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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

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BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

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MONEY 8470 INFRA PROJECTS SHOW COST OVERRUN OF RS 4.3 LAKH CRORE

ANALYSIS 7DOES AUKUS CAST A

SHADOW OVER QUAD?

SPORTS 12JADEJA CAMEO HELPS

CSK BEAT KKR BY 2-WICKETS

}KEERTHY

SURESH'S MOMTO PLAY ACAMEO?

Page 11{

HYDERABAD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

GUJ: RIJIJU INAUGURATES COUNTRY'SFIRST SPORTS ARBITRATION CENTRE

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday inaugurated thecountry's first "Sports Arbitration Centre of India" here inGujarat which will serve as an independent body to fast

track disputes in the sports sector. Rijiju said this centre willhave "a far-reaching impact" and play an important role inexpanding the country's sports sector. "Sports Arbitration Centreof India (SACI) is going to give a major push to make the sportssector big. Because when the sector grows, there will emergelots of issues attached to it. So you have provisions to handlethose emerging issues," he said after the inauguration.

RSS-LINKED WEEKLY TERMS AMAZONAS ‘EAST INDIA COMPANY 2.0'

E-commerce major Amazon has been termed as "EastIndia Company 2.0" by the RSS-linked weekly,Panchjanya, which has also alleged that the firm has

paid crores of rupees in bribes for favourable governmentpolicies. In its latest edition, which will hit the stands onOctober 3, Panchjanya has carried a cover story that ishighly critical of Amazon. "Whatever the East IndiaCompany did in the 18th century to capture India, the sameis visible in the activities of Amazon," the article titled "EastIndia Company 2.0" reads.

ARMY OFFICER SETS NEW GUINNESSRECORD FOR ‘FASTEST SOLO CYCLING'

An Indian Army Officer has set a new Guinness world recordfor 'Fastest Solo Cycling (Men)' by covering a distance of472 km from Leh to Manali in 34 hours and 54 minutes, a

defence spokesman said on Sunday. Lt Col Sripada Sriram ofthe strategic Strikers Division started cycling from Leh in Ladakhat 4 am on Saturday, he said Lt Col Sriram has set a newGuinness world record for the 'Fastest Solo Cycling (Men)' fromLeh to Manali (in Himachal Pradesh) on September 26. The totaldistance covered was 472 kilometers with a total elevation gainof approximately 8,000 metres, the spokesman said.

ROWDY CELEBRATIONS ACROSS NORWAYWITH END OF COVID MEASURES

Police in Norway on Sunday reported dozens of disturbancesand violent clashes including mass brawls in the Nordiccountry's big cities after streets, bars, restaurants and

nightclubs were filled with people celebrating the end of COVID-19restrictions. The Norwegian government abruptly announcedFriday that most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions wouldbe scrapped from Saturday and that life in the nation of 5.3 millionwould return to normal. The unexpected announcement by PrimeMinister Erna Solberg late Friday afternoon to drop coronavirusrestrictions the next day took many Norwegians by surprise.

HHYYDDEERRAABBAADDWWEEAATTHHEERR

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated SEPTEMBER 26, 2021 5:00 PM

FFoorreeccaasstt:: ScatteredThunderstormTTeemmpp:: 24HHuummiiddiittyy:: 97%SSuunnrriissee:: 6:05 amSSuunnsseett:: 06:8 pm

AALLMMAANNAACC

TTOODDAAYY

Month & Paksham:

Bhadrapada & Krishna Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Shashthi 15:42

Nakshatram : Rohini 17:41

Time to Avoid : Time to Avoid (Bad

time to start any important work)

Rahukalam : 7:38 am - 9:08 am

Yamagandam : 10:37 am - 12:06 pm

Varjyam : 8:38 am - 10:27 am,

12:00 am - 1:48 am

Gulika : 1:36 pm - 3:05 pm

Good Time : (to start any important work)

Amritakalam : 2:04 pm - 3:53 pm

Abhijit Muhurtham : 11:43 am - 12:30 pm

India sore over China’sreluctance to permitstranded Indians’ returnPNS n BEIJING

India has expressed disappoint-ment over China's reluctance topermit the return of thousands ofstranded Indian students, employ-ees and their families due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, describingit as an "unscientific approach" toa purely humanitarian issue.

Over 23,000 Indian students,mostly studying medicine, andhundreds of Indian businessmenand workers along with their fam-ilies have been stranded in Indiafor over one year as China, wherethe pandemic was first reported inlate 2019, has suspended the visaprocess as well as flights from Indiaciting the COVID-19 situation.

Indian Ambassador to ChinaVikram Misri referred to the woesof these stranded Indians at the 4thHigh-level Track-II Dialogue onChina-India Relations held virtu-ally on September 23.

Far less complex issues, whichhave a purely humanitarian contextand are not connected to bilateraldiplomatic stances, such as facili-tating the movement of students,businesspersons and stranded fam-ily members from India to Chinafor over a year and a half now,await a more balanced and sensi-tive approach," Misri said.

Telugu Chief Ministers take U turnon farm laws with differing stanceSNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

Ahead of Monday's 'Bharat bandh',the ruling parties in the Telugustates have taken a U turn onthe farm laws recentlyenacted by the BJP-ledUnion government,but with a differingstance on extendingsupport to the oppo-sition parties-lednationwide protest.

As for the farm laws,the stance of the Telangana

Rashtra Samiti government inTelangana has been at vari-ance with that of theYSR Congress Partygovernment in AndhraPradesh. Although TRS

had opposed thefarm bills in

Parliament, it isnow supporting thefarm laws. The YSRCongress had supportedthe farm bills in

Parliament, but is nowopposing the farm laws. The

YSR Congress has also extended

its support to Monday's BharatBandh called by opposition

parties.In Andhra Pradesh,

the main oppositionTelugu Desam Partyalso has taken a U turn

on the farm laws. Just likethe ruling YSR Congress,

the Telugu Desam Party sup-ported the farm bills in

Parliament, but is now opposingthe farm laws and has extendedsupport to Bharat Bandh.

TS postpones e-auction ofgovernment lands in HydPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana government haspostponed e-auction of 117.35 acresof land at Puppalaguda andKhanamet on the outskirts ofHyderabad in view of some courtcases. The Telangana State IndustrialInfrastructure Corporation (TSIIC)on Sunday announced that thenotification issued for sale of theland through e-auction stands post-poned.

Nine plots to an extent of 22.79acres at Khanamet village were to beauctioned on September 27 while 26plots to an extent of 94.56acres at Puppalaguda vil-lage were to be auctionedthe next day.

TSIIC ViceChairman andM a n a g i n gD i r e c t o rE V

Narasimha Reddy said certain friv-olous claims were made by thirdparties on the government lands putfor e-auction by approaching vari-ous courts. "In order to providecomplete assurance to prospectivebuyers, Government will ensurespeedy disposal of all pending casesbefore the process of auction isresumed," he said in a statement.

Secretary, Industry andCommerce, Jayesh Ranjan, saidthat the state government's intentionhas always been to auction landsafter ensuring clear titles.

"Some unscrupulous elementshave filed frivolous cases in

courts regardinglands identified

for auction,

Protem Chairmanmay helm T’ganaCouncil this sessionPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Legislative Councilmay be helmed by protemChairman V Bhoopal Reddy forthe entire monsoon session.

According to sources, the TRSgovernment may not appoint thenew Chairman during the currentsession. Protem Chairman VBhoopal Reddy will handle theCouncil, though the House doesnot have a Deputy Chairmaneither.

According to experts, there isno tenure for protem Chairmanand hence Bhoopal Reddy maybe allowed to steer the Councilunt i l a new Chairman isappointed. The sources said thatthe TRS government mightappoint a new chairman onlyafter elections are conducted for sixvacant MLC seats.

Rs 7,270 cr plan for road safety in 14 statesPNS n AMARAVATI

The Union Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways(MoRTH) is all set to roll out anew Rs 7,270 crore State SupportProgramme for StrengtheningRoad Safety to help realise thevision of 'Zero road fatalities onIndian roads.'

The centrally-sponsored six-year programme will be imple-mented in 14 states that are nowcontributing to 85 per cent of thetotal road fatalities in the country.

While MoRTH will lend a budg-etary support of Rs 3,635 crore, anamount of Rs 1,818 crore will besecured as loan each from theWorld Bank and the AsianDevelopment Bank.

Of the total cost, Rs 6,725 crorewill be disbursed to the 14 states

based on their performance whileMoRTH will use Rs 545 crore for

capacity building activities.The scheme will incentivise state

governments to drive road safetyinterventions at the grassrootslevel with the main objective ofcurbing road accidents and achiev-ing a reduction in fatalities, theMoRTH said in a concept note cir-culated to the target states.

The target states under thescheme are Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar,Telangana, West Bengal, Odisha,Haryana and Assam.

"This is an output and out-come-driven scheme wherein theperformance of the states will beassessed on 11 mandatory andthree elective indicators (road safe-ty interventions).

19 political parties back‘Bharat Bandh’ today PNS n HYDERABAD

Leaders of 19 political parties,including Congress, TeluguDesam Party, Telangana JanaSamiti and Left parties, have gotready to observe Bharat Bandhon Monday, in support of the callgiven by national part iesdemanding the Centre to reducethe prices of petrol and diesel andrepeal the recently enacted anti-farmer laws.

Leaders of the opposition par-ties have decided to participate in

road blockades at all highwaysconnected to Hyderabad city.TPCC chief A Revanth Reddywould participate in the blockadeat Boduppal on the Warangalhighway road.

o Cong MLAs to come toAssembly on horse carts fromTank Bund Ambedkar statue

o Blockade of highways on agenda

The centrally-sponsoredsix-year programme willbe implemented in 14states that are nowcontributing to 85% ofthe total road fatalitiesin the country.

Shout with anger and demand50% reservation in judiciaryPNS n NEW DELHI

Chief Justice of India N V Ramanaon Sunday exhorted womenlawyers to strongly raise theirdemand for 50 per cent reservationin the judiciary while assuringthem of his "total support".

"I don't want you to cry but withanger, you have to shout anddemand that we need 50 per centreservation," he said.

The CJI said that it's an issue ofthousands of years of suppressionand women are entitled to thereservation and added, "It's a mat-ter of right, and not a matter a char-ity."

He said, "I want to say that Istrongly recommend and supportthe demand of a certain percentageof reservation in all law schools ofthe country for women, so that theycan join the judiciary."

Speaking at a felicitation functionorganised by Lady Advocates of

Supreme Court for the nine newlyappointed judges, including threewomen judges, CJI Ramana said hehas modified Karl Marx's "Workersof the world unite. You have noth-ing to lose but your chain" quote forthe occasion and added: "Womenof the world unite. You have noth-ing to lose but your chain."

The CJI said, You all are laugh-ing. Yes, I don't want you to cry butwith anger, you have to shout anddemand that we need 50 per cent

reservation. It's not a small issue butan issue of thousands of years ofsuppression.

Appointment of women at sr levels can shiftgender stereotypes: Justice Nagarathna

Supreme Court Judge B V Nagarathna on Sunday said advancing womenparticipation in judiciary promotes role of gender equality in broader

ways and female judicial appointments, particularly at senior levels, canshift gender stereotypes, thereby changing attitude and perceptions ofappropriate roles of men and women. Justice Nagarathna, who is set tobecome the first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027, said, "Womenvisibility as judicial officers can pave the way for greater representation ofwomen in other decision-making positions such as legislative and executivebranches of the government." She was speaking at a function organised bythe Lady Advocates of the Supreme Court for felicitation of nine newlyappointed judges of the top court, which includes three women judges.Justice Nagarathna said, I say, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has shownthe way as to why in other branches women cannot break the glassceiling whether in the legislature or in the executive branches.

Man feared washedaway in heavy rainPNS n HYDERABAD

A man, believed to be a softwareprofessional, is feared washedaway after falling into a rainwa-ter-filled trench dug up for adrainage system here late Saturdayafter heavy rains lashed andflooded low-lying areas, policesaid.

The Disaster Response Force(DRF) of Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation and thepolice took up rescue operationsto trace the man, a senior policeofficial told PTI on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the official said,a woman lodged a complaintstating that her husband hasgone missing.

Srikakulam bears the brunt as‘Gulab’ begins to make landfall

VKL GAYATRIn VISAKHAPATNAM

The coastal areas of Srikakulamdistrict in Andhra Pradesh werebadly affected under the influenceof ‘Gulab’ cyclone which startedmaking landfall on Sunday night.

According to the reports, sev-eral trees were uprooted in vari-ous coastal villages of Srikakulamdistrict due to heavy rain accom-panied with gales.

According to reports, six fish-ermen V Nayakarao, VChiranjeevi, P Hemarao, KBhimarao, Y Paparao and B

Mohan Rao fromManchineellapeta village, pur-chased a fishing boat two days agoand ventured into the sea. Whilethree of them reached the shoresafely late on Sunday evening, twoothers died while trying to swimashore.

2 fishermen dead, 1missing, 3 swim to safety

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CJI TO WOMEN LAWYERSHerbal drug Fifatrolcan help check viralinfection, denguePNS n NEW DELHI

Amid a rise in dengue, influen-za and viral fever cases in differ-ent parts of India, experts claimthat herbal drugs like Fifatrol canhelp in boosting immunity andhasten recovery from these dis-eases.

Professor K N Dwivedi ofBanaras Hindu University(BHU) said in Ayurveda, thereare some herbs and concoc-tions which can prevent theprogression of infections due toseasonal flu and vectors such asmosquitoes and eliminate themgradually.

He pointed out that Fifatrol, aformulation of time-testedimmunity strengthening herbo-mineral preparations l ikeguduchi, daruharidra, apamarga,chirayata, karanja, kutaki, tulsi,godanti, mrityunjaya rasa, trib-huvana kriti rasa and sanjivanivati, has been found to help fightinfection, flu and cold.

People victimised by fake apps of cyber criminalsG RAVI KIRAN n HYDERABAD

Certain apps available on GooglePlay Store are those that have beendeveloped by cyber criminals andothers linked to them. The peoplebehind these fake apps are preyingon unsuspecting people who down-load them on their mobiles or otherdevices.

Although, following exposures offraud and malicious activity, thereis some level of monitoring offinancial-related apps, many shadyapps continue to be available fordownload on Google Play Store.Hence, cyber criminals and otherslinked to them are making appsthat are designed to cheat people.Bitcoin apps, Loan apps, bettingapps and others are giving jolts to

users, while relieving them of lakhsof rupees. Some of the recent casesreflect this fact.

A builder of Madannapet has lostRs.43 lakh to cyber criminals. Hehad installed an app on the sugges-tion of cyber criminals. A busi-nessperson of Chandrayanaguttalost Rs.14 lakh after installing an appto invest in Bitcoin currency with theinfluence of unknown people. Likethis, many are falling into the trapof cyber fraudsters by installing fakeapps. Many of these apps are avail-able in Google Play Store.

Cyber criminals are usingGoogle Play Store as their platformfor spreading fake apps and cheat-ing people. As of now, Google hasin place for its Play Store rules thatdisallow apps with potential forchild endangerment, sexual con-

tent, hate speech, violence & terror-ism, bullying & harassment, dan-gerous products, gambling and thelike. But there is no restriction onfinance-related apps such as loanapps, Bitcoin currencyapps and others.

NallamothuSridhar, a techni-cal expert,said:"Google PlayStore will actaccording to itsmanual. Butcyber crimi-nals ares e n d -i n gl i n k sof AnyD e s k ,TeamViewer and

other apps to people and gettinglogin codes in return. Then they willget access to the mobile of the vic-tim, and they can install any app.Regarding Loan Apps, Google Play

Store has framed a few condi-tions. If a loan is given for a

period of more than sixmonths, then it will be

treated as a financialapp. But cyber fraud-ster change the peri-

od to 10 days or 15days after the installa-

tion in the particularmobile. Like that they get

round the app and cheatGoogle Play Store as well as

the user. Even, Play Store willmonitor and remove fake apps

from time to time.

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Executive Editor: Navin Upadhyay. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

Monday MirchiSajjanar fighting a losing battle?

Former super cop VC Sajjanar may havebecome a hero among people and a sectionof the Police Department by the unique waysin which he dealt with rapists and acid throw-ers, but his latest avatar as TSRTC MD haspitted him against market forces that suggesthe is now fighting a losing battle. When hetook charge, employees' hopes were raisedthat good days are ahead for the corporation.However, Bajireddy Govardhan Reddy, soonafter taking over as chairman, issued an omi-nous statement about eventual privatisationof RTC if it cannot be turned around. Thishas put Sajjanar in a piquant position. For,he has just struck a chord with the employ-ees by his surprise inspections, travels by bus-- including those with his family members,visiting ailing employees in hospitals etc. --all done to make employees feel comfortablewith him in the driving seat of the corpora-tion. With Chief Minister K ChandrasekharRao reportedly giving four months to the cor-poration to "perform or perish", Sajjanar willhave to do much more than being in the goodbooks of employees. The larger question is:Can the dreaded former police officer makethe corporation profitable in four months?Tough task indeed for a man who had shinedas a tough cop.

Cops ‘working hard' to bare govt!

It is OK if cops occasionally go beyondtheir call of duty, considering social mediaalways highlights those who break themould, say by dancing in a unique style whileregulating traffic at an intersection, holdingtraffic to help chicks cross the road, or penal-izing helmetless riders and later compensat-ing them with a helmet on the spot.Hyderabad traffic cops too do their partwhenever it rains heavily. They are on theground, drenched to the bone, but helpingpeople and clearing puddles. But when pic-tures of how hard these cops are workingamid the downpour appear on social media,they also expose chinks in the government'sarmour. People, particularly netizens, whileappreciating the cops' seva, point how thegovernment has done nothing to stop theinundation of roads in the first place.Previously GHMC used to face the flak thattraffic cops are doing the civic body's job,while civic staffers just don't get onto theirfeet. With the diminishing role of GHMCCommissioner, citizens are now directlyattacking the government, armed withproofs of cops' hard work amidst pouringrain.

WhatsApp'Guru' MaheshBhagwat does it again!IPS officer and Rachakonda

Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagwathas done it again. Thanks to his mentoringas a 'Guru' via WhatsApp groups, over 100candidates from various States have baggedgood ranks in the latest Civil Services exam,including 14 figuring among the top 100rankers. Despite his demanding job, Bhagwatallocates time for his passion: mentoring CivilServices aspirants. He takes pride in guid-ing them to successfully crack the interviewand the personality test post prelims and

mains. He reaches out to them through var-ious WhatsApp groups, earning the epithet'WhatsApp Guru'.

Elevation of outgoing CS Adityanath Das

The outgoing Chief Secretary of AndhraPradesh, Adityanath Das, may have beenembarrassed with the state governmentnaming his successor well in advance and notpreferring an extension. As Sameer Sharmaprepares to take over as the new CS fromOctober 1, Das can now leave his presentposition with his head held high consider-ing that the AP government has appointedhim as the Chief Advisor to the State gov-ernment with the status of Cabinet Ministerand posted him at AP Bhavan. For Das, thiswould be a smooth transition to a positionin which he would be handling what has beenhis forte for years. Das, who has headed theIrrigation Department in the combined APas well as in residual AP state, will hopeful-ly iron out the differences between the TeluguStates over water sharing and other irriga-tion-related issues, and help resolve the mat-ters amicably.

SEC fights for his ownvoting right

It is strange to hear, but true. He who hassecured the voting right to lakhs of peopleis now fighting for his own voting right.Andhra Pradesh State ElectionCommissioner Nimmagadda RameshKumar, upon being removed from his postby the AP government, launched a legal bat-tle and reassumed his post. Even afterretirement he has been fighting with the APgovernment in the court. As SEC, in his five-year tenure, he had addressed the complaintsof those who wanted voting rights. When hewas in government service in the combinedAndhra Pradesh Nimmagadda RameshKumar had transferred his name to the vot-ers' list in Hyderabad from that of his nativeplace Duggirala in Guntur district. Afterretirement, Nimmagadda, having decided tosettle down in Duggirala, applied to the stateelection authorities for transfer of his namefrom the Hyderabad voters' list to that of hisnative place Duggirala. When Nimmagaddaverified the voters' list of Duggirala village,he did not find his name. Later, he came toknow that the election authorities hadrejected his application. Nimmagadda hasgone to court again, challenging the decisionof the election authorities.

CMO babu cut to size

Sulking AP babus have a reason to cheeras Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy hassidelined a CMO official who, with his'know-it-all' attitude, had irked them by hisintrusive behavior and unwarranted interfer-ence in every aspect of government function-ing. Since he was known to be close to Jagan,none of them dared to talk back wheneverhe poked his nose. Jagan apparently had aneye on him and showed him his place whenhe crossed his limits. This episode suggeststhat it is not easy to work with the ChiefMinister and that those who try to takeundue advantage of proximity with him willbite the dust.

- Yours truly

EGG

RATES

HYDERABAD 428

VISAKHAPATNAM 470

VIJAYAWADA 441

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀44..2288

`̀//110000

CHICKEN

RATES

Dressed/With Skin `254

Without Skin `274

Broiler at Farm `141

`̀//KKGG

(IN HYDERABAD)

PNS n NEW DELHI

Vice President M. VenkaiahNaidu on Sunday advised theCouncil of Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR) toreinvent itself and turn futur-istic while pursuing the scienceof the highest order.

