THE SOUTH INDIA TIMESENGLISH DAILYENGLISH DAILY

VOL NO. XII ISSUE NO. 9 PAGES. 8+8 VOL NO. XII ISSUE NO. 9 PAGES. 8+8 /- 4/- 4`

PUBLISHED FROM: HYDERABAD, CHENNAI & BANGALORE EDITOR IN CHIEF: BUCHI BABU VUPPALA1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020www.thesouthindiatimes.com /facebook/thesouthindiatimes.yahoo.in / thesouthindiatimes.yahoo.in /////////////////

5 migrants killed, 11 injured

in UP accidentBahraich (Uttar Pradesh),

Aug 31 (UNI) Five labourers were killed and 11 injured when a passenger vehicle in Uttar Pradesh rammed into a truck in Bahraich district on Monday. All the labour-ers had returned to their homes during the national lockdown and were going back to work, police said.

They were travelling in a Force Cruiser from Bi-har to Ambala in Haryana when the MUV rammed into a stationary truck parked alongside the road near Sukai Purwa crossing in Payagpur. Two labour-ers died on the spot and 14 injured were rushed to a hospital, where three more succumbed to their injuries.

Superintendent of Police Vipin Mishra said that all the victims were in the age group of 18-40. They have been identified as Jitendra Giri, Kanchan Ram, Sanjay Prasad and Basant Prasad -- from Bihar -- and Pawan, who is from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh. The families have been informed and the bod-ies have been sent for post mortem.

9 missing after vehicle plunges

into Chenab river in J&K

Jammu, Aug 31 (UNI) Nine occupants of a passenger vehicle went missing on Monday after the vehicle plunged into the Chenab river in J&K’s Ramban district. Police said the driver of the vehicle, travelling from Ud-hampur district to Ramban, lost control one kilometre short of Ramban town on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. “The vehicle plunged into the Chenab river while one pas-senger identified as Mehrajud-din of Awantipora in the Valley escaped miraculously. He was thrown out of the vehicle when the tragedy struck.” “A mas-sive rescue operation has been launched,” the police said.

CBI raids Jammu Municipal Corp

office over briberyNew Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI)

The Central Bureau of In-vestigation (CBI) on Mon-day carried out a joint sur-prise check at the office of the Jammu Municipal Cor-poration over complaints of bribery and corruption.

A CBI official here said that the agency team along with the vigilance team car-ried out a surprise check at the office of Jammu Munici-pal Corporation over com-plaints regarding bribery and corruption in award of tenders and other functions such as preparation of birth and death certificates, sani-tising works.

SHORT TAKES

Netanyahu : Israel has had secret talks with

Arab countries

Harsh Vardhan inaugurated trauma centre in Karnataka

Karnataka CM, leaders mourn demise of

Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) For-mer president Pranab Mukherjee passed away on Monday at Army's Research and Referral Hospital here, informed his son and Con-gress leader Abhijit Mukherjee. He was 84. “With a Heavy Heart , this is to inform you that my father Shri #PranabMukherjee has just passed away inspite of the best efforts of Doctors of RR Hospital & prayers ,duas & prarthanas from people throughout India !I thank all of You,” his son tweeted.

“There is a decline in the medical condition of Hon’ble Shri Pranab Mukherjee since yes-terday. He is in septic shock due to his lung infection and is being managed by team of specialists. He continues to b e

in deep coma and on ventilator support,” the Army hospital had said this morning. He was admitted in

Hospital on August 10 in a critical condition.

He had a large brain clot for which he under-

went emergency life sav-ing surgery. Mukherjee

was also found to be COVID-19

positive.

FORMER PRESIDENT PRANAB MUKHERJEE PASSES AWAY AT

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Condoling the death of former President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is grieved at the de-mise of Mukherjee, adding that he left an "indelible mark

on the develop-ment trajectory of our nation". Call-ing Mukherjee a scholar par excel-

lence, the Prime Minister said he was admired across the political spec-trum. "India grieves the passing away of Bharat Ratna Shri Pranab Mukher-jee. He has left an indelible mark on the development

trajectory of our na-tion. A scholar par excellence, a tower-ing statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum and by all sections of society," the Prime Minister tweeted.

"During his

Pranab left indelible mark on India's development trajectory: PM

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Congress leader Rahul Gan-dhi on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government and said the central government has attacked the country’s un-organized economy in the last six years attempting to turn people into slaves. He put forth three examples to substantiate his contentions -- demonetisation, flawed GST, and the Covid-induced lockdown and added that the aim of these three decisions was to “finish the informal sector”.

“The BJP government has attacked the unorganized economy in the last six years and the attempt is being made to make you a slave,” Gandhi said in a new video

series called ‘Arthvyavastha Ki Baat’. In the 3 minute and 38 seconds video, the unem-ployment rate that has been the highest in 45-years was flashed as Gandhi spoke. “Over 40 crore labourer in the informal sector are caught in extreme poverty. In the last four months, nearly two crore people have lost their jobs,” it showed.

“There are lakhs and crores

of rupees in the informal sec-tor, which they cannot touch. They want to break in and take away the money. The re-sult will be that India will not be able to create employment because 90 per cent employ-ment comes from the infor-mal sector,” the 50-year-old leader said.

The day the informal sec-tor is over, India will not be able to create employment, Gandhi said. “A conspiracy is being planned against you (people). You are being cheated in order to make you a slave. The whole coun-try will have to fight against this.” He further said that, in 2008, when all the countries were reeling under reces-sion, it did not bother India when the UPA was at the Centre.

BJP govt attacked unorganized economy with demonetisation,

GST, lockdown: Rahul New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Pakistan has purchased from China real time satel-lite data, comprising high definition video, optical and hyper spectral imag-ery, that also can provide it the precise position of Indian Army camps across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Intelligence sources said that Pakistan has entered into a contract with China to procure Jilin-1 satel-lite data for 2020. The Jilin constellation comprises a network of ten satellites in orbit with capability of global coverage and it can revisit any location twice a day. “Resolution of pan-chromatic image provi-sioned by Jilin-1 is 0.72 m and multi-spectral image is 2.88 m,” a source said. Jilin is China’s commercial

remote sensing satellite run by the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd. In 2019, Pakistan had purchased data of the ad-vanced land observation satellite phased array type L Band synthetic aperture radar and Jilin-1, sources said.

It has stated that it is procuring data for land and resources survey-ing, monitoring of natural disasters, agriculture re-search, urban construc-tion and other activities. In 2018, China had launched two remote sensing satel-lites for Pakistan, claim-ing that it would monitor progress of the China-Pak-istan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The satellites -- PRSS-1 and PakTES-1A --- were launched using a Long March-2C rocket.

A network of infrastruc-ture projects that are cur-rently under construction throughout Pakistan that will connect China’s Xin-jiang province with the Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, giving China an opening to the Arabian Sea, the 3,218-kilometre CPEC, a dream project of Chinese President Xi Jingping in which China has sunk

about $19 billion, runs along the disputed area of Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-occupied Kash-mir (PoK). Both China and Pakistan are currently are engaged in a confronta-tion with India at their borders. For the first time, India finds itself stretched between the border with China where it is locked in an intense stand-off with the People.

‘Eye on J&K’: Pakistan buys China’s Jilin-1 satellite data

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) La-dakh’s Lt Governor Radha Krishna Mathur on Monday met Union Minister of State for Home G. Kis-han Reddy amid the Indian army reporting fresh incursion attempts by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in eastern Ladakh. Mathur’s meeting with Reddy at his North Block office came in the wake of the Indian Army’s Monday morning statement which said that China tried to create fresh trouble at a new point over the weekend even as the talks between the two countries to resolve the nearly four-month long standoff in Galwan Val-ley have been inconclusive. How-ever, the details of the 30-minute meeting between the Lt Governor and the Minister were not known immediately but sources said the prevailing situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was dis-cussed.

It is also learnt that the issues raised by Indian Army came up in the meeting. In its statement, the Indian Army said that on the night of August 29 and August 30, 2020, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops violated the previ-

ous consensus arrived at during military and dip-lomatic engage-ments during the ongoing standoff and carried out

“provocative military movements to change the status quo”. “Indian troops pre-empted this PLA activity on the Southern Bank of Pangong Lake, and undertook measures to strengthen our positions and thwart Chinese intentions to uni-laterally change facts on ground,” it said. The Indian Army also stated that they are committed to maintaining peace and tranquil-ity through dialogue, but are also equally determined to protect the country’s territorial integrity. Both the countries are engaged in an around four month long standoff at the Line of Actual Control in East-ern Ladakh. Despite several levels of dialogue, there has not been any breakthrough and the deadlock continues.

India has also found that the Chinese side has started troop, artillery and armour build-up in three sectors of the LAC -- western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh). Chi-na has also mobilised soldiers near Uttarakhand’s Lipulekh Pass, a tri-junction between India, Nepal and China situated atop.

Fresh tension on China border, Ladakh LG meets MoS Home

New Delhi Aug 31 (UNI) : The Indian Navy has reportedly deployed one of its frontline warships in the South China Sea, much to the displeasure of the Chinese, who raised objections during diplomatic talks between the two nations. The warship was reportedly deployed in the South China Sea after the June 15 clash with Chinese PLA troops in the Galwan Valley, where 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

China objected to the Indian

Navy’s presence in the South China Sea, where the PLA Navy is trying to consolidate its position. The US Navy is also conducting exercises there to challenge the PLA Navy’s domi-nance. US aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz, along with escorting cruisers and destroyers, held exercises in the South China Sea to chal-lenge Chinese hegemony in the region.

According to reports, the In-dian warship was continuously

maintaining contact with the US Navy deployed there over secure communications sys-tems. As part of routine drills, the Indian warship is constantly updated about the status of the movement of military vessels of other countries there. The entire mission was carried out in a very hush-hush manner to avoid any public glare on the Navy’s activities.

The Indian Navy also deployed its frontline vessels along the Malacca Straits near

the Andaman and Nicobar Is-lands and the route from where the Chinese Navy enters the Indian Ocean Region to keep a check on any Chinese naval activity.

It is a crucial sea trade route for China. The Navy also held exercises in the Andamans and has deployed MiG-29K fight-ers in the islands. Last month Indian Navy warships and a US Navy carrier group held a “passage exercise” in the Indian Ocean Region.

Indian Navy deploys warship in South China Sea after Galwan clash

New Delhi Aug 31 (UNI): The Supreme Court on Monday imposed a token fine of one rupee against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan as punishment in the contempt case against him. Bhushan, who has been convicted for two tweets against the judiciary, has to deposit the fine with the Supreme Court registry by Septem-ber 15, said a bench head-ed by Justice Arun Mishra.

Failure to comply would entail a three-month jail term and debarment from law practice for three years, it said. The bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, said freedom of speech cannot be cur-tailed but rights of others need to be respected. On August 14, the apex court had held Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt.

for his two deroga-

Prashant Bhushan fined Re 1 for contempt of court

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Pandemic Covid-19 in-duced economic turbulence along with measures to curb its outbreak, heavily dent-ed India’s economy and plunged the country’s GDP to (-) 23.9 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) ended June 2020-21. Though not comparable, the Gross Do-mestic Product (GDP) had grown by 5.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter of

FY2019-20.In the quarter just pre-

ceding Q1FY21, the eco-nomic growth was at 3.1 per cent. The country had observed mobility restric-tions as mandated under the lockdown measures for the better part of the first quarter of FY21. It was only on June 1 that partial unlock measures were implement-ed. However, a contraction at this scale is unprece-

dented and never been wit-nessed. The current practice of quarterly series data dis-semination began in the late 1990s. Commenting on the Q1FY21 GDP data, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government Krishnamur-thy Subramanian: “As the world economic outlook has highlighted, the fraction of countries, where GDP per capita would decrease is the highest since 1870.

Covid freefall: India’s Q1FY21 GDP contracts by 23.9%

2EDIT1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

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

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THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

Though most careers in the public sphere are service-oriented, some can be truly called community service. Teaching is one such profession. To begin with, though the salaries have been regularly hiked for teachers at all levels in the recent past, teaching is not just another salaried job. Additionally, teachers need to recognise that, professional parents of today, by and large, thrust the mentoring of their children on teachers. Increasingly, classrooms, more than homes, will shape future generations. To start with it is essential to ask if a teacher’s role is relevant in the current times when excessive information is available at one’s fingertips? If so, what does “teaching” mean in the digital age? There has been a paradigm shift in the role of a teacher from being the centre of information to a catalyst of transformation. It means what happens in a modern classroom is not one-way dissemination of information. Instead, it requires dissection of available information through in-depth discussion and analysis. Raw information is already available outside the classroom in digital and non-digital fora, social media. But the wheat has to be separated from the chaff, students have to be not only weaned away from fake news but also taught to understand what is fake news. That can happen only when classroom teaching takes on an interactional character. According to German educator, Josef Albers, “A good teacher doesn’t provide answers, instead, enables students to raise the right questions”. In other words, the ultimate goal of education is to make students self-reliant through persistent critical thinking. Therefore, a teacher’s task is to provide not just information, but help students expand their cognitive boundaries by stimulating curiosity, imagination, awareness, creativity and questioning ability, thereby attaining knowledge. Accordingly, a good student is the one who has learnt to ask the right questions from the plethora of information at her disposal. All this requires a teacher to not only have in-depth knowledge of her subject, but to be well-informed about other disciplines. Moreover, to connect several dots, her reading list needs to extend beyond textbooks. A good teacher spends a lot of time in self-learning. As the American educational reformer John Dewey puts it, “Education is a way of life, it is an endless process”. A classroom is a cognitive laboratory where a variety of information is distilled to create knowledge and wisdom. This means that along with the students, teachers earn something new in every class. This also means that teachers need to also share experiences with each other. Medical professionals often consult specialists in their field before surgery or taking on a difficult case. Consultations between teachers are however rare. The digital age dictates that teaching should go beyond the curriculum. A teacher needs to be a constant learner. Sadly, we are in a system where marking attendance is mandatory, not the intellectual presence. Therefore, teachers need to introspect, why students are getting alienated from the learning process instead of looking forward to it.Till then the value is blocked. Let’s explain by an example. Shares worth Rs 10,000 are bought on Monday. Margin of 30 per cent approximately is required when the purchase is made and balance required before trading begins on day 2 or Tuesday. On Tuesday the goods are sold, hence margin on sales of Rs 10,000 at Rs 3,000 is required. The pay-out of the same would be available only on Thursday when the sale value of Rs 10,000 and the margin of Rs 3,000 paid is released. Theoretically the margin of Rs 3,000 on sales could be released a day earlier on Wednesday when the delivery of shares bought on Monday is received. The point being made here is that brokers earlier would adjust the purchase with the sales and allow further trading. Hereon the cycle would become effectively four days against one and a half day earlier and involve much more money to be available upfront. In the case of derivatives whether it be futures or options, once the trade is squared off, the margin is available immediately as trades normally do not result in delivery. In the cash market the same would happen in case of intra-day trades but would be different in case of deliveries. This would ensure lower deliveries, lower volumes and the possibility that some percentage of trading community shifts from cash market to the riskier derivative or futures segment.

Teacher in the digital age

Bountiful rains and the news of trac-tor sales shooting up by 38.5 per cent in July have triggered quite a buzz in the market. It is being claimed that agriculture will be the saviour of the economy this year. There is no doubt that while most of the other sectors are likely to see negative growth, ag-riculture will deliver a reasonably healthy positive growth. With water storage in reservoirs in good shape, not only is the kharif harvest likely to be good, there is also hope for a robust rabi crop. Let us focus a bit of on trac-tors. Yes, July showed an extraordi-nary increase in tractor sales. But one must not forget that during the lock-down period, for the quarter April to June, tractors sales dropped by almost 14 per cent over the same quarter last year. For the investor community, therefore, it is important to have a long-term vision and not get swayed by monthly sales numbers. Here, we dive deep into the evolution of the tractor industry in India, the challeng-es it faces, and its growth prospects.

The history of tractors in Indian ag-riculture goes back to the introduction of steam tractors in 1914 for the recla-mation of wastelands in Punjab. After Independence, the Central Tractor Organisation (CTO) was set up to pro-mote the use of tractors in agriculture. In 1951, the tractor industry was in-

cluded in the “Core Sector” of planned economic development, and was also placed under the “licence raj”. Inter-estingly, even until 1960, the demand for tractors was being met entirely through imports. It was only in 1961 that two companies, Eicher Tractors Ltd. (in collaboration with Gebr, Eich-er Tractorenfabrik of West Germany) and Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd. (TAFE) (in collaboration with Messey Ferguson of UK), started man-ufacturing tractors in India. In 1965, Mahindra and Mahindra jumped in the fray in collaboration with the In-ternational Tractor Company of India. As a result, domestic production of tractors rose from 880 units in 1961-62 to 5,000 units in 1965-66. But in 1967, the government imposed a statutory price control on domestically-pro-duced tractors to protect farmers from high prices. This price control was re-voked only in 1974.

