Ravi and added thatViveka's son-in-law main-tained good relations withAdinarayna Reddy. He alsodemanded a probe against all

those people.He wondered why

Narreddy Rajashekar Reddytold Viveka's PA KrishnaReddy to hide the phoneand the letter which werefound in the crime scene. Healso questioned the TDP anda section of media why noone was talking about thatletter and why the CBI wasnot considering it as a deathconfession statement.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Thousands of devotees tookpart in the Sri DurgaMalleswara Swamy andBhramaramba MalleswaraSwamy Varla Rathotsavamconducted at Kanaka DurgaNagar and Canal road in onetown on Wednesday. SriDurga Malleswara SwamyTemple and Old Sivalayamtemples jointly conduct theRathotsavam every year.

The Rathotsavam started atthe Sri Malleswara SwamyTemple and passed via

Kanaka Durga Nagar, OldSivalayam and finally reached

the Canal Road. Thousands ofdevotees enthusiastically par-

ticipated in the Rathotsavamwhile artistes performed cul-tural programmes. The deitieswere taken to the respectivetemples after the celebrations.Priests and officials per-formed pujas at the two tem-ples on the occasion.

Sri Durga MalleswaraSwamy Temple executive offi-cer D Bhramaramba super-vised the event. A large num-ber of devotees were present.Meanwhile, celestial wed-dings ended in a grand man-ner at the Malleswara SwamyTemple on Indrakeeladri.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

AP State Waqf BoardChairman Khader Basha hassaid that APSWB will initiatestern action to get back Waqflands from encroachers.Addressing a press meet hereon Wednesday, he said thatthere were many Waqf assets inthe State and all the detailswould be collected to identifytheir statuses. He explainedthat there were about 67,000acres of Waqf land across theState, but over 31,000 acres ofthem were found to be in thehands of occupiers.

Khader Basha said the YSRCPgovernment initiated measuresthrough the Waqf Board to pro-tect assets and lands. He statedthat over 500 acres of Waqf landhad been recovered so far andaction was being taken on somemore lands. However, he saidmore than 31,000 acres of landwere yet to be recovered. He stat-

ed that he would make frequentvisits and reviews to find outwhere and under what condi-tions those lands were current-ly.

Khader Basha said that theywere focusing on the develop-ment of Dargahs and mosques.“A lot of irregularities werecommitted during the tenureof Jalil Khan, who had earlierwon as an MLA in the YSRCPticket and later joined theTelugu Desam Party in 2014.Such irregularities should notbe tolerated. Chief Minister Y

S Jagan Mohan Reddy hasappointed a strong team toprotect the Waqf assets,” headded.

He said the annual revenueof the Waqf Board was Rs 5 toRs 6 crore, which was verymeager, despite having a hugechunk of assets. He clarifiedthat they would look into whysuch a small amount of rev-enue was coming from thou-sands of acres worth thousandsof crores and take necessarysteps to increase the revenuesignificantly.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Telugu Desam Party leaderBonda Uma Maheswara Raohas demanded that the Stategovernment release funds forthe Brahmin Corporation.Participating in a dharnastaged at the Dharna Chowkon Wednesday, BondaUma alleged thatthe YSRCP gov-ernment wasneglecting thewelfare of theBrahmins inthe State.

He said dur-ing the previousTDP rule, the gov-ernment sanctionedRs10,000 to the poorBrahmin families underGaruda scheme and Rs 1 lakh

was given to the Brahminstudents for foreign education.TDP chief N ChandrababuNaidu formed the BrahminCorporation in 2014 for thewelfare of Brahmins in theState. He demanded that thegovernment implement wel-

fare schemes for the com-munity.

TDP leadersNav an e e t am

S a m b a s i v aR a o ,B r a h m i nS a n g h a ml e a d e r sG a r l a p a t i

Vijay, VempatiPraveen, T

L a k s h m i ,M a n c h i k a n t i

Dhanalakshmi and others par-ticipated in the protest.

NABARD projects 10-pc growth inagriculture credit for Andhra Pradesh

CM releases NABARD State Focus Paper

MLA lashes out at TDPon Viveka murder probe

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Agriculture MinisterKurasala Kannababu hasslammed the TDP forspreading a false campaignon the agriculture sector inthe State and said the CentralGovernment had made itclear that Andhra Pradeshwas top in the agriculturesector. Speaking to mediapersons at the party centraloffice here on Wednesday,the minister flayed TDPleader K Atchennaidu formaking baseless allegationson crop holiday in the State.“It was in 2014, during theTDP regime, that farmers inEast Godavari hadannounced a crop holiday,”he added.

The minister said the

turnover of APCOB was Rs28,000 crore this year and itwould increase next year.DCC's business is Rs 50,000crore and it was Rs 16,000

crore in Primary AgricultureCooperative Societies. Hesaid while the State govern-ment was developing infra-structure in villages at a costof Rs 16,000 crore and settingup food processing centres,the TDP had been spreadinglies against the State govern-ment as they were unable tobear good governance.

The minister raised objec-tion to the abusive languageused by TDP leaders NaraLokesh and Atchennaiduagainst the Chief Minister.He said the TDP had con-ducted a 'Rytu Sadassu' pro-gramme because theNABARD Chairman was vis-iting the State and also todiver t public attent ionthrough a section of themedia.

Devotees throng Malleswara SwamyTemple for Rathotsavam in city

Minister slams TDP for falsepropaganda on agri sector

Vice-President releases PrasenjitHarichandan’s CD on ‘Jagannathashtakam’

AP Waqf Board to recover31,000 acres from encroachers

Release funds forBrahmin Corp: TDP

The minister saidthe turnover ofAPCOB was Rs28,000 crore thisyear and it wouldincrease next year.DCC's business isRs 50,000 croreand it was Rs16,000 crore inPrimary AgricultureCooperativeSocieties.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu hasexpressed shock and griefover the untimely death ofparty central office invitationcommittee convener ValluriKumara Swamy. KumaraSwami, aged 49, succumbedto heart attack. The partywould always remember theservices rendered by him,Naidu said.

In a statement here, theTDP chief said that the partywould extend all support tohis family. Naidu conveyedhis deepest condolences tothe bereaved family mem-bers.

TDP national general sec-retary Nara Lokesh, in a pressrelease, said the sudden deathof Kumara Swamy indeed

gave him a huge shock sincehe saw him every day in theoffice as part of day-to-dayprogrammes of the party.

Lokesh said that the newsthat an always cheerful andcordial person like KumaraSwami was no more was toobitter to digest. KumaraSwamy rendered invaluableservices to the party allthrough. Lokesh conveyedhis deep condolences to thebereaved family.

Naidu condoles demiseof Kumara Swamy

National Handloom Expo from tomorrow

Speaking to media

persons at the party

central office here on

Wednesday, the MLA

said that TDP had been

trying to project that

the family members of

Y S Jagan Mohan

Reddy were involved in

Viveka's murder and

questioned what the

special investigation

team found out in three

months of investigation

during the TDP regime.

PNS n JAGITAL

Two persons died in a roadaccident at Veerapur underRaikal mandal in the district.

The accident happenedwhen a tractor laden withsand collided head-on withan auto-rickshaw.Thedeceased were identified asTwo labourers ErumallaGangaram (42) of Ayodhya ofRaikal mandal and SriramulaBhumeshwar (43), Armoordied on the spot. The policesaid the deceased loadedmaterial in their trolley autoat Allipur and were proceed-ing to unload the material atAllipur.

Two die inroad accident

PNS nNIZAMABAD

The police on Wednesdayarrested two alleged inter-state burglars and recovered Rs27 lakh worth of gold jewelleryand silver articles. Accordingto police, the arrested areJisaram Chowdary and Bharat.They both hailed fromRajasthan. The police claimedto have recovered 41 tulas ofgold ornaments and 4.71 kgsof silver articles. Apart from it,the police seized a motorcycle,a laptop and three mobilephones.The police saidJaisaram, an electrician byprofession, was a habitualoffender. He had committedseveral burglaries in Gujaratand Rajasthan States. Jaisaramalong with his accompliceBharat, the police said, hadstolen gold ornaments and sil-ver article in SK Jewellershere.

Two inter-stateburglars arrested

04VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | MARCH 3, 2022

PNS n KADAPA

Four persons, including acouple, were killed when a vanploughed into them whenthey sat in front of their houseat Maddimadugu village inCK Dinne mandal in Kadapa-Bangalore highway onWednesday.

Police said that a speedingvan veered off the road andploughed into them whenthey sat in front of their houseand discussing a matter. Thedeceased were identified asKondaiah (45), his wifeAmmulu (45), Lakshmidevi

(35) and Devi (27). Kondaiah and Lakshmidevi

were killed instantaneouslywhile the other two died whilebeing shifted to the RIMS hos-pital. The van was going toRayachoti from Kadapa whenthe accident took place.Overspeed and rash driving ofthe van driver was the reasonfor the ghastly road accident,police said. Transport andpolice officials visited thescene of the accident, regis-tered a case and shifted thebodies to the governmentgeneral hospital for post-mortem.

PNS n BHIMAVARAM

Former Minister and YSRCPleader Kothapalli Subbarayuduslaps himself with a footwear toregister his protest againstmaking Bhimavaram as districtheadquarters to the newlyformed Narasapuram districtand the betrayal of MLAPrasad Raju while addressinga public meeting inNarasapuram on Wednesday.

A huge demonstration wasorganised in Narasapuram onWednesday demanding thegovernment to makeNarasapuram as district head-quarters to the newly formedNarasapuram district. Later apublic meeting was held atAmbedkar centre.

Addressing the meeting, theformer minister alleged that hehad striven hard for the elec-tion victory of MudunuriPrasada Raju who was electedto Assembly from

Narasapuram constituency in2019 elections.

“After being elected toAssembly with my support,MLA Mudunuri Prasada Rajuhas betrayed me in the issue of

making Narasapuram as dis-trict headquarter to the newlyformed Narasapuram district.I have to punish myself formaking Mudunuri PrasadaRaju as MLA” the former min-ister said.

Subba Rayudu suddenlypicked his footwear andslapped himself stating that hecommitted a mistake by mak-ing Prasada Raju as MLA andhe was punishing himself. Thefollowers and other leaders onthe dais prevented him fromslapping himself with footwearand took the slipper from hishand. The leaders pacified theirate former minister SubbaRayudu. The incident stunnedthe YSRCP leaders includingformer Legislative Council

Chairman Sharif, TDP leaderMadhava Naidu and Janasenaleader Bommidi Nayakar.

The leaders of various par-ties have been organising agi-tations for the last few weeksdemanding the governmentto make Narasapuram districtheadquarters for the newlyformed Narasapuram districtbut the governmentannounced Bhimavaram asdistrict headquarters for thenew district which did not godown well to some leaders.

Narasapuram ruling partyMLA Prasada Raju did notextend his support to the agi-tation. The YSRCP in the dis-trict is divided as MLA PrasadaRaju group and Subba Rayudugroup.

PNS n GUNTUR

The mortal remains of formerminister and Telugu Desamparty leader YedlapatiVenkata Rao consigned toflames at the crematoriumlocated in the Burripalemroad in Tenali on Wednesday.The funeral was held withstate honours. The body wastaken to the crematoriums ina procession.

TDP chief N ChandrababuNaidu was among those whocarried the coffin of YadlapatiVenkata Rao. Former minis-ters Nakka Ananda Babu,Kamineni Srinivasa Rao,Alapati Rajendra Prasad,

Prathipati Pulla Rao, formerMLAs GV Anjaneyulu, TenaliShrevana Kumar,Nannapaneni Rajakuimariand other leaders were amongthose who paid last respects

to the departed TDP leader.YSRCP MLC LellaAppireddy, MLAs Meruvanagarjuna, Annabattuni ShivaKumar also paid tributes tothe departed TDP leader.

PNS n ELURU

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu has emphasized theneed for revisiting historytextbooks with an Indian per-spective in order to instill asense of pride in our gloriouscultural heritage among theyounger generation.

Addressing the 75thAnniversary Celebrations ofSir C R Reddy EducationalInstitutions, Eluru onWednesday, the Vice Presidentreminded the students thatIndia was once known as a‘Vishwa Guru’ and calledupon them to revisit our rootsand protect and preserve ourtradition and culture.

Emphasizing the need tore-establish ourselves, heurged everyone to strive hardto develop India into a pow-erful India that is free fromhunger, corruption and thereshould be no discriminationagainst anybody. “Everythingcannot be left to theGovernment alone, rather,individuals, industry, phil-anthropists and civil society –all must come together tobring about the desiredchange,” he said.

Stressing the need for valuebased education; the VicePresident said that educationshould be treated as a missionfor promotion of the nation.Highlighting the role of‘Guru’ in Indian tradition, heasked the students to alwaysremember the contribution oftheir teachers in their lives.

Talking about the ethics inpolitics, Venkaiah Naiduurged the people to select andelect their representatives onthe basis of 4Cs “ Character,Calibre, Conduct andCapacity” to strengthendemocracy, and discourageother 4Cs “caste, cash, com-munity and criminality”.

Praising NEP-2020 for itsfocus on education in moth-er tongue, the Vice Presidentopined that one must learn asmany languages as possible,but primacy should be givento build a strong foundationin the mother tongue first. Hefurther underscored the needto transform teachingmethodologies to make uni-versities thriving hubs ofknowledge and innovationand appealed to all states andeducational institutions toimplement NEP-2020 in let-ter and spirit.

Sharing his success mantrawith students, Venkaiah Naiduemphasised the need for ded-

ication, perseverance, hardwork, discipline, self-belief anda strong will to achieve excel-lence and reach one’s goal."Please remember that be itstudies or sports, a championis not made in a day," headded.

The Vice President urgededucational institutions to giveequal importance to studies,sports, co-curricular and recre-ational activities. He wantedthe young students to inculcatethe spirit of service in line withage old Indian philosophy ofshare & care. Recalling the con-tribution of Sri CattamanchiRamalinga Reddy, the distin-guished educationist and the

then Vice-Chancellor, AndhraUniversity, the Vice Presidentsaid that people would forev-er remain grateful to him forhis work in furthering thecause of education in AndhraPradesh. He also lauded Sir CRReddy for his efforts to ensureeducation to all sections of thesociety and urged the youth totake inspiration from his lifeand build an India that will befree from every type of dis-crimination.

On this occasion, the VicePresident also unveiled thestatue of Shri MagantiRavindranath Chowdary andreleased a booklet on 75 yearsof History of Sir C R ReddyCollege.

Deputy Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh, Shri AllaKali Krishna Srinivas, Mayor,Eluru Corporation, Smt.Shaik Noorjahan, MP, Eluru,Sri Kotagiri Sridhar,President, Sir CRREducational Institutions, ShriAlluri Indra Kumar, Principal,Dr. K.A. Rama Raju,Secretary, Sir CRREducational Institutions, Dr.M.B.S.V Prasad, teachers, stu-dents, and others attended theevent.

PNS n GUNTUR

Guntur mayor KavatiShivanaga Manohar Naiduasked municipal commission-er Nishant Kumar to shift thecows, which are found roam-ing on roads, to ‘BandelaDodde’. The mayor and thecommissioner saw a herd ofcows squatting on the road atPalanadu bus stand, flowermarket and other areas caus-ing hindrances to vehicular

traffic. The mayor said that theowners of cows are releasingthe animals into the road.The cows are causing traffichindrances and they are evencausing road accidents.

He directed the corporationofficials to shift the cows iffound on the roads to bandeladoddi, the animal care centre,located at Nehru Nagar. Themayor appealed to the ownersof the cows not to let themroam on the road.

PNS n ONGOLE

The national dewormingprogramme was held in themunicipal high school herein which Joint Collector TSChetan and Mayor GangadaSujata gave dewormingtablets to the students. Thejoint collector launched theNational Deworming Dayprogramme in the schoolon Wednesday.

