Police, Army foil Maoists terror plot, deactivate 83 IEDs

Gaya (Bihar), Feb 27 (IANS) A joint operation launched by the Bihar police and the Army averted a major terror attack planned by the Mao-ists near the Chakrabandha police station area in Nax-al-affected Gaya district in Bihar. The security forces recovered and disabled 83 IEDs planted on the road. A police official on Saturday said an operation was car-ried out by the security forces against the Maoists on Friday in the border areas of Au-rangabad and Gaya districts. As many as 83 landmines planted by the Maoists in the Chakrabandha forest across 150 metres were recovered which were later disabled. 205 Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (CoBRA), the 159th and 47th battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were involved in this operation. Three im-provised explosive devices (IEDs) weighed 20 kg while 71 IEDs weighed 10 kg and 9 IEDs weighed 5 kg each. The recovered IEDs contained 815 kg of explosive ammuni-tion. All IEDs were mounted in consecutive series. Electri-cal wires have also been re-covered at the site.

1 dead, 3 hurt in car-truck collision

on Delhi-Jaipur e-way

Gurugram, Feb 27 (IANS) One person died and three people, including two women, were critically injured in a collision be-tween a SUV and a truck near Rajiv Chowk on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, the police said on Satur-day. The accident took place on the expressway from Jaipur to Delhi side on Friday evening when a speeding truck hit an SUV from the rear side.The car driver Praveen Nasa was killed in the mishap while another oc-cupant Dipanshu Lalit received minor injuries while Parul and Harsh-preet Kaur were critically injured in the accident. All the victims are residents of Gurugram and are cur-rently undergoing treat-ment. Dipanshu in his complaint said he along with his three friends were heading towards the Iffco Chowk from Hero Honda Chowk on the expressway while Praveen was driving the car. "When we reached near Rajiv Chowk on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, a truck driver was driving haphaz-ardly and when Praveen tried to overtake the truck, the driver hit the SUV from the rear side," Dipanshu told the police.

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New Delhi, Feb 27(UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for making India the next global hub for manufacturing and sourcing of toys by attracting investments in the sector and promoting exports. Mr Modi made the statement while vir-tually inaugurating the four-day India Toy Fair 2021 here. Addressing more than 1,000 exhibitors, the Prime Minis-ter called for bringing out the hidden potential of the toy industry in India and to cre-ate an identity for it as a big part of the campaign for At-maNirbhar Bharat.

‘This first toy fair is not just a business or economic event. This program is a link to strengthen the country’s age-old culture of sports and cheer,’ he said, adding that

the event is a platform where one can discuss all the aspects of the industry and exchange ideas.

Research on toys has been going since the era of Indus Valley civilization, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, he said.

Mr Modi appealed to the country’s toy manufacturers to make toys that are better for both ecology and psychol-

ogy! He asked them to make toys using things that can be recycled and less plastic.

Realising the importance of toys in the overall develop-ment of children, he said the Government has taken effec-tive steps and brought chang-es through the New National Education Policy. ‘We can take the world back towards eco-friendly toys, through our

software engineers computer games can bring the stories of India to the world’, he said. But despite all this, today In-dia’s share in the $ 100 bil-lion global toy market is very small. 85 per cent of the toys in the country are sourced from abroad, ‘ he stated. He stressed the need to change this situation. Efforts are be-ing made to strengthen the possibilities of toy tourism, the PM said. Toyathon-2021 was also organised to pro-mote Indian sports based toys and more than 7000 ideas were brainstormed.

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari and Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani also participated in the event.

PM Modi bats for making India a toy manufacturing hub

Venkaiah calls for making judicial system more accessible, affordable

Chennai, Feb 27 (UNI) Vice President M Ven-kaiah Naidu on Satur-day called upon the legal fraternity to make the judicial system more ac-cessible, affordable, un-derstandable to every citi-zen. Delivering the 11th Convocation of the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University here, he said the cost of legal processes was a major impediment in making justice acces-sible to all. ‘A common perception is that there are many hidden costs in availing the legal route to resolve disputes.

We have to find ways to reduce this out-of-pocket expenditure to the com-mon citizen’, he added. Stating that there was also a serious issue of

protracted litigation, Mr Naidu said timeli-ness in rendering justice was a major concern. As the maxim goes, jus-tice delayed is justice

denied. This delay is of-ten attributed to huge pendency in courts, frequent adjourn-ments and long leaves of courts. ‘We have to address this problem of inordinate delay and do whatever is possible in our own purview to ensure speedier justice’, the Vice-President said.

Noting that there was no silver bullet to all these problems, he said sys-temic solutions have to be found to these challenges.

‘For better access, more courts, special benches and adequately staffed

courts with all posts filled up are required. Innova-tions like Lok Adalats and mobile courts have to be leveraged upon wherever feasible’, he said.

The system needs to be demystified and brought closer to the people by conducting court pro-ceedings and delivering judgments in the lan-guage of local people. ‘We must strive hard to reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure for the un-derprivileged. Legal aid mechanisms may need to be more streamlined’, he said.

Youth Cong protests fuel price hike outside Smriti Irani’s residenceArrayNew Delhi, Feb 27

(UNI) The Indian Youth Congress on Saturday or-ganised a protest against rising inflation, petrol, die-sel and gas cylinder prices outside the residence of Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, in New Delhi. Hundreds of Congress work-ers gathered and shouted slogans against the Central government.Srinivas B.V., National President of the Indian Youth Congress, said,

“When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in opposi-tion, Smriti Irani was seen

on the streets protesting Rs 5 hike in petrol, diesel and LPG prices but today when

there is inflation all over the country, she is silent that is why today the Youth Con-gress has tried to awaken her from slumber.”

“Petrol has crossed Rs 100, diesel has crossed Rs 90 in many parts of the country, and the prices of gas cylinders are increasing day-by-day, the shameful thing is that despite such open loot, the BJP govern-ment is blaming the Con-gress and trying to run away from the issue.”

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) India has confirmed 16,488 fresh cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours pushing the tally to 11,079,979, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Sat-urday. The death toll from the disease has reached 1,56,938 peo-ple, with 113 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 10.76 million people have recovered in the country since the start of the outbreak. A day earlier, the country registered 16,577 new

COVID-19 cases and 120 deaths.Ahead of the second phase of the government’s vaccination drive from March, 14,242,547 people have been inoculated against the

disease so far. The Union govern-ment called for an urgent meeting on Friday to brief states regarding phase 3 of the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive in the country.The Ministry of Health and Fam-ily Welfare (MoHFW) has said that no COVID-19 vaccination sessions will be held on February 27 and February 28. It said that on this Saturday and Sunday, the Co-Win digital platform will be transitioning from Co-Win1.0 to Co-Win 2.0. “In view of this, CO-

VID-19 vaccination sessions will not be scheduled during these two days,” the Ministry informed.India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States, with more than 28.48 million COVID-19 patients. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 113.39 mil-lion people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide.

India records 16,488 new COVID-19 cases

‘Supporting BJP My Biggest Mistake’: BKU’s Naresh Tikait at Munderwa MahapanchayatMunderwa Feb 27 (UNI):

The Bharatiya Kisan Union’s grand farmers’ meeting at Munderwa in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh on February 25, gave impetus to the movement in the Purvanchal region. Large multitudes of farmers in green turbans, green-white caps, women and youth gath-ered for the mahapanchayat in a field near the Munderwa sug-ar mill, in spite of the fact that the Mahapanchayat had not been publicised much. Shortly after the panchayat started, four-wheelers were stopped by police from entering the assembly venue. The Kisan Mahapanchayat, which lasted for more than four hours, was

addressed by Naresh Tikait, the national president of the BKU. In his address, Tikait al-leged that the BJP government is bent on destroying the farm-ers. “If we lose our lands, and can no longer carry out farm-ing, what will we be left with? We have carried out farming for thousands of years and

will not leave our land under any circumstances,” he said. Tikait urged the farmers to sever all ties with BJP legisla-tors and not to invite them to any events. He added that ex-tending support to the BJP was his biggest mistake and that he never meant for his meet-ings to become BJP’s election

rallies. “Today, the government has clashed with us (farmers). We only want the talks to hap-pen smoothly, the prices of crops to be paid properly.

, and our soil to be saved,” he said. Farmers in large num-bers attend the ‘Kisan Maha-panchayat’ in UP’s Shamli dis-trict on February 5. Munderwa has been a favourite with farmers as a site of protest for decades. The BKU has a strong base in this area. Diwan Chan-dra Chaudhary, who hailed from the region and passed away in March 2020, was the na-tional vice-president of the BKU once. Under his leadership, a huge movement was kickstarted in 2002 over cane prices.

Kolkata, Feb 27 (UNI) Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s election strat-egist Prasant Kishor on Saturday claimed that one of the key battles for de-mocracy in India will be fought in West Bengal and people here are ready with their message “ Bangla Ni-

jer Meyekei Chay”, while opposition BJP launched a counter poster saying “Bengal Wants Its Daugh-ter, Not Pishi”.Prasant Kishor, who is managing the All India Trinamool Congress campaign on his Twitter account said the people of West Bengal are determined to show the right card “ Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chay” (Bengal only wants its daughter).

To counter TMC slogan, the BJP’s poster says, “Ben-gal Wants Its Own Daugh-ter, Not Pishi” and has the nine faces of the party’s female leaders in Bengal. The poster has the faces of BJP leaders including Rupa Ganguly, Deboshree Chaudhary, Locket Chat-terjee, Bharti Ghosh, Ag-nimitra Paul, Mafuja Kha-toon among others.

Slogans battles begin in Bengal as ECI announced

eight-phase poll for 294 seats

ArrayChennai, Feb 27 (UNI) Congress leader and former AICC president Rahul Gandhi has charged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) has de-stroyed the free press and institu-tions in the country in a systematic manner over the past six years. He was addressing a meeting of advo-cates at VO Chidambaram college hall, Tuticorn, on Saturday.

He said the nation is held to-gether by institutions includ-ing elected institutions like Lok Sabha,Vidhan Sabhas and Pan-chayats and institutions like the judiciary and a supporting free press. Pointing out that all these institutions and a free press hold the nation together, Rahul Gan-dhi stated that democracy in

India is dead. He went on to say that democracy does not die in a day but in a systematic manner and alleged that the RSS was in-strumental in destroying the de-mocracy of the country. Gandhi, who is an MP from Wayanad constituency in Kerala, said that the RSS combined with capital-ists has destroyed the balance of the country. He also charged

that when the institutional bal-ance of the country is lost, states don’t have equal say.Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly, he said “The question is not that the PM is useful or use-less but to whom is he useful? It’s like Hum Do Hamare Do”. On the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Congress leader said that it is discriminatory and added that the farm laws passed by the parliament , are against the poor farmers of the country. Rahul Gandhi also said that the people cannot rely on the insti-tutions to protect democracy and added that people’s power is the only power that can pro-tect democracy and democratic institutions.

RSS has destroyed institutions and free press: Rahul

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While American lawmakers in Washington DC were preparing for a fresh round of tongue-lashings for the social media giants on Thursday, their counterparts in New Delhi were not wasting any time. The Indian government announced a sweeping array of rules reining-in social media. Specifi cally, social media platforms are required to become “more responsible and more accountable” for the content they carry. There is now a list of stuff deemed offensive. In case you are unsure of whether your last hilarious post on that family WhatsApp group met the criteria, you ought to look it up; the list is quite long. And be forewarned that even if your post is not outright fake news, pornography or celebrates Greta Thunberg, you may be kicked off the platform if your post threatens “the unity, integrity, defence, security or Sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order, or causes incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence or prevents investigation of any offence or is insulting any foreign States”. In other words, the government is giving itself plenty of room to cut Big Tech down to size. The timing of the announcement is, indeed, intriguing. You will recall, of course, the Indian government’s recent scuffl e with Twitter. The government had ordered some accounts and tweets in support of the farmer protests to be blocked. Twitter initially refused, saying that it wouldn’t comply with orders inconsistent with Indian law and eventually relented. The beauty of the new regulations is that, in principle, it could make such a blocking order a legal demand — a far more graceful way of controlling pesky tweets. The UK’s Labour Party, meanwhile, is currently in the process of reinventing itself as a more centrist political force following its disastrous defeat in the December 2019 general election, which forced far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn to step down. Corbyn’s successor, Keir Starmer, used Labour’s (virtual) annual conference in September to announce a comprehensive break with Corbyn’s legacy. Starmer’s “new leadership” entails redirecting Labour toward family values, with a focus on security and economic prudence. In his conference speech, Starmer declared to disgruntled blue-collar voters that, “We love this country as you do.” His repositioning thus includes a notion of left-wing patriotism – anathema to his staunchly internationalist predecessor and a clear break with previous Labour positions. Starmer’s stated objective is to regain the confi dence of working-class voters who abandoned the party under Corbyn. So far, the plan seems to be working. Although the UK’s next general election is not scheduled to be held until 2024, recent opinion polls put Labour neck and neck with the ruling Conservative Party. The current momentum enjoyed by political progressives who are consciously addressing the political center holds important lessons for struggling counterparts elsewhere. rogressives certainly should never be satisfi ed with the status quo. Offering political alternatives and a path toward a better future remain crucial — not least during a pandemic. But with voters increasingly exhausted by years of polarization, progressive parties that are serious about gaining and retaining power would be well advised to reconsider their opposition to centrism. The latter Act has extended there all central family law enactments and repealed the parallel local laws — as many as 15. Bringing Jammu and Kashmir into the country’s mainstream of family laws is an exercise that needs to be undertaken also for Goa, Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Nagaland and Mizoram, where the present situation is an antithesis to the constitutional doctrine of uniformity in family law for the entire nation. There is no justifi cation for keeping some chosen groups of Indian citizens perpetually tied down to family laws based either on outdated foreign laws or on archaic local customs.

Who gets to decide what is legitimate

free speech, Govt or Big Tech?

2EDIT28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMESTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES

BY D.C. PATHAK

A democratic regime runs on two im-portant premises - fi rst, that the pre-dominant majority of citizens were

law abiding people and the enforcement agencies could use this to their advantage and, secondly, that the political executive governing the nation should look strong but without letting the bureaucracy includ-ing the police behave like ‘rulers’, not public servants.

The remarkable rise of Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi in 2014 was very much due to his image as a leader who would deal with the corrupt with an iron hand and get his administrative machinery to focus totally on public delivery and development.

Modi’s policies in the spheres of interna-tional relations and safeguarding of India’s strategic interests are extremely successful - and this includes the handling of that perpet-ual trouble spot in J&K, the Kashmir valley. But the approach to ‘tightening the screws’ on violators of law has apparently shifted from a meaningful effort to improve the working of enforcement agencies including the police, to merely providing harsher laws.

The problem of governance in India over the decades was not so much the absence of deterrence of law as was the known lack of integrity in the bureaucracy and police agen-cies that led to highly suboptimal delivery in the areas of both development and law and order management.

The political-bureaucratic nexus is what had made the regimes preceding Prime Min-ister Modi’s, a hallmark of permissive cor-ruption and lack of accountability - running top down - to the great distress of the aver-age loyal citizen of India. The Modi regime is in favour of ‘minimum government’ which is an idea incumbent on a smaller bureau-cratic and police machinery working at its effi cient best and seniors assuming greater responsibility for delivery. Political credit in a democratic rule accrues a great deal from the image of the administration - it has to be people friendly while creating deterrence for the anti-social elements and criminals out there. The transformative outcome of

2014 general election, giving BJP under Modi’s projected leadership a majority of its own for the first time, is traceable to the wish of the law abiding voters to put a people-centric set-up in power that would tone up the performance of public servants too.It is possible that the bureau-cracy - taking the cue from the new re-gime’s explicit desire to provide a ‘strong’ government - sensed an opportunity of becoming the ‘policy maker’ themselves on behalf of the political leadership, scal-ing down its own prime accountability for policy execution and started working for stronger laws and rules rather than for ensuring implementation of those al-ready available on the shelf.Introduction of a harsh jail term for non- compliance with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provi-sions and more recently revision of Motor Vehicles Act to multiply the scales of pun-ishment for traffi c defaults seemed to refl ect this approach of civil servants and the police.

The CSR clause had to be hastily ‘decrimi-nalised’ and the implementation of new traf-fi c laws had to be left to the discretion of state governments. Financial scams needed to be busted with all the force of law and gross vio-lations of traffi c rules required to be identi-fi ed and punished but without causing anxi-ety to the well meaning lot who might have

transgressed a little without intention.Look at the crime and traffi c scene in Delhi. The problem on the road was created basically by cab drivers and rash young people on the wheels who indulged in ‘lane surfi ng’, over-taking from the wrong side and mindlessly blocking the left turn at a crossing.

Large groups of traffi c policemen can be seen at important junctions but there is little effort made over the years to educate people on ‘lane driving’ and haul up those who just drove ‘between two lanes’ all the time.No traf-fi c men were deployed on the stretch between traffi c signals to detect the violators of lane discipline and inform the next check point for further action against an identifi ed vehicle.