The Green Revolution gave a fi llip to the demand for tractors to meet the pressing need of completing timely operations in agriculture. So, the gov-ernment decided to invite additional entrepreneurs into tractor manufac-turing in 1968. In 1971, Escorts Trac-tors Limited was established and started manufacturing Ford tractors in collaboration with Ford, UK. Sev-eral other domestic manufacturers,

such as VST Tillers and Tractors Ltd, also invested in the industry. Interest-ingly, in 1974, Punjab Tractors Ltd be-came the fi rst public sector company to manufacture tractors with indige-nous technology. It produced the fi rst agricultural tractor — “Swaraj”. With the arrival of many new players in the tractor industry, production crossed the 30,000-mark in 1974-75. In 1982, the indigenous Mahindra brand of tractors was also launched.

However, it was only in 1991 that tractor manufacturing was completely de-licenced in India. This was a land-mark event — it increased competi-tion, improved quality, and offered more choices to the farmers. Today, India is the largest manufacturer of tractors (excluding sub 20 horse-power (hp) belt-driven tractors used in China), followed by the US and China. Tractor production in India shot up from 139 thousand in 1991 to almost 900 thousand units in 2018-19 (see graphic). Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has emerged as the largest player with a 40 per cent share of the market (FY 2019) followed by TAFE (with Eicher Motors) — 18.4 per cent. In 2018-19, India exported almost 90,000 tractors to various countries ranging from the US to African na-tions. This speaks of an “atmanirbhar” and competitive industry.

What contributed to this success of the tractor industry? First, the de-licencing of 1991 was a harbinger of major change in the industry. Sec-ond, the availability of bank credit for buying tractors helped the market to grow. Remember, almost 95 per cent of tractors are bought on bank credit.

But over time, this success is also brewing a problem. Micro surveys re-veal that tractors are not being used very effi ciently — their use in most states hovers around 500-600 hours per year compared to a benchmark fi gure of 800-1,000 hours for effi cient utilisation. This is leading to “over-capitalisation of farms” in some parts of India, especially Punjab/Haryana belt. If India has to ensure continuous growth in the tractor industry, and its effi cient use on small farms, it has to undertake innovative solutions like “Uberisation of tractor services”. The digital economy offers an opportunity to cut costs, increase profi tability of cultivation, and thus not only expand the tractor market but also reduce drudgery in farm work. The “Uberi-sation model” could make tractor services perfectly divisible, accessible and affordable even by small hold-ers without owning the machine. The government is incentivising custom hiring centres through capital subsi-dies — better.

Tractor industry should be facilitated to use digital tools to benefi t small farmers

Should women’s legal age for mar-riage be raised? The answer to this seemingly simple question is not so simple, because the question is not simply about replacing age 18 with 21. Rather, it deals with the so-cial origins of a “problem” not easily amenable for policy pruning, how-ever progressive its intent might be. Marriage at a low age is the outcome of a complex web of factors. To be-gin with, the socio-economic groups and regions where under-age mar-riages are prevalent are marked by a near absence of quality schooling and opportunities for higher education, fortifi ed by poverty and limited eco-nomic opportunities.

An offshoot of the question posed at the beginning arises here. Why should, if at all, women’s legal age at marriage be increased from 18 to 21, when 18 is considered the marriage-able age in many countries? Stated differently, what are the compelling grounds for increasing women’s age at marriage? One purported reason is to do away with the gender gap in the legal age at marriage, and the un-derlying social norm which expects women to be younger than men at the time of marriage. Another related reason is that marriage at a younger age before attaining physical, cogni-tive and emotional maturity leads to a suboptimal transition to adult-hood. Is there a need for a separate policy increasing women’s schooling up to 12 years and improving their nutrition? Existing policies can help achieve these twin important goals. What is needed is the commitment and the missionary zeal, as shown in Swachh Bharat, and an incentivising approach to make the policies work effectively. Janani Suraksha Yojana is a case of an incentive-based ap-proach working well. A variety of incentivising schemes, from cycles in Bihar to laptops in Tamil Nadu, already exist towards ensuring girls’ education.. The proposed policy, in-stead of addressing the causes and consequences of under-age mar-riages, may instead produce adverse, suboptimal outcomes affecting the poor and marginalised the most. What is needed is an enabling, incen-tivising and innovative approach to

implement the existing policies effec-tively. suggests that transition from adolescence to adulthood is likely to be optimal for those who study lon-ger years, have better nutrition and delayed marriage and parenthood. However, increasing age at marriage alone will not ensure that girls will study longer or attain better nutrition either. The nutritional needs are high at late adolescence (15-19 years) and a fair measure of adolescent girls suf-fer from multiple forms of undernu-trition, from chronic energy defi cien-cy, iron defi ciency to micronutrient defi ciency. Marriage, pregnancy and delivery during adolescence not only drain their already poor nutritional reserves, but also lead to child stunt-ing and mortality to multiple diseases at a later stage.

What can possibly address this? Delayed marriage or nutritional en-hancement? Delayed marriage with-out improving nutrition will most likely yield the same adverse out-comes, in addition to creating new and serious problems. The proposed move to raise the marriageable age, thus, becomes a case of “punitive paternalism” — using punitive mea-sures to achieve a progressive but dif-fi cult or elusive social goal. A variety of incentivising schemes, from cycles in Bihar to laptops in Tamil Nadu,

already exist towards ensuring girls’ education.. The proposed policy, in-stead of addressing the causes and consequences of under-age mar-riages, may instead produce adverse, suboptimal outcomes affecting the poor and marginalised the most. What is needed is an enabling, incen-tivising and innovative approach to implement the existing policies effec-tively. Can the objective of the policy proposal be achieved through an al-ternative, incentivising approach? Herein, the concept of “autonomy-enhancing paternalism” proposed by behavioural economists Martin Bind-er and Leonhard Lades, assumes sa-lience. Autonomy-enhancing policy intervention promotes self-empow-erment and aims to free individuals from irrelevant infl uences. It aims to improve well-being through improv-ing the process of decision-making.

In this case, incentivising and en-abling girls to continue schooling up to Class 12 and helping to enhance their nutrition can stop under-age marriages. Evidence suggests that ensuring secondary level school-ing among girls is likely to enhance their autonomy and improve their health and nutrition. Also, secondary schooling of women is associated with improved cognitive abilities, men-tal, sexual and reproductive health.

Additionally, it leads to a signifi cant decline in teenage child-bearing, child-stunting, among others. These are important instrumental reasons to increase women’s schooling. Yet, there are substantive intrinsic rea-sons to promoting education since it is a valid end in itself. Enhancing the nutrition of adolescent girls is also important for a range of instrumental and intrinsic reasons.

Is there a need for a separate pol-icy increasing women’s schooling up to 12 years and improving their nutrition? Existing policies can help achieve these twin important goals. What is needed is the commitment and the missionary zeal, as shown in Swachh Bharat, and an incentivising approach to make the policies work effectively. Janani Suraksha Yojana is a case of an incentive-based approach working well. A variety of incentiv-ising schemes, from cycles in Bihar to laptops in Tamil Nadu, already exist towards ensuring girls’ educa-tion.. The proposed policy, instead of addressing the causes and conse-quences of under-age marriages, may instead produce adverse, suboptimal outcomes affecting the poor and mar-ginalised the most. What is needed is an enabling, incentivising and inno-vative approach to implement the ex-isting policies effectively.

Move to raise women’s age of marriage refl ects punitive paternalism

3NATION1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMES“Deeply anguished”: Shah, Nadda

condole Mukherjee’s deathHarsh Vardhan inaugurated trauma centre in Karnataka

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Union Home Minister and former BJP President Amit Shah as well as BJP’s present chief JP Nadda have condoled the death of former President Pranab Mukherjee.

Shah said he is “deeply

anguished” on the passing away of Mukherjee. Saying that Mukherjee served the nation with “utmost devotion”, Shah tweeted, “Pranab Da’s life will always be cherished for his impeccable service and indelible contribution to our

motherland. His demise has left a huge void in Indian polity. My sincerest condolences are with his family and followers on this irreparable loss. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.” The former President, who was admitted at the Army Research and Referral Hospital died on Monday evening, family members said. Pranab Mukherjee was hospitalized for the past 21 days and been critical following a brain surgery. Nadda remarked, “Saddened by the demise of former President and statesman Shri Pranab Mukherjee. He has served the Country in many roles with diligence and determination. He is widely admired across the parties for his intellect and perseverance.” The former President, who was admitted at the Army Research and Referral Hospital died on Monday evening, family members said. Pranab Mukherjee was hospitalized for the past 21 days and been critical following a brain surgery.

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday remem-bered former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Health Minister Su-shma Swaraj after in-augurating a super spe-ciality trauma centre in Karnataka. Reminiscing late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Inde-pendence Day Address of 2003, Harsh Vardhan said, “Vajpayee’s vision ensured that 56 years after independence, India was richer by an-other six AIIMS in ad-dition to the existing one. Another 75 existing institutions were envi-sioned to be upgraded to provide AIIMS-like service.”

He also spoke of for-mer Health Minister Sushma Swaraj’s enor-

mous contribution to the Pradhan Mantri Sw-asthya Suraksha Yojana and her life long asso-ciation with Ballari in Karnataka. “They would have been very pleased at the event today. The people who would have been the happiest are not with us anymore.”

Harsh Vardhan also recollected his own ex-

perience of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi invested his per-sonal attention and en-ergy to take the scheme forward, “Phase III of PMSSY was announced only after 2019 and Bal-lari got its Trauma Cen-tre within the next year. Work for the 74 medical colleges to be opened in the aspirational districts

are in full swing”.He informed that a

new AIIMS for the State of Karnataka is under active consideration and of the four medical colleges that are being built, one each in the aspirational districts of Chikkamagaluru, Have-ri, Yadgir and Chikka-ballapur. Union Health Minister reaffirmed the commitment of the government to op-erationalise 1.5 lakh Ay-ushman Bharat - Health and Wellness Centres by December 31, 2020. He also spoke of the government’s commit-ment “to eradicate TB, like smallpox and polio, 5 years before the global deadline in 2025”.

“Measles and Ru-bella will also be elimi-nated in due time,” he added. He spoke of the ‘Eat Right India’ and

‘Fit India’ movements launched by the gov-ernment. “These will play a vital supplemen-tary role in making the country healthy,” he stated. He requested the State authorities and elected representatives present to personally monitor these schemes so that Karnataka can be a leader in imple-mentation of these pro-grammes.

The Union Minister added that so far, 157 medical colleges have been opened with Cen-tral financing and local monitoring by the State administration.

He made the above speech after digitally dedicating a Super Spe-ciality Trauma Centre (SSTC) in Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sci-ences, Ballari to the na-tion. Afterwards.

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Pranab Mukherjee -- a former President, the man who missed becoming the Prime Minister of India by a whisker, the Congress party’s trouble-shooter during the UPA rule and the unlikely Congressman with proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi (the Prime Minister refers to him as ‘Dada’) -- breathed his last on Monday evening at the age of 84, marking the end of an era. Detected with COVID-19, he was on ventilator following a brain surgery to remove a blood clot. The former president was admitted to the Army’s R&R Hospital in Delhi Cantt on Aug 10 in what the hospital de-scribed as a “critical condition”. A scan at the hospital revealed a large brain clot for which he underwent emergency life-sav-ing surgery. After the surgery, he continued to remain critical and on ventilator support while also being detected with CO-

VID-19.He is survived by his sons,

Abhijit and Indrajit Mukher-jee, and daughter Sharmishta. Both Abhijit and Sharmishta have tried their hand at elec-toral politics. Abhijit Mukherjee suffered a shocking defeat last year in West Bengal’s Jangipur constituency while Sharmish-ta Mukherjee is the national spokesperson for the party her father once knew like the back of his hand. In 2015, Mukherjee lost his wife Suvra.

From being an Assistant Professor in Vidyanagar Col-lege, Kolkata to the President of India -- Mukherjee’s journey was marked with his passion for electoral politics and his remarkable loyalty to the Con-gress party. Mukherjee’s politi-cal career began in 1969, after being noticed for his by-elec-tion campaign management in Midnapore for an independent candidate -- former diplomat

and senior Congress leader V.K. Krishna Menon. Mukherjee be-came a member of the Rajya Sabha in July 1969, following which he was re-elected to the House in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999. A trusted aide of Indira Gandhi, he appointed former PM Manmohan Singh - considered the architect of economic reforms in the coun-try - as RBI governor, during his stint as Finance Minister in the 1980s. His much-anticipated ambition to be Prime Minis-ter of India after Indira Gan-dhi’s assassination never happened. Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to keep Mukherjee out of his cabinet was an acri-monious moment in the long relationship that the Congress stalwart enjoyed with the grand old party. Later, not hiding his emotions on the development, Mukherjee wrote, “When I learned of my ouster from the

Cabinet, I was shell-shocked and flabbergasted. I could not believe it. But I composed my-self and sat alongside my wife as she watched the swearing-in ceremony on television.” It had become evident to Mukherjee that he could not continue in

the party and he parted ways to form the Rashtriya Social-ist Congress in West Bengal in 1986. However, by 1989, Ra-jiv Gandhi and he reconciled their differences and he was back in the party and the cabi-

net. In fact, his name came up as PM-probable after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassina-tion and yet again when the UPA came to power. But, in what had by now become routine, he was

again overlooked by his party for the top job. However, the man with a thick Bengali accent continued to relent-lessly defend the party.

He kept being the ‘brain’ for the party even in UPA-II, when the government was braving a string of corruption allegations.

He won back his primacy in the cabinet first under P.V. Narasimha Rao and later when Manmohan Singh was Prime

Minister, as Commerce Minis-ter, Foreign Minister, Defence Minister and Finance Minister. Singh was known to seek his ad-vice and in the numerous GoMs that were formed in the course of UPA-I and UPA-II between 2004 and 2014, Mukherjee headed the largest number of them among all cabinet min-isters. In 2012, in the twilight of his political career, he was made the President. During his tenure, Mukherjee brought in a refreshing change in the way one perceived Rashtrapati Bha-van. He earned the sobriquet of ‘People’s President’ as he charted his own course as Head of State. During the widespread protests in the light of the Nirb-haya case, when crowds had gathered on Raisina Hill, he had insisted on going out and addressing them -- he relented when he was advised against the step on grounds of security.

When PM Modi took over in

2014, ousting the Congress-led government, the two unlikely personalities forged a relation-ship of mutual respect that saw the BJP government award the Bharat Ratna to Mukherjee and on that occasion, an emotional Narendra Modi thanked the man he fondly calls ‘Dada’ for “everything that you have done for the nation”. Once, releas-ing the book “President Pranab Mukherjee - A Statesman”, PM Modi gave a sneak peek into the special relationship the two shared. He had said, “I am say-ing this from deep within. Like a father caring for his son....” Modi went on to elaborate, “It was during the Uttar Pradesh polls that he told me that win and loss happen all the time but will you take care of your health or not? It was not part of his responsibilities as President, but it was the humane person inside him which cared for a friend.”

Ex Prez Pranab ‘Babu’ breathes his last (Obituary)

Bridge washed away before

inauguration in MPSeoni, Aug 31 (UNI)

A part of a bridge built at a cost of Rs 9 crore over the Banganga in Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh was washed away in the floods caused by heavy rains. According to information, the bridge built in Sunwara area at Banganga had not been inaugurated yet but traffic was permitted on it. Rakesh Pal Singh, MLA of Keolari, said that due to heavy rains the water level in the river and risen and garbage got stuck in the railings of the bridge. A part of the bridge was washed away when the pressure due to rain water increased. Singh said the decade-old bridge between Bhimgarh and Chhapara had also been washed away in the rain water. However, there has been no loss of life at both the places. Water in the Sanjay Sarovar dam had also overflown and all 10 gates of the dam had to be opened to clear it.

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) The Delhi High Court on Monday sought a response from Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on a petition filed by BJP leader S C Vats, challenging his election and accusing him of being in-volved in illegal and corrupt practices.

A single judge bench of the High Court presided by Justice Mukta Gupta issued notices to Satyendra Jain, the Returning Officer, the Chief Election Officer and three other candidates who had contested from the Shakur-basti constituency and asked them to file their responses within four weeks. The peti-tion was filed by Vats, who lost to Jain in the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections from Shakurbasti constituency. The plea filed by advocate Sahil Ahuja seeks the court’s directions to set aside the election of Jain and declare it null and void. The plea seeks directions to the Returning Officer calling for the records pertaining to the election.

