c m y k c m y k

COUNTER POINT

Max: 34.4OCMin: 18OC RH: 72%Rainfall: Nil

Forecast: Cloudy sky.Misty morning. Max/Min

temp. 34/19ºC

WEATHER

ASTROGUIDESarvari; Uttarayana

Tithi: Magha ShuddhaChaturdasi till 3.44 pm

Star: Ashlesha till 12.30 pmVarjyam: 11.52 pm to 1.23 am

(Saturday)Durmuhurtam: 9 am to 9.46 am;

12.52 pm to 1.39 pmRahukalam: 10.30 am to 12 noon

HIJRI CALENDARRajab 13,1442 AH

PRAYERSFajar: 5.37 am

Zohar: 12.39 pmAsar: 4.43 pm

Maghrib: 6.27 pmIsha: 7.35 pm

SUNSET TODAY 6.21 PMSUNRISE TOMORROW 6.36 AM

MOONRISE TODAY 4.32 PMMOONSET TODAY 5.03 AM

Washington: US PresidentJoe Biden revoked a pol-

icy issued by his prede-cessor during the pan-

demic that blocked manyGreen Card applicantsfrom entering the US.

Indian IT professionals inthe US on the H-1B work

visas, sufferered themost due to immigrationsystem which imposed aseven per cent per coun-try quota on allotment ofthe coveted Green Card.

■ Report on Page 13

FASTags on TShighways too

Hyderabad: FASTags areset to be made mandato-ry on TS highways. As ofnow, they are mandatory

only on national high-ways. However, FASTags

are in force since March2019 on the Hyderabad

Outer Ring Road. TheTelangana government

has initiated steps tomake FASTags mandato-

ry on state highwaysfrom March. TS plans to

initially make them com-pulsory on the Rajiv

Rahadari.

■ Report on Page 6

Vol. 84 No. 56 Established 1938 | 24 PAGES | `6.00deccanchronicle.com, facebook.com/deccannews, twitter.com/deccanchronicle

TABLOIDSPORTS|15Dads cherish bonding time

Prithvi slams record227 in one-dayer

Modi slams Rahul’s‘north-south’ remarks

NATION|9

SHORT TAKES

Green Card curbslifted by Biden

■ CITY... PAGE 2Covid mutations spread,

causes concern■ CITY... PAGE 4

Owaisi criticises Didi forsingling out MIM

INSIDE

Short & Sweet

Indian captain Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant and R. Ashwin celebrate the wicket of England’s Jack Leach on the second day of thethird cricket Test match against England at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabadon Thursday. India registered their second Test win inside two days overhauling ameagre target of 49 against England to take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series on Thursday. Spin duo Axar Patel and Ashwin swung the match inIndia’s favour. England’s previous Test loss inside two days came way back in 1921against Australia. ■ Reports on Page 15 — PTI

Nirav can be extradited

India, Pak militaries agreeto observe strict ceasefire

MOODY’S SEES13.7% GROWTHIN NEXT FISCALNew Delhi, Feb. 25:Moody’s on Thursdayupped India’s growthprojection for the nextfinancial year fromApril 1, to 13.7 per cent,from 10.8 per cent esti-mated earlier, on theback of normalisationof activity and growingconfidence in the mar-ket with the rollout ofCovid vaccine.

For current fiscal, theUS-based rating agencyexpects the economy tocontract 7 per cent, low-er than its previous esti-mate of 10.6 per centcontraction.

Moody’s InvestorsService associate man-aging director (Sover-eign Risk) Gene Fangsaid, “We expect arebound of 13.7 per centgrowth in the next fiscalon normalisation ofactivity and baseeffects.”

The large reboundincorporates the viewthat recovery in activi-ty will continue, withthe rollout of vaccinesand growing confidencein the market that activ-ities are coming back tonormal, Fang said in anonline conference onIndia Credit Outlook2021.

— PTI

PAWAN BALI and SRIDHARKUMARASWAMI | DCNEW DELHI, FEB. 25

The Indian and Pakistanarmies on Thursdayannounced that they wouldstrictly observe a ceasefirealong the Line of Control(LoC) and all other sectorsfrom February 24 midnightin a major de-escalatorymove.

The announcement comesafter 2020 had seen a 18-year record high of 5,133truce violations at the LoCand the international bor-der with Pakistan inJammu and Kashmir. Incontrast, there were 3,479

such violations in 2019 and2,140 in 2018. The tensionsat the LoC had risen afterthe terror attack on CRPFconvoy in Pulwama inFebruary 2019, and therevoking of Article 370 inJammu and Kashmir inAugust 2019. There havebeen nearly 600 violationsin first two months of 2021.

India’s director-general ofmilitary operations(DGMO), Lt. Gen. ParamjitSingh Sangha, and hisPakistani counterpart, Maj.Gen. Nauman Zakaria, helddiscussions over the hot-line, and the two sidesreviewed the situationalong the LoC and all other

sectors in a “free, frank andcordial atmosphere”. Ajoint statement issued byboth armies read: “In theinterest of achieving mutu-ally beneficial and sustain-able peace along the bor-ders, the two DGMOsagreed to address eachother’s core issues and con-cerns which have thepropensity to disturb peaceand lead to violence.” Itsaid both sides agreed tothe strict observance of allagreements, understand-ings and cease firing alongthe Line of Control and allother sectors with effectfrom midnight February24-25, 2021.

UK judge says diamantaire must answer Indian courtsLondon, Feb 25: In a com-prehensive extradition winfor the Indian authorities,a UK judge ruled onThursday that fugitive dia-mantaire Nirav Modi notonly has a case to answerin the Indian courts butthat there is no evidence tosuggest he would notreceive a fair trial in India.

Nirav Modi, wanted inIndia on charges of fraudand money laundering inthe estimated $2-billionPunjab National Bank(PNB) scam case, lost hislegal battle against extradi-tion on all grounds asDistrict Judge SamuelGoozee also concluded thatthere are no human rightsconcerns that his medicalneeds would not beaddressed as per severalIndian government assur-ances.

The 49-year-old appearedvia video link atWestminster Magistrates'

Court from WandsworthPrison in south-westLondon, dressed in a for-mal suit and sporting athick beard, and showed noemotion as excerpts of thejudgment were read out incourt. “I am satisfied thatthere is evidence uponwhich NDM [Nirav DeepakModi] could be convictedin relation [to] the conspir-acy to defraud the PNB. Aprima facie case is estab-lished,” the judge noted.

He similarly concludes aprima facie case to havebeen established on allcounts of charges broughtby the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) andEnforcement Directorate(ED) — money laundering,intimidation of witnessesand disappearance of evi-dence. “I am not requiredto exclude all Mr Modi'svarious alternative theo-retical possibilities andnarratives; nor exclude hispersonal interpretation ofthe evidence, in order tofind a prima facie case hasbeen established,” thejudge noted, referring tothe extradition case of for-mer Kingfisher Airlinesboss Vijay Mallya as prece-dent.

He accepted that whileNirav’s mental health haddeteriorated due to thelengthy incarceration in aLondon prison, exacerbat-ed by the Covid pandemic,

his risk of suicide does notmeet the high threshold tosatisfy him that his mentalstate is such that it wouldbe “unjust or oppressive”to extradite him.

Under the UKExtradition Act 2003, thejudge will now send hisfindings to the Secretary ofState for Home Affairs,Priti Patel. It is the UKCabinet minister who isauthorised to order anextradition under theIndia-UK ExtraditionTreaty and has two monthswithin which to make thatdecision. The home secre-tary’s order rarely goesagainst the court’s conclu-sions, as she has to consid-er only some very narrowbars to extradition whichare unlikely to apply inthis case, including thepossible imposition of adeath penalty.

■ More reports on Page 10

Nirav Modi

VUJJINI VAMSHIDHARA I DCHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Responding strongly to thesudden stoppage in issuingdaily health bulletins,which contain numericaldata of the total numberCovid-19 cases in the state,and include other detailslike deaths, recoveries etc.,the Telangana High Courton Thursday ordered theTelangana state govern-ment to “immediatelyrecommence the exercise of

issuing daily bulletins fromFriday onwards”.

A division bench of theHigh Court, comprisingChief Justice Hima Kohliand Justice B. VijaysenReddy, while dealing withpublic interest litigations(PILs) related toCoronavirus issues, learntthat the issuance of dailybulletin has been stopped.

The Court directed theDirector of Public Healthand other officials con-cerned to immediatelyrecommence the exercise.

The Bench expressed con-cern over the huge publicgatherings and congrega-tions, which have been wit-nessed in the state. TheCourt directed the govern-ment and Telangana policedepartment to scale-downgatherings. Chief JusticeKohli said, “newspapershave reported that therewas a bereavement func-tion in Khammam recently,and at least 20 per cent ofpeople who participatedwere affected withCoronavirus. Further, the

state government has givenpermission to open up cine-ma halls, public parks etc.,but preventive measures ithas put in place are not ade-quate.” These gatheringsshould be scaled down aswe are witnessing a rise incases in neighbouringstates like Karnataka andMaharashtra. Inter-statetransport could lead to aspike in infections here too,the Chief Justice observed.

■ Page 2: HC wants freshstatus report by March 18

Resume daily Covid bulletin: HCCourt concerned over huge gatherings in TSINFORMATION | ALERT

THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIAHYDERABAD I FRIDAY I 26 FEBRUARY 2021

MADHUSUDAN SAHOOwith agency inputsNEW DELHI, FEB. 25

Weeks after a spat withTwitter and the fracasover the series Tandav,the government onThursday announced thetightening of rules gov-erning social media andstreaming firms, requir-ing them to take downcontentious content imm-ediately, appoint griev-ance redressal officersand assist investigationsby revealing the origina-tor of a message or tweet.

The new Code of Ethicsand self-regulation mech-anism for video stream-ing services mean thatanyone who misusessocial media and over-the-top (OTT) platformswill be under the strictvigil of the governmentand is liable to face pun-ishment.

As part of new rules toregulate online content,the government will askthe platform to reveal theoriginator of a message/tweet, and WhatsApp,Facebook, Twitter andother social media firmsas well as streaming ser-vices such as Netflix,YouTube and AmazonPrime Video will be

required to quickly takedown any contentiouscontent flagged by thegovernment or legalorder.

They also have toappoint executives tocoordinate with lawenforcement and remove,within 24 hours, contentdepicting nudity or mor-phed pictures of women.

They also have to nowappoint a resident griev-ance officer who shall

register complaints in 24hours and file monthlycompliance reports. Usergrievances have to beresolved within 15 days.

Social media platforms,on being asked by courtor government, will berequired to disclose thefirst originator of themischievous informationthat undermines the sov-ereignty of India, securi-ty of the state, or publicorder.

Centre tightens rulesfor social media, OTT

Confusion over EWS quota

DC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, FEB 25

There are 107 new cases inTelangana according tothe data updated by thecentral ministry of healthand family welfare onFebruary 25. With no clas-sification it is not clearwhich districts are record-ing more cases. With 213new cases recorded onFebruary 24, the load ofpatients in GandhiHospital saw a rise.

■ Report on Page 2

L. VENKAT RAM REDDY | DCHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Confusion prevails overimplementation of the 10per cent reservation forEconomically WeakerSections (EWS) in educa-tion and employment inTelangana. Officialsources in the Secretariatsaid the state governmentwould appoint a commit-tee to study implementa-

tion of EWS quota in vari-ous states and make rec-ommendations to thestate government. Theimplementation of EWSquota is delayed by overtwo years in the state.

In January 2019, theNarendra Modi govern-ment at the Centre passeda Constitutional amend-ment Bill in Parliamentseeking to provide 10 percent reservations forEWS in education and

employment. However,the Centre left the deci-sion to states on when toimplement the EWSquota and whether toimplement it at all.

While several statesstarted implementing thisin 2019 and 2020, the TSgovernment is yet to act.

Chief Minister K.Chanadrashekar Rao hadon January 21 this yearannounced the state gov-ernment's decision to

implement EWS quota.Accordingly, chief secre-tary Somesh Kumarissued a governmentorder on February 8.However, no guidelineswere issued so far.

To implement 10 percent EWS quota, the stategovernment needs to cre-ate supernumerary seatsand jobs.

■ Page 6: TS confused onwhich model to follow

PLATFORMS mustimplement parentallocks for contentclassified as U/A13+ or higher

RELIABLE age veri-fication mecha-nisms for contentclassified as ‘A’.

5 categories into which OTT platforms must classify content:U (universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (adult).

3-level grievance redressalmechanism establishedunder the rules with two levels of self regulation. Level 1 Publisher themselves Level 2 Self Regulatory BodyLevel 3 Oversight mechanism under theMinistry of Information andBroadcasting.

DIGITAL MEDIA &OTT GUIDELINES

NEWS PUBLISHERS on digital media must imple-ment Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the PressCouncil of India and the Programme Code under theCable Television Networks Regulation Act

COVID CASES RISEAGAIN IN TS ASPER CENTRAL DATA

CITY pg 2DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

HC tells TS to decide onOGH building plan soonBench asks AG why funds not alloted if land is availableDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

The Telangana HighCourt on Thursday direct-ed the state government tostop being indecisiveabout the issue of whetherto go for a new construc-tion for the OsmaniaGeneral Hospital (OGH).The Court asked the gov-ernment to make up itsmind and take a final deci-sion.

“You may either proceedfurther as per an earlierdecision to construct anew hospital in the exist-ing place or go for con-struction in a vast vacantplace available in thepremises.”the court said.

Expressing “displeas-ure” at the government forkeeping the issue pendingfor six years despite sever-al petitions and listingsbefore the Court, ChiefJustice Hima Kohliobserved that “this type ofambiguity cannot be

maintained for long time”.A division bench com-

prising Chief JusticeHima Kohli and Justice B.Vijaysen Reddy was deal-ing with several PILs,some of which were filedseeking protection for theexisting heritage struc-ture of the OGH whileanother set sought thatthe Court direct the gov-ernment to construct anew hospital building inthe existing place andpremises.

When the Court askedwhy the government wastaking so much time intaking a decision,Advocate General B.SPrasad submitted that the

state government wasready to construct a newbuilding in place of theexisting OGH, within theexisting premises. He saidthat due to these legal hur-dles, regarding the her-itage structure, the gov-ernment could not pro-ceed further.

The Bench asked the AGwhy if land was available,the government has notallotted funds so far toconstruct a new building. It directed thegovernment to make up aclear mind.

“If the government hadtaken a decision a whileago, new constructionswould have come up bynow,” the CJ observed.

Senior Counsel SarasaniSatyam Reddy submittedto the Court that since athreat of demolitionlooms large over the her-itage wing of a nearly 100-year-OGH structure, it isimportant to bear in mindthat going by the Errum

Manzil judgment of 2019,the OGH still remains aprotected heritage monu-ment.

The Court assured thatthe structure was protect-ed till a further decisionby the Court. The Courtfaulted Advocate GeneralPrasad for “not complyingwith earlier orders”, inwhich the Court had askedthe government to submita site plan of the OGH,including Google maps, toget an understanding ofhow much vacant spacewas available in the prem-ises.

It directed AG to submitthem by next hearing.

Some of the petitionerscontended that of the 25sprawling acres area ofthe OGH premises, her-itage structure was spreadover only around twoacres, so it can be protect-ed. New constructions canbe made to house a newOGH in the remainingspace, they argued.

TS ANNOUNCESJAB PROTOCOLFOR ELDERLY

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

As the state gears up tooffer Covid-19 vaccinesto people over 60 years,and to those over 45years but with comor-bidities from March 1 aspart of the nationwidevaccination drive, thehealth department hassaid that it will have atotal of 1,500 centres acr-oss Telangana state wh-ere people can get theirtwo doses of the vaccine.

It is estimated thatTelangana state hasaround 55 lakh peoplefrom the two categoriesof people who, theCentre had announcedwill be given the Covid-19 vaccines from March1. According to depart-ment officials, all thosewho wish to avail thisopportunity to get vacci-nated against Covid-19,will need to registerthemselves on theCoWin website.

The vaccines will beadministered in bothgovernment hospitalsand clinics, as well as inprivate hospitals. Theprocedures for registra-tion, administering ofthe vaccine to benefici-aries will be finalised ina couple of days, accord-ing to the department.

COPS ARRESTTWO WITHGUNPOWDER

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Two men were caught inpossession of gunpow-der in Falaknuma by theHyderabad city police onThursday. According tothe police, the accused,identified as MohdZainullah, 57, andHameed Khan, 41, wererunning a coal businessin the old city area.“Earlier, Zainullah usedto run a gunpowder sup-ply business but did notrenew his license for awhile. He confessed thathe got an order for gun-powder and mixed coalpowder with sulphurand sodium before deliv-ering it,” said the police.

The duo were bookedunder relevant sectionsof Explosives Act and re-manded into judicialcustody.

HC seeks report by March 18

Spread of new Covid-19mutants raises concernKANIZA GARARI | DCHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Approximately 241 differ-ent mutations have beenfound in the countrywhose response to theexisting antibodies is neg-ative and is leading to arise in Covid-19 cases.

Viruses escaping fromthe immune system,avoiding antibodies andthe body’s delayedresponse to medicines aresome of the challengesthat the authorities areconfronted with.

Although there was notravel history of patientsfrom Amravati, Yavatmaland Akola, it is believedthat the mutation spreaddue to utter disregard forsafety protocols.

The N440K mutationwas found in Yavatmal,which had emerged inAndhra Pradesh inDecember.

CSIR-Centre for Cellularand Molecular Biologyrecorded the presence ofN440K in its researchpaper published in IndianAcademy of Sciences.

CCMB had also warnedthat N440K will spread insouthern States if safetymeasures are compro-mised.

Dr Rakesh Mishra, dir-ector of CCMB, says, “It isa variant that needs to bewatched. So far it has notacquired any other prop-erties but could becomenotorious. With safetyprotocols not followed,viruses have host bodiesto thrive and spread. If itacquires new characteris-tics, then it will become amatter of concern.”

So far the people infect-ed with this mutation inAndhra Pradesh andTelangana have recoveredafter showing mild symp-toms. There was also asteady decline of casesfrom January to the sec-ond week of February.Hence, the behaviour ofthe virus in the two statesdid not lead to much con-cern. But in Maharashtra,the cases have seen a risewith 5,210 reported onFebruary 22. This differ-ence in behaviour isindicative of a change andit requires more samplingand testing.

The other mutation,E484K, is the Brazil vari-ant but the behaviour inthree regions ofMaharashtra where it isfound is mild.

A senior epidemiologistin Telangana, on condi-

tion of anonymity, says,“Both the variants werepresent in the southernstates but the cases werenot like what it was inMaharashtra. Presently,cases are static and thereis no major rise inTelangana. But we have tobe alert as clusters havebeen reported in districtslike Karimnagar.”

The variants are a con-cern as their behaviourwill indicate whether thevaccine is effective or not.

A senior doctor, on con-dition of anonymity, says,“There has been 60 percent efficacy in influenzavaccine due to the differ-ent variants that it acq-uires every season. IsCoronavirus also follow-ing the same path? If so,how much efficacy willthe present vaccinehave?”

Those frontline workerswho are vaccinated haveto follow safety protocolsand also people are urgedto not relax or give up onmasks, hand-washing andsocial distancing, sayhealth authorities.

State reports 107new Covid casesDC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, FEB. 25

There were 107 newCovid-19 cases in Telan-gana on Thursday, accord-ing to data updated by thecentral ministry of healthand family welfare. It wasnot clear which districtsrecorded more cases.

A health official said,“Sample testing fromacross different districtshas increased fromMonday. Many people arecoming to the centres fortesting even as they weresuffering from seasonalflu. Many of them werescared.”

With 213 new casesrecorded on Wednesday,the case load at GandhiHospital saw a rise. A doc-tor said, “Some 36 peoplecame with positivereports. As they were

mild cases, all of them arenot admitted. Cases arebeing seen but they aremild only.”

Similarly, in OsmaniaGeneral Hospital, suspect-ed cases are being isolat-ed. In private hospitalstoo, there is a slight rise inCovid patients. Dr AshishChauhan, general ph-ysician and internal medi-cine specialist said therewas no cause for panic.

“We are now havingonline consultations andthose who are testing pos-itive with mild symptomsare offered home treat-ment. Apart from Covid-19, other diseases like dia-betes and hypertensionmust not be neglected.Many are neglecting theexisting disease condi-tions and this is resultingin complications,” hesaid.

● ● THE BENCH asked theAG why if land was avail-able, the government hasnot allotted funds so farto construct a new build-ing. It directed the gov-ernment to make up aclear mind.

● ● CCMB HAD alsowarned that N440K willspread in southern Statesif safety measures arecompromised

DC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Around 85 per cent of thegovernment healthcareworkers were adminis-tered the second dose ofCovid 19 across 31 dis-tricts in the state onThursday. A total of1,31,391 persons havecompleted the two-jabscourse in the state.

The first dose for thefrontline workers (FLWs)and private healthcareworkers was done onThursday.

Only 36 per cent FLWscame forward, resultingin 2,745 vaccinations.The response from front-line workers was too lowas the target was 2,57,239.

Private healthcareworkers also received thefirst dose and 59 per centof them were vaccinated.As many as 1,95,850 bene-ficiaries received it onThursday against a hightarget of 3.31,097.

The sessions wouldcontinue on February 27and 28.

85% FRONTLINEWORKERS GETSECOND DOSE

From page 1

The HC Bench directedthe Telangana govern-ment to file a fresh statusreport by March 18, dulyinforming it about thesteps taken by the govern-ment to contain the freshsecond wave ofCoronavirus prevalencein the state.

Noting that theTelangana governmenthas not conducted a serosurveillance survey (to

measure presence of anti-bodies in people) or stud-ies to track and monitorCovid infection fromspreading in the state, on

its own, the High CourtBench directed the stateto conduct a sero surveysin places where the num-ber of cases were high.

The Advocate Generalsubmitted that three serosurveys were conductedbetween June, 2020, andDecember, 2020, by theUnion government.Advocate General B.S.Prasad submitted that1.03 lakh RT-PCR testsand 4.83 lakh RapidAntigen Tests were con-

ducted by the statebetween January 25 andFebruary 12, 2021.