Participating in the CSIR's80th Foundation Day celebra-tions here, he said that hewanted CSIR laboratories andinstitutes to address challengesthat require long-term scientif-ic and technological solutions.

Citing climate change, drugresistance, pollution, epidem-ic and pandemic outbreaks,among the challenges thatneed the focus of the scientif-ic community, Naidu said: "Iwant CSIR to bestow greaterattention on agriculturalresearch and come out withnew innovations, techniquesand solutions to address the

problems faced by farmers."Union Science and

Technology and Earth SciencesMinister Jitendra Singh askedthe CSIR and all the sciencedepartments to explore S&Tinnovations needed in the nextten years to make India glob-ally competitive, a Science andTechnology Ministry releasesaid. As the nation is celebrat-

ing the Azadi ka AmritMahostav, the combinedstrength of the CSIR,Department of Bio-Technology, Department ofScience and Technology, andMinistry of Earth Sciences,along with other science min-istries, can indeed transformthe entire country in the next25 years as the entire progressis going to remain heavilytechnology-dependant, hesaid, adding, 25 years later,India should be a globalleader ranging from defenceto economics with strong sci-entific and technologicalinputs."

Lauding the 80-year suc-cessful journey of CSIR, hesaid that it is heartening to seethe evolution of the CSIRfrom developing India's firstindelible ink used in electionsto providing Indian StandardTime using atomic clocks

today.From the development of

Swaraj Tractor to the recenttest flying of HANSA-NG is atestament to the growth ofCSIR in the last eight decades,he added.

The legacy of CSIR is builton the cumulative contribu-tions of its many nationallaboratories and institutes, hesaid, adding that each labo-ratory is unique and special-ising in diverse areas asgenomics to geology, mater-ial technology to microbialtechnology and food to fuel.Singh congratulated all thescientists, researchers and stu-dents who won the prestigiousShanti Swaroop BhatnagarPrizes and said that the acco-lades will further motivate therecipients to continue theirexcellent work and inspirethose around them, therelease said.

CSIR should re-invent itself forfuture challenges: Venkaiah

Mentored by CPMahesh Bhagwath,131 candidatesclear civils examsPNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

As many as 131 civil servicesaspirants, mentored by asenior IPS off icer inTelangana, have cleared thecivil services examination-2020.

The mentorship was pro-vided by Rachakonda PoliceCommissioner Mahesh MBhagwat along with civil ser-vants and educationists, saida press release here onSunday. Congratulating thecandidates, he advised themto render citizen-friendly ser-vices in administration andwork with honesty, sense ofownership, the release said.

Last year, the interviewswere postponed because ofthe Covid pandemic, so thecandidates were trainedonline by the police officerand the others, the releaseadded.

Continued from page 1

The virtual dialogue was co-hosted by the School ofInternational Studies ofSichuan University (SCU),China Centre for South AsianStudies and Manohar ParrikarInstitute for Defence Studiesand Analyses (MP-IDSA).

I might add here that Indiahas also attempted to keep ourtrade and commercial rela-tionship insulated from cur-rent differences, for instanceby continuing to issue visas toChinese businesspersons tovisit India," he said.

However, we are disap-pointed to see an unscientif-ic approach with regard toseveral problems currentlybeing faced by Indian stu-dents, businessmen, marinecrew and exporters, to namea few," the ambassador said.

India sore overChina’sreluctance topermit stranded

Shout with anger and demand...Continued from page 1

It is high time we have 50 percent representation of womenin the judiciary. You are enti-tled (to it), it's a matter of right.It is not a matter a charity. It isunfortunate that some thingsare realised very late."

He said he will be "veryhappy" whenever the goal willbe realised.

"All my sisters and all of youhave carved out exceptionsfor people in the society andwomen of the society and forthat matter youngsters whethermale or female are all waitingand looking at you as if you arerole models. Your success sto-ries will make them moreimpulsive and we expect morewomen will join the professionand we will achieve the goal of50 per cent shortly. I whole-heartedly support all initiativestaken by you and so long as Iam here I will support all ofyour causes," he said.

The Chief Justice of Indiasaid that he believes in mixingwith people, knowing abouttheir ideas so that he under-stands what is the problem thesociety is facing, but addedthese days he is visiting lots of

places and has got bored of giv-ing speeches.

"After coming back yester-day night from Odisha, I col-lected some information aboutthe system in which we areworking. In the entire coun-try...in subordinate judiciaryless than 30 per cent arewomen, in high courts womenjudges are 11.5 per cent and inSupreme Court four womenjudges out of 33...(that is) 11 or12 per cent, the CJI said.

He said that out of 1.7 mil-lion advocates in the countryonly 15 per cent are women

and only two per cent electedrepresentatives in the state barcouncils are women.

"The other day I have toldBar council of India chairmanManan Kumar Mishra, what isthis in your bar council nation-al committee you don't haveany single woman memberrepresented, this needs urgentcorrection," he said.

CJI Ramana further saidthat people will often say eas-ily that it is difficult to have 50per cent reservation becausewomen have a lot of problemsbut that's not correct.

Appointment of women at sr levels...Continued from page 1

I may not speak in detail but I can only say that advancing womenparticipation in the judiciary promotes the role of gender equality inbroader ways. Female judicial appointments particularly at seniorlevels can shift gender stereotypes, thereby changing attitude andperceptions of appropriate roles of men and women, she said.Terming the appointment of nine judges at one go as a monumentalachievement for the top court, she said, Higher number and greatervisibility of women judges can increase the willingness of women toseek justice and enforce their rights. Justice Nagarathna said thatthe instant appointment should not be the only event and it shouldcontinue as we the women members will scout for talent from allover India so that they get elevated not only at relevant high courtsbut also to the Supreme Court .

Srikakulambears the...Continued from page 1

The whereabouts of anoth-er fisherman are yet to beknown. One of the fisher-men fishermen informedhis relatives that they were indanger as the sea had turnedvery turbulent. With this,Minister of Fisheries Dr. SAppala Raju alerted the res-cue teams and the EasternNaval Command to rescuethe fishermen.

Paddy and horticulturefields were inundated at sev-eral places. As many as 50NDRF troops along with theequipment, fire services per-sonnel, police and local in thevillages are participating inthe relief and rescue opera-tions.

At about 7.30 pm, three ofthe missing fishermen Y PapaRao, V Chiranjeevi and KBhimarao reached the shoresafely near Akkupalli villageof Kalingapatnam. Theyinformed that V Nayakaraoand B Mohanrao had died atthe sea and the whereaboutsof P Hemarao are yet to beascertained.

Meanwhile, the officialshave evacuated over 200 peo-ple from the coastal villages tothe Cyclone Relief Centresand also distributed food tothem. The APEPDCL has setup control rooms to restorepower lines and police.

Telugu Chief Ministers...Continued from page 1

Yet, TDP Andhra Pradeshunit president K Atchennaiduhas criticised the rulingYSRCP's stance on this issue.Defending the TDP's deci-sion, Atchennaidu argued:"The TDP supported the farmbills in Parliament by movingsome amendments, but theYSRCP had supported thefarm bills in Parliament with-out moving any amendments.

In Telangana, the rulingTRS had totally opposed thefarm bills in Parliament. Butwhatever the reasons withinthree months the TRS changedits stance on the farm laws. InSeptember 2020, the TRS hadopposed the farm bills in

Parliament. In December,Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao held ahigh-level review on agricul-ture with the officials. In thatmeeting, KCR changed histune on the farm laws. He saidthat, as per the new farm laws,the state government wouldclose the crop purchasing cen-tres in the state, 'enabling'farmers to sell their produceanywhere in the country.

Earlier, officials told KCRthat, after the formation ofTelangana, the state govern-ment had incurred losses tothe tune of Rs 75,000 crore dueto the purchase of agricultureproducts and spent Rs 39,350crore for procurement ofpaddy alone.

Rs 7,270 cr plan for...Continued from page 1

The grants will be distributedto the states based on the KeyPerformance Indicators," topofficial sources told PTI.

The preliminary projectreport prepared by MoRTHsays the Motor VehicleAmendment Act (2019) wasbrought in as an importantintervention to achieve thefatality reduction target.

"To leverage the strength-ened law, it is necessary to havefocused interventions in therelated areas of road safety likeroad engineering, enforce-ment, road safety advocacyand media campaigns andefficient emergency responsesystems. The states need to besupported to act on result-ori-ented strategies. Hence thenew scheme," the sources said.

India reported about 1.51lakh road deaths in 4.49 lakhaccidents in the year 2019. Ofthe total deaths, the 14 iden-tified states accounted for1,27,379. The number of fatal-ities remained consistent overthe last five years.

In 2020, 1.32 lakh roaddeaths were recorded acrossthe country, with the Covid-

19-induced lockdown result-ing in the reduction in num-ber.

The new scheme targets toreduce the fatality rate by 30per cent by March 2027.

Cyclists, two and three-wheeler riders and pedestrianshave been identified as 'vulner-able road users' who com-prised about 54 per cent ofroad traffic deaths in India.

Under the new scheme,performance-based indicatorshave been proposed with theaim of reducing the impact ofroad accidents on these vul-nerable users.

An Integrated RoadAccident Database (IRAD)will be rolled out in all statesby 2022-23 and applied foridentifying and rectifying allblack spots on state highwaysand major district roads.

Road safety audit will bemade mandatory on statehighways and urban roads bythe end of the scheme period.

From 2022-23, MoRTH willlaunch a 'Challenge Round'every year to provide incen-tives to states on additionalroad safety interventions andalso to promote competitionamong states.

Man feared...Continued from page 1

He had left his house ataround 9 PM on Saturdayand the incident of the manfalling into the trench tookplace at around 9.14 PM,the official said. The coupleresides near the spot.

A CCTV camera captureda man falling into the trenchwhere drainage pipeline-lay-ing work, but it is not knownwhether he is the woman'shusband.

"Search is on. We'vesearched up to Musi river sofar, but could not find the per-son who got washed away. Wesuspect he could be thewoman's husband," the officialsaid. Telangana EducationMinister Sabitha Indra Reddysaid rescue teams wereengaged in locating the person.

TS postpones...Continued from page 1

even though the title matterhas been well-settled bySupreme Court of India ingovernment's favour.

"Inconvenience caused toprospective buyers is deeplyregretted," he added.

This was the second roundof auction of governmentlands in the city. In July, thestate government has earnedRs 2,729 crore from e-auctionof 65 acres of land over 13 plotsat Kokapet and Khanamet.

19 political parties...Continued from page 1

TPCC Campaign Committeechairman Madhu YashkiGoud would participate at atHayathNagar on theHyderabad-Vijayawada high-way. TPCC senior vice-pres-ident Dr Mallu Ravi andparty senior leader M RamReddy would participate atLB Nagar. TPCC senior vice-president SambaniChandrasekhar would takepart at Ibrahimpatnam, along

with former MLA MalreddyRanga Reddy.

Communist Party of Indianational secretary Dr KNarayana would participateat Shamshabad on theBangaluru highway alongwith TPCC working presi-dent Mahesh Kumar Goudand TPCC senior vice-pres-ident Vem Narender Reddy.AICC secretary SA SampathKumar would participate atAlampur Tollgate on theBangalore highway.

Herbal drug Fifatrol...Continued from page 1

Developed by AIMILPharma, the herbal drug isbeing recommended byAyurveda experts for evendengue and viral flu patientsand it is very effective.

According to sources, dur-ing a trial on dengue patientsat AIIMS, Bhopal, Fifatrolwas found to have increasedblood platelet count signifi-cantly.

Professor Dwivediexplained that there are fourtypes of dengue -- serotypesone to four -- at play, and theprevalence of serotype-two,which is more severe thanother types, has been grow-ing very fast across states.

In serotype-two dengueinfection, platelet count drops

rapidly, and the body'simmune response becomeshyper active leading to acytokine storm that can dam-age the organs. This variantof dengue also impacts thekidneys, he said.

"But this drug (Fifatrol),being enriched withimmune-enhancing herbo-mineral preparations, canfight bacteria, viruses andallergens and provides fastrelief from nasal congestion,sore throat, body ache andheadache."

Fifatrol has also been men-tioned in nearly 200 tech-nologies and research activ-ities evaluated by experts ina compendium for combatingcoronavirus as compiled bythe National ResearchDevelopment Corporation.

Protem Chairman may helmT’gana Council this sessionContinued from page 1

The State government has urged theElection Commission of India topostpone the biennial polls to theCouncil, citing the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, though the ruling TRSis in a position to bag all the six vacantseats in the Legislative Councilunanimously. Besides, GuthaSukhender Reddy and NethiVidyasagar, other four MLCs-Kadiyam Srihari, BodakuntiVenkateshwarlu, Fareeduddin, AkulaLalitha retired on the same day.

The KCR Cabinet had sentPadi Kaushik Reddy's name toGovernor TamilisaiSoundararajan for nomination asMLC under the Governor quota

for her approval on August 1.However, Soundararajan has keptthe file relating to KaushikReddy's candidature pending.

It may be recalled thatGovernor TamilisaiSoundararajan appointed VBhoopal Reddy, MLC fromMedak Local Authorities' seg-ment as protem chairman for theState Legislative Council on June3rd - the day then ChairmanGutha Sukhender Reddy andDeputy Chairman Nethi VidyaSagar retired as MLCs. In gener-al, the Deputy Chairman willserve as acting Chairman if theChairman retires. However, sinceboth Chairman and DeputyChairman retired the same day,

the Governor had appointed aProtem Chairman, as theLegislative Council is a perma-nent body and cannot be dis-solved like the Assembly.

This is the second time thatboth Chairman Dr A Chakrapaniand Deputy ChairmanMohammed Jani retired the sameday in 2011. They were elected forfour years when the Council wasrevived in 2007 in the combinedAndhra Pradesh. At that time, theGovernor appointed MLCSingam Basava Punnaiah as pro-tem Chairman for the Council.However, the then Congress gov-ernment gave the chance to Dr AChakrapani to become Chairmanof the Council for a second time.

People victimised...Continued from page 1

Regarding Crypto Currencyalso, cyber criminals make afake app resembling theoriginal app. After installa-tion, it will be modified.They will show profits in theaccount, but the victims willknow that it is a fake oneonly when they try to with-draw it. The Google PlayStore cannot verify it. Onlypeople have to be vigilantand alert to avoid thesecyber frauds".

JSP symbol ‘tumbler’ tumbles out of CEC gazette notificationPNS n VIJAYAWADA

In a rude shock to the JanasenaParty, the party symbol wasnot listed in the gazette noti-fication issued by the CentralElection Commission. TheCEC has issued a gazette noti-fication on the allocation ofparty symbols to the politicalparties.

As per the notification theJanasena party common sym-bol “glass tumbler” was not inthe list published by the CEC.

The CEC has reserved sym-bols to three regional partiesin Andhra Pradesh and final-ized the symbols for eightnational parties. Earlier onMay 23, the CEC had issued agazette notification allocating

reserved symbols to only threeof the recognised regionalparties in the state. In AP, theceiling fan symbol wasreserved for the ruling YSRCP,the bicycle symbol for theopposition TDP. While thereserved symbols for BJP,Congress, CPM, CPI,Trinamool Congress, BSP,NCP and National People's

Party under the national partystatus. However, the CEC hasrecently issued a notificationin the Free Symbols categorystating the glass and glasssymbol allotted to the Janasenaparty in the last Assembly elec-tions.The Central ElectionCommission (CEC) has puta restriction on the use of

four symbols by the politicalparties or independent can-didates in Telangana andAndhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, in the latestnotification issued by theCEC, the glass symbol allot-ted to the Janasena Party inthe last assembly electionswas included in the FreeSymbols category.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 hyderabad 03

RTC to shift few city bus services to outskirts to improve revenuePNS n HYDERABAD

In a bid to curtail its losses, theTelangana State RoadTransport Corporation(TSRTC) has decided to run itsfleet on the outskirts of the cityin a radius of 50 kilometersfrom city reducing the city busservices in the main city. TheRTC officials feel that it willincrease occupancy ratio.

Increase in use of privatevehicles manifold, HyderabadMetro Rail, private cab serviceslike Uber and Ola and Rapidohave dented the revenue of theRTC.

Currently, the RTC is study-ing the transport needs of peo-ple in the outskirts in a radiusof 50 km.

Even Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao has madea special mention of the finan-cial losses to the RTC due tooperation of the city buses.

On an average, city busestravel up to a distance of 250kilometers at a speed of 15 kilo-meters per hour. Traffic jams,cancellation of trips, operationof buses on limited routes, notreopening of schools and col-lege at full scale has greatly cur-tained the distance of the oper-ation of the city buses.

Earlier, the city buses used torun from Hayathnagar toPatancheru. However, current-ly the distance was curtailed toLB Nagar from Hayathnagarbecause of the HyderabadMetro Rail is operating its ser-vices from LB Nagar toMiyapur.

At the same time, the dis-trict-level buses have beenoperating up to a distance of400-500 km at a speed of 25 to30 kmph.

As the RTC withdrew over800 buses from operation, thecity buses are currently run-ning up to a cumulative dis-tance of 7 lakh as against theearlier 9 lakh. Earlier, over3,850 buses were operated.

Instead of running shorttrips on routes likeSecunderabad-Koti, Nampalli-Mehdipatnam because of thelow occupancy ratio and notable to operate these servicesup to a distance of 250 km, theRTC has plans to increase tripson Choutuppal-MGBS,B h o n g i r - S e c u n d e r b a d ,Chevella-Mehdipatnam reduc-ing trips on short distanceroutes.

The changes will enable theRTC to operate its servicesfrom 250 to 400 km daily.

Currently, the RTC losses areput at Rs 1 crore per day. TheRTC earns Rs 36 per km asagainst the expenses of Rs 85.

The RTC spends Rs 20 perkilometer to buy diesel. TheRTC's daily income is put at Rs2.5 crore, but the operationalcosts are put at Rs 3.5 crore.

The RTC is confident ofincreasing its revenue per kmfrom Rs 36 to 50 throughoperation of buses to far offplaces like Chevella,Sankarpally, Rayagiri andBhongir.

To get closer to the com-muter, the RTC has been ask-

ing the commuters to sendtheir problem to WhatsAppnumbers for resolution of the

problems. The help centre at Koti can

be accessed by contacting

99592 26160, while the one atRathifile help centre on 8333904531.

Will not privatise RTC:Chairman Goverdhan

Telangana State Road Transport Corporation(TSRTC) chairman Bajireddy Goverdhan Reddy

stated that the state government will not privatisethe corporation. He said that the officials of RTChave discussed with the Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao over the hike in bus fares, torun the RTC on benefits. Goverdhan Reddy, whowent to his hometown on Sunday for the first timeafter becoming the RTC chairman received anarousing welcome from the leaders in theconstituency. Speaking to the media after

conducting a review meeting with officials at hiscamp office, Goverdhan Reddy said that the ChiefMinister has been taking steps to run the RTC onthe path of benefits. Explaining that the corporationused to get Rs 14 crore revenue before thepandemic, he said that they are striving had toovercome the losses now. Meanwhile, the RTC hasannounced that it will continue to operate the cityand inter-state buses as usual on 27 September,irrespective of the 'Bharat Bandh' call given by the19 opposition parties.

TSRTC to operate bus serviceseven though the Oppositionparties of Telangana announcedBharat Bandh on Monday

Chief Secretary alerts districts over impact of cyclone ‘Gulab’PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana governmenton Sunday put all districts onalert in view of the heavyrains forecast for the stateunder the impact of cyclonicstorm 'Gulab'.

Chief Secretary SomeshKumar held a teleconferencefrom New Delhi with thedistrict Collectors in the wakeof the India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) warningof heavy rains in the state forthe coming two days.

He directed al l theCollectors to keep vigil on'Gulab' which may show itsimpact in the entire statefrom Sunday evening for thenext two days, and set up spe-cial control rooms in all thedistricts to monitor the floodsituation.

The IMD has issued redalert for north Telangana andorange alert for southTelangana districts.

Somesh Kumar asked theCollectors to work in coordi-nation with police and otherline departments. The districtofficials were directed to beon alert with regard to low-lying areas, keep a vigil andtake necessary measures onthe tanks likely to breach.

They were told to take ser-vices of the National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF), ifnecessary.

The Chief Secretar yadvised them to keep a vigilon such places where peopleare likely to cross over toother side during overflow ofthe streams. He asked them toappoint special officers in

every mandal to avoid anyhuman and asset loss.

He said the officers andstaff of Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation(GHMC) should be alert inthe wake of rising water lev-els in Himayat Sagar andOsman Sagar reservoirs. Hewanted officials to monitorthe rising water levels con-stantly and also keep vigil andmonitor the rising levels of all

the tanks in the state.Special Chief Secretary,

Roads and Buildings, SunilSharma, Principal Secretary,Disaster Management, RahulBojja, Secretary PanchayatRaj and Power, SandeepKumar Sultania, and GHMCCommissioner, LokeshKumar participated in theteleconference fromHyderabad along with all dis-trict Collectors.