Vats came second in the election which was held in February this year. He has sought to have himself de-clared as the successful can-didate from the Shakurbasti assembly seat. The petitioner claimed that Jain had not re-vealed his actual expenses incurred during the election campaign. He also accused Jain of bribing people and influencing free and fair elec-tions. “From the result it is ap-parent that in Assembly Elec-tions 2020, main contest was

only between the petitioner and the respondent number one (Jain) who was already a Minister in the Delhi Cabinet and the margin between both the candidates is of 7,592 votes,” the plea said. “To secure victory in the Delhi Assembly Elections 2020, re-spondent number one (Jain) committed serious unlawful and corrupt practices under Sections 123(1), (2), (4), (6) and (8) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 read with Section 77 of the said.

HC seeks Satyendra Jain’s response to plea challenging his election

Odisha CM announces assistance for flood-affected people

When will Modi show his ‘red eyes’ to China? Congress

Bhubaneswar, Aug 31 (UNI) Odisha Chief Min-ister Naveen Patnaik on Monday announced emer-gency assistance to allevi-ate the plight of the flood-affected people. The Chief Minister announced the assistance after an aerial survey of the affected ar-eas in the state. As per the announcement, 50 kg of

rice and Rs 500 will be pro-vided immediately to the families of the severely af-fected/submerged villages. All people displaced by the floods will be provided with cooked food /dry food as long as they are in shel-ter, said a statement. Be-sides, one polythene sheet will be provided to each el-igible family whose house

has been demolished. The demolition assistance will be provided in accordance with State Disaster Re-sponse Fund (SDRF) rules. The district attorney’s of-fice will assess the damage within 15 days and provide assistance over the next week, it said. Under the SDRF rules, the victim will be provided with clothing

and utensils. Dairy farmers will be provided with food aid. Free treatment and vaccination will be provid-ed to animals and birds in the affected areas. Free vet-erinary camps will be set up in the affected areas to treat the animals and birds. All other affected districts will be provided assistance under the SDRF Act.

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) The Congress on Monday upped the ante against the Modi government over the Chinese aggression at the border and asked “when will Prime Minister Narendra Modi show his red eyes to China?” In a statement in Hin-di, Congress spokesman Ran-deep Surjewala said, “Every few days there are attempts on India’s sovereignty and the news of China’s aggression is coming to the fore. They are attacking on our country and

capturing our land, but where is the Modi government?”

This was after the Ministry of Defence said in a state-ment that in a fresh incident in eastern Ladakh, Chinese PLA troops carried out “pro-vocative military movements” to “unilaterally” change the status quo on the southern bank of Pangong lake but the attempt was thwarted by In-dian troops. Slamming the government, Surjewala said, “The news of 20 Indian sol-diers killed in Galwan, Chi-

nese intrusion in Galwan val-ley, China occupies our land near Gogra spring, Finger 4 to Finger 8 area, Pangong Tso and others. And now it is not limited to Ladakh but Chinese forces have been noticed near Lipulekh area in Uttarakhand and in Doklam and Doka La pass where missiles structures have been installed, which is dangerous for India.” His re-marks came after the Indian Army in a statement said that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops “violated”

the previous consensus ar-rived at during military and diplomatic engagements on the ongoing standoff in east-ern Ladakh, and carried out provocative military move-ments to change the status quo on the intervening night of August 29 and 30. “While the Indian Army is safeguard-ing the nation, where is the Prime Minister? When will he talk to China showing his red eyes and when will he get the Indian land released from China?” Surjewala asked.

4SOUTH1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMESKarnataka CM, leaders mourn demise of Pranab Mukherjee

Kerala leaders mourn Ex-President Pranab Mukherjee

Bengaluru, Aug 31 (UNI) Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yedyiurappa and scores of state leaders, including Sidda-ramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar of the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular leader H.D. Kuma-raswamy mourned the death of former president Pranab Mukherjee on Monday.

“I am deeply saddened at the demise of former President Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukher-jee. He will be remembered for his vast knowledge of politics, statecraft and policy making,” said Yediyurappa in a state-ment. Mukherjee (84) died at an army hospital in New Delhi on Monday evening after a few days of illness.

“In his political career span-ning five decades, Pranabda held several key posts, includ-ing Defence, Finance, External

Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission,” recalled the chief minister.

Terming Mukherjee a vision-ary, Yediyurappa said Pranab was one of the best parliamen-

tar and statesmen of India.“He will be remembered by

all for his contribution to the development of the country,” said the chief minister.

Opposition Congress leader

Siddaramaiah said he was sad-dened by Mukherkee’s demise and said the former president’s contribution to the country would be remembered.

“My condolence to his be-reaved family members,” said Siddaramaiah in a statement here. Noting that India lost a statesman whose knowledge of history, Constitution and laws was unparalleled, Shivaku-mar said he lost a mentor and guide with the passing away of Mukherjee.

“My deep condolences to his family and several follow-ers,” said Shivakumar. State’s former chief minister Kuma-raswamy said Mukherjee was a veteran politician with a simple personality. “The loss of such a great spirit is a huge loss to the country,” said Ku-marswamy here.

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 31 (UNI) The political spec-trum in Kerala cutting across affinities has only good words to recall former President Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away on Monday eve-ning in Delhi.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Mukherjee will always be remembered for keeping the Indian flag flying high across the world. “He was a towering personality and was a hugely successful minister besides being a great parliamentarian. He was one who gave huge regards for Constitutional values and was always known for his secular thoughts and always batted for it. The country has lost a great human being,” said Vijayan.

The lone Keralite in the Na-rendra Modi cabinet -- Union Minister of State for External Affairs V.Muraleedharan said the country has lost a great son, who excelled in whatever he did.

“His presidential term was spread over two different Union Government’s and he was an acceptable personal-ity across the political spec-trum. Even after his term got over, he was keenly associ-ated with the development of the country and was working for it, till recently. Our coun-try has lost a great son,” said Muraleedharan.

Former Deputy Chairman

of the Rajya Sabha, P.J.Kurian, said Mukherjee was not a pol-itician but a statesman. “He was a statesman to the core and his knowledge of things was unbelievable and every-thing was at his fingertips. He was an acceptable person across political parties. He will be remembered as one of the architects of modern India and his commitment was a thing which all would always accept,” said Kurian. CPI-M politburo member and State party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said more than a minister and president, he will always be remembered for how he controlled politics.

“We recall him as someone with whom we could always relate to and he was always the middleman between us and the first UPA govern-ment. He will be also re-membered as someone who missed the top spot in poli-

tics,” said Balakrishnan.Senior IUML Lok Sabha

member and former Kerala Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty described the departed soul as a colossus figure, who suc-ceeded in whatever he was assigned.

“When I was the IT Minis-ter here, he came to see what we had done and was really appreciative of Kerala taking giant strides in turning digi-tal. His passing away is a huge loss for the country,” said Kunhalikutty.

Thomas Mathew, who was Mukherjee’s additional sec-retary at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan described him as the most lovable and ador-able personality. “I am chok-ing with emotions and I can speak for hours to recall my association with him. He was someone who used to behave so well with all, irrespective of the position.

Warangal, August-31 : The As-sistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Srinivas in a statement released appealed to the people to be aware of online fraudsters who are trying to cheat the peo-ple in the name of online sales by utilizing the opportunity of Covid-19 pandemic here in the Parkal mandal of Warangal rural district. He stated that after be-fore doing online shopping, peo-ple should have complete aware-ness about the company and the products they are dealing with and after checking twice, they should click on the links that are provided by the company on on-line sites and should not be in a hurry while purchasing products online.

By linking a bank account to your phone number, you will be receiving messages when-ever you purchase any product through online sites which will prevent you from being cheated by cyber criminals.

If anyone withdraws money

from your bank account without your knowledge, then you will be alerted by receiving a message to your mobile phone. So you can report it to either your bank of-ficials or to the local police sta-tion to take immediate actions against the fraudsters.

The cyber criminals will use various kinds of methods like big order, big sales, discount sales and will do publicity through fake messages, emails, attractive advertisements along with lucky draws, lottery and gifts and will try to lure people. If people get attracted to such fake messages then they will lose their money.

Any company or a business person will not give valuable items for a discount or for free of cost. People should have this minimum knowledge and should not be trapped by cyber criminals. With an intention for making easy money people should not believe online gam-ing and should not get deceived by cyber criminals.

People told to be aware of online fraudsters-ACP

Two CPI-M youth activists murdered, four suspects heldThiruvananthapuram, Aug

31 (UNI) Onam festivities in Kerala began on a sour note with the killing of two activ-ists attached to the youth wing of the CPI-M. They were hacked to death by a group of five people. The dead include 24-year-old Haq Mohammed and 32-year-old Mithilaj .

The incident occurred on Sunday night, at Venjar-amoodu, about 25 kms from the state capital suburbs. Four suspects are now in po-lice custody. While the top CPI-M leadership including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi-jayan condemned the twin murder and ordered a probe into it, the Congress said their party has no role in it, which the local police too have now confirmed.

The incident occurred close

to midnight when the two de-ceased who were travelling on a bike, were stopped and attacked by five people who came on two bikes. While Mithilaj died on the spot, Mo-hammed died at the hospital.

Chief minister Vijayan wrote on Facebook that all those behind these brutal murders would be arrested and the reason behind the gruesome killings will be un-ravelled. CPI-M state secre-tary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said on Thiru Onam day, the Congress party has created a floral carpet with blood.

“Two youths have been brutally murdered and this is the outcome of a conspiracy of the Congress party. We demand all those behind this should be arrested,” said Bal-akrishnan.

But Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that the Congress party has no role in the killings. “The ruling CPI-M is trying to create a smokescreen over this incident. The Congress party has no role in this and the CPI-M wants to use this episode to cover up their failures in governance and want to use this for political reasons,” said Chennithala. Meanwhile a top police of-ficial said that this was an incident which happened following a personal rivalry that has been going on for a while. In a related incident, angry youth wing members of the CPI-M clashed with Youth Congress activists sit-ting on a protest in front of the Public Service Commis-sion.

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 31 (UNI) Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has continued in Kerala, almost every household in the state on Monday immersed itself in the festive spirit of Onam while staying indoors. The one thing that took centre stage was the traditional 26-item vegetarian lunch, known as the Onam ‘sadhya’.

Onam is the traditional harvest festival of Kerala and of the three most important days, Thiru Onam, the second day of Onam falls on Monday. Thiru Onam is the day

when sadhya, the mother of all veg-etarian lunches, is served.

The only difference in the way the sadhya is eaten compared to the older days is, though it contin-ues to be eaten from plantain leaf with hands, the place has shifted from the floor to the dining tables.

The mouth-watering lunch in-cludes chips, pappadoms, various preparation of vegetables, pickles both sweet and sour, the tradi-tional aviyal, sambar, dal served along with a small quantity of ghee, rasam, two different preparations

of butter milk, a chutney powder prepared from grated coconut and not to mention a series of payas-ams eaten either straight or mixed with ripe banana. Another feature of the sadhya is the way in which the dishes are served in a specific order and eaten in a certain way. But, the biggest change, compared to the earlier days is that while Onam preparations began almost a month ago, now many people pre-fer to order their lunch in advance from caterers or hotels. The cost of the sadya can vary from Rs 200 to

Rs 1,000. Apart from the traditional food, Onam also brings out sartori-al changes in practically every Ker-alite. While women prefer to wear the traditional set and mundu- a two piece saree, the younger ones are mostly spotted in the now rare-ly seen skirt (pavada) and blouse. And not to be left out, most men prefer to wear the mundu (dhoti) . However, the ongoing pandemic has been a dampener to the festive spirit this year. Chief Minister Pina-rayi Vijayan has cautioned that the spread the virus.

Sadhya takes centre stage as Kerala marks Onam indoors

Make the district corona free: Health Officials ToldBhupalpally (TSIT Bureau),

August 31: District Collector Mohd. Abdul Azeem said medical and health officials should work hard to make the district corona virus-free. The District Collector inspected the Jangedu, Kasimpally, two sub-health centres in Bhupalpally town and the town health center here on Monday and reviewed with the medical staff the measures taken for corona control along with the general medical services provided to the people through the respective health centers. Noticing the difficulty in providing medical services at the town health centre housed in the old gram panchayat office building in Shanti Nagar and another sub-health centre run in a rented house in Karl Marx colony, the district collector instructed the municipal commissioner to go for the construction of new

buildings. During the inspection, noticing a large vacant place in the premises of the Primary Health centre in Krishna Colony, the district collector directed Municipal Commissioner Sammaiah to beautify it with the flower garden. Observing that the medical staff was not wearing proper masks at Jangedu health centre during the inspection, the District Immunization Officer Dr Umadevi directed the medical officers of the hospital and all the hospitals in the district to provide the necessary masks and sanitizers to the staff. Additional District Collector YV Ganesh, DPO Sudhir Kumar, PHC doctors Dr Ravikumar, Dr Jyothi, Community Health Officer Rajaiah, ANMs of the respective sub-centers and Asha workers were present during the inspection.

The Collector appreciated the efforts of the medical and health

personnel for the control of the corona virus in the district as many people infected with corona virus were getting healthier and exhorted the medical personnel to work more effectively with the aim of making the district a corona-free by September 15

. Stating that Bhupalpally town in particular has the highest number of corona cases, Mohd Abdul Azeem said that primary and secondary contacts of people with corona infection should be identified and medical tests should be conducted on them to keep others from contacting the virus. He said the medical staff was constantly monitoring the infected people in the home quarantine to ensure that they would recover quickly, allocating special time for COVID patients in hospitals thus preventing normal patients from arriving at that time. He also directed

the officials to undertake survey of the elderly and the women big with young and people with chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and BP to prevent the spread of corona virus and monitor their health conditions and administer them necessary medication. Observing that the medical staff was not wearing proper masks at Jangedu health centre during the inspection, the District Immunization Officer Dr Umadevi directed the medical officers of the hospital and all the hospitals in the district to provide the necessary masks and sanitizers to the staff. Additional District Collector YV Ganesh, DPO Sudhir Kumar, PHC doctors Dr Ravikumar, Dr Jyothi, Community Health Officer Rajaiah, ANMs of the respective sub-centers and Asha workers were present during the inspection.

Mulugu (TSIT Bureau), August 31: In view of COVID-19, the online teaching would be underway to the primary and secondary school students from tomorrow, said ITDA Eturunagaram PO Hanmant K Zendage. A review on online teaching was conducted with the officials via teleconference here on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Zendage said that the departments concerned should work with coordination for the success of the online classes conducted for students of classes from three to ten. Teachers would attend school from Tuesday and the district panchayat field staff should take the responsibility of keeping the school clean and sanitize the school premises, he said. Stating that in villages where digital equipment was required, the headmasters should coordinate with the respective village sarpanches and arrange television set in the gram panchayat buildings,

Mr Zendage said that wide publicity should be given in the villages about the online classes with the assistance of self-help groups by conducting awareness programmes extensively in all the habitations under the auspices of the District Rural Development Corporation. Mr.Zendage directed the officials of the electricity department to provide uninterrupted power supply from 10.00 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Stating that there were 12000 students in the classes from third to tenth of which 802 students were found to have no television set, he said that they should be provided television facility and added that online classes should be conducted strictly in line with the COVID-19 guidelines by following physical distancing. Conference was attended by the DRO K.Ramadevi, DRDO Parijatam, DEO Vasanthi, DPO Venkayya, DPRO M.A. Gouse, electricity DE Bhaskar and others were present.

Give Wide Publicity in Villages on Online Classes: ITDA PO Hanmant K.Zendage

If the country’s polity is not fixed, countless other tragedies could strike the nation

By Nicholas KristofAre female leaders better at fighting a

pandemic?I compiled death rates from the coro-

navirus for 21 countries around the world, 13 led by men and eight by women. The male-led countries suffered an average of 214 coronavirus-related deaths per million inhabitants. Those led by women lost only one-fifth as many, 36 per million.

If the United States had the coronavirus death rate of the average female-led coun-try, 102,000 American lives would have been saved out of the 114,000 lost.

“Countries led by women do seem to be particularly successful in fighting the coro-navirus,” noted Anne W. Rimoin, an epi-demiologist at UCLA. “New Zealand, Den-mark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway have done so well perhaps due to the lead-ership and management styles attributed to their female leaders.”

Let’s start by acknowledging that there have been plenty of wretched female lead-ers over the years. Indeed, according to re-search I once did for a book, female leaders around the world haven’t been clearly bet-ter than male counterparts even at improv-ing girls’ education or reducing maternal mortality.