National Deworming Dayis observed in all schools tomake people aware of theimportance of deworming,particularly for children from1 to 19 years of age, who arethe most vulnerable.

Albendazole 400 mgtablets were given to the stu-

dents of one to 2 years afterdissolving the tables in waterafter lunch and similarly,Albendazole 400 mg 1 chew-able table was given to 2 to19 years of age students. Aspart of the programme,health education was impart-ed to the children on handhygiene and personalhygiene beforehand.

Dr. P. Ratnavali, DistrictMedical Officer of Health,and Dr. GL Paparao, DistrictCoordinator, RBSK, playedthe lead role in this program.Mr. Vemuri SatyanarayanaDeputy Mayor, ChintapalliGopi Corporator, Dr. T.Vanishree and Dr. Ramadevwas among those who werepresent.

PNS n KAKINADA

MLA Ponnada Satish’s eldestson Sumant (21) and hisnephew Lokesh (21) wereinjured when the car in whichthey were travelling rammedan electric transformer atPathainjaram village in I.Polavaram mandal on thenational highway 216 in thewee hours on Wednesday.

The police shifted both theinjured youths to the govern-ment hospital at Yanam andlater they were admitted to theApollo hospital here. Theircondition is stated to be verycritical.

Kakinada city MLADwarampudi ChandrasekharaReddy, BC Welfare Minister

Ch Venugopal Krishna alsowent to the Apollo hospitaland enquired about the con-dition of the accident victims.

Apollo hospital adminis-trator IVV Ramana told themedia that a team of special-ist doctors led by Dr MVenkata Kiran Kumar chiefneurosurgeon, Dr ParthaPratim Chatterjee seniororthopaedic surgeon, Dr G VRao General surgeon and DrSarmishta Anaesthesiologistwere attending on both thepatients. The ChiefNeurosurgeon Dr KiranKumar informed the mediathat Sumanth, and Lokeshwere brought to the hospitalwith multiple injuries and inan unconscious state.

PNS n ONGOLE

A farmer was brutally mur-dered when he was working athis agriculture field at ChinnaObinenenipalli village onWednesday. Police said that thefarmer Srinath Reddy (33) waswatering his maize crop.Suddenly some unidentifiedpersons pounced upon him and

killed him by slitting his throat. CI Firoz and SI Madhava

Rao rushed to the scene of theoffence, registered a case andshifted the body to the govern-ment general hospital. Thedeceased was survived by wife,two daughters and a son. Apall of gloom descended onthe village with the death of ayoung farmer.

PNS n ONGOLE

District Collector PravinKumar directed the officialsconcerned to take all steps toensure that there would be nodrinking water scarcity dur-ing the ensuing summer sea-son.

The Collector held a tele-conference with the officialsto review the preparedness toprovide drinking water dur-ing the summer here onWednesday.

The Collector directed theofficials to take steps to sup-ply potable water under theJal Jeevan mission to all thevillages. He asked them to uti-lize the funds which theCentral government hadrealed for the purpose under

the Jal Jeevan mission. Hetold the officials that 322works had been sanctioned ofwhich the works of 250should be completed at theearliest to provide drinkingwater to the areas which werefacing shortage.

Pravin Kumar directed theofficial to do justice to thebeneficiaries who paid moneyunder the JaganannaSampurna Gruha Hakku. Heasked them to get their hous-es registered and handoverthe relevant documents. TheCollector instructed the offi-cials to begin the constructionworks of houses in Jaganannacolonies by March 29. Theofficials should take steps toensure that the constructionof 7,250 houses should reach

upto foundation level inKondapi constituency.

The Collector told theauthorities to take steps toexpedite the construction ofvillage secretariats, RythuBharosa Kendras, YSR HealthClinics, BMCUs and digitallibraries. Joint Collector T SChetan told the officials to gettechnical issues resolved forthe implementation of theMGNREGA. He asked themto ensure that there would beno errors in enrolling namesof works after installing thenew software. DROPSrinivasulu, ZPPO BJalireddy, PRSE Kondaiah,DPO GV Narayana Reddyand Housing PD SainathKumar were among thosewho were present.

V-P emphasises need ofrevisiting history textbooks

Officials directed to take steps tomitigate drinking water scarcity

Ex-minister Subbarayudu slaps himself with footwear

MLA’s son, nephew injuredas car rams into transformer

Final adieu to Yadlapati,Naidu takes part in lastrites

National dewormingprogramme held, studentsgiven deworm tablets

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Janasena Chief K PawanKalyan’s tweet that hewould try peacefully for 99times to bring a changeand fight as last attempt,has drawn the attention ofall leaders.

Pawan Kalyan in twittersaid “If I have to fight fora change, I will try ninety-nine times peacefully. I willfight for the 100th time”.His twitter message in thebackdrop of Ukraine-Russia water attracted theattention of leaders of allparties.

Pawan Kalyan's tweetdraws attention of all

Cows to be shiftedto shelters if foundroaming on roads

Couple among 4 killed in road accident

PNS n BHIMAVARAM

A private gas agency has engagedtwo minor boys to deliver gascylinders and do the other officework violating the labour laws.The minor boys were seen deliv-ering cylinders and doing otheroffice work wearing the gasagency uniform in the town. Theboys were delivering gas cylinders,taking money and issuing receiptsto their customers in the town.The labour laws were blatantlybeing violated by the gas agencyby assigning work to minor boys.The labour officials have notresponded so far on the issue.

When the Pioneer contactedthe gas agency management toget clarification on engagingminor boys to deliver cylinders,they said that the minor boyswere not child labour but chil-dren of gas agency employees.The employees of the gas agencywere taking the help of their chil-dren to deliver gas cylinders, theysaid. When asked why the chil-dren were delivering gas cylin-ders by wearing uniforms of thegas agency, they did not respond.When contacted the labour offi-cials, they did not give any clar-ification.

Private gas agencyengage minor boysto work

Farmer murdered byunidentified miscreants

Woman attemptssuicide in frontof CollectoratePNS nNAGARKURNOOL

A woman doused herselfwith petrol and attemptedto commit suicide in frontof the District Collectoron Wednesday. It causedcommotion in theCollectorate. Alert securi-ty guards prevented herfrom setting herself onfire. The woman, identi-fied as Nurjahan, hadresorted to extreme step asshe was vexed with theauthorities failing to cometo her rescue and do jus-tice to her. She said herrelatives refused to giveher share of land. Thesecurity guards, whoseized the matchbox andaverted the tragedy, tookher to the officer in theCollectorate.

The officer assured thewoman, who hailed fromKodair mandal in the dis-trict, that the authoritieswould soon redress hergrievance.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Nirmal Municipal ViceChairman Sheikh Sajid, whobelonged to TRS party, wasarrested on a charge of rapinga minor girl. Along with Sajid,the police also arrested awoman, named Annapurna,who aided the accused, in thecommission of crime.His dri-ver, Jafar, too was arrested.Nirmal DSP Upender Reddysaid that a case has beenregis-tered against Sajid under sec-tion 363 376 (2) 109 of IPC.

Police arrest NirmalMunicipalV-C oncharge of rape

nation 05VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | MARCH 3, 2022

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The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested a man, who was wanted for theabduction and murder of a Kolkata-based jeweller, from neighbouring Maharashtra, anofficial said on Wednesday. A team of the ATS nabbed the accused Vishal Sharma from

Shirdi in neighbouring Maharashtra, and has brought him to Ahmedabad for questioning,he said. Sharma, a native of Delhi, was wanted by the police in Kolkata and Odisha, with thelatter having announced a reward of Rs50,000 for information on hiswhereabouts, the ATS said in astatement. On February 14, jewellerShantilal Vaid (66) was found strangledto death at a guest house in Kolkata'sBhowanipore area. Vaid had beenabducted and his family had been askedto pay a ransom of Rs 1 crore, of whichthey had paid Rs 25 lakh. The Kolkatapolice began the investigation based onthe CCTV footage and evidence fromthe crime scene.

Indian students in Ukraine may have miscalculated the gravity of the situation in thatcountry although the Centre had issued an evacuation advisory for them beforeRussia actually launched an attack, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said on

Wednesday. He was replying to a question whether there was a delay on the part of theIndian government in the evacuation of students stuck in Ukraine. "The Indiangovernment had issued an advisorydays before the actual attack tookplace on some cities in Ukraine.However, Indian students may havemiscalculated the gravity of thesituation although an advisory toevacuate the cities was in place," theformer Maharashtra chief minister toldreporters. The Union government hascome under attack by the oppositionparties after a student hailing fromKarnataka got killed in Ukraine in theRussian attack.

Ahead of the budget session of the Maharashtra legislative Assembly, NCP president SharadPawar on Wednesday chaired a review meeting with ministers and leaders of his party.The four-week budget session of the Maharashtra Assembly will begin on Thursday in the

shadow of NCP leader and minister Nawab Malik's arrest in a money laundering case.Speakingto reporters, the party's state unit chief and MVA minister Jayant Patil said, "No matter what theOpposition says, Malik will not beasked to resign from his ministerialpost.” The opposition BJP hasthreatened to disrupt the proceedingsof the legislature session if Malikcontinues as a minister. Senior partyleader Praful Patel, MPs and ministersin the Maha Vikas Aghadi governmentattended the meeting chaired by Pawar.The Bombay High Court will hearMalik's plea challenging his arrest bythe Enforcement Directorate, as hiscustody ends on Wednesday.

Russia to investigate death ofIndian student in Kharkiv: EnvoyPNS n NEW DELHI

Russia will investigate thedeath of the 21-year-old Indianmedical student in theUkrainian city of Kharkiv,Russian Ambassador-desig-nate Denis Alipov said onWednesday.

Naveen ShekarappaGyanagoudar, a fourth-yearmedical student at the KharkivNational Medical University,was killed in intense shelling inKharkiv on Tuesday.

Following the incident,India asked the envoys of bothRussia and Ukraine to ensure"urgent safe passage" to Indiannationals who are still in

Kharkiv and other conflictzones. "I want to express oursympathy to the family ofNaveen ShekarappaGyanagoudar and to the entire

Indian nation over thetragedy," Alipov said at a mediabriefing. "Russia will do every-thing it possibly can to ensurethe safety of Indian citizens in

the areas of intenseconflict...and a proper investi-gation of this unfortunate inci-dent," he said. Naveen hailedfrom Chalageri in the Haveri

district of Karnataka.On Tuesday night, Foreign

Secretary Harsh VardhanShringla said Naveen's bodyhas been identified and takento a morgue in the universityand that Indian authoritiesare in touch with the localadministration in Kharkiv tobring back the mortal remains.

According to Naveen'sfriends, he had gone out to buysome groceries and was on aline at a shop when he was hit,Shringla said, adding the cir-cumstances are not absolutelyclear. India is carrying out amassive evacuation missionto bring back the Indiansstranded in Ukraine.

Following theincident, Indiaasked the envoysof both Russia andUkraine to ensure"urgent safepassage" to Indiannationals who arestill in Kharkiv andother conflictzones.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The sixth round of UttarPradesh Assembly polls will seevoting for 57 seats on Thursdaysealing the fate of politicalheavyweights such as ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, theCongress' Ajay Kumar Lalluand Samajwadi Party's SwamiPrasad Maurya.

With voting for 292 out of403 assembly seats over, thepolling has now moved to thePurvanchal region of the statewhere 111 seats are up forgrabs. Of the remaining con-stituencies, 57 seats, spreadacross 10 districts, will go to thepolls on Thursday and 54 inthe final phase on March 10.

The districts where pollingis to be held on Thursday areAmbedkarnagar, Balrampur,Siddharthnagar, Basti, SantKabir Nagar, Maharajganj,Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoriaand Ballia. These 57 assembly

segments, of which 11 arereserved, are crucial for the BJP.In the 2017 assembly polls, ithad won 46 of these seats.

Chief Electoral Officer ofUttar Pradesh Ajay KumarShukla said the campaign for

the sixth phase ended at 6 pmon Tuesday and all prepara-tions for voting have beencompleted.Among the 676 can-didates in the fray this time areYogi Adityanath fromGorakhpur Urban fighting hisfirst assembly polls, stateCongress president Lallu fromTamkuhi Raj seat and SwamiPrasad Maurya, who quit asBJP minister to join theSamajwadi Party, fromFazilnagar. The SamajwadiParty has pitted the wife of lateUpendra Dutt Shukla, a formerBJP leader, against Adityanath.Azad Samaj Party founderChandrashekhar Azad is also acontesting against the chiefminister. Leader of Opposition

in the outgoing assembly andSamajwadi Party leader RamGovind Chaudhary is contest-ing from Bansdih. Manyincumbent ministers' electoralfate will also be decided in thisphase. They include SuryaPratap Shahi trying his luckfrom Pathardeva seat, SatishChandra Dwivedi from Itwa,Jai Pratap Singh from Bansi,Shree Ram Chauhan fromKhajani and Jai Prakash Nishadfrom Rudrapur. SurendraSingh, the incumbent MLAfrom Bairia in Ballia, whojoined the Vikassheel InsaanParty (VIP), a new entrant inUttar Pradesh electoral politics,will face the electorate in thisphase.

6th phase of UP polls today involving 57 seats

Guj ATS arrests man wanted forabduction, killing of Kolkata jeweller

Indian students in Ukraine may havemiscalculated gravity of situation

Pawar chairs review meet with NCP leaders, ministers

Guj Governor cuts short hiscustomary Assembly addressPNS n GANDHINAGAR

Gujarat Governor AcharyaDevvrat had to cut short hiscustomary address to the stateLegislative Assembly on thefirst day of the Budget Sessionhere on Wednesday afterCongress MLAs caused disrup-tion by raising anti-BJP slogansover various issues.

Due to the continuous sloga-neering by nearly 50 oppositionMLAs, who were seen carryingplacards, the governor left theHouse after addressing it fornearly five minutes. Hisremaining speech was thentabled in the House.

As soon as Devvrat began hisaddress by remembering

Mahatma Gandhi, seniorCongress MLA Virji Thummarinterrupted him and urged himto first ask the BJP governmentto stop eulogising Gandhiji'sassassin Nathuram Godse.Without paying any heed to the

chaos created by the oppositionbench, Devvrat continued withhis address initially. But afterThummar, another seniorCongress MLA got up from hisseat and started shouting slo-gans seeking the resignation ofMinister of State for Home,Harsh Sanghavi, over the issueof law and order situation andseizure of drugs from Mundraport and different parts of thestate in the recent past.

Later, other MLAs alsojoined the chorus and startedraising slogans against the BJPgovernment over several otherissues, including paper leak ofa clerk recruitment exam, cor-ruption and harassment byland mafia.

India will not spare any effort to bringhome its citizens from Ukraine: PM ModiPNS n SONBHADRA

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday said Indiacould evacuate its citizensstranded in war-hit Ukrainebecause of its rising power.

Addressing an election rallyin Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadradistrict, Modi said his govern-ment would not spare anyeffort to bring home Indianssafely from Ukraine.

Hitting out at rivals, theprime minister said those whoquestioned the valour of armedforces and 'Make in India' ini-tiatives cannot make the coun-try strong. Sonbhadra districtwill go to the polls in the lastphase on March 7. Assertingthat the country has made it apriority to rescue all Indiansstuck in Ukraine, Modi said, "Itis due to India's rising strengththat we are are able to bringback stranded Indians fromUkraine. Operation Ganga hasbeen launched and I have sentfour ministers to oversee theevacuation." ''Our army and air

force have also been deployedto rescue the Indians in distressfaster. Today I also assure thepeople of the country that theGovernment of India will leaveno stone unturned for the safereturn of its citizens.''

He said that it has becomeessential that India becomesself-reliant. The dynasts ques-tion our vaccine, they questionour armed forces and make funof 'Make in India'. Such peoplehave shamed the country andits people. They can't makeIndia strong," he said. The

prime minister said that theworld is surprised by the speedof the COVID-19 vaccinationin the country.