GHMC monsoon teams deployed

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) haspressed into service its monsoon teams and the Disaster

Response Force (DRF) teams to clear rain related complaintsfollowing the heavy rains that lashed the city on late Saturday.Mayor G Vijaya Laxmi instructed the monsoon action teams to beon alert and asked the engineers in the civic body to monitor thesituation on ground and take immediate measures. Meanwhile,GHMC's Enforcement Vigilance & Disaster Management director,Vishwajit Kampati on Twitter asked the people to Dial 040-29555500 for Disaster Response Force assistance The teams areon the job round the clock to bring back normalcy in localities thatwere inundated. The teams cleared waterlogging, removed tangledwires and uprooted trees and branches. Hyderabad MetropolitanWater Supply and Sewerage Board workers are attending theissues pertaining to drainage overflow. At least three teams aremaking efforts to track him down. The trenches lead to theNeknampur tank located at Rajendarnagar.

State pays tributes to Chakali IlammaPNS n HYDERABAD

Rich tributes were paid toChakali Ilamma, an icon ofTelangana armed struggle, onthe occasion of her 126thbirth anniversary, on Sunday.

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao recalledthe democratic fightingspirit of Ilamma,describing her thesymbol ofwomen con-sciousness andself-respect ofthe Telanganaartisan commu-nities.

The CM said thatIlamma who was born inthe most backward classes com-munity gave inspiration to theTelangana Bahujan communi-ties. She was a great democratwho fought for her rights dur-ing the armed struggle days,within the framework of lawand in the courts for justice.

Chandrashekhar Rao saidthat Ilamma's democratic

fighting spirit was very muchimbibed in the Telanganastatehood movement. Hepointed out that ChityalaIlamma's birth and deathanniversaries are being organ-ised officially by the govern-ment. He said programmeswould be conducted to make

future generationsremember the great

service rendered byher.

Minister forbackward classesG a n g u l aKamalakar paid

tributes to Ailammaand unveiled her stat-

ue at a programme heldat Huzurabad.He claimed that the KCR

government of Telangana was thefirst government to recognize theservices of the valiant fighter byorganising programmes on herbirth and death anniversaries.Finance minister Harish Raoand BC Commission ChairmanV Krishna Mohan Rao also paidtributes to Ilamma.

LIFE OF BUDDHAThe prestigious Sriparvatarama or Buddhavanamproject at Nagarjuna Sagar, which has beenbeautifully themed, crafted and arranged toshowcase a glimpse of the glorious, yet humble,life of Gautam Buddha, is all set to be thrownopen to the public. An Amaravati-style replica ofMahastupa with sculptural embellishments will bethe main attraction at the park.

SCR cancels 12 trains in view of cyclone ‘Gulab'PNS n HYDERABAD

The South Central Railway(SCR) has cancelled 12 trainsand short terminated, divert-ed or rescheduled few othertrains in view of cyclonicstorm 'Gulab' which is set tocross Andhra-Odisha coaston Sunday.

Bhubaneswar -Secunderabad, Bhubaneswar -Tirupati, Tirupati -Bhubaneswar, Puri - ChennaiCentral, Chennai Central -Puri, Sambalpur - HS Nanded,HS Nanded -S a m b a l p u r ,Rayagada -Guntur trains,scheduled toc o m m e n c ejourney onSunday andMonday, havebeen cancelled.

The authoritiesalso announced cancella-tion of Bhubaneswar-KSRBengaluru City, KSRBengaluru City -Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar -

Yesvantpur and Yesvantpur -Bhubaneswar trains.

They also announced diver-sion of the Puri-Okha train viaKhurda Raod-Angul-Sambalpur-Titiagarh-Lakholi-Balharshah.

New Tinsukia - KSRBengaluru City, which com-menced journey on Friday,was diverted via Kharagpur-Jharsuguda-Balharshah.Howrah - Chennai Central,Howrah - Yesvantpur, Howrah- Vasco-da-Gama were alsodiverted via Kharagpur-

Jharsuguda-Balharshah.Yesvantpur -

Budge Budge trainwas diverted viaVizianagaram-T i t l a g a r h -Asansol, andKanniyakumari-

Howrah train viaVi z i a n a g a r a m -

Titlagarh- Jharsuguda-Kharagpur.

Chennai Central - Howrahwas diverted viaVizianagaram-Titlagarh-Jharsuguda -Kharagpur.

TS urged to delete ‘Islamophobic' content from Class VIII textbooksPNS n HYDERABAD

Following demand from theStudents Islamic Organisationof India (SIO) to delete'Islamophobic' content in aschool book in Telangana, thestate authorities on Sundayassured appropriate actionwhile the publisher has apolo-gised and decided to delete theobjectionable photograph.

The director of school edu-cation clarified that the objec-tionable photograph was notpublished in the governmentprescribed text book of 8thclass but in the Question Bankprepared and published byVGS Brilliant Series publica-tion, a private firm. SIO hadstrong exception to the picture

of a 'terrorist' showing himholding a rocket launcher inhis right hand and carryingholy Quran in his left hand. Itwas published in the chapter'National movement - the lastphase 1919 -1947'. Dr TalhaFaiyazuddin, president, SIO

Telangana condemned thepublication of 'Islamophobic'content and urged the state'seducation minister P. SabitaIndra Reddy to initiate actionagainst the publisher.

He said such content willprejudice students' minds. "It is

creating and propagatingstereotypical, hateful andIslamophobic view towardsMuslim community, by show-ing a person holding a gun inhis right hand and the holyQuran in left hand. It is a dis-criminatory and hateful con-tent which destroys the harmo-ny, unity and integrity of thesociety," he said.

Meanwhile, VGS Publishershas apologised for carryingthe picture.

The Vijayawada-based pub-lisher in a statement expressedregrets. "It was not at all inten-tional. We do not intend tohurt anybody's sentiments.However, we have decided todelete the picture and reprintthe books," it said.

The picture of a‘terrorist' shows himholding a rocketlauncher in his righthand and carryingholy Quran in hisleft hand. It waspublished in thechapter ‘Nationalmovement - the lastphase 1919-1947'.

Man murders wifesuspecting fidelityPNS n HYDERABAD

A software engineer alleged-ly murdered his wife suspect-ing her fidelity at their housein Bachupally on Sunday.

The deceased woman wasidentified as ErrollaSudharani, 28, a softwareengineer by profession.According to the police,Sudharani had fallen in lovewith Errolla Kiran Kumar, 28,who is also a software engi-neer. The couple got marriedwith their parents approval afew months ago and wereresiding at Sri Sai Dwarakaapartments of Pragathi Nagarunder Bachupally PoliceStation limits.

The police said that thewoman's body was found ina pool of blood with a slitacross the throat.Neighbours who noticed thebody through the window,informed the police whorushed to the spot. Thebody was sent for postmortem. Preliminary inves-tigation revealed that a bladewas used to murder thewoman.

NITI Aayog CEO takes part in GICPNS n HYDERABAD

NITI Aayog CEO AmitabhKant on Sunday participated inGreen India Challenge of TRSRajya Sabha memberJoginapally Santosh Kumar.

Amitabh Kant plantedsaplings along with SantoshKumar and Lok Sabha MPVenkatesh Netha at his resi-dence in New Delhi.

Santosh Kumar, a leader ofTRS, also presented a book"Vriskha Vedam" to him.

The NITI Aayog CEOappreciating the efforts ofSantosh Kumar for the GreenIndia Challenge programmeand the book. He said everyvillage needs to take up thisprogramme. "If we move for-ward in the same way, we cansurely succeed in climatechange," he said. AmitabhKant said he would soon nom-inate three more for Green

India Challenge. Celebritieslike Amitabh Bacchan, AamirKhan, Sachin Tendulkar,Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn,Shruti Haasan, ShraddhaKapoor, Chiranjeevi,

Nagarjuna, Prabhas, Krishna,Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu,Rajamouli, Samanta, PullelaGopichand, PV Sindhu, SainaNehwal and Sania Mirza haveparticipated in the challenge.

Forum for a Better Hyderabad, a city-based environmentalprotection organisation, took part in the Green India Challenge

(GIC) on Sunday. Celebrating the World Rivers Day, Forumchairperson Manikonda Vedakumar led a riverfront walk by the Musiand planted saplings along the walkway near Salar Jung Museum.Accompanying him were students from All Saints High School, St.Sai Vidya Niketan High School, Government schools, in addition toGIC's co-founder S. Raghava. The event also included an exhibitionof several old photos of river Musi and after Vedakumar planted thefirst sapling, others joined in, planting 50 saplings overall. "Thefourth Sunday of September is observed as World Rivers Dayglobally and we are doing it for the first time in the city, celebratingMusi. I was nominated by my former student Dr. Chetana, to take upthe Green India Challenge and we took it up," said Vedakumar whoalso nominated Shanta Sinha, National Child Rights Commissionchairperson, Harpreet Singh, IAS, Waqf Board Deputy CEOMohammad Safi Ullah among others to take up the challenge.

World Rivers Day celebrated

Thousands of Hyderabadis had perfect Funday this SundayPNS n HYDERABAD

After a week's gap, the SundayFunday at Tank Bund resumedon Sunday and it was biggerand better than the previousweeks.

The smell of freshly poppedcorn mixed with the spices thatonly the street vendors haveaccess to, different food stalls,sapling distribution stalls, thesetting sun framing the majes-tic Buddha statue along withthousands of Hyderabadis

made up for a perfect SundayFunday.

Like the previous Sundays,there were a lot of children onskates, rollerblades, scootersand skateboards zipping pastthe casual strollers on the road.A lot of pets were also spotted,with the furry friends gettinga chance to enjoy the pleasantSeptember evening outside.

Couples took selfies andgroups posed for pictures righton the middle of the road,making memories that weren't

possible before the SundayFunday was introduced. Stiltwalkers, street magicians, streetmusicians, fortune tellers andmore brought in a carniva-lesque charm to the evening.

The Women's Safety Wing ofHyderabad police added tothe fun of the evening with azumba session followed by aninteractive awareness programabout She Teams' function-ing. Fire works and musicband added to the fun on to theSunday evening.

State records 170 fresh Covid casesPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana on Sunday record-ed 170 fresh COVID-19 casestaking the cumulative count to6,65,068. The number of activecases stood at 4,612, a stategovernment bulletin said.

No fresh fatalities due to thevirus were reported in the last24 hours and the number ofpersons, who succumbed to thevirus so far stood at 3,912 , itsaid. The Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation contin-ued to report the highest num-ber of cases with 68 followed byKarimnagar 18 and RangaReddy 11 districts.

Eight out of the 33 districtsreported zero cases, it said.

A total of 34,200 sampleswere tested on Sunday.Cumulatively, the number ofsamples tested was 2.61 crore.

TADJAC to support‘Bharat bandh’ todayPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Auto Drivers JointAction Committee (TADJAC)has appealed to the working classparticularly the auto, taxi and lorrydrivers to participate in the pro-posed Barath Bandh on Mondayin support of the farmers demandsand make it a success.

Meanwhile, a rally of auto,taxi and lorry drivers will beorganised on Monday upto LB

Nagar Cross roads and a RastaRokho programme will be con-ducted at 11.30 am.

In a statement issued here onSunday, convener of TADJAC,Mohammed Amanullah Khanalleged that there is rampant cor-ruption in the police departmenthas announced his decision toundertake 'fast till death' fromOctober 2 (Gandhi Jayanti Day)demanding the government todeal corruption with an iron hand.

hyderabad 04HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

K VENKATESHWARLU

n HYDERABAD

The state government ofTelangana, which has beenextensively spreading aware-ness among the farmers toshift their focus from cultivat-ing paddy to traditional cropsincluding millets, pulses andcereals may see a setback withthe monkey menace, which isrampant in across the districtsof Telangana.

Shortage of agriculturelabourers in several districtsadd to the woes of farmers.

However, The TRS publicrepresentatives have alreadystarted awareness programmesto educate the farmers overcrop rotations in Rythu Vedikasacross the state.

The state government hastaken up this initiative after theCentre made it clear that it willnot procure the paddy as it hasenough stocks in godowns,which are sufficient for fiveyears. It may be rememberedhere that the state of Telanganahad become a rice bowl in thecountry, with record produc-tion of paddy this year.

Raising the issue over mon-key menace in the awarenessprogrammes, several farmerssaid that they have been culti-vating paddy only because theyare scared of monkey menaceand shortage of agriculturallabour.

The farmers explain thatmonkeys also attack on paddyfields, but the trouble is lesscompared to other traditionalcrops. However, there is noanswer from the officials onmonkey menace.

Over the period of time, the

population of monkeys hasalso increased manifold.Officials attribute several rea-sons for the increase of themonkey population.

Several farmers inTelangana, who used to culti-vate jowar, maize, bajra, ground

nut, cotton and caster cropspreviously, shifted to paddy dueto the availability of water inTelangana now.

Experts attribute destruc-tion of hills for the sake ofgranites is the reason for themonkey menace in Telangana.The hills are natural accom-modation for the monkeys,but now they are enteringinto the fields and villages, asthey don't have natural habi-tats.

A farmer, G Krishna Reddyfrom Karimnagar district whohas been cultivating paddy,lamented that shifting to com-mercial and traditional cropsmay not be so easy due to theshortage of agricultural labourand monkey menace.

Opining that it is not prop-er on the part of the state gov-ernment to ask farmers to cul-tivate commercial and tradi-tional crops suddenly, thefarmer urged the state govern-ment to initiate steps to solvetheir issues including monkeymenace and agriculture laborproblems as they have not yethabituated to cultivate com-mercial and traditional crops.

Monkey menace, inadequate labour may foil govt's crop rotation plan SRINIVAS KARENGALA

n JAYASHANKARBHUPALAPALLY

In order to wean away tribalsand adivasis from the influenceof the Maoists in tribal areas,the police officials have beenimplementing many measures,including welfare measures,in Agency areas and villages onthe fringes of forests inMahadevipur circle as there ispossibility of the Maoists cross-ing over into Telanganathrough land and river toescape combing and exchangeof fire in that state.

The police have launchedmeasures to build confidenceto get closer to the tribals in thelight of heavy repression on theMaoists in Chattisgarh.Sometimes, the exchange offire is causing heavy loss of lifeon either side.

The police department hasbeen trying to ensure that theMaoists get zero support fromthe tribals here in case theystep on Telangana soil.

The police are not hesitatingto extend any help to the trib-als living in erstwhile strong-holds in Agency areas likePankena, Palimela, Sarvaipeta,

Dammuru, Mukunuru andAnnaram village located in thethick forest areas along theTelangana-Chattisgarh borderareas.

The police have been con-ducting cardon and searchoperations in remote and inac-cessible villages since morning.They are searching each andevery house thoroughly. Theymake people assemble at thevillage square and asking themagainst taking part in anti-social activities.

Free health camps are beingconducted for tribals and adi-vasis and distributing medi-cines among them. The policealso sensitise the villagers onnutrition. The police alsoexplain them to contact policecontrol room dialing 100 inemergencies.

Besides, the police distributerugs, mosquito nets, sportskits for youth. Additional SPSrinivasulu, Kataram DSPBonala Kishan are supervisingthe measures to build bridgeswith the tribals in Maoistaffected areas while keeping anon the movements of theMaoists in the areas.

In view of the Maoists cele-brating Maoist Week, thepolice have stepped up comb-ing, search and cordon in theareas in villages in Godavaicatchment areas. MahadevpurCI Kiran along with policemenand CRPF personnel havebeen holding meetings withvillagers and urging them topass on information aboutmovement of suspects andanti-social elements, if any, inthe villages.

Cops step up efforts to wean adivasis away from Maoists

PNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

Excise Minister Dr V SrinivasGoud has called upon peopleto keep surroundings cleanand plant saplings in vacantspaces.

He was addressing a gath-ering after laying the founda-tion stone for CC roads anddrainage works in 9 and 20wards of the town on Sunday.The estimated cost of theproject is Rs 50 lakh. Thegovernment has been goingahead resolving the prob-lems one after the other in thetown, he said asking the peo-ple in the district to keep theirsurroundings clean and plantsaplings in vacant spacesunder Haritha Haram. Theproposed airport coming atManyamkonda has beennamed as VenkateswaraAirport.

State resolving problems one after the other:Srinivas GoudPNS n KHAMMAM

Minister for TransportPuvvada Ajay Kumar has saidthat the boldness of ChakaliIlamma aroused conscious-ness among women ofTelangana region. He hailedher as a great democrat whohad fought for justice and toachieve for her rights in courtswithin the ambit of the lawsprevailed then apart from tak-ing part in armed revolution.

He garlanded her statue inthe city and paid rich tributesto her on Sunday on the occa-sion of her birth anniversary.

"She used her words as bul-lets and cannon balls to striketerror in the hearts of landlordsand kindled the spirit of farm-ers to revolt. Her life will serveas a great source of inspirationfor posterity. Bahujans ofTelangana will derive inspira-tion from Ilamma, who was

born into a Dobhi's family,"said Puvvada Ajay adding thatpaying tributes to her wouldmean Telangana governmentcelebrating her birth anniver-sary and observing deathanniversary annually official-ly.

Waging fights for rights isone of the inherent qualities ofthe Telangana soil, he said.

Deriving inspiration fromher, Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao designedwelfare schemes to benefit all

sections of the society, he saidadding that over 1,000 freepower connections were givento dobhis and barbers in thecity to help them pursue theircaste-based vocations undergovernment's free powerscheme for them.

City Mayor P Neeraja,District Collector VP Gautam,police commissioner Vishnu Swarrier and various govern-ment officials, people's repre-sentatives were present on theoccasion.

Waging fights for rights naturalfor son of T’gana soil: Puvvada PNS n WANAPARTHI

Agriculture MinisterSingireddy Niranjan Reddy onSunday paid rich tributes toChakali Ilamma and hailed heras the icon of self-respect fordown-trodden sections of thesociety.

Describing her as a bravewoman who sent shivers downthe spine of land lords duringthe Telangana Armed Struggle,fought for land, for food andagainst exploitation.

Her bravery and her idealsserve as a great source of inspi-

ration for the people of thestate, he said.

Niranjan Reddy described

her as a brave lady, who laid thefoundation for the modernsociety in Telangana by revolt-

ing against the exploitativelandlords and raised her voiceagainst them saying, "This landbelongs to me and also the cropcultivated in it. Who is Dora toseize my crop?"

District Collector ShaikYasmin Basha hailedAilamma's perseverance andfighting spirit.

Earlier, Niranjan Reddy anddistrict Collector garlandedstatue of Ailamma and paidrich tributes to her by garland-ing statue of her in the townand a portrait of her atCollectorate.

Ilamma, an icon for down-trodden: Minister

PNS n NAGARKURNOOL

Nature and Indian CultureFoundation in association withPleach India Foundation res-cued 12th century Heritagestructures at Nandivaddemanvillage in Bijinapally mandal,Nagarkurnool district onSunday on the eve of WorldTourism Day in tune with thisyear's theme 'Inclusive TourismDevelopment', said Dr ESivanagi Reddy, Sthapati,Archaeologist and CEO, PleachIndia Foundation and PatnamKrishnam Raju, President ofNature and Indian CultureFoundation.

Jumped into action andcleared the wild growth ofvegetation on five temples viz.,Bhadrakali Temple located

amidst paddy fields, tripleshrines locally known asTrimurti temples abutting thehuge mud fort wall andNandishwara temple where avery huge bull sculpture carvedout of black granite stone,located two km away from thevillage as part of the awarenessprogramme called 'PreserveHeritage for Posterity'.

Nearly 30 activists from

Nature and Indian CultureTrust and 10 volunteers fromPleach India Foundation and10 members of the local youthled by Vanga Sudarsan Goud,Sarpanch Nandivaddemanworked the entire day andmade the much neglected

monuments presentable to thelocal visitors and tourists.

Dr Sivanagi Reddy said thatthe monuments spruced upwere built in typical Kakatiyastyle by Gona Buddha Reddy(author of RanganathaRamayanam), Ganna Reddyand Vittala Reddy, ruled fromVardhamanpura as the subor-dinate chiefs of the Kakatiyas in12th and 13th centuries AD.

Dr Sivanagi Reddy sensitisedthe village Sarpanch and localyouth on the archaeologicaland historical significance ofthe temples, sculptures andinscriptions and the need topreserve them for future gen-erations and appealed to thestate government of Telanganato safeguard the pricelessHeritage properties.

NGOs safeguard 12th century temples in Nagarkurnool

PNS n WARANGAL

History researcher RatnakarReddy on Sunday searched forfossils in Gurrevu a village onthe banks of River Godavariand villages in its vicinity onthe occasion of September 27is celebrated as the WorldTourism Day. The search wasdone in Lakshmipuram,Devadula, Buttayigudem andso on as the region is a gold-

mine for investigators of fos-sils. He came across fossils inGerra region of Gurrevulavillage of Kannayigudem of

Mulugu district in an area over10 acres. In fact, it would takeat least 10,000 years for theskeletons of animals and platresidues to become fossils.