There has been solid research that it makes a difference to have more women on boards and in grass roots positions, but evidence that they make better presidents or prime ministers has been lacking — until COVID-19 came along.

It’s not that the leaders who best man-aged the virus were all women. But those

who bungled the response were men, and mostly a particular type: authoritarian, vainglorious and blustering. Think of Boris Johnson in Britain, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran and Donald Trump in the United States.

Male ego and blusterVirtually every country that has expe-

rienced coronavirus mortality at a rate of more than 150 per million inhabitants is male-led.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of the best-run places have been run by women: New Zealand, Germany, Taiwan,” mused Susan Rice, who was na-tional security adviser under President Barack Obama. “And where we’ve seen things go most badly wrong — the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK — it’s a lot of male ego and bluster.”

“We often joke that men drivers never ask for directions,” observed Dr. Ezekiel Eman-uel of the University of Pennsylvania. “I ac-tually think there’s something to that also in terms of women’s leadership, in terms of recognising expertise and asking experts for advice, and men sort of barrelling ahead like they got it.”

He has a point. Those leaders who han-dled the virus best were those who humbly consulted public health experts and acted quickly, and many were women; in con-trast, male authoritarians who botched the response were suspicious of experts and too full of themselves.

“I really get it,” Trump said when he vis-ited the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in March. Surrounded by medi-

cal experts, he added, “Maybe I have natu-ral ability,” and he wondered aloud if he should have become a scientist. (Given that Trump said in January that COVID-19 was “totally under control,” he has his answer. And peer review might not have been kind to his ideas about bleach.)

No gender gap in the USWhile women have generally outshone

men as international leaders, that does not seem true within the United States. Some female governors have done better, others worse, so there isn’t an obvious gender gap at home.

It’s also possible that this isn’t about fe-male leaders but about the kind of country that chooses a woman to lead it.

Companies with more female executives on average perform better than those with fewer women, but analysts think that the reason isn’t just the brilliance of female leaders. Rather, companies that are cultur-ally open to having senior women are also more willing to embrace other innova-tions, and it may be this innovative spirit that leads to higher profitability. Likewise, countries willing to elect female prime min-isters may be those more inclined to listen to epidemiologists.

Yet I think that there’s also a difference in the leadership itself.

“Women lead often in a very different style from men,” said Margot Wallstrom, a former Swedish foreign minister, citing examples from Norway, Germany and New Zealand of women with low-key, inclusive and evidence-based leadership.

Wallstrom also noted that public health

is a traditional “home turf” concern for many female leaders. Grant Miller, an ex-pert in health economics at Stanford Uni-versity, found that as states, one by one, granted the vote to women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, those states then also invested more in sanitation and pub-lic health — saving some 20,000 children’s lives a year. Boys were thus huge beneficia-ries of women’s suffrage.

One trap for female politicians is that brashness can be effective for male candi-

dates, but researchers find that male and female voters alike are turned off by wom-en who seem self-promotional. That forces women in politics to master the art of com-municating effectively in a low-key way — just what’s needed in a pandemic.

“Perhaps the skills that have led them to reach the top,” said Rimoin, the UCLA epidemiologist, “are the same skills that are currently needed to bring a country to-gether.”

Gulf News

COVID-19: NATIONS MAY BE SAFER UNDER WOMEN

By Fawaz TurkiThe sense of loss, ache and trauma

that today defines the national senti-ment of the Lebanese people, felt after tragedy struck in Beirut three weeks ago, continues to ripple through the social fabric of a bereaved nation.

Citizens of that long tormented country are now asking this of them-selves: Why was this tragedy — which

snuffed out close to 200 lives, injured thousands and left no part of the na-tion’s capital untouched, unscathed, unscarred — allowed to happen to us, how do we make sense out of that which seems senseless and, more im-portantly, what shall “we, the people” do next?

Look, every nation has the inalien-able right to go to hell in its own way,

as it were, provided that is a projection of the collective sweep of its people’s sensibility. (Soviets, for example, opted for a Soviet Union and went with what-ever floated their boat best, fine.)

But if that nation is dragged there, against its will, by the kind of uncon-scionable leaders who, as Fredrick Douglass, the African American re-former and orator, put it, claim for themselves “the crops that others had ploughed”, or who pursue parochial interests alien to the national interest, then the people will sooner or later ex-ercise “the right to revolution” or, as it is also known in political philosophy, “the right to rebellion”.

The consensus among large swaths of Lebanese society is that for Lebanon to be saved, for Lebanon to be whole as a nation, for Lebanon never to be again put through the agonies it has endured since 1975, the profound unbalance at the pivot of their political culture must give.

In short, all members of the old guard, regardless of their sectarian, po-litical and parochial affiliation, with-out exception, must lift anchor and sail away.

No doubt you hear in this preferred panacea an echo of the popular slogan, raised by protesters in the mass dem-onstrations held last year across the country, that declaimed, “All of them means all of them”. There’s no other way.

All of them must go. No hedging. No pouring of new sauces on old meats. This old guard, barren of invention,

protective of its narrow interests, will only ensure that more human damna-tion is visited upon a people who have supped full of damnation.

The right to revolt or rebel against injustice, the right to send packing a government that acts against the com-monwealth of the “body of the people”, was formalised by sundry political phi-losophers, all the way from Ibn Khal-dun, the 14th century Islamic sociolo-gist, to John Locke, the Enlightenment thinker — and beyond.

In fact, the Founding Fathers of the American Republic went further, writ-ing in the Declaration of Independence (1776) that it was not just “the right” but “the duty” of citizens to remove rulers judged by them guilty of a “long train of abuses and usurpations”.

It was “the long train of abuses and usurpations” by Lebanon’s ruling elite that has long marred the future pros-pects of the nation and warped its so-cial fabric.

Consider, as a case in point, how soon after tragedy struck in Beirut, it emerged that the country’s top lead-ers had been aware of the chemical stockpiles stored at the port and were warned — reportedly several times — about the dangers they posed, yet cav-alierly opted to do zilch about it.

A culture of passing the buckAgainst the backdrop of aid pour-

ing into the country and of search and rescue crews flying in from around the world, a thorough and transparent in-vestigation began last week aimed at not just learning the exact cause of

the tragedy but also delving into the role played by officials representing the motley groups in the government — into who should be taken to task, who should be indicted, who should be meted out punishment to.

Among the investigators, it now tran-spires, are a team of FBI agents who ar-rived in Beirut recently.

Unquestionably, among those inves-tigated will be Hezbollah, whose perva-sive influence as the most powerful po-litical and military force in the country will come under scrutiny.

The group stands at the centre of the public outrage being levelled at the hated elite — with some of the out-rage surprisingly emanating from an increasing number of its own constitu-ents.

To be sure, Hezbollah cannot be held solely responsible for the corruption and mismanagement that have bank-rupted Lebanon, and subverted its socio-political life, but the group has undeniably played an outsize role in Lebanon’s free-for-all, devil-may-care, what’s-in-it-for-me patronage system.

What the Lebanese people are asking for is not much: The right to be a de-termining force in their destiny, which translates into an equitable social con-tract between ruler and ruled.

Denied that right, they are likely to have countless other tragedies — differ-ent in kind but the same in degree — as the one visited upon them three weeks ago. That would be too calamitous a fate to await any people, anywhere.

Gulf News

LEBANON MUST GET THE RIGHT TO DETERMINE ITS DESTINY

By Thomas L. FriedmanHere is a sentence I never in a million

years thought that I would ever write or read: This November, for the first time in our history, the United States of America may not be able to conduct a free and fair election and, should Presi-dent Donald Trump be defeated by Joe Biden, have a legitimate and peaceful transfer of power.

Because if half the country thinks their votes were not fully counted due to de-liberate sabotaging of the US Postal Ser-vice by this administration, and if the other half are made to believe by the president that any mail-in vote for Biden was fraudulent, that would not result in just a disputed election So, personally, I will walk, I will jog, I will skip, I will crawl, I will slither, I will bike, I will hike, I will hitchhike, I will drive, I will ride, I will run, I will fly, I will roll, I will be rolled, I will be carried, I will trek, I will train, I will trot, I will truck, I will strut, I will float, I will boat, I will ramble, I will amble, I will march, I will bus, I will taxi, I will Uber, Lyft, scooter, skateboard or motorcycle — and I will wear a face mask, a face shield, gloves, goggles, a hazmat suit — but I damn well will get to my neighbour-hood polling station to see that my vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is cast and counted on Nov. 3.

— not another Bush v. Gore for the Su-preme Court to sort out — that would be the end of American democracy as we

know it. It also isn’t hyperbole to say it could sow the seeds of another Civil War. The threat is real.

And it is not because I am some raving liberal. It’s because I believe that Amer-ica, at its core, is still a centre-left, cen-tre-right country and is best governed by someone who can reforge the two and lead from there. I believe that Biden is the one who can do that best, and that is actually the source of his appeal to many Americans.

I understand that in the midst of a pan-demic in-person voting the way I intend to do is simply not an option for many people for reasons that have nothing to do with Trump.

To begin with, many retired people, who usually staff polling stations, are afraid to volunteer this year out of fear of contracting the coronavirus. And many other people legitimately fear that if they have to stand in crowded, longer lines at fewer polling stations, this, too, could in-crease their likelihood of infection.

Also, it is not Trump’s fault, per se, that the Postal Service is not normally set up to get a massive crush of mail-in ballots out and back in time for every vote to be cast and counted.

Choking off funds to Postal ServiceWhat is Trump’s fault is that instead of

leading — pulling Congress and all the governors together to organise an emer-gency response to this unprecedented challenge posed to our national elec-

tion — the president has used his bully pulpit to try to persuade the country that any mail-in vote — except in states that might support him, like Florida — should be seen as fraudulent, and he has delib-erately sought to choke off funds to the Postal Service needed for an emergency expansion of its capacity to efficiently handle all these votes by mail.

Trump said in a news conference last Wednesday that he would not sign off on either $25 billion in emergency funds for the USPS or $3.5 billion in election assistance to help states, both of which Democrats have been pressing for as part of a federal COVID-19 relief bill.

“They need that money in order to have the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of bal-lots,” Trump told Fox Business Network the next day. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.”

I have covered banana republic dicta-tors who were more subtle than that in attempting to rig their elections or un-dermine votes for their opponent.

There seems some headway with Lou-is DeJoy, Trump’s postmaster general. While the president continues to plant utterly bogus seeds of doubt everywhere he can about mail-in voting, DeJoy on Tuesday declared that he was suspend-ing cost-cutting and other operational changes.

But we cannot rely on DeJoy or Trump to play this election straight. For in-stance, DeJoy didn’t say that he would reverse moves already made that have been cited as intended to undercut vote-by-mail.

We have to help every locality recruit more poll workers — Republicans and Democrats, we need multitudes of both to ensure everyone feels represented — so that polling stations can open and handle everyone who wants to vote.

To me, this is our generation’s D-Day or E-day. Think about it. The Ameri-

can soldiers who landed on Normandy Beach, under a barrage of Nazi artillery fire, on June 6, 1944, were actually vot-ing with their lives so that the rest of us could vote with our ballots — in person or by mail — in every election from that day forth, even if it was in the middle of a pandemic.

Now is our turn to step up. I don’t care who you vote for. But don’t let this election be stolen by people trying to deliberately engineer it so not everyone can vote — or so that not every vote will be counted.

Gulf News

ELECTIONS 2020 ULTIMATE TEST OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

5OP-ED1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

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

6INTERNATIONAL1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

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

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,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.INADARSH NAGAR, NEAR UNIQUE GRAMMER SCHOOL, SAIDABAD, HYDERABAD-59, T.S.EDITOR. BUCHI BABU VUPPALA. RNI.NO.APENG/29225/2009. E-MAIL: THESOUTHINDIATIMES@YAHOO.IN

airo, Aug 31 (UNI) The Cairo-based Arab Parliament has condemned a drone at-tack launched by the Houthi militias on Saudi Arabia’s Abha Airport. In a statement on Sunday, Speaker of the Parliament Mishaal bin Fahm al-Salmi said that attacking the international airport re-quires an urgent international intervention to sue the Houthi group for its “terrorist acts”, reports Xinhua news agency

Al-Salmi also called on the international community to take on its responsibility for ceasing Houthi frequent at-tacks that target civil and threaten Arab security and sta-bility.

Al-Salami also reiterated the Arab parliament’s solidarity and support for all measures taken by Riyadh to protect its security and stability.

Earlier on Sunday, the Sau-di-led coalition said it inter-cepted a bomb-laden drone launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels toward the Kingdom’s southern region.

On Friday, the coalition said it destroyed two drones fl ying toward the kingdom’s south-ern region and border city Najran.It also announced that it destroyed a missile fi red by the Houthis toward Najran the previous day.

Arab Parliament condemns Houthi drone attack on Saudi airport

Washington, Aug 31 (UNI) US President Donald Trump's favourability re-mained fl at after last week's Republican National Con-vention (RNC), where he for-mally accepted his renomi-nation for a second-term, as majority of Americans continued to view his han-dling of the Covid-19 crisis negatively, a new poll has re-vealed.On Sunday, the ABC News-Ipsos poll revealed that 31 per cent of respon-dents had a favourable view

of Trump after the four-day RNC, representing no sig-nifi cant change from his 32 per cent favourability a week prior after the Democratic National Convention, re-ports The Hill news website.

The President's favour-ability among Republicans has also dropped 4 percent-age points since last week.Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Joe Biden's fa-vourability remained higher than his unfavourability, at 46 per cent and 40 pe rcent,

respectively, according to the poll.Unlike Trump, the former Vice President expe-rienced a 5 percentage point boost in favourability in the week after the Democratic convention.

He also saw a 7 percent-age point increase in favour-ability among Democrats after the convention, The Hill news reported citing the poll as saying.

Similar to the Democratic convention, almost three-fourths of respondents said they viewed very little or none of the RNC on televi-sion or online.About 28 per cent said they watched at least some of the RNC, align-ing with the 30 per cent of people who said they viewed a portion of the Democratic convention the week before.

Trump’s favourability flat after RNC: Poll Tel Aviv, Aug 31 (UNI) An Israe-

li-US delegation, including Amer-ican President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, left for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday on board the fi rst commercial fl ight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi.

Flight LY971, a direct fl ight op-erated by Israeli fl ag carrier El Al, departed at around 10.30 a.m., re-ports Xinhua news agency.

The two-day visit will include working meetings of the joint teams ahead of the signing of co-operation deals following the Au-gust 13 US-brokered agreement to normalize ties between Israel and UAE.

Ahead of the departure, a state-ment from the Israeli Prime Min-ister's Offi ce said the meetings will focus on issues related to "the civil and economic spheres."The visit will also include a trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi between the heads of the delegations: Is-

rael's chief of National Security Council Meir Ben Shabbat, US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, Kushner, also a senior White House adviser, and UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The discussions will be held in working groups composed of Israeli, Emirati and US rep-resentatives in the areas of diplomacy, finances, aviation and entry visas, health, culture and tourism, space, science and investments, innovation and trade, according to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

"Our goal is to achieve a joint work plan to promote the rela-tionship in a very wide range of areas," Shabbat said in a state-ment ahead of the departure.

Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country has held secrets talks with "many more" Arab states on normalizing relations.

Israeli-US delegation leaves for UAE

Putin, Lukashenko agree to meet in Moscow

NETANYAHU : ISRAEL HAS HAD SECRET TALKS WITH ARAB COUNTRIES

Jerusalem, Aug 31 (UNI) Is-

rael has had secret talks with several Arab countries to nor-malize relations, Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“There are many more un-publicized meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders,” Netan-

yahu said during joint remarks here on Sunday alongside Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.

Netanyahu said these Arab

leaders “recognize that their true interests are to normalize relations with Israel”, reports Xinhua news agency.

Kushner referred to the so-called Abraham Accord, the August 13 US-brokered peace

agreement between Israel and the UAE to normalize ties, as a “historic breakthrough,” say-ing “the stage is set” for other Arab states to follow the UAE.The August 13 announcement has paved the way to “previ-

ously unthinkable” economic, security and religious coop-eration between Israel and the UAE, Kushner added.Kushner and O’Brien will join an offi cial Israeli delegation that will fl y to Abu Dhabi, UAE on Monday.

This will be the fi rst com-mercial fl ight between the two states.The Israeli delegation will be headed by the chief of the National Security Council Meir Ben Shabbat.According to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Of-

Moscow, Aug 31 (UNI) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko have agreed to meet in Moscow “in the coming weeks”, the Kremlin said in a statement.