While adjourning thePILs to March 18, 2021,the Bench also directedthe Telangana govern-ment to give wide publici-ty for the vaccination pro-gram initiated by theCentral government,wherein people of differ-ent ages would have toregister themselvesonline to get Coronavirusvaccination.

● ● WHILE ADJOURNINGthe PILs to March 18,2021, the Bench alsodirected the Telanganagovernment to give widepublicity for the vaccina-tion program initiated bythe Central government,

CITY pg 3DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

SHORT TAKES

Girl adopts 5 zoo birds SANJAY SAMUEL PAUL | DCHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

In a welcome birthdaycelebration, babySahasra Sri opted toadopt birds in NehruZoological Park, whichshe visited along withher family and friendshere on Thursday.

She and her brotherCharvik, accompaniedtheir elders and met zoo authorities to complete the formalitiesfor adopting five smallbirds for three months.

The curator of NehruZoological Park, V.V.L.Subhadra Devi, appreci-

ated the gesture shownby the children.

The girl’s father, Ch.Naresh, said “My child-ren are fond of birds andwild animals. Sahasra

Sri wanted to do something special on herbirthday. She gave `5,000 to the zoo authori-ties for adopting the fivebirds.”

Sahasra Sri with her family meet Nehru ZoologicalPark authorities for adopting five birds.

HC fumes as state fails toset up social security panelTells defiant labour officials it will nail them downDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

The Telangana HighCourt admonished thesecretary of the labourdepartment for not tak-ing steps to constitute astate-level SocialSecurity Board (SSB) forunorganised workers inthe state, despite ordersof the Court onDecember 16 to do so.The Court directed theofficial to be presentbefore it (in virtualmode) on the next date ofhearing.

“This Court will naildown recalcitrant offi-

cers, who have an obsti-nately uncooperativeattitude towards imple-menting court orders. Itis most unacceptablecasual behaviour of offi-cials. It is the responsi-bility of the governmentto constitute the board,which will be helpful topoor unorganised work-ers across Telangana,”said Chief Justice HimaKohli.

A Division Bench com-prising Chief JusticeHima Kohli and JusticeB. Vijaysen Reddy washearing a public interestlitigation (PIL) filed byCongress leader C.

Damodar Rajanarsimha,seeking a direction to theTelangana governmentto constitute a state-levelSSB for the unorganisedworkers and its members.

Despite petitioning thegovernment for the lastsix years to do so, theboard has not been con-stituted. Even a Courtdirection has not helped.

During the course ofarguments, the ChiefJustice Hima Kohli poseda series of questions tothe commissioner, labourdepartment, who waspresent before the Court,asking him to explain the

reasons for the unduedelay in constituting thesaid Board.

The commissioner toldthe HC Division Benchthat he has been holdingan additional charge ofthe post, and further, hadsent a proposal to secre-tary, labour department,for constituting theboard; but it is pendingwith the government.The CJ was not inclinedto hear his contentionsand termed his con-tentions as “frivolousand casual”.

The case has beenadjourned to March 18,2021.

2nd day turnout rises in junior schools

SECURITY GUARDARRESTED FOR ABUSING MINORDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD FEB. 25

The Kushaiguda policearrested a security guardfor allegedly misbehav-ing with a 12-year-oldminor girl on Thursday.

According to the police,the accused, identified asR. Narasimha, 55, misbe-haved with the minor girllate on Wednesday nightwhen she was on her wayto a nearby shop from herplace.

“He first walked up toher and caught her by hershoulder before he started misbehaving withher in public. The girlthen raised an alarm andthe local residents cameto her rescue,” said thepolice, adding that it wasnot yet clear why the manbehaved in such a manner.

Following a complaintfrom the mother of theminor girl, the Kushaigu-da police booked a caseand placed him under ar-rest on Thursday.

3 LTR OF HASHISHOIL WORTH `15 LAKH SEIZED

EFLU STUDENTSRESUME SIT-IN

PROTESTHARLEEN MINOCHA | DCHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Students from English andForeign Languages University(Eflu) resumed their sit-inprotest outside the main gateof the campus on Thursdaydemanding the reopening ofhostels. Student representa-tives said that the universityauthorities were neglectingtheir demands for over twoweeks now.

Earlier, while the manage-ment had agreed to meet stu-dents after they submittedtheir demands, students saythat since February 18, it wasbeing postponed time andagain.

“The university released acircular about in-person class-es on February 18 eveningwhile completely circumvent-ing our demands. The truth isthat we never demandedresumption of in-person class-es. We have only been demand-ing access to the hostel and other facilities”, said astudent.

However, the university hasdenied the claims saying thatthe registrar, proctor andother officials had met the stu-dents and listened to theirgrievances. A senior officialsaid that they had told studentrepresentatives to meet theauthorities inside the campus.However, only a five-memberdelegation was allowed andthe students insisted that atleast 10 members be part ofthe discussion, the officialsaid.

The university has alsomaintained that the decisionnot to open the hostels tillMarch 31 will remain, in viewof the rising Covid-19 cases inseveral states.

“Students are citing theexample of OsmaniaUniversity, but they shouldunderstand that at Osmania,students come only from threedistricts, whereas at Eflu wehave students coming from allover the world. If we alloweven one student on the cam-pus and someone turns posi-tive, it will raise a hue andcry”, he said.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD FEB. 25

The Special OperationsTeam of LB Nagar alongwith the Abdullapurmetpolice seized three liters ofhashish oil from two menalong with a transport vehi-cle on Thursday. The totalworth of seized items wasestimated to be `15 lakh,said the police.

The peddlers were identi-fied as Thota SanthoshKumar, 36, and PawdeVeerabhadra, 28, both resi-dents of KPHB, said thepolice, adding that theirassociate Raju, the supplier,was reportedly absconding.

“Santhosh Kumar has beena fruits and vegetables ven-dor for about six years andVeerabhadra has been work-ing with him in the samebusiness. During his trips tothe outskirts to transportvegetables, Santosh gotacquainted with Raju, a resi-dent of Narsipatnam area.Subsequently, Raju suggest-ed him to peddle drugs oncommission basis, to whichSantosh agreed as his earn-ings were not enough to runthe household,” said thepolice.

The two had earlier trans-ported drugs from Visakha-patnam agency area to Hyd-erabad and sold it to custom-ers in the surrounding areaof Hyderabad city. After po-lice started cracking downon marijuana, they shiftedto hashish oil and the de-mand gave them good profit.

“They purchase the oil for` 90,000 per litre and sell itfor `4 lakh per litre, or `4,000per 10 ML. On Thursday,they were returning back tothe city with the contrabandwhen the officials caughtthem near ORR and seizedthree litres of hashish oilfrom their possession,”added the police.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

The overall attendance ofClasses 6-8 students acrossall schools in the state roseseveral points up on the sec-ond day of the junior schoolreopening to 14 per cent. Asper government data, atten-dance in 8,056 governmentand local body schools rose

to 17 per cent against 9 percent on the first day.

In the 9,612 private schoolsacross the state, the atten-dance was at 14 per cent onthe second day, against the10 per cent on day-one. Theattendance in model schoolsand KGBVs howeverremained low at 3,564 and381 students respectively.

Meanwhile, another gov-

ernment data on Class 9 and10 attendance on Thursdayput the figures at at 69 and 78 per cent respectively.Private school attendancewas at 67 and 75 per centrespectively. The overallattendance for Intermediate1st and 2nd years was 48 and 56 per cent respectivelyon Thursday, as per thisdata.

Driver flees with owner’s carDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

A 35-year-old was arrest-ed by the Banjara Hillspolice for taking off in aluxury car belonging tohis employer onThursday.

Police said that the

accused, M Gundappa, aresident of Puppalagudain Manikonda, has beenworking as a car driver for MadhusudanKakani, managing direc-tor of ManjushreePolymers, since 2019.

“Gundappa gained the trust of Madhusudan in

the last two years and,taking advantage of it,hatched a plan to stealthe luxury car and sell itto make money. Last week, Gundappa in theabsence of his employer,stole the car and hadbeen absconding sincethen,” said the police.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Services of 30employees includingImams and Khateebs(sermonizers) of theMecca Masjid andShahi Masjid are like-ly to be discontinued.These employees are,from then on, areexpected to be rehiredon contract/out-sourced basis. Newsof this move hasirked many in thecommunity.

Both mosques wereunder the manage-ment of the HinduE n d o w m e n tDepartment aftermerger of Hyderabadinto the Union ofIndia in 1948. Later, in1996, the administra-tion of these mosqueswas transferred to theminorities welfaredepartment.

This departmentcontinued with theservices without fix-ing the cadre strengthand pay scale. Thismeant these employ-ees were not regu-larised in service.

According tosources, officials ofthe district minori-ties welfare office(DMWO), Hyderabad,faced difficulties inclearing the bills ofsalaries for theemployees of both themosques as thefinance departmentkept seeking various“clarifications” aboutthe appointments andthe term of extendingtheir services.

CITY pg 4DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

SHORT TAKES

KTR NAILS OPPN‘LIES’ ABOUT JOBS

WITH ‘FACTS’DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Tearing into the oppositionfor their false propagandaover providing jobs to youthin Telangana, TRS workingpresident and IT minister K.T.Rama Rao on Thursdayreleased the break-up of1,32,899 job vacancies thathave been filled by TRS gov-ernment since 2014 in variousgovernment departments.

Rama Rao hoped that theopposition parties would stopsuch propaganda and duly gothrough the facts and figures.He said these details werereleased with the sole inten-tion of giving clarity and pro-viding the right informationto the people of Telangana,especially the youth, who arebeing misled by the opposi-tion’s baseless accusations.

TRS HITS OUT ATBJP, CONG FOR

REMARKS ON KCRDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Ruling party MLAs and MLCson Thursday warned Con-gress and BJP leaders againstmaking snide remarks aboutChief Minister K. Chand-rashekar Rao and his govern-ment, failing which the partycadre would teach them abefitting lesson.

Legislators G. Vivekananda,Saidi Reddy and MLCs MSPrabhakar Rao, Srinivas Re-ddy speaking to reporters saidthat it was unfortunate thatthe two parties had criticisedtheir MLC nominee. Theywanted to know what the sit-ting MLC from BJP N. Ra-mchandar Rao had done forgraduates in the last six years.

TYRE DEALERS TO JOIN FEB. 26BHARAT BANDH

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Among others, the Hyderabadtyre dealers association wouldjoin the Bharat Bandh calledby traders on February 26 aspart of the planned nation-wide protest against the cur-rent GST slab system. Thetraders say the system pushedthem into complex calcula-tions and this is burdeningthem with high taxation rates.

Tyre traders explained that,initially in july 2017 when GSTcame in, it was explained thatthis will be a simple and easyway of taxation, whereintraders will end up paying lesstax. In reality, this turned outto be more complex, burdeninghigh tax on small traders, theysaid.

“Tyres are on the highestslab of GST, that is 28 per cent.There are more than a hun-dred tyre dealers in the twincities and all of them extendedtheir support for the bandh inprotest against the GST.

Khemchand Wadhwani, sec-retary, HTDA, said: “From thetime GST came in three and ahalf years ago, the govern-ment amended this tax policyfor more than 900 times.Despite this, the governmentfailed to make it trader-friend-ly. We traders are sufferingand get slapped with hightaxes.”

Praveen Kumar Jain, a tyre-dealer at Siddiambar Bazarsaid, “Initially, the govern-ment made us believe that thiswill be an easy tax system. Itturned out to be most-compli-cated and burdensome. Thecomplexity of this tax is push-ing us to spend more time withCAs and other accountants.”

Owaisi slams Didi forrefusing rally in WBQuestions permission for other Oppn partiesATHER MOIN | DCHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM) presidentAsaduddin Owaisislammed the MamataBanerjee administra-tion in West Bengal forrefusing them permis-sion to hold an electionrally in Kolkata. Owaisiquestioned the logicwhen the same wasgiven to BJP, TMC andLeft parties.

Interacting with themedia here onThursday, Owaisi saidTMC MPs speak aboutfreedom of expression,Constitution and dis-sent in the Parliament,but contradict them-selves when it comes totheir state.

“The secular and lib-eral people who clapwhen they listen to thespeeches of TMC MPswill have to ponder.This clearly exposesTMC doublespeak andhypocrisy,” he added.

“The BJP won 18 LokSabha seats in WestBengal. How can we beresponsible for BJP’swin when we did not

contest from there? Thelarger question is onwhat grounds are theystopping my party fromcontesting in WestBengal. We will speakagainst TMC, Congress,BJP and others. Theseparties do not under-stand that there is adesire in Muslim youththat we are politicallyrelevant and have a

political leadershipthat will strengthendemocracy,” he said.

“If the police adminis-tration refuses to per-mit us even beforeenforcement of theMode Code of Conduct,how can the electionsbe free and fair?Narendra Modi, AmitShah and JP Nadda canhold a rally and

Congress, CPM, TMCare also allowed. Whysingle us out?” Owaisiasked. Owaisi said oncethe code of conductcomes into force, “Wewill be compelled toapproach the ElectionCommission, againstthe continuation of the police officers who re-jected permission forrallies in the samepost”.

On the possiblealliance with FurfuraSharif cleric AbbasSiddiqui, who hadrecently floated IndianSecular Front (ISF), hesaid they were in dis-cussions with them. Heclarified that his partyhas already handedover him a list of con-stituencies that it aimsto contest and the clerichad clarified his standabout MIM.

On the party’s plan forGujarat, Owaisi said“one of our primaryobjectives is to fill thepolitical vacuum there.In Gujarat, our partywill work with Chho-tubhai Vasava’s Bhar-atiya Tribal Party(BTP) and even contestAssembly elections.”

TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy speaks during the MLC election campaignin Mahbubabad on Thursday. — P. ANIL KUMAR

Time to teach TRS,BJP a lesson: Uttam

TSPECET 2021 EXAMS TO BEGIN FROM JUNE 7

DC CORRESPONDENTWARANGAL, FEB. 25

TPCC chief N UttamKumar Reddy onThursday said it is timethe BJP and TRS aretaught a fitting lessonin the upcoming MLCelections.

He said if the BJP isdefeated, the prices ofpetrol and diesel willautomatically comedown. The TRS govern-ment provided jobs tosix of Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao’skin but forgot the rest of

the state, he said.Speaking at an electionpreparatory meeting inMahbubabad, he saidthat the TRS govern-ment is exploitative.

“The Congress partyis committed to thesocial class and that iswhy Ramulu Naik hasbeen fielded as our MLCcandidate. There is nosocial justice in anyother party, which allhave fielded candidatesfrom the Reddy commu-nity,” he noted.

“The unemployedyouth in the state have

not been given unem-ployment benefits sofar. Chandrasekhar Raoand K.T. Rama Raoshould be ashamed tosay that they have given1.3 lakh jobs in thestate. TRS leaders worklike a gang of thieves.The Congress party willcome to power in 2023and end the TRS cor-ruption in the state,” hesaid.

Ramulu Nayak, for-mer Union minister Po-rika Balaram Naik andDr Murali Nayak werepresent on the occasion.

KCR owes each youth `72K asunemployment arrears: BandiDC CORRESPONDENTNIZAMABAD, FEB. 25

BJP state president BandiSanjay said here on Thursdaythat each unemployed youthin Telangana state has a rightto get `72,000 as unemploy-ment allowance, based on anunfulfilled promise fromChief MinisterK.Chandrashekar Rao in the2018 Assembly elections.

“For the last 24 months, thestate government has default-ed in paying the `3,000 asunemployment allowance,”he said.

“K.Chandrashekar Rao hadpromised government jobsfor each household in thestate and `3,000 as unemploy-ment allowance to the youth.Also, minister KT Rama Raogave false information on jobsprovided to the youth.”

The BJP chief called uponthe youth to question the rul-ing TRS leaders on non-pay-ment of unemploymentallowance and demand it forthe past 24 months too.

Banswada assembly con-stituency Congress leaderV.Malyadri Reddy and a fewTRS and Congress activistsjoined the BJP in the pres-ence of the party state chief.MP Dharmapuri Arvind, BJPdistrict president, formerMLA Aruna Tara, formerMLAs EndalaLaxminarayana, KunaSrisailam Goud, former zpchairman K.VenkataramanaReddy and others were pres-ent.

Speaking at a public meet-ing in Banswada ofKamareddy district, organ-ised by BJP Kamareddy dis-trict unit, Bandi Sanjay pre-

dicted that the BJP will formthe next government inTelangana in 2023.

“MIM party won 5 MLAseats in Bihar state, wherethe Muslims population is amere 12 per cent. “If so, the 80per cent Hindus in Telanganawill as well vote for the BJP in2023,” he asked.

Bandi Sanjay reiterated thatthe BJP is not againstMuslims and Christians, butit would protect the interestsof the Hindus. He recalledthat a few party leadersincluding then NizamabadBJP district president RevuriSurender was shot dead byNaxalites and their sacrificeswill yield results in the next assembly elections.To end the dictatorship, thecorrupt family rule of TRS,BJP will fight courageously,”he said.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Prof. K. Nageshwar, anindependent candidate inthe ensuing MLC electionsfrom Hyderabad, RangaReddy and Mahbubnagargraduates constituency, onThursday questioned thesilence of the TelanganaRashtra Samiti on theNarendra Modi govern-ment’s polices of privatisa-tion of public sector units.The TRS government criti-cised the Modi governmentpolicies during the GHMCelections but has nowbecome silent, he said.

Speaking to the staff and

officers of various centralpublic sector units includ-ing ECIL, BEL, BDL,Midhani and HAL, here onThursday, Prof. Nageshwarsaid indiscriminate pri-vatisation of the CentralPublic SectorUndertakings will weakenthe national economyresulting in corporate lootof public assets. Absence ofstrong public sector wouldonly result in such privatemonopolies, he added.

Hyderabad, he said, ishome to prestigious CPSUsand the BJP government’sprivatisation policy will hitemployment, and the econ-omy of this city.

Nageshwar questions TRS’silence over privatisation

OBITUARY

KYLASA MADUSUDHAN RAOD.O.B: 19-12-1936 D.O.D: 24-02-2021

Inserted by:Kylasa Pramila (Wife)

Kylasa Surender (Son)Kylasa Suchitra (Daughter)Kylasa Sukanya (Daughter)

IN LOVING MEMORYOF MY PARENTS

KATTA VIJAYA RAO KATTA SATYAVATHID.O.D: 26-02-2007 D.O.D: 24-02-2006

You both will always be in our memories and heart

Katta Hepsheba, Katta KeziaRev. Katta Zaccheaus

(S/2021/D01278)

BIRTHDAY & WEDDINGANNIVERSARY

REMEMBRANCE

Mrs. MARIA MICHAELD.O.B & Anniversary 26th Feb.

MOM, We gratefully remember yourlove, care & concern for all of usBirthday & Ann. Wishes to dear MOM

Inserted by: Family Members

(B/2021/D00132)

3rd DEATH ANNIVERSARY

LACHHMAN DAS MANJANID.O.D: 26.02.2018

Not a single days passes by withoutremembering you.

We miss youMADHU - (Wife)

Sharat - KhushbooRavi - Neetu,

Raunak - ShivamGANGA ELECTRICALS,

R.P. Road, Secunderabad.

49th BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCE

BODLA VEERESHAMD.O.B: 26-02-1972 D.O.D: 17-03-2019We miss you every moment in our life youare always there in our heart.

FAMILY MEMBERSM/s. Kotha Pentaiah &

Bodla Ramachandriah Banaras Silk PalaceGadwal Shop, General Bazar, Secunderabad

SERVICES OF 30MECCA MASJIDSTAFF TO BE DISCONTINUED

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD FEB. 25

The ExciseEnforcement team ofHyderabad seized 34.7kilos of dry marijua-na from a gang of sixmen who were smug-gling it inside the city.

The arrested wereidentified as NarotamSarkar, PrasanjitBiswas, DebrataChakrabarty, KhokanHaldar, Kanjara ShivaShanker, and SyedSayeed, said thepolice.

The officials, whoreceived reliableinformation about thecontraband beingsmuggled in the city,conducted a routewatch at Gudimalka-pur and the 34.7 kilosof dry marijuana con-signment from thegang on Thursday.

6 HELD FORSMUGGLING MARIJUANA

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi addressesmedia at Darussalam in Hyderabad on Thursday.

— BY ARRANGEMENT

Prof. K. Nageshwar, an independent candidate speaks tothe staff and officers of various Central public sectorunits in Hyderabad on Thursday. — BY ARRANGEMENT

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

The Telangana StateCouncil for Higher Edu-cation (TSCHE) anno-unced the schedule forthe Telangana State Ph-ysical Education Com-mon Entrance Test

(TSPECET 2021) examson Thursday, for admis-sions into B.PEd andD.PEd courses in thestate.

The physical examswill take place fromJune 7, 2021, and will goon according to thenumber of candidates

that registers for thetest, the TSCHE said.

The submission ofonline application formswill begin from March 8and the last date withoutany late fee will be May8. Results will be annou-nced a week after thelast day of the test.

c m y k c m y k

pg 5DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

CITY/AP pg 6DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

SHORT TAKES

FIRST INSCRIPTIONOF DEVARAYA’s

DEATH FOUND

ENDANGEREDDONKEYS

SLAUGHTEREDVADREVU SRINIVAS | DCKAKINADA, FEB. 25

Donkeys are illegally beingslaughtered on the banks ofEluru Canal in West Godavariand the remains are beingdumped in the canal, endan-gering public health.

Donkeys are named in the extinction list. Yet, hun-dreds of them across the coun-try and in Andhra Pradesh are being slaughtered formeat. Belief is that donkeymeat can cure respiratory andbreathing problems andincrease the sexual potentialof humans.

According to sources, manydonkey meat shops exist onthe sly in Gunturu,Cherukupalli, Bapatla,Tadepalli, Vetapalem, Chiralain Guntur, Krishna andPrakasam districts. The sell-ers are bringing the donkeysfrom Maharashtra, Karnatakaand Rajasthan.