But in Gerra region, the his-torian found several plantspecies undergoing transfor-mation into fossils.Researchers Janardhanachary,Ravinder and Goutamcharyalso participated in theresearch.

Historian hunts for fossilson the eve of Tourism Day

PNS n HYDERABAD

AICC spokesperson DasojuSravan demanded ChiefMinister K ChandrashekarRao to immediately take up acomprehensive audit of Coviddeaths in TS and issue factu-al death certificates accordingto ICMR guidelines, indicatingthe specific reasons of death,

so as to enable the deceasedfamilies to obtain compensa-tion of Rs 50,000 being provid-ed by Central government. DrDasoju Sravan, who has beentirelessly raising the issue ofgross underreporting of Coviddeaths by government to cam-ouflage its failures, has onceagain raised the issue, in thewake of Centre's decision to

provide ex-gratia to the kin ofdeceased, after SupremeCourt's intervention. DrSravan wrote a letter to KCRon Sunday, stressing on theneed for a fresh audit of Coviddeaths during first and secondwaves and providing financialand social security to thechildren orphaned by thedreaded virus.

‘Take up audit of Covid deaths’

PNS n MULUG

Folk, as well as classicalKuchipudi dances performedat the UNSECO heritage siteRamappa temple at Palampetof Mulugu district, delightedtourists on Sunday. A dayahead of World Tourism Day,the district administrationconducted a Heritage Walkand other programmes at thefamous temple.

Dance performances by thedisciples of Tanduru Renukuwere a feast to the eyes of thevisitors. Sub-Registrar TaslimaMohammad, PalampetaVillage sarpanch Rajita,Ramappa Temple ExecutiveOfficer (EO) and other officialsparticipated in the event.District Tourism Officer, erst-while Warangal, Shivaji coor-dinated the programme, whileVenkatapur SI Ramesh lookedafter the security arrange-

ments.Shivaji said that the number

of tourists has increased manyfolds since UNESCO con-ferred the World Heritage Sitetag to the Ramappa temple inJuly this year. According to theArchaeological Survey of India(ASI) officials, six trained secu-rity guards have already been

deployed at the temple forsecurity besides urging theState government to step uppolice protection to all archae-ological sites. The ASI is goingto beef up security by deploy-ing more armed guards and bysetting up increased surveil-lance of the area with CCTVcameras.

MUSHAMPALLI RAPE Folk, classical dances delight tourists at Ramappa temple

Harish: Will install bronze statue of Ilamma PNS n SIDDIPET

Finance Minister T HarishRao on Sunday said the gov-ernment will install a life-sizebronze statue of ChakaliIlamma in Siddipet town soon.

Addressing the gatheringafter garlanding the bust ofChakali Ilamma at HousingBoard Colony here, Harish

Rao said the story of Ilammacontinues to inspire theyounger generation. "Ilamma isa symbol of self-respect andconsciousness among womenin Telangana," he said.

Pointing out that she hadfought bravely against feudal-ism, the Minister said the Stategovernment will celebrate thebirth and death anniversaries

of Ailamma officially as a trib-ute to her bravery that is aninspiration for the modernwomen.

Elaborating various worksthe administration has takenup for the welfare of Chakalicommunity in Telangana, theMinister said that they wouldgrant loans for washermencommunity through MBC

Corporation.Stating that they have set up

ultramodern Dhobi Ghat inSiddipet town for the benefit ofthe Chakali Community, Raosaid that Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao has beenextending great support torevive the caste-based profes-sions in the State sinceTelangana was created.

Uttam demandsRs 50L exgratiato kin of victim PNS n NALGONDA

Condolences continued topour in for the family of a 54-year-old rape and murdervictim at Mushampally inNalgonda.

Visiting the bereaved fam-ily and assuring them of sup-port, leaders of various partiestook potshots at the stategovernment policies and saidthey are 'contributing fac-tors' for the crime.

Nalgonda MP N UttamKumar Reddy has demandedthat the state government todeclare an ex-gratia of Rs 50lakh to the family of theMushampally victim.

Uttam Kumar Reddy wasspeaking to the reporters aftervisiting the victim's family inMushampally here on Sunday.The Congress MP along withother leaders demanded com-plete control over belt shopsand drug abuse in Telanganadistricts.

Accusing the governmentof failing to control crime inthe state, Uttam KumarReddy said that the crime ratein the state is increasing onlydue to the illegal sale of alco-hol and marijuana. There isno protection to women inthe state, he added. Assuringto support the family mem-bers of the victim, UttamKumar handed over a chequeof Rs 1 to them on Sunday.

Warangal Mayor Sudha Rani Gundu alongwith MLA Dasyam Vinaya Bhaskkar

inaugurated the Greater Warangal MunicipalCorporation (GWMC) pet park in

Balasamudram on Sunday. Pet and childrenplay equipment, open gym and badmintoncourts were made available for denizens of

Warangal.

PNS n GADWAL

Local legislator BandlaKrishna Mohan Reddy laidthe foundation stone for theoffice of the SuperintendingEngineer of the ElectricityDepartment here on Sunday.

Allampur MLA DrAbraham, ZP ChairpersonSarita were also present on theoccasion. Unlike earliertimes, when there were powercuts in Telangana, there is24x7 power supply to agricul-ture sector, he said adding thatthere was no need for thefarmer to conduct agricultur-al operations at night. Hethanked the electricity depart-ment for their support to thefarmer.

Foundation stonelaid for SE office

nation 05HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

New AIIMS will correct regionalimbalance, says Nitin Gadkari

The new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences built in the country are destined to correctthe longstanding regional imbalance in the health sector, according to Union minister

Nitin Gadkari, who also said doubling the number of AIIMS will better serve people'saspirations. The minister of road transport and highways was speaking at a digital event tomark the 3rd Foundation Day of AIIMS, Nagpur. The programme was also attended byBharati Pravin Pawar, the Minister of State for Health among others, a health ministry

statement said. "Keeping in view therequirements of the Vidarbha region, with theestablishment of an institute of repute like AIIMS,Nagpur, at Nagpur, the patients of all thebordering states of Central India will have accessto affordable and modern medical facilities."However, we have to ensure that the benefits ofthese facilities reach not only to the cities butalso to the people of the remote villages of ourregion," Gadkari was quoted as saying in thestatement.

Warm welcome for PM Modi at Palam airport on return from US

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given a warm welcome by BJP leaders, including partychief JP Nadda, after his arrival from the US at the Palam airport here on Sunday.

Modi, who walked for nearly two kilometres meeting party workers and the people lined upalong the road outside the airport, thanked them for welcoming him. Lavishing praise on theprime minister upon his arrival in the country from the United States, Nadda hailed him as a

"global leader" who has made India a "global player".Citing Modi's meetings with US President Joe Bidenand Vice-President Kamala Harris, besides hisparticipation in the Quad meet and address at theUNGA, the BJP president said the prime minister putacross strongly and frankly global issues and alsoIndia's views over threats like terrorism andexpansionism. Folk artistes from different states intheir traditional costumes greeted the prime ministerplaying different kinds of drums and musicalinstruments, Delhi BJP vice-president VirendraSachdeva said.

Cong asks workers to join‘Bharat Bandh' on Sept 27

The Congress on Sunday asked all its workers, state unit chiefs and heads of frontalorganizations to take part in the 'Bharat Bandh' called by farmer unions on

September 27 to protest the Centre's three agri laws. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha,the umbrella body of over 40 farm unions spearheading the farmers' agitation, hadearlier appealed to the people to join the bandh. Congress general secretary

(organization), K C Venugopal, said the Congress andits workers will extend our full support to the peaceful'Bharat Bandh' called by farmer unions on Monday."We believe in the right of our farmers and we willstand by them in their fight against the black farmlaws," he said in a tweet. "All PCC Presidents, Chiefs ofFrontal Organizations are requested to go out in frontwith our Annadatas in their peaceful Bharat Bandhacross the country," Venugopal said. The governmentand farmer unions have held 11 rounds of talks so far,the last being on January 22, to break the deadlockand end the farmers' protest.

INDIA

CORNER

PM urges people to ensure noone is left out of vaccination PNS n NEW DELHI

Intensifying operations againstthe Naxals and choking theflow of funds to them were thetwo key issues discussed at ahigh-level meeting chaired byUnion Home Minister AmitShah and attended by six chiefministers and top officials offour other states here onSunday, sources said.

Action against frontalorganisations of the Maoists,filling up the security vacuum,concerted action by theEnforcement Directorate, theNational Investigation Agencyand the state police were othervital issues discussed duringthe nearly three-hour-longmeeting. The chief ministerswho attended the meetingwere Naveen Patnaik (Odisha),K Chandrashekar Rao(Telangana), Nitish Kumar(Bihar), Shivraj SinghChouhan (Madhya Pradesh),Uddhav Thackeray(Maharashtra) and Hemant

Soren (Jharkhand), officialsources said. West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee, Bhupesh Baghel ofChhattisgarh, Y S Jagan MohanReddy of Andhra Pradesh andKerala CM Pinarayi Vijayandid not attend the meeting.Their states were representedby senior officials. Accordingto sources, intensifying oper-ations against the Naxals, fill-ing up the security vacuum,choking the flow of funds toextremists and concertedaction by the ED, the NIA andthe state police were discussedthreadbare in the meeting.

Focused investigation andprosecution of cases, actionagainst front organisations,coordination amongst states,capacity building of state intel-ligence branches and specialforces of the states, construc-tion of fortified police stationswere other issues discussed atthe meeting.

The home minister reviewedwith the chief ministers andofficials the security situationand ongoing operations againstMaoists and development pro-jects being carried out in theNaxalism-affected areas, thesources said.

Centre plans to intensifyoperations against Naxals

PNS n BENGALURU

India's Mars Orbiter space-craft has completed seven yearsin its orbit, well beyond itsdesigned mission life of sixmonths.

"Indeed, a satisfying feeling,"K Radhakrishnan who as thethen Chairman of Indian SpaceResearch Oranisation (ISRO)led the Mars Orbiter Mission(Mangalyaan) team told PTI onthe milestone.

MOM is the maiden inter-planetary mission of ISRO.Launched on November 5,2013, the probe was successful-ly inserted into Martian orbiton September 24, 2014 in its

first attempt.MOM is primarily a technol-

ogy demonstration ventureand all the mission objectiveswere successfully met, accord-ing to officials of Bengaluru-headquartered India's nation-al space agency.

The main lessons learnt werein the field of design and real-isation of systems and subsys-tems, launch for interplanetarymission, insertion into otherplanet's orbit, operation of thespacecraft and scientific instru-ments around Mars orbit, theysaid. The lessons learnt haveraised the confidence of ISROscientists for taking up futureinterplanetary missions.

ISRO has been continuous-ly monitoring the spacecraft

and its five scientific instru-ments, and officials said scien-

tific analysis of the data beingreceived from MOM spacecraftis in progress.

On the health of the space-craft, M Annadurai, who wasthe Programme Director ofMOM, said the spacecraft's"moving elements are facingsome issues and some of theredundancies we have to switchover." "The spacecraft's healthis reasonably good consideringthat we are in the seventhyear," Annadurai told PTI. Heexpects the spacecraft to havea mission life of probablyanother one year.

On the reasons for the longmission life, Annadurai saidISRO had done corrections

after learning lessons from theChandrayaan-1 venture, interms of reconfiguring thespacecraft and optimisation offuel management, among oth-ers. Noting that Earth remote-sensing satellites typically havea mission life of seven to nineyears, he said it was a very sat-isfying moment that Indiacould establish that aroundMars also, a spacecraft can bein operation for such a longperiod.

On some criticism in somequarters that scientific outputof the MOM was "low",Annadurai said it was more ofa technology-demonstrationmission.

Srinagar air show makes a comesback

SC students asked to washutensils, keep them separatePrincipal suspended, cooks sacked after plaints PNS n MANIPURI

A school principal here wassuspended and two cooksterminated over complaintsthat scheduled caste studentswere asked to wash theirmid-day meal utensils them-selves and keep them sepa-rate, a senior official saidSunday.

Chief Development OfficerVinod Kumar said the actionwas taken after village prad-

han Manju Devi's husbandSaheb Singh filed a com-plaint Saturday, alleging SCstudents were being discrim-inated against at the govern-ment primary school inDodapur in Bewar block.

Singh said in the com-plaint that the SC students,around 80 in all, unlike oth-ers were made to clean theirutensils after eating the mealand asked to keep them sep-arate.

Upon receiving the com-plaint, the CDO, along withBasic Shiksha Adhikari KamalSingh and project director KKSingh, inspected the schooland its kitchen, and found theallegations true, the officersaid. Taking cognisance of thematter, the CDO terminatedthe services of the cooks onthe spot and suspended prin-cipal Garima Singh Rajput onthe charges of dereliction ofduty, he said.

PM maintainsbusy schedule to keep fatigueat bay: OfficialsPNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi's ability to maintain ahigh level of energy whilekeeping a busy schedule onhis trips abroad has drawncurious enquiries fromadmirers and sceptics alike.Official sources say that oneof his tricks is to pack hishours with back-to-backengagements so that it does-n't let the mind think muchabout any fatigue.

"When he used to visit theUS in the 1990s, an airline atthat time used to give amonthly travel pass at heavi-ly discounted rates. To makethe most of it, Modi wouldalways travel in the night asthis ensured that he could visitmost places while not havingto spend a penny on hotels.His night would be invariablyspent at the airport and in theplane," a source said.

PNS n SRINAGAR

The skies over Srinagar roaredon Sunday morning with fight-er jets and Chinook helicoptersexhibiting adrenaline-pumpingmanoeuvres at an air showconducted after 14 years here.

The air show organised bythe Air Force Stat ion,Srinagar and the governmentis part of the ongoing 'Azadika Amrit Mahotsav' celebra-tions, officials said.

The IAF's Akash Gangaskydiving and SuryakiranAerobatic Display teams tookpart in it.

The main aim of the show,under the theme of 'GiveWings to Your Dream', was toraise awareness among theyouth of the Kashmir Valleyand motivate them to join theIndian Air Force and to pro-

mote tourism in the region,they said.

The event was witnessedby hundreds of school chil-dren and people from acrossthe valley at the Sher-e-

Kashmir Internat ionalConference Centre (SKICC)overlooking the Dal Lakehere. It was flagged off by J-K Lieutenant GovernorManoj Sinha.

The event started with theoldest fighter jets of the IAF-- MiG 21s -- flying over thefamous Dal Lake and past theenthusiastic audience atSKICC.

PM to launch DigitalHealth Mission today PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will launch the PradhanMantri Digital Health Missionon Monday via video confer-ence, his office said.

The pilot project of NationalDigital Health Mission hadbeen announced by the primeminister from the ramparts ofthe Red Fort on August 15,2020. Currently, the PradhanMantri Digital Health Mission(PM-DHM) is being imple-mented in pilot phase in sixUnion Territories.

In a historic initiative, PrimeMinister Modi will launch thePM-DHM on September 27,2021 at 11 AM via video con-ferencing, which will be fol-lowed by his address on theoccasion, the Prime Minister'sOffice (PMO) said in a state-ment.

The nationwide rollout ofPM-DHM coincides withNational Health Authority(NHA) celebrating the thirdanniversary of AyushmanBharat Pradhan Mantri JanArogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY),the statement said. UnionHealth Minister MansukhMadaviya will be present onthe occasion.

Based on the foundationslaid down in the form of JanDhan, Aadhaar and Mobile(JAM) trinity and other digi-tal initiatives of the govern-ment, PM-DHM will create aseamless online platformthrough the provision of awide-range of data, informa-tion and infrastructure ser-vices, duly leveraging open,interoperable, standards-baseddigital systems while ensuringthe security, confidentialityand privacy of health-relatedpersonal information, thePMO said.

The mission will enableaccess and exchange of longi-tudinal health records of citi-zens with their consent, it said.

The key components ofPM-DHM include a health IDfor every citizen that will alsowork as their health account,to which personal healthrecords can be linked andviewed with the help of amobile application, aHealthcare ProfessionalsRegistry (HPR) andHealthcare Facilities Registries(HFR) that will act as a repos-itory of all healthcareproviders across both modernand traditional systems ofmedicine.

VP Naidu arrivesin Jaisalmer onfive-day Raj visit

PNS n LUCKNOW

Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM,which is going to contest nextyear's Uttar Pradesh Assemblypolls on the promise of creat-ing leadership amongMuslims, has created unease inthe political parties that so farconsidered the members of theminority community as theircore "vote bank".

Different castes, includingJatavs, Yadavs, Rajbhars andNishads, which constitute arelatively small part of thepopulation of Uttar Pradesh,more or less have their ownleadership, but Muslims, whoaccount for more than 19 percent of the people in the state,do not see any united leader-ship. So the AIMIM, led byOwaisi, wants to end the "slav-ery" of Muslims in the handsof the Samajwadi Party (SP),the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)and the Congress, which hadbeen using them as their "votebank", according to the lead-ers of the party.

There are 82 Assembly seg-ments in the state whereMuslim voters are in a positionto make or mar the politicalfortunes of the candidates.

Buoyed by winning fiveseats in last year's Bihar pollsfrom the Muslim-dominatedSeemanchal region, whichgave jitters to the RJD and theCongress, Owaisi has alreadyannounced that his party willfield candidates in 100 of the403 seats in the Uttar Pradeshelection expected to be heldearly next year.

The Hyderabad MPlaunched his poll campaign

from Ayodhya earlier thismonth and since then, hasbeen addressing public meet-ings at different places.

AIMIM national spokesper-son Syed Asim Waqar told PTIon Sunday that the main goalof the party is to create a polit-ical narrative and leadershipamong Muslims for theprogress of the communityand a better future.

"Even the so-called secularparties, which were getting thevotes of the Muslims, neverallowed a Muslim leadershipto emerge. The report of theSachar Committee has madeout the condition in which theparties have pushed them to,"he said. The opinions ofexperts differ on whetherMuslims, after the rise ofHindutva politics, havebecome aware enough to cre-ate their own acceptable lead-ership. The SP and the BSPhave accused Owaisi of serv-ing the interest of the rulingBJP by trying to divide Muslimvotes and dismissed any pos-sibility of the AIMIM havingany impact in the country'spolitical heartland.

Owaisi factor createsripple among parties

PNS n NEW DELHI

Ahead of the festival season,Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday urged peopleto keep following Covid proto-col and ensure that no one isleft out of vaccination's "circleof safety".

In his monthly 'Mann KiBaat' radio broadcast, theprime minister also said thatcommon people are gettingconnected to digital transac-tions through fin-tech UnifiedPayments Interface (UPI) andits prevalence is increasing.

Noting that the festival sea-son is approaching, Modi saidwhen the whole country willcelebrate 'MaryadaPurshottam' Shri Ram's victo-ry over untruth, people shouldalso remember the fight againstCovid. "Team India is makingnew records everyday in thisfight. With regards to vaccina-tion, the country has made

many such records which arebeing talked about the worldover," the prime minister saidin the radio broadcast that wasrecorded before he left for theUnited States for an officialvisit.

Asserting that every Indian

has an important role in thefight against the pandmeic,Modi said not only one shouldget the vaccine administeredwhen his or her turn comes,but they should also ensurethat no one is left out of this"circle of safety".

"Those around you whohave not gotten vaccinatedalso have to be taken to thevaccine centre. Even after get-ting vaccinated, the necessaryprotocol has to be followed," hesaid, urging the people to con-tinue taking precautions.

"I hope that once againTeam India will keep the flagflying high in thisfight...Wishing you all, everyperson in the country, the bestfor the forthcoming festivals,"Modi said.

The prime minister's wordof caution comes as the festi-val season is round the cornerwith Durga Puja, Dussehraand Diwali celebrationsapproaching.

In his remarks, Modi alsostressed on the resolve for"economic cleanliness", assert-ing that the way building of toi-lets enhanced the dignity ofpoor, similarly economic clean-liness ensures their rights.

PNS n JAISALMER

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu arrived here onSunday on a five-day visit ofRajasthan. Governor KalrajMishra received Naidu.Rajasthan Energy MinisterB D Kalla, Rajya Sabhamember Rajendra Gehlotand Jaisalmer MLARooparam welcomedNaidu.

The vice president willvisit Tanot Mata temple,Longewala war museum andSam sand dunes in Jaisalmeron Sunday.

India's Mars probe completes 7 years in orbit

PNS n CHANDIGARH

Punjab Chief MinisterCharanjit Singh Channi car-ried out his first cabinet expan-sion on Sunday, inducting 15Cabinet Ministers whichincluded seven new entrants.The new faces in the ChanniMinistry are Randeep SinghNabha, Raj Kumar Verka,Sangat Singh Gilzian, PargatSingh, Amarinder Singh RajaWarring and Gurkirat SinghKotli.

Rana Gurjit Singh has madea comeback after resigning in

2018 from the AmrinderSingh Ministry.

Punjab GovernorBanwarilal Purohit adminis-tered the oath of office andsecrecy to the legislators.

Brahm Mohindra,Manpreet Singh Badal, TriptRajinder Singh Bajwa, ArunaChaudhary, Sukhbinder SinghSarkaria, Razia Sultana, VijayInder Singla and BharatBhushan Ashu, who were min-isters in the previousAmarinder Singh led cabinet,were retained as CabinetMinisters.