Targeting opposition parties,Modi said the previous govern-ments of "dynasts" exploitedthe natural resources of theregion but never did anythingfor its development. He told thegathering that if the "corrupt"become strong, they wouldagain indulge in the loot ofmoney sent by the Centre forthe welfare of the poor. "Wehave made a scheme to use the

development of DistrictMineral Fund to ensure that aportion of the earning fromminerals of Sonbhadra is alsoused in the development of itspeople," he said and highlight-ed that Sonbhadra has beenincluded in the list of aspira-tional districts. "Our govern-ment has also honoured greattribal leaders including BirsaMunda. Ten tribal museumsare also being set up," Modisaid. Earlier the MinimumSupport Price (MSP) used tobe given on only eight to 10forest products. "Our govern-ment is giving MSP on over 90forest products. We have pro-vided over 20 lakh plots of landto tribal families,"' PrimeMinister Modi said. Sonbhadrahas two assembly constituen-cies reserved for STs.

"The BJP focuses on thedevelopment of small farmers.Over Rs 350 crore have beendeposited in the bank accountof over 2 lakh families inSonbhadra district," the primeminister said.

There are aspects whichaffect public order, says HCPNS n KOCHI

The Kerala High Court onWednesday upheld the Centre'sban on Malayalam news chan-nel Media One by denying itsecurity clearance, saying cer-tain aspects mentioned in theintelligence reports about thechannel had a bearing on pub-lic order on national security.

A bench of Chief Justice SManikumar and Justice Shaji PChaly said the single judge wasearlier "right" in declining to

interfere with the Centre'sJanuary 31 decision to ban tele-cast of Media One. The court

said it went through the files,placed before it by theMinistry of Home Affairs,and found that in relation tothe application for uplinkingand downlinking permissionsfor 'Media One Life' and'Media One Global', "certainaspects relating to the securi-ty of the state are mentionedto the effect that MadhyamamBroadcasting Ltd has somelinkages with certain undesir-able forces, which is stated tobe a security threat".

PNS n MUMBAI

The Bombay High Court onWednesday permitted activistAnand Teltumbde, an accusedin the Elgar Parishad-Maoistslinks case, to visit his motherin Chandrapur for two days inview of his brother and allegedNaxal leader MilindTeltumbde's death.

Teltumbde is presentlylodged at Taloja prison in NaviMumbai, as an undertrial inthe Elgar Parishad case.

A bench of Justices S BShukre and G A Sanap partlyallowed Teltumbde's plea filedthrough senior counsel MihirDesai and permitted him tovisit his mother betweenMarch 8 and March 10, in viewof the death of his brotherMilind Teltumbde, who waskilled in an ambush inNovember last year.

The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) had objected tothe activist's plea citing thatMilind Teltumbde was aknown Maoist leader and hadbeen involved in illegal activ-ities. "The seriousness is that

the person who has died wasa wanted accused who waskilled in an ambush," NIAcounsel Sandesh Patil told thecourt. To this, the bench, how-ever, said that death was death,irrespective of the activities thedeceased might have beeninvolved in. "A death is adeath. He may be an accused,he (Milind) may have beeninvolved in activities, but thenultimately he was the presentapplicant's (Anand) brother.There has been a loss of humanlife," the court observed. Thecourt said Teltumbde can meethis mother during the daybetween March 8 and 10, withpolice escort, and the cost of

the escort must be borne by thestate government. "The appli-cant is allowed to meet hismother in Chandrapur onMarch 8 and 9. To achieve thepurpose of meeting his moth-er, he shall be taken withpolice escort with appropriatebandobast in a manner so as toreach Chan drapur by morn-ing or afternoon of March 8.Thereafter the applicant shallleave Chandrapur along withpolice escort on March 10 atappropriate time and if sometime is available before leaving,the applicant shall be permit-ted to meet his mother onMarch 10 if possible," thecourt said.

Elgar Parishad case: HC permits activist AnandTeltumbde to visit his mother for two days

108 peoplefrom HimachalPradeshevacuatedPNS n SHIMLA

Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur onWednesday informed theassembly that 108 peoplefrom the state have beenevacuated from war-tornUkraine. The chief ministersaid presently no studentfrom Himachal Pradesh is inUkraine's capital Kyiv.However, some are still stuckin Kharkiv where an Indianstudent from Karnataka waskilled on Tuesday, Thakurstated. His remarks cameduring a discussion onGovernor RajendraVishwanath Arlekar's addressin the ongoing budget ses-sion. Thakur said he hadinteracted with some of thestudents stranded in Ukraineand also their parentsthrough video call, andasserted that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was makingall possible efforts for theirevacuation.

PNS n KOLKATA

Ten months after its landslidevictory in the West Bengalassembly polls, the rulingTrinamool Congress onWednesday steamrolled theentire opposition in the civicelections, bagging 102 of the 108municipalities in the state, anSEC official said.

The TMC secured KanthiMunicipality, the bastion ofLeader of Opposition andNandigram's BJP MLA SuvenduAdhikari, while Hamro Party, anew entrant in hill politics,trounced TMC, GJM and BJP towin Darjee ling Municipality.

The CPI (M)-led Left Front wonTaherpur Municipality in Nadiadistrict. The BJP, which hasemerged as the main oppositionparty in West Bengal after win-ning 77 seats in the assemblypolls last year, failed to win evena single civic body. TheCongress, too, was unable towin a single civic body, althoughthe parties have won a fewwards in some towns.

"The TMC has won 102municipalities. The Left Fronthas won one civic body, andHamro Party has won one.Four municipalities have hungboard," the State ElectionCommission (SEC) official said.

TMC decimates Oppn in civic polls, wins 102 of 108 seats

Left regaining significance in Bengal'selectoral scenario, claims CPI(M)

After the Left Front managed to win one municipality out of 107civic bodies in West Bengal "despite widespread rigging" in theelections, senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty on

Wednesday asserted that the Left parties are making a comeback inthe state. Chakraborty claimed that the BJP's vote share is recedingin the state where it had made significant gains since the 2018panchayat polls. "The Left parties, which had become almostinsignificant in the electoral scenario of the state, are regainingsignificance," he told reporters. Neither Parliament nor the stateassembly now has any member from the Left parties. The Left Frontsecured Taherpur Municipality in Nadia district. More than 100 of thecivic bodies were won by the Mamata Banerjee-led TrinamoolCongress. The BJP did not win any municipality.

Herd of endangered Hangul sighted inKashmir's Dachigam national parkPNS n SRINAGAR

A video showing a large herdof Kashmir Stag, known local-ly as Hangul, an endangeredspecies, has given hope thatthe conservation efforts ofJammu and Kashmir govern-ment have started yieldingpositive results.

The video, uploaded onTwitter by a senior official ofthe Wildlife Department,shows around 50-strongHangul herd on the snow-cov-ered slopes of Dachigamnational park in the Zabarwan

mountain range. "When I seea Hangul herd like this inDachigam, future seemsbright!" Raashid Naqash,Wildlife Warden, postedalongside the video.

BJP firm on demand for NawabMalik's resignation: FadnavisPNS n MUMBAI

On the eve of the budget sessionof the Maharashtra legislature,senior BJP leader DevendraFadnavis on Wednesday said hisparty is firm on its demand forthe resignation of state minis-ter Nawab Malik, who has beenarrested by the ED in connec-tion with a money launderingcase. Fadnavis was speaking toreporters here after chairing ameeting of the BJP's membersof the legislative Assembly andCouncil as the budget session isset to begin from Thursday.BJP's state unit chief

Chandrakant Patil has earliersaid that his party will not letthe budget session of the statelegislature function if Malikdoes not quit the cabinet.

"Nawab Malik is facingcharges for helping DawoodIbrahim, a key conspirator ofthe 1993 Mumbai blasts, but theShiv Sena-led government con-tinues to stand by him. Heshould have been removed," theBJP leader alleged.

"I believe that by not seekingMalik's resignation, the govern-ment is trying to appease a par-ticular community andindulging in polarisation.

CONG MLAs RAISE SLOGANS

BAN ON MALAYALAM NEWS CHANNEL UPHELD

fed chickens! A petrified SherKhan (of Lion King) musthave muttered: “But, sir, wehave been eating beef muchbefore your scriptures werewritten.” But no one listened;less cared. Some adjusted,some didn’t. A stubborn preg-nant tigress almost starved todeath in Kanpur zoo but didnot switch to white meat.They did not understand thegrand design. Shameless ani-mals!

Then the drive pro-gressed to ensure non-vio-lence and non-stealing in theState. Now how do you teachnon-violence to mobsters?Simple: Maim them. As pernews reports, after YogiAdityanath came to power,UP Police injured at least3,302 alleged criminals in8,742 ‘encounters’. Several ofthem had bullets lodged intheir legs; thus was born theterm ‘Operation Langda’(lame). In the same period,151 people were reportedkilled in police action. Youmay question the methodsbut aren’t the motives moreimportant, sacrosanct? Whatdo you do if you don’t kill aguy, Vikas Dubey, who wasalready lame? Mind you, it isnot a lame joke. One man’s

mission is another man’s les-son. The Yogi Governmentwent on to book Azam Khanfor buffalo theft, goat theftand book theft. Indeed anextreme step for many but amission is a mission. Thevirtue of non-stealing must beimbibed and the messageshould go far and wide.

Property, private or pub-lic, should not be stolen ordamaged and who does thatis on the wrong side of right-eousness. The UPGovernment slapped casesof recovery on the CAA andNRC protesters. How does itmatter that some of thesepeople were well over 90years of age and includedwomen, students andactivists? But then theSupreme Court played spoil-sport. An unrighteousSupreme Court (which stillhas the Dhamma wheel overthe lions in its emblem) over-turned the UP Governmentdrive for the recovery ofmoney. Moving on to the nexttenet, Yogi imposed a com-plete ban on the sale of liquorand meat in Mathura. Heurged liquor sellers to sellmilk to revive the glory ofMathura; a complete turn-around. You can’t afford to be

lactose intolerant, social intol-erance though is acceptable.

Now Yogiji is working onhis speech. Falsehood andmalicious speech would soonbe things of the past in UP.Now that we have left Coronabehind, there would be noneed to lie about the fatalityfigures or about medical oxy-gen supplies. Soon, the veryrationale of lying would die.And we can assume that hatespeech would also becomeredundant once the ‘despica-ble’ leave the State. In an actof compassion, he absolvedhimself of pending cases ofhate speech. That is how thewheel turns. Make a begin-ning, let go of the past!

Yogi, like a true crusaderof Dhamma, has done all hecould. He lit 12 lakh diyas todispel darkness on the Saryu’sbanks, a fitting reply to VSNaipaul’s An Area ofDarkness. UP is all lit. And ifyou criticise him for hisHindu bias, please don’t. Thetime frame of Treta Yug hecomes from did not havetoday’s minorities or theirgraveyards.

(The writer is a columnistand documentary filmmaker.The views expressed are personal.)

DON’T KEEP THE DISABLED AT DISADVANTAGESir — The first part of the Budget sessionof Parliament concluded without anymajor disruptions and it is expected thatthe second part will be conducted success-fully. The last session was marked by pan-demonium in both the Houses, so manyBills could not be passed. I want to men-tion that the denial of any part of a legit-imate pension is a clear violation ofhuman rights. In case of employees tak-ing premature retirement, a court has com-mented that honesty, sincerity, fairness andhard work pertaining to duties are notbeing rewarded in the country.

That may be one of the reasons for thegrowing graph of dishonesty amongstemployees/officers in many spheres. Inanother case, a court said the officials atthe helm must have knowledge of the dis-ability Acts to provide fair justice to thedisabled. In banks, the pensioners arehighly discriminated against and deniedtheir legal rights. Several representationswere sent to various authorities includingthe PMO, FMO, Law Ministry, CJI, CLC,Chairman IBA and all trade union lead-ers, but due to the society’s insensitive atti-tude towards the disabled, no one is readyto listen to or address their problems. Ina way, it is a near-breakdown of ourConstitution.

Yash Pal Ralhan | Jalandhar

THINK OF FUTURE AFTER THE PANDEMICSir — This refers to ‘Telangana returningto normalcy’ (March 1). The joy of thepeople of Telangana is immense uponlearning that their State is back to nor-mal after the pandamic totally paralysedour normal life. The State has ultimate-ly got a huge relief from COVID-19, adeadly nightmare that lasted a couple ofyears. Much to our regret, we lost manyfriends and relatives to the virus; peoplehave undergone mental agony and trau-ma due to COVID-19 and its Delta andOmicron strains. March 2, 2022, marksthe completion of a span of two years ofliving with COVID-19.The Telangana Government has now lift-ed all COVID-19 restrictions, exceptmasks. Nearly 99 per cent cases have

plummeted but the fear of the pandem-ic is still haunting people. The UnionGovernment must speed up the processof kickstarting employment opportuni-ties immediately all over India as our job-less youth have been at the receiving endfor two years now. The Centre and allStates Governments must be sensitivetowards the plight of people and takesteps to check the skyrocketing prices ofpetrol, fuels and other essential com-modities in order to recoup the losses suf-fered during the last couple of lockdowns.

Zubair Khan | Hyderabad

SUPPORT OUR LOCAL ENTREPRENEURSSir — Commuting is one of the biggestchallenges in metropolitan cities in the21st century and because of the belowpar facilities offered by public transport,people were pining for something bet-ter. Private aggregators like Uber and Olacashed on this opportunity and gradu-ally became trusted brands for short dis-tance travel within cities. When brands

grow, they gradually forget their initialaim of making people’s lives better. Thesame is happening to these big compa-nies in Guwahati, the only city they servein the entire northeast.I was in Guwahati for a few days recent-ly and, like I always do there, I ordereda ride in Uber. But my ride was cancelledfour times and the fifth time it displayedan amount that was almost double thanthe first time. Feeling bad for me, the dri-ver of my cab suggested the name of alocal app, PeIndia, which is now the talkof the “travel town” for being fast andaffordable. It was true to the good nameit has been earning as I ordered all mynext rides in Guwahati on PeIndia andit has been a hassle-free experience.Instead of paying our money toAmerican companies, why not supportour local entrepreneurs?!

Noopur Baruah | Tezpur

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | MARCH 3, 2022

06

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Since taking over the reins of UP five years ago, Yogi Adityanath hasdone everything Dhamma ordains to make the life of subjects better

SOON, THE VERYRATIONALE OF

LYING WOULD DIE.AND WE CAN

ASSUME THAT HATESPEECH WOULD

ALSO BECOMEREDUNDANT ONCETHE ‘DESPICABLE’LEAVE THE STATE.THAT IS HOW THE

WHEEL TURNS

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

GYANESHWAR DAYAL

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin hasbeen hogging headlines for quite sometime now, courtesy his politically saga-

cious West Bengal counterpart MamataBanerjee reposing faith in him by asking himto visit the non-BJP, non-Congress ChiefMinisters. The idea is to prevail upon themfor the formation of yet another Third Fronttogether to take on the formidable BJP. Withthe 2024 parliamentary election approach-ing, it’s an indicator that Stalin would playa significant role at the national level. Thisscenario, however, unravels the story of his

success which he owes to his father andstalwart former TN Chief Minister MKarunanidhi. Stalin proved his salt’s worthwhen his Dravdian Model of governanceobfuscated the much flaunted GujaratModel.

Since the DMK’s tremendous win in the2021 Assembly polls, which were markedby setbacks earlier in the State such as for-mer CM Jayalalitha’s demise and the EPS-OPS-Sasikala factor, Stalin’s arrival washugely welcomed in Tamil Nadu politics. Heis a versatile personality, gifted with polit-ical sapience, besides having a desire of act-ing in films, playing cricket, badminton andchess. He has emerged as a rising star onthe nation’s political horizon. But he will haveto remain wary of the political kaleidoscopechanging rapidly in politics, bearing in mindthat any faux pas in politics is unpardon-able and it might turn into an irretrievablelosing proposition as well.