For the past two years, ani-mal activists in Maharashtraare lodging complaints on ille-gal transport of donkeys.Some cases were filed.

Donkey meat is sold at `600 per kilo. The meat sellersare buying the meat at `15,000to Rs.20,000 per donkey. Meatsellers say meat shops inKrishna, Guntur and Prakasmchose Eluru for selling themeat.

Animal rescue organisationsecretary Gopal R.Surabathula said donkeys arebeing carried to AndhraPradesh from other states.Nobody makes any effort tocurb it, though there are somany check-posts along theway of its transportation. He lodged a complaint withthe DGP Andhra Pradesh,seeking stoppage ofillegal transportation andkilling of donkeys. Sale ofdonkeys is rampant in severaldistricts in the state, the com-plaint said.

He said that the survival ofdonkeys is at serious stake. Ithas almost vanished from thestate while donkeys are illegal-ly transported from otherstates.

Issue hassle-freebldg permits: CS

No fire NOC, no classes, HCtells Narayana, Chaitanya

Nityananda Trayodashiheld with Covid norms

TS CONFUSED ONWHICH MODELTO FOLLOWFrom Page 1

However, the governmentis confused whether tocreate 10 per cent or 20per cent supernumeraryseats and jobs. This isbecause the Centre hascreated 20 per cent super-numerary seats and jobsto implement EWS quota.Of this, 10 per cent isextended to EWS and therest 10 per cent is distrib-uted among reserved cat-egories.

The state governmenthas to first take a deci-sion on creating supernu-merary seats in educa-tional institutions andsupernumerary jobs ingovernment departmentsto ensure that the exist-ing reservations amount-ing to 50 per cent extend-ed to BCs, SCs, STs andMinorities are not dis-turbed.

The remaining 50 percent quota is under opencategory under which allcategories irrespective ofcaste and religion cancompete.

Neighbouring AndhraPradesh has created 10per cent supernumeraryseats only for EWS. Inthis backdrop, officials inTS government are con-fused over which modelto adopt. Indications arethat the EWS quotaimplementation will bedelayed further till thecommittee submits itsreport.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

The Hare KrishnaGolden Temple inBanjara Hills onThursday celebratedthe Sri NityanandaTrayodashi.

Sri Satya GauraChandra Dasa, presi-dent of Hare KrishnaMovement, Hyderabad,said, “NityanandaTrayodashi is theappearance day of SriNityananda Prabhuwho was the eternalcompanion of SriChaitanya MahaPrabhu. Nityananda

Prabhu distributedHari NamaSankeertana and Japaalong with ChaitanyaMaha Prabhu for thisage of Kali as a way oflife to everybody with-out any discriminationof caste, religion,creed. NityanandaPrabhu is the first spir-itual master in under-standing Sri ChaitanyaMaha Prabhu and final-ly getting Sri Krishna’sblessings.”

As part of the festival,a Maha Abhishekam of108 kalasas was per-formed with varietiesof fruit juices, flowers,

panchamritam, pancha-gavyam and sugandhadravyas.

This was followed by amangala arathi alongwith bhajans and kir-tans. Melodious HariNama Sankirthan wasperformed by devoteeson this occasion.

Strict Covid-19 safetyprotocols were followedduring the celebrationsfor the safety of thedevotees. NityanadaPrabhu is the incarna-tion of Lord Balaramawho is the brother of Lord Sri Krishna,according to the temple.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

The Telangana High Courton Thursday rejected thepleas of Narayana and SriChaitanya EducationalInstitutes that they beallowed to continue classesfor students in varioushigh-rise buildings that didnot conform to the rulesspecified by the Fire andSafety department.

The two institutes had filedseveral petitions challeng-ing the denial of NOC by thefire and safety departmentfor their buildings housingschools and colleges. It ismandatory to get NOC fromthe fire department for anyeducational institution torun classes in high-risebuildings.

Earlier, following a highcourt intervention in 2020,the managements of theseinstitutions could get the

Board of IntermediateEducation ( BIE) nod to run Inter-college classeswithout submission NOCsand other permissions fromvarious departments. Somebranches of these institutesran the colleges even without getting the affilia-tions.

While dealing with a PIL ayear ago, on 27 February2020, the Telangana highcourt issued closure noticesto around 68 college premis-

es belong to the Narayanaand Chaitanya Institutes forviolation of fire safetyrules. Questioned by thehigh court, BIE made it clearthat NOC of the fire depart-ment was mandatory to getaffiliation. Aggrieved bythis, the two institutesapproached the court, seek-ing a direction to allowthem continue with theclasses.

The two institutes soughtexemption on the groundthat these buildings wereconstructed during timesprior to the framing of rules.

The court refused to passany order in favor of the col-leges. It said the governmentand BIE were in deep slum-ber and they were awakenedonly by the intervention ofthe high court. “So, we willnot allow any deviations tothe rules,” the bench headedby Chief Justice Hima Kohlimade it clear.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Thursdaydirected additional collectors to ensure trans-parent and hassle-free building permissionsunder TS-bPASS in all local bodies and ensurethat there are no encroachments.

The chief secretary held a meeting withadditional collectors of local bodies (ACLBs)along with senior officials of panchayat rajand municipal administration to discuss onthe Palle and Pattana Pragathi programmes.

The CS stated that state government hasbrought in new acts for gram panchayats andmunicipalities which have to be implementedin their true spirit. The post of additional collectors for local bodies has been created toensure that both the acts are implementedstrictly, he said. He reiterated the CM’s vision to make every gram panchayat andurbal local body (ULB) clean, green andhygienic. Apart from supply of tractors andwater tankers, there is regular release of `456crore per month to gram panchayats andurban local bodies.

Additional collectors were directed toinspect GPs and ULBs to ensure that streetsand drains are cleaned on daily basis. If thereis any slackness by officials, action would betaken against them, he said.

L. VENKAT RAM REDDY | DCHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

FASTags are all set to bemade mandatory onTelangana state highwaystoo soon. As of now, theyare mandatory only onnational highways.However, FASTags are inforce since March 2019 onthe Hyderabad Outer RingRoad.

The Telangana state gov-ernment has initiatedsteps to make FASTagsmandatory on state high-ways from March. The gov-ernment plans to initially

make them compulsory onthe Rajiv Rahadaribetween Hyderabad andRamagundam in March.Later, it would be extendedbetween Narketpally-Addanki in April.

However, an officialannouncement on the dateof launching FASTags onstate highways is likely tobe made in a week. It maybe recalled that the Centremade electronic toll collec-tion system for FASTagsmandatory for all vehiclesfrom February 15.

It was noticed during thepast ten days on nationalhighways passing through

Telangana that FASTagsare helping in seamless collection of tolltax, without the need ofstopping at toll plazas. The use of RFID technolo-gy is helping in collectingtaxes without the need of handling cash by tollbooth employees andreducing waiting time intoll booths.

It also stopped unneces-sary queuing at toll booths,although teething prob-lems continue to createhardships for motorists atfew toll plazas. Takingthese factors into consider-ation, the Telangana gov-

ernment has decided tointroduce FASTags onstate highways soon.

The roads and buildingsdepartment has initiatedsteps to launch FASTags inMarch and April. Roadsand buildings ministerVemula Prashanth Reddy held a series ofmeetings with senior offi-cials of the department inthis regard over the pastfew days.

“Mandatory FASTags onnational highways sinceFebruary 15 has proved tobe a success. Over 85 percent of vehicles passingthrough toll plazas have

installed FASTags. Thereare no traffic jams at tollplazas now. Motorists arerelived. Since we receivedgood feedback, we want toextend FASTags to statehighways soon. If all goeswell as planned, FASTagswill be implemented fromMarch on state highways,”said Reddy.

The initiative will belaunched first at three tollplazas (Duddeda,Renikunta, Basanthnagar)on Rajiv Rahadari. Later, itwill be implemented at tollplaze in Madgulapallybetween Narketpally andAddanki.

Soon, FASTags must on TS highways tooRoads & buildings dept takes steps to launch FASTags in March, AprilEASY | PASSAGE

● ● THE TWO institutes hadfiled several petitions chal-lenging the denial of NOCby the fire and safetydepartment for their build-ings housing schools andcolleges. It is mandatory toget NOC from the firedepartment for any educa-tional institution to runclasses in high-rise buildings.

HC questions tribunalsjudging 16K land casesWonders how it is possible to solve them in 20 days’ timeDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

In a case relating to spe-cial tribunals set up bythe Telangana govern-ment, in which collec-tors and additional col-lectors have beeninstructed by the gov-ernment to dispose over16,000 revenue cases per-taining to land owner-ship issues within twen-ty days, the TelanganaHigh Court on Thursdaywondered how would itbe possible to a tribunalto adjudicate on so manypending cases solved insuch a short time.

A Division Bench com-prising Chief JusticeHima Kohli and JusticeB. Vijaysen Reddy wasso curious on how it waspossible for special tri-bunals constituted to trypending revenue cases,exercising a judicialfunction to adjudicateon property rights of cit-

izens and make judg-ments within a fortnightwhen the same revenuecases have been pendingbefore the same revenueauthorities for yearstogether.

Chief Justice Kohli,said sarcastically, “if itcan be proved how thesetribunals can deal withthousands of cases insuch a short time, thenthe judiciary of Indiawould take a leaf fromthe book of Telangana,in disposing of pendingcases”.

The bench was dealingwith a PIL filed by N.Srinivasa Rao, a practic-ing advocate fromBhadrachalam, as anaggrieved party to a

decision of the special-ly-constituted tribunals,in “not allowing partiesor advocates to defend”in cases pending beforethe tribunals.

He argued that it was aclear violation of theprinciple of natural jus-tice, where every inter-ested party had to begiven a chance to puttheir contentions and beheard by decision mak-ers.

Kovutturi PavanKumar, counsel for thepetitioner, said it was aviolation of Article 300-A. He said cases werebeing disposed of in ahurry.

Special tribunals havebeen constituted underthe Telangana Rights inLands and PattadarPassbooks Act, afterabolishing all revenuecourts. These tribunalswere constituted to tryaround 16,000 cases,which were pending

before those abolishedrevenues courts.

Collectors and addi-tional collectors, asmembers of these tri-bunals, decide cases.But, reportedly, therewere “instructions” tothem to “dispose of thecases within twentydays”, and that no hear-ings could be conductedor no advocate or partybe allowed to submitcontentions in thesecases.

When this aspect wasquestioned by the HighCourt on Thursday, andthe state was asked toexplain the reason forthe undue haste,Advocate General B.S.Prasad sought a “littletime to get instructionsfrom the government”,on whether it had givensuch directions or not.

With that, the Courtgave four days’ time tohim and adjourned thecase till March 2.

● ● KOVUTTURI PAVANKumar, counsel for thepetitioner, said it was aviolation of Article 300-A.He said cases were beingdisposed of in a hurry.

● ● THE REMAINING 50%quota is under open cat-egory under which allcategories irrespectiveof caste, religion cancompete.

President of Hare Krishna Movement Sri Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa and others perform the Maha Abhishekam during the Nityananda Trayodashiat the Hare Krishna Golden Temple in Banjara Hills on Thursday.

Jagan seeks transfer of rly land to APDC CORRESPONDENTVIJAYAWADA, FEB. 25

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister JaganMohan Reddy hasaddressed a letter toUnion Railway MinisterPiyush Goyal, offeringtransfer of some land tothe railways in lieu ofthe land occupied by nearly 800 familieswithin the municipalcorporation limits

here.He requested that the

railway land inRajarajeswari Peta behanded over to the APgovernment so that thiscould be regularised.

The CM explained that nearly 800 poor fam-ilies lived in houses theyhad built on railwayland in Raja RajeswariPeta area here more than 30 years agoand that they had unsuc-

cessfully made severalrepresentations to thegovernment to regularise theseencroachments. “Nomeaningful effort hadbeen made in the past toresolve the issue,” theCM said.

The chief ministersaid that suitable stategovernment land couldbe provided to the rail-ways by way of anexchange in lieu of this

encroached land.“It is not out of place

here to mention that theRailways had not beenable to put this land toany use for more than 30years. The land identi-fied by the state govern-ment to be given to theRailways is very suitableand located within thelimits of the VijayawadaM u n i c i p a lCorporation,” the CMsaid.

DC CORRESPONDENTVIJAYAWADA, FEB. 25

Officials from ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI) discov-ered the first epigraphical ref-erence to the death ofKrishnadevaraya Nayaka, theemperor of Vijayanagaraempire during 1509-1529, in aninscription found nearGopalakrishna temple atHonnenahalli of Tumkur dis-trict recently.

The inscription found inKannada recorded the demiseof Krishnadevaraya, the thirdruler from Tuluva dynasty onOctober 17, 1529 AD.

The ASI received a photo-graph of this inscription fromProf. K.R. Narasimhan. It isengraved on a slab kept to thenorth of Gopalakrishna tem-ple at Honnenahalli. Theinscription mentions aboutHonnenahalli being empow-ered to provide offerings to thegod Viraprasanna Hanumantaof Tumkur by TimmappannaNayaka along with some offi-cials and inhabitants ofTumkur village.

Krishnadevaraya was bornon January 17, 1471 and died ofill-health on October 17, 1529.

The finding of an inscriptiondated July 27, 1532 earlier,engraved on the north andwest walls of the third prakaraof the Kalahastisvara templeat Srikalahasti in Chittoor dis-trict, mentioned the corona-tion of Krishnadevaraya’scousin Achyutaraya as theking on October 21, 1529 ADbefore Kalahastisvara inKalahasti.

Vijayawada: The 129 Urs celebrations ofHazarath Kale Mastan Shah Aaulia BabaDargah would be held from 1 to 5 March atGuntur. Dargah hereditary trustee RaviRammohan Rao released the posters andbrochures of Urs and said that Hindu andMuslim in large numbers would attend theUrs celebration from AP, Telangana and otherStates. Addressing a press meet here onThursday, he said that Mastan Baba is wor-shipped by Hindus and Muslims in unisonand this Urs is organized for the past 128years at Dargah. Rammohan Rao said that theUrs would began on March 1 with GandhaMahotsavam on the Baba’s tomb with Cha-ndini decoration and Sandal rally would beheld at 11 pm night on the same day in whichthousands of devotees would participate.

Protest againstVSP intensifiesVisakhapatnam: Former

UPSC chairman and well-known academician Prof K.S.

Chalam alleged that somevested interest traded with

the R Cards, deprivingemployment to thousands offarmers who gave away theircultivable lands for the con-struction of VisakhapatnamSteel Plant. While speaking

at the agitation Prof Chalamsaid many farmers in spite ofhaving a valid R Card, couldnot get employment in the

steel plant.

129 URS CELEBRATIONS TOBE HELD FROM MARCH 1 TO 5

c m y k c m y k

pg 7DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

EDIT pg 8DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

The order of the additional sessions judge of Patiala House Courts,Delhi, granting bail to Bengaluru-based climate activist Disha A. Ravi,arrested for her alleged role in the preparation of a “toolkit” that thepolice claimed led to the violent incidents in the nation’s capital on

January 26, has sought to right two wrongs. One, it has made a timely inter-vention and stopped the state from using legal tools to put dissenting citizensbehind the bars for no end. Two, it has reassured the people that Article 19 (1)of the Constitution which guarantees the freedom of speech and expressionhas the strength to come to the aid of a legitimate dissenter.

The court demolished the Delhi police’s case by pointing out that it wasdevoid of material evidence to connect the activist with the case slapped onher; and more importantly, whatever she did was protected by theConstitution. The court found that the investigating agency which charged theactivist with sedition has produced “not an iota of evidence” to link her with

seditious or violent acts; and reminded thepolice that it cannot resort to “surmises orconjectures” to convince itself of the culpa-bility of an accused. The “scanty andsketchy” pieces of evidence the agency hasproduced are not enough to send a 22-year-oldyoung woman with absolutely blemish-freecriminal antecedents to jail, it said. Thestrong words on the nature of the evidencewere, in fact, a censure of the police, whichwent overboard picking up a citizen violatingthe Supreme Court’s guidelines and her basicrights.

The court made a series of observations onthe citizen’s rights that a democracy would love the judiciary to assert and pro-tect in the face of state assault. “Citizens are conscience keepers of the gov-ernment in any democratic nation,” it said. “They cannot be put behind thebars simply because they choose to disagree with the state policies.” In a warn-ing to the self-appointed “patriots” who miss no chance to threaten dissenterswith the label “traitor” and the state which has a profligacy to slap seditioncharge at the drop of a hat, the court said, “The offence of sedition cannot beinvoked to minister to the wounded vanity of the governments.” The courtobserved that difference of opinion, disagreement, divergence, dissent, or evendisapprobation, are recognised legitimate tools to infuse objectivity in statepolicies. If the Constitution was not enough, the judge referred to the nation’s5,000-year old civilisation and the Rig Veda to remind everyone that we were“never been averse to ideas from varied quarters”.

It’s an irony that a government manned by people who have participated inthe greatest freedom restoration movement in Independent India is resortingto suppressing voices of legitimate dissent. They should not ideally expect thenation to experience the silence of a graveyard when they go about imple-menting their agenda. They will face, to quote the judge, an “aware andassertive citizenry, in contradistinction with an indifferent or docile citizen-ry”, which is, “indisputably a sign of a healthy and vibrant democracy”. Therefreshing thoughts must set in motion a process to free many more that arelanguishing in prisons facing similar charges.

26 FEBRUARY 2021

Disha bail order shouldset welcome precedent

It’s an irony that a government manned by

people who have participated in thegreatest freedom

restoration movementin Independent India is

resorting to suppressing voices of

legitimate dissent

It has been the badpractice and badhabit of the Indianpolice and criminalinvestigators to

slap a mountain ofcharges against anyaccused in the hope thatat least some, or evenone, of them would stick.This amounts toindulging in slander inmore than a legal sense.And this is what theDelhi police and itsinvestigators have triedto do with the violencethat erupted on January26, 2021 when the farm-ers’ tractor parade wentoff the rails at somepoints. Instead of focus-ing on what went wrongduring the tractorparade, the Delhi policewent off on a tangent,distracted by the tweetsof American pop singerRihanna and teenage cli-mate protester/warriorGreta Thunberg. GretaThunberg put out atoolkit, retracted and putit back again. And it ishere that Bengaluru cli-mate activist Disha Ravi,22, entered the picture.The Delhi police saw it asa good opportunity tonail the internationallinkages of the imaginedconspiracy when theyfound the toolkit linkagebetween Ms Ravi and MsThunberg. The policediscovered that Ms Ravihad a hand in the toolkitwhen she edited it for MsThunberg.

In the heightenedatmosphere of the exag-gerated nature of thepetty violence that brokeout at Red Fort onJanuary 26, the recklessoverreach of the policeunder the guidance of anauthoritative Unionhome ministry came intoplay. The Delhi policewent off to Bengaluru,arrested Ms Ravi andbrought her to Delhi intotal violation of all legalnorms in a democraticpolity. The courts did not

cover themselves inglory when the legalprocess was short-cir-cuited in bringing MsRavi from Bengaluru toNew Delhi as though thiscountry was under mar-tial law and no questionscould be raised about theway the Delhi policewent about hauling upan ordinary citizen inBengaluru. The pusilla-nimity of the courts wasfurther underscoredwhen the police custodyof Ms Ravi was readilygranted for five days byduty judge Dev Sarohaon February 14. This wasthe police ridingroughshod over the lawand the judge allowing ittamely. Itis at theend of fivedays ofpolice cus-tody, twodays of judicial custodyand another day of policecustody, with the policewanting to confront MsRavi with the other twoaccused, Nikita JacobShantanu Muluk, thatshe was finally grantedbail and released.

The excesses commit-ted by the cybercrimebranch of the Delhipolice should have beencondemned by additionalsessions judge Dharm-ender Rana. It was easierfor him to excoriate thepolice on the seriouscharge of sedition thatthey brought against theyoung woman fromBengaluru. The judgetore into the flaky evi-dence on which theybased their charge. Itwas necessary that thejudge had said what hehad about the innocuoustoolkit and the labouredconnect that the policewanted to make betweenthe toolkit, Ms Ravi andthe Poetic JusticeFoundation (PJF). Andhe rightly pointed outthat the PJF was not abanned organisation for

the police to charge MsRavi with having associ-ated herself with an ille-gal entity.

Judge Rana could haveavoided the homiliesabout pluralist Indiancivilisation going back tothe Rig Veda and rappedthe police for creating afaux chargesheet. He didadmit that the investiga-tion was on, but the evi-dence produced by thepolice so far to opposebail to Ms Ravi waspaper-thin. But in timeswhen the government iskeen to spread the pall offear by invoking demonswho are less than papertigers, Judge Rana seemsto have found refuge inpious platitudes aboutdemocracy, liberty, andthe right of the citizen todissent. It would howev-er be mistaken to get car-ried away by JudgeRana’s quiet plaint.Something more seriousis amiss in the police’sline of investigation intothe violence of January

26. Traces of“Khalistani”e l e m e n t sbehind thethree-month-old farmers’

agitation against the newlaws brought by theNarendra Modi govern-ment has been the themesong of the governmentand the ruling party. Itseems that the police justfollows the lead of theirpolitical masters.

The “Khalistani” ele-ments have been sim-mering beneath the sur-face for many years now,but it is quite clear thatthe farmers have nothingto do with them, and thepeople, whether Indianor foreign, who sympa-thise with the farmers’agitation have nothing todo with them either. Thegovernment and thepolice are fully aware

that showing support forprotesting farmers can-not be an offence and itcannot be deemed sedi-tion. It is only by bring-ing in the “Khalistani”factor that people like MsRavi can be charged witha crime, and even if thecharge fails, they can bedefamed. It is in this dia-bolical bid to outlaw dis-sent and protest that thegovernment and theDelhi police are commit-ting the crime of under-mining democracy.