During a phone call on Sunday, Putin and Lukashenko reaffi rmed their common position to further strengthen the Russian-Belarusian alliance and mutually expand ben-efi cial cooperation in all areas, Xin-hua news agency quoted the state-ment as saying.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the spe-cifi c date for the Putin-Lukashenko meeting has not been set yet.

Earlier this week, Putin said that Russia regards Lukashenko as the legitimate President of Belarus, and Moscow was ready to intervene if the situation in Belarus gets out of con-

trol, although only as a last resort.Belarus has been witnessing mass protests after Lukashenko, who has been in offi ce since 1994, won a sixth term in the August 9 elections.

According to offi cial results, Lu-kashenk won more than 80 per cent of the votes and opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya garnered only 10 per cent.

There were no independent ob-servers and the opposition has al-

PEACE DOESN’T MEAN POWER SHARING DEAL: ASHRAF GHANI

London, Aug 31 (UNI) The UK’s two big political parties, the ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour, are neck and neck for the fi rst time in over a year in a new opinion poll.

The poll issued on Sunday by Opinium for the Observer newspaper, gave both Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives and the La-bour 40 points each, reports Xinhua news agency.

This meant that a lead of 26 points at its peak for John-son has been wiped out.

Political commentators in London believe the re-sult will send shockwaves through Westminster as pol-itic prepare to return to the House of Commons on Tuesday after their lengthy summer recess.On the op-

position benches however, the result will be welcomed by Labour MPs, headed by Keir Starmer, who replaced former party leader Jeremy Corbyn earlier this year.

Opinium’s Adam Drum-mond said: “This is the fi rst time Labour have drawn lev-el since July 2019 when both main parties were in freefall and losing votes to the Brexit Party and the Liberal Demo-crats.”

Since Johnson became Prime Minister, the Con-servatives “typically had a double digit lead, peaking in March/April this year when they were seen to be handling the pandemic and lockdown fairly well while Labour changed leader”.“In the fi ve months since that peak, the lead has gradually

declined from 26 per cent to 0 per cent now.”As well as steering the country through the pandemic, Johnson faces a tough potentially make-or-break month September

on Brexit negotiations with the European Union (EU).Both sides are scheduled to hold informal talks this week ahead of a formal negoti-ating round the following

week.The Sunday Times re-ported that both sides have regarded that a no deal was much more likely than it was a month ago.

Johnson has insisted that there will be no extension of the UK’s transition period beyond the December 31 deadline which was set when the country’s membership in the EU ended on January 31.

The aim of the transition period was to allow both sides to strike a permanent post-Brexit trade deal.

The Sunday Times com-mented: “EU offi cials no longer think an agreement is likely to be struck before the European Council meeting on October 15-16.“They are informally discussing wheth-er there should be a separate Brexit leaders’ summit, or

UK POLITICAL GIANTS NECK AND NECK IN LATEST POLL

Kabul, Aug 31 (UNI) Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that peace does not mean a power-sharing political deal, but instead the fulfi lment of the will of the people which is to end violence and blood-shed in the war-torn country.He made the remarks in a cer-emony on Sunday in Kabul to commemorate Ashura or the 10th day of Muharram, which is observed in memory of the martyrdom of Prophet Mo-hammed’s grandson Imam

Hussain and his followers at the battle of Karbala.

“Do not be afraid of peace because peace does not mean a power sharing politi-cal deal,” TOLO News quoted Ghani as saying.

He said that everyone wants a reduction in violence and an end to the violence in the country, adding that no mat-ter how much the enemies tear things down, Afghans will build back.“Those who think they are achieving their

goals with threats should think again because the peo-ple support the republic,” Ghani said.His comments came after Abdullah Abdul-lah, chairman of the Afghan

High Council for National Reconciliation, said that the much awaited intra-Afghan talks between the Kabul gov-ernment and the Taliban will begin next week.

In a survey last week, the Institute for War and Peace Studies found that more than 86 per cent of the country’s population are satisfi ed with the current peace process, TOLO News reported.Ear-lier this month, nearly 3,400 Afghan delegates at a three-

day Loya Jirga, the grand assembly of Afghan elders, approved the release of 400 high-value prisoners of the Taliban which was posing as an obstacle for the intra-Af-ghan negotiations.

Two days later, the govern-ment freed 80 of the prison-ers, but said the remaining 320 were conditional on the release of at least 20 Afghan comman-dos in Taliban custody, accord-ing to offi cials.

Saudi Arabia announces discovery of

new oil, gas fields

Islamabad, Aug 31 (UNI) At least three Pakistani soldiers were killed and four others in-jured after terrorists attacked security forces in South Wa-ziristan district, the Inter-Ser-vices Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.According to the statement issued late Sunday night, the soldiers

were killed after terrorists opened fi re at security forces during a search operation, re-ports Xinhua news agency.

Local media quoting sourc-es reported that Pakistan Army personnel launched the search operation after receiving a tip-off about the presence of ter-rorists in the area.

3 soldiers killed in Pak terror attack

Chicago, Aug 31 (UNI) At least one person was killed and five others were injured in a shooting outside a res-taurant in Chicago, local po-lice said.

The incident took place on Sunday at around 1.50 p.m. in an outdoor tent at the Lumes Pancake House, reports Xin-hua news agency.

One of the people shot,

who was the "targeted indi-vidual", died from injuries, Chicago Tribune quoted the city police as saying.The five others have been transported to local hospitals.

"He was dining outdoors under a tent when a white-coloured SUV drove up and fi red shots striking him," the police said in a preliminary statement.

1 killed, 5 injured in Chicago shooting

Riyadh, Aug 31 (UNI) Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud announced on Sunday the discovery of two oil and gas fi elds in the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The two fi elds, Hadat Al-

Hajrah gas fi eld in the Al-Jawf region and Abraq Al-Talul oil fi eld in the northern border re-gion, were discovered by the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), Xinhua news agency reported.

Colombo, Aug 31 (UNI) Sri Lanka will implement a short term action plan to revive the country's tourism indus-try which has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said on Monday.

He said the government will allocate nearly $1 mil-

lion over the next four months to revive tourism and the short term action plan was being fi nalized, re-ports Xinhua news agency.Under the plan, 12 new tour-ist attraction sites identifi ed in several districts would be developed while community tourist villages would also

be developed. Ranatunga said the action plan will also be taken to modernize the Negombo, Kandy, and Kalutara railway stations, in outer Colombo, central highlands, and the south, within the next four months under a project to upgrade the railway stations.

SL ready with short term plan to revive tourism

7SPORTS1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

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

New York, Aug 31 (UNI) Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands won the women’s doubles title at the Western & Southern Open with a strong performance against American Nicole Melichar and Xu Yifan from China in the final on Saturday.

Peschke and Schuurs, seeded third at the event, took one hour and 18 minutes to seal the victory at 6-1, 4-6, 10-4, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Everything I think came together somehow,” Peschke said. “In the first round, you’re still a little look for each other and trying to put everything together

where you have been left off, which is five months.”“So it was a long time that we hadn’t had a chance to practice, we hadn’t

had a chance to play any match. So the first match is obviously, almost at any tournament, one of the crucial ones. So we were

fighting the first match through, and I think with every day, we became stronger and better as a team.”

Schuurs and Peschke are the No. 4 seeds at next week’s US Open, where they will take on Croat Darija Jurak and Canadian Sharon Fichman in the opening round.“Of course you have a nice feeling,” Schuurs said of the pair’s confidence level heading into the US Open.

“I think confidence is better than before. We played matches together. We didn’t lose yet. So of course it’s nice to go into a tournament like the US Open and you didn’t lose.”

Peschke/Schuurs win women’s doubles title at Western & Southern OpenSevilla, Aug 31 (UNI)

Spanish football club Real Betis have announced that they have s i g n e d g o a l k e e p e r Claudio Bravo following his release from Manchester City.The 37-year-old has signed a one-year contract at Betis with an option for another year included in the deal. The Chilean has become the second signing of the club for the 2020/2021 LaLiga season.Bravo began his professional career at Colo-Colo in his home country. In 2006, he was signed by Real Sociedad where he spent eight seasons.

I n 2016, his

good performances drew the attention of FC Barcelona, team that signed him in 2014. Two years later, he was transferred to Manchester City, where he has played until this summer.In his career in clubs, Bravo has played 506 official games.In

his records, Bravo has won two Chilean leagues, two Spanish LaLiga, two Copa del

Rey, one Spanish Supercup, one

Champions League, One European Supercup,

one Clubs World Cup, two Premier League, one FA Cup, three EFL Cup and two Community Shield.

At international level, Bravo has been capped by Chile U20, U23 and senior team. With the senior team, the Green and White keeper has won 123 caps, being he second player with more caps in history of the Chilean national team.

Former Barca vs Man City keeper Bravo signs for Real Betis

AB DE VILLIERS HAS ‘ENJOYABLE’ FIRST NET SESSION AHEAD OF IPL

Dubai, Aug 31 (UNI) Swashbuckling Proteas batsman AB de Villiers, who is raring to go ahead of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), had an “enjoyable” first training session with his Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) teammates.de Villiers, along with Dale Steyn and Chris Morris, arrived in the UAE on August 22 and then quarantined himself for six days. After returning three

negative COVID-19 tests, he joined his RCB teammates on the ground during the pre-season camp.

“Picking up from right where they left off months ago, our stars had no problems getting back into the groove as they sweated it out on Day 2 of the pre-season camp,” RCB tweeted a video on Monday of its players sweating it out in the middle.“It was very good and enjoyable to be out there.

The wicket was a bit sticky so it was a great challenge, actually if I could have it my way, I would have wanted my first net session to go like this only after a long time,” de Villiers said in a video.“I kept my basics in place, watched the ball carefully, played some nice shots in the end. It was enjoyable,” he added.The IPL 2020 is slated to be played across three venues in the UAE from September 19 to November 10.

US Open: Djokovic overwhelming favourite,

Serena targets 24th Grand Slam

Washington, Aug 31 (UNI) In a major delight for tennis fans across the globe, the US Open will become the first Grand Slam of the Covid-19 era when it begins on Monday in a spectator-less bubble at the Flushing Meadows, New York.

Novak Djokovic, fresh from his recent Cincinnati Masters title, will be seeking his 18th Grand Slam in a roster that misses Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the first time since the 1999 edition of the tournament.

Austrian second seed Dominic Thiem, third-seeded 2019 US Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev of Russia, Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and German fifth seed Alexander Zverev are also in the fray. Britain's Andy Murray also could pose a threat as he

lurks in Thiem's quarter of the draw.Indian fans too have something to be excited about the tournament.

India's number one singles player Sumit Nagal could face Thiem in the next round if he clears American Bradley Klahn in his opening contest.

Meanwhile, in the women’s field, Serena Williams will be eyeing a 24th Grand Slam which will equal Margaret Court’s all-time record.

World No.1 Naomi Osaka withdrew from the Cincinnati Masters due to a hamstring injury which puts her out of the reckoning in the main draw.World number two Simona Halep is missing along with reigning US Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada and Elina Svitolina, Kiki Bertens and Belinda Bencic.

Barcelona, Aug 31 (UNI) Spanish football league LaLiga has said Lionel Messi cannot leave Barcelona on a free transfer by stating his release clause that will have to be paid if he is to severe ties with the club.

The Messi transfer saga took another step forward last week with the news that he would not go to the club's training ground to take a planned coronavirus test.Messi and the rest of the Barcelona squad, who played in their ill-fated Champions League campaign,

were required to take the tests on Sunday before returning to pre-season training under new coach Ronald Koeman.

The talismanic striker had notified Barcelona that he intends to walk away from the club by exercising a clause in his contract that allows him to leave for free at the end of each season.

LaLiga though bolstered Barcelona's stance, with the club insisting the clause has expired and the only way Messi will be allowed to leave is if his 700m release clause is paid in full.

1)The contract is currently in force and features a release clause to be applied in the event that Lionel Andres Messi should decide to activate the early unilateral termination of the contract, pursuant to Article 16 of the Royal Decree 1006/1985 of 26 June, which regulates the specific labour status of professional athletes.

2)In line with the regulations and procedure that apply in such instances LaLiga shall not proceed with the release required.

Messi can only leave Barcelona if release clause

is paid: LaLiga

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8ENTERTAINMENRT1 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2020

Email : thesouthindiatimes@yahoo.in / (H.O) HyderabadTHE SOUTH INDIA TIMESWHEN AKSHAY KUMAR TRIED

ELEPHANT POOP TEA!

Bollywood superstar Ak-shay Kumar is yet to get over tasting elephant

poop tea, and he has Brit-ish adventurer Bear Grylls to thank for the experience.

Akshay will be seen explor-ing his adventurous side on an upcoming episode of the show "Into The Wild With Bear Grylls".

In a new promo of the episode he shared on Insta-gram on Monday, he tastes elephant poop tea, navigates crocodile-infested waters and runs into the woods along with Grylls.

"I knew there would be stiff challenges prior to #In-toTheWildWithBearGryl ls

but @beargrylls completely surprised me with the el-ephant poop tea. What a day," Akshay captioned the video.The particular epi-

sode was reportedly shot at Karnataka's Bandipur Tiger Reserve."This whole adven-ture, I'll remember for the rest of my life," Akshay can

Actress Alia Bhatt is happy to re-sume shooting

after the long spell of lockdown. The actress shared her excitement in a new boomerang video she posted on Instagram Stories.

In the clip, Alia is seen using a face roller."What day is it? IT. IS. SHOOT. DAY," she wrote with the video, although she did not reveal what she was shooting for.

On the work front, Alia's latest release is "Sadak 2".Released on an OTT platform, "Sa-dak 2" has been facing negative reviews and response.

The fi lm has tackled heavy trolling ever since the fi rst look of the fi lm was launched.

On August 16, it was reported that the fi lm's trailer had emerged the third most disliked video in the world and the most disliked You-Tube video in India.Alia has a couple of other projects on her platter.

LAVANYA THINKING ABOUT NOTHING IN NEW POST

South actress Lavanya Tripathi says she is not thinking about anything in her latest post on social media.Lavanya took to Instagram, where

she posted a picture. In the image, the actress is seen sitting on a chair and is looking away from the camera."Not serious, just thinking about, nothing," she wrote as the caption.

HIMANSH KOHLI'S FAMILY TESTS POSITIVE FOR

CORONAVIRUS

Actor Himansh Kohli said he is the only healthy person in

his house as his parents and sister have tested posi-tive for Covid-19.

"I'm the only healthy person in the house and I have two main responsi-bilities, one of taking care of my family, and second is not joining the Covid infected club.

It is defi nitely not easy managing it, but this is the time when my family needs me the most and I'm fortunate to be here, rather than being in Mumbai and getting paranoid," Hi-mansh said.

He shared that his par-ents and sister are together in one room.

"I stay in a separate room. We have also pro-

vided a separate room and washroom to my househ-elp. None of the infected members are allowed to step out of the room or use any other washroom. Everything is provided at the door. And we are sanitising the house after every two hours," said the "Yaariyaan" actor.

His mom and dad have a few symptoms of Covid-19 whereas sister is asymp-tomatic.

"She's also making sure to help and look after mom and dad in the best pos-sible way," he said.

Meanwhile, the actor is taking care of himself and his family members.

"Even the slightest bit of carelessness can be harmful. But please don't be scared, a sane mind

CBI VISITS SUSHANT'S FLAT AGAIN;

RHEA'S QUESTIONING

CONTINUE

A team from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday once

again visited the fl at of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, while another team continued grilling Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and Sushant's former manager Shruti Modi.

Rhea and Showik arrived at the DRDO guest house where the CBI team is staying for the fourth consecutive day, while Shruti Modi arrived one and a half hours later.

Sushant's fl atmate Siddharth Pithani also arrived at the DRDO guest house for questioning. Sources in the agency said that Rhea is being questioned about her break-up with Sushant, when did she come to know about the death of the actor and how she managed to enter the mortu-ary of Cooper hospital. Rhea is also being questioned about the WhatsApp chats where she was talking about drugs and relations with fi lmmaker Sandeep Ssingh and Shruti Modi. She has been questioned by the CBI for over 25 hours in the last three days. On Friday she was questioned for over 10 hours, seven hours on Saturday and eight hours on Sunday.Following the Supreme Court's order, the CBI arrived in Mumbai after they registered a case on the Centre's orders on August 6 following the complaint by Sushant's father K.K. Singh in a Patna police station on July 25.

TV STAR NIA SHARMA WINS KHATRON KE

KHILADI: MADE IN INDIA

TV star Nia Sharma has won Khatron Ke Khiladi: Made

In India, beating Jasmin Bhasin and Karan Wahi in the fi nal. The contest was a special edition of the reality TV adventure game show and it was launched earlier this month after season 10 of Khatron Ke Khiladi concluded.