Azhar A Khan | Rampur

Stalin as the rising star

The monk with aself-righteous cause

The original AshokanLion Capital in theSarnath museum hadlions on a pedestal and

a wheel resting over them. Itdepicted lions or the State as thecustodian of the ‘Dhamma’, theeternal wheel of righteousness.When it became the emblem ofIndia, somehow that wheelrolled off. And all that remainedwere the lions watching thesubjects from a vantage point.Of course, reality took sometime to catch up with themetaphor.

Uttar Pradesh, whereSarnath is, saw the wheel rollingback to the State five years back.The State was to become right-eous or self-righteous in thenext five years. Yogi Adityanathof Uttarakhand became the UPChief Minister; it was a fore-gone conclusion that Dhammawould rule the State. And thatis what happened in the last fiveyears. The five basic tenets ofDhamma — abstain from sex-ual misconduct, practice non-violence and non-killing, don’tindulge in stealing, practicetruthfulness and avoid mali-cious speech, and abstain fromalcohol — became the touch-stone of Yogi Government’spolicy. Thus a monk with a mis-sion set out to do what destinychose him to do. An idea whosetime had come!

To instil righteousness, andto pave the path for moksha, theYogi Government started turn-ing the wheel of Dhamma. Todiscourage sexual misconduct,it decided to catch ‘Romeos’.Romeo had whispered beforehis banishment “O I am for-tune’s fool”. Many ‘Romeos’ wereturned into ‘fortune’s fools’ bythe anti-Romeo squads. To tamethem, the squads patrolled uni-versities, cinema halls, parks andgave on-the-spot punishmentfor their ‘sins’. It was a beginning;a first step towards infusingrighteousness in people.

The next big step was toensure vegetarianism andkillings by all beings. The UPGovernment banned cow andbuffalo meat. I am not makingit up: After Yogi came to power,even the lions in UP’s zooswere not fed red meat; they were

The game of brinksmanship being played out in the war theatre involving Russiaand Ukraine is turning dangerous, though terming it slightly amusing would bean improper use of the expression amid the danse macabre. As deadly arse-

nal is being unpacked by Russia for possible use, primarily on Ukrainian capital Kyivand the second largest city of Kharkiv, the latter’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy isputting up a brave front amid reports of a 64-km-long Russian armoured convoybearing down on central and eastern parts of his country. With Russia brazenly pro-

claiming that it would press ahead with the blitzkrieguntil its “goals are met”, Zelenskiy has refused tobe cowed saying that nothing or nobody can breakhis people and country. “We are strong, we areUkrainians,” thundered the former producer-main leadof Ukrainian TV sitcom Servant of the People (whichaired between 2015 and 2019 and was a massivehit a la our Ramayan and Mahabharat). Not betray-ing even the slightest hint of his days as the made-up-with-chalk-and-powder man, in fact displayinga sense of courage in the line of fire, he has cate-gorically said Kyiv wasn’t prepared to make conces-

sions when “one side is hitting another with rocket artillery”.Even a few days back, just before the Russian invasion began, when he was offered

a safe ticket out of Kyiv and promised evacuation on priority, he showed a quiet deter-mination and resolve when he spoke about “not going anywhere…I am here…willbe here with my people”. Whatever the respective shared histories of Russia andUkraine vis-à-vis India, and there is a marked difference between the two (Israel andRussia are the only two countries that have always supported India on every issue,at every platform while Ukraine has never been a trustworthy ally; far from it, actu-ally), the moot point remains that a good leader deserves everyone’s respect. In fact,it turns rather into admiration of sorts if one were to take into account the pummellingZelenskiy is taking from all directions, and from sea, land and air. Russia has alreadystarted talking about unpacking its ‘Father Of All Bombs’ in the war against Ukraineas part of Putin’s “shock and awe” campaign. The super-powerful non-nuclear ther-mobaric bomb has a blast equivalent to more than 44 tonne of TNT. Putin may bea leader with bigger weaponry, but Zelenskiy’s boldness can’t be underplayed.

Ayoung woman from the small town of Harda in Madhya Pradesh went toanother small town, Poltava, in Ukraine six years ago to study medicine.The town is 500 km from the eastern Russian border and may soon be invad-

ed. Last spoken to a week ago, she told her mother that she does not want tocome home. She has just two months left to complete her MBBS course and shehopes things will somehow work out for her. Her father is a poor Governmentteacher and she does not want to return without her degree after spending somuch money. Her family wants her back home, worried about her safety. She isworried about losing her degree more than her life. We have no information aboutthis girl at the time of writing and we hope that she is safe and evacuated at once.Her desperation is touching. This desperation is shared by thousands of Indianstudents as they return home from Ukraine, totally blank about what the futureholds for them. What will they do? They have vague answers. The Union Governmentwill have to step in today or tomorrow to ensure that their careers are not destroyed.Those studying in western Ukraine say their classes are online for the time being

as the region is relatively safe from strife. But whatabout the summer practice session in June-July?They are clueless.

Their universities have told them to pay the feesin advance by the first week of March, saying theywill update them along the way. Some students inwestern Ukraine bought round trip tickets, hopingthey would be back sooner or later. In easternUkraine, the situation is really bad. All education-al institutes are closed. The students say theirteachers left the respective cities at the first hintof tension and, since then, they are in the dark. In

any case, they are right now desperate to save their lives and get out from there.They have a vague hope that historically, universities survive wars and that theirclasses will resume once the political imbroglio is resolved. The parents will soonbe voicing their concerns about their wards’ future. They are sure to ask the UnionGovernment if the students can somehow complete the remaining course dura-tion from Indian colleges by passing a test or arranging for a transfer of credits.Those in the first and second years still have the chance of starting afresh in anoth-er college in another country if they can afford it and if Ukraine’s future hangs inbalance. It is the seniors who will lose the most if they cannot return to their uni-versities at least by this year-end. It is not just about completing the course. Theyhave also to complete a 12-month supervised internship and repeat the processwhen they return to India. They will then have to pass the eligibility test to be ableto get registered.

Battle for future

An unlikely heroThe ongoing war has thrown up a few

admirable qualities of the Ukraine President

PICTALK

People visit the 45th International Kolkata Book Fair PTI

What next, ask Indian medical students who have returned from Ukraine in a hurry

Historically, India has takenadvantage of the (unity in)diversity.

Congress leader— Rahul Gandhi

It was like two

lions going at

each other. It was

absolutely crazy.

Liverpool manager

— Jurgen Klopp

SOUNDBITE

The main (safety)

assurance

should be given

by Putin to

Indian students.

Ukrainian ambassador

— Igor Polikha

I will have to have a completeassessment done(on impact ofUkraine crisis on India).

Finance Minister— Nirmala Sitharaman

Actor, actor hota

hai aur star, star

hota hai. My

rough journey

made me

an actor.Actor

— Ronit Roy

the interest of talented youth inGovernment job dwindled with theimplementation of NPS. The deci-sion to implement OPS will attractlarge number of talented youthtowards government jobs in future.

A number of factors convincedthe Government of Rajasthan torestore the OPS. In the Old PensionSystem, an employee was guaran-teed the right of pension as half ofthe last basic salary plus dearnessrelief at the time of retirement andin the case of in-service death, theemployee and his family was giveneconomic support in the form ofDeath- Cum-Retirement Gratuity(DCRG). No such guarantee isprovided in the NPS.

Table 1.1 exhibits the major dif-ference between the OPS and theNPS.

The fact that the armed forceshave not been included in the NPSright from the beginning, makes itclear that the OPS adequately pro-vides social security to them. TheNPS was implemented for employ-ees in Indian Coastguard under thedefense ministry while the employ-ees of this service work with thesame alertness and face the samechallenges as faced by the person-nel of armed forces. Similar servicesare rendered by employees of BSF,CISF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB etc. yet theyhave been covered under NPS. Theemployees of the central and theState Governments also dischargetheir duties with the same spirit andcommitment. Keeping two differ-ent systems of pension is discrim-inatory and is against the principleof natural justice.

In the performance audit of theNPS (Report No. 13 of 2020) theCAG has come out with revealingfacts regarding the planning, imple-mentation and monitoring of theNPS. The CAG report mentionsthat ‘Even after 15 years of intro-duction of NPS, rules on serviceconditions/retirement benefits inrespect of employees covered byNPS were pending finalization(Para 3.2)’. Raising objection to theviability of the fund/scheme, theCAG in para 3.9 says: “There wasno indication that actuarial evalu-ation of the fund/scheme was con-ducted once in two years and ofadoption of any other mechanismto assess the viability of thefund/scheme.” Questioning theimplementation of NPS, the CAGin para 4.1.3 of the same reportstipulates that “there was no assur-ance that 100 percent of eligibleemployees were covered underNPS despite 15 years of implemen-tation”. These are indeed seriousobjections which threaten thesocio-economic security of theemployees. States like Kerala,

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, HimachalPradesh and Punjab have setupstate level committees to review theNPS in their respective states inview of the protests by the NPSemployees. The West BengalGovernment has not yet imple-mented the NPS.

While preparing the NPS, noattention was paid to the pensionamount payable to the employeeafter the retirement. This has cre-ated a sense of insecurity amongthe employees throughout thecountry. If the NPS is so sacrosanctthen why the Second NationalJudicial Pay Commission has, in itsreport in February 2020, suggest-ed that NPS should not be imple-mented in the Judicial Services.

The employees appointedon/after 01.01.2004 and who haveretired now, they have either notreceived any pension or if theyhave received any pension then itis not sufficient to make their bothends meet. Therefore, it can be saidthat NPS failed to achieve itsobjective. There was no provisionof family pension and gratuity inNPS in the beginning. TheGovernment of India had to imple-ment the same later.

The State Government ofRajasthan never compromised withthe development schemes of theState despite NPS. Likewise, thedevelopment works will continuein the state even after the imple-mentation of OPS. The StateGovernment was fully aware of theanxieties caused by NPS among theemployees.

The Old Pension System pro-vides social and economic securi-ty to the employees hence, theGovernment of Rajasthan decidedto restore OPS in the larger inter-est of the employees. It is not fairto have two categories of pensionschemes and differentiate amongthe employees.

Old pension scheme &socio-economic security

THE PEOPLE HAVE DISCARDED THE BJP, CPMAND CONGRESS. THE (MUNICIPAL) ELECTIONSWERE LARGELY PEACEFUL.—TRINAMOOL CONGRESS SPOKESPERSONKUNAL GHOSH

THE RIGGING WAS PEACEFUL, AND VOTING WAS HELD IN ONE OR TWO PLACES. THE

POLL PANEL HAS FAILED.— BENGAL BJP PRESIDENT

SUKANTA MAJUMDAR

The old system provides social and economic security to employees;hence, the Rajasthan Govt decided to restore it in their larger interest

The extravaganza of expenses in the UP assembly election is any-body’s guess. The sum is supposed to be big. The election cam-paigning is becoming innovative, direct-to-voter, expensive and with

doubtful probity. The election cost in 2017 was `5500 crore, accord-ing to Centre for Media Studies (CMS). In 2022, it may cross `8000crore in UP, some reports suggest. Being the supposed gateway to Delhiin 2024, the stakes in UP remain high and so is the spending. In WestBengal, in contrast, election expenses on publicity in 2021 were esti-mated at around `500 crore. It is raining money for news channels,event managers, poll organizers as political parties open up their cof-fers to net each vote. The note for vote itself has a huge cost. The ECspent ̀ 46 in 2014 up from 10 `1951 per voter. With inflation and mul-tiple phases of polls, CMS estimates that each vote cost about `700

in 2019. According to Carnegie Foundation, Indian elections in 2019cost $5 billion and the US presidential poll, $6.5 billion in 2016. ButCMS says around `55,000 crore, or $8 billion, were spent during the2019 Lok Sabha elections. A third of it went towards campaigning andpublicity. The second largest component was putting money directlyin the hands of the voter. CMS estimates that roughly 25 per cent, about`15,000 crore, was distributed among voters. About 10 to 12 per centvoters acknowledge receiving cash.

In UP, many parties are reportedly giving special emphasis to poorminority voters, other deprived people and wherever possible help-ing enlist them for various official benefits like state housing. The freefood dole has cost the state `2 lakh crore. Though it is not linked tocash for vote, it has the potential to sway the psyche of some vot-ers. Almost all political parties started campaigning about three monthsbefore EC announced the dates. The expenses at meetings, rallies,marches, and road shows are heavy costs and are not part of theexpenditures filed with the EC. The opposition complains that the rul-ing party has advantages of using official machinery, transportationand other paraphernalia to organize their poll-oriented meetings, inau-gurations or launchings of programmes “to woo the voters”.Surprisingly, no party after coming to power likes to prevent it andthey also indulge in similar practices. In 2017 UP assembly elections,BJP showed an expenditure of `111 crore, Congress `18.47 crore.Individual candidates spent `28 lakh as per EC norm which in 2022has been increased to `40 lakh. This will be additional about `193crore gross spending by the four major party candidates in each ofthe constituencies. Smaller parties and independents would be incur-ring extra. There are also costs on party volunteers fanning out to remoteareas for direct voter meets. The richer and more organized partiesare apparently spending more through their campaign managers andsmall groups. Such campaigns establish dialogue and also give anassurance to the voters that they would have access to their leaderseven after the polls. The live contacts become useful on the pollingday to drive them to the booths. These expenses neither go into theindividual candidate expenses nor official party accounts. In 2019,ADR says, BJP spent `763.31 crore, Congress `488.97 crore andBSP ` 55,39 crore. The CMS says that publicity expenses comprise35 per cent of the gross, direct voter expenses 25 per cent. After the2022 round of elections, the latter expense will emerge as an ethicalissue and pose a challenge to political probity.

(The writer is a senior journalist. The views expressed are personal.)

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | MARCH 3, 2022

07

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FIRSTCOLUMNDIRECT-TO-VOTER JACKS

UP POLL EXPENSES

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

SHIVAJI SARKAR

ASHOK GEHLOT

The Uttar Pradesh election campaigning is prohibitively costly

Congress Party and its Governmentin Rajasthan recognizes its duty toprovide socio-economic securityto the people. A Government

employee serves for 30-35 years andspends his post retirement life on the basisof pension. It is therefore the duty of anyelected Government to ensure that theemployees live their life with a sense ofsecurity so that they can render theirinvaluable contribution to cause of goodgovernance. With a view to strengtheningthe socio-economic base of theGovernment employees, the Central CivilServices (Pension) Act, 1972 was imple-mented which had provision for an inbuiltpension/ family Pension, Gratuity and com-muted amount. Unfortunately, the old pen-sion system was done away with by theVajpayee Government in December, 2003and replaced it with a New Pension System(NPS) w.e.f. 01.04.2004.

The NPS in its current form is riddledwith a number of problems and theemployees throughout the country havebeen demanding for the restoration of theOld Pension System (OPS) as the NPS failsto take care of their current as well as postretirement needs. National Human RightsCommission, CAG Report No. 13 of 2020and the Second National Judicial PayCommission have also raised questionsabout the efficacy of the NPS in providingguaranteed socio-economic security to theemployees. Under the NPS, the hard-earned retirement fund of employees is sub-jected to the vagaries of share market whichfluctuates at the drop of a hat. In the eventof major international crises like the pre-sent Ukraine crisis, the share market nose-dives thereby increasing the heartbeats ofemployees and perennially putting theirsocial security at risk. An employee can-not work with his full potential and con-tribute to good governance if his socio-eco-nomic security is threatened. Since the pen-sion fund is invested in market which isreplete with risk and provides no guaran-tee of return even after 17 years of imple-mentation of NPS, it engenders old ageinsecurity among the employees.

In order to protect the interests ofRajasthan Government employees andsafeguard their life after retirement, theCongress Government in Rajasthan decid-ed to restore the Old Pension System (OPS)for all the employees joining governmentservices on or after 1 January, 2004.