Punjab CM carries outfirst cabinet expansion

law could not get permissionto remit a total of `1,50,000after working in a BritishCompany for 32 years, all inSri Lanka. Such was the for-eign exchange famine sudden-ly discovered.

Although I must confess,the management at New Delhiwas no better. In 1990, theIndian treasury had run out offoreign exchange. In ordernot to fail commitments over-seas, the Government sentmany crates of gold to banksin London. Fortunately, in1991, India was gifted with adecisive Prime Minister PVNarasimha Rao who liber-alised and globalised Indianeconomy. He thus broughtabout an economic revolution.

A small country is vulner-able both economically aswell as politically. ItsGovernment must play verycautiously. Sri Lanka liber-alised before India and recov-ered from the cave-in of 1964that is described above. Butany significant decline in for-eign exchange earnings shouldbe taken seriously. Otherwise,trouble can surround theeconomy before giving theGovernment a chance to drawin the reins. The picture of teaindustry has been rather sad

everywhere, be it Sri Lanka orSouth India. But to Sri Lanka,it makes a big difference. Theprice of a plain to medium teawas ̀ 2/kg (though earlier theweight was in pounds) in1939. By now it should havebeen in step with the inflation,`600 to 800. But it is only theequivalent of `200 (Indian).

Garments are another SriLankan activity. When thereis prosperity, it can earn goodforeign exchange. On theother hand, when there is acrisis like the current onecaused by COVID, there canbe a slump in demand.People, short of money, cando without buying clothesfor, say, a year or more. Theseare the kind of things thatlook like having brought trou-ble for Sri Lanka. More so,because the country has bor-rowings to return. Tourism isanother cause of the crisis. Itwas the largest single foreignexchange earner for Sri Lanka.Due to COVID, it is substan-tially down.

In the interim, Sri Lankavirtually ignored India, prob-ably embarrassed by its pas-sionate affair with China.After the yellow giant claimedHambantota, perhaps thingschanged somewhat. The cur-

rent Indo-Sri Lanka ties haveimproved. India may offerfood grains, wheat, rice andall else available. And Indiamay consider swap loanswhose return would be in SriLanka rupees. India can buyonly Sri Lanka goods withthe returned money againstthe swap loan. Sri Lanka hasdescribed traditionally as theEmerald Isle. It is indeed abeautiful country with sea onits periphery.

People, especially fromthe Western world, find itirresistibly attractive. Thebeaches are out of this worldand monuments ofBuddhism are also engaging,whether Anirudh-apuram,Pollanaruha or Sigiria. TheEmerald Isle also has acharisma which few otherequally beautiful places have.Its infrastructure for the keentourists is praiseworthy withits many five-star hotels, itstransportation et al.

(This is the first part of aseries on India making multi-dimensional advancementacross nations and spheres).

(The writer is a well-known columnist, an authorand a former member of theRajya Sabha. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

A STRONG MESSAGE FROM THE UNGASir — Calling India the mother of alldemocracies, PM Narendra Modi hails aclear message to the world that all thosewho want to tarnish India's image by call-ing it an anti-secular State must watchtheir mouth. Also, the timely use of ‘Rightto Reply' by Indian diplomat SnehaDubey to slam Pakistan for its attempt topropagate abhorrence against India on aglobal platform is equally commendable.India categorically highlighted strategicissues of geopolitics, inter-government,terrorism, UNSC Reforms, climate changeand neighbours’ expansionism. Indiaclearly messaged that it has no space forfriendship with terror supporters.

Pakistan, who has blamed Indiamany times at the UN General Assembly,must introspect where it stands againstIndia. We do not need to remind Pakistanthat it still remains in the grey list of theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF).Thus, for peaceful inter-regional relationswith India, it should cooperate rather thanblaming. Also, Prime Minister Modimust bring forward the view-point ofIndia, and showcase a glimpse of whatIndia's geopolitics and diplomacy will bein the years to come. India is and will befirm against all those forces who spreadscorn in society.

Kirti Wadhawan | Kanpur

SNOOPING FOR NATIONAL SECURITY?Sir — Pegasus is back in the news, thanksto the Supreme Court of India. It isclaimed that this zero-click digital snoop-ing spyware of the Israeli tech firm NSOGroup, upon installation, follows theattacker’s command and controls serversto receive instructions and sends back thetarget’s private data, including passwords,contact lists, calendar events, text mes-sages, and live voice calls. The attacker cancontrol the phone’s camera and micro-phone as well. The spyware is designedto evade forensic analysis, avoid detectionby antivirus software and can be deacti-vated and removed by the attacker. Inshort, the spyware is designed to invadepeople’s privacy.

It is comforting the Supreme Courtviewed the statement of the SolicitorGeneral, Tushar Mehta, in the court that“Filing (an affidavit) and making it a pub-lic discourse (whether the IndianGovernment uses Pegasus) is not possi-ble as it will affect national security” as anattempt to stonewall the queries about theillegal invasion into citizens’ privacyusing the bogey of national security. Thatcertainly was not a eulogy to the preceptsof democracy either. The Court’s decisionto appoint a committee to probe the spy-ware scandal has come as a sigh of relief.

Haridasan Rajan | Kozhikode

INEXPENSIVE OR CHEAP? Sir — There is a flood of SMSes on mobilephones offering a complete package of somany blood-tests at just ̀ 599 or less, thattoo, with home sample collection facili-ty. But these SMSes do not give details andaddresses of laboratories where thoseblood-tests are conducted. Such messagesare available on Facebook as well. Eithersuch offers do not come from recognised

and Government-approved labs, or justsome random pathological laboratoriesare looting the public. The Union Ministryof Health and Family Welfare shouldprobe into the matter. Those offering suchcheap packages should be directed to givedetails of their labs in the SMSes alongwith their website details.

Any consumer who gives samples fortests should be given a unique ID and achangeable password whereby a completerecord of his/her tests may be accessedfrom the website of the concerned labo-ratory. A reputed pathological laborato-ry of Delhi which also covers other citieshas dual pricing for medical-tests. Chargesfor ordinary patients are much higherthan those under the Central GovernmentHealth Scheme (CGHS). At least suchdual pricing must not be allowed inhealth-services including for pathologi-cal and biochemical tests.

Madhu Agrawal | Delhi

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

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HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

06

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

From a carefree, merry-making and well-fed nation, our neighbour has run out of foreign exchange, having overborrowed from China

A SMALL COUNTRY IS

VULNERABLE BOTHECONOMICALLY

AS WELL ASPOLITICALLY. ITS

GOVERNMENTMUST PLAY VERY

CAUTIOUSLY. SRI LANKA

LIBERALISEDBEFORE INDIA

AND RECOVEREDFROM THE

CAVE-IN OF 1964

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

PRAFULL GORADIA

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Courthas stated that caretakers/ servants of aspecific property can no longer claim own-

ership in that property irrespective of theirlong possession. This shows that the own-ership of the property does not pass on tothem merely because they enjoyed stayingthere for a long time. Therefore, the prop-erty should be vacated upon being asked bythe owner. In Karnataka, during the Devaraj

Urs regime as the Chief Minister, tiller of theland was made its owner through a legisla-tive action. Because of this obnoxious law,many owners lost their properties.

The order of a trial court and the HighCourt, which had refused to allow a plea ofan owner for not proceeding on a suit filedby a caretaker seeking that he should not bevacated from the premises, has been setaside by the Supreme Court. The Bench,headed by Justice Ajay Rastogi, has cometo the rescue of the owners who acquiredthe property with their hard-earned money.Had this judgment not come, and if the trialcourt order and High Court had come to stay,the plight of owners would have come to asorry pass. The Supreme Court has observedthat the trial court has committed a mani-fest error. This ruling in unambiguousterms has definitely come as a whiff of freshair to the owners of the properties.

KV Seetharamaiah | Bengaluru

No more false claims

S Lanka looks at emptyplates as hunger gnaws

Since 1964, I have been intouch with Sri Lanka inter-mittently. At the time, Iwas told that the butter

and ice-cream they ate camefrom New Zealand. Many veg-etables were also imported,including from India. A fewdays ago, I read that Colombohas declared a national “foodemergency”. What their peopleeat as a habitual diet will now befrom ship to mouth. The coun-try has run out of foreignexchange; its Government over-spent on development by bor-rowing from China, a greedylender. The takeover ofHambantota port by the lenderwas a signal that what Sri Lankacould not pay back China incash, it is having to fork out inkind, namely real estate at thecost of its sovereignty.

Two characteristics of theSinghala people I have noted are(One) they love life and enjoythemselves when the going isgood. Two, they are a little sus-picious of Indians, because of theTamils. They fear that somedaya situation may arise wherebyIndia may take over Sri Lanka.Given identical lending terms byIndia and China, they would pre-fer the latter. The presumption isthat the yellow giant is far awaywhereas India is next door alongwith its Tamils. The food emer-gency is the result of the focus on“today, tomorrow and the dayafter will take care of themselves”.

Truly, Sri Lanka has goodguns but no bread. Right after itsindependence, Sri Lanka (thenCeylon) has not insisted ongrowing its staple food on a suf-ficient scale. In the early days andfor years, the country concentrat-ed on tending its tea gardens,rubber and copra trees. The for-eign exchange earnings were soplentiful that there used to be apicnic of imported goods. Thefirst painful pinch was felt in1964 when NM Pereira was theFinance Minister and he went toParliament to pass very stringentlaws. After working a wholecareer, on retirement, foreignerswere henceforth allowed to remitonly `75,000 for Indians and`2,50,000 for others. The dis-crimination was severe. Had theIndian High Commissioner notbeen very helpful, my father-in-

SOUNDBITEWe need to scaleup our banking.There is a need forat least four-fivemore SBI-sizedbanks.

—Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

We have a chanceto stop climatechange’s worsteffects, but we haveto act right now.

We must pass our ‘Build BackBetter’ Agenda.

—US PresidentJoe Biden

Playing in overseasleagues gives you alot of experience,especially in the T20format. And, ofcourse, you get to learn a lot.

—India batterSmriti Mandhana

The BJPGovernment doesnot have a singlelogical reason forwhy it is against thecaste-based census.

—RJD leaderTejashwi Yadav

You have to beblessed to be ableto get a chance tomake a film andthat's why I cling on

to the studio.

—FilmmakerSanjay Leela Bhansali

The Peter Pan of Indian cinema may have faded away 10 years ago, but not beforeleaving an indelible imprint on the hearts, minds and romantic doctrines of mil-lions. He kept in thrall at least three swooning generations, who swore by his

charisma, never-say-die spirit and debonair style. The soigne star — part of the unas-sailable troika comprising thespian Dilip Kumar and simpleton Raj Kapoor, who ruled

the silver screen for over three decades — is bestremembered for essaying Raju’s character in Guide.The 1965 movie, which was Dev’s first outing incolour and simultaneously shot in Hindi and English,was arguably a better show than even the much-hyped Sholay: The thinking masses adored it; it wasmuch ahead of the times for addressing an issue likeextramarital affair; and the one point that everyoneclaims worked for Sholay — that the characterisa-tion was so good the audience still remembers eachcharacter — holds good for Guide too. After all, whodoesn’t remember the voluble and exploitative

Raju, the beautiful Rosie, the jealous-repentant-revengeful Marco, Raju’s friend Gafoorand even the bit players?His magnetism was such that youngsters took to puffing on cigarettes after watchinghim lip-sync Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya (Hum Dono). The number wasvoted the “best inspirational film song” in a survey by one of the top two national dailiesa few years back. Since the time Gregory Peck influenced his mannerisms to devel-oping an inimitable style of his own, Dev had had many an infatuation. His first famousaffair was with Suraiyya, who was elder to him, but her grandmother forbade the alliance.Suraiyya never got married. With his swaying walk and impeccable dressing sense, itwas no surprise that girls swooned over him. The Mayor of Bombay had to issue anappeal against the star appearing in public wearing a black suit after a girl fainted andfell from a multi-storey in the melee to catch a glimpse of the star. Dev looked so dash-ing that even Madhubala had to be content with the No. 2 slot in terms of grabbing eye-balls in Kala Paani (1958). Dev didn’t just spend his life, he lived. And loved. As thepenultimate scene of Guide shows, after all the excesses, it all boils down to: “Na deenhai, na duniya, sirf main hoon .. Main hoon… Sirf main…”. Long live, Dev saab!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is back in India, having wound up his three-day visitto the US, after attending the first in-person Quad Summit, meeting other worldleaders and addressing the UN General Assembly as its first speaker. It is in stark

contrast to his earlier visits that were marked by hype, festivities and fanfare. This timeround, the political dispensation in the US has changed from the much-friendly TrumpAdministration. Modi met US Vice-President Kamala Harris, Australian counterpart ScottMorrison, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga and the CEOs of five multinational companies.The Australian and Japanese PMs are in the US for the Quad Summit (A virtual Summitwas held in March this year). This diplomatic and military arrangement is widely viewedas a response to increased Chinese economic and military power. Addressing the Summit,Modi said Quad would act as a “force for global good” and “will establish peace and

prosperity in the world”, he added. The culminationof the visit was, of course, the Prime Minister’s speechat the UN General Assembly that was high on rhetoricbut piercingly aimed at China and Pakistan. Modi alsoaddressed the Afghanistan situation and, without nam-ing Pakistan, cautioned it against using Afghanistanfor fomenting trouble. Modi said “regressive mind-sets were giving terrorism a political meaning”; a state-ment that may be interpreted as “don’t use terror-ism as a tool of diplomacy and changing the geopol-itics of the region”. For good effect, he underlinedthe need to be alert against any country using

Afghanistan’s vulnerability for “selfish interests”.The context was that Pakistan PM Imran Khan had made direct and scathing attacks

on India, insisting that the two nuclear powers have to “behave, else the consequenceswould be grave”. Modi, without naming either China or Pakistan, hinted that terror-ism as a State policy was not a good idea and the countries should refrain from doingso. He also mentioned the accomplishment of the Indian presidency at the UN SecurityCouncil last month. Modi also referred to the issue of the “origins of the COVID virus”and the cancellation of the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business Index”, both ofwhich have been laid at China’s door for a lack of transparency by the global insti-tutions. He also emphasised the need for cooperation, saying he represented Indiaas the “mother of all democracies”. Earlier, at a meeting with Kamala Harris, bothsides emphasised safeguarding democratic values and upholding human rights inrespective countries. Modi also offered condolences to the pandemic victims. Overall,it was a well-crafted speech and well delivered though his “chaiwala” reference isbetter avoided as it has become rather clichéd. Though Modi also had a meetingwith President Joe Biden, it was more to do with protocol than anything else. Thepersonal chemistry between them was clearly missing.

The influencer

EvergreenDev is the quintessential romantic ever since he graced the screen, to this day and forever

PICTALK

Goddess Durga’s idols being readied ahead of the Durga Puja, in Hyderabad AP

Modi has had a good trip to the US, withmarkers among UNGA, Quad and magnates

Does AUKUS cast ashadow over Quad?

THE KHELA (GAME) WILL START FROM BHOWANIPUR AND WILL FINISH AFTER

WE WIN IN THE ENTIRE NATION.

—BENGAL CHIEF MINISTER

MAMATA BANERJEE

MANY WOMEN WERE RAPED AND MANY OF

OUR ACTIVISTS WERE KILLED IN BENGAL. THIS

IS WHAT THE TMC MEANS BY KHELA HOBE?

—UNION MINISTER SMRITI IRANI

The decision to form AUKUScame two weeks of the US with-drawal of troops fromAfghanistan. It displays the

geopolitical resolve that the US has tocounter the Chinese threat in the Indo-Pacific region,which is increasing witheach passing day. Many experts now thinkthat AUKUS might strategically and tac-tically sideline Quad. That is not the case.The objectives, either stated explicitly orotherwise, are the same. Chinese expan-sionism has driven this new militaryalliance, but both Quad and AUKUS com-plement each other if seen strategically.

With India and Japan, there are essen-tial constraints that make them more sus-ceptible to the Chinese threat. Apart fromthe common factor of geographical prox-imity to China, both aspire to become per-manent members of the UNSC. Anupfront, direct military alignment againstChina might adversely affect those aspi-rations. Individually, India has also to dealwith an unholy alliance of China, Pakistan,and the Taliban. Apart from this, it is con-cerned about Russia's shifting foreign pol-icy priorities towards a Sino-Pak alliance.On the other hand, Japan faces issues suchas the dependence on raw materials andfood supplies and ageing workforce apartfrom its Article 9 clause that prohibits there-armament of Tokyo.

The emerging arrangement seems topresent before the world a ring of defence,paving the way for future multilateralalliances against Chinese expansionism.A very look at the map of the oceans willgive us a common understanding that theSouth China Sea, Pacific Ocean, and theIndian Ocean taken together are very dif-ficult for either of the powers to defendby themselves. There have to be multiplesecurity arrangements for a strong defence.In the present circumstances, if India andJapan decide to institutionalise a militaryalliance with the help of the US, Beijingmight resort to increasing its aggressive-ness either in the SCS or on the Indo-China border, a purpose which then mightbe self-defeating.

Thus, strategicmanoeuvrability isprobably a part of the solution. India andJapan together can possiblyhold backChina on account of their non-participa-tion in any military bloc while simultane-ously keeping up the ante against its hege-monic diplomacy. For this reason, India'sjoint battle commands need to be opera-tionalised soon. The absence of any insti-tutionalisation will also give time for bothIndia and Japan to modernise their mar-itime assets. India, in particular, needs tospeed up on the interoperability within itsforces. France then plays an essential rolefor India and Japan,apart from otherEuropean countries, followed by Israel.

Concerning Japan, it has to gradual-ly move beyond its circumstantial clausethat led Tokyo to adopt a 'peace constitu-tion'. From "self-defence", it has to evolvea "maritime defence" force to handle

With a vision of deterring China and ensuring free international waters,there should not be any doubt that AUKUS will cast a shadow over Quad

BRITISH ANDAMERICAN

SUBMERSIBLESAND ANTI-SHIP

MISSILES WOULD DETER

CHINA FROMTHREATENING

NEIGHBOURINGCOUNTRIES. IN

CASE OF SEVEREPROVOCATIONS,

THE AUKUS CAN PROVIDE

TACTICAL COVER-UP FORESSENTIAL SEAROUTES IN THEINDIAN OCEAN

APART FROM THE PACIFIC

OCEAN AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

We have to deal with anyone who's still shooting,” said GetachewReda, spokesman for the Tigrayan forces, last month. “If ittakes marching to Addis to silence the guns, we will.” In fact,

Tigray's army has already covered about a third of the distance to AddisAbaba, Ethiopia's capital, since it took back its own provincial capi-tal, Mekelle, in late June.

The fighting has been bloody, for the Ethiopian army is much larg-er, but the Tigrayan army is more professional and determined. Notonly has it liberated all of Tigray except the far west, but it has alsoseized around one-third of neighbouring Amhara.

Seven million Tigrayans defeating the army of a country of 110million people may seem odd, but Ethiopia is a patchwork quilt of dif-

ferent ethnic groups, languages and religions that was held togeth-er in the past by a centralised monarchy or dictatorship backed byruthless military force. Until quite recently, it was Tigray that pro-vided that force.

The Tigrayans earned that job by being the most effective guer-rilla force in the long struggle to overthrow the former Communist regime,the Derg. They parlayed that role into an ethnic dictatorship that last-ed from 1991 until just a few years ago. But the other ethnic groupsthen united to instal a new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who startedto dismantle that corrupt autocracy.

He did it, but the Tigrayan military elite withdrew to their own home-land and sulked. It was a well-armed sulk, for almost half the Ethiopianarmy was based in Tigray, and it consisted largely of ethnic Tigrayans.When it became clear that Abiy's project to destroy the old ethnic peck-ing order was not negotiable, they rebelled.

This was all pretty inevitable, but then the Ethiopian prime minis-ter decided to invade Tigray and end the problem for good. The Tigrayanarmy pulled out of the province's cities for a while, and by last NovemberAbiy Ahmed declared the war over. But the Tigrayan leaders were justmobilising their forces, and in June they counter-attacked. The Ethiopianforces broke and ran, and most of Tigray was liberated without a fight.

If it had stopped there, some sort of Ethiopian state would havesurvived, albeit with a semi-detached Tigray, but Abiy then made theserious mistake of resorting to a blockade to starve the Tigrayans out.By now many people in landlocked Tigray are close to famine, but theirleaders have countered with an invasion of Amhara province.

They are now within striking distance of the roads that carry 95per cent of the Ethiopia's import and export traffic between Addis Ababaand the port of Djibouti. Their success has also emboldened the OromoLiberation Army, a rebel army seeking autonomy or even independencefor Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, to make an alliance with the Tigrayans.

If Abiy makes a quick deal with the Tigrayans that ends the block-ade and recognises their independence and borders, he may haveenough troops and credibility left to suppress the Oromos and otherethnic insurgents who will soon come out into the open. If not, Ethiopiaprobably splinters, and it's Yugoslavia all over again.

And what would the Tigrayans do next? Some of them are confi-dent enough to dream of invading Eritrea and taking down PresidentIsaias Afwerki, who sent troops to help Abiy invade Tigray.