The Rohit Shetty-hosted Made In India edition of Khatron Ke Khiladi featured champions of past seasons such as Jay Bhanushali, Rithvik Dhan-jani, Bharti Singh, Haarsh

Limbachiyaa, Aly Goni and Karan Patel. Dhanjani had to quit the contest midway because of commitments.

"Khatron Ke Khiladi: Made In India started off as a fun special edition, but it quickly became my sole agenda to win the sea-son. I gave my all to every stunt that I performed on the show," said Nia, who has earlier contested in Khatron Ke Khiladi season eight. The season wit-nessed the host and action fi lmmaker Rohit Shetty de-sign some incredible stunts for the contestants.

Black Panther star Chad-wick Boseman, whose death last week came

as a shock to many, received a one-minute tribute at MTV Video Music Awards.

"The world needs more su-perheroes," a title card read at the beginning of the segment, reports deadline.com.

The tribute featured a clip of Boseman, who died at 43 after losing his battle to colon cancer, accepting the Best Hero award at the 2018 MTV

Movie And TV Awards.Back in 2018, he used the award cer-emony to put the spotlight on a real life hero."Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing," Boseman said in the clip."But, it's even greater to acknowledge the heroes that we have in real life.

So, I just wanna acknowl-edge somebody that's here today, James Shaw Jr. If you don't know James Shaw Jr., he fought off a gunman in An-tioch, Tennessee, at a Waffl e

House, saved lives. So, this is gonna live at your house, God bless you."The tribute concluded with the message: "Rest in Power."Before the video played, VMA host Keke Palmer said the show would be dedicated to Boseman.

"Before we get into the mu-sic tonight, we need to take the time to talk about the devastating loss of Chadwick Boseman, an actor whose tal-ent and passion were a true inspiration to all the fans he

touched, and everyone he en-countered," Palmer said."

We dedicate this show to a man whose spirit touched so many. He's a true hero – not just on screen, but in every-thing he did. His impact lives forever," she added.Closing the show at the end of the night's last musical perfor-mance, Black Eyed Peas front-man will.i.am shouted out a reference to Boseman's role of Black Panther: "Wakanda forever!

CHADWICK BOSEMAN HONOURED AT MTV VMAS

SARA ALI KHAN REVEALS HER MONDAY

MORNING MOOD

Bollywood actress Sara Ali Khan has shared her Mon-day morning mood, and it

is all about sea and sand.Sara posted a couple of pictures

on Instagram to outline her Mon-day state of mind. In the images, Sara is seen at beach dressed in a white crop top and jeans, with the sea visible in the backdrop.

"Monday Morning Mood", she wrote along with emojis of shells and wave.Sara will soon be seen opposite Varun Dhawan in the remake of the 1995 hit fi lm "Coo-lie No. 1".The new version is di-rected by David Dhawan, who also helmed the original fi lm of the same name, starring Govinda and Karisma Kapoor.The actress also stars with Akshay Kumar and Dhanush in "Atrangi Re".

Actress Suchitra Krish-namoorthi has questioned the role of Mahesh Bhatt in the rela-tionship between late actor Su-shant Singh Rajput and his girl-friend Rhea Chakraborty. She also wanted to know whether

Bhatt has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investi-gation (CBI) yet for question-ing in the ongoing probe. “Has #MaheshBhatt been called in by #CBI for questioning? Why was he so adamant #Rhea

leave #SSR when she did on 8th June?” Suchitra Krishnamoor-thi tweeted from her verifi ed account on Monday evening. Ever since Sushant’s demise in June, Mahesh Bhatt has been targeted by trolls and memes

on social media for allegedly practicing nepotism and also for his closeness to Rhea, who has been charged with abet-ment to suicide in Sushant’s death. Recently, screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation

between Rhea and Mahesh Bhatt were leaked, where Rhea reportedly informed the fi lm-maker on June 8 that she was leaving Sushant’s house. To this Bhatt allegedly replied with texts like, “Dont look back.

Make it possible what is inevi-table” and “My love to your fa-ther. He will be a happy man.” Sushant passed away on June 14. Bhatt, who Rhea has men-tioned as her father fi gure in a television interview last week faced severe trolling on social media after his WhatsApp con-

versation with Rhea got leaked. Ever since Sushant’s demise in June, Mahesh Bhatt has been targeted by trolls and memes on social media for allegedly prac-ticing nepotism and also for his closeness to Rhea, who has been charged with abetment to suicide in Sushant’s death.

Why was Mahesh Bhatt adamant Rhea leave SSR on 8th June: Suchitra Krishnamoorthi

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMESGreater Hyderabad

1 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020 pages-8

LLR KishoRe BaBu who was pRo-moted as the additionaL diRec-toR and given ResponsiBiLity FiLm deveLopment coRpoRation oF teLanganahe wiLL Be the ex-ecutive diRectoR oF Fdc. commis-sioneR oF inFoRmation and puB-Lic ReLations aRvind KumaR has issued oRdeRs in this RegaRd.

nagaiah KamBLe Joint diRectoR oF the inFoRmation and puBLic ReLa-tions, oF teLangana state has Been who was pRomoted as the addi-tionaL diRectoR oF inFoRmation and puBLic ReLations depaRtment

CM KCR grieves Pranab Mukherjee’s demise

Hyderabad Aug 31: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao expressed shock over the sudden demise of former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. He felt that the demise of Pranab Mukher-jee was a great loss and paid tributes to the former Presi-dent in his personal capac-ity and also on behalf of the people of Telangana State.

He also expressed heart-felt condolences to the fam-ily members of the former President. He said the doc-tors made efforts to save Pranab Mukherjee who has been ill for some time now, but in vain. In a statement, the Chief Minister recalled the role of Pranab Mukher-

jee in formation of the Telan-gana State. He reminded that Pranab Mukherjee as a Union Minister led the com-mittee formed by the UPA government for the forma-tion of Telangana State and finally signed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill

as the President of India pav-ing way for the formation of Telangana state.

“He (Pranab Mukherjee) always felt that the demand for Telangana State was just and made many valuable suggestions every time I met him during the (sepa-

rate statehood) movement,” he said. He said the former President visited the Yadadri temple during his visit to Hy-derabad and appreciated the work being done there.

Chandrashekhar Rao also remembered his long associ-ation with the former Presi-

dent who congratulated him upon achieving Telangana State. Pranab Mukherjee ap-preciated Chandrashekhar Rao and stated that it was rare for a leader to start a movement and have the opportunity to fulfill its goals. In his book ‘The Co-alition Years: 1996-2012’, Pranab Mukherjee made a special mention about the Chief Minister as the then separate Telangana move-ment leader. He stated that achieving separate Telan-gana State was the only ambition for Chandrashek-har Rao who was least in-terested in the portfolio offered to him as the Union Minister.

Hyderabad Aug 31: Telan-gana Chief Minister KCR is now busy with the exercise of choosing the MLC candidates under the Governor quota for the Legislative Council. There are three posts and the CM is planning to fill them before September 7, when the Assem-bly sessions begin. He is likely to forward the list to the Gover-nor very soon.

There are four vacancies in the council now. Three of them are governor quota seats, while

the fourth is the local body constituency seat.

The election to the local bod-ies constituency, which was postpoined due to Covid lock-down, is likely to be held in the first week of September. There are many claimants for the re-maining three posts, which are in the Governor’s quota.

While sitting MLC Karne Prabhakar is likely to be re-nominated in all likelihood, there are doubts about wheth-er former home minister Nay-

ini Narasimha Reddy would get a renomination. OSD in CM’s office Desapathi Srinivas, Breweries Corporation former chief Devi Prasad, TRS leader Takkallapalli Ravinder Rao, PV Narasimha Rao’s daugh-ter Vani Devi are among the strong contenders. Names lf leaders like Marri Rajasekhar Reddy, son-in-law of minister Ch Malla Reddy and Srinivas Reddy, son-in-law of Nayini Narasimha Reddy are also do-ing rounds.

Telangana CM KCR Focuses On Vacant MLC Seats In

Legislative Council

Hyderabad: Escaped prisoners yet to be traced

Hyderabad Aug 31: There is no news yet of the four prisoners who escaped from the Covid-19 ward of the Gan-dhi Hospital here last week. Fourteen teams, comprising policemen from the Commissioner’s Task Force, Detective Department and the local police are making efforts to track them down after collecting their details from the crime records maintained by the police. The four – Mohd Abdul Arbaaz, Mohammed Javed, P Narasimha and Soma Sundar – had escaped on August 27 after bending the rods of a window in the toilet. A po-lice team has gone to the neighbouring States as well. “We suspect that they are no longer moving together and have sep-arated fearing they might be caught eas-ily. We are trying to track them down by studying their previous modus operandi adopted to evade arrest after committing crimes,” a police official said, adding that the police were also checking whether the gang committed any new offences af-ter escaping from the hospital as they did not have any money with them. “

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 21 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020

TSIT BUREAU Hyderabad,aug 31:;Sanga Reddy lagisslator Jagga Reedy said that Meet the CM on people’s is-sues and problems solv-ing together if the CM gives an appointment.If the ap-pointment not comes on September 2 himself and his daughter will be sitting in front of Pragati Bhavan. Since my daughter cam-paigned on my behalf in the election. Both of us will go to Pragati Bhavan.loan waiver is two and a half. What is the three acres of land for Dalits he asked He replied to a question for media My daughter Jayareddy has not yet de-cided on contesting in the forth coming dub-baka elections. TRS MLAs are given appointments by the CM once a year. Apart from the problems ...

CM appointment is avail-able only on respective lagis-lators birthdays.He mocked that Unless you are going for a birthday blessing you are not going for the solu-tion of people’s problems Jayareddy daughter of

MLA Jaggareddy said that Her father does not care much about them.when people look to solve their problems .Whose help will come.In the election I asked to vote again in Sangareddy she said that she would solve

the problems. So they came out to fight for the promise given since they have no power..the only question is I did not come out for our work power and also there is no greedy on the power she added

Jagga Reddy and His daughter asked for CM Appointment For sep 2

KCR Misleading the people on 2BHK Houses:Satyam Srirangam

TSIT BUREAU Hyderabad,Auguest31::Telangana

Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) official spokes person Satyam sriran-gam alleged that TRS Government, headed by Chief Minister K. Chan-drashekhar Rao, was misleading the poor people on the issue of promises of giving them double bed room houses. Satyam srirangam said that as against the sanctioned 2,80,616 double bed-room houses in 31 districts, not even 5% houses have been constructed and not even 1% of the houses have been handed over to the beneficiaries. He said a Cabinet Minister has recently issued a statement announcing that as many as 4,358 2BHKs would be ready across 21 locations and handed over to beneficiaries on Dasara. But GHMC Mayor Dr. Bonthu Rammo-han made another statement giving different figures of 2BHKs which are ready to be delivered. He said that the TRS Government should be ashamed of itself for making such false state-ments to mislead the poor people. “As per the Intensive Household Sur-vey conducted by the State Govern-ment in August 2015, there are more

than 22 lakhs BPL families living in rented houses. TRS leaders tricked the people by promising them 2BHKs at free of cost. Before GHMC elections in 2016, the TRS Govt completed 396 units in IDH Colony and used its pic-tures for publicity to cheat the people. Consequently, people voted for TRS in the GHMC elections. TRS and MIM leaders again cheated the poor by col-lecting lakhs of application forms for 2BHKs and dumped them in garbage after the elections. As an eye wash, 2.80 lakh houses, including 1.65 lakh in Hyderabad were sanctioned. How-

ever, not more than 25,000 units are under various stages of construction and might be ready before GHMC elec-tions. Now TRS leaders will use these houses as publicity tools to get votes in next GHMC elections,” he said. Satyam Srirangam demanded that the State Government issue a White Paper on 2BHK houses and specify the sta-tus of over 2.50 lakh 2BHK units which were sanctioned.

Further, it should also explain the status of more than 20 lakh applica-tions it received for 2BHK units. He also pointed out that the State Gov-ernment has only erected long struc-tures with no basic amenities. There are no sewerage lines and STPs at 52 locations. Many units are located in Hyderabad’s outskirts with no proper roads, drinking water sup-ply and other amenities, he alleged. “It is justified to claim 100 percent fulfil-ment of promise by delivering less than 25,000 units as against the sanctioned 2.82 lakhs houses?” he asked, adding that the KCR Government should also explain as to how it proposes to provide housing to remaining 20 lakh families who do not own a house in Hyderabad.

Tsit bureauHyderabad Aug 31: The Telangana Forest Department im-posed a fine of Rs 20,000 on an individual for cutting down an old tree in Himayathnagar area. The residents in the neighbourhood alerted the authorities in the Forest De-partment who imposed the penalty. However, despite the fine, the individual managed to rope in workers to cut down the old tree, which had a huge canopy and provided a lot of shade to the colony residents. A Twitter user Yellamaty Arun took to the social media platform to share disappoint-ment over the development. “An old tree was cut down at Himayathnagar. The workers cut down the tree midnight in spite of being fined by the forest officials. They could have just relocated it,” he said. To bring the development to the attention of authorities, Arun also tagged GHMC, Principal Secretary, MA&UD, Arvind Kumar, Telangana State Forests Development Corporation Limited and urged them to take further action.

Fine of Rs 20,000 fails to save tree in Hyderabad

TSIT BUREAU Chilkanagar Division TRS party president Bannala Praveen Mudiraj on Monday given representation to Waterworks GM John Sharif with various colonies representatives he re-quested water works GM to set up junctions at Maharaja En-clave, Raghavendra Nagar Colony, Srigiri Colony and Sai Ram Nagar Colony and other several colonies for pipe lines which were set up by L&T . GM John Sharif immediately responded and directed AE Satyanarayana to take appropriate action to set up the junction immediately. This program was attended by TRS senior leaders Akiti Bal Reddy and several Colonies Association members.

BANNALA GIVEN REPRESENTATION TO WATER WORKS GM TO RESOLVE WATER RELEASE

PROBLEMS AT VARIOUS COLONIES

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 31 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020

NIZAMABAD DISTRICT COLLECTOR CONDUCTED A REVIEW MEETING WITH HARTICULTURE AND SILK

TSIT BUREAU Nizamabad August 31 ;District Collector C Narayana Reddy conducted a review in his chamber with the District Committee on District Horticulture and Silk Industry Animal Action Plan 20 20-21. On this occasion the Collector said that the Government has approved the Annual Plan under the Motion for Integrated Development Horticulture this year, especially this year 79 hectares. A subsidy of Rs 18 lakh 66 thousand has been sanctioned for investment in orchards in the area followed by a subsidy of Rs 12 lakh per hectare for coriander to be planted in 20 hectares as well as for orchards like last year two year third year maintenance second year 7. 62 hectares. 28 lakh subsidy will be given for 28 hectares under the third year. 20 lakh subsidy will be given for 28 hectares. Five thousand rupees Paul Singh came chatting and a

ha It costs Rs 32,000 per quintal and 50 per cent discount will be Rs 16,000. Subsidy of Rs 3 lakh 20 thousand will be given for making it in 20 years. General Category for Prevention Rs. 12,000 Subsidy SC ST Thinner Smallholders Subsidy Rs. It has also been sanctioned that those who are interested can apply. It will cost Rs 4 crore to build 5,000 metric tonnes of cold storage, of which 35% will

be subsidized and Rs 40 lakh will be subsidized by the government. Additional Collector Chandrasekhar Horticulture and Silk Industries Department Officer Nursing Das PDDRDO Srinivasa Rao District Agriculture Officer Govind SC Corporation Rajeshwari NABARD GM DEO Durgaprasad and others were present on the occasion.

Hyderabad, Aug.31 (UNI): MRPS leader Man-da Krishna Madiga today made it clear that popular Telugu TV anchor Pradeep Maxhiraju has no role in the sensational rape case involving 139 accused.

Addressing media per-sons in the city along with the victim , he said that the victim has included the name of Pradeep in her complaint following pres-sure by one Dollor Babu.

He said that he was re-minded of bandit queen Phulan Devi after listening to the physical exploitation of the rape victim. He also said that he was shocked after hearing about the complaint of the victim that 139 people raped her. He said that the activists of

his Organization had ap-proached the CCS police and added that a woman ACP was investigating the case.

Manda Krishna said that he spoke to the victim for two hours. He made it clear that they would not leave anybody who harass them and added that the police had booked pre-vention of SC ST atroci-ties case. He said that out of the 139 people named

in the FIR, 30 percent had raped her brutally and added that the remaining 30 percent of the accused has harassed her men-tally. He made r clear that 40 percent of the people named by the rape victim in her complaint had no connection with the case.