In my budget speech in the StateAssembly on 23 February, 2022, I haveannounced to implement the OPS from thenext Financial Year. This decision has beenhailed not only by the employees inRajasthan but also by the employees of allthe States. Earlier, Pension was the prima-ry differentiating factor between theGovernment and the private jobs. The Payscales in Government jobs cannot exceed theprescribed limit. Talented youths used toaccord priority to government jobs becauseguaranteed pension under OPS providedsecurity to their future. It has been observed

THE STATEGOVERNMENT OF

RAJASTHANNEVER

COMPROMISEDWITH THE

DEVELOPMENTSCHEMES OF THE

STATE DESPITENPS. LIKEWISE,DEVELOPMENT

WORKS WILLCONTINUE IN

THE STATE EVENAFTER THE

IMPLEMENTATIONOF OPS.

THE STATEGOVERNMENT

WAS FULLYAWARE OF THE

ANXIETIESCAUSED BY NPS

AMONG THEEMPLOYEES

(The writer is the Chief Minister of

Rajasthan. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

Uncertain flow of incomeduring the COVID pan-demic has infused loads

of stress and many are seekingto start something on their ownin order to ensure lesser butsteady income. Many are optingfor “safer” business options(shop/trading), but a fair num-ber are going for start-ups withnew ideas.

It is in this backdrop that Itake up the issue of impact ofreality shows like “Shark Tank”.

I have been talking, dis-cussing with like-mindedfriends, to understand what isthe objective of such type of real-ity show. For a layman it’s diffi-cult to follow the start-up jar-gons and the general concept.The whole thing gets reduced towhether the pitch presenter getsthe funding or doesn’t. So, doesit encourage people to take up

entrepreneurship? May be, buta considerable put-off is theunwarranted condescendingattitude of a few judges. It’s notknown whether it is a deliberateploy by program producers foreyeballs, because they are knownto employ such spices occasion-ally in programs like “IndianIdol”, “SaReGaMa”. But frequentusage of this attitude, bringingthe program on par with“Roadies”, is confounding view-ers and actually raising a seriousquestion about the objective ofsuch programs in general.

Nothing comes easy in life,whether in sports, entertain-ment, science, politics and it’s thesame with an entrepreneur withan idea, he/she is passionateabout, searching for funds.There may be something wrongwith the idea but the process toideate is very important. And a

person should ideally ideatewith a free mind.

The various episodes of“Shark Tank” leave one dis-turbed, when quite a few of theideas are trashed unnervingly bythe judges. Okay, you may ask,“so what’s new in this”? Theworld is supposed to be cruel.Normally while seeking funds,this humiliation happens withalmost all such aspirants, mayhave also happened with Ashnir

Grover, Anupam Mittal and co.But then this, most probably,would have happened withinfour walls, not in front of theworld. A pitch is a privateinsight into your idea whichaspirants have nurtured so care-fully, passionately, and when crit-icism happens within four walls(just like a job interview), it is nottaken to heart so much becausewhatever happens, it’s private. Ibelieve that by displaying pitch

presentation publicly, we arenot extending the necessaryrespect to the entrepreneur’sidea. Pitch presentation can’t beentertainment.

Simultaneously I am also notin favour of “all is hunkydory”types of similar programslike “Business Blasters” wherethey give you encouraging wordsonly. This again is not desirableas the impression a youngster getsis that it’s an Amir Khan worldout there where”all is well”.

Both encouragement and abit of humiliationare necessaryfor the growth of mental band-width and resilience of anupcoming entrepreneur. Letthem experience it naturally. Letthem run around, seek investors,make presentations, let them getan earful, or positive kicks with-in the room, that’s the best wayof putting him into a sound path

of ideating, iterating and reach-ing a sound product. Goodideas will survive. Unfeasibleideas will anyways fall-through.

As freshers we were all a bitnervous, slightly fearful ofinterviews initially. The fearwent away because whateverhappened (criticism or encour-agement), happened inside theinterview room, no one elseknew. Similarly, there is stage-fright, and hesitancy thatunnerve a few first-time entre-preneurs. So why don’t we justlet them experience the regu-lar, natural process, whyunnerve them at the entry-point of this world?

There is loads of moneywith investors, but there are mil-lions of entrepreneurs who needto be pulled out of their hesitan-cy, obscurity and given rightinputs in terms of counselling.

Just giving out MSME loans willnot create MSME eco-system,nor the required jobcreations.The right minds withmoney need to be involved topluck out minds with innovativeideas. Right ones can be nur-tured and invested in. If talentscouting for IPL teams can hap-pen, why not for this.

It isn’t the objective to crit-icise the “Shark Tank” judgeshere because there appears tobe a script running there. Butpitch presentation is a seriousaffair and not a song/dance/tal-ent show. A person puts his orher whole thought, time into it.One shouldn’t be making anentertainment spectacle out ofit. If this continues then thenext in line could be hiring offresh MBAs through realityshows. I shudder to even thinkabout it.

A considerable put-off is the unwarranted condescending attitude of a few judges

Shark Tank: Encourage them, don’t hurt self-esteem

PRASANNA K OJHA

(The writer is a finance professional and an

entertainment and sportsenthusiast. The views

expressed are personal.)

Des-cription

OldPensionSystem

NPS(Tier-I)

Contribution ofemployee

Nil10% of(Basic payplus DA)

PensionGuarantee byGovernment

Yes No.

Yes No.

Yes

Yes

No.

AmountofPension

50% oflast paydrawn

No linkwith lastpay

Dearness Relief provided by Govt for mitigating impactof inflation

Commutation ofPension

Upto33%

Nooption

GPF Eligibility

NPSWith-drawal

Upto 25% of theamount depositedafter 2015.

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | MARCH 3, 2022 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Kia India on Wednesdaysaid its sales increased 8.5per cent year-on-year to

18,121 units in February.The automaker had dispatched16,702 units to dealers inFebruary 2021.The companysaid it continues to remain oneof the top five selling carmanufacturers in the country,owing to the consistentperformance of its products inthe Indian market.Seltos

remained the top contributor to Kia's overall sales with 6,575 units,while Sonet and Carnival contributed 6,154 and 283 units,respectively.Launched in mid-February, Carens dispatches stood at5,109 units."With the launch of Carens, we are looking forward toreaching new heights and strengthening our position in India.Owing to the recently started third shift at our Anantapur plant, weaim to reduce wait times for all our models," Kia India Chief SalesOfficer Myung-Sik Sohn said.However, the semiconductor shortageremains a concern for the company, similar to the rest of thecarmakers globally, he added."We are hopeful for someimprovement in the supply-chain constraints from Q2 onwards,"Sohn stated.The automaker has recently started the third shift inIndia and is targetting to produce over 3 lakh units in the calendaryear.

Kia India sales rise 8.5 pc in February

TVS Motor Company, a reputedmanufacturer of two-wheelersand three-wheelers in the world,

today announced the launch of thefeature-rich offering in the 125ccsegment TVS Raider for theaspirational young customers acrosscountries in Latin America (LATAM).The distinctly young and sportymotorcycle comes with first-in-classfeatures such as an LCD digital

speedometer, 3V i-Touch Start, animalistic LED headlamp and first-in-segment under-seat storage. The new generation bike has beenlaunched for Gen Z customers in Colombia, Guatemala, Hondurasand Nicaragua. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. R Dilip, President –International Business, TVS Motor Company, said, “LATAM is animportant market for TVS Motor Company. Our products havealways been well appreciated in this region. We are delighted tolaunch the 125cc TVS Raider across key markets like Colombia,Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to delight the new-agecustomers. We always focus on understanding local customer needsand offering them products across segments that boast best-in-classfeatures and cutting-edge technology. I am certain that our youngcustomers would admire the distinctive ride character of the TVSRaider.”

TVS Motor Company launchesnaked street design ‘TVS Raider'

Payment startupBharatPe has strippedits co-founder Ashneer

Grover of all positions forhis alleged "misdeeds" andmay take further legalactions, including clawingback of some of hisshareholding.BharatPe, which allowsshop owners to makedigital payments through

QR codes, in a statement said Grover resigned after receiving theagenda for an upcoming board meeting that included submission ofan independent audit regarding his conduct.The Board of thecompany met last evening, and the meeting went past midnight,following which a statement was issued.The company said it reservesthe right to take action based on the report's findings."The Groverfamily and their relatives engaged in extensive misappropriation ofcompany funds, including, but not limited to, creating fake vendorsthrough which they siphoned money away from the company'saccount and grossly abused company expense accounts in order toenrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles," it alleged.Minutesbefore midnight of March 1, Grover got an email inviting him for aboard meeting at 19:30 on March 2. At 12:05 on Tuesday, heresigned.Sources said the Board of BharatPe took note of thetermination of employment of Grover as a consequence of hisresignation from the post of managing director as well as a directoron the company board.

BharatPe strips Grover of co-founder tag

PNS n NEW DELHI

With the Russia-Ukraine warroiling financial markets glob-ally, the government may deferthe mega IPO of LIC and waitfor an opportune time to get themaximum value of its holdingin the state-owned insurancebehemoth, sources said."It's a full blown war now so wewill have to assess the situationfor going ahead with the LICIPO," a government sourcesaid.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman too had indicatedreview of the IPO in view of theevolving geopolitical situation.

"Ideally, I would like to goahead with it because we hadplanned it for some time basedpurely on Indian considera-tions," Sitharaman had said inan interview with the HinduBusiness Line. "But if globalconsiderations warrant that Ineed to look at it, I would notmind looking at it again."

The IPO was expected to hitthe market this month.

The Russia-Ukraine warentered its seventh day onWednesday, with fightingintensifying in Ukrainian cap-ital Kyiv and other big cities.

The government was expect-ing to garner Rs 63,000 crore byselling 5 per cent stake in the

life insurance firm to meet thecurtailed disinvestment targetof Rs 78,000 crore in the cur-rent fiscal.

If the initial public offering(IPO) is deferred to the next fis-cal, the government wouldmiss the revised disinvestmenttarget by a huge margin.

So far, the government hasraised Rs 12,030 crore throughCPSE disinvestment and AirIndia's strategic sale this fiscal.

The government had earlierprojected to garner Rs 1.75 lakhfrom disinvestment during2021-22.

The IPO is offer for sale(OFS) by the Government ofIndia and there is no fresh issueof shares by LIC. The govern-ment holds 100 per cent stake

or over 632.49 crore shares inLIC. The face value of shares isRs 10 apiece.

The LIC public issue wouldbe the biggest IPO in the his-tory of Indian stock market.Once listed, LIC's market val-uation would be comparable totop companies like RIL andTCS. So far, the amountmobilised from IPO of Paytmin 2021 was the largest ever atRs 18,300 crore, followed byCoal India (2010) at nearly Rs15,500 crore and ReliancePower (2008) at Rs 11,700crore.

Last week, the governmenthad permitted up to 20 per centforeign direct investment (FDI)under automatic route in IPO-bound LIC with an aim to facil-

itate disinvestment of the coun-try's largest insurer.

The decision in this regardwas taken by the UnionCabinet, chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

Foreign investors may bedesirous of participating in themega IPO. However, the exist-ing FDI policy did not pre-scribe any specific provision forforeign investment in LIC,which is a statutory corporationestablished under the LIC Act,1956.

Since as per the present FDIpolicy, the foreign inflows ceil-ing for public sector banks is 20per cent under governmentapproval route, it has beendecided to allow foreign invest-ment of up to 20 per cent forLIC and such other corporatebodies.

Further, in order to expeditethe capital raising process, suchFDI has been kept under theautomatic route, as in the caseof the rest of the insurance sec-tor, a source said.

Setting the stage for thecountry's biggest-ever publicoffering, LIC on February 13filed draft papers with capitalmarket regulator Sebi.

The IPO of over 31.6 croreshares or 5 per cent govern-ment stake was likely to hit D-street in March.

Govt may defer LIC IPO

PNS n NEW DELHI

Indian companies are expect-ed to dole out an average incre-ment of 9.1 per cent in 2022,higher than the pre-COVID-19increment in 2019, as compa-nies are focusing on retentionof talent through rewards.

According to the 2022Workforce and IncrementsTrends Survey by DeloitteTouche Tohmatsu India LLP,the average India 2022 incre-ment is expected to go up to 9.1per cent from eight per cent in2021.

Moreover, the 2022 project-ed increment is higher than thepre-COVID-19 increment in2019 by 50 basis points (bps).

A basis point is equal to1/100th of a percentage point.

"Corporate India reacteddifferently to each COVID-19wave.

"In 2020, the pandemicpulled the economy in a reces-sion and lower increments,pay-cuts, and hiring freezewere common. In 2021, incre-ments were higher, pay-cutswere reversed, and COVID-19-specific benefits were intro-duced.

"However, in 2022, in linewith the pick-up in activity aswell as hiring and attrition,companies have surpassed pre-pandemic levels of increments,with a sharp focus on retentionof talent through rewards,"

said Anandorup Ghose, part-ner at DTTILLP.

Almost 450 organisationsparticipated in the 2022Workforce and IncrementTrends survey.

Moreover, in 2022, 34 percent of the organisations sur-veyed are planning to givedouble-digit average incre-ments, compared with only 20per cent in 2021 and 12 percent in 2020.

The study finds that in 2022,increments are expected to behigher across all major sectors,compared with 2021 and thepre-pandemic levels observedin 2019.Life sciences and ITsectors are likely to give thehighest increments in 2022.

Average increment in India likelyto increase to 9.1 pc in 2022

PNS nJHARKHAND

The Jharkhand governmenton Wednesday presented itsEconomic Survey Report inthe Assembly that estimates8.8 per cent growth in its realGross State Domestic Product(GDP) in the current fiscal.

The Economic Survey thatdetails the state of the econo-my ahead of the government'sbudget for the fiscal yearbeginning April 1, 2022 men-tions that the state has shownadequate resilience to recov-er promptly from every shockincluding economic recoveryfrom the effects of COVID-19pandemic.

The survey report tabled byFinance Minister RameshwarOraon said: "It is estimated torecord 8.8 per cent growth inits real Gross State DomesticProduct (GDP) the currentfinancial year (2021-22). TheGSDP of the state grew at an

average annual rate of 8 percent per annum in the firstfive years of its formation(between 1999-2000 and2004-05), then at the rate of6.6 per cent between 2004-05and 2011-12 and at 6.2 percent between 2011-12 and2018-19."

The growth rate has decel-erated during the last twoyears in the financial years2019-20 and 2020-21, the sur-

vey report said.These two years were not

normal years, it said addingthe Indian economy was hit byan economic slowdown inthe year 2019-20 which didnot leave even the economy ofJharkhand untouched.

Both, the Indian economyand the economy ofJharkhand recorded a growthof a mere 4 per cent, the sur-vey report said.

Jharkhand FM tables Economic SurveyReport in Assembly; state GDP growth 8.8%

PNS nMUMBAI

India's e-commerce marketcontinues its rapid expansionand is forecast to increase 96percent between 2021 and 2015to $120 billion (USD), accord-ing to a new report releasedtoday from financial technolo-gy leader FIS® (NYSE: FIS).

The 2022 Global PaymentsReport by Worldpay from FISexamines current and futurepayments trends across 41countries in 5 regions.Regarding 2021, the reportfound the shift to online con-tinued with 13.9 percent growthin global e-commerce, while the13.4 percent growth in point-of-sale (POS) transaction valuereflects the steady recoveryfrom the impacts of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

e-commerce Payment Trends

The FIS report found:

• The Indian e-commercemarket is projected to grow by96 percent between 2021 and2025 when it will surpassUS$120 billion in transactionvalue.

• Digital wallets (45.4 per-cent) followed by debit cards(14.6 percent) and credit/chargecards (13.3 percent) were theleading e-commerce paymentmethods in 2021.

• Digital wallets are project-ed to extend their lead overother e-commerce paymentmethods through 2025, whenthey are projected to accountfor 52.9 percent of transactionvalue.