Also, there is a tendency to leave every-thing to the lowest echelons - the reported directive recently issued by Commissioner of Police, Delhi to the Deputy Commission-ers of Police (DCPs) to monitor the worsen-ing crime situation on the streets of Delhi refl ected in the rise of snatching cases and violent assaults in public, somewhere points to this. The ‘punitive drive’ of the police in the follow-up on the new traffi c laws scared the law abiding more than what it did to the habitual violators. The Modi regime is in favour of ‘minimum government’ which is an idea incumbent on a smaller bureau-cratic and police machinery working at its

effi cient best and seniors assuming greater responsibility for delivery. Political credit in a democratic rule accrues a great deal from the image of the administration - it has to be people friendly while creating deterrence for the anti-social elements and criminals out there. Exercise of a sense of ‘discretion’ be-tween a speed of say 52 km and 60 km - against the displayed limit of 50 km - on the part of law enforcers would have helped to retain the public goodwill but this will happen only when senior offi cers are in the picture and ‘misuse’ of discretion would not be an issue.In the initial phase of a sudden switch over to harsher rules affecting the population in general, there is a certain importance of ‘education’ and ‘warn-ings for fi rst violations’ going together with punitive fi nes. Memories of harsh behaviour towards the public linger on - the middle class being particularly sensitive to any administra-tion trying to ‘rule’ the people.Any defence of the overzealous drive to collect traffi c fi nes on the plea that it added to the revenue of the government is absurd and somewhat demeaning from the people’s point of view. The traffi c police is seemingly banking more on detecting speed limit violations through a hastily assembled CCTV system and not yet devoting to the painstaking job of catching drunken drivers which should be a top prior-ity for the law enforcers.

The basic philosophy of law enforcement in a democratic set-up is that the violation of criminal law, big or small, would not be spared but any extenuating circumstances would be taken due notice of - even the In-dian Penal Code defi nes a set of General Ex-ceptions. Policing today is as much a task of guiding and educating the public as it is of prompt action against a law breaker. As it is, police has to do much better in the area of preventing crime and bringing hardened criminals to justice. If the law abiding shun the police, it can affect our capacity to de-tect and identify an enemy agent running a ‘sleeper cell’ in the midst of population.The Modi regime is in favour of ‘minimum gov-ernment’ which is an idea incumbent on a smaller bureaucratic and police machinery working at its effi cient best.

Government need not take this hit

Trends, both global and Indian, across the fi nancial markets BY TAPONEEL MUKHERJEE

Trends, both global and Indian, across the fi nancial markets of-ten reaffi rm and, more impor-

tantly, remind us of the basic prin-ciples of business and investments. The word “basic” here implies the fundamental underpinning of busi-ness, rather than a casual reference to simplicity.Both current issues and opportunities that confront India must be analysed in terms of how capital has fl owed into different sec-tors with varying capacities to gener-ate income and the “risk perception” that investors have about the income. As the Indian economy looks to provide the next phase of investment-driven growth and tide over a real estate led developer and NBFC crisis, an eye on the cash-generative capacities will be essential to ensure a sustainable and value-generative investment environ-ment. Going forward, investors must assess the income-generating ability, and so must the lenders, while the poli-cymakers must look at framing poli-cies that help improve the attractive-ness. A quick review of investment styles promoted by the acolytes of value investing, summarised in the essay titled ‘Buffett’s Analytical Framework’ by ‘The Private Invest-ment Brief’ (a specialist investment newsletter) is useful.Viewing an as-set through the spectrum of the capi-tal required to acquire the asset, and the consequent income the asset can generate as the yield, provide the nec-essary framework required. Addition-ally, the potential growth rate of the income streams from the asset must be factored in, to get a basic struc-ture that can be utilised to compare asset returns.As the Indian economy gradually works towards resolving is-sues in the real estate space, both on the physical inventory side as well as fi nancial instruments space, it is worthwhile viewing real estate invest-ments through the simple framework mentioned above.

Analysing income streams is espe-

cially true for the residential segment. While solutions are being worked upon, the crucial aspect that merits attention is for the capital allocated to distressed real estate segments, what income or cash-fl ows can be generat-ed and how is this income expected to grow in the years to come. The frame-work mentioned above, while simple, throws light upon precisely why the residential real estate segment is still struggling to generate the requisite investment. Fundamentally, an asset that is yielding two to three per cent of income, not adjusting for any other risks, at best is unable to compete for capital with different segments in the Indian economy, and for that matter globally. Lowering home-loan rates is a welcome step. However, such moves do not address the core is-sue at hand that current asset prices might still need further adjustment to truly get demand going unless one can foresee an unlikely scenario of residential rental yields doubling soon. As the Indian economy looks to provide the next phase of investment-driven growth and tide over a real estate led developer and NBFC crisis, an eye

on the cash-generative capacities will be essential to ensure a sustainable and value-generative investment environ-ment. Going forward, investors must assess the income-generating ability, and so must the lenders, while the poli-cymakers must look at framing policies that help improve the attractiveness. Additionally, an even more troubling question for the real estate sector and the policymakers to bear in mind is, why such a situation arose in the fi rst place. As the Indian economy looks to provide the next phase of investment-driven growth and tide over a real estate led developer and NBFC crisis, an eye on the cash-generative capacities will be essential to ensure a sustainable and value-generative investment environ-ment. Going forward, investors must assess the income-generating ability, and so must the lenders, while the poli-cymakers must look at framing policies that help improve the attractiveness. Markets overshooting valuations in the face of exuberance is part and parcel of the game, but the degree of such overshooting must be reduced through cleverly designed policies to reduce the kind of over-drag the resi-

dential real estate segment has lately seen in India. Land prices, valuations at which land is available for residen-tial real estate development, and the policies that drive the decisions need an urgent relook. A quick comparison between the fate of the commercial offi ce real estate segment in India ver-sus the residential real estate segment provides a valuable insight into how vital the income component is to as-sets trying to attract investments.The commercial offi ce real estate segment has seen robust investor interest over the last fi ve years as the annual yields the assets generate (capitalisation rates) have gradually come down from the low teens to around eight to nine per cent. While the actual return varies with asset type, the key takeaway is that commercial offi ce real estate segment in India has seen investor interest because the returns generated adjusted for the risk under-taken are competitive versus other in-vestment avenues. More importantly, the back of the envelope framework stated above is the one that lenders need to be mindful of. Of all those in-volved in fi nancing projects.

3NATION28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES

Chandigarh, Feb 27 (UNI) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday launched four welfare schemes at a state-level programme organised here to mark the 644th birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas.

The district-level virtual programmes were also organised in all 22 districts.

Khattar launched

Mukhyamantri Antyodaya Parivar Utthan Yojana under which selection of one lakh poor families residing in the state who are having lowest family income would be done through Parivar Pehchan Patra portal.

So far 65 lakh families have been identified, he said.

"Every possible effort will be made to increase the family

income of such families' to at least Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 per month. For this, the government will emphasise on the skill development, besides providing employment opportunities and financial assistance," he said.

On the occasion the Chief Minister announced to increase a financial assistance under the Dr B.R. Ambedkar

Awas Navinikarn Yojna to Rs 80,000 from Rs 50,000 for the repair of houses belonging to the Scheduled Caste families living below poverty line (BPL). He also announced that the BPL families belonging to any category will be able to avail the benefits of Dr B.R. Ambedkar Awas Navinikarn Yojna. Earlier, this scheme was limited to the BPL families

belonging to the Scheduled Caste. He said from April 1 the annual income slab of the BPL families would be increased from Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh. Also the legal aid given to the Scheduled Caste has been increased to Rs 21,000 from Rs 11, 000. Khattar said in a bid to spread the message of social harmony, brotherhood, and removing the evils of casteism.

Haryana CM launches four schemes to mark Guru Ravidas anniversary

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre and AAP government in Delhi whether Rs five lakh for treatment of a patient suffering from Turner Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder causing deformity, can be made available after All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said that it has no funds.

The petitioner approached the high court seeking Rs

5.80 lakh for the treatment which would span over two years. Turner syndrome is a chromosomal condition that affects development in females. The most common feature of Turner syndrome is short stature, which becomes evident by about age five. An early loss of ovarian function is also very common.

Counsel appearing for the petitioner told Justice Prathiba M. Singh that various

representations have been made to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, however, no funds or response has been received.

During the course of the proceedings through video-conferencing, advocate Anju Gupta appearing for Union of India submitted that she will seek instructions in this matter on an urgent basis.

Counsel for the Delhi government submitted that the petitioner can apply to

All India Institute of Medical Sciences for funds, however, AIIMS's lawyer said that they do not have funds for patients suffering from the Turner Syndrome. After hearing the contention, the judge directed the counsel for city government, along with the Union of India, to seek instructions within a week, as to whether funds can be made available and listed the matter for March 10.

Lucknow, Feb 27 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empow-erment, Ramdas Athawale on Saturday demanded 15 per cent reservation for the Kshatriya community in Ut-tar Pradesh. Speaking to the media in Lucknow Athawale said, "People of any com-munity who live below the poverty line should be given reservation."

Commenting on the farmers' protest, Athawale said the current National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is not against the farmers, adding that we fully support them.

He said the demand for repealing the Union farm laws is unfair. If a law is withdrawn today, then there would be more simi-lar demands made in the future. Taking a dig at the farmer leaders, he said the farmer leaders are causing inconvenience to the farm-

ers. Apart from advocat-ing the ethnic population census, Athawale said the Marathas in Maharashtra, Jats in Rajasthan and the Kshatriyas in Uttar Pradesh are demanding reservation. He is demanding from the Central government that all these communities must be given 10-15 per cent reser-vation.National President of the Republican Party of In-dia (RPI), Ramdas Athawale launched a blistering politi-cal attack on Congress Na-tional General Secretary Pri-yanka Gandhi Vadra's visit to Varanasi on Saturday. He said whether Priyanka visits a temple or any other place, there can't be any progress for the Congress till her brother Rahul Gandhi is in the party.

The Union Minister ap-pealed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to give his party RPI a total of five to six seats in UP in the upcoming

Assembly elections. At the same time, he demanded to conduct a caste census and said that it will not increase casteism.He said the assem-bly elections are going to be held in five states across the country and his party will contest the polls in all the states. The chairman of RPI, an ally of the NDA gov-ernment, said that there are talks over seat sharing with the BJP in all the poll-bound states. Wherever there is no compromise over seat-shar-ing, the RPI will support the NDA. He said the BJP's vic-tory in four states is almost certain and the party could win in Kerala as well. Asked about Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad's activism in Uttar Pradesh, Athawale said he would not create any significant im-pact. If he wants, he could join the RPI. Also if Bahu-jan Samaj Party (BSP) Chief Mayawati also merges.

Athawale demands 15% reservation for Kshatriyas in UP

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) Union Home Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Amit Shah will visit poll-bound Puducherry and Tamil Nadu on Sunday to participate in various poll-related programmes of the party. In a statement, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and media in-charge Anil Baluni said, "The Union Home Minister will leave for Tamil Nadu today and reach Chennai by 10:45 pm tonight. He will participate in various important programmes tomorrow." Baluni further stated that Shah will attend BJP's Puducherry core committee meeting at Karaikal. "After the core committee meeting, he will address a public rally at Karaikal. After the public rally, the Home Minister will attend the BJP Puducherry mandal and office bearers meeting in the afternoon," he said. After Puducherry, Shah will then reach Villupuram in Tamil Nadu where he will attend the BJP Tamil Nadu core committee meeting at the Theivanai Ammal College for Women. "In the evening, he will address a Vijay Sankalp rally at Jankipuram, Villupuram (Tamil Nadu). After that, he will participate in the BJP Tamil Nadu mandal and office bearers meeting at Theivanai Ammal College for Women," Baluni said.

Shah to visit poll-bound

Puducherry, Tamil Nadu on Sunday

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said that the 'Hunar Haat' is playing a "phenomenal and per-fect role" in making 'Vocal for Local' campaign a mass movement.

Naqvi also stated that more than 12 lakh people have visited the 'Hunar Haat' which started from February 20, 2021 and be-come the proud promoter of Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi's 'Vocal for Local' campaign by purchasing handmade products of indigenous artisans and craftsmen worth crores of rupees and the number

of visitors are likely to go above 16 lakh in the next two days. More than 600 artisans and craftsmen from 31 states and UTs participated in the Hunar Haat. Artisans and crafts-men from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Him-achal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kar-nataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Mani-pur, Nagaland, Odisha, Pu-ducherry, Punjab, Rajast-han, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal participated in the

Hunar Haat at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi for display and sale of their ex-quisite indigenous hand-made products.

Naqvi said, "Visitors en-joyed traditional delicacies from every region of the country at 'Bawarchikha-na' section. Besides, dif-ferent cultural and musical programmes were daily presented by renowned artists of the country such as Vinod Rathore, Nizami Brothers, Sudesh Bhonsle, Kailash Kher and others".

Naqvi also said that Hunar Haat has provided employment opportuni-ties to more than 5.3 lakh

'Hunar Haat plays phenomenal role in Vocal for Local'

artisans, craftsmen and artists yet and Ministry of Minority Affairs would pro-vide employment oppor-tunities to 7.5 lakh artisans and craftsmen through 75 Hunar Haats which will be organised on completion of 75 years of the country's in-dependence. The next Hu-nar Haat will be organised in Bhopal from March 12.

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) The Congress tried to smoothen things out after the group of dissenters chose to attack the party leadership over ignoring them and not consulting the party leaders in decision making or not building a consensus on any decision.

Senior spokesperson of the party Abhishek Manu Singhvi said at a press conference that the leaders are highly "respected" in the party but they should have done more to "strengthen" the party in the poll-bound states. Singhvi played down the issue and said,

"Each of the persons who are in Jammu are well regarded in the party. We are proud to have them in our party and I believe they are equally proud to be members of the Congress Party therefore they are part of this Congress family and therefore whatever I say is with the greatest respect to the leaders."

"I respect the traditional legacy between Congress and them over these last three-four decades. The principal person in whose honour this (Jammu) rally was organised, nobody has used the word "istemal" (Use) in

relation to Mr Azad, he has never complained. Those who use the word "istemal" betray certain things, lack of knowledge and ignorance about the contemporary history of the Congress and about the older history of the party. We are proud and he is proud that he has held the Congress flag for more than 7 terms in Parliament, 5 in Rajya Sabha and two in Lok Sabha, which is roughly 40 years. Congress President Sonia Gandhi nominated him as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir."

"I would therefore very, very gently and

respectfully say that the best contribution to the Congress cause is to be active not among ourselves but to be active in various Abhiyans (campaigns) going on everyday in five states where the Congress is fighting elections. In light of what I have said I don't intend to answer those questions which sensationalize the issue and digress from the core issue," Singhvi added. Congress supporter Tahseen Poonawala was more critical and said, "I ask questions of Anand Sharma ji and Ghulam Nabi Azad sahab.

G-23 row: Cong says leaders respected but should do more in elections

Chandigarh, Feb 27 (UNI) Slamming Punjab Chief Min-ister Amarinder Singh for not taking action against gangsters, senior Punjab BJP leader Vineet Joshi on Saturday accused the Chief Minister of maintaining "silence" against two gang-sters for vote bank politics."By not arresting gangster Lakha Sidhana and by not transfer-ring dreaded gangster Mukhtar Ansari to Uttar Pradesh, it is evident that Amarinder Singh is selective in his action against gangsters, eyeing upcoming As-sembly polls salted early next year," Joshi said in a statement here.Accusing the Congress of

initially "fuelling" the farmers' agitation to reap political bene-fits, Joshi, who is former media advisor to the Punjab govern-ment, said, "Gangster Lakha Sidhana, who is wanted by Del-hi Police for his involvement in the Republic Day violence, re-cently attended a rally in Meh-raj village but was not arrested by Punjab Police."Targeting Punjab Police for its failure to arrest Sidhana, Joshi said it "is unfortunate the police are find-ing technical reasons, trying to justify their inaction to run away from their responsibility." He said despite an open threat from the gangster.

advantage for India to abrogate the Treaty. Water will continue to flow irrespective unless structures are constructed on the rivers that store the water and that will take several decades," he adds.

"Technically, the IWT has no exit clause, so there is no question of 'renegotiations'. However, Article XII (3) and (4) of the Treaty provide for modification of treaty provisions BUT through a "duly ratified treaty" which will replace the present one with the condition that cannot be abrogated unilaterally.

"Politically this is difficult to achieve. Pakistan knows very

well that the Treaty of 1960 is as good as it can get and any

�modified' treaty will only harm its interest. It will continue to make noises (both domestically and internationally) about India's hegemonic motives to keep the anti-India feeling alive," Sinha maintains, adding that the Treaty and its provisions "not only gives Pakistan the water it requires but on account of being a lower riparian vis-a-vis India, it builds a global sympathy as a victim of India's hydro-aggression". At the same time, India needs to take corrective measures, he said.