He alleged that SFI ac-tivist Meesala Suman and Dollar Babu were respon-sible for committing rape on the victims.

Anchor Pradeep Machiraju has no role in rape victim’s case :

Manda Krishna Madiga

BJP objects to crowd gathered at Moharram

rally in old city

Decision on revival of Nethanna ku Cheyutha scheme soon: KTR

Hyderabad Aug 31: BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar has expressed his dismay over the huge crowd that gathered to fulfill their religious obliga-tion on the occasion of Moharram at Dabirpura in Old City, without any consideration to the spread of Covid-19 pan-demic in the City. He called upon Hindus in the State to unite against the TRS government, al-leging that the crowd violated the norms with full blessings from the State government.

In a statement here on Monday, he said that the TRS government which put restrictions on Ga-nesh utsav, Bonalu, Uga-di and Sriramanavami has allowed the huge gathering of a particu-lar community without any restrictions. “Is this the TRS mark secular-ism”, he questioned.

He also demanded ac-tion on those who have organised the rally and said that the spike in Co-vid cases in the State is because of the freedom given to people of a com-munity to roam freely during Ramzan. Won-dering why the govern-ment had no informa-tion about the gathering in Dabirpura.

, he alleged that the government was in hand and glove with the or-ganizers of the religious rally. He also demanded Congress and Commu-nist parties to react to the violations of social distancing norms in the Old City.

Hyderabad Aug 31: Hand-looms and Textiles Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday announced that the State government will soon take a decision on revival of the much-appreciated ‘Nethanna ku Cheyutha’ (thrift scheme), following repeated appeals from the weavers in the State. He said the State government’s decision to relax the mandato-ry lock-in period of three years under the scheme and release of funds gave much needed relief to the weavers during the COVID-19 crisis. Speaking at a review meeting here, the Min-ister said the State government released around Rs 110 crore including Rs 96.43 crore to handloom weavers and Rs 13 crore to powerloom weavers, following the thrift scheme’s closure. He said the scheme benefited about 25,000 weav-ers across the State. The State government had doubled the amount of savings paid by handloom workers under the scheme, while powerloom workers received equal the

amount contributed by them. He assured to consider the requests from the weavers to revive the scheme and a deci-sion in this regard will be taken soon.

Rama Rao also reviewed the progress of Bathukamma Sarees and instructed the of-ficials concerned to complete the production of Bathukam-ma Sarees at the earliest. He wanted them to complete the distribution of the sarees by the second week of October. He asked the Handloom and

Textile department to issue guidelines to be followed by the district authorities during the distribution of Bathukam-ma Sarees.

The Minister observed that there was growing aware-ness about handloom textiles among people who were show-ing interest in using them. Un-der these circumstances, he suggested the officials to focus on the branding of TSCO han-dloom clothes and asked them to come up with an action plan to set up more showrooms in

different places across Hyder-abad city.

Later, the Minister visited the Golconda Handicrafts Showroom at RTC Crossroads. He inspected the handicraft works and inquired about re-sponse from the people for the products on display. He also interacted with the artisans at the Common Facility Cen-tre on the premises. Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Han-dlooms and Textiles Director Shailaja Ramaiyer and other officials accompanied him.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 41 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020

LeT module busted in J&K, 3 arrested

Srinagar, Aug 31 (UNI) The Jammu and Kashmir police and army have busted an LeT terror module in the Reasi district of J&K on Monday and arrested three terrorist associates, police said.

According to a police statement on Monday district police Reasi and Army Rashtriya Rifles unit from Mahore with active support from army intelligence have busted a major LeT revival plan in Mahore area of Reasi District and arrested three persons who were in contact with Pakistani handler belonging to the LeT Mohd Qasim, a resident of Mahore who had exfiltrated to PoK in 2002.

“On 05-08-2020, an information was received through reliable sources at Police Station Mahore that some unknown persons (anti national elements) in the area are in touch with LeT terrorists based in Pakistan to revive the LeT in Mahore with the intention to wage a war against the country and to disturb the sovereignty and integrity of India,” police said. Police said based on this information an FIR was registered on August 5 in police station Mahore and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to investigate the case. “During the course of investigation, with the help of technical data analysis support from Army RR and intelligence units working in Mahore area and interrogation of suspects by the SIT it has emerged that Mohd Qasim who exfiltrated to PoK in the year 2002.

T’gana’s daily Covid count slumps with fall in number of tests

Hyderabad, Aug 31 (UNI) The daily count of Covid-19 cases in Telangana declined to 1,873 on Monday with the slump in the number of tests while nine fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 827. The state’s tally of cases mounted to 1,24,963, out of which 31,299 are active cases.

The state had reported 2,924 cases the previous day while 61,148 samples were tested. After conducting nearly 62,000 tests every day for the last seven days, the health authorities brought down the number to 37,791 during the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. Sunday. According to a media bulletin issued from the office of the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, 17,006 primary contacts and 5,290 secondary contacts were tested. The results of 800 samples are awaited.

The total number of tests conducted so far rose to 13,65,582. Over 4.30 lakh of these samples were tested during the last seven days till Saturday. A total of 17 government and 35 private laboratories are conducting these tests while the state has 1,076 rapid antigen tests centres. Unlike some other states, the authorities in Telangana have not been

providing breakup of the type of tests conducted.

The officials claimed that with 36,782 samples tested per million population, the number of tests conducted in the state is much higher than the daily testing target of 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day. Out of total 1,24,963 positive cases detected so far, 69 per cent are asymptomatic while the rest are symptomatic. he health officials said the case fatality rate of the state is low at 0.66 per cent against the national average of 1.78 per cent. Out of the total fatalities, 53.87 per cent had comorbidities. Of the fresh cases recorded in the state, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for 360.

Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri districts abutting GHMC reported 129 and 41 cases respectively. Sangareddy, another district bordering the state capital, recorded 37 new cases. With 180 cases, Karimnagar emerged as the second with the highest number of fresh infections after Greater Hyderabad. This is the first time that a district other than Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri reported the second highest number. Khammam reported 103 new cases. Five districts, which had reported over 100 new cases each previous day, saw the numbers dropping to below 100 each. Warangal Urban and Nizamabad reported 94 cases each. The numbers in Siddipet district surged by 85 while Nalgonda saw 79

new cases. During the last 24 hours, 1,849 people recovered from Covid-19, taking the total number of recoveries to 92,837. The state’s recovery rate stands at 73.3 per cent against the national average of 76.55 per cent.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 31,299 including 24,216 in home/institutional isolation. Age wise Covid positive details show that 65.3 per cent of those tested positive were in the age group of 21-50 years. Terming this as a susceptible age group, authorities have urged them not to go out unless absolutely necessary. They were advised to strictly exercise precautions like wearing face masks and maintain physical distancing. Among Covid positive cases, 24.71 per cent are above 51 years of age. About 10 per cent were aged below 20 years. Officials said 64.41 per cent of those tested positive were male, while the remaining 35.59 per cent were female. According to the media bulletin, out of 20,396 beds under the government, 17,691 beds are vacant including 1,512 ICU beds and 4,584 oxygen beds. A total of 172 private hospitals treating Covid in the state have 9,200 beds, out of which 4,822 are vacant.

TSIT Hyderabad bureau (31 auguST) On THe demISe Of fOrmer PreSIdenT Of IndIa, Legendary COngreSS Leader bHaraTraTna

Pranab mukHerjee, TeLangana STaTe yOuTH COngreSS SPOkeSPerSOn S.P.kranTHI kumar exPreSSed HIS COndOLenCeS

and SaId THaT Our naTIOn Had LOST a greaT Leader and a wOnderfuL STaTeSman.

On THIS OCCaSIOn He reCOLLeCTed meeTIng Pranab mukHerjee In deCember 2019 aT HIS new deLHI reSIdenCe.

Hyderabad Aug 30: The Sarojini Damodaran Foundation (SDF), founded by Kumari Shibulal and SD Shibulal, the co-founder of Infosys, has invited applications for its Vidyadhan scholarship programme from students belonging to economically backward families with an annual income below Rs 2 lakh. Students must have passed Class 10 in 2020 with 90 per cent or CGPA of 9.0. Students

with disabilities having a pass percentage of 75 per cent or a CGPA of 7.5 are also eligible. Selected students will be eligible for a scholarship amount of Rs 6,000 per year for Intermediate and if they continue to do well, they will be given scholarship between Rs 10,000 and Rs 60,000 per year to pursue any degree course of their interest. Those eligible can apply online (www.vidyadhan.org) till September 30.

Scholarships for economically backward students

Hyderabad, Aug.31 (UNI): Telangana Assembly session of Monsoon is likely to be held for 20 days from September 7 by following Corona protocols and pass a few key bills.

This was informed by Council Chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy in an informal chat with media persons here. The opposition parties are making charges on Srisailam power plant incident of a conspiracy and human error he said. Seating arrangements are being made as per Covid

-19 norms and eight more seats will be provided in the council hall he said. As per corona protocols, wearing masks, thermal screening, sanitising will be provided in the Assembly and the council during session.

Sukhender Reddy stated that Business Advisory Committee (BAC) will decide on the number of Assembly session. As per Chief Minister K Chandra sekhar Rao the arrangements are being made for the session to pass a few bills including new revenue act, and others he said. The session will pass a resolution urging the Centre according Bharat Rather award on former prime minister P V Narsimha Rao. The chairman alleged the opposition remarks on Srisailam power plant incident. An inquiry

on Srisailam power plant incident is going to reveal the lapses, causes and whether it is human error he said. Srisailam project is lifeline for Telangana and power works will resume as planned. As the congress leaders myself and Jana Reddy have opposed RDS. Now the Congress party leaders are playing double standards on Pothireddipadu he charged.

He took exception that AP government plan of Rayalsaeema lift and other are illegal as it causes loss to our state.

BAC decides Assembly session, opposition dual standards: Gutha

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 51 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020

Cong. blames Etala, Huzurabad Hospital Supt, local police for BC employee’s death

Hyderabad, Aug.31 (UNI): The Congress party on Monday demanded that the Telangana Government take action against Huzurabad Hospital Superintendent Praveen Reddy, Circle Inspector Madhavi and Assistant Commissioner of Police Srinivas Rao who allegedly harassed a BC employee, mentally and physically, which consequently resulted in his untimely death due to undue pressure. It also blamed Health Minister Eatala Rajender for the death as he took no action to stop the harassment despite being aware of the entire story.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Working President Ponnam Prabhakar, along with Huzurabad Incharge Kaushik Reddy, Adi Srinivas, Medipally Satyam, Bomma Sriram and other leaders, said that the Praveen Yadav, a data entry operator, was subjected to harassment by the Hospital Superintendent when he refused to fudge data to show births through cesarean operations as natural births. Kaushik expressed his sorrow over inaction by the State Government against Hospital Superintendent Praveen Reddy who allegedly abetted and harassed the

data entry operator Praveen Yadav of the same hospital even after several representations. He said that even Health Minister Etala Rajender did not support the victim when he (Praveen Yadav) was being beaten up by the police based on a false complaint lodged by Superintendent Praveen Reddy. Explaining the details of the ordeal, Reddy said that Praveen Yadav declined to budge when the Superintendent forced him to enter the false data of natural births taking place in Huzurabad Hospital. He further said that Praveen Reddy forced the deceased operator to enter C-section births as natural birth but Yadav sought written instructions. Furious over this, Praveen Reddy lodged a false complaint against Praveen Yadav and the local Circle Inspector Madhavi and Assistant Commissioner of Police Srinivas Rao beat him black and blue. Praveen Yadav’s parents rushed to the Health Minister and requested him to interfere but to no avail. Etala

Rajender reportedly said that the police would do their duty and he could not interfere. He questioned as to why doctors are silent over this apparent abuse of power by a doctor and why the health minister failed to protect his own party worker from police brutality. He said that this was the matter of severe grief for him on humanitarian grounds. The Congress leader said that when the erstwhile TRS worker Praveen Yadav came to know that his own party leaders or even minister did not come to his rescue, he died due to undue pressure on August 25. He said that doctors and TRS leaders need to look into this matter humanely and do justice for Praveen Yadav’s family.

Kaushik said that Minister Etala Rajender was a public leader, emerged from the Telangana movement, but failed to protect his own party man. The Congress leader demanded that Hospital Superintendent Praveen Reddy, local Circle Inspector and ACP should be immediately suspended and a high level probe should be ordered into the incident.

He also demanded that Eatala Rajender resign from his post as he failed to harassment of an employee of his own department (Health) in his own constituency (Huzurabad).

Hyderabad, Aug 31 (UNI) Telangana police have booked former Andhra Pradesh minister G. Mohan Reddy for threatening canal construction workers with his licensed revolver.

The incident occurred on Sunday evening in Urumadla village of Chityala mandal in Nalgonda district when the workers were digging an irrigation canal through his field.

According to police, Mohan Reddy during an argument with the site engineer and JCB operator, whipped out his revolver and ordered them to leave.

The video of the former minister threatening the workers went viral on social media. On a complaint by the site engineer Narender, police registered a case against Reddy under the Arms Act. Police arrested Mohan Reddy but later released him on a

personal bond. They also seized the weapon and 25 bullets. He was directed to appear before police again on Monday. “Mohan Reddy obstructed the canal digging work and wanted the site engineer to change the alignment of the canal so that it does not cut across his field,” said Chityala Circle Inspector of Police Shankar Reddy. Officials said Mohan Reddy’s land was acquired for construction of the irrigation canal and the compensation amount for the same was credited to his bank account. He, however, raised objections when digging work was taken up on Sunday and threatened the workers.

Mohan Reddy was elected to undivided Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1978 and 1983 and served as agriculture minister in Nadendla Bhaskar Rao’s cabinet for a month.

Ex Andhra minister threatens construction workers with revolver

Hyderabad, Aug.31 (UNI): Congress party leaders and MP A.Revanth Reddy today urged the prime minister of the country Narendra Modi to order a CBI probe into the tragic fire accident at Srisailam powerhouse recently to bring out the actual reasons behind the accident besides the inquiry by Central Electricity Authority(CEA) . The fire mishap has claimed the lives of nine people. He wrote a letter to the PM on the issue. In his letter, he told the

MP that there was a criminal angle into the incident. He said that the accident had led

to the loss of crores of rupees public property. He told the PM that the fire accident at the

Revanth Reddy urges PM Modi order CBI inquiry into Srisailam

power house fire mishapplant would benefit some people. Reddy said that CBI inquiry into the issue would alone bring the facts to fore. Targeting the current CMD of TS Genco and Transco he said that the two Organisations were incurring losses due to the presence of Rao. He also urged the PM to order inquiry into the tenders finalised and power purchase a g r e e m e n t s executed during the period of Rao.

First-ever Digital India Couture Week

New Delhi, Aug 31 : In keeping with the new reality, the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) has taken prompt and necessary measures for a robust digital transformation. It announced its first ever digital edition of the India Couture Week 2020 (ICW) from September 18 to 23.

The event which takes place in August annually has been moved to September due to the impact of Covid-19 and will give opportunity to designers to reach savvy audiences, and explore interesting ways of showing collections ahead of the festive season "The FDCI has been a frontrunner in establishing a fresh template, in tandem with the changing times. Couture has all the elements of fantasy, and as screens take over our lives, we hope to recreate the magic of this genre, with pure creativity..." said FDCI Chairman Sunil Sethi. Designers who will be part of the 6 day extravaganza includes couturiers Amit Aggarwal, Anju Modi, Dolly J, Falguni Shane Peacock, Gaurav Gupta, JJ Valaya, Kunal Rawal, Manish Malhotra, Rahul Mishra, Reynu Taandon, Shantanu & Nikhil and Suneet Varma.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 61 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) A product of the Belgaum Mili-tary School, he has a postgradu-ate degree in English from Delhi University, an MBA from Cross University in New South Wales and also an M.Phil in defence and strategic studies.

Ashok Lavasa briefly taught at his alma mater and served as a probationary officer in the State Bank of India before clearing the civil services examination and being inducted into the Indian Administrative Service in 1980, rising to Secretary in the minis-tries of Environment, Civil Avia-tion and Finance and finally as a member of the Election Commis-sion, from where he resigned ear-lier this month to head for Ma-nila's Asian Development Bank as one of its Vice Presidents.

Now, prepare yourself to view Lavasa in a hitherto unrevealed avatar as the author of two eclec-tic books.

The first book, titled "An Or-dinary Life: Portrait of an Indian Generation", is built around the life of Lavasa's father, Udai Singh, or Bauji, and of the India

of his time and generation. It is also an exploration of the values and principles he stood for and which have served as a moral compass to Lavasa in his own personal and public life.