• Buy now, pay later isIndia's fastest-growing online

payment method. BNPL is pro-jected to rise to 8.6 percent ofe-commerce market value by2025, up from just 3 percent in2021.

• Prepaid cards, bank trans-fers and cash on delivery mar-ket shares are in decline and areprojected to collectively com-prise just 8.8 percent of e-commerce transaction valueby 2025.Point-of-Sale (POS)

Payment TrendsThe FIS report found:• India's POS market is pro-

jected to increase by 28.8 per-cent between 2021 and 2025,when it will exceed US$1.08trillion.

• Cash was the leading in-store payment method in 2021with 37.1 percent of transactionvalue, followed by digital wal-lets (24.8 percent), and

credit/charge cards (18.1 per-cent).

• Digital wallets are project-ed to overtake cash as the mostpopular in-store paymentmethod by 2023 when they areprojected to account for 30.8percent of POS transactionvalue.

"The e-commerce industry inIndia has witnessed stronggrowth over the last few yearsand this growth is showing nosigns of slowing down," saidPhil Pomford, GeneralManager APAC, WorldpayMerchant Solutions at FIS. "TheCOVID-19 pandemic hasbrought fundamental changesin the way people shop andmake their purchase decisionsthroughout India, and it's nowvital for merchants to providecustomers with a hassle-freeand convenient shopping expe-

rience. Those who offer a com-pelling value proposition toconsumers are well positionedto thrive as India's e-commercemarket continues its dramaticgrowth."

To download the completereport, including the method-ology, please visit https://world-pay.globalpaymentsreport.com/About The Global PaymentsReport

The Global Payments Reportby Worldpay from FIS offers asnapshot of the payments land-scape: globally, by region and in41 select markets. The reporttracks consumer paymentswhen shopping online and atthe point of sale, identifies keypayment trends including B2Band C2B real-time payments,and projects future scenarios forpayment method shares as wellas market size.

India's e-commerce market set to increase 96 per cent

ITC's dairybusiness tofocus on east PNS nKOLKATA

The dairy business of diver-sified conglomerate ITCLimited will focus on eastIndia, particularly WestBengal and Bihar, for thenext few years, a companyofficial said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters onthe launch of lactose-freemilk here, chief operatingofficer (COO) of dairy andbeverages business of ITCSanjay Singal said that thedairy business is growingfaster, though on a smallerbase.He said the fresh dairybusiness of the company start-ed in West Bengal four yearsback, adding that the share ofthe division in the organisedsector is substantial and grow-ing.Singal said that the dairybusiness is contributing lessthan ten per cent to the com-pany's FMCG revenue, ofwhich it is a part.According tohim, there is no nationalplayer in the organised dairybusiness, adding that the mar-ket for fresh dairy (milk) inWest Bengal is around Rs4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.The company had alreadylaunched milk, curd, paneer,lassi and mishti doi (sweetcurd) in the dairy businessunder 'Aashirvaad Svasti'brand so far.

PNS n COIMBATORE

Nearly two lakh power loomsin Coimbatore and Tirupurdistricts started functioningon Wednesday following anagreement reached on revis-ing wages.

The power loom unit own-ers were on an indefinitestr ike from Januar y 9demanding implementationof a government order issuedin November last year onrevision of wages from mas-

ter weavers, for whom theywere working, which cameinto force in December 2021.

The power looms spreadover Somanur, Karumathyampatti, Paduvam palli,Kittampalayam, Thottipalyam and Sulur inCoimbatore district alongwith Palladam and nearbyareas in Tirupur district haddemanded 23 per centincrease for Somanur varietyand 20 per cent for other fab-rics.

TN: Power loom weavers resumework after calling off strike

PNS nMUMBAI

The rupee depreciated by 44paise to close at 75.77 (pro-visional) against the UScurrency on Wednesday asriskier assets took a hitamid deepening geopoliticaltensions.

Forex traders said sus-tained foreign fund out-flows, a lacklustre trend indomestic equities and ele-vated crude oi l pricesweighed on investor senti-ment.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the rupeeopened at 75.78 against theAmerican dollar but laterdropped to a low of 75.86.

The local unit finally fin-ished at 75.77, down 44paise from its previousclose. On Monday, therupee had settled at 75.33against the US dollar.

Rupee slumps 44paise to close at75.77 against US $

PNS n NEW DELHI

Inflation in Europe hit a recordhigh for the fourth month in arow, raising questions aboutwhen the central bank shouldstep in to ease the pain to peo-ple's wallets while Russia'sinvasion of Ukraine rattles theglobal economy.

Consumer prices in the 19countries that use the euro cur-rency increased by an annual5.8% in February, the European

Union statistics agencyEurostat reported Wednesday.The latest numbers under-score continuing pain for thecontinent's consumers andpiles more pressure on theEuropean Central Bank as itgrapples with when and how toraise interest rates to ease infla-tion. The latest inflation read-ing smashed the record of5.1% set last month to reach thehighest level since recordkeep-ing for the euro started in 1997.

Inflation in 19 nations usingeuro sets record of 5.8%

PNS nMUMBAI

BSE benchmark Sensex plum-meted 778 points to closebelow the 55,500-level onWednesday following a broad-based selloff in global marketsas the Russia-Ukraine crisisescalated.The 30-share BSEindex ended 778.38 points or1.38 per cent lower at55,468.90. Similarly, the NSENifty plunged 187.95 points or1.12 per cent to 16,605.95.

Maruti was the top loser inthe Sensex pack, shedding 6per cent, followed by DrReddy's, Asian Paints, ICICIBank, HDFC and HDFCBank.On the other hand, TataSteel, Titan, Reliance andNestle India were among thegainers.In other Asian mar-kets, bourses in Hong Kong,Tokyo and Shanghai endedwith losses, while Seoul closedin the green.

Sensex plunges 778pts on escalatingRussia-Ukrainetensions

FMCG industry faced consumptionslowdown in urban markets, degrowthPNS n NEW DELHI

The Indian FMCG industrywitnessed a consumptionslowdown in urban marketsand de-growth in rural areasin 2021, as the sector was hithard by higher inflation lev-els forcing companies to gofor successive price increases,said data analytics firmNielsen.

In 2021, the FMCG indus-try had to go for double-digitprice growth in three consec-utive quarters to protect itsmargins, which convertedinto a price-driven growth of17.5 per cent in comparisonto a year ago in 2020.

Even in the October-December (Q4/2021) quarter,the FMCG industry has wit-nessed a consumption de-growth of 2.6 per cent due toinflationary pressure, andother macroeconomic fac-tors, said the FMCG Snapshotreleased by NielsenIQ's Retail

Intelligence team."Higher inflation levels

during 2021 have led to threeconsecutive quarters withdouble-digit price increaseresulting in consumptionslowdown in urban markets,and consumption degrowthin Rural markets," it said.

The rural market con-tributes around 35 per cent ofthe total FMCG sales. Afterthe second wave, it was hithard and several FMCG com-panies including the market

leader HUL in their recentquarter results for theOctober-December periodreported negative volumegrowth in rural markets.

Moreover, price rise contin-ues to impact small manufac-turers, where the number ofsmall manufacturers, havinga turnover below Rs 100 croredropped by 13 per cent large-ly due to the difficulty of con-tinuing operations with high-er costs, the Nielsen reportsaid.

UKRAINE CRISIS

9

Vijayawada | Thursday March 3, 2022 hollywood

ilmmaker LuvRanjans yet-unti-tled next featuringRanbir Kapoorand ShraddhaKapoor to release

on Holi next year. It willrelease in cinemas on March8, 2023.

Initially, the film was sup-posed to release on 26thJanuary, 2023.

Sharing the official newson social media, TaranAdarsh mentioned: “Ranbir-Shraddha: Holi 2023 releasefinalised… #LuvRanjan’s nextfilm — not titled yet `— torelease in cinemas on (Wed)8 March 2023 #Holi… Stars

#RanbirKapoor and#ShraddhaKapoor…Produced by #LuvRanjan &#AnkurGarg…#BhushanKumar presenta-tion…” After delivering backto back super hits like PyaarKa Punchnama franchise andSonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety,Ranjan is currently busy fin-ishing his next untitledromantic comedy starringRanbir and Shraddha in leadroles. While there has been alot of speculations regardingthe other cast of the film andits story, the details of thehighly-anticipated project hasbeen kept under wraps by themakers. Produced by Luv

Ranjan and Ankur Garg andpresented by BhushanKumar, the untitled next star-

ring Ranbir and Shraddhawill also feature DimpleKapadia and Boney Kapoor.

A

est Side Story starAriana DeBosehas joined the castof Kraven theHunter, anupcoming super-

hero action-adventure featur-ing Aaron Taylor Johnson asone of Spider-Mans mostdeadly antagonists.

She will play Calypso, avoodoo priestess who is theon-and-off lover of Kraven.The character first appearedin Spider-Man comics in theearly 1980s as an adversaryof Marvel’s teen web-slinger.In the comics, she has thepower of mind control and acostume that barely coversher body, reports variety.com.

J.C. Chandor, who previ-ously tackled All Is Lost andTriple Frontier, is directingKraven the Hunter.

The film, which also starsRussell Crowe, will bereleased theatrically on Jan.13, 2023.

DeBose is currently thefavourite to win best sup-porting actress at this year’sOscars, for her captivatingturn as Anita in StevenSpielberg’s remake of WestSide Story. Over the week-end, she took home the SAG

Award for outstanding per-formance by a female actorin a supporting role.

“It’s taken a long time forme to feel comfortable call-ing myself an actor. My rootscome from the dance worldand the Broadway stage,” shesaid onstage at the SAGAwards while accepting thetrophy.

Prior to her big-screenbreakout in West Side Story,DeBose was a member of theoriginal Broadway cast ofHamilton and landed a Tonynomination for playing thelead role in Summer: TheDonna Summer Musical.

She later starred in RyanMurphy’s film adaptation ofThe Prom for Netflix, as well as the Apple TV Plusmusical comedy seriesSchmigadoon!

Before immersing herselfin the Spiderverse, DeBosewill be seen in MatthewVaughn’s action film Argyllefrom Apple, in which shewill star opposite HenryCavill, Bryan Cranston,Samuel L. Jackson and DuaLipa. She will also star inGabriela Cowperthwaite’sspace thriller I.S.S. withChris Messina and PilouAsbaek.

Ariana DeBose to play Calypsoin Kraven the Hunter

w

Ranbir Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor torelease in cinemas on March 8, 2023

akistani actorFawad Khan,who has gainedhis popularityamong theIndian audience

with his Bollywood filmsKhoobsurat, Kapoor &Sons, Ae Dil HaiMushkil, has finishedshooting for his yet-unti-tled web series.

The series is a Zindagioriginal that will bereleased on Indian OTTplatform ZEE5. Theshow also featuresSanam Saeed and it isdirected by Oscar-nomi-nated Pakistani directorAsim Abbasi.

Talking about finish-ing the shooting, Asimsaid: “This is a very per-sonal project for me. Theshoot which spannedover five months hasbeen the most challeng-ing experience of my lifebut also the most reward-ing. The ensemble has donea beautiful job, and givensome career-best perfor-mances.”

“While we have had

many eventful days shoot-ing for the series, the lastday of the shoot was partic-ularly action-packed. Iremember the car we weresupposed to shoot with did-n’t work, so we used my

personal car instead.”“During the shot, Fawad

really had to burn the rub-ber, as he had to do a u-turn on a single-lane road.It was a perfect shot butnow I need new

tyres!(laugh),” he furtheradded.

The series is shot inKarachi and Hunza valley.

The series explores love,loss and reconciliation witha magical touch.

Pak actor Fawad Khan wraps upshooting for upcoming web series

pSRK, Deepika-starrer Pathaan

to release on Jan 25, 2023hah Rukh Khan, DeepikaPadukone and JohnAbraham’s upcoming filmPathaan has been lockedfor a January 25, 2023release.

The film will be released in threelanguages — Hindi, Tamil andTelugu.

A tweet from the official handle ofYash Raj Films read: “Make. Some.Noise! PATHAAN is here. Watch thedate announcement video NOW! Incinemas on 25th January, 2023.Releasing in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.Celebrate #Pathaan with #YRF50only at a big screen near you.”

The spy thriller film is directed bySiddharth Anand. Pathaan marksSRK’s first film after Zero which wasreleased in 2018.

s

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SPEED BUMP

FUN

nacking, as apractise and sector, has trans-formed com-pletely since thefirst mention ofthe virus. Health

was a priority pre-pandem-ic, but being locked athome while continuing tomaximise work output hasput an immense strain onus all. The result is thatwe’ve fallen back on oldhabits that provide com-fort. Hence, our snackingbehaviours have beeninvariably affected.

India has always been asnack-consuming market.Why is there a shifttowards healthy snackingin India?

In these uncertain times,snacks offer us that tran-sient feeling of comfortthat’s so rare. In 2020,industry experts noticedthat the pandemic’s effectshad led to a drastic changein Indian eating norms.The usual practise of threesquare meals a day hasbeen replaced by multiplesnacking cultures.

In December 2020,Mondelez’s Annual State

of Snacking study alsomentioned how two-

thirds of Indianssnacked more

since the pan-demic broke

out — 77%of allsur-veyedwouldrathersnack

than eatcomplete

meals. Kantar’sdata further sup-

ported this finding withits own research, saying

the volume of the cate-gory had expandedremarkably, by over8% in the matter of ayear till May 2020,accruing an addi-tional 12% byApril-May 2021.Today, peoplemay be finally,graduallyemerging from

lockdowns, but it’sunlikely that there’llbe a snacking slow-

down. With the hybridwork model gainingincreasing favour,consumption ofsnacks is headed in a

singular direction — up.The future for the snacks

segment seems brightindeed, with a few keyemerging trends:

Health consciousnesswill be a huge factor inchoosing snacks. One keychange to drive the indus-try will be a keener focuson clean eating; peoplemay check the healthmetre of snacks beforemaking purchases. Snackshaving high-protein andvitamin-rich qualities willbe selected over others.Industry players shouldpay attention to this dis-cernible shift in consumertrend and follow it in orderto capitalise on the bur-geoning clean, mindfulsnacking culture.snackingsegment observes a similartrend in the food category.The “healthy” segment isbooming across all foodcategories.

Traditional snacks willalways rule. As a culture,we’re enamoured by tradi-tions; the same is the casewith our love for nam-keens. Our teens haveinherited this trait and aredriving its high sales—namkeens comprise 50% ofall salted snacks. It’ll con-tinue to rule the leader-board, with sales expectedto expand in double digits.In non-metro cities andsmall towns, people arefamiliar with the typicaltaste palate. For them, tra-ditional snacks wouldalways be the first prefer-ence.

Branded products willhave more consumer trustthan non-branded vari-eties. Of all the snacks pur-chased today, over 65% fallunder the branded catego-ry, as against almost 40%in the pre-COVID times.Hence, the brand segmentis poised to expand as con-sumers are extremelyhealth-conscious. They’llhappily pay a premium forbranded snacks rather thancheaper ones, whereiningredients and the healthquotient are suspect.

Snacking is growingagain, and its growth isfuelled by mindful andclean eating. The industryhas reason to celebrate ifthey’re ready to capitaliseon these trends.

(The writer, DawinderPal, is the head of

marketing at Bikano)

Has the snacking

segmenttransformed?