Some of the Tigrayan elite may even be speculating about unitingthe two countries. After all, half the Eritrean population speaks the sameTigrinya language, and joining the two together would give Tigray accessto the sea, which sometimes comes in handy.

(Gwynne Dyer's new book is 'The Shortest History of War'. Theviews expressed are personal.)

The recent decision ofthe BJP Government toconstitute a new

Ministry of Cooperationunder the charge of UnionHome Minister Amit Shah hadmixed reactions. It was hailedby Government supporters as“the new entity which wouldhelp cooperatives across statesprogress as a true people-based movement reaching thegrassroots”. On the other hand,the opposition camp termed itas a “sinister move to highjackthe cooperative movement forpolitical gains”.

After formation of theMinistry, the first ambitiousmove was to come out with anational framework forstrengthening the cooperativemovement in the country butthe Supreme Court on July 20said that cooperatives is a

State subject and States haveexclusive power to legislate ontopics reserved for them. TheSC upheld an eight-year-oldGujarat High Court verdictlimiting the Centre's say incooperative sector. This hadput spanner in the path of theGovernment because if itwanted to create a “nationalframework”, permission had tobe sought from 28 States whichinclude opposition-ruled ones.

Now, the onus of findinga way out is on Amit Shah whois not new to the field of coop-eratives who started his polit-ical journey as the Chairmanof Ahmedabad CooperativeBank and later helped in turn-ing around the MadhepuraMercantile Cooperative Bank.By 2016, he helped in edgingout the Congress from all 33cooperative banks in Gujarat.

The success of BJP in the pol-itics of Gujarat passes throughthe route of dairy cooperatives.The dairies including Amul area huge part of Gujarat's econ-omy.

The opposition is appre-hensive about the govern-ment's intention of exportingthe “Gujarat model” of coop-eratives to other states. This isapparent from the reaction ofthe former agriculture minis-ter Sharad Pawar who con-veyed his concern about the"formation of the coopera-

tion ministry and the amend-ment to the BankingRegulation Act" and calling itan encroachment in federalismand powers of the state.

It is pertinent at this stageto understand the significanceand structure of cooperativesin the Indian context. Thedairy cooperatives were initi-ated by Sardar VallabhbhaiPatel as grassroots organiza-tions to harness the power ofcollective bargaining for acommon goal. Later, with thepooled resources of farmersand other workers, the coop-eratives found their way intoagriculture,sugar,textiles andother sectors.

The financial clout ofcooperative sector can begauged from the fact that atpresent, the biggest beneficia-ries of state funds and subsidies

are the cooperatives in thefinance, sugar and dairy seg-ments.

Considering the highstakes involved, the tussle tocontrol the cooperative sectorhas become the core of politicsin Gujarat and Maharashtra.With its strong network ofaround 225,000 cooperativebodies controlling sugar,dairyand finance, Maharashtra isthe prime example. TheCongress and NCP have con-trolled it for decades, and theBJP has been trying to breakthe monopoly. Incidentally,what the present Governmentis trying to do through thenewly formed Ministry ofCooperation was opposed in2013 by present PrimeMinister and then Chief min-ister of Gujarat, NarendraModi. He challenged certain

provisions of the 97th consti-tutional amendment thatempowered the Centre todesign a framework for thecooperative sector. However,the way out of the impasse wascrafted by the NDA-I govern-ment of Atal Bihar Vajpayee bypassing a law in 2002 allowingmulti-state cooperative soci-eties (MSCS) to help cooper-atives diversify and operateoutside their home state.

Some experts in coopera-tive affairs find justification inthe formation of a separateMinistry and the Reserve Bankof India monitoring on thegrounds that in the absence ofregulations, there have beenallegations of scams in sever-al cooperatives. Money wassiphoned off to fund business-es of politicians, bureaucratsand cooperative leaders. The

Rs 6,500 crore Punjab &Maharashtra CooperativeBank scam in 2019 is a case inpoint. Acting swiftly, inSeptember last year, the gov-ernment amended theBanking Regulation Act, 1949and gave the RBI powers toregulate operations of urbanand multi-state cooperativebanks. The RBI put a check onpoliticalisation of the cooper-atives by debarring the elect-ed politicians from holdingfull-time positions as CEOsand Directors. The initiative offorming a national cooperativeframework finds favour withthe experts who feel that it hasthe potential of creating moreentreprenurial opportunities,get better value of their pro-duce to the farmers and alsoreduce the exploitation offarmers by middlemen.

Considering the high stakes involved, the tussle to control the cooperative sector has become the core of politics in Gujarat and Maharashtra

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMN

TIGRAY: SPARTA IN AFRICA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

(The writer is anAssistant Professor atCentral University of

Punjab, Bathinda. Theviews expressed are

personal.)

Two sides of the cooperation argument

BRIJENDER SINGH PANWAR

(The writer is a senior journalist and Chairman,

Panwar Group ofInstitutions, Solan,

Himachal Pradesh. Theviews expressed are

personal.)

GWYNNE DYER

Beijing. The move might instigatesome powers like South Korea toput forward their anti-Tokyostance. However,time demandsthat those countries that are notcompatible with each other bridgetheir strategic differences and workfor a common cause, especiallywhen they have a shared substan-tial threat and are covered underthe US security umbrella. Thus, anexpansionist China allows them toresolve their differences and workfor a common goal.

British and American sub-mersibles, anti-ship missiles andother striking capabilities woulddeter China from threatening thecountries. In case of severe provo-cations and open hostilities, thesecond layer, the AUKUS, can bea deterrent and a defender at thesame time by providing a tacticalcover-up for essential sea routes inthe Southern and Eastern IndianOcean apart from the PacificOcean and the South China Sea. Itthen might try to divertattention tothe Malacca Straits against India orJapan, but the Indian Navy wouldpresent a formidable force there,thus making its ‘Malacca Dilemma’a reality.Additionally, the 'five eyes'intelligence sharing mechanismalso increases the concerns forChina.

Nevertheless, without any insti-tutionalised alignment, it might bedifficult for China to go in for thefirst move against a'non-militarilyaligned' country such as India andJapan and create more complexi-ties. In case of severe threats andimminent attacks, the two mightnot hesitate to join AUKUS formal-ly. Joint sea denial strategies thenhave an essential role to play in theupcoming multilateral security

arrangements. Thus, it would notbe wrong to envision a consortiumof powers guarding the entireIndo-Pacific region, with eachplayer understanding its role andresponsibilities well.It is for this rea-son that both India and Japan havetogether welcomed the newalliance AUKUS.

One can easily recall that in2010, Yang Jiechi, China's then for-eign minister, on his trip to theASEAN summit in Hanoi, com-mented, "China is a big country,and you are small countries, andthat is a fact". Today, the time isripe to reverse the 'big fish-smallfish' syndrome. China has reiterat-ed that the Quad will find no sup-port within the Asia Pacific coun-tries. Beijing perhaps fears theexpansion of Quad to includeother democratic, “like-mindedcountries” such as Vietnam, thePhilippines, South Korea, andTaiwan. All of them have coastlinesand have been harassed by Chinafor long. Other pertinent issuessuch as Chinese illegal fishing, cli-mate change and natural disastersalso underline the need for secu-rity overlaps with the other coun-tries. Hence, Quad +4 can be envi-sioned. The small countries withthe support of various extra-region-al powers have to make formationsvia unwritten multilateral securi-ty arrangements.

The scope of an expandedQuad can include joint technicalcooperation and military exercis-es to increase the interoperabilityof the forces between themselvesandwithin their forcesto counterthe military challenges beforethem. As states have security andeconomic convergences, an under-standing can be built to 'strategi-

cally encircle' China and keep itguessing on multiple fronts. Inessence, the Quad then remains thestrategic linchpinof navigationalfreedoms marked by a "free, open,transparent and inclusive Indo-Pacific region" apart from focussingon other new and emerging tech-nologies such as artificial intelli-genceapart from climatechange.India and Japan thus willhave a more significant role fromhere onwards.

Developments in Afghanistan,China-Pakistan’s unconditionalsupport to Taliban and the shiftingsands of alliances in the Asianregion strongly indicate that thetime for multilateral re-alignmentsand acknowledgement of the real-ity has arrived. AUKUS fulfills thispurpose and consequently occupiesthe space of an"institutionalisedsecurity alliance" having a for-malised treaty, ready for actioneither as a deterrent or more if thesituation demands. The ‘friendly’nuclear submarines will detectand intercept the Chinese nuclearsubmarinescollecting essential dataof the Indo-Pacific Ocean. In thisdirection, Quad and AUKUS areentirely complementary to eachother. Having a joint shared visionof freedom of the high seas and acommon challenge of deterringChina, there should not be anydoubt that AUKUS will cast a shad-ow over Quad. Apprehensionsconcerning this new approachshould not be viewed from theprism of China. Instead, it shouldbe taken as a part of comprehen-sive diplomacy not only for deter-rence against China's compulsive'cabbage policy' but also for thepeace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

NISHTHA KAUSHIKI

Tigray's army has already covered about a third of the distance to Ethiopia's Capital

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

The top 10 valued firmsadded a total Rs1,56,317.17 crore to their

market valuation last week,helped by across the boardrally which catapulted thebenchmark index Sensex tothe record 60,000 mark for thefirst time.During the last week,the 30-share BSE benchmark rallied 1,032.58 points or 1.74 percent. The BSE Sensex made history on Friday by reaching the60,000-mark for the first time ever.The market capitalisation (mcap)of Reliance Industries zoomed Rs 58,671.55 crore to reach Rs15,74,052.03 crore. The m-cap of RIL went past Rs 16 lakh croremark in intra-day trade on Thursday following a rally in its shareprice.The valuation of Infosys jumped Rs 30,605.08 crore to Rs7,48,032.17 crore. Bajaj Finance added Rs 22,173.04 crore to itsmarket valuation to Rs 4,70,465.58 crore and Tata ConsultancyServices Rs 15,110.63 crore to Rs 14,32,013.76 crore. HDFC Bank'smarket capitalisation rallied Rs 10,142 crore to Rs 8,86,739.86crore.

The Commerce Ministry hasdecided to deactivate allimporter-exporter codes

(IECs) that have not been updatedafter January 2005 with effectfrom October 6 this year, a movewhich would help in knowing theactual number of real traders inthe country. The Importer -Exporter Code (IEC) is a key businessidentification number that is mandatory for exports or imports. Noperson shall make any import or export except under an IECnumber granted by the DGFT. On August 8 this year, the DirectorateGeneral of Foreign Trade (DGFT) was mandated all IEC holders toensure that details in their IEC are updated electronically every yearduring the April-June period."All IECs which have not been updatedafter January 1, 2005, shall be deactivated with effect from October6, 2021," according to a trade notice of the DGFT. It stated that theconcerned IEC holders are provided one final opportunity to updatetheir IEC in this interim period till October 5, failing which the givencode would be de-activated from October 6.

Importer-exporter code notupdated to be de-activated

Managerial and leadershipservices by corporateoffice to its group

companies/construction sitesregistered in different stateswould attract 18 per cent GST,Maharashtra bench of AAR hasruled. B G Shirke ConstructionTechnology Pvt Ltd hadapproached the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) seeking toknow whether the managerial and leadership services provided bythe registered/corporate office to its group companies would beconsidered as 'supply of service'. Also, whether the lump sumamount charged by the registered/corporate office on its groupcompanies would be liable to Goods and Services Tax (GST).Passing its ruling, the Maharashtra AAR held that managerial andleadership services by corporate office to its group companies andother construction sites registered in different States is "supply ofservice" and would be taxable under GST.

Inter-co managerial servicesto attract 18 per cent GST

Jindal Steel and Power Limited(JSPL) aims to start mining atKasia iron ore block within a

month, its Managing Director V RSharma said. The integratedsteelmaker on Thursday announcedbagging of the block, which has totalreserves of 278 million tonnes (MT).Speaking with PTI, Sharmaelaborated on the company's plans with respect to startingoperations at the Kasia iron ore mine, located about 17 km fromJSPL's pellet plant in Barbil. "It is already an operational mine, wecan start mining within a month once all statuary approvals arethere," the MD said. He said JSPL will also put up a slurry pipelinefrom the pithead to its steel plant in Angul. This will help thecompany with 5-6 million tonnes of iron ore per year. The e-auctionfor the Kasia iron and dolomite mineral block was held onSeptember 18, 2021. It was earlier owned and operated by EsselMining and Industries. JSPL has been declared as the preferredbidder for the mine at a premium of 118.10 per cent.

JSPL to start mining at Kasiamine within month, says MD

Mcap of top-10 valued firmsjumps over Rs 1.56 lakh cr

PNS n NEW DELHI

As many as 470 infrastructureprojects, each worth Rs 150crore or more, have been hit bycost overruns totalling morethan Rs 4.37 lakh crore,according to a report.

The Ministry of Statisticsand ProgrammeImplementation monitorsinfrastructure projects worthRs 150 crore and above.

Of the 1,718 such projects,470 reported cost overrunsand 560 were delayed.

"Total original cost of imple-mentation of the 1,718 projectswas Rs 21,99,181.52 crore andtheir anticipated completioncost is likely to be Rs26,36,710.50 crore, whichreflects overall cost overruns ofRs 4,37,528.98 crore (19.90per cent of original cost)," theministry's latest report forAugust 2021 said.

According to the report, theexpenditure incurred on theseprojects till August 2021 is Rs12,52,298.40 crore, which is

47.49 per cent of the anticipat-ed cost of the projects.

However, the report said thenumber of delayed projectsdecreases to 373 if delay is cal-culated on the basis of the lat-est schedule of completion.

Further, for 871 projectsneither the year of commis-sioning nor the tentative ges-

tation period has been report-ed.

Out of the 560 delayed pro-jects, 96 have overall delay inthe range of 1-12 months, 128have been delayed for 13-24months, 210 for 25-60 monthsand 126 projects have delays of61 months and above.

The average time overrun in

these 560 delayed projects is46.94 months.

Reasons for time overrunsas reported by various projectimplementing agencies includedelay in land acquisition, delayin obtaining forest and envi-ronment clearances, and lack ofinfrastructure support andlinkages.

Delay in tie-up for projectfinancing, delay in finalisationof detailed engineering, changein scope, delay in tendering,ordering and equipment sup-ply, and law and order prob-lems are among the other rea-sons.

The report also cited state-wise lockdowns due toCOVID-19 as a reason for thedelay in implementation ofthese projects.

It has also been observedthat project agencies are notreporting revised cost esti-mates and commissioningschedules for many projects,which suggests that time/costoverrun figures are underre-ported, it added.

470 infra projects show costoverrun of Rs 4.3 lakh crore PNS n MUMBAI

Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onSunday said despite the hugethrust on financial inclusionand high economic activity,there are districts in the coun-try not having any bankingpresence at all.

She asked the lenders to gettheir act together and openeither a full-fledged brick-and-mortar branch or an out-post rendering banking ser-vices, wondering how bankingpresence eludes even pocketswhich have high economicactivity.

It can be noted that policy-makers have been focusingon financial inclusion for overa decade and also had set a tar-get of ensuring banking pres-ence in every village with apopulation of over 2,000 peo-ple. A few years ago, the RBIhad liberalised branch openingnorms for banks.

"Even today, there are verymany districts in which evenbig panchayats don't have aphysical bank...there are very

many districts in which noteven one banking institution isphysically present," Sitharamansaid, speaking at the 74thannual general meeting(AGM) of the industry lobbygroup Indian Banks'Association (IBA).

She exhorted the IBA mem-bers to digitally map all the dis-tricts to see the areas havinglow coverage for themselvesand accordingly make provi-sions for either a physicalbranch or an outpost.

"You should be able to see

the centres of economic activ-ity. Be it a completely ruralpocket but if the economicactivity is strong there, would-n't you think there should besome kind of presence?,” sheasked.

Making it clear that she isnot against digitisation, whichhas paid tremendous cost ben-efits to lenders in terms of out-reach, Sitharaman wonderedhow there can be parts ofcountry which do not haveeven a single brick-and-mor-tar branch.

Many districts lack bank branchesdespite high economic activity: FM

PNS n NEW DELHI

A New York court has pausedCairn Energy's pursuit of USassets of Air India for therecovery of USD 1.2 billionarbitral award, so as to allowthe British firm to reach a set-tlement with the Indian gov-ernment on the long drawndispute.

The New York district courtdelayed the tax suit toNovember 18, according tocourt documents reviewed byPTI. This follows Cairn Energyand Air India jointly asking thecourt to stay further proceed-ings in view of the fresh gov-ernment enacting a fresh law toscrap retrospective taxation inthe country.

The new law will result inwithdrawal of the Rs 10,247crore tax demand that the gov-

ernment had sought fromCairn.

Sources with direct knowl-edge of the matter said thefinance ministry is framingrules that will lead to with-drawal of the retrospective taxdemand on Cairn and 16 othercompanies, including VodafoneGroup of UK. These rulesrequire the companies to with-

draw all litigations against thegovernment in return for beingrefunded any money that wascollected to force the retrospec-tive tax demand.

A format for the undertak-ing that the companies willhave to furnish committing towithdraw litigations is underfinalisation and should bereleased in coming days, they

said. Companies will have touse that format to give anundertaking, post which themoney will be refunded.

In all the government has toreturn about Rs 8,100 crore, ofwhich Rs 7,900 crore is dueonly to Cairn.

The British company hadwon an international arbitra-tion award against levy of suchtaxes and sought to take overAir India assets when the gov-ernment refused to honour theaward and refund USD 1.2 bil-lion-plus interest and penalty.Cairn has indicated that therefund, without interest andpenalty, was acceptable to it —opening an avenue to settle theseven-year-old dispute.

Cairn and Air India in ajoint request to US DistrictJudge Paul Gardephe onSeptember 13 stated that a stay

on proceedings would givethem "additional time to eval-uate the effects and implica-tions" of legislation thatrepealed the retroactive tax.

In return for the Rs 7,900crore, Cairn would drop law-suits threatening court-orderedseizures of Indian governmentproperty abroad. One of thosesuits was filed in May againststate-owned Air India Ltd,which Cairn has said should beconsidered the alter ego of theIndian government.

"The implementing regula-tions are in the rulemakingprocess and will take sometime," the two had said in thepetition seeking extension ofthe October 21 deadline for thepresentation of case papersand initial pretrial conferenceon October 28. They hadrequested the court to "stay any

further proceedings in thismatter through October 31,2021, and reschedule the ini-tial pretrial conference and,respectively, the deadline forthe parties to submit theirJoint Pretrial Letter andProposed Case ManagementPlan, for new dates inNovember 2021."

"The Parties have conferredand agreed that the stay willfacilitate the efficient resolu-tion of the dispute, conservethe Court's and Parties'resources, and is not intendedto obstruct or delay," theyadded. Cairn had on May 14brought a lawsuit in the NewYork district court to hold AirIndia liable as the alter ego ofthe Republic of India for theobligations the governmentowes under a foreign arbitralaward.

NY court pauses tax suit to allow Cairn to settle dispute with India

PNS n NEW DELHI

Equity markets would trackglobal cues for further direc-tion this week and may facevolatility amid monthly deriv-atives expiry and rich valua-tions, analysts said.

The BSE Sensex made histo-ry on Friday by reaching the60,000-mark for the first timeever.

It took just eight months forthe BSE benchmark to coverthe journey from 50,000 inJanuary this year to scale theunprecedented 60,000 markfor the first time on Friday. TheSensex has traversed from1,000 points to the historic60,000 level in a little over 31years.

"The roaring bull market iscontinued in the Indian mar-ket with climbing all walls ofworries where Sensex hascrossed the new milestone of60,000. We are in a classical

bull market like the 2003-2007phase where this bull run islikely to continue for the next2-3 years," said Santosh Meena,Head of Research, SwastikaInvestmart.

However, he put a word ofcaution after a parabolic movein last few days because short-term correction cannot beruled out in coming days.

Sharing similar sentiments,Motilal Oswal, the MD & CEOof Motilal Oswal FinancialServices Limited said, "Givenrich valuations, one cannotignore intermittent volatility -however we expect the positivemomentum to continue onthe back of improving eco-nomic activity and recovery incorporate earnings."

Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices said that the market isbound to track global cues fordirection in a relatively quietweek for domestic economicdata releases.

"The manufacturing PMIindex for September which is tobe released this week will helpin forming a view on businessactivities during the month," hesaid. The PMI data for themanufacturing sector is sched-uled on Friday. According toSamco Research, "The volatil-ity seen in the markets last weekmay seep into the forthcomingweek as well given the month-ly expiry towards the latter half."Considering the increasedconcerns around chip shortageand the resultant dampenedsales prospects, monthly salesnumbers of the automobilesector are sure to grab eyeballsto determine a future trend inauto stocks."

PNS n NEW DELHI

Fuel supply by state-ownedCoal India Ltd to the powersector rose by 11.4 per cent to38.61 million tonnes lastmonth, official data showed.

The development assumessignificance in the wake ofthermal power plants in thecountry grappling with coalshortage. CIL which accountsfor 80 per cent of the country'scoal output had supplied 34.64MT of coal in August last fis-cal, according to official data.