The Disha Ravi casegoes much beyond theDelhi police’s cyber-crime cell. It is a blatantmisuse of the laws of theland. The police canclaim that they investi-gate charges against peo-ple in good faith, andthey nurse no animusagainst anyone. We canreadily concede the pointif they had gone aboutthe investigation in asober manner. Theycould have easily builtup more evidence, theycould have interrogatedMsRavi in Bengaluruwithout the cheap the-atrics of arresting herand bringing her toDelhi.

There is a clear needfor the courts to ruleclearly and loudly thatthe police have no rightto arrest people as longas they are cooperatingwith the investigation,and there is no danger ofthe person absconding.In the case of Ms Ravi, itis self-evident that shewould have cooperatedwith the police investiga-tion. Arresting Ms Raviwas an attempt by thepolice to humiliate andintimidate her and makean example of her toother dissidents. Thisjust cannot be allowed ina democracy. The powersof the police to arrestpeople and keep them incustody for 24 hoursbefore they are broughtbefore a magistrate forbeing remanded smacksof a police state. A citi-zen’s liberty cannot beleft to the mercy of apoliceman or police-woman.

The writer is a Delhi-based

commentator and analyst

Judge Rana couldhave avoided the

homilies about pluralist Indian

civilisation goingback to the Rig

Veda and rappedthe police for

creating a fauxchargesheet

Arrests on flimsy basisundermine democracy

The Gujarat Cricket Association succumbed to the temptation of namingthe stadium after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The cricket arenahad many earlier monikers like Gujarat and Motera, besides having

borne the name of a famous son of the soil in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.The baptism does break an unwritten law that no edifice should be named

after a living person even if it seemed apt to honour a person who headedGCA in the long running Indian tradition of politicians getting themselveselected as presidents of cricket associations. The concept of a magnificent,cricket arena that cost more than `800 crores came from his grand vision andits creation was carried out by the other leading contemporary political per-sonality, Union home minister Amit Shah, and his son who is the BCCI sec-retary. Donald Trump, as US President, even paid a ceremonial visit therejust before the pandemic was declared in 2020.

The honour bestowed spontaneously and sentimentally on Narendra Modiis somewhat akin to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru beingawarded the Bharat Ratna by the first President Rajendra Prasad. But it doesrankle considering this is a stadium named like this since the Maharashtrapolitician and chief minister S.K. Wankhede named one in Churchgate inMumbai after himself in 1974. A second cricket stadium within a stone’sthrow of historic Brabourne was owed to a clash of egos betweenMaharashtra Cricket Association and Cricket Club of India. The era of build-ing an edifice of homage to members of one political family is thought to bewell and truly over. And so the Congress playing the Sardar Patel card in crit-icism seems hypocritical now. The issue, however, is to do with the need for21st-century India to evolve from a sycophantic, fetishist and neta-worship-ping past.

An act of sycophancy

Is Antony Blinken, US PresidentJoe Biden’s secretary of state,preparing to abandon BarackObama’s powder-puff Asian for-

eign policies? It is now widelyagreed that Mr Obama, under whomMr Blinken served as deputy secre-tary of state, ceded to China uncon-tested control of the South ChinaSea. Mr Obama’s so-called “pivot toAsia” was all talk and no trousers.Mr Blinken, who believes diploma-cy must be “supplemented by deter-rence”, may be about to implementa more aggressive foreign policy inSoutheast Asia and elsewhere.

In his first speech as general secre-tary of the Communist Party ofChina in 2012, Xi Jinping made hisintentions clear. He stated his com-mitment to “accepting the baton ofhistory and continuing to work forrealising the great revival of theChinese nation in order to let theChinese nation stand more firmlyand powerfully among all nations”.President Xi’s international adven-turism, under the umbrella of his“Belt and Road Initiative”, has beenmost evident in his illegal militaryoccupation of the South China Sea,but it is a global strategy for domina-tion which can be observed inCentral Asia, the Indian Ocean, the

Middle East, Europe, even the Arctic.How did Mr Obama respond? He

did nothing. He issued platitudes.He vacillated over whether theMutual Defence Treaty with thePhilippines included the disputedSouth China Sea. By the end of hispresidency, it was too late. Andweakness in the South China Seawas undoubtedly an invitation forMr Xi to push elsewhere on MrObama’s open door.

There are indications that theBiden administration will seek toconstruct alliances in Europe andAsia to contain the Chinese andRussian threats. As a former deputysecretary of state, Mr Blinken haslong been President Biden’s pointman on Europe and is known to bea long-time confidant. For a “multi-lateralist” who speaks fluentFrench, getting Europe onside willbe important.

British PM Boris Johnson hasbeen floating the idea of a “D-10”group: G-7 plus India, South Koreaand Australia. Having finally decid-ed to ditch Huawei, and persuadedby China’s crackdown on democra-cy in Hong Kong, the UK hasthrown its hat into the “StopChina” camp. D-10 is a groupingthat has some logic. By comparison,

Nato is undermined by the continu-ing membership of Turkey, nowclosely aligned with China. EvenFrance’s President EmmanuelMacron said Nato was “braindead”. But is the D-10 a crediblebase for an anti-Chinese contain-ment strategy?

A containment strategy needs realmilitary power. Besides the UK andFrance, the other European nationsare largely window dressing. Onesuspects neither Mr Biden nor MrBlinken have the cojones to initiatearmed conflict to contest China’salready established military con-trol of the South China Sea.

If Southeast Asia is lost, whatnext? China has already moved onto securing control of the Bay ofBengal, the Indian Ocean and SuezCanal trade routes. Burma is inChina’s pocket. Bangladesh, with165 million people, where in 2016 MrXi made the first state visit by aChinese leader in 30 years, is beingincreasingly suborned by Chineseinfrastructure investment andarmaments. In the south, where theBay of Bengal meets the IndianOcean, China is entrenched. In 2018,China negotiated a 99-year lease forSri Lanka’s Hambantota port and15,000 adjacent acres — just off

India’s coast.There’s the rub. For China’s

Southeast Asia strategy is to con-tain India, which it sees as its long-term geopolitical rival. AlthoughIndia lags a distant third toAmerica and China in terms ofaggregate GDP, it is also likely toovertake the US in 20 to 30 years.India already ranks fourth in theworld in terms of aggregate mili-tary power.

As the world’s largest democra-cies, the United States and Indiashould always be the best of friends.Yet US-Indian relations have rarelyworked well. India’s first PrimeMinister, Jawaharlal Nehru,rebuffed President Eisenhower;Nehru’s meeting with PresidentKennedy was a car crash. (Kennedylater admitted it was “the worsthead of state visit I have had”.)Henry Kissinger described IndiraGandhi’s meeting with RichardNixon as a “dialogue of the deaf”;even the normally polite Kissingerdescribed Mrs Gandhi as “a bitch”.

Relations between American andIndian heads of government havelater improved, but their substancehas not. Mr Obama liked DrManmohan Singh but judging fromhis autobiography they do not seem

to have discussed much more than“progressive politics”. As for PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, the ultra-nationalist Hindu head of the BJP,he is, like Donald Trump, a populistwith a cult following. Mr Biden maywell court Mr Modi too. NoticeablyMr Blinken, like Donald Trump,refers to Asia as “the Indo-Pacific”— a term that the Chinese govern-ment detests.

While the geopolitical interests ofAmerica and India are clearly inalignment, bringing them into amore formal arrangement may bedifficult. India is proudly indepen-dent. It does things its own way, andits prickly relationship with theWest remains.

While India — currently engagedin border skirmishes with China inthe remote Himalayas — is fullyaware of the Chinese threat, it maybe difficult to lasso the country intoa formal mutual defence relation-ship. The D-10 is one of those neatideas that might look good in a statedepartment or Foreign Office brief-ing but, given the difficulties of co-opting India and Germany, can itcut the mustard in the real world?

By arrangement with the Spectator

Francis Pike

India, America& China: Can

‘D-10’ forge newrelationships?

Subhani

ParsaVenkateshwarRao Jr

DISHA RAVI &DELHI POLICE

DECCAN CHRONICLE

KAUSHIK MITTER K. SUDHAKAREditor Printer & Publisher

DECCAN CHRONICLE offices are located at:

Hyderabad: 36, Sarojini Devi Road, Secunderabad - 500 003, Ph: 040-27803930-4; Fax : 040-27805256Vijayawada: No.C-3 & 4 Patamata, Industrial Estate, Auto Nagar, Vijayawada (A.P.), Ph: 0866-2555284/2555287; Telefax: 0866-2555234Visakhapatnam: Survey No.1/3A Beach Road, Near Kailasagiri Ropeway, Sector-9 MVP Colony,Visakhapatnam - 530 017 (A.P), Ph: 0891-2552333/2552334; Fax: 0891-2755285Rajahmundry: Vemagiri, Dhawaleswaram Rd, Rajahmundry, Ph: 0883-2417618/2417208; Telefax: 0883-2417208Anantapur: Thapovan colony, Bangalore By-Pass Road, Anantapur - 515004, Ph: 08554-276903; Fax:08554-276904Karimnagar: Survey No.1341, Vavilalapally Colony, Jagityala Road, Karimnagar - 505 001, Ph: 0878-2228908; Telefax: 0878-2220433Nellore: Survey No.527/2, Burranpur Village, Venkatachalam (M), Chemmudugunta Panchayat, Nellore, Ph:0861-2348581/82; Telefax: 0861-2348580Chennai: SP-3 Developed Plot, Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai - 600 032, Ph: 044-22254747/ 48/50/51;Advt Fax: 22254765/22254766/42305325Coimbatore: 77, Vivekananda Road, Ramnagar, Coimbatore - 641 009, Ph : 0422 2231255Gram: CHRONICLE Postal registration no: No. H/SD-348/2006-08

MODI STADIUMRenaming the Ahmedabadstadium is not in the BJP’sinterest, leave alone theOpposition criticism(Narendra Modi stadium inGujarat faces Oppn ire, DC,Feb. 25). Till now ordinarycitizens may have beenvoting for Modi as he pro-jected himself as ‘PradhanSevak’ and ‘Chowkidar’.The logic used by BJPleaders to rename the sta-dium doesn’t stand as thePradhan Sevak could havesaid no to keep his imageintact.

Dr Jaspal Singh BhatiaHyderabad

It is the height of narcissism. It israre to name a public propertyafter a living personality. It provesthat Narendra Modi is also afterfame in addition to power. Actionsearn name, either good or bad.There is no need to rename places,roads, buildings and so on. Leadersshould not go for name but workfor the people sincerely.

Kshirasagara Balaji RaoHyderabad

MAMATA’S JIBEThe strange attacks by MamataBanerjee and Narendra Modi lookslike a cat and mouse game (Didi:Modi is the biggest rioter, DC, Feb.25). No PM in Indian history hasbeen bad-mouthed so much. Whatforced the West Bengal CM to callthe PM names is for the nation tothink over and debate.

Zakaria SultanHyderabad

Mulki rules cover allTS appointments

HYDERABAD, February. 25A full bench of the AP High

Court today held that the MulkiRules constitute a Special Lawand appointments contrary to itwould be invalid, although reser-vations for Mulki were not spe-cially made in departmentalrules. The full bench consisted ofthe Chief Justice N. Kumarayya,Justice Gopal Rao Ekbote andJustice Sambasiva Rao.

The petitioners, who were allsuperintendents of theGovernment departments, filed awrit petition challenging therules for appointment ofAssistant Treasury Officers andto set aside the appointment tothat post by departmental recruit-ment.

50 YEARS AGO IN

LETTERS

NATION pg 9DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

SHORT TAKES

EMPTY ARTILLERYSHELLS GO

MISSING Jabalpur, Feb. 25: Threeempty shells of artillery wentmissing from the laboratory ofheavily-guarded Long ProofRange (LPR), an ammunitiontesting facility, at Khamaria inMadhya Pradesh’s Jabalpurdistrict on Thursday, policesaid.

The police received a com-plaint about three empty shellsof artillery going missingfrom LPR, Khamaria policestation in-charge NirupaPandey said.

These shells, weighing 6 to 7kg each, are made of a combi-nation of various metals thatfetch good money in the openmarket, she said.

The police have been alertedand scrap vendors operating innearby areas are under scan-ner, the official added.

YUSUF JJAMEEL || DDCSRINAGAR, FEB. 25

Tired of unending mili-tary tensions and fre-quent bouts of skirmish-es between the facingtroops, the border resi-dents of Jammu andKashmir have heaved asigh of relief over Indiaand Pakistan agreeing tostrictly observe all agree-ments on ceasefire alongthe Line of Control (LoC)and other sectors.

“It has come as a greatrelief to us. We hope andpray that both sides willreally ensure strictobservance of all agree-ments, understandingsand cease firing alongthe LoC,” said IrshadAhmad Khawaja, a resi-dent of Uri while speak-ing to this newspaperover the phone.

He said that the borderresidents were happy.Echoing their and hisown sentiment, he said,“If the two countries’armies follow the prom-ise we won’t suffer anyfurther human and prop-erty losses. Kam se kamchen ki sans ley payengay(At least, we will breathin peace).”

Bashir Ahmed Wathloo,chairman of RuralDevelopment Society, Urisaid, “I will get a goodnight’s sleep now. My joyknows no bounds today.”

However, BashirAhmad Dar, who lives atBalkote, a hamlet at astone’s throw from theLoC, said he would keephis fingers crossed. Darwho lost his wife FarooqaBegum, 35, in cross-LoCshelling in Novemberlast year said, “I feel lostsince I have lost myspouse. Had the two sidesabided by the ceasefireagreement they hadreached in 2003, myworld would not havebeen ruined”.

Though the two coun-tries pushed on with theceasefire agreementsigned after months oftortuous negotiations in2003, the facing armiesand border guards haveoften clashed both alongthe LoC andInternational Border(IB), the 198-km stretch ofthe 2,912-km India-Pakistan border fromGujarat to J&K called‘Working Boundary’ byIslamabad as it passesthrough a “disputedregion” particularly.

Both sides sufferedhugely in interminablehostility particularlyafter 2010 but it has beenmainly the civilian popu-lations on both sideswhich bore the brunt in

cross border firing andshelling over the years.

There had been strongcraving for bringing thisto a close.

J&K parties too welcome the pledge

Apart from the borderresidents, the freshpledge of the two sides torevert to the November2003 ceasefire agreementand hold to it has beenwelcomed by J&K’s polit-ical parties across theboard.

Former chief ministerand National Conferencepresident, FarooqAbdullah, said that themeasure will go a longway towards sustainablepeace between the twoneighboring countries.

“The agreementbetween the DGMOs ofIndia and Pakistan willgo a long way in usheringlong lasting peace along-side LoC and IB. NC hasalways been a strongvotary of Indo-Pak peace.It is the people of J&Kwho have been facing thebrunt of escalating ten-sions alongside the bor-ders. I hope the agree-ment is followed in letterand spirit. The develop-ment, I sincerely believe,will allow people livingalongside LoC and IB togo about their normallives with minimal dis-ruption and risk,” hesaid. People’sDemocratic Party presi-dent, Mehbooba Mufti,said, “It is a big and wel-come development.”

The former chief min-ister added, “I have beensaying all along that dia-logue is the only way for-ward if both countrieswant to stop the unend-ing cycle of violence andbloodshed across the bor-ders and J&K”.

Separatist HurriyatConference faction head-ed by Mirwaiz UmarFarooq said, “It is a movein the right direction. Itwill provide huge reliefto the beleaguered peopleliving under constantthreat on the LoC andend the bloodshed there.”

It added, “Just as thejoint statement correctlypoints out that ‘in theinterest of achievingmutually beneficial andsustainable peace alongthe borders, the twoDGMOs agreed to

address each other’s coreissues and concernswhich have propensity todisturb the peace andlead to violence’, like-wise in the interest ofmutually beneficial andsustainable peace in theentire region,Governments of Indiaand Pakistan need toaddress the core concernof J&K in keeping withthe aspirations of its peo-ple. It is this issue whichis the cause of conflictand violence in theregion”.

Puducherry, Feb. 25:Attacking Congress leaderRahul Gandhi for his recent'north-south' remarks,Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday allegedthe party's policy was to“divide, lie and rule.”

Not mincing words, hesaid the Congress culture offeudal politics, dynasty pol-itics, patronage politics wasending and people all overthe country were rejectingthe party.

He also expressed shockover Gandhi’s contentionthat there was no ‘dedicat-ed’ fisheries ministry.

“They are gold, silver andbronze medal winners intelling lies,” Modi saidaddressing a public meet-ing in poll-boundPuducherry, as he said peo-ple of the union territory

were celebrating the “free-dom from misgovernance ofCongress.” Modi hit out atformer Puducherry ChiefMinister V Narayanasamy,implying he headed a ‘highcommand’ government thatserved the interests of a fewCongress leaders in Delhi.

He also slammed him for“lying” about the complaintmade by a woman againstthe government during theCongress leader’s visit herea fortnight ago.

Pitching Puducherry as aregion with potential invarious sectors, he said theNDA wanted to make it theBEST, saying the acronymmeant the UT being a hub ofBusiness, Education,Spirituality and Tourism.

Training his guns againstthe Congress, whose party-led government fell on

Monday after it wasreduced to minority in thewake of resignations, hesaid “the Congress cultureyou saw in Puducherry forfive years is how the partyworks nationally.”

“Our colonial rulers hadthe policy of divide andrule. Congress has a policyof divide, lie and rule.Sometimes their leadersput region against region,sometimes they put com-munity against communi-ty.” Gandhi had said he wasused to a “different type ofpolitics” in north India andcoming to the southernstate was “very refreshing”as people are interested in“issues”, which drew con-demnation from the BJP,whose leaders accused himof an opportunistic anti-North bias. — PTI

RABINDRA NNATHCHOUDHURY || DDCBHOPAL, FEB. 25

Madhya Pradesh govern-ment has spent `724 crorefor treatment of Covid-19patients in the state tillJanuary 30.

This was informed by statehealth minister PrabhuramChoudhury in the stateassembly.

Of the amount, the stategovernment has disbursed`173 crore to 8 private hospi-tals designated as Covid-19facilities in the state.

Two hospitals in Bhopaland Indore alone had beendisbursed `125 crore, MrChoudhury said.

Bhopal and Indore havebeen identified as Covid-19hotspots in the state.

As many as 28,964 Covid-19patients had been admittedto these 8 hospitals. The 8hospitals cumulativelyrecorded 956 deaths.

Madhya Pradesh has so farrecorded 2,60,313 positivecases. Out of them, 2,54,186patients have recovered.

The state has reported3,857 deaths so far.

Modi targets Rahul overhis ‘north-south’ remarks

MP SPENT `724 CRORE FOR COVID-19TREATMENT, MINISTER INFORMS HOUSE

DC CCORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, FEB. 25

Worried over the risingcases of Covid-19, the UnionCabinet Secretary has sched-uled a review meeting withseven states - Maharashtra,Kerala, Punjab, MadhyaPradesh, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat and Chhattisgarh -that are witnessing anupsurge in daily detections.

The Centre has also rushedMulti-Disciplinary HighLevel Central teams to thesestates.

India’s active caseload was1,51,708 on Thursday com-prising 1.37% of the totalpositive cases. This is large-ly attributable to theupsurge in daily new casesin these seven states.

Overall 16,738 new daily

cases were recorded in thelast 24 hours out of which89.57% of the new caseswere from these sevenstates. Maharashtra contin-ues to report the highestdaily new cases at 8,807 fol-lowed by Kerala with 4,106while Punjab reported 558new cases. In Maharashtra,229 cases were detected froma single hostel of a school inWashim district followingwhich the school has beendeclared a containmentzone. The school has over 300students out of which 225students and four teacherstested positive. The studentshad joined the hostel onFebruary 14. 21 studentstested positive in the firstfew days, after which all 327students were made to takeRT-PCR tests.

Maha: 229 studentstest Covid positive

J&K border residentsheave sigh of reliefIndia, Pak for strict observance of ceasefire agreements

● ● IN WWRITTENRESPONSE to a questionin Lok Sabha earlier thismonth, Union Minister ofState for Home G KishanReddy said a total of10,752 cases of ceasefireviolations have takenplace along India’s bor-der with Pakistan in thelast three years, in which72 security personneland 70 civilians werekilled.

● ● HE SSAID 364 securitypersonnel and 341 civil-ians were injured incross-border firingsalong the InternationalBorder and the Line ofControl in Jammu andKashmir in 2018, 2019and 2020.

SRIDHARKUMARASWAMI || DDCNEW DELHI, FEB. 25

Hours after India andPakistan agreed to a“strict observance” ofthe ceasefire along theLine of Control (LoC),Pakistani NationalSecurity Advisor (NSA)Moeed Yusuf made itclear that there had been“no back-channel” talksbetween him and India’sNSA Ajit Doval but nev-ertheless added that the“welcome developmenton the LoC is a result ofdiscussions through theestablished channel ofDGMOs” and that “obvi-ously these are by theirvery nature not in thepublic eye and done pri-vately and professionallythrough the direct chan-nel”.

The Pakistani NSAinsisted that that “thereis nothing more thanmeets the eye here”.

Meanwhile, India onThursday evening alsosaid it “desires normalneighbourly relationswith Pakistan” and has“always maintained thatwe (India) are committedto addressing issues, ifany, in a peaceful bilater-al manner”.

Asked whether this wasthe start of the resump-tion of the Indo-Pakpeace process, New Delhimerely said that “on keyissues, our positionremains unchanged”.

India had earlier thismonth squarely put theonus on Pakistan to “cre-ate an environment freeof terror, hostility andviolence”, in its response

to a media query on thestatement made byPakistan’s Army chiefGen. Qamar Javed Bajwawho had said that “it is time” for his countryto “extend the hand of peace in all direc-tions”.

The Pakistan Armychief had even called onboth countries to resolvethe Kashmir issue in a“peaceful and dignifiedmanner”, in commentsthat were seen as a possi-ble outreach to India.

On Thursday evening,the Pakistani NSA tweet-ed, “I have seen claims byIndian media that attrib-ute ceasefire announce-ment between Pakistaniand Indian DGMOs toback-channel diplomacybetween me and theIndian NSA. This is base-less. No such talks havetaken place between meand Mr. Doval. The wel-come development on theLoC is a result of discus-sions through the estab-lished channel ofDGMOs. Obviously theseare by their very naturenot in the public eye anddone privately and pro-fessionally through thedirect channel.”