"On the eastern rivers much of the waters in non-monsoon period (about 0.58 MAF) flow

freely into Pakistan. This has to be arrested and for that the three projects Ujh (storage of 0.82 MAF) and Shahpurkandi Dam (0.012 MAF) and second Ravi Vyas Link Project have been put into fast track. "On the western rivers the 'permissible storage capacity' as per the Treaty provisions has not been paid serious attention in India. This again has to be seriously corrected," Sinha writes.

Noting that the current government "has put many projects on the Chenab river like the Bursar and Gypsa on fast track," he contends that "many more projects would be required to fulfil

the provision of 2.7 MAF of storage water on the western rivers". "But most importantly, India has to build widespread awareness about Pakistan's strategy to stall or delay multi-purpose projects among the people of Jammu and Kashmir and harness the displeasure of the local political leadership about the provisions of IWT. At the end of the day water is equally about perception," Sinha explains. The framers of the Treaty had foreseen that differences and disputes will emerge, he says, adding that "the beauty of the Treaty lies in the 'Settlement mechanism' within the Treaty.

Why Punjab CM not acting against gangsters? asks BJP

India must play pro-active role on

Indus Waters Treaty New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) The Indus Waters

Treaty (IWT) brokered between India and Pakistan by the World Bank in 1960 has weathered three wars in 1965, 1971 and 1999 -- as also the September 2016 attack by four heavily armed terrorists that resulted in the death of 19 soldiers and the four attackers and was "the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades".

The IWT will continue to "chug along" and the "best option for India, which the current government is following after mulling the option of abrogation, is to optimise/maximise the provisions of the Treaty," Uttam Kumar Sinha, one of India's leading commentators on trans-boundary water issues, told in an interview on his new book," Indus Basin Uninterrupted -- A History of Territory & Politics from Alexander to Nehru" (Penguin Vintage). "There is no

HC seeks govt response on funds for TS patient

4SOUTH28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES

Amaravati, Feb 27 (UNI) Kapu reservation movement leader Mu-dragada Padmanabham and 41 others were served summons by the Railway Court for their alleged role in the burning of a train five years ago in East Go-davari district of Andhra Pradesh. On January 31, 2016, a large meeting was convened at Tuni in East Godavari district as part of the Kapu community's

fight for reservation.On that fateful day,

Ratnachal Express was set on fire, allegedly by the agitators, prompting the Railway Police to file cas-es on Padmanabham and 41 others under Sections 146, 147, 153 and 174 un-der the relevant Railway rules. All the accused per-sons are required to ap-pear on March 3 in the Vi-jayawada Railway Court. Along with Padmanab-

ham, Manchala Sai Sud-hakar Naidu is also one of the summoned persons. Padmanabam has been fighting for the cause of Kapu reservation dedicat-edly since a long time and had questioned former Chief Minister and Telu-gu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N Chandrababu Naidu for not keeping his 2014 election promise of providing reservation for the community.

Kapu reservation leaders summoned for

burning train

Bengaluru, Feb 27 (UNI) Warm birthday greetings poured in from all over the country, including BJP stalwarts like Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, to Karnata-ka Chief Minister B.S. Yediy-urappa who celebrated his 78th birthday on Saturday. Born on February 27, 1943, Yediyurappa was first elect-ed to the Karnataka Legis-lature in 1983 and has since represented the Shikaripur constituency seven times and Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency once.

Prime Minister Modi tweeted: "Yediyurappa Ji is one of our most experienced leaders, who has devoted his life towards the welfare of farmers and empower-ing the poor. Praying for his long and healthy life." Term-ing Yediyurappa as a hard-working leader, BJP national president J.P. Nadda tweeted that under Yediyurappa's

leadership, Karnataka is ac-complishing new heights of development & playing an active role towards self-reli-ant India. I pray for his long & healthy life.

Shah said Yediyurappa is a dedicated leader of BJP. "His dedication towards the welfare of the poor and farmers of Karnataka is com-mendable," he tweeted. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that Yediy-urappa has been making a

remarkable contribution to Karnataka's development and doing commendable work while uplifting the poor and empowering the farm-ers. "Praying for his long and healthy life," he said. Yogi Adityanath tweeted "very warm birthday wishes to Karnataka CM Yediyurp-paji." "He has been tirelessly working towards farmers' welfare and under his lead-ership Karnataka has been scaling new heights in de-

velopment. May Prabhu Shri Ram bless him with a long, healthy and prosperous life," he tweeted.

Union Minister for Water Resources Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, tweeted in Kan-nada wishing him good health and long life on his birthday. Besides these leaders, BJP chief ministers, Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu and sev-eral other BJP leaders wished Yediyurappa on his birthday. Several leaders cutting across the party lines like former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, former Karna-taka CM H.D. Kumaraswamy were some of the prominent leaders who wished Yediy-urappa on the occasion of his 78th birthday in Bengaluru on Saturday morning. Yediy-urappa was warmly greeted by his Cabinet colleagues and supporters with garlands and bouquets.

On BSY birthday, PM calls him 'most experienced leader'

2.67 crore voters in

Kerala Thiruvananthapuram,

Feb 27 (UNI) Kerala Chief Electoral Officer Tikka Ram Meena on Saturday said Kerala has 2,67,31,509 voters which include 1,37,79,263 women, 1,29,52,025 men and 221 transgender voters. Kerala will go to the polls on April 6 to elect 140 legislators for which votes will be count-ed on May 2.

The polling time would be from 7 a.m to 7 p.m., with the last hour kept for Covid positive voters.

The rules now allow for voters aged over 80 to avail the postal voting facility and in the state as there are 6,21,401 voters in this category, while there are 90,709 non-resident In-dian voters.

In the 2016 Assembly polls, 21,498 polling booths were there, but this time due to the Covid pandem-ic the number of polling booths has been increased to 40,771. Meena however pointed out that the poll-ing time in certain Naxal-affected areas would end at 6 p.m. "There are 549 criti-cal location polling booths and 433 come under the vulnerable category and all these booths will have central security cover. Webcasting would be there in 50 per cent of polling booths," said Meena.

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) Aimed at taking lead in 5G de-ployment, India's ongoing proj-ect to set up 'Indigenous 5G Test Bed' is expected to be ready by October this year to enhance na-tional capability in telecom tech-nology, giving a fillip to Indian telecom manufacturers. Started four years back in 2018 March with total cost of Rs 224.01 crore, the 'Indigenous 5G Test Bed' will provide an open 5G test bed that can enable Indian academia and industry to validate their prod-ucts, prototypes and algorithms

and demonstrate various ser-vices.

Providing test bed with com-plete access for research teams to work on new concepts or ideas holding potential for standard-ization in India and on global scale, make a test bed available for Indian operators to under-stand the working of 5G technol-ogies along with security aspects and plan their future networks is among other major goals of the '5G Test Bed'. Besides, the project is aimed at facilitating 5G networks for experimenting and

demonstrating applications or use cases of importance to Indi-an society, implement and dem-onstrate IoT (Internet of Things) based systems and services in the country.

"Keeping in view India's spe-cific requirements and to take lead in 5G deployment, Depart-ment of Telecommunications (DoT) approved financial grant for the multi-institute collabora-tive project to set up 'Indigenous 5G Test bed' (Building an end-to-end 5G Test Bed) in India in March 2018...The test bed is ex-

pected to be ready by October 2021," mentioned a Ministry of Communications document, accessed by . "The test bed is likely to enhance national ca-pability in telecom technology, develop indigenous Intellectual Property (IP) and give fillip to In-dian telecom manufacturers."

With the launch of 5G test beds, the Ministry said it will be in the category of the US, the UK, European Union, Swe-den, Finland, Thailand, China, Japan and South Korea which are among some of the coun-

tries that have announced the launch of 5G. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bom-bay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Tech-nology (CEWiT) are among the eight collaborating institutes involved in the project. The test bed is planned to be realized in stages over four versions -- ver-sion 0 (V0) to version 3 (V3), the Ministry further said.

Expected by Oct, 5G 'Test Bed' to boost telecom technology

Patna, Feb 27 (UNI) Schools from classes 1 to 5 are scheduled to resume in Bihar from March 1 af-ter a long gap in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The Bihar government also plans to launch a 'Prave-shotsav' campaign to enrol students in schools. Under this campaign, special ef-forts will be made for en-rolment of students from classes 1 to 9.

The aim of the campaign is that there should not be any child left in the state who does not get school education. In addition to the state education depart-ment, the Rural Develop-ment department and the Social Welfare department have also been deployed for this campaign.

An education depart-ment official said a letter has been sent to all the Dis-trict Magistrates (DMs) re-garding the 'Praveshotsav' campaign. The letter said the schools have been con-tinuously closed since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pan-demic. Due to this learn-ing and studies of children have been disrupted.

It has now been decid-ed to run a three-month catch-up course from the

first week of April during the academic session 2020-21, thereby shortening the educational material of the earlier classes.

In order to start a catch-up course, it is necessary that all previously enrolled students and those stu-dents who did not go to school should be admitted back to school.

An education depart-ment official said that to achieve this objective, a 'Praveshotsav-Special En-rolment Campaign' would be launched between March 8 and 20 for enrol-ment of children from classes one to eight and ninth grade this year. For this, Principal Secretary of the Rural Development department and Education department and Additional Chief Secretary of Social

Welfare department have issued a directive to all the District Collectors.

He said that under this campaign, all schools would be decorated and parents would be wel-comed and felicitated. Schools would take out a students march past on March 8 and enrolment work in schools would start from March 10.

Officials say that com-munity support would be taken for ensuring 100 per cent success of this cam-paign. Apart from school march past, art batches would reach every village and social media cam-paigns would also be run to spread awareness among the parents. The Education official said monitoring of this campaign would also be done.

'Praveshotsav' campaign launched to admit children

to schools in Bihar

A r r a y M a t s y a p u r i (Andhra Pradesh), Feb 27 (UNI) A panchayat elec-tion victory rally taken out by Janasena cadres through a Dalit locality in Matsyapuri village near Bhimavaram in West Go-davari led to fisticuffs and later a war of words be-tween two leading politic in the state, Grandhi Srini-vas and Pawan Kalyan. Around 10 p.m. on Thurs-day night, Janasena cadres were celebrating the vic-tory in the sarpanch elec-tion with fireworks and their procession passed through a Dalit colony as well.

"We told the Janasena celebrants not to burst crackers near our place as there was a patient nearby but they disregarded out pleas and tied very loud crackers to a dried hedge and detonated them," Godi Sunny, a resident of the Dalit colony told . Sunny said the hedge

caught fire, along with the clothes of a specially-abled woman living in that thatched house.

Following this, he said there was a skirmish, in-volving the Dalits and the upper caste celebrants leading to fisticuffs. In the

night, Bhimavaram MLA Grandhi Srinivas got wind of the trouble and rushed to the spot to control the situation, just 20 km away from his home.

The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YS-RCP) MLA berated the

Janasena cadres for cre-ating trouble in the Dalit colony in Matsyapuri. "If you do not change your behaviour, we will do it for you and show your Pawan Kalyan. Do you think that we are wearing bangles," warned Srinivas.

Amid the pandemo-nium, Srinivas warned the Janasena cadres that they will organise a 'Chalo Mat-syapuri' rally with the YSR family and see whether Kalyan will come or any-body else, referring to the latter's father in a deroga-tory manner. Srinivas, who trounced Kalyan in the 2019 Bhimvaram MLA election, claimed that the ruling party leaders were being patient despite the many alleged atrocities of Janasena supporters.

"Kalyan must think why he started the party. I don't know why he started a party but he is provoking youth and turning them into trouble mongers.

Victory procession sparks row between Pawan Kalyan, MLA

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 27 (UNI) If the latest news coming out from the Con-gress in Kerala is to be be-lieved and if it turns out to be true, then it is certainly going to be a surprise for many. Kerala will go to the polls on April 6 and the votes will be counted on May 2.

If sources are to be tak-en seriously, out of the 90 seats which the Congress party will contest in the 140 member Kerala Assembly -- 75 that are to be decided

by State Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran, might have only one candi-date from the party per seat.

"I really cannot believe, if this is true because such a thing has never ever hap-pened in the past. Generally what happens is that for one seat, there will be at least four or five names and is ba-sically done to placate all the faction leaders in the party and is seen as a recognition for those who figure in the list, even though, only one

will eventually contest. "Well let us wait and see if this new trend is true," said a senior Congress leader on condi-tion of anonymity.

Ramachandran, however, is tight-lipped and all that he said was things were shap-ing up well and everything would be clear by next week, which will not only include finalising of the distribution of seats with the allies of the United Democratic Front, but also the list of the Con-gress candidates. In the 2016

Assembly elections, the Con-gress contested in 87 seats and won in 22 and this time the Congress party will con-test in more than 90 seats.

The party has cleared the name of 21 sitting legisla-tors and veteran K.C.Joseph, who has won a record eight times from Irkkur seat in Kannur district, is seeking for a change. In all likelihood, Joseph will contest from the Changancherry seat in his home district Kottayam. Even though the final.

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 27 (UNI) A day after the April 6 assembly polls in Kerala were announced, the Con-gress-led UDF opposition began a day-long 'coastal hartal' on Saturday protest-ing a deep sea fishing deal between the Pinarayi Vijayan government and an US firm.

The coastal hartal has been called by the opposition to protest the manner in which the ruling Left government tried to go forward with the fishing project deal that will be a blow to the fisher com-munity in the coastal state.

Inaugurating the day long protest near the famed tourist seaside destination

-- Kovalam, two time for-mer Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has led from the front in cheating the fishing community.

"Had the fraudulent deep sea deal gone forward, the entire fishing sector would have gone into the hands of a few. The fishing sector have by now realised that Vijayan had other interests and hence, this is the op-portunity for them to throw Vijayan and his government into the sea," said Chandy. Similar protests were held at Kollam and Kozhikode. For the Congress-led opposition, the fishing deal has come an

opportunity to take on the Left government. The fisher folks are rallying behind the oposition against Vijayan. The fishing community has a sizeable presence in around 50 assembly constituencies of the total 140 in the state.

The UDF is leaving noth-ing to chance as they know that in the past few assembly polls, the fishing community had by and large supported the Left. The Latin Catholic community Church leaders terming the deep sea fish-ing project "as cheating and ditching the fishing com-munity" has come as a shot in the arm for the Congress' programme. "Of the nearly

50 assembly constituencies which have a coast in it, at present the UDF has won in less than 10 seats. "Just wait and if there is even a less than 5 per cent shift from the Left to the UDF, then the UDF will have a resounding win and hence the UDF is trying to do everything to win back the confidence of the fishing community that they will not let them down. "On March 7, there are two state-wide ral-lies one from the north and the other from the south dis-tricts, which will converge at Kochi and once it happens, the UDF can breathe easy," said a political analyst.

who did not wish to be

Cong list in Kerala holds many surprises

Cong calls 'coastal shutdown' in Kerala

By Dr. Majid RafizadehThe Iranian regime has begun testing

the Biden administration by escalating its aggressive and belligerent policies in the region. A barrage of rockets on Saturday targeted an airbase in Balad, north of Baghdad, where a US defense company is based. A few days before that, a dozen rockets struck coalition forces at a US base next to Irbil interna-tional airport, northern Iraq. Six people were wounded and a civilian contrac-tor with the American-led anti-Daesh coalition was killed. The Kurdish au-thorities had to close the airport for a short time and warned residents to stay at home.

Shiite militant group Saraya Awliya Al-Dam (the Guardians of Blood Bri-gade) claimed responsibility for the at-tack on Irbil. It has also threatened to cause more bloodshed. According to the Site Intelligence Group, a nongov-ernmental organization that monitors the online activities of armed organiza-tions, the militia group said in a state-ment: “The American occupation will not be safe from our strikes in any inch of the homeland, even in Kurdistan, where we promise we will carry out other qualitative operations.”

The Iranian regime most likely spon-sors this little-known militia group. It is also likely that Saraya Awliya Al-Dam launched the rockets in order to win the approval of the Iranian regime.

Iran is already known to support a conglomerate of militias known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). These groups ratchet up the conflict in Iraq by engaging in various crimes, including torture, indiscriminate at-tacks and unlawful restrictions on the movement of people fleeing the fight-ing. They have also become skilled at using sectarianism as a tool to gain power and further Iran’s parochial, religious and political ambitions. The Tehran regime has even pushed the Iraqi government into recognizing the PMU members as “legitimate” groups, incorporating them into the state appa-ratuses and making Baghdad allocate wages and ammunition for them.

It is important to point out that the Iranian regime still intends to take revenge on the US for Qassem Solei-mani’s killing. More than a year after the Quds Force commander’s death, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei contin-ues to mention him in his speeches. He warned last month: “Those who ordered the murder of Gen. Soleimani as well as those who carried this out should be punished. This revenge will certainly happen at the right time.” Taking revenge for Soleimani’s killing is critical for the regime, partially be-cause Tehran has never faced such a major humiliation in its four-decade rule. It wants to show its proxies, mili-tia groups and hard-line base that it is

not weak. Furthermore, taking revenge against the US would deter Washington and other parties from targeting Irani-an officials in the future.