Fuel supply by CIL in theApril-August period of the cur-rent fiscal increased by 27.2 percent to 205.90 MT over 161.87MT in the year-ago period, itsaid. The supply of coal bySCCL in August increased by73.2 per cent to 4.08 MT over2.36 MT of coal supplied in

August last fiscal, it said.SCCL supplies to the power

sector in the April-Augustperiod increased by 84.2 percent to 22.16 MT from 12.03MT a year ago. CIL has beenwriting to power generatingcompanies since October lastyear urging them not to reg-ulate the intake of coal andbuild up stock at their end, sothat the electricity productiondoes not suffer during sum-mer and monsoon seasons,according to official sources.

Coal India had earlier saidthat it had launched a multi-pronged effort to help build upcoal stocks at power plants,and stressed that supply to theelectricity units carrying stockof zero to six days had beenprioritised by preparing a con-tingency supply plan toincrease their stock.

Stocks may face volatility amid rich valuations Fuel supply by CIL

to power sector rises

PNS n NEW DELHI

Diesel price on Sunday washiked by 25 paise per litre -the second increase in ratesafter the state-owned oil firmsended a three-week hiatus inrates following internationaloil prices surging to theirhighest since 2018.

Price of diesel was hiked toRs 89.07 per litre in Delhi andto Rs 96.68 in Mumbai,according to a price notifica-tion of state-owned fuelretailers.

Petrol price was notchanged. It costs Rs 101.19 alitre in Delhi and Rs 107.26 inMumbai. State-owned IOC,BPCL and HPCL had onSeptember 24 resumed dailyprice revision, ending thepause in rates hit sinceSeptember 5. On September24, diesel rates were hiked by20 paise a litre. On that daytoo petrol price had remainedunchanged. Global bench-mark Brent crude has risen toUSD 77.50 a barrel as crudeinventories shrunk fromEurope to the US. Oil rates areup 2 per cent for the week andthis is the fifth weekly gain.

Diesel pricehiked again

PNS n NEW DELHI

German luxury carmakerAudi has termed high taxa-tion on imported cars inIndia an impediment forgrowth of the electric seg-ment while noting that evensome relief in terms of dutiescould help it sell more vehi-cles and convince its head-

quarters to re-invest in thecountry for local manufac-turing of such models.

The company, which nowsells five electric cars in thecountry, noted that lowertaxes would help in loweringthe price tag of the import-ed models which would helpit in achieving a certain min-imum volumes in the market.

With a certain scale, thecompany can then try toconvince its global head-quarters to re-invest in thecountry for setting up localmanufacturing for modelswhich are currently beingimported.

In an interaction with PTI,Audi India Head Balbir SinghDhillon noted that the com-

pany has been able to sell thefirst set of electric vehicles itimported into the country forsale. "The first set of e-tronsbrought into the country areall sold off. It gives us confi-dence that people are ready,India is ready for electricmobility. All this is helping usto introduce more and moresuch cars," he noted.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Remaining positive about thelong-term outlook of Indianmarkets, foreign portfolioinvestors (FPI) were net buy-ers so far in September with aninvestment of Rs 21,875 crore.

According to data fromdepositories, FPIs pumped inRs 13,536 crore into equitiesand Rs 8,339 crore into thedebt segment duringSeptember 1-23, taking thetotal net investment to Rs21,875 crore.

"Rally in the Indian equitymarkets, positive long-termoutlook, the expectation ofeconomic rebound andimprovement in corporateearnings has led foreigninvestors to re-invest in Indianequities," said HimanshuSrivastava, associate director(research), Morningstar India.

Besides, he added that theturmoil in China has alsobenefitted India, making itan attractive investment des-tination among foreigninvestors from a long-termperspective.

However, higher valuationsand US Fed signalling revers-

ing of pandemic stimulus pro-grammes in November didlimit the flow of assets tosome extent, he noted.

"The renewed FPI interest inIndia is partly because of Nifty'simpressive outperformance vis-a-vis MSCI World Index andMSCI EM Index this year," saidV K Vijayakumar, chief invest-ment strategist at GeojitFinancial Services. Withrespect to other emerging mar-kets, Shrikant Chouhan, exec-utive vice-president (equitytechnical research) at KotakSecurities, said Taiwan report-ed a total FPI inflow of USD1,482 million. FPI Inflows inSouth Korea, Thailand,Indonesia and the Philippinesduring the period underreview stood at USD 1,223million, USD 358 million,USD 268 million and USD 38million, respectively, he added.

FPIs net buyers atRs 21,875 cr so far

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government has given anoption to telcos to pay backinterest on dues through equi-ty and also conveyed that it hasno interest in acquiring anytelecom company, a top officialof debt-ridden Vodafone Ideahas said.

Vodafone Idea Ltd Manag-ing Director Ravinder Takkarin an interview to PTI said itis clear that the governmentwants the company to competein the market and there shouldbe at least three private serviceproviders in the telecom sec-tor. "I have had many many

interactions across variousparts of the government lead-ing up to this announcement(telecom reforms). In all myconversations, it is absolutelyclear that the government hasno interest in owning oracquiring or running any othertelecom company," Takkar said.

The government is alreadymanaging loss-making tele-com firms BSNL and MTNLwhich are yet to post profitafter a relief package ofaround Rs 69,000 crore grant-ed to them in October 2019.

Some experts contendedthat the government may endup holding a "sizable" chunk

(estimates varied from 26 per-cent to majority stake) in VILat the end of moratoriumperiod, if the telco opts to paycumulative interest or annu-al instalments by way of equi-ty.

"They (government) haveabsolutely made it clear thatthey want three private play-ers to remain. They want us tocompete in the market. Theywant us to operate in a com-petitive manner," Takkar said.

VIL had total gross debt ofRs 1.91 lakh crore, excludinglease liabilities and includinginterest accrued but not due,as of June 30, 2021.

Audi pitches for lower import duties on EVs

Govt has no interest in acquiringany telecom company: VIL CEO

PNS n MUZAFFARNAGAR

Sugarmills here have beenasked to start their crushingoperations in time and com-plete their preparation up tothe third week of October. Headded that the sugarmillsshould complete their prepa-ration up to the third week ofOctober. Kanojiya, who is thenodal officer has visited themills in Khatauli andMansurpur in theMuzaffarnagar district andreviewed the preparation forstarting crushing season.

Sugarmills inMuzaffarnagarasked to startops by Oct-end

SHIKHA DUGGAL

ur country has beenfocusing on ‘PoshanAbhiyaan’ for a very longtime now, to improvenutritional outcomes forpregnant women by

leveraging technology and theapplied knowledge of nutritionists.We have Soumya B Hegde, a nutri-tionist and fitness expert, who tellsThe Pioneer exclusively somethingfresh about maternal nutrition anemia!

“Maternal anaemia happensmainly due to deficiency of iron,folate acid and Vitamin B12 andVitamin A. This happens mainly inthe third trimester! Anaemia inpregnancy happens due to theincreased demand for iron for thegrowing fetus or placenta. Some

other causes also include hypothy-roidism, chronic kidney diseaseduring childbearing ages. Parasiticinfections like hookworm, ring-worm, bacterial, viral infections

including liver and auto-immunediseases,” shares the owner of ‘BFITWith Soumya.’

The expert also goes on to sharethat anemic pregnant women are athigh risk of delivery like pretermdelivery, postpartum maternal infec-tions, low birth weight, postpartumdepression, iron-deficient babies withdelayed growth and development,abnormal behavior, heart disease,diabetes, high blood pressure in off-spring, etc.

Preventive measures to be taken:

1) Check with your doctor dur-ing routine checkups.

2) Check haemoglobin levelsmore often through blood reportsespecially during the thirdtrimester

3) Take the right amount of irontablets, folic acid tablets, vitaminb12, prenatal vitamins as pre-scribed by the gynaecologist.

4) Eat dark green leafy vegeta-

bles, dried beans, legumes, pulses,raw vegetables, tofu, beetroot, andfortified grains that are rich in iron.

5) Eat more raisins, prunes, driedfigs, apples, grapes, and watermelons

6) Vitamin C-rich citrus fruitshelp in Iron absorption. So eatmore oranges, grapefruit, amla,lime juice, strawberries, raspber-ries.

7) Eat iron-rich foods like fish,eggs, meat, chicken if you are anonvegetarian!

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@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

MondaySeptember 27, 2021

BEYOND LOVEFOR HIS NEXT!

SUNNY KAUSHAL GOES

SHIKHA DUGGAL

t is one thing to be in love,and another to go the farthestyou can, for that love! SunnyKaushal’s upcoming movieShiddat will make you resalisethat being in love is a great

feeling, going by the trailer. New-fan-gled love or an already conventionalone, they all exist in different shadesand volumes but the ‘connection’ thatthrives within those relationships is ulti-mately something else that you will wit-ness in Shiddat. People are found tellingthe actor that Shiddat looks like thatintense love story that is an out-and-outlove story!

“The music has caught on quite a bit.I am really happy about that, because Itruly love the music from the film. Also,the audience is talking about how goodRadhika and I look together. Overall,there is unanimous positivity aroundthe film. Things are looking good,”Sunny shares.

Talking more about his role, we learnthat The Forgotten Army fame is totallylike the character Jaggi, in real life. He isvery emotional when it comes to rela-tionships, and also very vulnerable.Jaggi’s intensity is his core, it defineshim completely. He is willing to go toany lengths to have Kartika essayed byRadhika Madan in his life. He believesthat if he has her, he doesn’t need any-thing else in life. He is aware that ‘zinda-gi mein utaar chadhaav toh hote rehtehain’ (life has its ups and downs), butlove should give you the strength toget through that together.

He’s not one of those guys whogive up easily, especially when itcomes to relationships. There isalways an aspect of Sunny Kaushal,big or small, in every character that hehas played so far. Whatever life experi-ences you have had will invariably findtheir way into the part that you areplaying, consciously or subconsciously,feels Sunny. If he doesn’t find anythingin common with a character, then thatbecomes an experiment for him and heplays around with the character. It couldbe in the way he talks or walks or any-thing. But he always looks for a com-mon thread in order to transition intothe character easily.

“In the long run, I would like tobelieve that being vulnerable or intensein a romantic relationship has done mebetter than bad. Even at that moment, ifit had done me harm, in retrospect, Ibelieve that I have only gained from myexperiences. At the end of the day, allrelationships are about communication.When you are happy, you share it withyour partner, when you are sad, youshare it with her or him. If that makesme vulnerable, it’s okay, because thatalso means you are comfortable withyour partner. And I would choose to be

that kind of person any day.” The actor thinks life is all about pas-

sion! Everything that you do stems frompassion. He has always believed thatwhatever you do in the moment, give ityour hundred percent. Even if he isreading a book, he puts his whole ener-gy and attention into it. When he meetssomeone, he makes sure he pays atten-tion to that person and doesn'tallow his mind to wander. If he isworking, then he is only work-ing and not doing anythingelse. That becomes your per-sonal responsibility, notallowing things to distractyou. Distractions are alwaysgoing to be there and it’s one’schoice whether you will letthem distract you or not. Whatyour passion is and how yougo about it is totally in yourhands. He thinks life is all aboutpassion. Theatres are still shut inMumbai; hence many areopting for the OTTrelease route.On thesame, theactorhad tosay,“Iam

emotional and romantic about themovies, per se. But I am also very prac-tical, and I know that in the times weare in, releasing a film on OTT is both asafe and a viable option. We are still inthe middle of the pandemic. The idea ofmaking any kind of entertainment is forpeople to see it. Theatres haven’t opened

in many parts of the countryand wherever they have

opened, people are stillscared to go to theatres.It’s our responsibility toensure that our filmreaches people. I feelvery fortunate that afilm that we made

with so much love iscoming out, I am verythankful. At the sametime, I pray that theworld as a whole, and

not just theatres and thepeople in the movie busi-

ness bounces back tonormal.”

I

O

Sky is thelimit forAakash

AISHWARYA D

ancer and well-known actorAakashGaharwar, whowas recentlyseen in the

television show Dancewith Me season 2, wowedaudiences with his splen-did performance. His lat-est was a tribute to hisuncle, who is none otherthan the 90s legendaryicon of BollywoodGovinda. In an exclusiveconversation with ThePioneer, Aakash sharesthe details of his journey

thus far.“I joined this dance

show to entertain people.I performed Govinda’sstyle because it’s onethat’s filled with fun andenjoyment. I felt peoplewould feel happy andentertained by this”.When asked what hisfavourite dance forms are,he says, “The first isBollywood, then contem-porary and then comesbreak”.

To perfect an entiresong Aakash says he did-n’t have to practice longbecause he danced fromthe “bottom of my heart.”He continues, “Even if I

don’t prepare or practicemuch, I can still dancebut on an average, I prac-tice for about 4-6 hoursfor a performance.” Heenjoys dancing solo.

He says there aren’treally any challenges hefaces during the shoot:“Because I faced the cam-era many times, and haddone movies, I’mextremely comfortable.The only thing I had inmy mind at that momentwas to perform to perfec-tion. I was very happy toperform in front of Shaktiand Mukti ma’am. I waseager to see theirresponse to my perfor-mance, and my joy knewno bounds after listeningto them.” An elatedAakash tells us why: “Iwas overjoyed whenMukti ma’am appreciatedmy dialogues and Shaktima’am said ‘Wow’ for mydance.”

Explaining why Aakashchose this particulardance show to show andhone his talent, he says,“This dance show hadsomething special in it,you have no restrictions,it was very comfortableand freeing, compared toother dance shows”.

Aakash shares hisexperience about havingan advantage of Govindabeing his uncle, “Peoplerecognise me easily, I per-sonally feel if you arerelated to someone wellknown, people interacteasily and feel comfort-able”.

Aakash has been danc-ing since his childhood

and his greatest inspira-tion has always been hisfather R.J Singh. “My dadhas inspired, motivatedand always encouragedme to join acting anddance programmes. Fromthe very start, he hasalways supported me”.Aakash wishes to be partof a film by directorImtiaz Ali, “ He is myfavourite director and Ireally like his work andfilms. I would love tohave a chance to workwith him”.

Kaun Mera Kaun Tera,as many know, is notAakash’s debut movie.His first film, for somereason, couldn’t release.He says, “Kaun MeraKaun Tera was my secondfilm. A lot of things werenew to me while makingthis film, I learned aboutcamera sense, why theytake multiple shots forone scene, you think youdid your best but theremight be some technicalor camera issue, I experi-enced these things andthe most important thingI learned is ‘Our best isn’tbest, film making is ateamwork and when thewhole team does best,that’s when it’s best.”

Initially, Kaun MeraKaun Tera was namedJhamele pe Jhamela andwas changed because“when the shooting start-ed, after the registration,there were a lot of inci-dents and problems hap-pening, and withGovinda sir’s suggestions,we changed the name andeverything went well”.

D

What is pregnancy

ANAEMIA?

oday, when weare glued to ourcellphones, acommonresponse tounpleasant news

is to go online and readmore and more informa-tion about it — a phenom-enon so prevalent that it’snow referred to as ‘doomscrolling’. While it is natur-al, and even adaptive, towant to know more abouta situation of concern, themanner and extent towhich people are nowengaging in such behav-iour can have a detrimen-tal impact on one’s mentalhealth and well-being.While this phenomenonexisted before as well,nowhere has it been seenmore prominently thanwith the pandemic. Hereare a few things to keep inmind that can help:

Become aware ofyour information con-sumption

At the slightest hint ofboredom, we’ve developeda tendency to pick up ourphones and start scrolling— whether it’s socialmedia or news websites.Take a few days to reflecton the amount of time youare spending consuminginformation, as well as theextent to which it is repeti-tive. Be more self-aware interms of how you choose

to spend your time and thenature of information youwould like to consume.

Become media literate

The information wereceive is now customisedto our interests, our per-spectives, and our searchhistories. It’s thereforeinevitable to get bombard-ed by lots more of thesame information as wehave viewed. Therefore,become cognisant of themanner in which technol-ogy is designed to captureour attention so that you’reable to retain your powerof choice.

Stick to a few verified

sources of information theinternet is abounding withinformation, with multipleplatforms vying for ourlimited attention. To min-imise doom scrolling, stickto a few news channels,papers, or websites thatyou trust.

Look for alternate waysto cope with bad newsseeking information oranswers to a difficult situa-tion is a strategy peoplemay utilise to cope withstress. Consider usingother strategies whenexperiencing distress — itcould be speaking tosomeone, or actively disen-gaged from that situationby involving yourself in

another activity.

Minimise screen time

We spend more time onour screens now more thanever. Given how reliant wehave now become on gad-gets for our work, try tostay away from yourdevices during breaks.Engage in other activitiesand hobbies that give you abreak from your screen. Atthe same time, it’s not justabout the amount of timeyou spend on your devicesbut how you use them thatmatters as well.

Pick a video or tele-phone call with a lovedone over texting or likingtheir posts on socialmedia.

Spread positivityonline

Rather than focusing oneverything that’s goingwrong, take some time todeliberately look for storiesof hope and joy. Similarly,when sharing a post,reflect on its validity, aswell as the impact that itmay have on the receiver.Think about whether itwill spread positivity oradd more distress to thereader.

When it comes to socialmedia, we are all creatorsof information — let’s beresponsible and conscien-tious in the content we cre-ate and spread.

T

Do you doomscroll often?

Soumya B Hegde

PARTY

10

Hyderabad Monday September 27, 2021

Photos by SV Chary

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SPEED BUMP

FUN

THE BEST OF DESIGNS

ctress Archana Ravi and fashion lovers graced the two-day fashion and lifestyle exhibitionParampara by Indian designers Haat. Renowned for showcasing over 60 local national andinternational trends, Parampara saw the best of the products on display. Shopaholics had a fun

time browsing through the many beautiful pieces on sale.

A

Actresses Archana Veda, JennyHoney, Ritika Chakraborty,Archana Ravi, and other top

models in the city attended thegrand 20th-anniversarycelebrations of Darpan Furnishingsat Secunderabad. Darpan alsounveiled its innovative campaignApnaGharApnaStories, connectingHyderabadis to their childhood.

l Archana Ravi

DARPAN DREAMS

l Archana Veda

l Suleman Hirani

l Pavani l Ananya

l Divya Panday

l Ritika

l Jenny, Honey and Priya

what’s brewing?

uperstar Mahesh Babuis all praise for NagaChaitanya and SaiPallavi’s latest releaseLove Story, which isconquering theaters in

south Indian states ever since itsrelease. The film, directed bySekhar Kammula, released onSeptember 24 and has been doinggreat over the weekend. MaheshBabu took to Twitter and sharedhis review of the film. In a series

of tweets, Mahesh Babu men-tioned how Sekhar Kammula hasdelivered a “knockout film”, howthe film will be a game-changerfor Naga Chaitanya. He seemedblown away by Sai Pallavi’s perfor-mance.“#LoveStory @sekharkammulapulls all the right strings… deliv-ers a knockout film! @chay_akki-neni comes of age as an actor, agame-changer for him… What aperformance!” Mahesh wrote.

“Sai Pallavi – Sensationalas always… does the ladyhave any bones??? Haven’tseen anyone dance like this

ever on screen!!! Moves like adream,” he continued. Maheshalso showered praise on musiccomposer Pawan and said ARRahman will be proud of him.“You’ll be hearing a lot more ofhim… what a music score… Justsensational! Heard he’s a discipleof @arrahman.. Rahman sir, you’llbe proud of him,” the tweet read.And finally, Mahesh congratulat-ed the producers for “delivering amuch needed blockbuster in thesetesting times.”

Love Story is being receivedwell at the theaters. On the releaseday, Sai Pallavi tweeted a videoshowing how the audience wascelebrating the film at the theater.“Today has been quite an emo-tional one for me and my#LoveStory team. Artists,Directors ,Producers nTechnicians from various indus-tries prayed for the success of thefilm n just like that it wasn’t ‘our’film anymore. Here’s proof thatart n it’s audience are inseparable,”she wrote. At a recent mediainteraction, Naga Chaitanyashared about Love Story, “DirectorSekhar Kammula has touched

upon two important layers – castediscrimination and gender issues.People are wary about addressingthese elements openly in society.When we address these issuesthrough cinema, the reach ismuch more. The film is a realisticlove drama, and it revolvesaround a lower caste boy whocomes to a city from a village.”The actor will be making hisBollywood debut with AamirKhan’s Laal Singh Chaddha. Hewill also be seen in Thank Youand Bangarraju. In both films,Chaitanya will share screen spacewith his father and actorNagarjuna.

11

Hyderabad Monday September 27, 2021 tollywood

atural star Naniresponded toPawan Kalyan’sfiery speech onthe issues facedby the film

industry on Saturday. OnSunday, he thanked Pawan andrequested Jagan to resolve the

issues. For the uninitiated,Pawan Kalyan attended the pre-release function of Sai DharamTej’s Republic movie and spoke afew words in support of Nani.Nani has recently released hisTuck Jagadish movie on an OTTplatform and faced ire from thetheatre owners for this decision.Pawan came to the support ofNani and told that there isnothing wrong with Nani’sdecision and if theatre ownershave guts, they should go and

ask YSRCP leaders for stopping the-atres from functioning normally.