The Pakistani NSAadded, “Pakistan hascontinued to call for the2003 ceasefire agreementto be honored and I amglad we have reached theunderstanding. It mustbe followed in letter andspirit. Doing so will saveinnocent lives so no oneshould question theintent. Nor should wronginferences be drawn.There is nothing morethan meets the eye here.”

There are noback-channeltalks: Pak NSA

SONU SSHRIVASTAVA || DDCMUMBAI, FEB. 25

Maharashtra government onThursday announced cur-tailed budget session of stateAssembly citing rising num-ber of Covid cases. However,the Opposition walked outfrom the business advisorycommittee accusing the gov-ernment of running awayfrom its responsibilitytowards people. The budgetsession will have eight work-ing days from March 1 to 10.The budget will be presentedon March 8.

The decision was taken onThursday in a meeting of theBusiness Advisory Committee(BAC), which was attended bychief minister UddhavThackeray and leader of oppo-sition in MaharashtraAssembly Devendra Fadnavisamong others.

Mr. Fadnavis said, “The gov-ernment is not interested inholding discussions… In afirst, the government does notwant to complete the budgetprocess. The budget will betabled and discussion will beheld on it but the demandswould not be made on it. It istotally unlawful.”

Parliamentary Affairs AnilParab said that the decisionwas taken considering Covid-19 situation in the state.“Many ministers and legisla-tors have been infected withthe Coronavirus. The sessionwill begin from March 1 toMarch 10. The Governor'saddress to the two Houses willbe on the first day of the ses-sion. In addition to this, sup-plementary demands will alsobe tabled on the same,” headded.

According to state officials,RT-PCR test has been mademandatory for all the legisla-tors, officials, employees, secu-ritymen and mediapersons forthe assembly session.

MAHARASHTRABUDGET SESSION

CURTAILED

NATION pg 10DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

SHORT TAKES

I-T RAIDS OFFICES,RESIDENCES OFHARYANA MLA

MUMBAI MAYORUNVEILS RESTORED

TRAM CAR

RSS ACTIVIST’SMURDER: 8 SDPIWORKERS HELD

GILVESTER ASSARY | DCTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 25

The brutal murder of RSSactivist in Vayalar inAlappuzha district of Keralaallegedly by SDPI workers, thepolitical arm of PFI, has creat-ed tension in many parts ofthe area.

Nandu N. Krishna, 23, washacked to death allegedly bySDPI workers on Wednesdaynight following a politicalclash between the rivalgroups. Eight SDPI workershave been arrested in connec-tion with the murder; Suneer,33, Yasir , 32, Abdul Khader, 52,Mohammed Amaz , 24, Ansil ,33, Riyaz, 38, Nishad , 32, andShabudeen , 49.

The police said that the mur-der was well-planned as theassailants had arrived at thespot in a car carrying sharpedged weapons. Theseweapons were used for hack-ing the RSS worker.

The BJP and Hindu outfitshad called for a dawn to duskhartal in the district onThursday against the murder.

The police have clamped pro-hibitory orders in some areasof Cherthala and Vayalar tocheck retaliatory attacks bythe rival groups.

The area had witnessed political clashes in the recentdays.

Mumbai, Feb. 25: Mumbaimayor Kishori Pednekar onThursday unveiled a tram carrestored by theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) in southMumbai, a civic official said.

The civic body had earlierdisplayed the tram car on anelevated podium at BhatiaBaug garden next toChhatrapati Shivaji MaharajTerminus, but due to variousreasons including the Covid-19pandemic, it was not open forpublic viewing.

“The BMC has taken thistram from the BEST andinstalled it at Bhatia Baug sopeople could re-experience thepast glory of Mumbai,”Pednekar said, while unveil-ing the tram.

The yellow and marooncoloured single-decker tramcar is decorated with lights fortourists to enjoy viewing it atnight time as well, the mayorsaid.

Trams were part ofMumbai’s public transportsystem for nearly 90 years andwere one of the cheapest andfavourite modes of transportfor citizens, before they werediscontinued from service in1964.

Chandigarh, Feb. 25: TheIncome Tax Department car-ried out raids on the officesand residences of Haryana’sIndependent MLA fromMeham, Balraj Kundu, inRohtak on Thursday, officialssaid here.

A residential building linkedto his relatives in Hisar dis-trict and another one inGurgaon which is connected tothe legislator himself weresearched as well, they said.

Kundu, a vocal supporter ofthe ongoing farmer’s agitationagainst the new central farmlaws, had in February 2020withdrawn support to the M.L.Khattar dispensation inHaryana, saying he was“deeply hurt” with the govern-ment giving “clean chit” tothose involved in the allegedcorruption in sugar which hehad flagged.

In October 2020, the HaryanaPolice booked him and threeother people in a cheatingcase. The FIR was registeredin Gurgaon based on a com-plaint from a resident of thecity, the police had said.

The MLA had then hit back,saying the FIR, like anotherone lodged against him inJanuary 2020, was due to“political considerations” andthat he had been raising hisvoice against the BJP-led gov-ernment in Haryana on vari-ous issues. The state policehad in January 2020 bookedKundu and his brother Shivrajfor allegedly cheating aRohtak resident.

When the case was regis-tered, Kundu had claimed thathe was being framed in thecase due to political vendettaat the behest of a BJP leaderand former minister from thestate. Kundu, who runs a con-struction company along withhis brother, was not answeringcalls.

London, Feb. 25: NiravModi’s story up until theUK court verdict onThursday, just two daysbefore his 50th birthday, isone of stark contrasts.From someone flush withdiamonds, quite literally,as a member of a Gujaratifamily of gem traders whogrew up in the Europeanjewellery hub of Antwerpin Belgium, to ending upholed up in a jail cell inone Europe’s most over-crowded prisons.

The diamond merchantwanted in India oncharges of fraud andmoney laundering in theestimated USD 2-billionPunjab National Bank(PNB) scam case, lost hislegal battle against extra-dition as a UK judge ruledthat he does have a case toanswer before the Indiancourts.

He has been lodged atWandsworth Prison insouth-west London sincehis arrest on an extradi-tion warrant in March2019 at a central Londonbank branch, where hewas trying to set up a newaccount.

He had been stayingnearby at a plush pent-house in Centrepoint inthe heart of the UK capi-tal, regularly walking hisdog to an apparently newjewellery business nearby.

It later emerged duringremand hearings atWestminster Magistrates’Court in London that hehad hired Boutique LawLLP in anticipation of theextradition proceedingson charges of fraud andmoney laundering by theCentral Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) andEnforcement Directorate(ED), trying to strike a vol-untary surrender and baildeal.

However, as the CBI andED evidence was present-ed in court by the CrownProsecution Service (CPS),arguing on behalf of theIndian authorities, hisoffer of up to GBP 4 mil-lion as security to beallowed to be bailed understrict house arrest condi-tions was repeatedlyrejected.

His detention in a sharedcell with one other inmateis a far cry from his pastbillionaire lifestyle, whichinvolved hobnobbing withhigh-profile celebritiesand his diamond designsfinding red carpet favourwith stars.

“I was totally impressedwith the craftsmanship atthe workshop [in India]. Itwas the best quality Icould see anywhere in theworld, Thierry Fritsch, ahigh-end French jewellery

expert, told the UK courtduring the course of theextradition hearing lastyear.

As someone who hadserved on the AdvisoryBoard of Nirav Modi’scompany for three yearssince 2015, Fritsch wasdeposed by the defenceteam to vouch for Nirav’sintegrity and skills as anentrepreneur and creativeperson, who was passion-ate about establishing thefirst international brandof luxury jewellery out ofIndia.

A gems expert, DrRichard Taylor, was alsofielded to go into the nitty-gritties of the diamondtrade and how the NiravModi brand had succeededin making a mark aroundthe world.

“The industry relies onsending out high-valueproduct to companies andto do that they requiretrust and confidence,” saidTaylor, in an attempt toestablish Modi’s credibili-ty in the business.

“India is the largest andmost important centre ofdiamond cutting it was avery significant trend thathe [Modi] was part of,” headded.

The picture painted incourt was one of a talentedjewellery designer whowas only driven by onemission to make the NiravModi brand worthy ofcompetition with the likesof global luxury jewellerybrands such as Tiffany orCartier. And, the accusati-ons associated with theextradition case were pai-nted as nothing more thana commercial dispute.

The CPS, in turn, pre-sented documents andvideo evidence in an effortto establish a complex webof misuse of a bank creditfacility called letters ofundertaking (LoUs) andthreats issued to so-calleddummy directors of frontcompanies to keep themout of the reach of Indianinvestigative authorities.

Throughout the extradi-tion case in London, NiravModi’s depression and me-ntal health condition rem-ained at the heart of argu-ments with his extendedincarceration said to haveworsened his condition.

Coupled with a severecondition of depression,in my view, he presents ahigh risk of suicide albeitnot immediately, Dr

Andrew Forrester, a foren-sic psychiatrist who exam-ined him, told the court inSeptember last year.

At the time, Forrestersaid Nirav’s mental healthcondition was on a deterio-ration trajectory and metthe criteria for hospitaltreatment in the absenceof a multi-professional

plan, involving antidepres-sants and psychotherapy.

Except for a few initial r-emand hearings in 2019, N-irav has been appearing o-nly via video link from a r-oom in Wandsworth Priso-n as the case was conduct-ed in a part-remote settingdue to Covid-19 lockdown.

During the hearings last

year, he seemed alert andconstantly referred to filesrelated to the case madeavailable to him. Morerecently, he has appearedvia video link sporting athick beard and at timesmore dishevelled than hisappearance in a formalshirt and suit over the pastyear. — PTI

Nirav: From diamantaire to fugitiveHe has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March 2019

JANUARY 29, 2018: PunjabNational Bank (PNB) filespolice complaint againstNirav Modi, Mehul Choksiand others accusing fraudto the tune of `2.81 billion.FEBRUARY 5: The CBIlaunches an investigationinto the alleged scam.FEBRUARY 16: The EDseizes a cumulative `56.74billion worth of diamonds,gold and jewellery fromNirav Modi’s home andoffices.FEBRUARY 17: The CBI makes firstarrest in the case. Two PNB employeesand an executive of Nirav Modi’s groupwere detained.FEBRUARY 17: Government suspendspassports of Nirav Modi and MehulChoksi for four weeks in connection withthe PNB fraud.FEBRUARY 21: CBI arrests CFO of NiravModi’s firm and two other senior execu-tives of his firms. It also seals his farm-house in Alibaug.FEBRUARY 22: The ED seizes nine luxu-ry cars belonging to Nirav Modi and hisfirms.FEBRUARY 27: A magistrate’s courtissues a bailable arrest warrant againstdiamond trader Nirav Modi.JUNE 2: The Interpol issues Red CornerNotice against Nirav Modi for moneylaundering.JUNE 25: The ED moves a special court inMumbai seeking Nirav Modi’s extradi-tion.AUGUST 3: The Indian Governmentsends a request for the extradition ofNirav Modi to the UK authorities.AUGUST 20: The CBI officials requestInterpol Manchester to detain NiravModi after the latter informs about hispresence in London to Indian authorities.DECEMBER 27: The UK informs Indiathat Nirav Modi is living in the country.MARCH 9, 2019: British newspaper ‘TheTelegraph’ confronts Nirav Modi onLondon’s streets and confirms his pres-ence in the country.MARCH 9: The ED says the governmentof the UK has sent an extradition request

of fugitive diamantaireNirav Modi to a UK courtfor further proceeding.MARCH 18: WestminsterCourt in London issuesarrest warrant againstfugitive Nirav Modi afterthe Indian governmentrequest was forwarded tothe court by the UK HomeOffice MARCH 20: Nirav Modiarrested in London andproduced in WestminsterCourt, which denies himbail.

MARCH 20: Nirav Modi sent to HerMajesty’s Prison (HMP) Wandsworth tillMarch 29MARCH 29: A Westminster MagistratesCourt in London rejects Nirav Modi’ssecond bail application, saying there are“substantial grounds” to believe that hewill fail to surrender. The judge fixesApril 26 as the next date of hearing whenhe will appear via video link from jail.MAY 8: Nirav Modi denied bail for a thirdtime, to remain in UK jail.JUNE 12: UK court rejects Nirav Modi’sbail for fourth time over fears he wouldabscond.AUGUST 22: Nirav Modi’s remandextended till September 19, UK extradi-tion trial expected in May 2020.NOVEMBER 6: UK court rejects NiravModi’s new bail applicationMAY 11, 2020: Nirav Modi’s five-dayextradition trial in PNB fraud casebegins in UK MAY 13: Indian govt submits more proofagainst Nirav Modi in money launderingcaseSEPTEMBER 7, 2020: UK court givenfresh video tour of Mumbai’s ArthurRoad Jail DECEMBER 1: Nirav Modi’s remandextended, final hearings in 2021 JANUARY 8, 2021: UK court decides topronounce judgement in Nirav Modi’sextradition case on February 25 FEBRUARY 25, 2021: UK court rules NiravModi can be extradited to India to facecharges of fraud and money laundering.

— PTI

A UK court on Thursday ruled that fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modican be extradited to India to face charges of fraud and moneylaundering amounting to an estimated $2 billion. Following is thechronology of the case and its origin

MEA: Govt will liaisewith UK for Nirav’searly extraditionDC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, FEB. 25

India on Thursdayevening said that “sincethe WestminsterMagistrate’s Court hasrecommended NiravModi’s extradition to theUK home secretary, theGovernment of Indiawould liaise with the UKauthorities for his earlyextradition to India”

On Thursday, theMinistry of ExternalAffairs said, “Nirav Modiis wanted in India in con-nection with the multi-million dollar PunjabNational Bank Fraud case.On the request of CBI andED, his extradition fromUK was sought in August2018. He was arrested andproduced before theSenior District Judge atWestminster Magistrate’scourt on 20.03.2019. Sincethen he is facing extradi-tion proceedings while injudicial custody. The finalhearing in this case washeld on 7-8 January 2021.On Thursday, theWestminster Magistrate’sCourt in London has pro-nounced that Nirav Modibe extradited to India tostand trial.”

The MEA added,“Dismissing the mentalhealth concerns raised byNirav Modi, the judgeobserved that Nirav Modiconspired to destroy evi-dence and intimidate wit-nesses. Since the Courthas recommended hisextradition to the UK

Home Secretary, Indiawould liaise with the UKauthorities for his earlyextradition to India.”

A senior diplomat atIndia House said the judg-ment paves the way for thegovernment of India andthe high commission offi-cials to liaise with the UKauthorities on the nextstages of the proceduralmatters for extradition.

LONG ROAD TO EXTRADITION

Nirav Modi

RABINDRA NATHCHOUDHURY | DC BHOPAL, FEB. 25

A ‘devotee’ of MahatmaGandhi’s assassinNathuram Godse has beeninducted in Congress here,much to the chagrin of astrong section of the party.

Babulal Chaurasia whohad a few years agopledged to spread Godse’slast court statement to onelakh people was welcomedinto the party by MPPradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) presi-

dent and former chiefminister Kamal Nath hereon Wednesday.

The official Twitter han-dle of MP Congress onWednesday evening brokethe news of Chaurasiabeing admitted toCongress by sharing thepicture of the event in theparty HQ here.

Former PCC president ofMP Arun Yadav reacted tothe development with aone-liner, “Bapu humsharminda hai’ (Bapu, weare ashamed).

He tagged the photo-

graph showing Nath wel-coming Chaurasia into theparty in his Twitteraccount, while posting hiscomment.

Sources in the party saidthe decision to inductGodse’s “follower” in theparty has left many seniorleaders in Congress flab-bergasted.

Chaurasia had quitCongress and joinedHindu Mahasabha in 2014to contest the local civicbody elections in Gwalior.

He was said to be one ofthe brain behind the tem-

ple built for Godse inGwalior in 2017.

He was also reportedlypresent at the ‘consecra-tion’ ceremony held toinstall Godse’s statue inthe temple.

Later, the Gwalior dis-trict administration hadremoved the idol.

Talking to reporters inGwalior on Thursday,Chaurasia described hisjoining in Congress as his“homecoming”.

“I was not aware thenthat the idol I was wor-shiping was that of Godse.

I was pushed into worship-ing the idol”, he said.

Hindu Mahasabhanational vice-presidentJaiveer Bhardwaj took aswipe at Chaurasia for dis-owning his devotion toGodse, saying, “He(Chaurasia) used to bepresent in almost all theevents organised to payrespect to Godse in the lastseveral years”.

“It shows Congress is notaverse to accommodatingpeople who espouse thenationalistic ideology ofNathuram Godse”, he

added.BJP took a jibe at

Congress for inducting theGodse ‘devotee’, sayingthat this has exposed thegrand old party’s doublestandard as far as stickingto its ideology is con-cerned.

“On one hand, Congressprojects itself as the right-ful inheritor of MahatmaGandhi’s legacy, on theother the party is not hesi-tant a bit to embrace astaunch follower ofGodse”, BJP spokesmanRajneesh Agrawal said.

Godse ‘devotee’ inducted in MP CongressChaurasia had earlier pledged to spread Godse’s last court statement to 1L peopleNEW | MEMBER

Electrifying protest

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rides an electric scooter during a protest against the hike in fuelprice in Kolkata on Thursday. She slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre, “We are protesting against thefuel price hike. The Modi government only makes false promises. They have done nothing to bring down fuelprices. You can see the difference in petrol prices when the Modi government came to power and now.” — PTI

● ● PICTURE PAINTED incourt was one of a talent-ed jewellery designer whowas only driven by onemission to make the NiravModi brand worthy.

Journalists report the verdict to allow the extradition ofNirav Modi, outside Westminster Magistrates Court inLondon on Thursday. — AP

SHAHAB ANSARI | DCMUMBAI, FEB. 25

An abandoned vehiclewith 20 gelatin sticks wasfound just metres awayfrom business tycoonMukesh Ambani’s housein Mumbai on Thursday.

The SUV was noticed ataround 3 pm after whichsome people from thevicinity alerted the localpolice, who rushed to thespot and cordoned off theentire area, sending thestate government and thepolice into a tizzy.

A Bomb Detection andDisposal Squad (BDDS)team reached the spotimmediately, he said. Itwas not an assembledexplosive device, he said,adding that further inves-tigation was on.

“A Scorpio with 20 gela-

tin sticks was found nearMukesh Ambani’sMumbai residence. Thecrime branch of MumbaiPolice is investigating theentire matter and the truth will emergesoon,” Maharashtra homeminister Anil Deshmukhsaid.

According to reports,CCTV footage of the arearevealed the SUV was

parked beside a tree onthe Carmichael Road ataround 1 am. More thanone person was seenalighting from the car.

Deshmukh said that thecar was parked some dis-tance away fromAmbani’s palatial house.

Mumbai Policespokesperson, DCP S. Chaitanya, said, “Thegelatin sticks recovered inthe SUV were not anassembled explosivedevice. But details of therisks they posed would beknown only after a thor-ough probe.”

Efforts are on to tracethe persons who parkedthe vehicle there, fromwhere they came, whatwere their diabolicmotives, who or whatwere the exact targets etc.,officials said.

Vehicle with explosives foundnear Mukesh Ambani’s house

● ● THE SUV was noticedat around 3 pm afterwhich some people fromthe vicinity alerted thelocal police, who rushedto the spot.

● ● CCTV FOOTAGE of thearea revealed the SUVwas parked beside a treeon the Carmichael Roadat around 1 am.

New Delhi, Feb’. 25: Aday before Delhi ChiefMinister ArvindKejriwal’s roadshow inGujarat’s Surat, sourcesin the AAP governmentalleged on Thursdaythat his security coverhas been scaled down, acharge denied by theUnion Home Ministry.

Joint Commissioner(Security) of Delhi Poli-ce ID Shukla said Kej-riwal has a Z+ securitycover and his “completeZ+ security” is beingmaintained. — PTI

KEJRIWAL’SSECURITY COVERREDUCED: AAP

New Delhi, Feb. 25: TheCBI on Thursday termedthe judgement of a UKcourt in the Nirav Modi'scase as “significant” andsaid it should serve as areminder to all fugitives,who have indulged inlarge value frauds, thatthey cannot escape thelaw merely by changingtheir countries of resi-dence.

The CBI said the courtorder vindicated thepainstaking probe carriedout by the agency espe-cially since Modi hadraised various issues onadmissibility of evidence,fairness of investigation,trial, prison conditions,availability of healthfacilities in India andextraneous consideration,with a view to divertattention from his ownacts. — PTI

CBI SAYS VERDICTIS REMINDER TOALL FUGITIVES

CINE

AM

c m y k c m y k

pg 11DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

WORLD pg 12DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD |

FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

Japanese firefightersbattle 2 forest firesTokyo, Feb. 25: A forestfire broke out in a ruralarea north of Tokyo onThursday, near anotherblaze burning for a fourthday. One man sufferedburns and was hospital-ized, and firefighters havebeen deployed, said Hito-mi Hirokami, an officialat Kiryu in Gunma prefec-ture, about 100 kilometresnorthwest of Tokyo.

News footage showedsmoke billowing upwardfrom the hills. Anotherfire has been raging innearby Ashikaga in Toch-igi prefecture, where 207households have been ask-ed to evacuate, said spoke-sman Minoru Takayama.

Firefighters were work-ing on the ground, whilemilitary helicopters weredousing the area. No one

has been injured. The two fires are not

directly related, but thearea has not had muchrain lately, causing flamesto spread, officials said.An evacuation order forAshikaga was first issuedTuesday for about 50households, underlininghow the stricken area wasgrowing.