What is now crucial for the ruling cler-ics of Iran is how the new US adminis-tration will respond to these attacks. Unfortunately, not only has the Biden administration not taken a firm stance, it last week announced that it would not be pursuing the previous adminis-tration’s efforts to reimpose UN sanc-tions on the Iranian regime. This move outraged several American lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Marco Ru-bio, who said: “Not long after Iranian-backed forces attacked Americans in Iraq, President (Joe) Biden is desper-ately trying to re-enter a failed deal and provide sanctions relief to the Iranian regime. The president must make clear that he understands that Khamenei can-not be trusted to honor international agreements, and that the United States will not play into the hands of the Irani-ans for the next four years.”

By reversing the Trump administra-tion’s call to reimpose UN sanctions, Biden also appears to be in agreement with the lifting of the arms embargo on Iran. Tehran’s leaders scored a major political victory against the US, its al-lies and regional powers when the UN Security Council in August voted down a proposal to extend its 13-year-old arms embargo on Iran. The embargo

was lifted in October in spite of the fact the regime was violating all of the restrictions of the nuclear deal, accord-ing to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Biden administration has also lifted restrictions on Iranian diplo-mats traveling to the UN headquarters in New York.

By turning a blind eye to its aggres-sion, the US is only empowering and emboldening Tehran.

In addition, after the first attack in Iraq, the Biden administration an-nounced that it was ready to meet with the Iranian leaders to discuss re-

entering the 2015 nuclear deal. In a statement, State Department spokes-man Ned Price said: “The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way for-ward on Iran’s nuclear program.”

turning a blind eye to Iran’s aggres-sion, the Biden administration is only empowering and emboldening the Tehran regime, which will further es-calate its military adventurism and de-structive behavior in the Middle East.

Arab News

Biden administration sending wrong message to Iran regime

By Hussain Abdul-HussainThere is a new administration in the

White House and a new watchword in US foreign policy: Decolonization. Im-perialism, so the reasoning goes, is to blame for all the ills of the world so, to fix it, empires like America must “de-colonize.” The US, it is said, must see things from the perspective of smaller foreign powers that it has often been at odds with. Those words might describe the worldview of Robert Malley, the

new envoy to Iran (not a universally popular appointment). But if Iran is one of those smaller foreign powers, those in the State Department behind the commitment to decolonize are not only misguided, they are woefully mis-informed.

If imperialism equals occupying and bullying neighboring countries, then Iran, for example, has a long his-tory of it. In 1936, Tehran annexed the Arab Kaab emirate in the south and re-

named it Khuzestan. In 1971, Iran oc-cupied three Emirati islands.

Yet President Joe Biden, Malley and company don’t perceive Iran as a colo-nizer, only as colonized, which sug-gests either a lack of historical under-standing or flagrant bias.

In his book “The Call from Algeria,” Malley links the rise of Islamism to the failure of communism in what he calls the Third World. Leaving aside his use of a term that is now deemed offensive, Malley fails to see that Islamism is in fact communism mark II. Both ideolo-gies use populist rhetoric and sanction violence. Had the Soviet Union not col-lapsed, Islamism would have remained a fringe movement.

If Biden is persuaded by the de-colonization argument, the US will up sticks and leave the Gulf, which is exactly what the mullahs have been dreaming of since 1979. The Iranians have hardly made a secret of their in-tentions: With the US and its military forces gone, the way would be open for Iran to step in as the dominant power in the region, restructuring security and turning neighboring countries into satellite states.

Iran has often pressed for admis-sion to the Gulf Cooperation Council, which currently comprises Saudi Ara-bia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. In fact, Iran would like to go further and replace the GCC with

something bigger — which would in-clude not only the Gulf but also the Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, which sounds more like expansionism than decolonizing.

The Biden administration is dress-ing up its decolonization policy as the ditching of Donald Trump’s “America First” unilateralism. In reality, the US is being very choosy about just how multilateral it wants to be.

Biden rejoined the Paris agreement on climate change on his very first day in office. But the US also plans to re-vive the nuclear deal with Iran, which would allow Tehran to export more than 2 million barrels of oil a day. How does that square with reducing fossil fuel energy, one of the commitments enshrined in the Paris agreement?

The Biden team has been selective at the UN too, breaking with multilateral decisions to pursue its own unilateral policy. Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701 call for all militias in Lebanon to disarm and disband. For “all militias,” read Hezbollah in partic-ular. Yet the White House — especially when occupied by the Democrats — prefers to talk to Hezbollah rather than enforce UN resolutions.

Similarly, on Yemen, the UN Secu-rity Council has passed no fewer than nine resolutions imposing an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on any individual or entity connected

to the Houthi militia, which is ac-cused of obstructing the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Yet new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has had the Houthis removed from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations because, he argued, the war in Yemen can only be resolved by talking to the Houthis.

Pursuing decolonization and com-bating climate change appear to give the US the moral high ground. The re-ality, however, is that foreign policy is never cut and dried or black and white, but rather a frayed mess of gray areas and compromise.

The administration does not perceive Iran as a colonizer, only as colonized, which suggests either a lack of histori-cal understanding or flagrant bias.

The Biden administration seems set to put on a show of “fixing” the world by pursuing decolonization — a term it clearly does not fully understand but will still use to put a gloss on the fact that the US, like all governments, has its own agenda. It will embrace multi-lateralism when it is expedient. It will “see things from the perspective of smaller foreign powers” when it is ad-vantageous.

Under Biden, the US will pick and choose where to dispense its largesse, as all empires do. Impartiality has nothing to do with it.

Arab News

US aims to ‘decolonize,’ but does it really mean it?

By Sara Al-MullaMany experts deem the ongoing

coronavirus pandemic to be the worst global crisis since the Second World War. Lockdown measures have result-ed in massive job losses and income reductions, leaving millions of people in precarious situations. The World Bank has stated that, during the nine months following the onset of the pan-demic, a total of 215 countries deliv-ered 1,414 social protection measures to an estimated 1.28 billion people, or 16 percent of the global population. Data from 126 countries reveals that a total of more than $800 billion has been invested in these response ef-forts.

The pandemic’s devastating social and economic impacts have brought into focus the shortcomings of social protection systems during emergen-cies. Many factors are exacerbating these problems worldwide, such as reduced fiscal leverage due to de-clining government revenues, the universality of the crisis affecting a large segment of the population, lim-ited social mobility policies, and the prolonged, uncertain duration of the pandemic. UN Secretary-General An-tonio Guterres in December said that “the pandemic brings new awareness of the social and economic risks that arise from inadequate social pro-tection systems.” It is important to note that those countries with exist-ing strong protection systems have been better positioned to support their populations during this calam-ity. Social protection is a universal

human right. There is no doubt that a nation’s most precious resource is its human capital. Therefore, it is considered a moral and public duty to support vulnerable groups at dif-ferent life stages or in precarious cir-cumstances, ensuring they are not in poverty and are able to lead happy, productive lives. Social protection systems can deliver a spectrum of benefits, such as reducing poverty, strengthening food security, improv-ing education outcomes, enhanc-ing health, improving relationships, reducing inequality, and promoting social cohesion and inclusion. They also aim to boost economic produc-tivity, reduce government expendi-ture on various support services, and improve state-citizen trust.

They usually include a suite of offerings, such as cash transfers, government fee waivers, utility sup-port, health coverage, and in-kind benefits to support households that need to cope with losses, emergen-cies, an inability to work, and vulner-abilities. Global lockdowns have also forced governments to offer wage subsidies, unemployment benefits, paid sick leave, and childcare vouch-ers to make up for lost income and employment.

Reimagining and modernizing so-cial protection systems should be a national priority for governments in order to protect vulnerable popula-tions and safeguard years of economic and social progress. Perhaps the most important aspect of any social protec-tion system is its financial sustainabil-

ity. In an effort to achieve this impor-tant condition, many governments have established dedicated funds that yield positive yearly returns through a portfolio of investment strategies.

For example, Singapore’s Commu-nity Care Endowment Fund (Com-Care) was established as a sustainable funding source to support low-in-come Singaporeans. What started with $250 million of capital, along with periodical top-ups, is currently valued at $1.9 billion. In 2019, the fund financed a variety of social as-sistance programs worth $69 million, or about 45 percent of the ComCare program’s budget.

Similarly, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is a Cana-dian crown corporation established with a mandate of maximizing long-term investment returns from workers’ pension contributions. The fund is currently worth $475.7 billion and is projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2032. Over the past 10 years, it has achieved a net rate of return of 9.9 percent and is regarded as a successful model on retirement security.

In addition to establishing funds, it is also vital to engage the private sec-tor, philanthropists and civil society with different causes. We have wit-nessed during this pandemic their ex-traordinary efforts and contributions to alleviating people’s suffering. Sup-port has included cash or product do-nations, grants, in-kind services, food vouchers, scholarships, and volun-teering efforts. It is a moral and public

duty to support vulnerable groups at different life stages or in precarious circumstances.

Program planners can utilize the power of digital technologies to de-sign agile social protection systems that provide rapid relief during emer-gencies. Many governments have benefited from this to design simple online application processes, dis-pense cashless payments through electronic banking, and keep an elec-tronic register of all beneficiaries in order to coordinate relief efforts with other government agencies. As a re-sult, responses are quicker, less costly

and safer than in-person transactions.It is also important for policymakers

to work on pre-emptive policies that increase social mobility across differ-ent life stages. There are a number of interventions that support vulnerable communities, such as offering univer-sal health coverage, housing grants, child care allowances and subsidies, educational scholarships, fee waiv-ers for certain public services, and food vouchers. Family-friendly poli-cies that enable parents to work and care for their children, such as flexible working arrangements, part-time em-ployment, paid sick leave and gen-

erous parental leaves, are also vital. Furthermore, various types of aware-ness programs will ensure vulnerable communities adopt positive behav-iors and make decisions that improve their lives, such as financial literacy skills and healthy lifestyle habits.

If anything, history has taught us that crises are windows of opportu-nity for improvement. By designing social protection systems that are re-silient in the face of emergencies and able to universally cater to vulnerable populations, we can safeguard de-cades of progress.

Arab News

Pandemic highlights need for robust social protection systems

5OP-ED28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES

6INTERNATIONAL28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES

Islambad, Feb 27 (UNI) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has re-newed his open offer for dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues with In-dia. Khan gave his statement welcom-ing the ceasefire recently announced between Indian and Pakistani border security forces along the Line of Con-trol (LoC). The Pakistani Premier said the country has "always stood for peace and remains ready to move forward to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue".

"The onus of creating an enabling environment for further progress rests with India," he said. Khan's renewed of-fer for dialogue to India comes after the Director Generals for Military Opera-tions (DGMO) of both countries mutu-ally agreed to enforce the ceasefire from February 25, 2021 along the disputed LoC, which has remained extremely tense with escalated engagements of

shelling from both sides, leaving casu-alties of officials and civil .

However, Prime Minister Imran Khan marked February 27 2021 as "Sur-prise Day", congratulating the armed forces of the country for successfully conducting Operation Swift Retort, which led to the downing of at least two Indian aircrafts (MiG21 & SU-30) jets and the capture of Wing Commander Abhinandan.

"The country demonstrated respon-sible behaviour in the face of India's irresponsible military brinkmanship by returning the captured Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot", he said. "I congratulate the entire nation and salute our Armed Forces on the 2nd Anniversary of our response to India's illegal, reckless military adventure of airstrikes against Pakistan", he added. Khan said Paki-stan is a proud and confident nation as it responded with determined resolve

at a time and place of its own choosing.Tensions have been intensifying be-

tween the two arch-rivals since Febru-ary 2019, after India accused Pakistan's hand in the Pulwama terror attack and launched an air-strike at an alleged mil-itant training camp in Jabba near Bala-kot, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province.

India claimed it had killed at least 350 terrorists belonging to Masood Azhar, being trained and fed there to launch terror attacks inside India. However, Pakistan rejected New Delhi's claims and stated that the only casualty caused by the Indian "botched" air-strikes was two house buildings and a crow. In that backdrop, the latest and rare joint state-ment by both countries is being seen as a major development. Analysts howev-er, believe that New Delhi's agreement to enforcing a ceasefire at the LoC may be due to its tense standoff with China, which has been going on for months.

Pak ready to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue: Imran

Owner Publisher Printed by Buchi Babu, Vuppala, Printed by. Thanmayee Printers #17-1-469/A/42/23, Adarsh Nagar, Saidabad, Hyderabad-59, Owner Publisher Printed by Buchi Babu, Vuppala, Printed by. Thanmayee Printers #17-1-469/A/42/23, Adarsh Nagar, Saidabad, Hyderabad-59, Published from:#17-1-469/A/42/23,Adarsh Nagar, Near Unique Grammer School, Saidabad, Hyderabad-59, T.S.Editor. Buchi Babu Vuppala. RNI.No.APENG/29225/2009. E-mail: thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.inPublished from:#17-1-469/A/42/23,Adarsh Nagar, Near Unique Grammer School, Saidabad, Hyderabad-59, T.S.Editor. Buchi Babu Vuppala. RNI.No.APENG/29225/2009. E-mail: thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in

Tehran, Feb 27 (UNI) Iran will keep supporting the Syrian government in fighting against terrorism, Foreign Min-ister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a telephonic conversation with the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Zarif reaffirmed that the Islamic Republic will continue its support for Syria in various fields and in its efforts to ensure security

and stability across Syria, according to Tasnim news agency.The Iranian For-eign Minister also stressed the need for a solution that preserves the interests, sovereignty, independence and territo-rial integrity of the Arab country, Xinhua reported.For his part, Mekdad thanked Iran for supporting the Syrian people in the economic arena with the purpose

of mitigating the effects of unilateral economic sanctions. The two sides also urged the western states to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, said the report. The conversation between the two senior officials of the regional allies followed US air strikes that killed at least 22 pro-Iran fighters in eastern Syria on Friday morning.

Iran to support Syria in fight against terrorism

Kiev, Feb 27 (UNI) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kule-ba has said that a Normandy Four leaders summit is need-ed to achieve the progress in conflict resolution in Donbas, according to Interfax-Ukraine news agency. "Despite all the efforts made at other levels, we understand that to take the next step, a decision is need-ed," Kuleba said during a press conference after talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris. For his part, the French diplomat said that there was some progress at the 2019 Normandy Four summit in Paris, Xinhua reported.

"We approved an action plan, and it is still relevant, on the table. We see that many commitments, in particular on security, have been ob-served for a certain period, in particular, the ceasefire," said

Le Drian. Le Drian said that France will continue to moni-tor efforts made by the parties to fulfill the obligations in po-litical terms, but at the same time focus on compliance with the security component.

At the summit of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, known as the Normandy Four, in Paris on December 9, 2019, the parties issued a joint dec-

laration and agreed to meet four months later in Berlin in order to continue work on re-solving the situation in eastern Ukraine. The declaration en-visaged an updated demining plan, a ceasefire in the region by the end of the year and a separation of forces by the end of March 2020, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry.

from the demarcation line,

'Normandy summit needed to resolve

Donbas feud' United Nations, Feb 27 (UNI) In a dramatic show of defiance Myan-mar's Permanent Representative Kyaw Moe Tun has denounced his country's military regime before the General Assembly and declared he would fight for democracy. "We will continue to fight for a government which is of the people, by the people, for the people," he said during an As-sembly session on Myanmar.

His speech won a round of ap-plause from diplomats who were at first astounded by his public break with Myanmar's military government that jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders this month and declared the election won by their National League for Democracy invalid. Tun said that his loyalty was to the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and was speaking on behalf of the democratically elected members of parliament. He called for "strongest possible action from the international community to imme-diately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people

and to restore the democracy". "It is time for the military to immediately relinquish power and release those detained," he said. He raised his three fingers in a salute that has become a symbol of the Myanmar protesters demanding a return to democracy.

UN's Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener told the Assembly

through a video link that the situation in Myanmar was "fragile" and had not yet stabilised. The military's takeover remained only a "coup attempt" and the international community should "not lend legitimacy or recognition to this regime" because "it would appear to be roundly rejected by the people". "If there is any escalation in

terms of military brutality -- and sadly as we have seen this before in Myan-mar -- against people exercising their basic rights, let us act swiftly and col-lectively", she added.

India's Permanent Representa-tive said that New Delhi was "deeply concerned that the gains made by Myanmar over the last decades on the path towards democracy, should not get undermined. He said, "Restoring democratic order should be the pri-ority of all stakeholders in Myanmar. The international community must lend its constructive support to the people of Myanmar at this critical juncture." Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric was asked at his briefing about the danger to Tun and his fam-ily because of his speech at the As-sembly. He said, "No one should be harmed. No one should be thrown in jail for expressing their opinion. ...Families should not be punished for the actions of another member. There needs to be freedom of expres-sion, freedom of assembly, and there hasn't been.