Nani responded to Pawan commentsthrough Twitter saying, “Keeping asidethe political differences between PawanKalyan sir and AP Government. Thefilm industry issues addressed are gen-uine and needs immediate attention.Thank you @PawanKalyan sir. As amember of film fraternity I humblyrequest @ysjagan gaaru and concernedMinisters to look in to it before it getstoo late for the cinema to revive.”

Pawan Kalyan took a dig at theYSRCP government describing how thelatter had been playing at its whimsand fancies by procrastinating talkswith the delegation of the industry.“When the investment is being poured

by private play-ers to pro-

duce a

movie, how can the government dictateterms? It’s an Indian Republic, peoplewill revolt if it’s “YSRCP republic”.Cinema doesn’t have caste and religion,the industry has numerous problems.Stop screening my movies in AP, if youhave a problem with me,” he said,adding that all celebrity families wouldunite to fight against the injustice. Hefurther urged yesteryear star andYSRCP leader Mohan Babu to holdtalks with the AP state governmentover the prevailing problems in the filmindustry. “The State government is try-ing to make money from selling tickets.It would seek loans from banks byshowing the revenue that is obtainedfrom selling tickets,” he alleged.

With Nani’s tweet and the supportthe cause has been garnering, only timewill tell if the Jagan-led governmentwill resolve the issues of the film indus-try.

NANI THANKS PK,APPEALS TO AP

GOVERNMENT

ooja Hegde and AkhilAkkineni’s upcomingfilm Most EligibleBachelor has beenpostponed again.According to the latest

update, Most Eligible Bachelorwill be released in theatres onOctober 15. Directed byBommarillu Baskar, Most EligibleBachelor is a romantic drama.

Akhil Akkineni took to Twitterto share a new poster of MostEligible Bachelor to announce thenew release date.

Sharing the poster, he wrote,“In theatres from 15th October.See you soon everyone.#AlluAravind @hegdepooja@GopiSundarOffl#PradeeshMVarma #BunnyVas

#VasuVarma @GA2Official@adityamusic (sic).”

Most Eligible Bachelor is AkhilAkkineni’s fifth film as a hero.While his four films were aver-age-grossers, Akhil is waiting toscore a massive hit. He is bankingon Most Eligible Bachelor to givehim the much-needed break.Director Bommarillu Bhaskar ismaking a comeback after a longtime with this film.

The ensemble cast of MostEligible Bachelor includes EeshaRebba, Aamani, Murali Sharma,Vennela Kishore, Jayaprakash,Pragathi, and Amit Tiwari.Cinematographer PradeeshVarma, editor Marthand KVenkatesh, and composer GopiSundar form the technical crew.

n a lovely coincidence,popular actress KeerthySuresh, spotted hermother Menaka Suresh inthe teaser of Bhramamthat was launched by

Amazon Prime Video yesterday.Keerthy pointed out the fact with

a screenshot of her mother in oneof the scenes from the Bhramamteaser. She tagged her motherMenaka Suresh asking her how didshe end up in the movie!

For those not in the know,Bhramam highlights the life of apianist who pretends to be blind.His musical journey gets interlaced

with suspense, inspiration, confu-sion and drama as he getsembroiled in a murder mystery. Asthe plot thickens and a set ofbizarre events unfold, wit and sur-vival create the fabric of the filmcoupled with the stellar backgroundscore composed by Jakes Bejoy.

Directed by Ravi K Chandran,who is also the cinematographer forthe film, the Malayalamrendition/remake is producedunder the banner of APInternational and Viacom18Studios. Bhramam will premiereexclusively on Amazon Prime Videoin India on October 7.

ollywoodactress KareenaKapoor Khanbinged on somebiryani, whichwas sent over byPrabhas. Bebo

took to Instagram andshared a photo of her din-ner.

“When Bahubali sendsyou biryani it’s gotta be thebest. Thank you Prabhasfor this insane meal,” shewrote and added theAdipurush hashtag. Prabhasand Kareena’s husband,actor Saif Ali Khan areworking together inAdipurush, an adaptationof Hindu epic, Ramayana.

In Adipurush, Baahubalistar Prabhas plays a charac-ter inspired by Lord Ram,Kriti Sanon plays Sita whileSunny Singh essays the roleof Laxman. Saif plays theantagonist Lankesh, whichis expected to be inspiredby the demon king ofLanka, Ravana.

About working with Saiffor the first time, Prabhashad said in a statement, “Iam excited about workingwith a talented actor likeSaif Ali Khan. To be featur-ing alongside such a greatactor on the big screen is amatter of pride for me.”

The release date of themovie is yet to beannounced.

P

B

I

S

MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR’S

release postponed by a week

Keerthy Suresh's mom to play a cameo?

Mahesh lauds Love Story, callsit a ‘game changer’ for Chay

PRABHAS SENDSKAREENA BIRYANI,ACTRESS ENJOYS‘INSANE' MEAL

N

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 sports 12

PTI n ABU DHABI

Ravindra Jadeja won a close match forChennai Super Kings for the umpteenth time

as his back-end pyrotechnics ensured a two-wicket win over Kolkata KnightRiders in an Indian PremierLeague thriller here on Sunday.

Jadeja (22 off 8 balls) launchedinto pacer Prasidh Krishna, whobowled the 19th over, where thepacer lost his length completelyunder the Saurashtra all-rounder’sonslaught with CSK reaching thetarget of 172 in exactly 20 overs.

Instead of bowling yorkers,Krishna repeatedly bowled length ballsas Jadeja hit two sixes and two bound-aries to make it a cakewalk in the finalover. Krishna conceded 22 runs in thepenultimate over to leave CSK withfour runs to get in the final over.

But there was more drama in storeas Sam Curran and Jadeja were snuffedout by Sunil Narine before DeepakChahar ended the match with a single.

However, KKR skipper Eoin Morgan’scaptaincy left a lot to be desired as the deci-sion to bring in Krishna in the 19th overwould be debated. Morgan in his defencecould sight Anre Russell’s injury being thereason but Narine in the 19th over couldhave posed more challenge for a rampagingJadeja.

The win also meant that CSK remainedunbeaten after the IPL resumed and onceagain were back at the top in the peckingorder, with 16 points. In pursuit of a chal-lenging 172, CSK were down and out at142/6 before Jadeja took the onus onhimself.

KKR had posted 171/6, as theyrode on late flourish by formerskipper Dinesh Karthik and NitishRana after the foundation waslaid by Rahul Tripathi (45).

CSK wasn’t able to capitaliseon the aggressive 74-run open-ing start given by RuturajGaikwad (40 off 28 balls; 2 foursand 3 sixes) and South African FafDu Plessis (43; seven fours).

KKR pegged CSK by sendingboth the openers back in quick suc-cession. CSK then suffered a middle-order collapse. Spinner VarunChakravarthy had got KKR back into thegame by dismissing Mahendra SinghDhoni.

Earlier, former skipper Dinesh Karthik’s latecameo and Nitish Rana’s steady long handle tookKolkata Knight Riders to a par-score of 171against Chennai Super Kings in an IndianPremier League encounter on Sunday.

Seamer Shardul Thakur (2/20 in 4 overs)and Ravindra Jadeja (1/21 in 4 overs) performedimpressively to keep KKR under leash till the13th over when they were 93 for 4.

However, the last seven overs yielded 78 runsand KKR were able to put on a more than fight-ing score largely due to Sam Curran (0/56 in4overs) leaking runs at the back end. Even JoshHazlewood (2/40 in 4 overs) got a bit of stickhelping KKR’s cause.

The platform was laid by Rahul Tripathi (45off 33), who hit four boundaries and one six butit was the CSK bowlers, who kept makinginroads and did not allow the KKR batsmen toeither free their arms or settle down.

Opting to bat, Kolkata lost opener ShubmanGill (9) in the first over after a horrible mix-

up with Venkatesh Iyer.One-down Tripathi and in-form

Venkatesh Iyer (18)tried to resurrect theinnings but thesouthpaw wasunable to converthis start after he

nicked one toMahendra SinghDhoni off Thakur.

Tripathi, whofetched his first bound-

ary, an imperious pullshot over mid-wicket, also

got a ‘life’ after the ball onwhich he had nicked, was

adjudged as a ‘no-ball’. Off thevery next one, he smashed his

first maximum over deep extracover.

Skipper Eoin Morgan (8)also fell cheaply as he holed to Du

Plessis off Josh Hazlewood asKKR was in spot of bother at 70/3.Tripathi also fell in the 13th over,

as he was cleaned up by left-armspinner Ravindra Jadeja as KKRslipped to 89/4.

Then Andre Russell (20) tookon Sam Curran in the 15th over,smacking two fours and a mon-strous six, as KKR fetched 14 runs.But Shardul Thakur forced Russell

to drag one back onto his stumps.Then it was the Rana and

Karthik show that took them past 170.

IANS n SHARJAH

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)head coach Trevor Bayliss

has said that England batsmanJason Roy could be in theplaying XI in the next matchagainst Rajasthan Royals onMonday after the team sufferedits eighth defeat in IPL 2021 —this time against Punjab Kingsby five runs on Saturday — tolose any hope of qualifying forthe play-offs.

Australian opener DavidWarner was again dismissedcheaply even as the depend-able New Zealand skipperKane Williamson too saw hiswoodwork being displaced byPBKS pace bowlerMohammed Shami for 1.

For long, there has been adiscussion on whether JasonRoy — who replaced the

injured Mitchell Marsh —should get a look-in ahead ofWarner to turn the fortunes ofSRH, and Baylis said that it issomething “that will be dis-cussed in the team meeting”.

“Yes. Obviously, he (JasonRoy) is our spare overseas bat-ter. I’m sure the managementwill get together and discussto pick a team. So, I’m notgoing to select a team rightnow. We’ll sleep on that andthink about it and have aselection meeting on Sunday,”Bayliss said.

Bayliss also said his batterswere low on confidence.“Yeah, look I do not think thatour batters are playing withconfidence obviously. We havelost five games under 10 runsand most of them batting sec-ond. So, yeah, we made a lotof mistakes.

IANS n BOSTON

Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer,who is recovering from a right-

knee surgery he underwent lastmonth, said on Sunday that it wasa difficult process to decidewhether to undergo a third right-knee surgery after having two lastyear. But following Wimbledon,where he was “really unhappy”with his performance in reachingthe quarterfinals, Federer opted togo through with it.

Federer, who made a latedecision to attend this year’s LaverCup in Boston -- a tournamentheld between teams from Europe

and the rest of the world — saidon the sidelines of the event thatthe recovery and rehabilitation are“going to take me a few moremonths and then we’ll see how things are at some point nextyear”.

“The reception I’ve received,everybody is so upbeat that I’mhere. They wish me all the bestand they don’t even see thecrutches. They just want me to begood again and enjoy the week-end,” Federer said in an interviewfor the event with former worldNo. 1 Jim Courier.

“I’ve seen some incredibletennis, some great matches and it’s

been wonderful. I’m really happyI made the trip,” the winner of20 majors was quoted assaying by atptour.com.

On why he optedfor a third surgery, thetennis ace said, “I wasjust nowhere nearwhere I wantedto be to playat the top,top level. ButI tried mybest and at theend... too much istoo much. Now I’vejust got to take it step bystep,” Federer said.

IANS n MACKAY

India finished the ODI leg ofthe multi-format series on a

high with a brilliant two-wick-et win — fashioned by a col-lective team effort — whichended Australia’sunbeaten ODIstreak of 26matches onSunday. However, Australiawon the ODI series 2-1, withthe multi-format series’ score-line reading 4-2.

The third and final ODI inMackay went down to the wire

but this time India held theirnerves as they sealed a thrillingtwo-wicket win with just three

balls to spare. TallIndia pacerJhulan Goswamihit the winning

runs, lofting it straight for afour.

Chasing a target of 265,India showed poise and powerin their response, with the open-ing pair of Shafali Verma and

Smriti Mandhana putting on 59for the first wicket. Negotiatingthe new-ball partnership ofPerry and McGrath, Mandhanafell to the off-spin of Gardner for22 (25), with AnnabelSutherland taking a catch run-ning back from mid-off.

Young Yastika Bhatia con-tinued her fine start to interna-tional cricket, ticking thingsalong with Verma, bringing upa 100-run stand in just 19 overs.

At 160/1 after 29 overs andneeding just 105, India looked inprime position, before a doubleblow swung the pendulum backonce again. Verma fell to the left-arm orthodox spin of SophieMolineux for 56, while wicket-keeper Richa Ghosh was dis-missed an over later, withSutherland taking her first wick-et. Bhatia continued her presswith captain Mithali Raj, withonly a piece of inspired fielderending her stay at the crease.Top-edging a short ball, Bhatiabecame Stella Campbell’s firstvictim in international cricket,

only after a diving catch fromsubstitute fielder Molly Strano.

Sutherland doubled hertally by rattling Vastrakar’s (3)stumps, leaving Mithali andNo.7 Deepti Sharma needing arun a ball from the last 10 overs.Sutherland struck once again, inher next over, snaring the Indiaskipper, who was bowled for 16.

Rana got a lifeline whenshe was dropped by NicolaCarey on 11 on the last ball ofthe 44th over. The equationcame down to India requiring33 runs from the last five overs,with four wickets in hand.

IANS n MACKAY

Defending Women’s BigBash League (WBBL)

champions Sydney Thunderon Sunday signed up India bat-ter Smriti Mandhana and lead-ing all-rounder Deepti Sharmaas they look to start their titledefence next month.

The pair will replace theEnglish duo of Heather Knightand Tammy Beaumont whohave declared their inability toparticipate in the tournament.

Sydney Thunder coach,Trevor Griffin, said his team’stitle defence “had received anextra edge with Indian super-stars Smriti Mandhana andDeepti Sharma signing on forthe club’s WBBL-7 campaign”.

“The pair, who are inQueensland with India’snational team for the ODIseries and Test match againstAustralia, were identified byThunder as quality playerswith the ability to make anexplosive impact on the T20competition,” a SydneyThunder statement said onSunday.

Mandhana starred forIndia in Friday night’s(September 24) nail-biting,final-ball loss to Australia inMackay. Her innings of 86from 94 balls was highlightedby 11 boundaries, and it helpedset up India’s competitive totalof 274 runs.

Sharma made her pres-ence felt in the ODI matchdescribed as one of the mostthrilling played in Australia,with a knock of 23 runs and bycapturing Tahlia McGrath’swicket.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Sundayannounced a month-long nationwide

Clean India Drive from October 1 to get ridof single use plastic and other waste.

Announcing this in a tweet, Thakur said:“Cleanliness is next to Godliness! As we cel-ebrate AmritMahotsav of 75 years ofIndepependence, I urge everybody to joinClean India Drive from 1st-31st October torealize dream of plastic free India.”

Thakur said it will be the largest clean-liness drive in the world in which more that75 lakh tonnes of waste, primarily plasticwaste, from different parts of the country willbe collected and further processed in a ‘Wasteto Wealth’ model.

PTI n OSTRAVA

Star Indian tennis playerSania Mirza won her first

title of the season as she and herChinese partner Shuai Zhangbeat the pair of KaitlynChristian and Erin Routliffe inthe women’s doubles final ofthe Ostrava Open here onSunday.

The second seeded Indo-Chinese duo defeated the thirdseeded pair of American

Christian and New ZealanderRoutliffe 6-3 6-2 in the summitclash in one hour and fourminutes.

The 34-year-old Sania andZhang had defeated theJapanese pair 6-2 7-5 in thesemifinals of the WTA 500event.

It was Sania’s second finalof the season, following a run-ner-up finish at the WTA 250Cleveland event in the USA lastmonth with Chirstina Mchale.

PTI n YANKTON

Indian archer Jyothi SurekhaVennam lost a nerve-wrack-

ing final to Colombian heavy-weight Sara Lopez to clinch asilver in the compoundwomen’s individual section atthe World Championships hereon Saturday.

The 25-year-old Indianwas at her best and shot a per-fect final end but the five-timeWorld Cup champion Sara wassuperior to clinch the issue bytwo points (146-144).

For Jyothi, this was hersecond silver medal at theWorld Championships as shebecame the only Indian archerto have four podium finishes atthe showpiece biennial compe-tition.

Jyothi had bagged a silver(Mexico 2017) and a bronze(Den Bosch 2019) in the teamevents at previous WorldChampionships.

Earlier on Friday, Jyothiwas a member of the Indianwomen’s and mixed pair com-pound archery teams which

signed off with silver medalsafter lop-sided losses toColombia here.

India were in pursuit oftheir first ever gold medal at theworld event.

For a country that doesn’thave a gold yet, India haveclimbed the most podiums atthe event — 11 —, appearingin nine finals and leaving withsilver each time.

Jyothi dished out a consis-tent display shooting 28, 29 and29 in her first three ends, butthe Colombian top seedopened up a two-point lead atthe halfway mark, drilling inseven perfect 10s with two X(closest to the centre) fromnine arrows.

The sixth seeded Indianshot three 10s from threearrows in the final end but thatwas not enough as Sarawrapped up the gold medalmatch by two points.

Jyothi, however, upgradedthe bronze medal she had wontwo years ago, as the Andhraarcher concluded her cam-paign with three silver medals.

Jadeja cameo helps CSKbeat KKR by 2-wickets

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at the toss during match between Royal ChallengersBangalore and Mumbai Indians IPL website

Jasprit Bumrah of Mumbai Indians celebrates the wicket of Devdutt Padikkal ofRCB IPL website

PTI n CHENNAI

Chess legendViswanathan Anand

on Sunday said the coun-try has many immenselytalented players at thejunior level and one ofthem can “hopefully”become a world champi-on in future.

“There are manypeople with a lot ofpromise at junior level. RPraggnanandhaa, NihalSarin, D Gukesh, they’revery good and motivated.

They have been travellingaround playing tourna-ments, they have the

determination. Hopefullyone of them cracks thecode,” Anand said.

He was respondingto a question on whoamong the young Indianscould go on to become aworld champion infuture.

The five-time worldchampion was partici-pating in an online inter-action ‘Chat with Vishy -Viswanathan Anand’with the participants ofthe training programmehe conducts.

SNATCH 2-WICKET WIN VS AUSTRALIA

After another defeat, SRHmulling bringing in Jason Roy

Dubai: India captain ViratKohli on Sunday reached acoveted milestone of 10,000-run mark in all forms of T20cricket (international, domes-tic and franchise) during hisside Royal ChallengersBangalore’s IPL match against

Mumbai Indians here.Playing in his 314 T20

match, Kohli pulled his Indiateam-mate Jasprit Bumrah fora six to get the milestone in thefourth over after RCB were

sent in to bat.Kohli, who is set to step

down from RCB captaincy atthe end of this season, hadcome into the match with 13short of 10,000 runs.

The 32-year-old has played298 innings before Sunday’smatch and has scored runs atan average of 41.61 with thehelp of five hundreds and 73fifties. PTI

Kohli goes past 10,000 runs in T20 cricket

Mandhana, Deepti signed

up by WBBL champions

Sydney Thunder

India finish ODI series on a high

Sania wins first title of2021 season in Ostrava

Post knee surgery, Federer hoping to return at ‘next year’

Anand hopes one of talented Indian youngsterswill become world champ in future

Sports Minister announces month-long

nationwide Clean India Drive from Oct 1Gold eludes India yetagain at world c’ships

RCB post 165 against MI

Dubai: Glenn Maxwell finallycame good with an attacking 56after skipper Virat Kohli’s sec-ond consecutive half-century,taking Royal ChallengersBangalore to a par-score of165/6 against Mumbai Indiansin the IPL here on Sunday.

Kohli, who completed10,000 runs in T20 cricket,

scored 51 off 42 balls with threefours and three sixes but it wasMaxwell who justified hisexpensive price tag with a 37-ballblitzkrieg before Jasprit Bumrahbrought MI back in the game.

Maxwell’s innings had sixfours and three sixes as heshowed true destructive poten-tial with switch hits, lap shots

and flicks during the finalovers when he launched intoMI pacers Adam Milne (1/48 in4 overs) and Bumrah (3/26 in4 overs) with utter disdain.

Such was the ferocity ofMaxwell’s hits that even thenormally calm MI skipperRohit Sharma looked helplessbefore Bumrah removed bothMaxwell and AB de villiers (11)off successive deliveries whichat least helped them save 20 to25 runs in the final two overs.

At the onset, Kohli hit thevery second ball of the matchfrom Trent Boult (1/17 in 4overs) for a six. It was aninswinger which the RCB skip-

per flicked and Rahul Chaharat deep mid-wicket got hispalms but couldn’t latch on toit. The normally dependableDevdutt Padikkal (0) had anoff-day as Bumrah bowled abeauty which pitched on lengthand moved away taking theoutside edge into Quinton deKock’s gloves. Kohli found aconfident partner in Bharat (32off 24 balls) as they quicklyadded 68 runs for the secondwicket. Bharath for good mea-sure swept Rahul Chaharagainst the turn for two sixeswhile Kohli also imperiouslypulled Bumrah for a six overdeep mid-wicket. PTI