— AP

SPLIT CYPRUSPREZ HAILS UNBID TO RESUMEPEACE TALKSNicosia, Feb. 25: TheGreek Cypriot presidentof ethnically divided Cy-prus said on Thursdayhe'll attend a UnitedNations-hosted meetingin April with the leaderof the breakaway Turk-ish Cypriots with “fullpolitical will” to get dor-mant peace talks up andrunning again. NicosAnastasiades expressedin a statement his “str-ong determination” totry and find common gr-ound with Turkish Cyp-riot leader Ersin Tatarwhen they meet in Gen-eva, Switzerland on Ap-ril 27-29.

UN Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres willhost the informal meet-ing that will also beattended by the foreignministers of Cyprus'“guarantors” — Greece,Turkey and Britain.This will be the latestpush to get the two sidesfocused on reaching apeace deal that hasremained elusive sinceCyprus' division in 1974,when Turkey invadedfollowing a coup aimingat union with Greece.

Only Turkey recognis-es a Turkish Cypriot de-claration of independ-ence in the east Medite-rranean island's north-ern third. The last atte-mpt at cobbling togetheran accord over severaldays at a Swiss resort inthe summer of 2017 col-lapsed amid acrimony.

April's meeting is over-shadowed by Turkey'sapparent shift from thelong-established aim offorging a federationmade up of Greek- andTurkish-speaking zones.

— AP

RARELY SEENVAN GOGHPAINTINGEXHIBITEDParis, Feb. 25: A rarepainting by Dutch impr-essionist master Vincentvan Gogh of a street sce-ne in the Parisian neigh-bourhood of Montmart-re will be publicly dis-played for the first timebefore its auction nextmonth. Sotheby's aucti-on house said the work,painted in 1887, has rem-ained in the same familycollection for more than100 years — out of thepublic eye.

It will be exhibitednext month in Amsterd-am, Hong Kong and Par-is ahead of an auctionscheduled on March 25in the French capital.“It's an important paint-ing in the oeuvre of Vin-cent van Gogh because itdates from the period inwhich he's living inParis with his brother,Theo," Etienne Hellman,senior director of Impre-ssionist and Modern Artat Sotheby's, said.

Van Gogh moved toParis in 1886 and lived inMontmartre. He left thecapital in 1888 for south-ern France, where helived until his death in1890. “Before this, hispaintings are much dar-ker... In Paris he discov-ers colour,” Hellmansaid. “Colour blows upinto the painting."

“Street Scene in Mont-martre” depicts a wind-mill named the PepperMill, seen from the stre-et under a bright sky,with a man, a womenand a little girl walkingin front of wooden pal-isades that surroundedthe place. “Paris marksthis period where... themajor impressionistsinfluence his work,”Hellman said.

— AP

WORLD pg 13DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

SHORT TAKESGERMAN POLICE

RAID ISLAMICEXTREMISTS

Berlin, Feb. 25: Hundreds ofGerman police officers con-ducted coordinated raids earlyThursday in Berlin and thesurrounding state of Branden-burg in the investigation of anorganisation banned over alle-gations of Islamic extremism.

Some 800 police, includingSWAT teams, were involved inthe raids of apartments linkedto members of the organisati-on, authorities told the DPAnews agency. The raids werecarried out with the primaryfocus of obtaining evidence.No arrests were immediatelyreported. Berlin authoritiessaid further details would bereleased at a press conferencelater Thursday.

MINE COLLAPSEIN INDONESIA

KILLS SIXJakarta, Feb. 25: An illegalgold mine in Indonesia'sSulawesi island collapsed onnearly two dozen people work-ing inside, killing three andleaving another five missing,officials said Thursday.

Survivors estimated about 23people were trapped in therubble when the mine inCentral Sulawesi province'sParigi Moutong district col-lapsed late Wednesday due tounstable soil, said AndriasHendrik Johannes, who headsthe local search and rescueagency. Rescuers were able topull 15 people from the debrisand recover the bodies ofthree women during a gruell-ing search effort, he said.Police, emergency personnel,soldiers and volunteers wereall taking part in the efforts.

DRONE HIT ONSAUDI PALACE

WAS FROM IRAQBaghdad, Feb. 25: Explosive-laden drones that targetedSaudi Arabia's royal palace inthe kingdom's capital lastmonth were launched frominside Iraq, a senior Iran-back-ed militia official in Baghdadand a US official said.

Speaking to The AssociatedPress this week, the militiaofficial said three drones werelaunched from Iraqi-Saudiborder areas by a relativelyunknown Iran-backed factionin Iraq and crashed into theroyal complex in Riyadh onJanuary 23, exacerbatingregional tensions.

Attacks on the Saudi capitalhave been sporadic amid thekingdom's years-long waragainst Houthi rebels whocontrol large part of neigh-bouring Yemen.

SRI LANKASEEKS $2.2 BN

FROM CHINAColombo, Feb. 25: Sri Lankais seeking $2.2 billion fromChinese banks, the govern-ment said Thursday, in echoesof a borrowing binge morethan a decade ago that resultedin the country having to giveup a strategic port to China.

Money and capital marketsminister Nivard Cabraal saidthe government was hopeful offinalising a $1.5-billion swapfacility with China's centralbank. “Within the next twoweeks we should be able tofinalise it,” Cabraal toldreporters in Colombo whilemaintaining that the fundswould be used as a “buffer” tomeet the government's foreigncurrency needs.

Official figures show SriLanka's foreign reserves plum-meted to $4.8 billion at the endof January.

GAY SEX:MALAYSIAN WINS

CHALLENGE Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 25: AMalaysian man Thursday wonthe country's first legal chal-lenge against Islamic lawsbanning gay sex, a victoryhailed as “monumental progr-ess” in combating persecutionof the LGBT community.

He was charged in an Islamiccourt in 2019 with attemptingto have “intercourse againstthe order of nature”, and sev-eral others in the same casehave already pleaded guiltyand were caned as a punish-ment.

Critics say the climate isworsening for the gay commu-nity in Muslim-majorityMalaysia, with governmentofficials often speaking outagainst LGBT people.

In Thursday's landmark case,the legislation banning gaysex was enacted in Selangorstate, outside Kuala Lumpur.

Jakarta, Feb. 25: A birdlast seen more than 170years ago in the rain-forests of Borneo has beenrediscovered, amazingconservationists who havelong assumed it wasextinct.

The Black-browed Babb-ler has only ever been doc-umented once — when itwas first described by sci-entists around 1848 —eluding all subsequentefforts to find it.

But late last year, twomen in Indonesian Borneosaw a bird they didn'trecognise and snappedphotos of it before releas-ing the palm-sized crea-ture back into the forest,according to Global Wild-

life Conservation.Ornithologists were ast-

ounded to find that theBlack-browed Babbler wasalive and well, despite nothaving been seen sincebefore Charles Darwin pu-blished “On the Origin ofSpecies”.

“It was a bit like a'Eureka!' moment,” saidPanji Gusti Akbar, leadauthor of a paper on thediscovery published Thur-sday in the journal Bird-

ingASIA.“This bird is often called

'the biggest enigma in In-donesian ornithology.' It'smind-blowing to thinkthat it's not extinct and it'sstill living in these low-land forests.” Little isknown about the creaturewith brown and greyfeathers, which has been“missing” longer than anyother Asian bird, accord-ing to the paper.

Researchers hoped to goback to the area where itwas recently spotted, butCovid-19 travel restric-tions could slow the effort.

“There is now a criticalwindow of opportunity forconservationists to securethese forests to protect the

babbler and other speci-es,” said Ding Li Yong, aco-author on the paper anda Singapore-based conser-vationist with BirdLifeInternational.

More than 150 species ofbirds around the world areconsidered “lost” with noconfirmed sightings in thepast decade, conservation-ists say.

“Discoveries like this areincredible and give us somuch hope that it's possi-ble to find other speciesthat have been lost to sci-ence for decades or long-er,” said Barney Long,Global Wildlife Conserv-ation's senior director ofspecies conservation.

— AFP

More than 150 bird species are ‘lost’ with no confirmed sightingsORNITHOLOGISTS | ASTOUNDED

Black-browed babbler emerges after 170 years● ● RESEARCHERS HOPEDto go back to the areawhere it was recentlyspotted, but Covid-19travel restrictions couldslow the effort.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (centre) surrounded by his supporters, speaks through a loudspeakerduring a rally in Yerevan, Armenia, on Thursday. He accused top military officers on Thursday of attempting a coupafter they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months-long protests calling for his resignation following thenation’s defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. — AP

Beijing, Feb. 25: Presid-ent Xi Jinping on Thurs-day declared that Chinahas scored a "complete vi-ctory" in its fight againstpoverty by lifting over 770million people out of it inthe last four decades, call-ing it another "miracle"created by the countrythat will go down in histo-ry. Absolute poverty hasbeen eradicated in theworld's most populouscountry, Xi announcedwhile addressing a gather-ing held here to mark thecountry's accomplishmen-ts in poverty alleviationand honour its model po-

verty fighters. China has a population

of around 1.4 billion. "Nocountry has been able tolift hundreds of millionsof people out of povertyin such a short time," Xisaid. Xi said that all poorpeople in rural areas havebeen lifted out of poverty.With this, China has achi-eved the UN goal of pover-ty eradication 10 years ah-ead of the 2030 deadline,he said. Over the past eig-ht years, the final 98.99 mi-llion impoverished ruralresidents living under thecurrent poverty line haveall been lifted out of pov-

erty. All the 832 impover-ished counties and 128,000impoverished villageshave been removed fromthe poverty list, he said.Since the launch of thereform and opening up inthe late 1970s, 770 millionimpoverished rural resid-ents have shaken off pove-rty when calculated acco-rding to China's currentpoverty line, he said. Chi-na has contributed tomore than 70 per cent ofglobal poverty reductionover the same period, Xi,also General Secretary ofthe ruling Communist Pa-rty of China, said. — PTI

Completely eradicatedpoverty in China, says Xi

Lawyers: Was blocking legal immigration

Coup attempt: Armenia PMYerevan, Feb. 25: Arme-nia's Prime Minister NikolPashinyan accused the mi-litary of an attemptedcoup and brought support-ers to the streets on Thur-sday, as months of tensio-ns over its defeat in lastyear's war with Azerbaij-an came to a head.

Thousands marched thr-ough the streets of thecapital Yerevan in supportof Pashinyan, with theopposition urging him tostep down to avoid blood-shed or even civil war.

President Armen Sarkis-ian, whose role is largelysymbolic, said he was taki-ng urgent steps to try todefuse the crisis, callingon all involved to “showrestraint and common se-nse.” Under pressure forhis handling of the confli-ct over the Nagorno-Kar-abakh region, Pashinyanhas ignored repeated calls

to resign for losing swa-thes of territory to Azerb-aijan in the war.

After largely backing theprime minister for mont-hs, the military's generalstaff on Thursday joinedcalls for him to step down,saying in a statement thathe and his cabinet “arenot capable of taking ade-quate decisions”.

Pashinyan hit back withan accusation that top

brass were mounting an“attempted military coup”and fired the chief of thegeneral staff Onik Gaspa-ryan. Hundreds of sup-porters then joined Pashi-nyan to march throughcentral Yerevan, chanting“Nikol Prime Minister!”

Speaking to supportersthrough a megaphone, Pa-shinyan called for calm, asdozens of police deployedoutside the main govern-ment offices. “The situati-on is tense, but we mustagree that there cannot beclashes,” said Pashinyan,who was joined by hiswife, daughters, ministersand security detail.

He said the situation inthe country was undercontrol and that the milit-ary's call had been an “em-otional reaction” to his fir-ing the previous day of thedeputy chief of the gener-al staff Tigran Khachat-

ryan. Khachatryan hadridiculed claims by Pashi-nyan that Iskander mis-siles supplied by Russia —Armenia's main militaryally — had failed to hit tar-gets during the war overNagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia's opposition —who have been calling forPashinyan's resignationsince a ceasefire deal inNovember — urged him toheed to military's call.

“We call on Nikol Pashi-nyan not to lead the coun-try towards civil war andto avoid bloodshed. Pashi-nyan has one last chanceto avoid turmoil,” Prospe-rous Armenia, the coun-try's largest oppositionparty, said in a statement.

Prosperous Armeniaand another oppositionparty, Bright Armenia,called for the holding ofan extraordinary sessionof parliament. — AFP

Biden revokesGreen Card banSan Diego, Feb. 25:President Joe Biden haslifted a freeze on greencards issued by his prede-cessor during the pandem-ic that lawyers said wasblocking most legal immi-gration to the United Sta-tes. Former President Do-nald Trump last springhalted the issuance of gre-en cards until the end of2020 in the name of prote-cting the Coronavirus-wr-acked job market — a rea-son that Trump gave toachieve many of the cutsto legal immigration thathad eluded him before thepandemic. Trump on Dec-ember 31 extended thoseorders until the end ofMarch. Trump had deem-ed immigrants a “risk tothe US labour market”and blocked their entry tothe United States in issu-ing Proclamation 10014and Proclamation 10052.

Biden stated in his proc-lamation on Wednesdaythat shutting the door onlegal immigrants “doesnot advance the interestsof the United States". “Tothe contrary, it harms theUnited States, includingby preventing certain fa-mily members of United

States citizens and lawfulpermanent residents fromjoining their familieshere. It also harms indus-tries in the United Statesthat utilize talent from ar-ound the world," Biden st-ated in his proclamation.

Most immigrant visaswere blocked by the orde-rs. As many as 120,000 fa-mily-based preference vis-as were lost largely becau-se of the pandemic-relat-ed freeze in the 2020 budg-et year, according to theAmerican Immigrant La-wyers Association. Immi-grants could not bringover family members unl-ess they were US citizensapplying for visas for the-ir spouses or children un-der the age of 21.

It also barred entry toimmigrants with employ-ment-based visas unlessthey were considered ben-eficial to the nationalinterest such as healthcare professionals. And itslammed the door onthousands of visa lotterywinners who were ran-domly chosen from a poolof about 14 million appli-cants to be given greencards that would let themlive permanently in the

United States. The block-ed visas add to a growingbacklog that has reached437,000 for family-basedvisas alone, said Californ-ia immigration lawyerCurtis Morrison, who rep-resented thousands of pe-ople blocked by the freeze.“I'm thrilled for my clientswho are now in a positionthat they can now enterthe US," he said.

“But that backlog willtake years if the adminis-tration does not takeambitious measures." Afederal judge last yearissued a ruling that all butlifted Proclamation 10052by allowing temporaryforeign workers to enterthe United States if theiremployers are members ofthe US Chamber of Com-merce or several other lar-ge organisations that rep-resent much of the USeconomy. But Proclamati-on 10014 continued to bl-ock thousands of immigr-ants. Immigration lawye-rs said they were surpri-sed Biden did not immedi-ately lift the freeze like hedid with Trump's travelban imposed against peo-ple from mostly Muslim-majority countries. — AP

German chargedwith espionage

WHO: LONGCOVID PRIORITYFOR AUTHORITIES Copenhagen, Feb. 25:The World Health Orga-nisation on Thursdayurged national authori-ties to make a priority ofunderstanding the con-sequences of long-termcoronavirus infectionsto help those sufferingfrom worrying sympt-oms after many months.

“It's a clear priority forWHO, and of the utmostimportance. It should befor every health authori-ty,” Hans Kluge, regionaldirector for WHO Euro-pe, said while address-ing a press conference.

While some studieshave begun to shed lighton the illness, it is stillunclear why somepatients with Covid-19continue to show symp-toms for months, includ-ing tiredness, brain fog,and cardiac and neuro-logical disorders.

“The burden is realand it is significant.About one in 10 Covid-19sufferers remain unwellafter 12 weeks, and manyfor much longer,” Klugesaid. — AFP

RIOT PANEL ISPRO-DEMOCRATS:REPUBLICANSWashington, Feb. 25:Republican leaders inthe House and Senatesay a proposed plan foran independent commis-sion to study the Capitolinsurrection is overlytilted toward Democrats,arguing that the panelshould have an evenparty split like the oneformed to study theSeptember 11 terroristattacks. House Republic-an leader Kevin McCar-thy and Senate Republic-an leader Mitch McCon-nell said Wednesday thata legitimate commissionwould be comprised ofan equal number of Rep-ublicans and Democrats.

A draft proposed byHouse Speaker NancyPelosi would create an11-member commissionwith four Republicansand seven Democrats,three of whom would bechosen by President JoeBiden, according to oneof multiple aides whospoke on condition ofanonymity to discussthe details under negoti-ation.

Pelosi has not co-mmented on the draft orsaid why there should bemore Democratic mem-bers. Last week, she saidthe commission must be“strongly bipartisan”and have the power tosubpoena witnesses.

But on Wednesday,House Democratic Conf-erence Chair HakeemJeffries said McCarthyhasn't operated in goodfaith and “set a badtone” when he support-ed former President Do-nald Trump's efforts tooverturn Biden's legiti-mate election victory.

The partisan bickeringbefore the commissiongets off the ground israising questions aboutwhether lawmakers cancoalesce around a thoro-ugh review of the Jan. 6riot that interrupted thepresidential electoral co-unt and led to five dea-ths. Both parties supportcreating an independentinvestigation, but muchof the consensus endsthere, with Democratsdemanding accountabil-ity for lawmakers whoamplified Trump's false-hoods about the election.

— AP

Berlin, Feb. 25: A Ger-man man has been char-ged with espionage forallegedly passing infor-mation on propertiesused by the German par-liament to Russian mili-tary intelligence, prosec-utors said Thursday.

The suspect, identifiedonly as Jens F. in linewith German privacyrules, worked for a comp-any that had been repeat-edly contracted to checkportable electrical appli-ances by the Bundestag,or the lower house of par-liament, federal prosecu-tors said in a statement.As a result of that, he hadaccess to PDF files withfloor plans of the proper-ties involved. Prosecutorssaid, at some point beforeearly September 2017, thesuspect “decided of hisown accord” to give infor-mation on the propertiesto Russian intelligence.

They said he sent thePDF files to an employeeof the Russian Embassyin Berlin who was an offi-cer with Russia's GRU

military intelligence age-ncy. They didn't specifyhow his activities came tolight. The charges againstthe suspect, who is not incustody, were filed at aBerlin court on February12. The court will have todecide whether to go ah-ead with a trial.

Relations between Ger-many and Russia havebeen buffeted by a grow-ing list of issues in recentyears. In October, the Eur-opean Union imposed sa-nctions on two Russian of-ficials and part of theGRU agency over a cyber-attack against the Germ-an parliament in 2015. Inaddition, a Russian manaccused of killing a Geor-gian man in downtownBerlin on Moscow's orde-rs in 2019 is on trial inBerlin. And last year's po-isoning of Russian oppos-ition leader Alexei Nava-lny, flown to Germany fortreatment and then arre-sted immediately after hereturned to Russia, hasadded another layer oftensions. — AP

Oz passes law to makeGoogle, FB pay for newsCanberra, Feb. 25: Aust-ralia's laws forcing Googleand Facebook to pay fornews are ready to takeeffect, though the laws'architect said it will taketime for the digital giantsto strike media deals. TheParliament on Thursdaypassed amendments to theso-called News Media Bar-gaining Code agreed betw-een Treasurer Josh Fryde-nberg and Facebook chiefexecutive Mark Zuckerb-erg on Tuesday.

In return for the chang-es, Facebook agreed to lifta ban on Australians ac-cessing and sharing news.

Rod Sims, the competiti-on regulator who draftedthe code, said he was hap-py that the amended legis-lation would address themarket imbalance betwe-en Australian news pub-lishers and the two gatew-ays to the internet.

All signs are good, Simstold Australian Broadcast-ing Corp. The purpose ofthe code is to address themarket power that clearlyGoogle and Facebookhave. Google and Facebo-ok need media, but theydon't need any particularmedia company, and thatmeant media companiescouldn't do commercialdeals, the Australian Com-

petition and ConsumerCommission chair added.

The rest of the laws hadpassed earlier, so they cannow be implemented.

Google has alreadystruck deals with majorAustralian news business-es in recent weeks includ-

ing News Corp and SevenWest Media.

Frydenberg said he waspleased to see progress byGoogle and more recentlyFacebook in reachingcommercial deals withAustralian news business-es. — PTI

FB bans Myanmarmilitary accountsYangon, Feb. 25: Socialmedia giant Facebookannounced Thursday itwas banning all accountslinked to Myanmar's mili-tary as well as ads frommilitary-controlled com-panies in the wake of thearmy's seizure of poweron Feb. 1.

It said in a statementthat it was treating thepost-coup situation inMyanmar as an “emer-gency,” explaining thatthe ban was precipitatedby events since the coup,including “deadly violen-ce.” Facebook already hasbanned several military-linked accounts since thecoup, including army-con-trolled Myawaddy TV and

state television broadcast-er MRTV. The bans arealso being applied on Ins-tagram, which is ownedby Facebook.

Facebook and othersocial media platformscame under enormouscriticism in 2017 whenright groups said theyfailed to act enough tostop hate speech againstMyanmar's MuslimRohingya minority.

The army launched abrutal counterinsurgencyoperation that year thatdrove more than 700,000Rohingya to to seek safetyin neighbouring Banglad-esh, where they remain inrefugee camps.

— AP

● ● Under pressure for hishandling of the conflictover the Nagorno-Karaba-kh region, Prime MinisterNikol Pashinyan has igno-red repeated calls toresign for losing swathesof territory to Azerbaijanin the war. PresidentArmen Sarkisian said hewas taking urgent stepsto try to defuse the crisis.

Country scores in digitalisation & connectivity

India top over-performerin frontier technologies

pg 14HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

RAVI RANJAN PRASADMUMBAI, FEB 25

A brokers' body has resent-ed that the investing com-munity was kept in thedark about the glitches inthe National StockExchanges' trading sys-tems on Wednesday, whichled to a three-hour stop-page of trading on thebourse.

In a letter to regulatorSebi, the Association ofNational ExchangesMembers of India (Anmi)has complained that therewere no announcements bythe NSE in public channelsabout the root cause of theglitch or its solution.Members ought to havebeen updated by theexchange about the prob-lem and solution, the letter

said."The problem started at

10.08 am when benchmarkNifty Index was not updat-ing stock prices.Thereafter, the cash mar-ket prices at the exchangestopped getting updated .Suddenly, NSE announcedsuspension of trading till

further intimation," theAnmi said.