Myanmar envoy to UN defies military regime, denounces coup

Seoul, Feb 27 (UNI) As many as 18,500 beneficiaries were inoculated with the Covid-19 jabs on the first day of the vaccination drive across South Korea, a government agency said on Saturday. According to the Central Disaster and Safety Counter-measure Headquarters, 18,489 peo-ple across the country got their first shots of the two-dose AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday, Yonhap reported.

"On Friday, 18,489 medical work-ers, healthcare workers and nursing home patients received the Astra-Zeneca vaccine at community health centres and 213 nursing facilities in 17 metropolitan cities and provinces as planned," said Jeon Hae-cheol, Min-ister of the Interior and Safety, in an agency meeting. The Minister added that there have been no reports of spe-

cific adverse reactions from vaccine recipients, except for mild symptoms, such as headaches and fever.The first day tally of vaccination represents 6.39 per cent of 289,480 healthcare workers and patients under 65 years of age who had agreed to the jabs. It

also accounts for 0.04 per cent of the nation's population of 52 million. By region, Gyeonggi Province, which sur-rounds Seoul, accounted for 3,532 of the Day 1 vaccine recipients, followed by 3,072 in Gwangju and 1,922 in the capital.

Over 18K people vaccinated on Day 1 in S.Korea

Global Covid cases top 113 mn: Johns HopkinsWashington, Feb 27 (UNI) The total number of global Covid-19

cases has topped 113 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.51 million, according to the Johns Hopkins Univer-sity. In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 113,389,166 and 2,517,062 respectively. The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 28,486,118 and 510,458 respectively, according to the CSSE. India comes in second place in terms of cases at 11,063,491. The other countries with more than a million confirmed coronavirus cases are Bra-zil (10,455,630), Russia (4,175,757), the UK (4,175,315), France (3,746,707), Spain (3,188,553), Italy (2,888,923), Turkey (2,683,971), Germany (2,436,506), Colombia (2,244,792), Argentina (2,098,728), Mexico (2,076,882), Poland (1,684,788), Iran (1,615,184), South Africa (1,510,778), Ukraine (1,381,273), Indonesia (1,322,866), Peru (1,308,722), Czech Republic (1,212,780) and the Netherlands (1,093,899), the CSSE figures showed. Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of Covid-19 fatalities at 252,835, fol-lowed by Mexico 184,474 on the third place and India 156,825 on the fourth. Meanwhile, the nations with a death toll above 20,000 are the UK (122,648).

Johnson & Johnson vaccine on track for US emergency approval

New York, Feb 27 (UNI) US regulators are working "rapidly" to finalise

emergency use authorisation for a Johnson & Johnson vaccine which is on track to become America's third shot against the coronavirus pandemic which has killed 509,000 people in the last 12 months alone - the country's deadliest year. After eight hours of non-stop debate, the high powered but usually obscure Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Com-mittee (VRBPAC) voted overwhelmingly in favour of okaying a single dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine for people aged 18 and older.

"Following today's positive advisory committee meeting outcome re-garding the Janssen Biotech Inc. Covid-19 Vaccine, the US Food and Drug Administration has informed the sponsor that it will rapidly work toward finalisation and issuance of an emergency use authorisation, FDA Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement late on Friday. The agency has already notified federal partners involved in vaccine allocation and distribution to get ready for the rollout. Once FDA clears the J&J shot for US use, only a few million doses are expected to be ready for shipping in the first week. J&J told US Congress that it expects to deliver 20 million doses by the end of March and 100 million by June. The company aims to produce around a billion doses by the end of the year. America, which be-gan its historic vaccination drive on December 14 last year, has delivered a total of more than 70 million jabs in arms across first and second doses combined. More than 47 million people in the US have received at least one shot.

7SPORTS28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES

PROCLAMATION REQUIRING THE APPEARANCE OF ACCUSED PERSON

Under section 82/83 Cr.P.C.

Mr.Murali B. Huchchannavar S/o. Basavareddi Panadappa Huchchannavarproprietor of M/s.Padma Paints, Office at : Sonia Nursing Home,

Mulagimd Road, Gadag, Karnataka State,Whereas complaint has been made before me that Accused Mr.Murali B. Huchchannavar, S/o.Basavaraddi Panadappa Huchchannavar, Aged: 31 Years, is the proprietor of M/s.Padma Paints, Office at : Sonia Nursing Home, Mulagimd Road, Gadag, Karnataka State, has committed (or suspected to have committed) the offence in Criminal complaint vide C.C. No.16/2019 on the File of VI Special Magistrate, Hyderabad, under section 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act-1881 and it has been returned to a warrant of arrest thereupon issued that the said Accused Mr.Murali B. Huchchannavar, S/o.Basavaraddi Panadappa Huchchannavar, Aged: 31 Years, is the proprietor of M/s.Padma Paints, Office at : Sonia Nursing Home, Mulagimd Road, Gadag, Karnataka State cannot be found and whereas it has been shown to my satisfaction that the said Accused Mr.Murali B. Huchchannavar, S/o.Basavaraddi Panadappa Huchchannavar, Aged: 31 Years, is the proprietor of M/s.Padma Paints, Office at : Sonia Nursing Home, Mulagimd Road, Gadag, Karnataka State, has absconded (or concealing himself to avoid the service of the said warrant). Proclamation is here made that the said Mr.Murali B. Huchchannavar, S/o.Basavaraddi Panadappa Huchchannavar, Aged: 31 Years, is the proprietor of M/s.Padma Paints, Office at : Sonia Nursing Home, Mulagimd Road, Gadag, Karnataka State – Accused of C.C. No.16/2019 is required to appear before this court to answer the said complaint on or before 08-04-2021.

By orderMagistrate

VI Special Metropolitan Magistrate,Manoranjan Complex, Hyderabad.

Shotgun World Cup: Indian men win skeet team bronze

Bengaluru, Feb 27 (UNI) Gandharv Gourav Kothapalli and Sushmita Ravi won the boys’ and girls’ singles titles, respectively, in the Tattvam KSLTA Under-14 Talent Series here on Friday.

In contrasting finals, Kothapalli overcame third seed Kshitij Aradhya 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 while Sushmita stopped giant-killer Disha Khandoji 6-4, 6-2 at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association courts.The boys’ final looked evenly matched, with both players showing deftness in their movement across the court but committed silly mistakes, too. Kothapalli took

the first two games before Aradhya not only levelled the scores, but went ahead 5-3. Aradhya broke Kothapalli’s serve in the eighth and served out for the set.Kothapalli, 13, achieved a crucial break in the fifth game of the second

set to lead 3-2 and close out the set by winning the next three games in a row.In the deciding set, Kothapalli broke Aradhya’s serve in the fifth game and led 4-2. But the Aradhya ensured that the scores were level by the 10th

game. Once again Kothapalli achieved a break in the 11th before serving out for the match.In the girls’ final, Sushmita, 13, was 3-0 up with a break in the second game of the first set before Disha came back strongly to restore parity.

Sushmita, who used her serve and her forehand to good use, achieved one more break in the ninth game before taking the first set. A similar script followed in the second set until the fifth game, before Sushmita held to go up 4-2 and won the set without any further damage to win her third under-14 title.

Dubai, Feb 27 (UNI) Rakesh Kumar on Friday defeated compatriot Shyam Sundar Swami to clinch the Compound Men Open gold medal as India finished their campaign with five medals at the 7th Fazza Para Archery World Ranking Championships-Dubai 2021 here. Overall, India finished

third.On the final day of the competition, India claimed a gold and two silver. The other silver was claimed by Jyoti Baliyan.

In an all-Indian final, Rakesh (29-28-30-28-28) stayed ahead right from the first end against Swami (26-26-28-28-27) and maintained the momentum

until the end. The final score read 143-135.

“It was a good learning experience here. Now we go back and train to shoot in windy condition. We will be back here again for the World Para Archery Championships. Our preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

continues,” said Swami after taking the silver.

In the Compound Women Open Final, Baliyan (27-19-27-28-27) showed great resilience to stay in the contest until the end, pushing even a tiebreaker 101-101 after the fourth end. But the Indian fell short in the end by two points

losing to Russia’s Stepanida Artakhinova (26-23-26-26-29) 130-128.“I tried hard but shot badly in the end.

However, I am happy to take the silver and some experience from here. I will look to secure a quota from the last qualifying event at the Czech Republic,” said Baliyan.

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) Indian men’s skeet team, comprising Angadvir Singh Bajwa, Mairaj Ahmed Khan, and Gurjoat Khangura, beat Kazakshtan 6-2 to win team bronze at the shotgun World Cup in Cairo on Friday.

The Indian shooters were not impressive in the individual events, failing to make the cut for the six-shooter final, but gave a good account of themselves to win bronze in the season’s first international competition.Much was expected from

Olympic Games quota winner Bajwa and Khan, but the duo couldn’t get the rhythm going to make an impact in the highly competitive field

in the individual events.Khan shot 113 out of 150 to finish 28th while Bajwa finished 30th with an identical total score of 113 out of 150 in an event

spread over two days.In the first qualifying round, competitors shoot a series of three rounds of 25 each. The second day comprises two series of 25 each.

U-14 Talent Series tennis: Kothapalli, Sushmita win singles titles

Fazza Para Archery: India finish 3rd with 2 gold, 3 silver medals

Bumrah released from Indian Test squad on his request: BCCI

Ahmedabad, Feb 27 (UNI) Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been released from the Indian team on his request, the Indian cricket board announced on Saturday.

“Bumrah made a request to BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] to be released from India’s squad ahead of the fourth Test owing to personal reasons.

Accordingly, the fast bowler has been released and he will not be available for selection for the fourth Test [against England],” said a BCCI statement.The

fourth Test begins here on March 4.“There will be no

addition to India’s squad for the final Test,” the BCCI said.The BCCI, however, did not mention the reason for Bumrah’s release.S q u a d for 4th Test:

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keepers), R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma,

Dusseldorf, Feb 27 (UNI) World No.3 Germany side thrashed world No.9 Indian women’s hockey team 5-0 in the first match of the four-match series here on Saturday.

Pia Maertens (10th minute, 14th), Lena Micheel (20th), Pauline Heinz (28th) and Lisa Altenburg (41th) found the back of the net for the hosts.

The Indian team got off to a great start early in the first quarter by earning a penalty corner only in the second minute. However, the German defensive line stepped up and saved India’s shot at the goal. Thereafter, the hosts upped

their ante and put extensive pressure on the Indian defence.They got into great positions and created multiple goal-scoring opportunities. Germany’s

Forward Pia Maertens put the hosts in the lead with a goal in the 10th minute and then found the back of the net once again in the 14th minute.The teams

went into the first quarter break with Germany leading at 2-0.In the second quarter, the hosts continued to put pressure on the Indian defence line and earned a penalty corner in the 17th minute.

The Indian side saved the penalty corner and counter-attacked immediately. India earned a penalty corner in the very next minute.

However, the Germans stood tall and saved India’s shot at the goal once again. The world No. 3 side rode on the momentum and took a 3-0 lead in the 20th minute when German forward Lena Micheel found an opening and converted it brilliantly. Eight minutes later, the hosts extended their lead to 4-0 after midfielder Pauline Heinz found the back of the net just before half-time.

Ahmedabad, Feb 27 (UNI) Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow dominated the final day’s proceedings to win the Glade One Masters golf title with a four-shot margin at 17-under-199 here on Friday. He shot a five-under-67 at the Glade One Golf Resort and made up for his heartbreaking loss on the PGTI last week.Gurugram’s Manu Gandas took

Bengaluru, Feb 27 (UNI) There is a lot of potential in Indian swimmers, said acclaimed Sports Science Expert Dr Genadijus Sokolovas at the end of a six-day workshop here on Friday.

At the end of the workshop, held at the Dravid-Padukone Academy for Excellence here, Dr Sokolavas said he went into great detail with respect to the breathing techniques.

“We have been developing different drills customized for each individual. This will help the coach and the athletes to understand what exactly they need to work on. We are also doing lactate

tests, to determine the ideal training intensity for each individual,” stated Dr Sokolavas, who left for the

USA on Thursday.“After taking these tests, the Indian swimmers can confirm that there is a lot of room to be

faster.I believe everybody can swim faster, including world record holders.My prediction is that these guys can swim much faster than they are swimming right now,” he said.

A total of 45 swimmers, including 23 national campers, were put through various tests such as b i o m e c h a n i c s - b a s e d technique analysis, swim power test, start and turn analysis, lactate profiles for training zones and recovery protocols.

During the six-day stay of Dr Sokolavas as part of the national camp in Bengaluru, SFI also conducted a two-day coach’s clinic for which 42

Madrid, Feb 27 (UNI) FC Barcelona travel to the Sanchez Pizjuan on Saturday for a game that is absolutely vital to both teams’ La Liga title hopes.

Wednesday’s 3-0 win at home to Elche moved Barca a point above Sevilla into third place in La Liga, five points

behind Atletico Madrid, but with an extra game played, Ronald Koeman’s side needs all three points on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.The two teams met in the same ground just over a fortnight ago in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals, with Sevilla

winning 2-0, and they will meet again next Wednesday in a match where Barca will need to score at least twice to have a chance of qualifying.However, with the league

I expect many Indian swimmers to get A Cuts by 2024 Oly: Expert

Germany thrash India 5-0 in first women’s hockey match

Resilient Chouhan

clinches Glade One Masters

golf title

Barcelona, Sevilla’s La Liga title chances to tested

WALKININTERVIEW

8ENTERTAINMENT28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES

TARA SUTARIA CONFESSES

BEING A 'CEREAL KILLER'

SUSHANT CASE: AIIMS FORENSIC BODY HINTS AT SUICIDE, NOT MURDER

KATRINA KAIF TO STAR IN ALI ABBAS ZAFAR'S SUPERHERO FILM, PHYSICAL PREPS

HAVE ALREADY BEGUN!

Katrina Kaif, the hot-test actress of Bolly-wood, who we have

often seen in hot avatars, is now all set to jump in a superhero fl ick with his best friend and 'Bharat' director Ali Abbas Zafar.

As per a report from a leading daily, Ali Zafar revealed that Katrina has already started the prepa-ration for the superhero fl ick that is to be made in two parts.

Spilling some more beans on the film, Ali told that he and his team have temporarily shifted to Dubai for the Super-hero film to work with an international team. Talking about the film-

PRIYANKA CHOPRA'S MEMOIR, 'UNFINISHED', BECAME THE BEST SELLING BOOK IN THE US!

Actress Tara Sutaria wit-tily describes herself a cereal killer in her lat-

est post on social media. Tara posted a picture on Instagram where she is seen sporting black tights paired with a white crop top and leopard print jacket. In the photograph, she is seen holding a bowl of cereal and milk."Cereal killer," she wrote along with emojis of a glass of milk, a leopard and a black heart emoji. Tara, who started her career as a child ac-tor in 2010 with the TV show "Big Bada Boom", was sub-sequently seen in shows like "The Suite Life Of Karan And Kabir" and "Oye Jassie". The actress, who is also a singer, had her breakthrough in Bol-lywood with a starring role in "Student Of The Year 2" and was also seen in the ac-tion fi lm "Marjaavaan". She now has two fi lms coming up -- "Tadap" and "Ek Villain 2". "Tadap" is Milan Luthria's remake of the Telugu hit "RX 100". She is paired opposite Suniel Shetty's son Ahan, who makes his Bollywood debut in the fi lm. Mohit Suri's "Ek Villain 2", co-stars John Abraham, Dis-ha Patani and Aditya Roy Kapur.

KARTIK AARYAN LOOKS DAPPER

FLEXING HIS STYLE & CHIC WITH SLEEK

IRUS SHADES!

Kartik Aaryan is a star whose fashion looks never go unno-ticed; he has been setting fashion

goals for youngsters since his debut in Bollywood. The actor has stolen limelight from the fi lm fraternity for his fun sweatshirts and airport looks (and dance), he is also loved for his effortless dressy casuals.

The Pati Patni Aur Woh actor recently shared a picture himself look-ing handsome and captivating, he is seen just fl exing his style & chic with sleek Irus shades. Kartik also looks dapper in a white tee and casually

classy Black, and golden Jacket, check it out-On the work front the actor will next seen in comedy horror fi lm Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 directed by Anees Bazmee and produced by Bhushan Kumar. Starring Kartik Aaryan, Tabu, and Kiara Advani, it is a standalone sequel of the 2007 fi lm Bhool Bhulaiyaa directed by Priyadarshan. He will also star in the Dostana 2 romantic comedy fi lm directed by Collin D'Cunha and produced by Karan Johar, Hiroo Johar and Apoorva Mehta. Featuring Kartik Aaryan, Janhvi Kapoor and Laksh Lalwani in lead roles.