SHIKHA DUGGAL

ith the exam season approach-ing, student stress levels havereached an all-time high.Aavishkar Center for Self-Enrichment, supported by ateam of 80 volunteers trained by

Dr Nirmala, takes on the challenge ofaddressing student grief and providingmental health support for students using atoll-free helpline called “Hum AapkiSunenge”. A brain child of Dr. Nirmala S.Rao, Aavishkar was established as a psychi-atric clinic in 1993 with the aim of reachingout to the emotionally disturbed.Aavishkar’s distinct image was createdthrough psychotherapy and understandingof the individual. According to a study pub-lished in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry,over 53% of Indian university studentssuffer from moderate to extremely severedepression. This number has been bol-stered by the pandemic, and recentstudies claim 58% of Indian collegestudents experienced a significantincrease in their stress levels anda severe deterioration in theiremotions. Dr Nirmala says,“Unfortunately, society atlarge still views mentalhealth as a weakness, andthere exists a desire tosave face. Students areunwilling to open upabout their struggles,fearing judgment. And,being unable to share and theneed to pretend that everything isalright, in turn compounds the prob-lem.”

In the course of her extensive work withpatients, Dr Rao realised that most prob-lems resulting in psychiatric emergenciescould have been prevented if dealt with inthe initial stage. She has always believed inUTOPIA, an ideal society. She continues,“For example, in terms of education, a sonwho says he wants to become a doctor isacceptable, but a son who wants to becomea chef may face resistance. This results in avery narrow spectrum of choices availableto a child. With everyone competing forlimited resources, the pressure to performescalates. And not every child has the samecapacities, further leading to stress and anx-iety. Everything becomes about grades,admission to the best college, employmentat the best corporate with the best package,and so on. Everything links back to perfor-mance! This pressure can lead to perfor-mance anxiety, exam anxiety, generalisedanxiety, depression, lack of self-esteem, and

many other issues. If the child doesn’t haveadequate resources to manage his or heremotions, it may lead to extreme reactionslike suicide.”

This initiative aims at attracting SSC,HSC, and other students in a bid to lowertheir mental health. “We need systemic levelchanges to handle some of these aspects,including a revision of the education sys-tem. Yet, parents, teachers, and others cancome together to help reduce the burden onyoung minds who are facing academicstressors by taking the emphasis away fromgrades and toward learning. Creating flexi-bility, understanding the strengths of your

child, and allowingthe full

development of theirpotential is also key,” she

adds.The past couple of years have

been especially stressful, given theunpredictability and fears related tothe pandemic. Students are left con-fused and unsure about what theyshould be planning, which onlymakes their tasks harder. She alsomentions, “Our helpline will specif-ically work with students to givethem space to express themselvesand their concerns without fearof judgment. They will beassisted in exploring theirexperiences, helped inlearning some skills tocope with anxiety,and providedsome study skillsand relaxationtechniques that

might ease their efforts.”The Aavishkar Team has always been on

the alert for opportunities to offer support,skills, and hope to those who are struggling.Exam times are especially important, as areresults days. Through the helpline, theextended team has been trained and guidedby Dr Rao to provide the first support andguidance for any students who might call inabout their challenges. Whenever any childhas a problem, generally the people aroundthem get into a problem-solving mode,wanting to help them overcome their issuesin the fastest time possible. While this is aworthy sentiment, it can sometimes cause

problems. When the individuals who arestruggling are themselves in a problem-solving mode, they might benefit frombrainstorming. Yet, sometimes the personmay be emotionally vulnerable and not in astate to consider solutions. Here, the needfor them to share their feelings completelywithout fear of judgement is very impor-tant. Hence, listening always has to comefirst. Let the person feel heard, their prob-lems and emotions validated. Let the personfeel accepted as he/she is. Only then can wemove towards any brainstorming of solu-tions.

For any assistance, you reach out to them on their helplinenumber: +91 9172284386

A helpline facility tomanage exam stressW

‘Dazzling high-end,accessible fashionis the way to go'

ustainability continues tobe an important conversa-tion in the fashion indus-try. Today, with AishaRao’s style, demand forupcycled clothing is fast

rising among eco-conscious con-sumers, even in Hyderabad city. Shehas recognised the detrimental effectsof fast fashion and is adopting moreethical ways of manufacturing clothes,including the luxury of it. In an exclu-sive conversation with The Pioneer,she says, “My label is synonymouswith upcycled luxury couture,applique, colour, and uniqueness. Wehave come to establish a distinctivestyle in the city of Nizams.”

She wants to spark a trend thatshould gain serious momentumaround town. Even the fashion indus-try can become notorious for itsimpersonation! To which the designerasserts, “Duplicacy issues do get tome sometimes, especially when fewbrides buy the lehengas from ourstore but get the embroidery copiedfor their groom. It’s bizarre. We onlyget to know of this when we see thesocial media tags. It’s a moment ofdisappointment for us as a team. No

matter what, one must know how totackle the grey-market copying thatgoes on in the insidious premises ofour industry. Why not try to be flat-tered at times?”

As a fashionista herself, KeiraKnightly is an enchanting muse. As afashionista herself, she doesn’t like toplay it safe. She has also styled actressShraddha Kapoor in her forest phan-tom, along with Diana Penty in theRazzmatazz, reclaiming those to bethe most noteworthy style statementsof that time. Her desire to remain trueto fashion was never hindered by hersight! She is into experimentation andlikes to think outside the box.“Dazzling high-end and accessiblefashion is the way to go. I am the cre-ator of my own story. I dress for myown joy and desires. I am aware andconfident. Don’t shy away from wear-ing my heart on my sleeve. Ourlehengas have sizeable motifs andbold colours bound together withornate feminine details, creating aneclectic mix of delicate and maximal-ist aesthetics. These are must-havesfor every Indian bride aligned withmillenial sensibilities yet yearning fortradition on her big day,” says she.

If you take a sneak peek into herlatest collection, you’ll see that thecollection is designed for the mod-ern, adventurous bride who daresto believe life is full of joy, is play-ful and fun-spirited. Upcycledfabrics were used to create 3Ddesigns on lehengas — leftoverbits from tailoring on motifswere embellished on them.The collection is also hand-woven and meticulouslydesigned to make something beauti-ful by using waste to make a con-scious effort towards reducing car-bon footprints and environmentalhazards! “I wanted to bring backthe lost lustre of the most ubiqui-tous fabric spotted during yester-year Indian weddings — Tissue— minus the fraying. A combi-nation of metal and colouredthread in warp and weft bringsabout a sophisticated sheen.The fabric is light but rich andcomes with a sense of nostal-gia and sentiment, havingseen images of our mumsand grandmums wearing iton their wedding occasions,”she signs off.

s

s

ThursdayMarch 3, 2022

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sports 11VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | MARCH 3, 2022

PTI n CHRISTCHURCH

India’s ODI vice-captainHarmanpreet Kaur on

Wednesday revealed she was“going into a shell” before theteam’s psychologist MugdhaBavare helped her get “clearideas” and regain her lostform ahead of the ICCWomen’s World Cup.

Bavare is travelling withthe team in New Zealand,which is hosting the ODIshowpiece from Friday.

It is the first time that theIndian women’s team has asports psychologist on tour.

“Mugdha ma’am is trav-elling with us and she hasbeen of a lot of help especial-ly in the last four gameswhich we played againstNew Zealand where my per-formance was not good andeven I was going into a shellbecause the World Cup wascoming,” Kaur said during avirtual press conference.

“After I spoke to her I feltI was actually looking forthat. I had things in my mindbut I was not aware of it

because of lot of pressure butafter talking to her I got thesolutions. “I got clear ideasafter talking to her, thosethings really helped duringthe last 2-3 games. I’m surethe team is also benefittingfrom her because I can seeshe’s continuously talking toall the players, which is veryimportant and that will real-ly help us,” Kaur added.

Bavare is a formernational level swimmer andwas engaged for the Indianmen and women’s wrestlingteams, boxers and track andfield athletes ahead of the2016 Rio Olympics. She hasalso been associated with theMumbai Cricket Associationbeside working with acearcher Deepika Kumari inthe past. The 32-year-oldHarmanpreet was strugglingwith the bat in ODIs for quitesome time now. In the just-concluded ODI series againstNew Zealand, Kaur hadscores of 10, 10 and 13 in thefirst three ODIs before shewas dropped for the fourthgame.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Asecond-string Indian cricketteam will play against Ireland

in two T20 Internationals inMalahide on June 26 and June 28.

Cricket Ireland has confirmedthat the Indian team would be tour-ing Ireland for a short two-matchT20I series in June.

However, the series is unlikely

to see top players such as all-formatskipper Rohit Sharma, star batterVirat Kohli, first-choice wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant and pacespearhead Jasprit Bumrah in actionas the remaining one Test matchfrom the last year’s tour of Englandis scheduled to held from July 1-5.

“This summer will be a ‘Seasonof Stars’ as India, New Zealand andAfghanistan tour Ireland, while

we will play South Africa in Bristol.We’re set for the biggest home inter-national season in Ireland ever!”Cricket Ireland tweeted.

India will kick off Ireland’sbumper home summer by playingthe two T20Is ahead of their tourto England, which starts with lastsummer’s rescheduled fifth Test atEdgbaston on July 1.

After that, India is scheduled toplay six white-ball matches -- threeT20Is and three ODIs -- againstEngland from July 7.

India last played in Ireland in2018, winning a two-match T20Iseries 2-0.

“We are delighted to welcomeback India Men’s team for the firsttime since 2018, as well as the num-ber one-ranked ODI side - theBlack Caps, who were last here in2017,” Warren Deutrom, ChiefExecutive of Cricket Ireland, said.

“Just as important, given we willshortly be heading to a T20 WC, arethe two T20I series against SouthAfrica and Afghanistan.

PTI n CHANDIGARH

The Indian team will soonhave new physios and

Strength and Conditioning coach-es, who will be part of a dedicat-ed Sports Science & SportsMedicine (SSSM) team headed byNitin Patel.

The BCCI will be making aplethora of recruitments for itsSSSM team which includes phys-ios and trainers (S&C) for TeamIndia (men and women, junior(men and women), A teams as

well as dedicated “rehab special-ists” working on injury manage-ments. Both physios and S&Ccoaches have two categories ofrecruitment in which category 1constitutes working with seniormen and women’s teams whilethose in category 2 will work withjunior men and women anddomestic cricket. However, one ofthe interesting aspects of the newappointment is the enhanced roleof rehab specialists and perfor-mance analyst among S&C coach-es at the NCA.

AP n ISLAMABAD

Veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyonis aiming for a 3-0 sweep in

Australia’s first test series in Pakistansince 1998.

“It’s going to be a big challenge,but I’m going into this test seriesthinking we’re going to be perform-ing and playing our best cricket towin 3-0,” Lyon said in an online newsconference Wednesday, two daysahead of the first test at the PindiCricket Stadium.

“We haven’t played an away testsince 2019 … it’s a very young,exciting Australian test squad thatwe’ve got here and we’re coming offa pretty spectacular summer.”

Australia will have just threepractice sessions to prepare for thetest matches after arriving in Pakistanon Sunday and spending two days inthe team hotel. They will be playingthree test matches within 22 days,part of International Cricket Council’sWorld Test Championship, beforecompeting in a three-match ODIseries and a one-off Twenty20 againstPakistan.

“We’ve got enough people tocover all the bases,” Lyon said.

“Whatever team we go out with,we’re confident we can play a really,really positive brand of cricket herein Pakistan.”

With 415 wickets in 105 testmatches, Lyon will share the majorworkload of Australian slow bowlers.

Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar anduncapped 28-year-old leg-spinnerMitchell Swepson are also in selectioncontention if Australia opts to go intothe first test with two specialist spin-ners.

Lyon has a decent record on typ-ical slow subcontinent wickets, claim-ing 95 wickets in 19 test matchesacross India, Sri Lanka andBangladesh. His tally also includes 15wickets in four test matches againstPakistan played in the United ArabEmirates.

And after one day of practice atthe match venue, Lyon predicted asimilar type of wicket prepared for thefirst test that he has experienced inthe UAE during his previous twotours.

“There’s not much grass on it,”Lyon said. “It’s going to be prettyshiny come day one … pretty nice tobat on the first couple of days. Thenwe’ll look to hopefully spin andreverse swing may come into it.”

Australia also has three part-timespinners in Steve Smith, MarnusLabuschagne and Travis Head, ifrequired to support an attack that isusually spearheaded by the pacebowlers.

“So we’re very lucky in that thatarea,” Lyon said.

“We’ve seen both Marnus andSmithy play a role in taking some bigwickets. I think they will have theopportunity to get the ball at somestage.”

PTI n MUMBAI

All the IPL teams will start train-ing in the city from March 14 or

15 onwards and five practice venueshave been identified.

It is understood that the MCAground in suburban Bandra KurlaComplex, MCA ground in Thane,the Dr DY Patil University groundand a football pitch along with theCCI (Cricket Club of India) and theReliance Corporate Parkground in Ghansoli have beenidentified by the authorities aspractice venues for the cash-rich tournament, which beginson March 26.

Players are likely to startcoming into the city from March8.

The Maharashtra gov-ernment conducted a meet-ing with BCCI and MumbaiCricket Association in SouthMumbai for a smooth con-duct of the IPL, which is now

a 10-team affair.Ministers of the state govern-

ment — Aaditya Thackeray andEknath Shinde — along with MCAchief Vijay Patil and apex councilmembers Ajinkya Naik and AbhayHadap were present at the meeting.

It is also understood that all theparticipants will have to undergo RT-

PCR test 48 hours prior to theirarrival in Mumbai.

While 10 plushhotels have been identi-fied in Mumbai whiletwo hotels have been

zeroed in for Pune.It is also learnt that

the players will have toundergo 3-5 days ofquarantine before enter-

ing their respectivebubbles.

The league stageof the IPL will beconducted inMumbai and Pune.

While the

Wankhede Stadium and CCI(Brabourne stadium) will host 20matches each, the DY Patil stadiumand the Maharashtra CricketAssociation stadium at Gahunje inPune will organise 15 games.

PTI nMOHALI

Two men at the peak of theircareers and separated by a year.Supremely successful, insanely

wealthy, and achievers in their ownright with manic followers growingexponentially with each passing day.

But 48 hours before Virat Kohligears up to play his landmark 100thTest and Rohit Sharma walks out fromthe PCA Stadium pavilion in a navyblue India blazer for the first time, theysimply looked like two men possessedand intensely focussed to make theirmilestone moment special.

While social media went into afrenzy before BCCI allowed crowd forthe momentous occasion, there werenot even 10 people around when theIndian team bus entered the stadiumpremises on Wednesday.

Yes, there are billboards and cut-outs around the stadium but howmany people will turn up on a warmFriday morning when India open atwo-match series against Sri Lankacould be anybody’s guess — crowdallowed or not.

Inside the cauldron were twomen-- one aged 34, who has basical-

ly turned the corner in traditional for-mat in such a whirlwind fashion thathe has now become the undisputedleader of men, making a mockery ofperceptions.

Rohit Sharma, in his own way,proved that perceptions are just that“perceptions”.

One could even imagine that wrysmile for all those who thought that heis just another white-ball bully.

Within a few yards of him was amega-star, who is best described as aTest cricket devotee. Ian Chappellrecently urged Kohli to take the lead

in saving Test cricket.Not more than 20 odd people were

witness to what an intense practice ses-sion looks like where the two stars tookmultiple turns to bat various nets --throwdowns, spinners, pacers, and netbowlers. If Rohit would tuck Shami offhis hips, Virat would bring the coverdrive against Mohammed Siraj out ofthe closet. They batted at different netsat different times. There was a deliv-ery from Siraj that could have got anybatter. Pitched on length and movingenough to send Kohli’s off-stump fora walk. The stump cart-wheeled and

pierced the back net. Kohli walkedback and picked it up.

Suddenly the urgency in his strideincreased and the next ball was hit fora cover drive.

Some 30 yards away, quietlywatching the former skipper was hisone time deputy. ‘Captain Sharma’ kepta hawk eye on the proceedings, hav-ing himself batted close to 45 minutes.

In between, he came out and twicewas seen tonking rookie left-armspinner Saurabh Kumar.

As Rohit was going through thepaces, one saw a relaxed Kohli havinga chat with batting coach VikramRathour and Ravindra Jadeja, sharinga hearty laugh, something that that toldthat he is absolutely relaxed and in agreat mind space.