In the second book, "Man-nat", co-written with his wife Novel and brought to life by pho-tographs taken by the couple, Lavasa tells the stories of shrines and places of worship in India

that test human strength and stamina, and to which believers ascribe the power of granting their wishes.

Both books are to be published by HarperCollins.

"There are many whose lives don't seem extraordinary be-cause they are not popular," Lav-asa writes in "An Ordinary Life".

"Their stories are not heard be-cause they haven't been written

about. But these stories repre-sent an era, an entire generation. Every generation will need these stories when it has exhausted its amoral quest of pure materialism or reached the apotheosis of its permissiveness and compromis-es. These ordinary lives may not be well known or heroic in popu-lar perception.

"They may not be icons, recog-nized and idolized. But their life inspires because it is a vindica-tion of certain lasting values that survive in every society. Such lives provide hope and keep us connected with the unseen forc-es that govern us," Lavasa writes.

Through a series of real-life incidents, the book explores the role of morality and honesty in life. "It is possible to prosper in the world, especially in a devel-oping country where there is a revolution of rising aspirations and cut-throat competition, and yet preserve one's principles," Lavasa writes, adding: "Paying the price for adhering to those principles might seem painful but it is inescapable, it is joyous, and it is the axis around which

the world moves. Honesty and truth are not merely ideals that remain elusive. They form the survival kit of many."

In the second book, Lavasa asks whether faith is born out of religion or whether it comes from a sense of harmony with the ele-ments - and proceeds to provide the answer.

"The book weaves a nature-faith-culture story of human bond and bondage. These are pictures of places that unite even as they preserve identities. Be-neath the symbols and beyond them, runs a thread - 'dhaga prem ka', as Rahim called it (in his 'Dohe'). If it is intact, we are one; if not, we get tied into knots that society could do without," he writes. It is always interest-ing to know more about the per-sona behind those in public life, HarperCollins India Publisher Krishan Chopra said, adding the two books present Lavasa, "in his own words, writing about some old-fashioned virtues that he was brought up to believe in, and the difficulties of the straight and narrow path".

2 books to present Ashok Lavasa's hitherto unknown avatar

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said that it has arrested suspended AAP leader Tahir Hussain in a money laundering case in re-lation to the northeast Delhi riots in February this year.

An ED official said that the agency arrested Hussain un-der the provisions of the Pre-vention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) and has also

got six days custodial remand from a Delhi Court.

Earlier in the day, he was brought to the ED headquar-ters for questioning, where he is being questioned about funding for the Delhi riots and the hawala operators with whom he was in touch.

The official added that he is also being questioned about his relations with Tablighi Ja-maat chief Maulana Saad.

The ED official said that Hussain has been arrested by the agency for his role in money laundering and fund-ing of anti-CAA protests and organizing riots in northeast Delhi in February.

The official said that the case is based on multiple FIRs registered by the Crime Branch and Dayalpur Police Station, Delhi Police under several sections of the IPC, which are scheduled offences under the PMLA.The official said that during the probe it was found that companies owned or controlled by Hus-sain and his relatives trans-ferred huge amounts of mon-ey to dubious entities which was returned by them in cash.

"The cash received by Hus-sain was used to fuel the anti-CAA protests and Delhi riots. Probe also revealed involve-ment of Hussain and his com-panies in illegal laundering of money in the past too," the of-ficial said.

The ED said that searches at his and his family mem-bers' residential and business premises in Delhi .

Delhi riots: ED arrests Tahir Hussain

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) The Con-gress on Monday attacked the Central Government soon after the coun-try's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plunged to (-) 23.9 per cent during the first quarter of Financial year 2020-21 saying the "fake narrative" has been exploded.

Addressing a virtual press confer-ence, former Finance Minister P. Chi-dambaram said, "The CSO has released the provisional estimates of GDP for the quarter April-June 2020. And the GDP in the first quarter has declined by a whopping 23.9 per cent." "It means, about one quarter of the gross domes-tic output as on June 30 has been wiped out in the last 12 months. Another way of looking at it is, since the end of 2019-20, the gross domestic output has fallen by about 20 per cent," he said.

Taking a swipe at the government, Chidambaram said, "The Finance Min-ister who blamed an 'Act of God' for the economic decline should be grateful to the farmers and the gods who blessed the farmers. As the only sectors that have grown at 3.4 per cent are Agricul-ture, Forestry and Fishery."

His remarks came after the CSO said that the country's GDP plunged to (-)

23.9 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) ended June 2020-21.

Chidambaram further said that ev-ery other sector of the economy has declined sharply, some precipitously. Lamenting at the government, he said that the estimates do not come as a "surprise" to us.

"They should be a matter of surprise to the government that was seeing green shoots on several days during the first quarter. They should also be a matter of shame to the government that did nothing -- literally nothing -- to cushion the fall by taking suitable fiscal and welfare measures, but we know that the Modi government has no shame and will not acknowledge its mistakes," the Congress leader said.

He also pointed out that the eco-nomic tragedy was foretold by many close observers of the Indian economy, most recently by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its Annual Report re-leased a few days ago.

Chidambaram said, "All these had been anticipated, we had warned the government and we had urged the government to take preventive and pre-emptive measures." The Congress leader said that our pleas fell .

Congress slams Modi government on GDP contraction

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 71 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) The Delhi High Court will on Tuesday hear a fresh appeal filed by fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi challenging an earlier order that dismissed his plea seeking postponement of the re-lease of Netflix's upcoming web series 'Bad Boy Billionaires: India'.

The appeal filed through advocates Vijay Aggarwal and Mudit Jain is listed for hear-ing before a division bench of the high court presided by Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Jus-tice Prateek Jalan.

A single-judge bench of the high court presided by Justice Navin Chawla last Fri-day turned down a petition filed by Choksi against Netflix's upcoming show 'Bad Boy

Billionaires: India' seeking postponement of its release date.

The bench while dismissing the petition granted liberty to Choksi to seek appropri-ate legal remedy. "The remedy of the peti-tioner would be in a civil suit as what is be-ing alleged by the petitioner is infringement of his private right. In view of the abuse sub-missions, the present petition is dismissed leaving it open to the petitioner to seek ap-propriate legal remedy," the judge said.

Choksi in his plea had sought the court's direction to the OTT platform to not release the episode/portion of the documentary 'Bad Boy Billionaires" India' insofar as it re-lates to Choksi or is prejudicial to his rights

or mentions him during the pendency of in-vestigations and/or trials against him.

Choksi in his petition stated that he be-came aware of the documentary's immi-nent release on August 24 when he saw the trailer and started receiving phone calls from various persons across the world, in-cluding from Delhi, asking him whether he was part of the documentary and to solicit his comments on the same.

"Thereafter, the petitioner discovered that one of the persons seen speaking in the trailer was one Mr Pavan C. Lall who had written a book titled 'Flawed: The Rise and Fall of India's Diamond Mogul Nirav Modi' where also the petitioner's name had been

comingled with Nirav Modi's," said the plea.The plea states that with the release of this

documentary there is a real and substantial threat of prejudice to the fairness of the trial and to the rights of the petitioner (Choksi) under Articles 21. "A trial by media is always detrimental to the case of the petitioner and is totally contrary to the trite rule that an ac-cused person is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law," the plea read.

Choksi further stated that the release of the documentary would severely impact his reputation as well as create a wide-spread perception of guilt notwithstand-ing the fact that no competent court has found him guilty.

New Delhi, Aug 31 ( life) ‘Masaan’ ac-tress Shweta Tripathi Sharma says that per-forming arts will always exist. “I know we aren’t labelled as essential services but no matter what you do, you will always need entertainment,” she told life in an inter-view.

Shweta, 35, has acted in “Timeloss”, a digital play produced by Akvarious Produc-tions which premiered with Front & Cen-tre, Paytm Insider’s theatre initiative, on August 29. Adapted and directed by Akarsh Khurana, “Timeloss” was originally written by the celebrated Iranian playwright Amir Reza Koohestani. The story highlights the complexities of lost time through the past and present lives of two actors as they re-examine their relationship while revisiting a past production. The play’s cast includes Chaitnya Sharma, Dilshad Edibam Khura-na, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, and Siddharth Kumar.

Q: On her engagement with theatre and acting

A: My parents and sister were always cul-turally inclined. Since I can remember, we used to watch Prithvi Theatre Festival plays, visit Kamani auditorium in Delhi regularly, and watch Hema Malini’s dance recitals. My dad’s an IAS officer and mom’s a teacher, now both retired, and they believed that you get what knowledge you can from books but your personality develops through the arts. So ever since I was a child, I was encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities and I enjoyed being on stage. The support you get from your family and the life les-sons they teach you are equally important as your craft and skills. How this has helped me through the years is that stage fright isn’t a feeling I’ve had. There are butterflies and excitement but never fear and theatre has helped me with that.

only started acting professionally on stage

once I moved to Bombay (Mumbai). One thing that I am very grateful for is Thespo, a youth theatre festival, that introduced me to the theatre circuit in Bombay. Back then whenever I imagined telling a story, it was always on stage. My closest friends are from theatre, I met my husband through theatre, so it’s given me a lot. I’ve also learnt a lot from theatre workshops at Adishakti The-atre, Pondicherry and the Intensive Drama Programme by Theatre Professionals.

Q: On her experience with ‘Timeloss’A: Akarsh Khurana reached out to my hus-

band, Chaitnya Sharma, and I to act in his

new digital theatre production of Timeloss. We’ve known him, loved him and worked with him for many years so we were very excited by this new prospect of working together. The production tells the story of two actors who used to be a couple and had shot a short film together who are required to come together ten years later to revisit it. Chaitnya and I play the younger couple in the short film, while Siddharth Kumar and Dilshad Edibam Khurana play our characters ten years on. So our part was actually shot like a short in-die film that is set in a house. We worked on our scripts and then met for rehearsal one day prior to our shoot. And then spent an entire day shooting our scenes. The shoot was just us, the directors, DOP and producer in an apartment so we managed to get the work done while being safe. The other part of the play is per-haps more challenging as

it was shot individually by Siddharth and Dilshad and therefore required far more re-hearsal and technical coordination.

Q: On how she gets ‘into the character’A: What’s different about the stage from

the camera is that you get a lot of rehearsal in theatre. We rehearse until we not only understand our characters and lines but also our presence in the play and with the other characters. That’s not the case when we work on camera. Every character has a different journey and every actor has a dif-ferent process. So for stage, understanding the script is always very important to me -

the where, what, who, why of my character. Two other things that are important to me are - I always try to find the fragrance of my character, and I make a music playlist that my character would listen to.

Q: On the theatre community during these unprecedented times and the post-COVID recovery

A: I think performing arts will always exist. I know we aren’t labelled as essential servic-es but no matter what you do, you will al-ways need entertainment. We are here and we love doing this. So I am hoping that, even though theatre has been hit due to the pan-demic, we will find a way to continue. When it is safe for people to assemble in theatres, we will be back. But until then, we are lucky to have been enabled by the web space to create new content and put ourselves out there. Platforms like Paytm Insider, where Timeloss will be streamed, have allowed us to create and experiment with this new me-dium.

Q: On lockdown and her upcoming plans.A: The lockdown period has been a spiri-

tual journey for me. I have realised the kind of work I want to do and that it would take time to do it. It’s good to be choosy and also every time you play a new character the journey is emotional as well as physical. So I think it’s important to pick where you give your energy. I am very grateful and feel blessed for the kind of projects I have been doing. ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ just released on Net-flix and there is ‘The Gone Game’ that re-leased on Voot last week. ‘Cargo’, a science fiction film with Vikrant Massey, directed by Aarti Kadav, will release on 9 September and of course ‘Mirzapur’ Season 2 will be out on 23 October. I also have look tests coming up for a new show that I can’t talk about. So there is work happening and I hope that I am always here entertaining everybody, be-cause I love doing that.

'Bad Boy Billionaires': Choksi again knocks HC's door over web series

Shweta Tripathi: Entertainment not tagged ‘essential services’, but needed always

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 81 Tuesday, sepTember, 2020

Hyderabad Aug 31: The High Court bench consisting of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Vijayas-ena Reddy on Monday advised AICC Secretary Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy to move Supreme Court on the issue of proposed Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme of Andhra Pradesh. The AICC secretary filed a writ peti-tion on July 25 pleading that the proposed irrigation scheme by the neighbouring State will hurt his interest as a farmer holding five acres of land in the erst-while Mahabubnagar district.

The Bench which has tak-en the petition for hearing on Monday said that the issue is

under the purview of interstate water dispute and can’t be re-viewed by the State High Court and opined that it has to be dealt by the Apex court. The pe-

titioner’s council sought time to consult with the petitioners on moving Supreme Court and the Court has posted further hear-ing of the petition to Tuesday.

The petitioner urged the High Court to scrap the ten-ders called for the project by AP government on July 15, as per the provisions of the bi-furcation Act. The Congress leader in his petition said that the tenders called for the project which are above Kalwakurthy Lift, Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift, Srisailam

Left bank canal, Alimineti Madhava Reddy project and Nagarjuna Sagar project was detrimental to Telangana’s interests. The petitioner urged the Court to scrap the project also urged it to direct the Telangana government to complete the Palamuru-Rangareddy and Kalwakurty projects within an year.

Telangana HC asks Congress to move SC over AP Rayalaseema Lift Scheme

THe benCH wHICH HaS Taken THe PeTITIOn fOr HearIng On mOnday SaId THaT THe ISSue IS under THe PurvIew Of

InTerSTaTe waTer dISPuTe and Can’T be revIewed by THe STaTe HIgH COurT.

Sale of smuggled cigarettes on rise in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Notwith-standing the crackdown by the police, the sale of smuggled foreign cigarettes continues in Hyderabad with pan shops finding a way to acquire the contra-band and stock it. The law enforcement agencies in the city and neighbouring Commissionerates have been regularly raiding and seizing huge quantities of these cigarettes but the ac-tions apparently have failed to deter the illegal sale of foreign cigarettes.

Cigarettes of various brands like Wins, Par-is, Gold Queen, Flame, Djarum Black and Gudang Garam are smuggled into the country by non-decla-ration and concealment. The cigarettes are usually smuggled into the country through sea ports and air from Hong Kong, Dubai, South Korea and Kuala Lumpur, according to the officials. Later the con-signment is transported to different cities across the country. Traditionally, the markets of Siddiam-ber Bazaar, Begum Bazaar

and Monda Market have been the wholesale hubs of illegal foreign cigarettes. “There is a demand for the international brands of cigarettes in the city. Sec-ondly the profits are high so the traders take risks and bring it into the city,” said P Radha Kishan Rao, DCP Task Force.

Such cigarette brands do not carry warnings or have any minimal cautionary messages, which are man-datory under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Prod-ucts (Packaging and La-belling) Rules, 2006. Apart from evading customs duty, the smuggling of ciga-

rettes also poses a threat to the anti-tobacco initiative taken up by both the Centre and the State governments.

The main intention be-hind the smuggling of ciga-rettes from other countries is to avoid paying GST and other taxes thereby avoid-ing government revenue. Cautions have been made several times on the tobac-co content in these ciga-rettes being high which has an adverse effect on health too. However, after the lockdown restrictions were lifted, the cigarettes again found their way to the pan shops in the city. Neverthe-less, the police say they are

keeping a watch on the big traders to prevent the dis-tribution of the contraband to local traders.

“In last one month we busted two major rackets being run from Shahinay-athgunj in the city. The smuggling activity for time being has come down, however, as it is a lucrative business the smugglers try to find new ways to bring it in the city. No doubt our teams put in all efforts and try to prevent it,” said the official. The city police busted two rackets and seized property worth Rs 1.03 crore and Rs 16 lakh recently.

Hyderabad Aug 31: Union Minister for Educa-tion Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal on Monday launched a mobile application, ‘Eng-lish Pro’, developed by the Hyderabad-based English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU). The app, launched at a virtual meet, has been developed under University Social Respon-sibility (USR), a first-of-its kind initiative by any uni-versity in the country. It aims at helping learners develop Indian English pro-nunciation in the unique ‘Bharatiya’ way, according to a press release.

The Union Minister was joined by Sanjay Shamrao

Dhotre, Minister of State for Education, Prof E Suresh Kumar, Vice-Chancellor and a Member of University Grants Commission (UGC).

Pokhriyal said the mo-bile app was a useful digi-tal tool and an educational resource for teachers, stu-dents and for people from varied backgrounds.

Dhotre lauded the USR initiative and called the mobile application a useful platform and a dependable educational resource. Prof Suresh Kumar said the ap-plication was the first in its series and more advanced versions will be evolved to address the larger learner-needs.

Hyderabad: EFLU app ‘English Pro’ launched