In June 2018, it was an-nounced that Priyanka Cho-pra will publish her mem-

oir titled `Unfinished ,̀ which is scheduled to be released in 2020 by Penguin Books in India, Ballantine Books in the United States, and Michael Joseph in the United Kingdom. Now fi-

nally, after two years of waiting, Priyanka has finished writing her memoir and shared the first look on social media. The actress always wanted to be an author, and from a long time, writing stuff was on her 'bucket list'. With 'Unfinished', she admit-ted that this memoir has deep

meaning for her and also shared the pre-order link on the social media platforms.But just within 12 hours of being made available for pre-order, Priyanka Chopra's memoir, 'Unfinished', has be-come the best-selling book in the US. Although Unfinished is expected to arrive in January but

still her fan-following took a new high when she shared the news on Twitter and wrote, "Thank you all for taking us to number 1 in the US in less than 12 hours! I hope you all love the book." On Friday, Priyanka Chopra shared the first look of her memoir 'Unfinished' on Instagram and

wrote, "Ironically, I named this memoir years before I started writing it. Having been a public person now for 20 years, with so much life to live and a long list of things to check off my list personally and professionally, I am very much #Unfinished.BUT the funny thing about writing a

memoir is that it forces you to look at things differently, reconciling so many things you thought you had put to bed. In doing so I've realized that being `unfinished" has deeper meaning for me, and has in fact been one of the most common threads of my life...PRE-ORDER NOW!

ing of the movie, he said the team might be rolling the film from January 2021 once normalcy is restored.

Speaking about Katrina, Ali said, "Katrina has al-ready started her physi-cal prep. But she has a

few other commitments to wrap up before start-ing work on the superhero films." He also informed

The forensic department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AI-

IMS) in its report to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has "hinted" that the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was suicide and not murder, sources said on Saturday.The AIIMS forensic panel under Dr. Sudhir Gupta was formed at the request of the CBI in August to assist in giving medico-legal opinion in con-nection with the death of the

late actor.According to AIIMS sources, the forensic team in its report has hinted the death of Sushant as suicide, thus re-jecting the claims of 'poisoning' and 'strangling' made by the ac-tor's family and their lawyer.

The doctors of the AIIMS refused to share further details as the mat-ter is sub judice.The remarks came after the AIIMS forensic body sub-mitted its report to the federal agency earlier this week, where it also hinted that his death was not a case of organic poisoning.However,

CBI sources remained tight lipped on the issue and maintained that the agency is probing all the angles, and no angle has been ruled out yet.On September 28, CBI spokesperson in a statement said that the agency is conducting a professional investi-gation into the death of Sushant in which all aspects are being looked at and no aspect has been ruled out as of date.Sushant was found dead on June 14 in the Mont Blanc Apart-ment in Bandra in Mumbai. His fam-ily members raised suspicion of Su-shant having been murdered.

Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan has shared an update on her pregnan-cy. She is fi ve months pregnant and

going strong. In a new Instagram picture she has posted, Kareena is seen sitting in a park and soaking in the sun. "5 months and going strong PS : The #KaftanSeries continues," she wrote alongside the im-age, which currently has over 303K likes. On August 12, Kareena and her actor-hus-band Saif Ali Khan had announced that they were expecting an addition to their family. "We are very pleased to announce that we are expecting an addition to our family!! Thank you to all our well wishers for all their love and support.

KAREENA SHARES PREGNANCY UPDATE: '

MONTHS AND GOING STRONG'

MS DHONI WILL BE BACKING MYTHOLOGICAL SCI-FI SERIES, WIFE

SAKSHI DHONI REVEALS THE DETAILS!Former India Cricket

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who re-

cently announced his re-

tirement from international cricket, marked his debut in the entertainment industry as a producer last year.Dhoni entertainment, the media company started by the two-time World Cup-winning

captain stepped into the in-dustry with his first project in 2019, the document series 'Roar of the Lion'

'Roar of the Lion' was helmed by Kabir Khan and charted the comeback of Chennai Super Kings, the

Chennai franchise of the In-dian Premier League (IPL) under Dhoni after the two-

year suspension for spot fix-ing. Now, Dhoni entertain-ment's next production will

be an adaptation of an un-published book by debutant author.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's wife Sakshi Dhoni, who took the spot of managing direc-

CINEMAS TO OPEN BUT WAIT FOR BOLLYWOOD BIGGIES

WILL CONTINUE

The Government of India has announced

that cinemas will be al-lowed to reopen across the country starting October 15, and fans are overjoyed. The decision has been hailed by the fi lm fraternity, too, who are now waiting for all the state governments to give a green signal.

Theatres had been shut ever since lockdown was imposed in March, to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. On Wednesday, the Union Home Ministry an-nounced it was allowing cinemas, theatres and multiplexes to reopen with 50 per cent seating capacity from October

15."This is a great an-nouncement but we still have to wait for all the states to open up. Many states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are yet to open up. 'Sooryavan-shi' and '83' have been ready for quite some time. 'Sooryavanshi' was originally slated for a Diwali release, but it's not practical. Even if theatres open up in Novem-ber, you can't release such a big fi lm with 15 days promotion time," Reliance Entertainment Group CEO Shibashish Sarkar told .While fi lmmaker Rohit Shetty's "Sooryavanshi" will bring Akshay Kumar back in the cop avatar.

Actress Seerat Kapoor, grand-daughter of late acting guru Roshan Taneja, is set to make her Bollywood debut after es-tablishing her career in Telugu fi lms. She says that the two in-dustries have a lot of similari-ties and gives her the opportu-

nity to explore her craft. The actress, who has been part of successful Telugu fi lms such as "Krishna And His Leela", "Raju Gari Gadhi 2" or "Maa Vintha Gaadha Vinuma", will be seen making her Hindi de-but alongside Naseeruddin

Shah and Tushar Kapoor in the fi lm "Maarrich". Asked if she is facing any diffi culty in the her Hindi fi lm debut, the actress gives a profound an-swer: "The greater the diffi cul-ty, the deeper one experiences a chance to grow.""As far as

the process goes, there are more similarities than differ-ences. Both the industries be it the South or Bollywood play to the strengths of their indi-vidual cultures and audiences. From my perspective, there lies an ocean full of opportu-

nities to explore myself as an artiste," she tells . Asked if she is facing any diffi culty in the her Hindi fi lm debut, the actress gives a profound answer: "The greater the dif-fi culty, the deeper one experi-ences a chance to grow."

Bollywood newcomer Seerat Kapoor on her stint in Telugu films

OFFICE ADDRESS: #17-1-469/A/42/23, Adarsh Nagar, Near Unique Grammer School Saidabad. Hyderabad-59, T.S.

#G160 Ground Floor, Phase III, Spencer Plaza, Mount Roa, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMESGreater HyderabadGreater Hyderabad

28 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021 PAGES-8

Reject BJP for fuel charges hike : Harish tells voters

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): Finance Minister T Harish Rao today appealed to the voters to vote for the TRS graduate MLC Candidate Surabhi Vanidevi for development and address the issues. He asked why voters will support the BJP as its government at the Centre fuel charges. He said that there is no use of giving votes for the BJP, Congress or the left parties in the graduate MLC polls. Because they are not in the government and come in the way of development he reasoned.

He addressed some political campaigns in Uppal, Ibrahimpatnam and others for Vanidevi who is the noted educationist and came from a big family.

Harish Rao was given the incharge post for the polls of graduate MLC of Ranga Reddy district for Hyderabad

segment comprising Mahabubnagar also. The Centre copies several of our programs and we are ideal at the national level, he claimed. Since she is the daughter of former

prime minister PV Narsimha Rao having been running educational institutions is aware of the problems of the graduates and educated people. On voting for the TRS

candidate Vanidevi will surely work for addressing their issues he said.

The BJP is increasing petrol, diesel and gas cylinder charges burdening the people. If that is the case why the people will for the saffron party he thundered. The finance minister also slammed the Congress for the name of Telangana only during the polls and ignored the plight of various sections later on. For about 70 years the congress and TD regimes dumped our region of Telangana in all sectors he expressed displeasure. However the TRS boss K Chandrasekhar Rao has achieved statehood after a long battle with the Centre.

The Centre did not give us adequate funds for development, increasing fuel prices, denied tribal varsity and steel plant he charged.

Despite that the BJP government is adopting dual standards on the development and ignoring Telangana he fumed.

The minister accused the congress, BJP and left parties of misinformation campaign on the government. Our government offers Rs 10000 per acre under Rythu Bandhu, free 24 hours Power, Rythu Bhima of Rs 5 lakh to kin of deceased farmers, pensions to old, disabled and others. KCR Government kept the promise of giving potable waters to the rural women, built irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram and others. Mission Kakatiya has flourished the rural irrigation as the community professionals getting back to the villages to take up old work to make a living he explained.

CP asks Gun license holders to deposit their weapons

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): The City Police Commis-sioner Anjani Kumar today all gun license holders from the city to deposit their guns with official weapon dealers and convey the information about the deposit of their guns to the nearby police sta-tions.

In a statement he said that they had taken the decision by keeping in view of the up-coming Graduate MLC elec-tions on March 14,. He said that they had taken the deci-sion to ensure law and order in the district ahead of the elections. The CP the weap-ons can be claimed on March 24 after the completion of the elections. He warned that they would initiate action against those who did not comply with their orders.

Centre asks states for large scale vaccination

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): Union Cabinet Secretary Dr. Rajiv Gauba conducted a video con-ference with Chief Sec-retaries of the states . He emphasized the need to act decisively in terms of containment, surveillance and large scale vaccina-tion which would help in arresting the rising trend in the Covid cases.

Chief Secretary So-mesh Kumar, informed the Union cabinet Sec-retary that the situation in the state is fully under control.

The positivity rate is

0.43 and less than 200 cas-es are being reported daily in the state. Occupancy in the hospitals, both private and government, is also low. Rapid Antigen tests are being conducted in

1100 locations across the state which has been the game changer in the state, Chief Secretary observed. If anyone found positive, immediately medicine kit is given.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 2228 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Hyderabad, Feb 26 (UNI) A war of words has broken out between Telangana’s ruling and opposition parties over jobs created in the state during the last six years, increasing the political heat ahead of next month’s elections to two seats of Legislative Council and ensuing by-polls to the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seat. Where are the new jobs created, asking the opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) disputing the claims of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) that the government provided 1.32 lakh jobs since 2014.

Open letter, challenges, counter-challenges and ‘data war’ among the parties have heated the state politics in the run up to March 14 elections to two graduate constituencies of the Council. The leaders are reeling out statistics in support of their claims while their supporters are also waging a war on social media.

Unemployment has been a major issue in Telangana ever since its formation as a separate state in 2014. In fact, water,

funds and jobs were the three slogans of the TRS during the Telangana movement. After forming the first government in the new state, TRS leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao had promised to provide one lakh jobs by filling all vacancies in the government departments.

The TRS claims that it has done much more. Two days ago,

the Chief Minister’s son and Industry Minister K. T. Rama Rao rejected the argument that the TRS had failed youngsters on jobs and said that 1.32 lakh jobs were given in the government sector in the last six years. He said Congress could fill up just 10,000 posts in Telangana from 2004-2014 when it was in power in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, said he was ready for a debate on this issue. Congress spokesperson Sravan Dasoju was quick to accept the challenge. He asked KTR to come to the Telangana Martyrs Memorial at Gun Park on Friday for debate. “We will not believe in your false statement. Come with your team and the figures on the recruitment and current vacancies,” he said. KTR, who is also Working President of TRS, instead issued an open letter, accusing the opposition parties of resorting to false propaganda to mislead youth and students. He reiterated that the government filled 1,32,899 posts in various department during the last six years, and also released

the figures giving department-wise vacancies filled. He also reiterated that if anyone has any doubts about our government’s commitment to job recruitment, they can approach respective departments and clarify.

He said that the Telangana State Public Service Commission recruited 30,594 employees while the Telangana State Level Police Recruitment Board filled 31,972 vacancies. He also gave the figures of vacancies filled in other organisations while asking Congress to provide figures of the jobs created during its 10-year rule between 2004 and 2014.

Sravan along with supporters reached Gun Park around noon on Friday but KTR did not turn up. He wanted to know why KTR wrote an open letter instead of coming forward for an open debate as he had proposed, and termed as “utter lies” the claims of the government on jobs given. He pointed out that on June 2, 2014 when Telangana state came into being, out of total sanctioned 4.19 lakh employees, 3.12 lakh employees were on rolls while there were 1.07 lakh

vacancies. He said now and after 7 years of TRS rule, on rolls employees are 2.28 lakh while vacancies are 1.93 lakh.

He claimed that KTR was revealing false figures to mislead graduates. He said regularisation of over 22,000 TS Genco, and Transco employees is projected as the vacancies filled.

A war of words also broke out between the TRS and the BJP. The TRS asked BJP to give details of the 12 crore jobs created during last six years, in a reference to the party’s promise of 2 crore jobs every in the country. BJP national Vice President D.K. Aruna joined the issue. She cited the statement by the Telangana State Public Service Commission’s former Chairman Ganta Chakrapani that 32,000 vacancies were filled but KTR claimed 1.32 lakh jobs were provided. “People want to know who is telling the truth,” she said. The war of words is likely to turn bitter in the coming days. Over 10 lakh graduates are eligible to cast their votes in the two constituencies of the Council on March 14.

WAR OF WORDS OVER JOBS HEATS UP TELANGANA POLITICS

Presenting TGOA Hyderabad Dist 2021 Diary to Sri K.Papa Rao, Dy. Transport Commissioner Vigilace, Enforcement, IT &Admin, Transport Department, Govt of Telangana & President, Telangana Motor Vehicles Inspectors Association By Sri Ravinder Anna Treasurer, TGOs Central Association, Sri M.B. Krishna Yadav, President, TGOs Association Hyderabad District and Sri Mohd Abdul Khader, Treasurer, TGOs Association Hyderabad District Branch.

(04) POLICE OFFICER’S RETIRED IN RACHAKONDA POLICE COMMISSIONERATE ON 27-02-2021

The Additional Commissioners of Police, Rachakonda Sudheer Babu, IPS., has been felicitated retiring Police Officers with Rs.20,000/- each from Employee Benefit Fund and their Share + thrift amount from Co-Operative Credit Society, Rachakonda and handed over the pension papers to them. He wishes a happy retired life. He requested them to spend quality time with family members, relatives and friends. Additional CP Sudheer Babu IPS, Smt. Shilpavalli, ADCP (Admin), Smt.Suguna, CAO Accounts, CAO Admin Pushparaju and G.Krishna Reddy, Organization secretary of Police Officer's Association and other Officers are participated on the occasion of retirement. The Following Officers are as follows 1. Tajuddin Ahmed ADCP, Traffic. 2. A.Venkateswarlu ACP, CI Cell. 3. K.Alluraiah, SI of LB Nagar PS.4. S. Narsi Reddy, ASI of LB Nagar PS. PRO Rachakonda

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 3328 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

MLC candidate Dr. Chinna Reddy

should win with the collective effort

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES REPORTER

Serilingampalle Reporter Feb 27: In the wake of the graduation elections in Hyderabad, Ran-gareddy and Mahabubnagar on Saturday, Telangana state Con-gress party campaign commit-tee organizers and Malkajgiri MP Revant Reddy, who was the chief guest with the Congress main leaders of the seven Constituency constituencies in Chevalle under the patronage of former Chevalle MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, took part in the event and gave direction to the floor leaders and activists. Senior Congress lead-ers from Serilingampalle met the Madhapur division in-charge, D.Suresh Nayak, Mahipal Yada-va, Raghunandan Reddy, Manya Satish, senior Congress leaders, rank and file, and others partici-pated. “It is our responsibility to ensure that every activist acts re-sponsibly and wins over Dr. Chin-nareddy. The TRS party must work as proactively as possible to divert deposits,” he said. The event was attended by a large number of se-nior leaders of the Congress party and was a success.-

The South India Times ReporterSerilingampalle Reporter Feb 27: Cyberabad Police Jagruthi Kalabrindam gave awareness on legal aware-ness, She Teams, Domestic Violence, Anti- Ragging and Eve-Teasing, Community CCTV installation, negative effects of social media, Social evils and role of Students, She teams, legal awareness, Drugs abuse, cybercrimes, online fraud, Problems of early marriages, Domestic violence, mobile usage, Road accidents, awareness on wearing a seat belt and hel-mets usage, and Human Traf-ficking, etc. In this program, Krishna Prasad ACP Miyapur, K Kastro SHO Chandhanagar, Ramulu SI Chandhanagar, She team Incharge ASI: Kis-han & She team members, Smile team Members, School

principal, Staff and Students, kalabrindam incharge ARSI: Nagaraju and kalabrindam

team members, total about 350 members participated in this program.

Jagruthi Kalabrindam conducted an awareness program at ZPHS Govt school Chandanagar

“GOOD MORN-

ING CHIL-KANAGAR “ GETS HUGE RESPONSE

TSIT BUREAU On Saturday Chilkanagar Di-vision Corporator Bannala Geeta Praveen Mudiraj along with officials of various depart-ments in the Birappagadda area of the division marched with the residents of Basti as part of the Good Morning Chilkanagar program from 6 am to 8 pm. Dur-ing the visit to Basti, the residents of Basti brought several issues to the attention of the corporator. In particular, many complaints raised in regard to sanitation de-partment people said they were sleeping, did not carry even a single work from last month gar-bage was not taken from the UGD manholes, the problem of pres-

sure in fresh water supply, the need for electric poles, the lack of lights and the need for a CC road in some alleys. Authorities were directed to take appropriate ac-tion immediately. Sanitation of-ficials Chandana Chauhan Super-visor Sudarshan Waterworks staff and TRS senior leaders Kokonda Jagan, Bingi Srinivas, Birappagad-da Balu, Kumar, Sai, Jayamma and Birappagadda bastivas were present on the occasion.