"All open positionsremained at peak levels.The glitch happened oneday before the expiry ofmonthly and weekly con-tracts, which has causedhuge monetary loss tomembers and investors

including intra-daytraders. Hence there is agreater need for deeperinvestigation in the mat-ter," it said.

"There was an issue with2 spot indices & all otherthings were working finefor more than an hour.Hence trading could have

been continued…Alsodespite having a disasterrecovery site as back up, itwas a grand failure toswitch over to a back upsite. Reasons for not acti-vating recovery site evenafter 45 minutes of glitchwere unknown even at theend of the day," it said.

It said proper communi-cation on trading resump-tion by the NSE could haveaverted panic sell-off byonline brokers on the BSEand prevented huge mone-tary loss to investors."They only informed afterall cash positions werecross-settled at abnormallyhigh discounts and premi-ums on the BSE. A simpleproactive communicationfrom all could have avoidedthis sell-off," the Anmisaid.

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, FEB. 25

Both urban and ruralhouseholds havegreater confidence intheir future than intheir current economicconditions. Their con-tinued confidence intheir future is criticalto sustain the economicrecovery seen thus far,according to CMIE, aprivate think-tank.

CMIE's ConsumerSentiments Index (CSI),based on consumers'perception of the cur-rent economic condi-tions and expectationsfor the future, had hit alow during the lock-down, falling to 46 inApril 2020 from 97 in theprevious month.Sentiments have recov-ered marginally sincethen, reaching 54 inJanuary 2021. Theindex has a base of 100in September-December 2015.

Interestingly, urbansentiments are some-what worse than ruralsentiments. The ruralConsumer SentimentsIndex was 55.8 inJanuary while theurban index was at 50.3.

But both rural andurban Indian house-holds indicate greaterconfidence in theirfuture. While theCurrent EconomicConditions Index stoodat 51.6 in January 2021,the ConsumersExpectations Index washigher at 55.7. The dif-ference between the twoindices is usually about1.5 per cent.

"This continued confi-dence in the future isvitally important tosustain the recoveryseen thus far. If house-holds remain hopeful oftheir future they arelikely to spend and helpin the recovery process.But, this cannot betaken for granted. It isimportant to build uponthe confidence ofhouseholds," saidMahesh Vyas, manag-ing director and CEO,CMIE.

KIEL PORTER & CRYSTAL TSEFEB. 25

Blank-cheque companies,flush with cash and on thehunt for a private businessto take public, have startedadding corporate carve-outs to their list of poten-tial purchases.

The surge in special pur-pose acquisition compa-nies (Spacs), which haveraised more than $137 bil-lion over the past 12months, has set off a glob-al search for suitable tar-gets-- usually startupswith little revenue ormature companies sittingin private equity portfo-lios. Now Spacs are alsolooking at divisions ofpublic companies, with aneye on those that have thepotential to be carved outas standalone businesses.

Publicly traded Ireland-based packager ArdaghGroup SA on Tuesdayagreed to sell its beverage-can unit to a blank-chequecompany backed by finan-cier Alec Gores. The trans-action valued the can busi-ness at $8.5 billion, includ-ing debt, making it thebiggest Spac deal involv-ing a corporate carve-outsince the surge began,according to data com-piled by Bloomberg.

This type of transactioncould become popular asmore blank-cheque firmsmove to the deal-makingstage of their life cycle,crowding the market withsuitors looking for a trans-action.

"It's a pretty sizabledeal," said ChristopherAnthony, a partner atDebevoise & PlimptonLLP. "It'll be interestingwhether this gets on peo-

ple's radar and stokesinterest for this type oftransaction."

US-based EventbriteInc's co-founder KevinHartz, whose Spac on Wed-nesday announced a $2.1billion deal to merge withMarkforged Inc, said thata public-company spinoutwas among the targets itreviewed before choosingthe manufacturer of 3Dprinters.

"Spacs have the ability tooffer a path to liquidity notjust for standalone-typeprivate companies, butalso public companies,"Hartz said.

While blank-cheque com-panies have circled carve-outs before, some haven'tmade it to the finish line.Hartz said it's easier tocomplete a deal with a pri-vate company than a spun-out entity, whose finan-cials and accounting func-tions must be separatedfrom its parent.

Michael Klein's Church-ill Capital Corp IV, monthsbefore it announced a dealwith Lucid Motors Inc,held talks with AT&T Incabout acquiring a part ofsatellite provider DirecTV.

Some do succeed.I n t e r c o n t i n e n t a lExchange Inc in January

said it would list its cryp-tocurrency platformBakkt Holdings LLCthrough a Spac in a dealthat valued the unit at $2.1billion. InternationalBusiness Machines Corp(IBM), which is exploringa sale of its Watson Healthbusiness, may considerlisting it via a Spac as oneoption, according to a per-son familiar with the mat-ter. IBM declined to com-ment.

There could be benefitsfor a Spac's managementteam in buying a companythat's already been part ofa public entity, said IvanaNaumovska, a professor ofentrepreneurship atInsead Business School,based in Singapore.

"Compared to acquiringprivate targets, acquiringspun-off subsidiaries ofpublic firms seems lessrisky for Spacs in terms ofdue diligence, accounting,reporting, and governanceconsiderations," Nau-movska, said. "Spun-offentities seem betterequipped for the publicmarket."

Spac spinouts particular-ly appeal to companiesthat want to get value outof a unit without giving upcontrol. —Bloomberg

Blank-cheque buyerseye corporate spinouts

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, FEB. 25

India is the top "over-per-former" in terms of readi-ness in using, adoptingand adapting frontiertechnologies like artificialintelligence, big data,block chain and robotics,as per the Unctad globalindex.

The global index rates158 countries on theirreadiness for frontier tech-nologies based on fivebuilding blocks: informa-tion and communicationtechnologies (ICT) deploy-ment, skills, research anddevelopment (R&D),industry activity andaccess to finance. Frontiertechnologies are those thattake advantage of digitali-sation and connectivity.They include artificialintelligence (AI), the inter-net of things, big data,block chain, 5G, 3D print-ing, robotics, drones, geneediting, nanotechnologyand solar photovoltaic.

The Unctad report findsthat a few developingnations are exhibitingstronger capabilities touse, adopt and adapt fron-tier technologies thantheir per capita GDPswould suggest.

"The greatest over per-former is India, whoseactual index ranking was43, while the estimatedone based on per capitaincome was 108. Hence,India over performed by65 ranking positions. It isfollowed by thePhilippines, which overperformed by 57 ranking

positions," says the UnitedNations Conference onTrade and Development.Over-performance ismeasured as the differ-ence between the actualindex rankings and theestimated index rankingsbased on per capitaincome. Ukraine, Vietnamand China are also in thetop five over-performers.

Outliers like India andChina exceeded expecta-tions by performing wellfor R&D. This reflectstheir abundant supplies ofqualified and highlyskilled human resources

available at a compara-tively low cost. They alsohave large local markets,which attract investmentby multinational enter-prises. In China, theprogress is partly areward for spending 2 percent of GDP on R&D.

The Philippines has ahigh ranking for industry,reflecting high levels offoreign direct investmentin high-technology manu-facturing, particularlyelectronics. Multinationalenterprises are attractedby the country's strongsupply chains and solidbase of parts manufactur-ing. The country also haspro-business policiesalong with a skilled, well-educated workforce and anetwork of economiczones.

As per the global index,economies in NorthernAmerica and Europe aremost ready for frontiertechnologies while thoseleast ready are in sub-Saharan Africa.

TATIANA FREITASFEB. 25

Demand for faux burgersis growing so rapidly thatJBS SA, the world'sbiggest meat supplier, saidit will likely set up a newglobal company focusedsolely on plant-basedproducts.

Meat from animals willbe a pricey luxury in thefuture, and people willhave to turn to vegetable-derived alternatives,which will be cheaper,JBS's chief executive offi-cer Gilberto Tomazonitold Bloomberg in aninterview. In addition, theworld's population isbooming and expected toreach 10 billion by 2050.The amount of meat need-ed to satisfy the world'sprotein needs won't be pos-sible to produce.

"Plant-based will help usto reduce this protein gapwith more affordable prod-ucts compared with ani-mal protein, which will bemore premium," Toma-zoni said. "We see plant-based as an independentbusiness in the future."

Brazil-based JBS is just

one of many sprawling,legacy food companies try-ing to up their meat-sub-stitutes game as burgersand sausages made fromplant proteins becomemainstream. Consumerdemand has soared afterstartups like Beyond Meatand Impossible Foods pop-ularised veggie burgersthat imitate real beef. Thelikes of McDonald's andStarbucks have addedalternative meat items totheir menus.

JBS, like US rival TysonFoods Inc, entered theplant-based meat marketin 2019, and regionalteams across the globedeveloped products. Thenew company Tomazonienvisions would gather allthose regional businessesin a global enterprise.

The company alreadyhas a sizable footprint,with about 57 per cent ofthe plant-based burgermarket in Brazil. InEurope, its Moy Park sub-sidiary supplies fauxchicken burgers. It alsohas 10 plant-based prod-ucts in more than 3,000 USstores under the OZObrand, where sales rose300 per cent last year.

It will still be a challengeto compete with compa-nies like Beyond Meat thatcreated the fake meatcraze. Investment moneyhas been pouring intoalternative protein start-ups, which raised a record$2.4 billion of funding in2020, according to marketresearcher CB Insights.

"We have the basis togrow on plant-based: inno-vation capacity, invest-ments in research, agree-ments with global compa-nies for ingredient sup-plies, presence in retail,"Tomazoni said.

For now, JBS's focus isdeveloping new productsand trying to better under-stand the market,Tomazoni said.

— Bloomberg

World’s top meat supplier mullsseparate plant-based company

Brokers squarely blame NSE for losses

RAVI RANJAN PRASADMUMBAI, FEB. 25

MTAR Technologies,Hyderabad-based preci-sion engineering solutioncompany and high-techequipment-maker forspace research and defe-nce related requirements,on Thursday announced aRs 600-crore initial publicoffering (IPO).The company has set a

price band of Rs 574 to Rs575 per equity share of Rs10 face value for the pub-lic issue that opens onMarch 3 and closes onMarch 5.

MTAR Technologies isengaged in the manufac-turing and developmentof mission critical preci-sion components and crit-ical assemblies cateringto clean energy, nuclearand space and defencesectors," the companysaid during a virtualpress meet.

The IPO comprises afresh issuance of equityshares aggregating up toRs 124 crore and an offerfor sale of shares aggre-gating up to Rs 473 croreby selling shareholders.

The company proposesto utilise the net proceedsfrom the fresh issuetowards repayments ofborrowings, funding ofworking capital require-ments and general corpo-rate purposes.

MTAR Technologiessaid its key portfolio com-prises three kinds ofproducts in the cleanenergy sector, 14 kinds ofproducts in the nuclearsector and six kinds ofproducts in the space anddefence sectors.

MTAR has a long-stand-ing relationship with itscustomers such asNuclear Power Corpor-ation of India, Isro, DRDOand Bloom Energy (USA),the company said.

MTAR Tech’s`600-croreIPO opens on March 3 SANGEETHA G

CHENNAI, FEB. 25

Despite a 56 per centdecline in capacity addi-tion, the share of installedsolar power capacityexceeded wind powersources for the first time.

India added 3,239megawatts of solar capaci-ty in 2020, 56 per cent lowercompared to 7,346 MWinstalled in 2019, accordingto Mercom India Research.

Large-scale solar projectssaw a 60 per cent declineand rooftop installations a35 per cent drop.

"India's solar installa-tions in 2020 were the low-est in five years. Whileother top solar markets inthe world have experi-enced positive growth,India, which had one of themost stringent lockdownsin response to the pandem-ic, took a while to get backup and running. However,we expect the industry toexperience significant pos-itive growth in 2021," saidRaj Prabhu, CEO ofMercom Capital Group.

The difficulty in gettingdistribution companies(discoms) to sign powersale agreements (PSA) wasanother bottleneck. This

has left about 17-18 GW ofprojects without a PSA.

Once economic activityresumed post-lockdown,installations picked up inthe second half of 2020.

Nevertheless, the share ofsolar power in India'sinstalled power capacitymix reached 10.3 per centin 2020, for the first timeexceeding that of wind-based power sources at10.25 per cent. Solar, with48 per cent, accounted forthe majority of new powercapacity additions in 2020.Renewable energy sourcesaccounted for 78 per cent ofthe power capacity addedin 2020. Electricity generat-ed from solar in 2020crossed 58.2 billion units.

Andhra Pradesh, Raja-sthan, and Gujarat werethe top three states forlarge-scale solar capacityadditions, representingaround 51 per cent of 2020installations.

Solar capacity exceedswind power in 2020

Householdskeep faithin future:

CMIE survey

Anmi says trading could have been continued without a hitchMISHANDLING | GLITCH

Ahmedabad, Feb. 25:Union finance ministerNirmala Sitharaman onThursday said this year'sbudget has negated thenotion that welfare state isa socialist prerogative, andadded that it has given adirectional change to theIndian economy, whereinthe government trustswealth creators and citi-zens. She lauded thereform of faceless assess-

ment for direct and indi-rect taxes, saying that taxterrorism will be a thing ofthe past, but also warnedthat "technology terror-ism" will now gain ground.

"This is a budget for newdecade. This budget clearlysays, private sector wetrust you and you are wel-come to participate in thedevelopment of the coun-try. It's a budget in whichwe are recognising what a

government can do or howfar it can do...So it's a budg-et that gives directionalchange to the Indian econo-my," Sitharaman said whileaddressing an event.

"We inherited a systemfrom the USSR, where glo-ries of socialism were spo-ken about...That onlysocialism can take care ofthe welfare of the entirepopulation. They say wel-fare state is a socialist pre-

rogative," she said."So we went for socialism,

which could not fit into theIndian ethos.”

She said, "technology canidentify where loopholesexist, where people aremisusing the system...

"So technology terrorismwill happen next."

She said corporate taxesare the lowest in India andcompanies want to set uptheir base in India. — PTI

quickBITES

INDICATORS %Sensex 51,039.31 0.51Nifty 50 15,097.40 0.77S&P 500* 3,868.82 -1.44Dollar (`) 72.43 -0.12Pound Sterling (`) 102.54 -0.09Euro (`) 88.17 -0.21Gold (10gm)* (`) 45,959▼358 0.77Brent crude ($/bbl)* 67.04 0.00IN 10-Yr bond yield 6.182 0.00US 10-Yr T-bill yield* 1.458 0.069

* As of 8:30 PM IST

RBI: New ARCwon’t jeopardiseexisting playersThe proposed asset reconstruc-tion company (ARC) for man-agement of NPAs, announced inthe latest Budget, will not 'jeop-ardise' the activities of existingplayers in the space, RBI gover-nor Shaktikanta Das said. "(In)no way will it (proposed ARC)jeopardise the activities of theexisting ARCs. I think, there isscope to have one more strongARC...," the governor said at anevent. There are close to 28ARCs in the country.

RBI: Bank creditgrows 6.2 pc inDecember quarter

Bank credit growth on a year-on-year basis improved to 6.2per cent in the December quar-ter from 5.8 per cent in theprevious three-month period,RBI data showed. However,credit growth in the third quar-ter of the current fiscal waslower when compared to 7.4per cent growth recorded ayear ago. Growth in credit byprivate sector banks decelerat-ed considerably to 6.7 per centin the quarter ended December2020 as against 13.1 per cent ayear ago. Advances growth inPSBs improved to 6.5 per centin December 2020 quarter asagainst 3.7 per cent in sameperiod of 2019, data showed.

DCB Bank wantsto turn focus on tractor loansPrivate sector lender DCB Bank said it is seeing a goodbusiness prospects from ruralareas and wants to focus onthe "encouraging" tractor loans demand from the farming community. The bankis offering customised loans in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Odisha and Rajasthan, which saw a growth in demand last year.

State transporterKSRTC gets intoparcel, cargo bizThe Karnataka State RoadTransport Corporation will nowventure into the parcel andcargo business in order toincrease its revenue, Karnatakadeputy chief minister LaxmanSavadi said. The three StateRoad Transport Corporationshave been generating a revenueof Rs 35 crore by transportingluggage. He said StrategicOutsourcing Pvt Ltd will be thebusiness facilitator for five yearsto make the project happen.

Budget marks a directional change: FM

Acquiring spun-offsubsidiaries ofpublic firms

seems less risky forSpacs in terms of duediligence, accounting,reporting and gover-nance considerations

— Ivana Naumovska, professor, Insead Business School,

Singapore

CAUSES, INSTITUTIONAL DEFICIENCIES TO BE ADDRESSED: SEBIMumbai, Feb. 25: A dayafter technical glitcheshalted trading at the NSEfor around four hours,market regulator Sebi onThursday affirmed it willtake all necessary meas-ures to ensure the under-lying causes, including"institutional deficien-

cies", are addressed.The regulator said the

decision to stop tradingwas taken by the NSE dueto "issues with the tele-com service providers"and the Sebi wasinformed of it only 10minutes ahead of the haltof trade.

The Sebi said its inter-operability frameworkallowed market partici-pants to continue theirtransactions at otherstock exchanges, therebyallowing them to seam-lessly trade/square offtheir existing positions.

—PTIPrinted & Published by K. Sudhakar on behalf of Deccan

Chronicle Holdings Limited, Printed atDeccan Chronicle Press at Deccan

Chronicle Holdings Ltd. #563/9/D&9/E,Behind Andhra Bank Pet Basheerbagh,

Kompally, Ranga Reddy Dist. Editor:T.Venkatram Reddy, RNI Reg

No.APENG/2008/24282. © All rightsreserved. Reproduction in whole or in

part without written permission of TheEditor, Financial Chronicle ® is

prohibited.

GAMES pg 15DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021

SHORT TAKES

DDuunneeddiinn,, NNeeww ZZeeaallaanndd:: Veteranbatsman Martin Guptill returned

to form with a blistering 97 asNew Zealand held on for a nail-biting win over Australia in thesecond Twenty20 international

in Dunedin on Thursday.Guptill’s Black Caps set

Australia a challenging targetof 220 after losing the toss but

were made to sweat asAustralia came within four runs

of victory.Both sides took advantage of

University Oval’s short bound-aries in a thrilling match that

featured 30 sixes and 434 runsat an average of 10.9 an over.Marcus Stoinis starred for the

Australians with 78 from 37balls but Guptill’s 97 from 50

laid the foundation for NewZealand’s win. — AFP

BBrriieeff ssccoorreess:: NNeeww ZZeeaallaanndd221199//77 in 20 overs (Guptill 97,Kane 53, K. Richardson 3/43)bt AAuussttrraalliiaa 221155//88 in 20 overs

(Stoinis 78, Santner 4/31).

HHyyddeerraabbaadd:: G. Manideep out-played seasoned player Savio

Mendes in the first round toregister an upset in the Senior

Snooker event of the TelanganaState Ranking Snooker &

Billiards Championship beingplayed at the Telangana Cue

Sports Association premises atKhajaguda on Thursday.

Manideep won the opener instraight frames at 3-0 — 55-44,

55-45, 63-33.Meanwhile, Vibhas and Syed

Maaz Ali set up the final in jun-ior snooker. In the semis,

Vibhas mauled Md Faisal 54-22,66-10, 57-15; Maaz jinked pastJeetendar 53-13, 41-33, 59-15.

TTHHEE SSCCOORREESSSSeenniioorr SSnnooookkeerr ffiirrsstt rroouunndd::

Manideep G bt Savio Mendes 3-0 (55-44, 55-45, 63-33); Faisal

Zubairi bt Vamsi Krishna 3-0(69-19, 64-31, 71-31); Md Moin

Ashrafi bt Syed GhouseMohiuddin 3-0 (52-41, 66-23,

68-20); Srikanth bt DheerajKakumanu 3-2 (49-40, 57-32,

29-61, 32-55, 51-33).JJuunniioorr SSnnooookkeerr sseemmiiffiinnaallss::

Vibhas bt Md Faisal 3-0 (54-22,66-10, 57-15); Syed Maaz Ali bt

Jeetendar 3-0 (53-13, 41-33, 59-15).

Guptill stars inKiwi victory

Manideep upsetsseasoned Savio

PPaattiiaallaa:: Sprinter Dutee Chandblazed the track to win the

women’s 100m in the IndianGrand Prix II athletics at the

Netaji Subhas National Instituteof Sports campus on Thursday.Dutee won in 11.44 seconds, an

improvement on the 11.51 sec-onds she had clocked last weekin the first GP. She is hoping toqualify for the Olympic Games

by meeting the 11.15 secondsstandard. She can also qualify

as one of the 56 starters in theTokyo Games on the basis of

her rankings. She is world No.33 at the moment.

Meanwhile, star Indian sprinterHima Das ran her first competi-

tive race in more than a yearand won a gold in the women’s

200m in 23.31 seconds.Hima, who is yet to qualify for

the upcoming Tokyo Olympics,had run her last competitive

race in August 2019. She hadsuffered a lower back injury at

the 2018 Asian Games and thatforced her to miss the World

Championships in Doha inSeptember 2019. — PTI

Dutee, Hima setthe track ablaze

Ahmedabad, Feb. 25:Left-arm spinner AxarPatel created an illusionof turn with 11 straighterdeliveries that put Indiaon the brink of the WorldTest Championship finalwith a 10-wicket demoli-tion of England inside twodays in the day-night thirdTest here on Thursday.

In only his second Test,Patel (15-0-32-5), with amatch-haul of 11/70,relentlessly hit the goodlength area and hood-winked England batsmen,who played for turn onlyto find that there wasnone on offer from him.

The result was their low-est total against India —81 all out in 30.4 oversleaving the hosts with atarget of 49 which theyachieved with minimumfuss taking a 2-1 lead inthe four-match series.

At the other end, off-spinner RavichandranAshwin (15-3-48-4) was anideal foil, becoming thefourth Indian bowler andsecond fastest in the worldto complete a commend-able milestone of 400 Testwickets with the dismissalof Jofra Archer.