In between, he was seen watchingRohit leave some of Jasprit Bumrah’sballs and Mohammed Shami’s expressdeliveries outside the off-stump.

So, how is King Kohli shaping upbefore a Test match? Well, one wouldlike to refer to Sunil Gavaskar’s oftenrecalled statement of his playing days.

“When I didn’t bat well at the nets,I invariably ended up doing well inTests,”

PTI n DUBAI

Riding on his splendid run against Sri Lankarecently, India batter Shreyas Iyer has

jumped a massive 27 spots in the latest ICCT20I rankings, even as Virat Kohli fell out ofthe top 10.

India’s recent home series win against SriLanka has had major ramifications on the play-er rankings aiding attacking top-order batterIyer to make a massive jump to reach the 18thposition in the list for batters.

Iyer scored three unbeaten half-centuriesduring India’s 3-0 win against Sri Lanka inFebruary, with the 27-year-old amassing animpressive 204 runs at a strike rate of 174.

Iyer’s teammate pacer BhuvneshwarKumar jumped three spots to 17th on thebowler rankings.

Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka scored animpressive 75 in the second game of the series,and he was rewarded with a six-spot rise toninth on the rankings, while former India cap-tain Kohli - who was rested for the series -dropped five places to 15th.

The other big mover with the bat in T20Icricket this week is Mohammad Waseem of

the UAE. His unbeaten century against Irelandin the final of ICC Men’s T20 World CupQualifier A, helped him reach the 12th posi-tion with the bat. That is the highest T20I rank-ing by any UAE batter, surpassing ShaimanAnwar’s 13th place achieved in 2017.

Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Kumara’s five wicketsin the series with India have lifted him intothe top 40 bowlers for the first time.

Other bowlers who enjoyed a successfultime at the T20 World Cup Qualifier A include

Zahoor Khan of UAE (up 17 places to joint-42nd) and Ireland’s Josh Little (up 27 placesto join-49th).

Rohan Mustafa’s successes with bat andball have enabled him to move up to sixth placeamong all-rounders, just one place below hisbest of fifth achieved in February 2020.

The biggest mover on the Test rankingswas South African quick Kagiso Rabada, whoshot up three places to third following hisimpressive display against hosts New Zealand.

Rabada managed 10 wickets during thetwo-match series, with his magnificent haulof 5/60 in the first innings of the second Testhelping the Proteas on their way to an impor-tant 198-run triumph.

The kiwi duo of Kyle Jamieson (droppedtwo spots to fifth) and Tim Southee (droppedone spot to sixth) lost ground in the bowlerrankings, with Australia captain Pat Cumminsand India veteran Ravichandran Ashwin stillleading the way.

Marnus Labuschagne remained as the topranked Test batter, with New ZealanderDevon Conway jumping six places to 17th fol-lowing his 92 in the second innings of the sec-ond Test against South Africa.

PTI n CHRISTCHURCH

Senior India player HarmanpreetKaur, who has battled a pro-longed rough patch, feels her 171against Australia in the 2017

World Cup overshadowed her many“crucial” knocks of 30 and 40, which fol-lowed that “benchmark-setting” innings.

Two days before the ODI World Cupbegins in New Zealand, the vice-captainadded that critics often forget her low-scoring but important knocks because ofone standout performance.

“I know people talk more about my171-knock and that is a standard I haveset for myself, maybe that’s why my smallknocks of 30-40 runs, which are crucialto the team, are not given importance,”Kaur said during a virtual press confer-ence on Wednesday.

“I don’t want to judge myself throughnumbers - what matters to me is thatwhen the team needs me, I can stand upfor them be it by scoring 100 runs or 10runs.”

The 32-year-old had been strugglingwith the willow but roared back to formin time for the World Cup, beginning onFriday. Kaur scored a total of 33 runs inthe first three matches against NewZealand before being dropped from theside for the fourth ODI. However, in thefinal game, the right-hander smashed 63,following it up with a 104 in the warm-

up match against South Africa.“Yes definitely (feeling confident

about batting), there were a lot of ups anddown in my performance but the lasthundred performance has given me a lot

of confidence.“The innings against New Zealand

was very crucial for me. I got therhythm I needed now it’s very importantfor me to continue this rhythm and

momentum.“I have a lot of expectation from

myself because I know my importancein the team. One wants to do well everytime but things are not always in your

favour.“When things are not going your

way a lot of people say a lot of things butthe good thing in that is the peoplearound me gave me a lot of confidenceduring the crucial time.

“It is painful when as a cricketer youare not getting runs. You are trying togive your 200 per cent but are not ableto deliver at that level you expect of your-self,” she added.

Mumbai-based sports psychologistDr. Mugdha Bavare is travelling with theIndian women’s team for the first timeand Kaur feels her services have beenvital.

“Mugdha maam has been of a lot ofhelp especially in the last four gameswhich we played against New Zealandwhere my performance was not goodand even I was going into the shell.

“I had things in my mind but I wasnot aware of it, after talking to her I gotthe solutions. I got clear ideas after talk-ing to her those things really helped dur-ing lat 2-3 games.”

Kaur confirmed that she will be bat-ting at number five in the World Cup.

“I am more comfortable at four butsometime you have to play according tothe demands of the team. We had dis-cussions on that but as of now I’m goingto play at number 5 but in future if thereare any changes that would be accord-ing to match situations.”

I Don’t Judge Myself Based on Numbers: HarmanHarmanpreet credits teampsychologist for helping hercome out of “shell”

A day in nets for ‘Centurion’ Kohli and ‘Captain’ Sharma Second-string India to play Irelandin two T20 Internationals

Australia aiming for testseries sweep in Pakistan

IPL teams to start trainingfrom March 14 or 15

Ministers of thestate government— AadityaThackeray andEknath Shinde —along with MCAchief Vijay Patiland apex councilmembers AjinkyaNaik and AbhayHadap werepresent at themeeting.

INDIA’S RECENT HOMESERIES WIN AGAINSTSRI LANKA HAS HADMAJOR RAMIFICATIONSON THE PLAYERRANKINGS AIDINGATTACKING TOP-ORDERBATTER IYER TO MAKE AMASSIVE JUMP.

Team India to havenew physios, trainers

Shreyas Iyer jumps 27 places to 18th in ICC T20 rankings

or quitesome time,news reportshave beencirculatingregarding

Naga Chaitanya mak-ing his digital debut.Today, the actor offi-cially confirmed thenews by posting aphoto of his web show,Dootha.

He posted onInstagram, “To a newstart.”

The monochromaticphotograph showsNaga Chaitanya on thescreen of a laptop, as

well as web seriesscript paper, a pen,spectacles, and awatch.

The script paperincludes a quotationby W.H. Auden, indi-cating that the filmwould be a horrorthriller. In this horrorshow, the audience willwitness the handsomeactor in an avatar.Thank you, a featurefilm directed byVikram Kumar, wasjust finished by NagaChaitanya. A releasedate for the film hasyet to be decided.

Sebastian P.C. 524, is a village-based movie, where the villageenvironment and pure love are

key elements. In this comedy thriller,the hero suffers from night blind-

ness. Kiran Abbavaram, whomade a distinct mark withRaja Varu, Rani Varu and SRKalyanamandapam, hasbeen a very busy artist. Thefilm is being produced byJovitha Cinemas and pre-sented by EliteEntertainment. B SiddaReddy, JayachandraReddy, Pramod, and Raju.Namratha Darekar (akaNuveksha) and KomaliPrasad are playing thefemale leads in this film.Ahead of the theatricalrelease of the comedythriller on March 4, the pro-

tagonist of the film, KiranAbbavaram, said, “I thank the

elders for being here to bless us. Isee the opportunity to be in front ofthe camera as a blessing. The audi-ence has to be treated as guestsbecause they spend their moneyon our movie. Everyone who hasworked on this film has sleptpoorly. I am confident of win-ning the audience's respect. The

mother-son sentiment is a specialfeature. The hero's mother tells himthat she and her husband had tomake a number of sacrifices toensure he landed a job in the policedepartment. She asks him not toreveal the fact of his night blindness,lest people show pity on him.Everyone will surely love the emo-tions the film deals with. Ghibrangave the tunes in a short span oftime. And his music is amazing. Theproducers have been very supportive.They were determined to completethe movie at any cost. You are goingto experience the best technical out-put. From editing to art direction andsound mixing, everything has comeout very well. My brother mademany sacrifices for me. He supportedme in every way to ensure that Ibecame an actor. He wanted to seeme at the top. Whatever love he gaveme, I will return by working harderand harder. I feel extremely sad thathe is no more. I want the audience towatch my movies only if they believethat the content is good. I am goingto work with Deepthi, Cherry, BunnyVasu, and Allu Aravind Garu for myupcoming movies. I like Adivi Seshgaru’s acting. I am happy that AkashPuri is here today. See you all in the-atres on March 4!”

Everyone will surely love theemotions of Sebastian P.C.

524: Kiran Abbavaram

12

Vijayawada Thursday March 3, 2022 tollywood

DEEPIKA PASHAM

reating come-dy and play-ing a villainare mostlyconsideredthe hardest

things to do foran actor, because‘villainism’ forcesthe actor to por-tray complexemotions andshow humanfrailties, whichare poles apart.Acing this skill isactor RanaDaggubati. Rana

Daggubati waslast seen inBheemlaNayak, and

how! Peoplewatching him onbig screens play-ing an egoisticyet powerful rolewere in awe ofhim.

The actor, whois enjoying thesuccess of the film,talks exclusively toThe Pioneer andshares, “In real life,

I don’t care aboutmany things. I amcompletely the

opposite of what Iplayed in BheemlaNayak. I avoid fightsat all costs.I do mywork and leave.”

Referring to hisweb series on Netflixwith his uncleVenkatesh and thesequel to ShekharKammula’s Leader,he says, “It will bevery new, withmany emotions,and is definitelygoing to be very

engaging. I am alsoeagerly waiting for

the sequel to Leader becauseShekhar comes and narratesscenes and leaves. I left it tohim to take his own time andmake the best out of it.”

Rana has collaborated withmusic director S Thamanmultiple times, and he feelsThaman is a blessing to therecent cinema movement.

As of late, Rana is doingmore negative roles, and it isbecause he is thoroughlyenjoying playing such char-acters that he will next beseen in more exciting nega-tive roles in his coming pro-jects. “I am shooting from 9a.m. to 9 p.m. I like to stay inone genre for a while, andmost of my films are similarto Bheemla Nayak’s. I amhappy that actors like PawanKalyan are accepting genreslike this. I am pretty happyto be part of these kinds ofprojects. The scripts I chosewere never accepted by otherheroes. Over the years, Iunderstood the character butnever understood the defini-tion of hero. I tried to searchfor hero elements, and I kepttelling my father that one dayI would do a film without asong or a fight and it wouldbe a big hit. I do charactersthat I enjoy and learn bydoing more of them.”

Sharing his experiencesworking with Trivikram andSaagar K Chandra, he says,“Trivikram is a very excitingpersonality. His discussionsare valuable, and his knowl-edge of our culture and lan-guage comes through in hisscripts. In every film, welearn something new.Speaking of Saagar, in thebeginning, I was very jeal-ous of his team. He hadgreat writers. He alwayschooses what needs tobe said and has con-trol of the sets.”

The biggestcompliment hegot for his

character in Bheemla Nayak?He answers, “My father saidthat I gave a very satisfyingperformance, and that is thebiggest compliment becausehe doesn’t use any superla-tives generally.”

Rana claims he made noattempt to compete withPawan Kalyan on the bigscreen. All that he did wasjust to don Daniel’s charac-ter.

On working with PawanKalyan and his take homefrom him, he shares, “Mytake home is different. I amexposed to the cinema in adifferent way. I have workedwith Amitabh Bachan and soon, but with Pawan Kalyan itis different. He is a very puresoul, energetic, and glad thatI interacted with him andhad a gratifying experience.”There will be many obstaclesand struggles before openinga cinema on big screens. Thetoughest part of shootingBheemla Nayak, Rana found,was meeting the standards ofthe Ayyappam Koshiyum set.However, after watching thefinal output, he was flabber-gasted to see how wellBheemla Nayak turned out,despite making somechanges to the originalscript.

Meanwhile, Rana spilledthe beans about VirataParvam’s release, and thefilm will be coming aroundthe release of RRR.

‘I want to do a film with

no fights & songs'

c

f

alks about Telugu super-star Pawan Kalyan’s possi-ble collaboration with hisnephew Sai Dharam Tejhave emerged after an

online source reported on theupcoming movie venture.

It is believed that the makers ofPawan-Sai Dharam Tej’s next are set-ting things up so as to launch themovie officially.

In Samuthirakani’s directorial, aTamil movie titled VinodhayaSitham is apparently being made inTelugu, as the heroes fromTollywood's “mega” family willappear on the screen together.

Production

house People Media Factory willbankroll the movie, with VivekKuchibhotla as the producer. Also,the movie is said to have an officiallaunch, which can be expected bythe end of March. TrivikramSrinivas will apparently pen the dia-logues and the screenplay for thisupcoming remake. If the rumoursare to be believed, Pawan Kalyanwill play the lead role, and SaiDharam Tej will be seen in the roleof Thambiramaiah.

The movie Vinodhaya Sitham wasreleased last year. It featuresSamuthirakani, Thambi Ramaiah,and Munishkanth in the lead roles.

t

Pawan Kalyan-Sai DharamTej movie is to beannounced by March-end

At agrand

event in Mumbai,Prabhas, who joined

his Radhe Shyam team ata grand event, revealed

why he isn’t married yet.When asked about predicting

love, Prabhas’ wittyresponse made every-

one laugh out loud.As Prabhas inter-

acted with the mediaon Wednesday in

Mumbai, he wasquizzed about thedialogue from therecent trailer ofRadhe Shyam.Prabhas plays afamous palmist inthe movie, whopredicts the futureaccurately.

A media personquestionedPrabhas, “There isa dialogue in themovie which saysyour predictionabout love is notso accurate.

What about yourprediction in

real life?”Prabhas, who

gave a wittyreply, said,

“Mylove

predictions have always been wrong.That is why I am not yet married.”

This funny answer from the Baahubaliactor has drawn much attention, makingeveryone admire Prabhas’ wit.

Radhe Shyam, on the other hand, isinching towards its worldwide releasesoon, and hence the makers haveorganised a trailer launch event inMumbai, kickstarting the promo-tions.

Pooja Hegde and Prabhas, asPrerana and Vikramaditya,share lovely chemistry onscreen. March 11 would bethe D-day for RadheShyam, as it is releasedin Telugu, Tamil,Hindi, Kannada,Malayalam,Chinese, andJapanese.

s the specialcurtain raiservideo fromthe upcomingPrabhas-star-rer Radhe

Shyam hit the airwaveson Wednesday, PoojaHegde, who plays thefemale lead in the film,is elated with the buzzaround the film.

The actress expressedher gratitude towardsthe audience and saidthat the special videowas their way of show-ing appreciation to theaudience. Sharing herexcitement, Pooja says,“I am thrilled andblessed to have so manypeople rooting for thefilm. Love from theaudience matters to me,and I’m grateful that

they’ve shown suchexcitement for it. Thetrailer is for the viewerswho have been makingus feel special since theannouncement dropped.I hope to meet viewersacross languages in the-atres.”

Making a fresh pair,Prabhas and Pooja havecome together to bringan epic saga of love anddestiny which willunfold on March 11. Inaddition, the actress isgearing up for herupcoming movies,including Salman Khan’sBhaijaan, Cirkus oppo-site Ranveer Singh,Acharya withChiranjeevi and RamCharan, and a yet-to-be-titled film oppositeMahesh Babu.

a

Naga Chaitanya joins sets of maiden web-series Dootha

Pooja Hegde thrilled withaudience anticipation for

Radhe Shyam

Prabhasreveals why

he isn'tmarried

yet!