Rape and mur-der of a woman

who went to work as a laborerTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES CRIME REPORTER

Sangareddy Crime Reporter Feb 27: The woman was raped and then brutally mur-dered by some thugs. Police said they found signs that the woman had killed the cookie by slitting her throat in the note. Police arrived at the scene and the Clues team collected evidence. The event is set to take place in the district headquarters of Vikarabad. Amruthamma (38), husband Chandraya, son, and daughter are from Au-supally village in the Dharur zone. It was in this context that on Thursday Amritamma left home for Vikarabad to work as a laborer. Unable to reach home at night, the family members searched the vicinity of Vikarabad as well as acquaintances to no avail. A com-plaint was lodged with the police this morn-ing. Police, who registered the missing case, has launched an investigation. However, on the way from Vikarabad Alampalli to Girigate Palli, Amritamma was found dead in a field next to the railway tracks, police said. Police arrived at the scene and identi-fied the missing woman as the woman who registered the missing case. Police believe the woman was raped and murdered. Po-lice suspect that the eggs in the note killed the cookie.

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): Panchayat Raj Minister Er-rabelli Dayakar Rao today said that chief minister K Chandra sekhar Rao is help-ing farmers and Modi rule is dumping them.

He alleged that KCR didn’t stop welfare, Modi brought in anti farm laws. At a TRS graduate MLC poll campaign in Warangal for candidate Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, he appealed to the educated to support the ruling party to win.

The minister hoped that the educated and graduates are in favour of the TRS re-gime for jobs, employment opportunities and more wel-fare schemes and develop-ment in all fields the minister said.

While the KCR govern-ment makes farming a ben-efit making activity, the BJP regime is adopting a reverse order he alleged.

We are giving Rs 10000 per acre to the farmers through rythu bandhu, besides giv-ing 24 hours free power and

bhima he pointed out. These schemes are not in the BJP ruled states he said.

The Centre instead of giv-ing funds and schemes has come up with the anti farm-ing laws, Dayakar said. He said that TRS candidate Palla Rajeshwar Reddy is noted for serving the people. He has educational institutions and is aware of addressing related issues. We must vote

for him and ensure that our friends also support his can-didature, Dayakar said.

The people will deny votes to the BJP in the polls as the Modi government is raising petrol prices and bringing in false laws for the farmers. The minister asked to know why the BJP regime failed to give Rs 15 lakhs to each per-son and ignored the plight of the farmers.

Modi increases fuel prices, KCR didn’t stop welfare: Dayakar

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 4428 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

• Asks the Minister to stop provocative politics with useless fellows like Talasani• Reminds KTR about his enor-mous contribution to the TRS party and Telangana movement• Offers to Self Killing at Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial if he is proved wrong on job issues Hyderabad, February 27, 2021: AICC National Spokesperson Dr Sravan Dasoju while express-ing his displeasure over deroga-tory remarks made by Telan-gana Minister, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, where the latter insulted the sincere Telangana agitator, criticized KT Rama Rao (KTR), Minister for Industries, IT and Municipal Administration, for encouraging such street row-dies to scold the opposition leaders using un-parliamentary words. Senior Congress party leader warned KTR to stop play-ing the provocative and un-democratic politics in Telan-gana instead he asked him to focus on creating employment to over 40 lakh beleaguered un-employed youth in the state. “A 10th fail street rowdy, politi-cal beggar and land grabber, Ta-lasani Srinivas Yadav, who has utterly insulted the Telangana agitation and also the family of KCR is now being encouraged by shameless KTR to insult the self respect of highly educated, sincere, dedicated and commit-ted Telangana agitator like me. A

useless fellow who surrendered to Chandrababu Naidu and at-tacked Telangana agitators in the past later shifted to the TRS party by purchasing a Minister seat is talking about the then Polit Bu-reau Member, who has drafted one-of-its-kind Manifestoes in Indian politics and presented it along with KCR and written for Srikrishna Committee Report, is irrational. I wouldn’t have felt bad if Balka Suman, Gyadari Satish or Errolla Srinivas, who fought for Telangana, talked about him or Graduate elections, but it is truly hurting. KTR must feel ashamed of it”, Dr Sravan fi red. Dr Sravan along with TPCC and NSUI leaders including Indira Shobhan, Anil Kumar Yadav, Shivasena Reddy, Mogulla Raji Reddy, Mettu Sai Kumar, Kalvala Sujatha, Rohith addressed the media at Gandhi Bhavan in Hy-derabad.

The AICC leader reminded KTR to recall multiple visits to his residence in 2009 requesting him for joining the TRS party at a time he was working with Chiranjeevi who treated him like a brother. Reiterating the statement made by KTR about 1.32 lakh job re-cruitment is fake and fabricated, Dr Sravan offered to be roamed with half shaved head or self kill-ing by cutting his throat at the Telangana Martyrs Memorial if he is proved wrong on his allega-tions about the vacancies in the

government. While once again inviting KTR for an open de-bate over employment issues in Telangana, he said that they were even ready to come to Pragathi Bhavan or Telangana Bhavan to discuss these matters.

“Kiran Kumar Reddy, past CM of erstwhile AP, has fi lled 1.6 lakh jobs in which 84,000 jobs were newly created. Spent Rs 770 Crore for Skill Development to provide training and self em-ployment to over 5,00,000 youth. Prime Minister Modi (the then CM of Gujarat) praised and rep-licated it in Gujarat and across India which is Congress party’s accomplishment. But, as per Biswal Commission the current vacancies are 1.91 lakh in Telan-gana. About 1.2 lakh contract employees are working without regularization. More than 1.5 lakh jobs should have been cre-ated during the last 7 years by the

government. Put together, still there are more than 4.5 lakh jobs yet to be fi lled”, he explained. According to him, the Congress party has created new employ-ment by setting up new Univer-sities across the state including Telangana. Mahatma Gandhi University, IIT Basara, IIT-Hy-derabad, Palamuru University, Shatavahana University among others were set up at that time. The senior Congress party leader expressed anger on nasty com-ments and elaborated about his personal and professional quali-fi cations. “I have completed my MA, MBA and PhD. Worked as a Professor and also as GM at an IT Company and drew salary in lakhs. But, to fi ght for the noble cause and for separate state-hood, I have joined the politics.

I have been fi ghting for the same before and after the for-mation of Telangana. And, I won’t leave this fi ght until jus-tice is done to the unemployed youth and the 1,200 families of Telanana Martyrs. KCR himself revealed the number of Martyrs but escaped from his prom-ises such as Rs 10 lakh ex gra-tia, 3 acres land, government job and 2BHK house”, he said. Further criticizing KCR and KTR who have been deliberately be-traying not only the unemployed youth, but also the farmers and every section of Telangana, Dr Sravan said, “This is a careless

government. KCR doesn’t listen to anyone. Giving away old age pensions and Rythubandhu is not only the duty of the govern-ment. You must appoint VCs and Faculty to the Universities, fi ll up existing vacancies and create new employment.

Are your cabinet colleagues Ch Malla Reddy and Palla Rajeshwar Reddy running their Universities without VCs and half of the staff? At a time when the TSPSC it-self is functioning without a head and half of the staff, how can this government ensure good governance to the peo-ple of Telangana, he slammed. Dr Sravan lamented KTR for his failures to retain ITIR, NIMZ while doing business with Phar-ma City lands grabbed from farmers at Rs 6-8 lakhs per acre and offering them for Rs 1 Crore per acre. He also suggested the Minister not to embarrass the daughter of great PV Narasimha Rao, globally recognized intellec-tual, for the sake of winning MLC elections. He said that the Grad-uates are ready to teach a lesson to the TRS party which is encour-aging migrated leaders who are taking shelter like a snake in the ants’ nest. He further warned that they will fi ght on employ-ment issues from Gully to Zilla along with NSUI, Youth Congress and won’t spare the arrogant pol-itics being played by KCR and his family.

AICC Spokesperson Dr Sravan Dasoju Warns KTR for Encouraging Street Rowdies

Hyderabad, Feb 27 (UNI) Telangana on Saturday re-corded 178 new Covid-19 cases, raising the state’s tally to over 2.98 lakh, even as 148 more people recov-ered from the virus in the past 24 hours, offi cials said. Hyderabad accounted for the highest number of cases at 30, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (20), Rangareddy (15), Karimnagar (10) and Warangal Urban (9).

Among other places, Adilabad and Sangareddy (8 each), Nalgonda and Rajanna Siricilla (7 each),

Mehboobnagar, Manche-rial and Nizamabad (6 each) and Jagityal, Khammam and Yadadri Bhongir (5 each). Although the total number of cases have crossed 2.98 lakh, the number of active cases in the state stood at 1,939, rising from 1,715 a week ago, more than the neighbouring Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh.

Surprisingly, both the Telugu states are report-ing rising active cases af-ter reporting drops in this category. Meanwhile, one more Covid death occurred

in the past 24 hours, rais-ing the statewide death toll to 1,633. Even after one week, the southern state’s Covid fatality rate stands at the same 0.54 per cent rate, compared to the national average of 1.4 per cent. Pow-ered by 148 more recoveries, total number of recoveries in Telangana has crossed 2.95 lakh, narrowing the gap between total cases and recoveries. The state’s recovery rate dropped to 98.8 per cent, which is still higher than the national average of 97.1 per cent.

178 new Covid cases in T’gana, tally 2.98L

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): In a gesture IT Min-ister K T Rama Rao today offered Rs 10 lakhs of fi nan-cial assistance to Telan-gana protagonist Dr Kolluri Chiranjeevi who is in a pri-vate hospital. Chiranjeevi fought 1969 Telangana agi-tation and recent agitation of statehood.

The minister on knowing of Chiranjeevi is on a ven-tilator support at a private hospital in Gachchibowli spoke to his family mem-bers. He inquired about

the health condition of Chiranjeevi and offered Rs 10 lakhs from Chief Minis-ter Relief fund towards his treatment.

The family members of

Chiranjeevi expressed grat-itude to the minister at the right time. They thanked the minister for the amount towards treatment.

Meanwhile the health minister Etala Rajender has called on the patient and consoled the family mem-bers. He asked the doc-tors attending him to offer better treatment. He said that Chiranjeevi played a key role in the statehood movement. Both in 1969 and recently he fought for the statehood he added.

KTR offers Rs 10 lakhs to Telangana protagonist Chiranjeevi

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 5528 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): Congress Party MP A. Re-vanth Reddy today slammed CM KCR and mocked that the CM got five jobs in his own family due to the for-mation of separate Telan-gana state by their party president Sonia Gandhi. He alleged that while CM KCR had cheated the people of the state by promising a job for every household of the state , Prime Minister Narendra Modi cheated the people by promising 2 crore jobs. He said that while Modi gave job to his party MP from the state Kishan Reddy, CM KCR gave jobs

to his own family members. Referring to the statement of CR Biswal committee that the state has 1.91 lakh vacant government Jobs in the state, he asked the state government as to what hap-pened to all the Jobs.He said

that state minister KTR did not have any right to speak on the issue of recruitment of the government jobs. He made these remarks while Campaigning for the party’s MLC candidate G. Chinna Reddy from the Hyderabad , Ranga Reddy and Mah-bubnagar Graduate MLC seat. Reddy urged the vot-ers of the constituency to vote for Chinna Reddy in the upcoming elections. He alleged that CM KCR had given the party ticket to for-mer PM PV Narasimha Rao’s daughter S. Vani Devi as he was scared of losing in the MLC elections.

Revanth reddy hits out at CM KCR

Hyderabad: 1,600 students graduated

from Gurunanak institutions

Hyderabad, Feb.27 Over 1,600 students of Gurunanak Institutions graduated at the 16th Graduation Day held at their campus in Ibrahimpat-nam here on Saturday.

he graduating students received their certificates at the graduation ceremony, 951 students were placed in various reputed organ-isations including multina-tional companies, a press release said. Out of these, 38 students received gold and silver medals, for secur-ing the top two positions in various undergraduate and

postgraduate courses in the institutions. The certificates were presented to the stu-dents by Sardar Gagandeep Singh Kohli, the Vice Chair-man of GNI and Dr HS Saini, Managing Director of the institutions. Sardar GS Kohli congratulated the students for getting placements in re-puted organisations despite facing the challenges of Cov-id pandemic and added that it was a tough year for every-one but the students took up the challenge and bagged placements at top organisa-tions.

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (NSS Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) today elevated the Go Riding spirit with the inaugu-ration of premium big bike busi-ness vertical- the Honda BigWing Topline in Hyderabad. Speaking on the inauguration of BigWing Topline Yadvinder Singh Guleria, the Director – Sales and Market-ing of the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said “Our focus is on expansion of Honda BigWing (Honda’s exclusive pre-mium motorcycle network) to deliver a truly differentiated im-mersive experience closer to cus-tomer. Today, we are delighted to inaugurate our marquee BigWing Topline in Hyderabad for Hon-

da’s entire premium motorcycle range. Through this new premi-um outlet, we aim to take Honda’s fun motorcycles closer to custom-ers in Hyderabad.”

He said that the Honda 2Wheelers India laid the founda-

tion of its premium motorcycle business network with the inau-guration of BigWing Topline last year in Gurgaon. He said that they would expand the number of BigWing outlets to 50 across the country.

Honda 2Wheelers India Inaugurates BigWing Topline in Hyderabad

Trainee Civil Servants at Dr MCR HRD Institute Turn Chefs

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): Trainee Civil Servants at Dr MCR HRD Insti-tute Turn Chefs, Salespersons, and Businessmen for a Day as a Part of Their Learning The 121 trainee Civil Servants, belonging to 22 States and 9 Services, who are attending Special Foundation Course at Dr MCR HRD Institute, rolled out FETE-The Ut-sav, a day- long food-cum-recreation extravaganza, and thereby turned the Ramadasu Mandapan at the In-stitute into a sprawling kitchen. For a change, the academic ambience at the Institute gave way to fun and frolic. It was a pleasant surprise to see the trainee Civil Servants dishing out mouth-watering delicacies, selling them as hard-core salespersons, gen-erating profi ts, and donating them to an NGO, for a socially-relevant cause.

Even though the trainee Civil Ser-vants are not regular chefs, they believed in their abilities, put heart and soul in their efforts, and thereby churned out lip-smacking dishes. The food items for sale refl ected the true diversity of the batch of the train-ee Civil Servants. The dishes on sale included Fish Curry, Pongal, Masala Dosa, etc. from Southern Zone, Bam-boo Shoots Chicken, Eromba, Red Rice, etc. from Eastern Zone, Chole Bhatore, Lemon Chicken, etc. from Northern Zone, Kachori Churma, Malpua, Jal Jeera, etc. from Rajast-han, Pav Bhaji, Bombay Masala Pav, Faluda, etc. from Western Zone, Litti Choka, Champaran Chicken, Banara-si Paan, etc. from UP.

In order to keep the guests engaged and entertained, the event offered an array of exciting games and activities, including Khelenge India to Badlenge India, Khismat ki Goli, Balti me Sikka, Gajni Game, Dart Board, Double Your Coupons, etc. “FETE-The Utsav pro-vided a rare opportunity for us not only to internalize the pain and pa-thos of small-time self-employed per-sons, but also to enrich our adminis-trative acumen”, observed the trainee Civil Servants unanimously and add-ed that by coming together and help-ing each other in making this event a grand success, they fully understood the importance of the people-related skill, which is the mantra of success. Electrifying background music and hit Bollywood numbers brought out the true essence of the grand food and games festival. Right from the word go, the trainee Civil Servants sported a happy-go-lucky attitude apart from their colourful and ethnic wear. The trainee Civil Servants, Offi -

cers, Faculty, and Staff of the institute visited the stalls and relished the food items and sportingly tried their hand at the games and activities on display.

Harpreet Singh, DG of the Institute (FAC) & Principal Secretary inaugu-rated FETE-The Utsa, in the presence of Benhur Mahesh Dutt Ekka, ADG of the Institute, and other Dignitar-ies. He congratulated the trainee Civil Servants for proving, beyond an iota of doubt, that they not only have the ability to crack the world’s toughest examination but also are endowed with multiple talents to conceptu-alise and execute business projects. On this occasion, Harpreet Singh, released copies of the Newsletter of the Spl FC, “Saanjha”. “FETE-The Ut-sav provided a rare opportunity for us not only to internalize the pain and pathos of small-time self-employed persons, but also to enrich our ad-ministrative acumen”, observed the trainee Civil Servants unanimously and added..