Incidentally, afterAfghanistan’s debut Testin 2018 in Bengaluru, thiswas the second time thatIndia won a Test match,well inside two days.

This was after Englandskipper Joe Root’s fabu-lous career-best spell of6.2-3-8-5 resulted in India’sdramatic collapse from114 for 3 to 145 all out.

India lost as many asseven wickets for only 31runs after looking solid at114 for 3 at one stage in thegame but England lost all10 in an entire session inwhich no pacer was seenin action.

Ironically, it was thenon-turning deliveriesfrom Patel that had theEngland’s rank and filepressing the panic buttonas they pre-empted awayturn every time.

Whether it was ZakCrawley, Jonny Bairstowor skipper Root, everyonelost the mind-game asAshwin also joined thefun with records tumblingone after another.

When Patel sent backBen Foakes, he becamethe first spinner to get 11wickets in a pink ball Testmatch.

While a bowler mightend up getting the man ofthe match, RohitSharma’s 66 off 96 balls inthe first essay was 24-carat gold given that otherbatsmen looked like sit-ting ducks.

But Indian batsmen saveRohit did have a torridtime during an afternoonsession when Root andLeach made their livesmiserable.

Ajinkya Rahane wasrapped on the pads asLeach fired one in and itwas not much of an issuefor umpire Nitin Menon toadjudge him leg before.

— PTI

Jaipur, Feb. 25: Mumbaicaptain Prithvi Shaw onThursday became the high-est individual scorer inVijay Hazare Trophynational 50-over champi-onships as he smashed anunbeaten 227 off just 152balls to help Mumbai beatPuducherry by 233 runs intheir Elite Group D gamehere.

The 21-year-old Shaw,who has played in fiveTests and five ODIs, brokethe earlier record of thehighest individual scoreheld by Sanju Samson (212not out against Goa in2019). Puducherry’s deci-sion to put Mumbai in tobat backfired badly asShaw and SuryakumarYadav (133 off 58 balls)toyed with their bowlingattack at the SawaiMansingh Stadium andpost a mammoth 457/4.

Prashant Solanki (5/48)then picked a five-for asMumbai bundled outPuducherry for 224 to reg-

ister their third win on thetrot.

Shaw and YashasviJaiswal (10) added 58 runsfor the first wicket to laythe foundation. AfterJaiswal was dismissed,Shaw found an able part-ner in Aditya Tare (56, 7x4)as the duo stitched a 153-run stand for the secondwicket. Suryakumar, whocame in at No. 4, was in hiselements, hitting 22 foursand four sixes. He andShaw added 201 runs forthe third wicket stand andhelped Mumbai go past the400 mark. — PTI

BBRRIIEEFF SSCCOORREESS ■■ Mumbai 457/4 in 50 overs(Prithvi Shaw 227 not out,Suryakumar Yadav 133;Pankaj Singh 2/79) beatPuducherry 224(Damodaran Rohit 63;Prashant Solanki 5/48)■■ Himachal 251/8 (NikhilGangta 100 not out,Kulwant Kherjroliya 2/30)lost to Delhi 252/4 (KshitizSharma 67 not out, LalitYadav 52 not out).

Budapest, Feb. 25:Premier League leadersManchester City closed inon the Champions Leaguequarterfinals after cruis-ing past BorussiaMoenchengladbach with acomfortable 2-0 win inWednesday’s ChampionsLeague last 16, first leg tiein Budapest.

A first half header fromBernardo Silva and aGabriel Jesus strike in thesecond extended a winningstreak by Pep Guardiola’shigh-flying side to 19games in all competitions.

With six changes fromthe side which started

Sunday’s win over ArsenalCity camped inside theGladbach half for most ofthe game, moved toHungary due to Germany’sCovid-19 travel restric-tions.

Although clear favouritesCity took time to breakdown a stubborn Germandefence however, oftenfoiled by the interceptionsof Algeria left-back RamyBensebaini. Debutants inthe Champions Leagueknockout stages, a nervyGladbach had been urgedby coach Marco Rose to bebrave against Guardiola’sside. — AFP

Shaw smashesdomestic record

Silva, Jesus scorein Man City win

Sao Paulo, Feb. 25: Two Brazilian clubs haveexpressed condolences following the sudden death ofthe father of Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker.

Fluminense posted on social media Thursday thatit’s deeply sorry for the death of Jos Agostinho Becker.

Alisson’s brother, Muriel, is a goalkeeper atFluminense. Internacional, where both Alisson andMuriel played, also offered condolences.

Brazilian media reported that 57-year-old JosAgostinho Becker had drowned after going for a swimon his property in the city of Lavras do Sul, in thesouth of the country. Local police confirmed the bodyof man was found on Wednesday night.

The 28-year-old Alisson played at Internacionalbetween 2013 and 2016 before he joined Roma. He leftRoma after two seasons to join Liverpool. — AP

REDS KEEPER ALLISON’S DAD DIES OF DROWNING

AXARDHAMPatel strikes back, makes Motera his own

Axar Patel of India appeals for England’s Zak Crawley’s wicket during Day Two oftheir third Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday. — BCCI

Mumbai’s Prithvi Shaw celebrates his double centuryagainst Puducherry in the Vijay Hazare Trophy match atSawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday.

EEnnggllaanndd 11sstt iinnnniinnggss:: 111122IInnddiiaa 11sstt iinnnniinnggss ((OOvveerrnniigghhtt 9999//33)):: RohitSharma lbw b Jack Leach 66, AjinkyaRahane lbw b Jack Leach 7, Rishabh Pant cFoakes b Root 1, Ravichandran Ashwin cZak Crawley b Root 17, Washington Sundarb Root 0, Axar Patel c D Sibley b Root 0,Ishant Sharma not out 10, Jasprit Bumrahlbw b Root1. Extras (B-2, LB-2, W-1) 5. TToottaall((aallll oouutt iinn 5533..22 oovveerrss)) 114455.. FFooWW:: 1-33, 2-34,3-98, 4-114, 5-115, 6-117, 7-125, 8-125, 9-134.BBoowwlliinngg:: James Anderson 13-8-20-0, StuartBroad 6-1-16-0, Jofra Archer 5-2-24-1, JackLeach 20-2-54-4, Ben Stokes 3-0-19-0, JoeRoot 6.2-3-8-5.EEnnggllaanndd 22nndd iinnnniinnggss:: Z. Crawley b AxarPatel 0, D. Sibley c Pant b Patel 7, J.

Bairstow b Axar Patel 0, J. Root lbw b AxarPatel 19, B. Stokes lbw b Ashwin 25, O. Popeb Ashwin 12, B. Foakes lbw b Axar Patel 8, J.Archer lbw b Ashwin 0, J. Leach c Rahane bAshwin 9, S. Broad not out 1, J. Anderson cPant b Sundar 0. Extras 0. TToottaall ((aallll oouutt iinn3300..44 oovveerrss)) 8811..FFooWW:: 1-0, 2-0, 3-19, 4-60, 5-56, 6-66, 7-68,9-80.BBoowwlliinngg:: Axar Patel 15-0-32-5, Ashwin 15-3-48-4, Sundar 0.4-0-1-1.

IInnddiiaa 22nndd iinnnniinnggss:: Rohit Sharma not out 25,Shubman Gill not out 15. Extras (B-8, LB-1).TToottaall ((ffoorr nnoo lloossss iinn 77..44 oovveerrss)) 4499..BBoowwlliinngg:: J. Leach 4-1-15-0, J. Root 3.4-0-25-0.

SCORECARD

Live on TVCCRRIICCKKEETT

SSoouutthh AAffrriiccaa TT2200 CChhaalllleennggee::Cobras vs Lions from 1.30 pm;

Dolphins vs Titans from 6 pm onStar Sports Select 2, HD

FFOOOOTTBBAALLLLIInnddiiaann SSuuppeerr LLeeaagguuee:: North East

United vs Kerala Blasters from 7.20pm on Star Sports 2, 3

India sit atop asEng out of WTCAhmedabad, Feb. 25:India knocked Englandout of contention fromthe ICC World TestChampionship (WTC)final in June with their 10-wicket triumph in theday-night third Test herewhich propelled the hoststo the top of the stand-ings.

India now have to eitherwin or draw the finalgame here starting March4 to claim the right to takeon New Zealand at theLord’s. The Black Capshave already qualifiedand are placed second inthe latest list.

“England have droppedto 64.1 percentage points

on the points table, whichis now led by India with 71percentage points,” theICC stated.

“England are out of therace for a place in thefinal of the ICC WorldTest Championship afterlosing the third Testagainst India inAhmedabad,” it added.

England needed to winthe four-match series 3-1to play the June 18-22final. New Zealand areassured of a place in thefinal with 70 percentagepoints.

If India lose the finalTest then Australia willsneak in to make the final.

— PTI

RRAAVVIICCHHAANNDDRRAANN AASSHHWWIINNJJOOIINNSS 440000--WWIICCKKEETT CCLLUUBBIINN TTEESSTTSS::● Ravichandran Ashwinbecame the fourth Indianand 16th bowler overall toclaim 400 wickets in Tests.The off-spinner from Chennaireached this milestone bydismissing Jofra Archer, legbefore, in England’s secondinnings on the second day ofthe third Test macth atAhmedabad on Thursday(February 25).● By achieving this feat in his77th Test match, he is thesecond fastest after SriLankan Muttiah Muraliatharanwho took his 400th wicket inhis 72nd Test match.● Anil Kumble (619 wicketsin 132 Tests), Kapil Dev (434wickets in 131 Tests) andHarbhajan Singh (417 wicketsin 103 Tests) are the otherIndians to t ake 400 wicketsbefore Ravichandran Ashwin.● Joe Root recorded his bestbowling performance by tak-ing five wickets for eight runsin India’s first innings. It wasfirst time England skipperhas taken five-wicket haulwith his off breaks in anytype of the game. His previ-ous best in Tests was four for87 against South Africa atPort Elizabeth in 2019-20.● India slumped to their jointsixth lowest total againstEngland at home by bowlingout for 145 in 53.2 overs.India’s lowest againstEngland at home is 83 in 38.5overs at Chennai in 1976-77.● Jonny Bairstow becamethe eighth England batsmanto receive ducks in the bothinnings of a Test matchagainst India. He is only fifthEngland batsman to achievethis ‘unwanted’ feat on Indiansoil.● England were bundled outfor 81 runs in 30.4 overs. Itwas first time when Englandwere dismissed under 100against India in Tests. Theirprevious lowest against Indiawas 101 in 45.1 overs at TheOval in 1971.● Axar Patel became thefourth Indian bowler to take11 or more wickets in a Testmatch against England. Hismatch figures of 11 for 70 isthe fourth best for Indiaagainst England.

— S. PERVEZ QAISER

NUMBERS GAME

Kohli bests MSwith most winsAhmedabad, Feb. 25:Virat Kohli on Thursdaysurpassed MahendraSingh Dhoni’s record ofwinning maximum num-ber of Test matches ascaptain on home soil afterleading the side to a 10-wicket victory overEngland in the day-nightthird Test here.

Kohli now has 22 victo-ries at home in 29 Tests ascaptain which is one bet-ter than Dhoni, who had21 wins in 30 Tests. Kohlialready is India’s mostsuccessful Test captainwith 35 wins.

India chased down a tar-get of 49 runs in only 7.4overs to win the Test by 10

wickets and go up 2-1 inthe series.

Sourav Ganguly andMohammed Azharuddinhave 21 and 14 victories totheir credit as captains.

— PTI

Virat KKohli

Benjamin brilliant; Pratheek, Siddharth hit double tonsDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, FEB. 25

Benjamin Thomas batted andbowled brilliantly to emerge thetop peformer in the HyderabadCricket Association’s A-1Division three-day leaguematches played on Thursday.

Benjamin hit 115 in 106 ballswith 10 fours and two sixes inSportive CC’s second inningsand then took five wickets withhis off-spin while conceding 25runs to help his side beatSecunderabad Nawabs.

In another match, G. VikramNaik (111) and Rahul Buddhi(108) scripted Evergreen’s win.

The A-2 Division two-daygames threw up some top notchperformances. M. Sai Pratheekof Acrylic and C. Siddharth Raoof SK Blues hit a double centu-ry each while Sahith of SwastikUnion took seven wickets.

Pratheek’s 206 that contained28 boundaries and a six pro-pelled Acrylic to 499 for 4 in 90overs against Adams XI.Siddharth slammed 200 whichcame off 156 balls and included36 boundaries as SK Blues piled540 for 9 against Mayura.

Sahith’s 7/34 meant Lords CCcrashed to a humiliating 109against Swastik Union.

Aashlesh Vaman (176) ofVijaypuri Willowmen was theother big scorer while SachitNaidu of Abhinav Colts took6/17.

D. Harsha Vardhan (5/9) ofRakesh XI, Adilabad’s Md SaifAli (5/6), Warangal’s B. Suresh(5/14), Advaith (5/23) ofCheerful Chums, Bharat CC’s P.Suraj Rao (5/39), Y. YuganandSree (123) of Elegant CC, V.Gautam (105) of Ours CC andAcrylic’s M. Vasu Deva Raju(101) were the others who didwell in the two-day league.BBrriieeff ssccoorreess::

AA--11 DDIIVVIISSIIOONN ((TTHHRREEEE--DDAAYY))■ Sportive 241 in 85.5 overs & 297/4 in40 overs (Benjamin Thomas 115 —106b, 10x4, 2x6, Abhishek Murgan 56,Shaik Sameer 63 n.o) bt SecunderabadNawabs 296 in 73.1 overs & 184 in 36.1overs (Takshit Rao 34, Jaidev Goud 75,Aryan Cariappa 3/43, BenjaminThomas 5/25 — 7.1-0-25-5). PPooiinnttss::Sportive 6, Nawabs 0.

■ Evergreen 430/8 in 90 overs & 289/5in 40 overs (GG.. VViikkrraamm NNaaiikk 111111 —— 9944bb,,77xx44,, 77xx66,, RRaahhuull BBuuddddhhii 110088 —— 7788bb,,1133xx44,, 33xx66)) bt Combined Districts 288in 67.3 overs & 228/7 in 40 overs (B.Vikram 76, Rithwik Surya 34, G.Ganesh 53 n.o, G. Aniketh Reddy 3/15).PPooiinnttss:: Evergreen 6, Districts 0.■ BDL 329/9 (all out) in 87.5 overs &211/8 in 40 overs bt Income Tax 188 in37.5 overs & 235/8 in 38.4 overs(Vamshi Vardhan 74, Harshavardhan 47,Sai Vihari 42, Swaroop 40, Mahendra3/0). PPooiinnttss:: BDL 6, Income Tax 0.■ AOC 247 in 64.1 overs & 64 in 24.5overs bt Continental 200 in 78 overs &106 in 35.1 overs (Anirudh Reddy 54).PPooiinnttss:: Continental 0., AOC 6.■ Jai Bhagwathi 191 in 65 overs & 104in 30 overs (Nitin Sai Yadav 3/15) lostto Rohit XI 484/7 in 90 overs. PPooiinnttss::Rohit XI 6+02, Jai Bhagwathi 0.■ Balaaji CC 377/7 in 90 overs & 236/8in 40 overs (HK Simha 63, B. RajaShekar 49, Md Zafarullah 3/50) bt SriChakra 224 in 86.5 overs & 215/8 in 40overs (Koushik 41, T. Rohan 36, K VikasRao 42 n.o). PPooiinnttss:: Balaaji 6, SriChakra 0.

AA--22 DDIIVVIISSIIOONN ((TTWWOO--DDAAYY))

■ Acrylic CC 499/4 in 90 overs (M. SaiPratheek 206 — 159b, 28x4, 1x6, MJashwant 95, MM.. VVaassuu DDeevvaa RRaajjuu 110011 ——8899bb,, 1100xx44, Sai Aravind Gona 57) vsAdams XI.■ SK Blues 540/9 (all out) 80.2 overs(Ibrahim 91, C. Siddharth Rao 200 —156b, 36x4, K. Srikar 84, Md Ali 48, K.Anil 30 n.o, Sunil 3/99) vs Mayura 14/2in 7 overs■ Vijaypuri Willowmen 406 in 72.3overs (AAaasshhlleesshh VVaammaann 117766 —— 117722bb,,3300xx44,, 33xx66, M. Saketh Reddy 46, MdAyub Khan 37, Md Nayeemuddin 74,Kiran Paul 3/53) vs Eleven Masters42/2 in 9 overs.■ Swastik Union 238 in 66.3 overs(Govardhan 41, Karthik 61, Hasan 4/48)bt Lords CC 109 in 44.3 overs (Jasper36, SSaahhiitthh 77//3344 —— 1188--66--3344--77))..■ Noble CC 104 in 30 overs (B.Ambarish 43, SSaacchhiitt NNaaiidduu 66//1177 —— 99--00--1177--66)) lost to Abhinav Colts 106/2 in16.3 overs (Varun Tej 51 n.o. PPooiinnttss::Colts 5, Noble 0.■ Adilabad District 123 in 34.5 overs (L.Mahesh 35, B. Srinivas 34, DD.. HHaarrsshhaa

VVaarrddhhaann 55//99 —— 66..55--22--99--55)) bt Rakesh XI89 in 39.4 over ((MMdd SSaaiiff AAllii 55//66 —— 1144..44--1100--66--55)). PPooiinnttss:: Adilabad 5, Rakesh 0.■ Saint Sai 56 in 23.3 overs (BB.. SSuurreesshh55//1144 —— 99--33--1144--55, N. Pavan Reddy 4/9)lost to Warangal District 59/1 in 5.3overs (B. Kumar 36 n.o). PPooiinnttss::Warangal 5, Saint Sai 0.■ HUCC 66 in 27.5 overs (AAddvvaaiitthh 55//2233—— 99..55--33--2255--55, TNR Mohit 3/24) lost toCheerful Chums 68/1 in 12.5 overs(Yash Satwalekar 30 n.o). PPooiinnttss::Cheerful Chums 5, HUCC 0.■ Hyderabad Panthers 179 in 32.4overs (Rahul Adwala 34 n.o, PP.. SSuurraajjRRaaoo 55//3399,, Rahul Karthikeya 4/75) lostto Bharat CC 180/7 in 48.4 overs (K.Rahul 38, Adithya Verma 32 n.o, RahulA 4/26, Ananya Raj Shekar 3/59).PPooiinnttss:: Bharat 5, Panthers 0.■ Elegant CC 229 in 64.2 overs (YY..YYuuggaannaanndd SSrreeee 112233 —— 116666bb,, 1188xx44,Raghavendra 3/36) vs WMCC.■ Ours CC 312/9 in 90 overs (VV..GGaauuttaamm 110055 —— 119911bb,, 1144xx44, KKaauusshhiikkCChheevveennddrraa 9966) vs Nizamabad District2/1 in 2 overs.■ Hyderabad Cricket Academy 389 in86.3 overs (PPrraannaavv 9977,, Rishi 38, Zaheer

38, Tejveer 55, Praveen 3/37) vsManikumar.■ HBCC 331 in 88.5 overs (Vara Prasad68, Ryan Rodrigues 67, Vishesh Anand65, Md Basheeruddin 3/58) vs CCOB.■ Crown CC 254 in 57 overs (V.Venkatesh 85, K. Surender 42, AnandPrakash 4/56) vs Mega City 141/2 in 33overs (A. Bhargav 57).■ Team Speed 201 in 73.1 overs (RohanPrem 36, S. Deekshit 43, Sujan Kumar4/33) vs PKMCC 3/1 in 5 overs.■ National CC 123 in 36 overs (R. P.Praneeth 63, M. S. Karthikeya 3/29, N.Charan 3/11) lost to Venus Cybertech127/2 in 31 overs (M. S. Karthikeya 39,Shrunoth Rao 33). PPooiinnttss:: VenusCybertech 5, National 0.■ Secunderabad Gymkhana 113 in 32.1overs (Anish Chandra 32, Md Adil 38, M.Manikanta Charan 4/44, Abhinav 4/4)lost to Vijayanand CC 117/1 in 23.1 overs(S. Aryan Raj 62 n.o, M. Abhinav 31 n.o).PPooiinnttss:: Vijayanand 5, Gymkhana 0.■ Karimnagar District 130 in 43.3 overs(Thuniki Raju 51, Mehul Dayani 3/37,Shashank 3/21) lost to Shanti XI 133/3in 45 overs (S. Venkatesh 62). PPooiinnttss::Shanti 5, Karimnagar 0.■ Superstar 237 in 66.3 overs lost toTime CC 238/6 in 79 overs ( VivekGagan 94, Visvesh K 58, Varnith Reddy36). PPooiinnttss:: TTiimmee CC 5,, SSuuppeerrssttaarr 0.■ Greenland 297/9 in 80 overs(Prabhat Gupta 77, Sai Charan 74, Suraj31, Prudhvi 4/72) vs Victoria.■ Sri Shyam 234 in 66.5 overs (MdAfzal Ali 57, Shaik Khaleel 36, SrinathNaik 39, Syed Haji 43, K. Sri Harsha4/28) vs Classic 140/4 in 19.4 overs (SRaghavendra Rao 45, K. JagdeeshReddy 73).

Vikram, Rahul, Sahith, Aashlesh, Sachit, Harsha, Saif, Suresh, Advaith, Suraj, Yuganand, Gautam, Vasu also do well in league

Benjamin Sai PPratheek C. SSiddharth Aashlesh Sahith Sachit NNaidu Advaith RReddy VVaassuu DDeevvaa RRaajjuu

Regd. No. HQ/SD/509/2021-23Printed and Published by

K. Sudhakar on behalf of DeccanChronicle Holdings Limited. Printedat Deccan Chronicle Press situatedat Plot No. 9 Alwal Village, VallabhNagar Taluk, Medchal Malkajgiri

Dist. Telangana and Published at 36,S.D. Road, Secunderabad-3.RNI Registration No. 3081/1957.

Editor: Kaushik Mitter

Dutee Chand (right) flashes avictory sign beside her coachN. Ramesh of Hyderabad.

c m y k c m y k

pg 16DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2021