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 6628 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Piece of cake: Pandemic sweetens cake sub-segment,

attracts bigwigs Pandemic-induced acceleration in consumption of bakery items has at-tracted food majors to venture into the “sweet and convenient” sub-category of packaged cake segment. At present, the industry estimates the sub-seg-ment’s revenue generation capacity of over Rs 2,500 crore per annum. In the recent past, major food segment play-ers such as Mondelez-owned Cadbury, ITC Sunfeast, and others have entered into this niche category.Accordingly, market observers cited food safety, in-house consumption and differentiated product offerings as the prime factors for the over 20 per cent annum revenue growth of the sub-segment. “The current pandemic has led to some profound shifts in buying patterns and consumer prefer-ences,” said Madhur Singhal, Practice Leader - Consumer and Retail, Praxis Global Alliance. “Cakes also produce a higher price realisation per unit of raw material consumed. Therefore, it is not surprising that packaged food brands are looking at doubling down on this product category,” he added. A case in point is the ITC Sunfeast, which had forayed into the cake segment in 2018. “Within two years after leading category growth in the layered cakes segment, with a 22 per cent market share, Sunfeast decided to expand its cakes portfolio and consolidate it un-der a new sub-brand ‘Sunfeast Caker’, which we have just launched,” said Ali Harris Shere, Chief Operating Officer, Biscuits & Cakes Cluster, Foods Divi-sion, ITC.“The cake category in India has been growing at a very promising pace. Given that it is a large category, and with our experienced play in the bis-cuits segment, we believe it is the right time to expand our foothold in the segment.” According to Pinakiranjan Mishra, Partner and National Leader, Consumer Products and Retail, EY In-dia: “The bakery industry in India is driven by changing customer prefer-ences and lifestyles. There is higher demand for healthier products and alternatives post Covid-19 as bakery products are now frequently con-sumed daily as compared with being a treat.” “The outlook for the Indian bakery industry seems quite optimis-tic, with the projected market value likely to surpass $12 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 9.3 per cent be-tween 2019 and 2024.”

4 causes of ‘Zoom fatigue’ identifiedNew York, Feb 27 (UNI) As

logging onto popular video chat platforms to connect with col-leagues, family and friends has become the new normal amid the pandemic, Stanford Univer-sity researchers have identified four consequences of prolonged video chats that can contribute to the feeling commonly known as “Zoom fatigue.”

According to the study, four primary reasons why video chats fatigue humans are -- ex-cessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense, seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing, video chats dramati-cally reduce our usual mobility and the cognitive load is much higher in video chats. Just as “Googling” is something akin to any web search, the term “Zooming” has become ubiq-uitous and a generic verb to replace videoconferencing. Prompted by the recent boom

in videoconferencing, com-munication Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human In-teraction Lab (VHIL), examined the psychological consequenc-es of spending hours per day on these platforms. In the study, published in the journal Tech-nology, Mind and Behavior, Bailenson assessed Zoom on its individual technical aspects. He has identified four consequenc-es of prolonged video chats that he says contribute to the feeling

commonly known as “Zoom fa-tigue.” “Videoconferencing is a good thing for remote commu-nication, but just think about the medium - just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to,” Bailenson said. Both the amount of eye contact we engage in on video chats, as well as the size of faces on screens is unnatural, according to the study. “Social anxiety of public speaking is one of the biggest phobias that exists in our popu-lation,” Bailenson said.

“When you’re standing up there and everybody’s star-ing at you, that’s a stressful experience.” Another source of stress is that, depending on your monitor size and whether you’re using an external moni-tor, faces on videoconferenc-ing calls can appear too large for comfort. When someone’s face is that close to ours in real life, our brains interpret it as an intense situation that is either going to lead to mating or to conflict. “What’s happening, in effect, when you’re using Zoom for many, many hours is you are in this hyper-aroused state,” Bailenson said. Until the plat-forms change their interface, Bailenson recommends taking Zoom out of the full-screen op-tion and reducing the size of the Zoom window relative to the monitor to minimise face size, and to use an external keyboard to allow an increase in the per-sonal space bubble.

Travelling alone can be the most therapeutic form of self-indul-gence! By traveling alone, one can engage with their new surround-ings unfiltered by the prejudices, tastes, or preferences of a travel-ing companion and connect with the soul of the place by hanging out with the locals Switzerland is a solo traveller’s haven, one of the safest and easiest places to navi-gate, - the sheer variety of things to see and do ensures that your solo trip is a memorable one, especially if it’s your first! Here are some of the activities we recommend you should add to your itinerary! Not just a place to stay, but to experi-ence: Switzerland has a number of reasonably priced youth hostels around the country that are clean, safe, centrally located and with a choice of single room, double room and bunk beds with central kitchens and lobbies and lounges - perfect if you’re looking to meet other travellers. Other than hos-tels, travellers can choose to stay in single rooms available at lower rates than double rooms, in most hotels- whether budget, mid-priced or luxury. The ultimate travel part-ner- The Swiss Travel Pass:

When travelling solo, a Swiss Travel Pass is a boon! Swiss Travel System makes traveling alone in Switzerland trouble-free with their

efficient network of public trans-port- from the high-speed and fa-mously punctual trains to buses, boats and trams. The Swiss Travel pass offers exciting discounts on most mountain excursions and gives you a free entry to almost 400 museums! A part of the country’s heritage and history, Switzerland’s panoramic train routes are among the most beautiful rail routes in the world. To experience Switzerland’s majestic mountain scenery, idyllic valleys and villages; along crystal-clear lakes and ice-blue glaciers- a journey on The Glacier Express, or

The Bernina Express is highly re-com mended! With the stunning landscapes and action-packed activities, Switzerland will surely unravel the hidden adrenaline junkie in you! Whether you choose to jet ski over crystal blue waters, dive from the sky into lush green valleys or ski down steep terrains of the snow-capped alps, there’s an adventure to suit every person when in Switzerland. We recom-mend trying mountain biking or e-biking or sliding down the fastest Toboggan Run in Pilatus. The best part? Your daring escapades aren’t

limited to just one season. Whether you plan your trip in the summer, autumn or winter, Switzerland will always welcome you with tower-ing alpine peaks, emerald green valleys and shimmering blue lakes! In Switzerland- cheese and choco-late will be your go-to choice of food. But Switzerland’s local cui-sine has the influence of 3 differ-ent cultures- German, French and Italian, so whether you are a meat lover or vegan, you will never run out of options to eat! If you are on a budget, many restaurants offer a “meal of the day”. which includes a salad/soup, a choice of 2 or 3 main courses and a dessert. Many moun-tain excursions offer a ‘picnic’ op-tion where you can carry your own meal. Another must try when trav-eling to the country is Swiss Wine; one of the country’s best kept se-crets is that almost all regions in Switzerland produce their own wines. The Viognier, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay from Lake Geneva region and Merlot Bianco from Ti-cino are particularly well known. However, if you consider yourself a wine connoisseur a trip to the La-vaux vineyards is a must! When you are done trying the rich wines and scrumptious Swiss Delicacies and are craving a taste of home you can try one of the many amazing Indian restaurants in the country.

Travelling alone can be the most therapeutic

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 7728 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Delhi: 1,856 health workers

get 2nd Covid shotLondon, Feb 27 (UNI) Almost a decade af-ter scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) first detected growth of vast cracks, a huge iceberg, more than 20 times the size of Man-hattan, in Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf has now broken off.

The first indication that a calving event was imminent came in November 2020 when a new chasm -- called North Rift -- headed towards another large chasm near the Stan-comb-Wills Glacier Tongue 35 kms away, BAS said in a statement on Friday.

North Rift is the third major crack through the ice shelf to become active in the last de-cade.

During January, this rift pushed northeast at up to 1 km per day, cutting through the 150-metre-thick floating ice shelf.

The iceberg was formed when the crack widened several hundred metres in a few hours on Friday, releasing it from the rest of floating ice shelf.

“Our teams at BAS have been prepared for the calving of an iceberg from Brunt Ice Shelf for years,” said Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of British Antarctic Survey.

“We monitor the ice shelf daily using an automated network of high-precision GPS instruments that surround the station, these measure how the ice shelf is deforming and

Vast cracks free huge iceberg in

Antarctica

New Delhi, Feb 14 (UNI) A survey conducted by noted public health experts indicated that the side-effects post-vaccination, or ‘reactogenicity’ in medical linguistic, is likely to occur in 66 per cent of the healthcare workers which are most probably to subside within a day of their onset.

The survey, which compiled the responses from 5,396 respondents, all healthcare professionals, who had received Covid vaccines, showed 66 per cent of them reported at least post-vaccination symptoms.

The respondents in the survey stated that the most commonly reported symptoms they experienced after immunization were Myalgia (44 per cent), fever (34 per cent), headache (28 per cent), local pain at injection site (27 per cent), joint pain (12 per

cent), nausea (8 per cent) and Diarrhoea (3 per cent) while tiredness (45 per cent) being the most prevailing one. “The occurrence of other symptoms such as sore throat, insomnia, giddiness rigor, allergic rash, chills, vomiting, syncope were reported 1 per cent or less,” study said. It also noted that the symptoms reported by the

respondents were not severe in nature or required hospitalisation. Besides, the survey also pointed out that in 90 per cent of the cases, the symptoms were either milder than expected or met the expectation of the vaccine recipient. Meanwhile, the survey illustrated that side effects among the most of the respondents did not last beyond the duration of

24 hours of the onset. “37 per cent (1,225) of the respondents revealed that their symptoms did not prolong more than a day while 31 per cent showed that their symptoms lingered for 48 hours, while only 6 per cent of claimed that their symptoms stretched beyond the duration of 48 hours,” the survey showed. Speaking to , Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, past president Indian Medical Association, who is one of the researchers of the survey, said that one of the key takeaways from the survey is that vaccines are safe and there is no need to fear that it will harm ones’ body.“If over 5,000 people who took it (vaccines) and reported no serious problem, then that is a considerable reassurance that the general public can take the vaccine,” he reaffirmed. Another key finding of the survey was

the linear correlation between age and post-vaccination symptoms suggested that the reactogenicity of the vaccine declined with age; means the chance of having symptoms decreased with advancing of age. The frequency of symptoms was found highest, 81.34 per cent , in respondents aged between 20-29 years followed by 30-39 years (79.57 per cent), 40-49 years (67.94 per cent), 50-59 years (58.23 per cent), 60-69 years (44.76 per cent), 70-79 years (33.73 per cent), and 80-89 years (7.43 per cent).Jayadevan said that younger people produce a lot of inflammatory cytokines which elicit reactogenicity (symptoms in layman terms) which is why they have vigorous response to the vaccines, whereas it is found lower in elder population. However, he added.

66% healthcare workers report mild side-effects post-vax

Healthcare workers who were given the first Covid vaccine dose on January 16, when the vaccination drive kicked off across the country, took their second shot on Saturday. Of 4,319 who got their first shot, 1,856 turned up on Saturday.The vaccines — Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin — have the same course and schedule: two doses, four weeks apart.

At Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where Covaxin is being given, 19 out of 31 who were vaccinated on January 16 turned up.

Dr Neelam Roy, nodal officer of the vaccination centre at RML, told The Indian Express, “Considering it is a Saturday and a half day, many people said they shall come on Monday. The centre is vaccinating 300-350 people

daily.” At Lok Nayak Hospital, where patients are getting Covishield, nodal officer Dr Amit Gupta said, “Six out of the 32 who were vaccinated on January 16 turned up. We called the rest, they said they would come next week.”

Gupta added that as per guidelines, this was permissible. “The Centre’s guidelines prescribe 4-6 weeks, even 8 weeks, between the two shots. Many people

may have read that…,” he said.Among those who took the second dose was Jitender Singh Chauhan (38), a security guard at RML. “Dealing with the public at a hospital during Covid times is not easy. It used to put immense stress on me, and I feared infecting my parents. Now I feel more confident…”Chauhan said he had a slight fever for a few days after his first shot. At Lok Nayak, Sanjay Kumar Saini

(35), a nursing official, arrived for his second shot. He said, “Before the first shot, since it was a new vaccine, I had some fear. But now I have none.

My behaviour and the protocol I follow may not change much but I feel more assured now.”Ramesh Chand Keshav (60), a senior doctor at RML’s cardiac anaesthesiology department, said he would take the second shot next week: “I was busy, and it was a half-day. I shall go on Monday. Now that some herd immunity is there in the city, this vaccination will further help in combating this illness in the long run.” The city vaccinated 13,768 beneficiaries, including first and second doses for healthcare and frontline workers Saturday, out of which six cases of AEFI (adverse event following immunisation) were reported.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 8828 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY, 2021

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Congress party would not keep quiet until all culprits involved in the murders of ad-vocates Vaman Rao and his wife Nagamani were punished by the court. The lawyer couple was brutally murdered in broad daylight in Peddapalli on Febru-ary 17, 2021.

Accompanied with MLA D. Sridhar Babu, DCC Presidents Komaraiah , Laxman and Prakash Reddy, ex-MLA Vijaya Ramana Rao and other leaders, Uttam Ku-mar Reddy met the parents and family members of late Vaman Rao and Nagamani in their house in the Manthani constituency on Saturday. He conveyed the con-dolences and sympathies on be-half of the entire Congress party.

Kishan Rao, the father of Late Vaman Rao, said he did not have

any confidence in the investiga-tion of the local police. Respond-ing to this, Uttam Kumar Reddy informed that the Congress lead-ers have already met Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan de-manding a court-monitored CBI investigation. He assured the family of all support and said that the Congress party would not keep quiet until every individual involved in the crime is punished by the law.

Speaking to media persons later, Uttam Kumar Reddy said it was highly unfortunate that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has not even condemned the murder or assured speedy justice in the matter. He described the double murder as a result of a high-level conspiracy hatched by TRS leaders, in connivance with the sand and land mafia. He said expressed dissatisfaction over the pace of investigation being

carried out by the local police. He alleged that a few police officials, including Police Commissioner Satyanarayana, were allegedly acting as TRS agents. Therefore, he said there were serious doubts that the double murder investi-gation might be influenced and hushed up.

Reddy said that while the Chief Minister appears reluctant in ordering a CBI probe into the matter, the local police was not gathering the call data records of the accused and the victims to unearth the larger conspiracy and unmask the people involved in the double murder. He said that the Congress party would take up the matter with the Chief Justices of Supreme Court and High Court, besides raising it in the Parliament. Earlier in the day, Uttam held a meeting with TPCC Legal Cell through Zoom App. Addressing the meeting, he advised the office bearers of

Legal Cell to extend all possible help to the family of Late Vaman Rao and Nagamani. He said that the TRS Government was alleg-edly trying to shield the culprits as they belong to the ruling par-ty. However, he asked the Legal Cell to keep a track of all devel-opments in the case.Meanwhile, Uttam Kumar Reddy asked the Legal Cell to campaign in favour of Congress MLC candidates from Graduates constituencies Ramul Naik (Warangal-Nalgon-da-Khammam) and G. Chinna Reddy (Hyderabad-Rangared-dy- Mahabubnagar). Legal Cell Chairman Damodar Reddy said that a meeting with advocates would be convened next week in connection with the MLC polls.Later, Reddy, along with candi-date Ramulu Naik, visited Ka-katiya University and interacted with the students and faculty seeking their support in the MLC elections.

TPCC Chief reiterates demand for court-monitored CBI probe into advocates’ murder

Hyderabad, Feb.27 (UNI): Ministers V Srinivas Goud and V Prashanth Reddy to-day said that the TRS rank and file should work for victory of Surabhi Vanidevi in the gradu-ate MLC polls. The ministers hit out at the BJP and the Con-gress for indulging in blame game for the polls. While the BJP regime is burdening people with fuel price hike, the con-gress is as usual making false charges, they said.Though IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao gave details of jobs offered in the state and the op-position parties are making false charges, they said.Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has selected Surabhi Vanidevi as the TRS candidate for gradu-ate MLC polls for Hyderabad Mahabub Nagar and Ranga Reddy segment.

Despite being the daughter of former Prime Minister P V Nara-simha Rao, Vanidevi maintains a low profile. She is aware of education and issues pertaining to the graduates and educated in the state and elsewhere they

said. It is apt to select Vanidevi as the TRS candidate at a time when the state government conducts birth centenary cel-ebrations of PV Narasimha Rao. KCR offers a fitting tribute to the former prime minister who rode the nation to the next level of financial reforms and robust growth, the ministers said.

They accused the opposition parties of mudslinging during the polls and stall development through filing false cases. The government is in the forefront of welfare and development in all sectors.

With support by TSiPASS the government brings huge

investments and employment for state development they said. No other BJP ruled states are able to give many jobs as Telangana is doing. If the BJP proves it wrong we are ready to resign, they said.The ministers asked the graduate voters to see that the TRS candidate wins the polls for development and ad-dressing their problems. The polls are crucial for our victory and it is possible with active co-ordination they asserted. They attended a poll preparatory meeting in Mahabubnagar here and asked the party activists and leaders to take the schemes to the doorsteps of the people.

Vote for Vanidevi: Srinivas, Prashant ask graduate voters